Latest news with #Maciejewska
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Yahoo
Pennsylvania man arrested on suspicion of murder 8 years after wife vanished from Philly suburb
Pennsylvania State Trooper David Brodeur wanted to see Allen Gould's reaction as investigators and detectives swarmed his house. 'We have search warrants for your residence in relation to the homicide of your wife,' Brodeur told Gould in July 2017. Gould's wife Anna Maciejewska had been missing for nearly four months at that point. 'We are here because you murdered your wife,' Brodeur told Gould, according to a new affidavit of probable cause obtained by CNN. Gould 'did not have a visible reaction' to the trooper's accusation that day, according to the new court documents. 'There was no proclamation of his innocence, denial of accusations, or even a request for more information,' Brodeur observed. And yet no arrest was made that day, or the week after, or even that year. Maciejewska's case went cold for eight years, captivating an idyllic affluent community outside of Philadelphia and in her home country of Poland in the process. All that changed this week, when Gould was arrested, taken into custody, and charged with Maciejewska's murder with police citing, among other evidence, Google searches and a grammatically incorrect birthday wish. Gould has maintained his innocence from day one and has not yet entered a formal plea to the charges. 'Allen has been living under the specter of this investigation for eight years,' Gould's attorney Evan Kelly told CNN. 'It's a horrible situation for everyone involved, but the benefit of it is at least now he gets to tell his side of the story in court.' 'To this day, Anna's body has not been found,' said Chester County District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. 'But we still have substantial evidence that proves Gould killed his wife.' Anna Maciejewska immigrated to the United States from Poland in 1997 to study actuarial mathematics at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. She married Gould in 2006, and the couple welcomed a son seven years later. Maciejewska, who was 43 when she disappeared, was incredibly hardworking, detail oriented, and kind, according to her former coworker and friend Ellen Lee. '(Maciejewska) was a very sweet girl, and she was very smart and generous,' Lee told CNN. 'She was an organizer, and she was also a problem solver,' Lee added. Maciejewska worked as an actuary for Voya Financial in West Chester, Pennsylvania for about 17 years 'with no known troubles or issues,' according to court documents. In 2017, she lived a normal life in the Philadelphia suburb of Malvern with her husband and young son, and enjoyed many hobbies including cycling, Pilates, a movie club and a book club. 'She's very predictable, that's one thing about Anna, she was very predictable,' said Lee, noting that her son gave her tremendous joy. 'She was a devoted mom for sure.' But new court documents reveal internally at the time, Maciejewska was deeply upset about her marriage and the couple's differing views on how to raise their son. She had started going to a 'Divorce 101' class in March 2017 and she discussed with members of a women's therapy group her desire to leave Gould. But she 'worried that she would lose her son in a custody battle,' according to the affidavit. Maciejewska felt she was getting no support from Gould while she experienced depression and tried to discuss divorce with Gould to little success. 'I am a shell of a person and walking on eggshells in my own home,' she texted Gould in February. 'Why I didn't see all the red flags before we had children?' she wrote to a group chat with her friends the same day, per court documents. 'I feel like such a loser,' she added. When Maciejewska didn't show up to work for two days in a row, one of her coworkers was the first to report her missing on April 11, 2017. That behavior was 'out of character' the coworker told police, according to court documents. The same day, a neighbor who was close with Maciejewska's family called police to report her missing after she cancelled a planned trip home to Poland to celebrate her father's 80th birthday. Police did a welfare check that day, but the couple's home was dark. Then on April 12, at around 12:30 p.m., Gould called police. 'Um, yea, my my name's Allen Gould. And and I was calling, and again I'm not sure if this is the right number,' Gould told a state police dispatcher according to new court documents. 'But, uh my, I'm not sure where my wife is. She, she uh, didn't come home from work on Monday night uh as expected.' Later that day, Gould told a state trooper that after taking the previous week off work for a 'stomach illness' Maciejewska left Monday morning – April 10th – for work 'in a panic' in her blue Audi and never came back. He said his wife left her phone at home so it could update. That evening, police submitted Maciejewska's information to the National Crime Information Center as a missing person. No one ever reported seeing her again. In the following weeks, investigators and community members would conduct searches around the Malvern neighborhood, checking wooded areas, train stations, airports and more to try and find any sign of Maciejewska. Missing person posters blanketed the small Chester County borough. 'Everyone was pouring in and asking if we needed help in any way,' explained Lee, who created the 'Finding Anna Maciejewska' Facebook page. 'The whole community wanted to know what happened to her,' she said. State police investigators were quickly able to paint a picture of Maciejewska's marital challenges through interviews with friends and family. But during those early months investigators say they also uncovered three crucial pieces of evidence. First, state police realized it appeared no one had heard from Maciejewska for two weeks before coworkers, family, and her husband reported her missing. 'In fact, the last time someone physically saw Anna or actually heard her voice was on March 28th,' the district attorney said. Second, on March 30, 2017, Maciejewska's father received a text from his daughter wishing him a happy birthday, but the text was in abnormally broken Polish. 'The Polish grammar doesn't make sense. It's off,' said de Barrena-Sarobe. During the July 2017 search of Gould's home when Brodeur confronted Gould, the investigator found printouts of Google translations of the message sent to Maciejewska's father, according to the affidavit. 'Anna had no reason to use Google Translate,' added de Barrena-Sarobe, as she was a native Polish speaker. Third, on May 8, 2017, police finally located Maciejewska's blue Audi in a parking lot of a private community two miles from her home, the affidavit states. While police found Maciejewska's purse in the trunk, there was no sign of her or her body in or around the car. Investigators did find the driver's seat appeared to be pushed back too far for someone of Maciejewska's height, according to the affidavit, and data obtained by police from the vehicle suggested the car wasn't driven at all on April 10 – the date Gould said he'd last seen his wife driving away 'in a panic.' Timeline of Anna Maciejewska's disappearance March 29, 2017 – Maciejewska's life patterns 'came to an abrupt halt,' police say April 11, 2017 – A coworker reports Maciejewska missing after she fails to show for work April 11, 2017 – A friend of the family also reports Maciejewska missing April 12, 2017 – Allen Gould reports his wife missing May 8, 2017 – Maciejewska's blue Audi is found, with no sign of Maciejewska July 12, 2017 – State Police confronts Allen Gould and searches the couple's home May 14, 2025 – Gould is arrested on suspicion of Maciejewska's murder On Wednesday officers once again swarmed Gould's picturesque home, searching for evidence. He's facing several charges including first degree murder, abuse of a corpse, making false reports, and evidence tampering. Gould was arrested at a different location, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 27, according to court documents. Lee told CNN Maciejewska's aging parents in Poland were shocked when they heard the news. 'Anna's mom didn't sleep last night,' said Lee, who spoke with her Thursday. 'They thought it was a cold case, it was never going to happen,' Lee added. Yet a conviction may still be an uphill climb. 'This is a unique case,' explained Chester County DA de Barrena-Sarobe. '(Of) almost all of our homicides in this county's history I can't remember a case where we have not found the physical body of the victim.' And neither the district attorney nor the affidavit of probable cause pointed to physical evidence indicating Gould killed Maciejewska. 'I suggest and we plan to argue at trial that the direct evidence is all of his lies about her disappearance that don't make sense,' said de Barrena-Sarobe. 'When you take the totality of this evidence it just demonstrates…that he was being incredibly deceptive about where his wife was and the only reason for that is that he killed her,' the DA asserted. For Ellen Lee and other friends who loved Maciejewska, she's optimistic there will be justice. '(It was) a sigh of relief that it was finally happening,' she told CNN, while acknowledging the story is not over yet. 'The trial is something I'm not looking forward to.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
He Allegedly Used Google Translate to Fake a Text From His Missing Wife — and It Raised Immediate Suspicions
Allen Gould is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife, Anna Maciejewska, who went missing in April 2017 Maciejewska had been researching divorce and emotional abuse, enrolled in a "Divorce 101" class, and confided in friends about wanting to leave Gould, who reportedly opposed the separation, according to a criminal complaint obtained by ABC News Over eight years, authorities gathered evidence suggesting foul play, including Gould's lack of cooperation, strange online activity, and efforts to retain a criminal lawyer early on, prosecutors saidA Pennsylvania man has been arrested on accusations he killed his wife, who went missing in 2017, authorities said. Allen Gould, 60, was charged with first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and other related charges in connection with the death of his 43-year-old wife Anna Maciejewska, a native of Poland and the mother of a 4-year-old boy, according to ABC News, who cited the Chester County District Attorney's Office. On April 11, 2017, a co-worker and friend reported Maciejewska missing, according to the district attorney's office. The following day, Gould called police to report his wife missing, telling authorities that the last time he saw her was the morning of April 10. Through cellphone records and witness accounts, Pennsylvania State Police found out that the last time anyone ever heard from or saw Maciejewska was March 28, 2017, two weeks before Gould contacted police, prosecutors claim, the outlet reported. On March 30, Maciejewska's dad received a text from his daughter's phone wishing him a happy birthday in Polish, but it had grammatical errors, prosecutors said, per ABC News. 'Police later determined the same message was researched via Google Translate despite that Maciejewska spoke Polish fluently,' prosecutors said in a statement obtained by the outlet. A printout of the same Google Translate message was found in Gould's home, prosecutors said in the statement. Police then found Maciejewska's car in May, at an apartment complex parking lot located two miles from the couple's home. Officers found divorce paperwork at the couple's home and noted that Maciejewska was taking a "Divorce 101" class, according to a criminal complaint obtained by ABC. A friend of Maciejewska's told police that she was unhappy in her marriage and that the couple disagreed on how to raise their son, the complaint stated. She told her friend she wanted a divorce, but Gould didn't, according to the complaint. Per the complaint, Maciejewska, 'visited over 150 websites pertaining to divorce, signs of emotional abuse, psychological abuse, emotional blackmail, narcissistic personality disorder, domestic abuse vs. normal marital conflict and 'how to divorce an emotionally abusive husband.'' Chester County District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe said to several outlets at a news conference that all the interviews they conducted over eight years demonstrated that Maciejewska was a 'devoted mother' who 'loved her family.' "There's nothing to indicate that she would stop corresponding with her family, stop spending any amount of money to go visit them and essentially abandon her son," de Barrena-Sarobe said at the news conference. "It simply doesn't make any common sense."After Gould reported Maciejewska missing, the criminal complaint said he allegedly 'stopped helping police attempt to locate his wife, wrote a check for a criminal defense attorney, clicked on an article about strangulation' and got a second cellphone. Gould was arrested Wednesday, May 14, and is being held without bail. His preliminary hearing is set for May 27, per the outlet. 'He's been living under the specter of this for eight years,' Gould's defense attorney, Evan Kelly, told ABC News. 'At this point he just wants to clear his name in the court of law.' If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Read the original article on People
USA Today
15-05-2025
- USA Today
Pennsylvania man charged with wife's murder 8 years after her disappearance
Pennsylvania man charged with wife's murder 8 years after her disappearance A Pennsylvania man has been arrested on a murder charge in the death of his wife who went missing in 2017, authorities said. Allen Gould, 60, of Malvern, was charged with first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and other related charges in the death of 43-year-old Anna Maciejewska, a Poland native and the mother of a young boy. Prosecutors say Gould was "incredibly deceptive" about this wife's whereabouts and gave several false statements to law enforcement. While there is no physical evidence linking Gould to the killing, prosecutors say the totality of actions before and after his wife's disappearance are enough to land a conviction. Maciejewska, whose body has never been found, was first reported missing by a coworker on April 11, 2017, according to the Chester County District Attorney's Office. The following day, Gould called police to report his wife missing, telling authorities the last time he saw her was the morning of April 10 when she rushed out of the house for a work meeting. Law enforcement says they've poked holes in Gould's story Through cellphone records, witness accounts and financial records, Pennsylvania State Police pieced together her normal routine and discovered that the last time anyone saw or heard Maciejewska was March 28, 2017 – two weeks before Gould contacted authorities, according to the Chester County District Attorney's Office. Investigators also found Maciejewska's car a few miles from the family home and later determined it was never started on April 10 as Gould had claimed, prosecutors said. Further, police found that a text message sent from Maciejewska's phone to her father on March 30 was written using Google Translate despite Maciejewska speaking fluent Polish. Chester County District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe said at a news confernce that all the interviews over the course of eight years demonstrated that Maciejewska was a "devoted mother" who "loved her family." "There's nothing to indicate that she would stop corresponding with her family, stop spending any amount of money to go visit them and essentially abandon her son," Barrena-Sarobe said. "It simply doesn't make any common sense." Investigators discover preliminary divorce papers Barrena-Sarobe said while Gould tried to establish that he and Maciejewska were in a loving marriage, law enforcement recovered documents and interviewed witnesses who suggest the two had "a difficult marriage." He said authorities discovered preliminary divorce papers found at their home. When asked why the case took so long to bring forward, Barrena-Sarobe told reporters "we wanted to exhaust everything." He said investigators wanted to use the most up-to-date technology, some of which was not in existence when Maciejewska was reported missing. "It's not just about prosecuting people because we have strong feelings that they did it," he said. "We have to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt in accordance with the law. And before we do that in a case that is as expansive as this, we have to make sure that we've covered all of our bases." Gould is being held without bail and has a preliminary hearing on May 27. His defense attorney, Evan Kelly, did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. Speaking with ABC News, Kelly said Gould "has been living under the specter of this for eight years" and just wants to "clear his name in the court of law."
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Yahoo
Man arrested for murder of wife who vanished in 2017, allegedly faked birthday text to her dad
A Pennsylvania man has been arrested for allegedly killing his wife who vanished in 2017, prosecutors said. Anna Maciejewska, a Poland native, moved to the U.S. in 1997 and married Allen Gould in 2006, according to the criminal complaint. The couple's son was 4 years old when she disappeared. On April 11, 2017, Maciejewska, 43, was reported missing by a co-worker and a friend; the next day, Gould also reported her missing, the Chester County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday. MORE: Mother allegedly buys ammunition, tactical gear for son's planned 'mass targeted violence' at middle school: Officials But evidence including phone records, financial records and witness accounts point to Maciejewska stopping her normal routine on March 29, and the last time anyone saw her or heard from her was March 28, prosecutors said. On March 30, Maciejewska's dad in Poland received a text from his daughter's phone with a birthday message in Polish that had grammatical errors, prosecutors said. "Police later determined the same message was researched via Google Translate, despite that Maciejewska spoke Polish fluently," prosecutors said in a statement. A printout of that same Google Translate message was found in Gould's home, according to the criminal complaint. Gould told police he last saw his wife on the morning of April 10 when she left for work, but her car's internal system showed it was never driven that day, according to the criminal complaint. Maciejewska's car was discovered in May in an apartment complex parking lot nearly 2 miles from their home, the complaint said. When officers responded to their home for the missing persons report, they noticed Maciejewska's iPhone and iPad were on the kitchen table and her phone was "in a startup/update status, as if it had been reset," according to the criminal complaint. Gould allegedly told police his wife was updating her phone on the morning she went missing but it was taking too long to finish updating so she left it at home when she rushed out the door to work, the document said. All of her belongings were left at home besides the keys to her car, the document said. Officers found divorce paperwork at the couple's home, the complaint said, and Maciejewska was taking a "Divorce 101" class. Maciejewska's friend told police that Maciejewska wasn't happy with her marriage and that the couple disagreed on how to raise their son, according to the criminal complaint. Maciejewska allegedly told the friend she wanted a divorce but her husband disagreed; she also allegedly told the friend she and Gould "set a firm date to discuss a divorce," according to the criminal complaint. A friend of Maciejewska told police that their son having dual citizenship and a Polish passport was a "point of contention" because Gould "feared he would have no parental rights" if she took the child to Poland, the complaint said. MORE: Menendez brothers win resentencing fight: What's next for their case? Maciejewska "visited over 150 websites pertaining to divorce, signs of emotional abuse, psychological abuse, emotional blackmail, emotional abuse, narcissistic personality disorder, domestic abuse vs. normal martial conflict, and how to divorce an emotionally abusive husband," the complaint said. Gould allegedly told police "they had spoken about a divorce" but decided to use their townhouse "as a place to decompress rather than separate completely," according to the complaint. After Gould reported Maciejewska missing, he allegedly "stopped helping police attempt to locate his wife, wrote a check for a criminal defense attorney, clicked on an article about strangulation" and got a second cellphone, according to the complaint. Gould, 60, was arrested Wednesday and is being held without bail on charges including first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence, prosecutors said. His preliminary hearing is set for May 27. "He's been living under the specter of this for eight years," Gould's defense attorney, Evan Kelly, told ABC News. "At this point he just wants to clear his name in the court of law." Kelly declined to comment on any details of the case. Maciejewska's body has never been found, according to the criminal complaint. Man arrested for murder of wife who vanished in 2017, allegedly faked birthday text to her dad originally appeared on
15-05-2025
Man arrested for murder of wife who vanished in 2017, allegedly faked birthday text to her dad
A Pennsylvania man has been arrested for allegedly killing his wife who vanished in 2017, prosecutors said. Anna Maciejewska, a Poland native, moved to the U.S. in 1997 and married Allen Gould in 2006, according to the criminal complaint. The couple's son was 4 years old when she disappeared. On April 11, 2017, Maciejewska, 43, was reported missing by a co-worker and a friend; the next day, Gould also reported her missing, the Chester County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday. But evidence including phone records, financial records and witness accounts point to Maciejewska stopping her normal routine on March 29, and the last time anyone saw her or heard from her was March 28, prosecutors said. On March 30, Maciejewska's dad in Poland received a text from his daughter's phone with a birthday message in Polish that had grammatical errors, prosecutors said. "Police later determined the same message was researched via Google Translate, despite that Maciejewska spoke Polish fluently," prosecutors said in a statement. A printout of that same Google Translate message was found in Gould's home, according to the criminal complaint. Gould told police he last saw his wife on the morning of April 10 when she left for work, but her car's internal system showed it was never driven that day, according to the criminal complaint. Maciejewska's car was discovered in May in an apartment complex parking lot nearly 2 miles from their home, the complaint said. When officers responded to their home for the missing persons report, they noticed Maciejewska's iPhone and iPad were on the kitchen table and her phone was "in a startup/update status, as if it had been reset," according to the criminal complaint. Gould allegedly told police his wife was updating her phone on the morning she went missing but it was taking too long to finish updating so she left it at home when she rushed out the door to work, the document said. All of her belongings were left at home besides the keys to her car, the document said. Officers found divorce paperwork at the couple's home, the complaint said, and Maciejewska was taking a "Divorce 101" class. Maciejewska's friend told police that Maciejewska wasn't happy with her marriage and that the couple disagreed on how to raise their son, according to the criminal complaint. Maciejewska allegedly told the friend she wanted a divorce but her husband disagreed; she also allegedly told the friend she and Gould "set a firm date to discuss a divorce," according to the criminal complaint. A friend of Maciejewska told police that their son having dual citizenship and a Polish passport was a "point of contention" because Gould "feared he would have no parental rights" if she took the child to Poland, the complaint said. Maciejewska "visited over 150 websites pertaining to divorce, signs of emotional abuse, psychological abuse, emotional blackmail, emotional abuse, narcissistic personality disorder, domestic abuse vs. normal martial conflict, and how to divorce an emotionally abusive husband," the complaint said. Gould allegedly told police "they had spoken about a divorce" but decided to use their townhouse "as a place to decompress rather than separate completely," according to the complaint. After Gould reported Maciejewska missing, he allegedly "stopped helping police attempt to locate his wife, wrote a check for a criminal defense attorney, clicked on an article about strangulation" and got a second cellphone, according to the complaint. Gould, 60, was arrested Wednesday and is being held without bail on charges including first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence, prosecutors said. His preliminary hearing is set for May 27. "He's been living under the specter of this for eight years," Gould's defense attorney, Evan Kelly, told ABC News. "At this point he just wants to clear his name in the court of law." Kelly declined to comment on any details of the case.
