Husband charged with murder of Anna Maciejewska, a Chester Co. mom missing since 2017

CHARLESTOWN TWP., Pa. (WPVI) -- The husband of a Chester County mom who has been missing for more than eight years has been arrested and charged with murder.

Allen Gould, 60, is charged with first- and third-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, false reports and other offenses in the death of 43-year-old Anna Maciejewska.

Gould reported Maciejewska missing on April 12, 2017, though investigators believe she was killed roughly two weeks earlier.

Between March 29 and April 12 of that year, police say Gould disposed of her body, destroyed evidence and pretended to be Maciejewska through various electronic communications.

Maciejewska's body has not been located, police said.

During a news conference on Wednesday, Chester County District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe said Gould wasn't the first person to report Maciejewska missing, saying it was co-workers who first contacted police after not hearing from her.

Once the investigation began, de Barrena-Sarobe said detectives determined that Maciejewska's normal routing stopped on March 29, and no one had actually seen or heard from her since March 28.

According to police, Gould said he hasn't seen Maciejewska since she left home on April 10, but police say her car, which was found parked about two miles away from the home she shared with Gould and their son, was never started on April 10.

Investigators also say that, on March 30, Maciejewska's father received a text message from Maciejewska's phone wishing him a happy birthday. However, the D.A. said the grammar in the message was incorrect, which would be out of character for Maciejewska, who grew up in Poland and spoke perfect Polish.

The D.A. said evidence was found that the message was crafted using Google Translate.

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But most importantly, the D.A. said, all of the interviews conducted over the eight-year investigation showed that Maciejewska was a devoted mother and sister who loved her family and there was no reason for her to go missing.

"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. "It simply doesn't make any common sense."

When asked about a motive, de Barrena-Sarobe said one factor may be the difficulty in Gould and Maciejewska's marriage. Divorce papers were found in the home, he said, suggesting Gould knew about the status of their marriage.

Maciejewska sought assistance on obtaining a divorce and had custody concerns over the couple's young son.

Police built much of their case after executing a search warrant at the home in 2017.

According to the criminal complaint, a cadaver dog showed alert behavior to human remains in the area of the northeast corner of the property. Authorities also allegedly found a $75,000 check Gould made out to his attorney with the memo, "trial defense if needed."

Court documents also showed Gould told authorities he activated a burner phone in June to communicate with his sister, fearing his phone was bugged.

The affidavit goes on to allege that Gould clicked a link on an attorney's Twitter page that directed him to the definition of "violent crimes strangulation." In court documents, state police note the search is significant because, "there has never been an accusation that Maciejewska was strangled."

State police surrounded the home near Malvern on Wednesday. Bags of evidence were seen at the front door and an open window revealed a disheveled room.

Maciejewska's friends gathered outside the home, relieved there had been a break in the case.

"We all had our inklings about how it happened, but why, I don't get that," said Melissa Naves of Malvern.

"I called her mom just an hour ago to see how she's feeling, and she already heard the news from the police this morning," added Ellen Lee, who knew the victim.

As for why it took so long to bring charges, the DA says cases without a body are hard to prosecute.

"We wanted to make sure that we used technology from 2024/25 that wasn't in existence in 2017. We wanted to make sure it's not just about prosecuting people because we have a strong feeling that they did it. We have to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt," said de Barrena-Sarobe.