GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. -- A champion British poker player was arrested in England Wednesday for the killing of his wife in Colorado 12 years ago.

Agents from Scotland Yard arrested Marcus Bebb-Jones, 46, at his home in Kidderminster, Worcestershire Wednesday morning.

Bebb-Jones and his American wife, Sabrina Bebb-Jones, 31, owned the Hotel Melrose in Grand Junction when she was reported missing by hotel workers in 1997. At the time, her husband told police his wife left the city with the couple's then 3-year-old son after the couple argued.

Authorities accused the husband of killing Sabrina Bebb-Jones, dumping her body in rural Garfield County, then hitting Las Vegas to lead a "playboy lifestyle," running up thousands on her credit cards, Aron Watkins, an attorney representing the United States, told an extradition court hearing in London Wednesday night, according to the London Telegraph.

Since then he has reinvented himself as one of this country's top professional poker players, winning hundreds of thousands of dollars at tournaments across Britain.

"Mr. Bebb-Jones is sought for the murder of his wife," Watkins told the court. "He is responsible for the murder, and the deliberate concealment of it for many years."

A warrant was issued for Bebb-Jones in the United States for first-degree murder, domestic violence and concealing death, according to the Garfield County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office statement said the professional gambler's arrest culminated an extensive 12-year investigation by sheriff's investigators and local prosecutors. They now await Bebb-Jones' extradition to stand trial in Garfield County.

"On September 16, 1997, he took his wife to a national park in Colorado, where she was murdered," prosecutor Watkins told the London court. "Thereafter he spun a number of stories, which conflicted with each other, to explain her absence."

Days after Sabrina Bebb-Jones vanished, the couple's young son was found alone in a Las Vegas motel room. The next day, Marcus Bebb-Jones tried to kill himself by shooting a gun into his open mouth, but miraculously escaped without serious injury, Watkins said.

"He lived a playboy lifestyle in the course of that weekend which culminated in him putting a gun in his mouth and shooting himself in the head. Whether by judgment or design, he didn't cause any life-threatening injuries to himself," Watkins said, according to the Telegraph.

Sabrina Bebb-Jones' skull was discovered by a rancher near Douglas Pass in Garfield County in 2004. Dental records were used to identify her remains.

By then, the husband had returned to Britain to start a new life with their son, who is now 15. He was granted conservatorship of Sabrina Bebb-Jones' property in May 1998 and sold the hotel, the Telegraph reported.

Watkins said Marcus Bebb-Jones should be denied bail because the previous botched suicide attempt indicated he may again try to take his own life.

"The upshot is that the case against him is very strong," Watkins said. "This offense is so serious he faces life imprisonment without the possibility of parole."

Bebb-Jones was remanded in custody until Nov 26. The British Home Office said in a statement that a judge would decide whether he was eligible for extradition before a final decision was made by the home secretary, the Telegraph reported.