A Cortlandt man charged with murdering his wife was advertising for her replacement after reporting her missing, investigators say.

Werner Lippe took out an ad in the Oct. 29 edition of the PennySaver, looking for a bookkeeper to do the work his estranged wife, Faith Lippe, had been doing.

While refusing to discuss any details of the case, New York State Police Senior Investigator Bruce Cuccia acknowledged that police knew about the ad before they arrested Lippe.

"We found it to be unusual in the sense that it was at a time when his wife was reported missing,? Cuccia says. "And we were still actually conducting a search.?

Faith Lippe disappeared in early October, around the time she and her husband were going through a divorce. Shortly after, Werner Lippe was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder. It is suspected Lippe burned his wife?s body in the back yard of their Cortlandt home.

Investigators have not yet revealed how Faith Lippe died, or what happened to her body, but they say there is no evidence to substantiate that her corpse was dismembered.

Werner Lippe has hired White Plains criminal defense attorney Andrew Rubin to represent him. He is due back in Cortlandt Town court Nov. 17.