TWIST IN MAIN LINE MOM MYSTERY: NEW WASHRAGS, GOOGLE TRANSLATE, WHERE'S ANNA?

Summary

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Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

Episode: TWIST IN MAIN LINE MOM MYSTERY: NEW WASHRAGS, GOOGLE TRANSLATE, WHERE'S ANNA?

Release Date: January 5, 2026 | Host: Nancy Grace
Main Case Focus: The Disappearance of Anna Macijewska

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Overview

In this episode, Nancy Grace and an expert panel unravel the mysterious disappearance of Anna Macijewska, a brilliant young mother, wife, and actuary living in an exclusive Pennsylvania Main Line suburb. Key elements of the case include family and marital tensions, suspicious digital evidence, the odd use of Google Translate, new household cleaning items, and a missing blue tarp. The central question: Where is Anna?

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Key Topics and Discussion Points

1. Anna Macijewska – Her Background and Character

• [00:35] Anna, originally from Poland, moved to the U.S. for education (University of Louisville) and held degrees in mathematics and computer science with a specialty in actuarial mathematics.
• She later worked at Voya Financial, married Alan Gould after a whirlwind romance, and designed their European-style farmhouse in the Main Line, Pennsylvania.
• Anna is described as extremely bright, driven, and deeply committed to her son’s future and her Polish heritage.

Nancy Grace [01:26]:

"Good gravy. You know, I'm never going to complain about my morning chores again before I go to work... Actuarial science, a field using statistical and mathematical methods to assess financial risks in insurance and finance. That's what's going on in her brain. She's brilliant."

2. Family and Marital Tensions

• [07:24] Anna’s desire to immerse her son in Polish culture led her to enroll him in Polish school, which became a source of tension with Alan, who resisted getting their son a Polish passport.
• As marital issues grew, Anna attended a "Divorce 101" class and documented her frustrations regarding parenting roles and cultural differences.

Panel Insight [12:18] Mark Tate:

"She had very different ideas. She actually made a list of things that she wanted to happen with the child... and she accused him of not letting her have a parental experience with the child. She was clearly very unhappy."

• Nancy and Dr. Angela Arnold discuss how parenting small choices reflect deeper relational divides (e.g. Polish sausage vs. pastry for breakfast).

  Nancy Grace [12:18]:

  "It sounds like a small thing, right? Polish sausage versus a pastry. But there's also a principle behind it, right. That you want input in your child's life and you don't want to be usurped when you're trying your best to do the right thing."

3. Timeline of Disappearance

• [16:50] Anna planned to visit Poland for her father’s birthday, booking a flight (March 28–April 2). She took leave from work but failed to show.
• On April 3rd, Anna’s boss received a text (allegedly from Anna) saying she was sick and extending her leave; further messages claimed she had a stomach virus and would be back April 10th.
• Anna’s coworkers (not husband) reported her missing when she did not show up to work on April 10th.

Nancy Grace [19:54]:

"Co workers are the ones that call 911 to report her missing, not the husband."

4. Red Flags and Suspicious Behavior

• [24:15] Alan Gould reported Anna missing only after coworkers initiated contact with authorities.
• Police found Anna’s phone left on the kitchen table "in update mode." Alan claimed she left it because the update was taking too long — a detail doubted by both Nancy and panelists.
• Divorce paperwork and evidence of Anna’s intent to leave Alan found in the home.
• Alan soon hired a high-profile criminal defense attorney, noted by a $75,000 check labeled “trial defense if needed.”

Joe Holden [25:30]:

"They found a man who was really not in a state of where's my wife?... In fact, his first interaction... was when he called 911 to report her missing. And Alan Gould, in a conversation with the dispatcher, presses them. How long is this going to take?... It goes on for a page and a half of Alan Gould pressing state police."

5. The Google Translate Birthday Text

• [27:41] Anna’s father in Poland received a Polish birthday text from Anna’s phone, but the grammar was incorrect. Investigators determined the exact message was generated via Google Translate — and found a printed copy in Alan's home.

Panel, re: Google Translate [28:17]:

"Anna had no reason to use Google Translate."

• Mark Tate attempts to raise the alternate theory of suicide, citing alleged texts and search history, but Nancy Grace is thoroughly skeptical.

Nancy Grace [30:33]:

"Gee, I wonder who wrote those."

6. Alan Gould’s Actions Post-Disappearance

• [32:41] Police discover Alan researched defense attorneys and missing persons cases before reporting Anna missing.
• He appears unconcerned, declines to participate in search efforts (including a Facebook page created by friends), and was noted to discourage others from searching.

Nancy Grace [33:13]:

"She makes all the money. She designs the house, she raises the baby, she works every day. What is he doing?"

7. Physical and Digital Evidence

• [36:23] Anna's blue Audi was found nearly a month after her disappearance, backed into an overflow lot — not typical for her. Her purse and receipts (last dated March 28) were still inside.
• Neighbors report Alan was the one driving her Audi after her disappearance.
• The car’s navigation system showed it was not moved on the day Alan claims Anna left for work; its final movement aligns exactly with the drop-off spot.
• Police used cadaver dogs on the property: the dog alerted to remains at a disturbed patch of soil, where a piece of blue tarp and burnt debris were found. Records showed Alan had bought three blue tarps, with one missing.

Nancy Grace [38:09]:

"They not only see it on the ground penetrating radar, they see it with the naked eye that some of the soil is disturbed on top of the ground... that's where the cadaver dog hits. And not only that, they find bits of charred something and part of a blue tarp."

• Cleaning crew noticed that, while the house was unusually messy, the master bathroom sinks were spotless and all old wash rags had been replaced with new ones.

Panel, Glenn K. Bard [40:09]:

"That's obviously going to be an indicator that there is something being cleaned up and certain items disposed of... the absence of evidence is the evidence we're looking for."

8. Legal and Panel Debate

• Defense attorney Mark Tate is adamant that all evidence is circumstantial and stresses the high legal burden to convict Alan.
• Nancy challenges the “susceptibility” of cadaver dogs and the notion that all evidence could be coincidental.

Memorable Moment [41:21]:

Nancy Grace (sarcastically): "Now, to hear veteran defense attorney Mark Tate tell it, the cadaver dogs were tricked and all of the wash rags in the home were thrown away and new ones were bought because the old ones left behind lint. Now, I wonder who would have noticed the lint issue since Anna is gone."

9. Concluding Thoughts

• Nancy emphasizes the tragedy: a brilliant professional woman, loving mother, and the heartbreak for her young son.
• Case remains open, with mounting evidence but no definitive resolution — yet.

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Notable Quotes

• Nancy Grace [27:41]:
  "Someone had researched how to make that exact [birthday] message via Google Translate."

• Mark Tate [28:47]:
  "The state's going to have to prove somehow that that is evidence of murder, and they've got to prove this beyond a reasonable doubt."

• Joe Holden [39:10]:
  "There is. There were three [blue tarps]. Now there’s just two... and to add to the search of that property with the cadaver dog, there's a piece of a tarp, a blue tarp found in that area where there's also burnt debris."

• Glenn K. Bard [40:09]:
  "A lot of times the absence of evidence is the evidence we're looking for."

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Key Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:35 – Introduction to Anna’s background
• 07:24 – Marital strife over childraising/culture
• 16:50 – Anna’s trip to Poland and sudden disappearance
• 19:54 – Discovery Anna is missing; husband’s odd response
• 24:15 – Husband’s delayed missing persons report and mounting suspicion
• 27:41 – The Google Translate text and its significance
• 32:41 – Alan Gould’s defense preparations and online searches
• 36:23 – Discovery of Anna’s car and analysis of evidence
• 37:47 – Cadaver dog search, disturbed soil, burned tarp bits
• 40:09 – House cleaning clues: new wash rags, spotless sinks
• 43:10 – Audi nav evidence, post-disappearance car movements
• 45:34 – Alan’s suspicious Google searches: crime scene, strangulation, etc.

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Tone and Style

The episode is an energetic, fast-paced true crime discussion marked by Nancy Grace’s biting southern wit and relentless pursuit of inconsistencies, with panelists providing both prosecution and defense perspectives. Nancy questions excuses, scrutinizes suspect behavior, and constantly returns to the heartbreak for Anna’s child.

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Final Takeaway

This episode paints a vivid, layered portrait of Anna Macijewska’s disappearance. The combination of digital footprints, physical evidence (car, tarp, wash rags), suspicious texts, and behavioral red flags increasingly point suspicion at Alan Gould, but the debate remains fierce as to whether the circumstantial evidence is enough for a conviction. Anna’s fate — and the truth — remain unresolved, with the case still open and evolving.

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Transcript

[A]

This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human crime stories with Nancy Grace. A bizarre twist in a mainline missing mom mystery. New wash rags, Google Translate, a missing tarp. Tonight, where's Anna? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us.

[B]

A mother vanishes, a phone left on the kitchen table. And a birthday text with one strange mistake.

[A]

Good evening, I'm Nancy Grace. How is it that this beautiful young mom of a little four year old boy seemingly vanishes into thin air? First of all, who is Anna Macijewska?

[C]

Anna Macajewska arrives to continue her education at the University of Louisville, holding two bachelor's degrees for mathematics and computer science, specializing in actuarial mathematics. Ana begins working in finance at ing. Later, Voya Financial in Westchester, Pennsylvania. Anna meets Alan Gould during a ski trip and really hit it off. After dating two years, the couple gets married twice in 90 days. First, a civil ceremony followed by a Catholic mass. With Anna Mashaevska's family and friends, Ana designs a European style farmhouse, beautiful and unique in their upscale Chester County, Pennsylvania neighborhood.

[A]

Good gravy. You know, I'm never going to complain about my morning chores again before I go to work. Let's see. Let me go straight out to Joe Holden joining us, chief investigative reporter, anchor, CBS News, Philadelphia. Joe, hold on, let me, let me just check this out, what I just heard about Anna. All right, so she starts University of Louisville, that's in Kentucky. She has two bachelor's degrees for mathematics and computer science, specializing in actuarial mathematics. Then she starts working in finance at ing, later at Voya Financial. And in the middle of all this, she designs their dream home, which is a European style farmhouse. What did I. Am I missing anything?

[D]

You're right on, Nancy. And in fact, this is a really special neighborhood on Philadelphia's mainline. In fact, it is insulated from much of the surrounding communities because that's the way of life there. They like their privacy.

[A]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Joe Holden. I know what that means. I've traveled every square inch of Atlanta and surrounding metropolitan Atlanta. And when you say a neighborhood is isolated from the rest of the city, that means there are a lot of rich people in there and they don't want us getting in. Right. They have like gated communities and those big wrought iron fences you have to have a keypad to get through. And another thing, I lived in Philly when my sister was teaching at the Wharton School there. And it's a lot different inner city Philly from the Main Line I just got very acquainted with the Main Line when I was investigating the Ellen Greenberg murder, which was called a suicide. BS Know it well. So. Yeah. But could you explain to everybody else, what is the Main Line?

[D]

So the Main line starts in Overbrook Farms, just west in Philadelphia, and it actually follows the old Pennsylvania Railroad and along all of these towns and communities, you are talking exclusive places to live. Ardmore, Bryn Mawr, Villanova, Rosemont, Paoli. And then we get to Malvern, where Anna Mashaeski Masaska lived with her husband.

[A]

You know, I don't think it's so much as a place, Joe Holden. It's. It's a way of thinking. The Main Line. If you're. If you live there, you're extremely privileged. You may or may not know that. And if you don't live there, a lot of people want to live there.

[D]

Around here. That you say that, it automatically sets the tone for what we're talking about.

[A]

Oh, yeah. I remember taking the train. Okay. Didn't have a car in and out of Philly. And I'd hear Ardmore, and I didn't even know what the guy was saying. That's the way they'd say. Ardmore and I got off in the wrong place more than once. But you're right. As you're rolling along on the train, you see one mega mansion off in the distance. They're not. Certainly not close to the street, much less close to the rail line. But they're the super elite rich. Now, I want to talk. Forget about who's dad? And granddad. And dad. Great, great. Granddad had. Granddad had money. I want to talk to you about this woman, Anna. Actuarial science, a field using statistical and mathematical methods to assess financial risks in insurance and finance. That's what's going on in her brain. She's brilliant. So how did she know how to design their dream home? Tell me about that. How do you just suddenly decide you're going to design a home?

[D]

Nancy? She's a woman of incredible means and well educated and certainly had degrees to back up a brain of analysis. And what brought her to that area of Philadelphia? We are still digging. What brought Anna Mashaska to Charlestown Township, Malvern, Chester County. She designs her own home. It's the story of dreams. It is the way of people coming to the United States. This is a dream life. This is how she built her life. Everything seemed to be in place. And there's her Audi that we've become familiar with. And then the story sort of takes some Twists.

[A]

Boy, that's one way of putting it. But you know, Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. You can find [e-mail] the real jewel in her crown and Anna's crown is having that baby boy. She had one child and that seemed to, I mean, she, she continued to do some very complicated work at Voya Financial in Westchester, again, where all the rich people live. But it was the baby. The baby was the jewel in her.

[E]

Crown, as it is in every mother's crown. It doesn't matter what we do, does it, Nancy? It doesn't matter what you do as a woman. The, the baby always takes precedence. And it does sound like she's a very smart woman. It also sounds like she's a very smart woman who wanted to put down roots in her community because she took the time to design a home for her family. That's what I think the viewers should take away from this also.

[A]

Yeah. Dr. Angie, I'm not even really sure what a European style of farmhouse would look like, but I know why she was attracted to that style. It was in her DNA. Listen.

[B]

Anna and Allen welcome their first child, a son. It doesn't happen quickly, but over the first couple of years of their son's life, the couple begins to argue over how be raised him. Anna wants him to know her Polish background and learn to speak Polish. So she enrolls him in a Polish school in Lakewood, New Jersey and takes him to classes every Friday.

[C]

The marriage is faltering as Gould refuses to allow their son to have a Polish passport. Their son is born a US citizen, but Anna Mazhaewska was wants her son to have the Polish passport. Anna begins attending a Divorce 101 class as she prepares for what the future may hold. Alan Gould is concerned if his son gets a Polish passport, he will have trouble should Anna choose to go to Poland with their boy.

[A]

Joe Holden joining us, chief investigative reporter and anchor, CBS News, Philadelphia. Joe, she was just, Jackie just pulled up a shot for me of a European farmhouse.

[D]

Wow.

[A]

Okay. Now we know why she wanted something that looked European. Because she was raised in Poland, she was fluent in the Polish language and she wanted her son to have that dual either citizenship or at least a Polish passport. And she had him learning this Polish language once a week and it was very, very important to her. As a matter of fact, isn't it true? You know, we glossed over the wedding, but they had weddings. One was a civil ceremony here in the States for the husband, Gould, and The other one, she went back to Poland, as I understand it, and got married in Poland with a big Catholic Mass with all of her family and.

[D]

Friends in Warsaw, is married here, as you said, and then goes to Poland and is married in really a pomp and circumstance ceremony, Catholic Mass. It seemed that Anna was set on making sure that she lived the life that she wanted. And in the voiceover, you mentioned something that is absolutely wild. Things were apparently unraveling in this woman's life, that she actually goes to a Divorce 101 class, according to some documents at Chester County Night School.

[A]

You know, I want to follow up on what Joe Holden just said. And Joe, please, you know this story better than any of us. Just jump in if you have something to add or we get a fact wrong, because at this juncture, every tiny fact is critical. I want to talk about what Joe Holden just said, the raising of the child, okay? The two of them, Anna and husband Gould, had gotten along perfectly well. All right? They have the civil ceremony, they fly to Warsaw where she's around all of her family and friends for a big honkin Catholic Mass wedding, right? They did it up right. Everything was fine. Dream home, dream marriage. Happy, happy, happy. Then comes the baby. You know what? To Mark Tate, veteran trial lawyer who shot to fame during the Murdoch, Alex Murdoch double murder trial in your neck of the woods. Mark Tate TRIAL LAWYER WITH the Tate Law Group. That's. That's when things begin to go sideways, when you finally have something that's worth arguing about. And that would be how you're going to raise the baby, right? My husband and I never had an argument, and we've known each other a long time, Tate, until we had the twins, right? And we had different ideas about how to raise them.

[F]

She had very different ideas. She actually made a list of things that she wanted to happen with the child. She thought that Alan was spoiling him. And she specifically mentioned in her notes that she was making in preparation for, I guess, her divorce, coaching that he can't have everything that he wants. And she gave an example that apparently Allen gave Ag the seven pumpkins for Halloween, and that upset her. She was upset that he gave him pastries for breakfast, and she wanted to eat Polish sausage for breakfast. So there were a number of things she had specific complaints about that she thought Alan. And she expressed these in writing, in notes to herself that he was doing wrong with raising the child. And she accused him of not letting her have a parental experience with the child. And if you read her notes that are contained in the criminal complaint, she was clearly very unhappy. She said that Alan wasn't supporting her, that he wasn't providing her emotional support. She's very specific about the types of support she expected and essentially was not participating the way she wanted him to in raising their child. And so they fought.

[A]

You're right, Mark Tate. Yeah, they fought. And Dr. Angela Arnold. It may sound like a small thing. A small thing. She wanted him to have Polish sausage and not pastries for breakfast. You know what? I make John David now? Lucy makes her own Instagram beautiful organic Y breakfast every morning, but I make John David a full on healthy breakfast. I don't want him eating crap for breakfast if I can help it. Yes, Angela, as you've pointed out, without request, they're going to grow up and go away to college. I know that. But while I've got them, they are going to eat healthy. And I remember David, my husband, he's still alive. Haven't killed him yet. Offering John David doughnuts, Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast. I'm like, what just happened? Okay. And I remember the first time David said, when the children were about two, we don't have to go to church every Sunday. I might find you can stay home and play with the devil. But these children are going to church and Sunday school both. Anyway, it sounds like a small thing, right? Polish sausage versus a pastry. But there's also a principle behind it, right. That you want input in your child's life and you don't want to be usurped when you're trying your best to do the right thing. And another, another thing for an absentee father or an emotionally unavailable father to think he can just buy off the child's love. Which is what I think was happening. Yes. Right. I've got a problem with that.

[E]

Well, Nancy, we're painting a picture of a woman who very much knows how she wants her life to go. She's a very smart woman. She works in actuarial tables. She knows how she wants to raise her son. Also, to me, if her husband went to Poland to get married, then to me, that's an acknowledgement of her parentage. And I'm a little bit shocked that he would not want his child to have a part of that Polish heritage. And I also believe that part of that Polish heritage is in the way she feeds the child and disciplines the child. So this is a matter of the two of them working together. We all have to work together as parents. Because, yes, as soon as you bring a child onto the Earth. It's easy to get along. Like you said, Nancy, if all you're doing is going on vacation and having fun and you're all in love, having the child is where the difficulty comes when you are married. But it surprises me.

[A]

Brian Fitzgibbons, let me jump off of that. Brian Fitzgibbons joining us. Director Operations, uspi, PA Nationwide Security. I'm going to ask you and Glenn Bard this first to you, Fitzgibbons, how you know I have had seasoned trial lawyers who will do anything. It can be a drug lord, it can be a double murder case. Anything but a domestic. It's like sticking your hand in between two Rottweilers fighting. Right? It always goes sideways. Anything but a domestic. When children are involved, it ramps it up.

[D]

Certainly, Nancy, in what we hear, what we have here is a massive amount of information gathered in this case that paint a picture of what was going on. And the reason why you say that about domestics is you never know which side to believe. In this case, we have a lot of information through Anna's actions, her scheduled actions and her communications with friends that paint a picture that this marriage was soon to end and that there were some serious troubles over the child and how that child was being raised.

[A]

Yeah, you can say serious trouble when the wife is attending a divorce 101 class. Yeah, there's a problem.

[B]

Anna Macjezca's routine stopped cold one spring morning, and the questions haven't stopped since.

[A]

That's called routine evidence. Not that it is typical routine. It's evidence of someone's routine. And all digital evidence. Everything seemed to stop with Anna. Why now? Okay, this is where I believe it all goes sideways. Listen.

[C]

Taking a trip to Poland to visit her father for his birthday, Anna has already taken the appropriate time off work and booked a flight from Philadelphia to Warsaw, leaving March 28 and returning April 2 with a return to work date of April 4. On April 3, her boss gets a text message from Ana saying she is sick. Additional texts indicate she has a stomach virus and will return to work on April 10th.

[A]

To Glenn K. Bard joining us, former Pennsylvania state trooper first class. He's also proficient in computer crime investigations. Chief technical officer for PAT Tech, Digital Forensics. US Vet of Operation Desert Storm. I just had to add that in Bard, but Bard, let me talk to you about about this. You know those people that are always calling in sick and everybody's like, where's the sick again? Or if somebody else is sick, they're like, what? Jackie's sick? That's never happened. You know, there are those people that never, ever miss work, whether that's good or bad. I'm not a shrink, but they never miss. Right. That was Anna. And here she is, not only missing work, when she's supposed to be with her father in Poland for his birthday, she sends a text April 3, saying she is sick. Then an additional text comes in that she has a and she'll be back. April something. Then she gets. They get another text that she has a stomach virus and won't be back until April10. She was supposed to be back April 2 with a return to work date, April 4. A stomach virus lasts six days for a woman that has never missed work. I don't think she even took her whole pregnancy leave.

[G]

Yes, ma'. Am. Well, the thing about it is that people are creatures of habit. And obviously when you start looking at her patterns of her phones and computer systems, it's going to tell when she happened to change that pattern or change that habit. And that's obviously what they did for her. Look into this and see when she's changing her habits. Because we all call the same people, we all go to work or miss work. We all go to bed at the same time. And obviously when that changes is when we need to start looking at what happened to cause that change.

[A]

Well, you're right. And this was significant because she was taking a trip to Poland to visit her father for his birthday. The baby, 4 years old, did not go. Then this text message. Okay, stomach virus. Joining me, an all star panel to make sense of what we know right now. Mark Tate, you better buckle your seatbelt. Listen to this.

[C]

Co workers are concerned that Anna has not been communicating. And when Anna doesn't show up for work on Monday, April 10, a co worker calls the state police. An officer attempts to get an answer at the front door. And failing that, he walks around the house looking in the windows. It appears as if nobody is home.

[A]

Okay, got a problem right there. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Co workers are the ones that call 911 to report her missing, not the husband.

[D]

Okay, April 11th, that phone call is.

[A]

Just let that percolate for one moment. But here's my other problem of so many problems. So the officer goes to the door and he knows this is for a welfare check called in by the co worker. He walks around the house, looks in the window, looks like nobody's home. And he leaves, he splits. And that's that.

[D]

That's that for that day. She was lucky to have a persistent group of co workers and friends who kept Bangin Pennsylvania State Police by phone and get back there, find out.

[A]

Man, you're not kidding. So what's that all about, Bard? Why did the guy just leave? I mean, we got coworkers saying we think she's missing. They go, oh, nobody's home. Okay, bye.

[G]

Using. I can't put myself in his position, but if an adult wants to leave and not talk to somebody, they have that right. I've dealt with cases like this in the past where if an adult just says, hey, I'm gone, and they want to go ahead and leave, it's not really our job to say, well, they can or cannot do that. Now again, it's kind of hard for me to know all the details of that, but I would like to think that he just didn't see anything that would raise any alarms and it seemed like a normal thing and he thought maybe she went on vacation or maybe she just did divorce him.

[A]

Okay, I'm going to give the officer the benefit of the doubt because all they have is a co worker calling in saying she's missing. But I have a problem when they know a woman is missing and they knock on the door, nobody answers. I mean, for all I know she's tied up, gagged in the closet inside. But under the constitution, the cop can only do so much. You can't break the door in at that juncture anyway. Okay, what happens next? Listen.

[B]

On Tuesday, May 11, Brad Dussler from Voya Financial gets Alan Gould on the phone and asks him about Anna. Gould tells Dussler that he hasn't seen Anna since she left for work the previous day and she left her phone behind when she left. Anna's co workers believe something is seriously wrong and report her as a missing person.

[D]

The defendant wasn't the first person to.

[B]

Report his own wife missing to the Pennsylvania State Police.

[A]

That was actually co workers.

[B]

The last time someone physically saw Anna or actually heard her voice was on March 28th.

[A]

From our friends at NBC 10 Philly back out to Joe Holden. So let me understand this. The co worker, Brad Dussler from Voya calls the husband Gould on the phone and Gould tells co worker he hasn't seen Anna since she left for work the previous day. And she left her phone behind so.

[D]

It could reach, in a frantic move to get out the door, go to work. And she couldn't wait for some update on her phone. So she leaves it behind. She had a supposed very important meeting. And guess what? State police later followed up and determined it was a run of the mill sort of meeting. What are you talking about this important meeting. So now we see this, this building of a house of cards almost about her, what she was doing at the time that she can't be accounted for.

[A]

Where's that an update? How long does an update take, Brian fitzgibbons and can't your phone update while you're driving to work?

[G]

Yeah.

[D]

This is a bizarre thing to say that it was due to an update. Right. And how many times have we seen this, Nancy, in cases that we've covered, that a husband in the midst of a divorce is not the first person to report a missing wife as missing to the police? You know, this update, I would write it off as a reason for the.

[A]

Phone being there, but then the husband doubles down on the story when co workers call back and officers arrive.

[C]

The day after Ana's co workers report her missing, her husband calls 911 to report his wife. When officers arrive to meet with Alan Gould, he tells them the same story he told coworkers. He last saw Ana leaving for work Monday morning around 9:45am Said she was stressed over being late for an important meeting. At 10am Officers notice ANA's iPhone is on the table and it's in a startup update status mode as if it had been reset. Gould tells police Ana was updating her phone the morning she went missing. The update was taking too long to finish, so Ana left the phone at home when she went to work.

[B]

Divorce papers, a car parked miles from home, and a digital trail that raised more questions than answers. Gould tells police that he and Anna have a strong marriage, a wonderful son and a great life. Anna's belongings are left at the home, except for her car keys. The blue Audi she drives is also missing. As police look around the home, they find divorce paperwork and find out that Anna was taking a Divorce 101 class.

[A]

To Joe Holden joining us, chief investigative reporter and anchor, CBS News Philly Joe. What all did police find when they went to speak to the husband?

[D]

So they found interesting circumstances. They found a man who was really not in a state of where's my wife? She's been missing now for, well, let's put it this way, the backstory. We know she was last seen, according to prosecutors, in late March, the 28th, 29th March, when her life came to a sudden stop. You would think police arrived to find a man who is desperate and distraught. No, he's flat. In fact, his first interaction with state police there in Pennsylvania was when he called 911 to report her missing. The day, the day after colleagues had Called state police to ride them, to keep on tabs with this. And Alan Gould, in a conversation with the dispatcher, presses them. How long is this going to take? When's the state trooper coming? Do I have to wait around for this? And it goes on and on. Here's the chat log. Here's the phone call. Here's the conversation. It goes on for a page and a half of Alan Gould pressing state police. How long? How much time are you going to take in getting this done?

[A]

But then the plot thickens and the husband lawyers up.

[C]

Gould hires an attorney and is less than helpful in trying to find his missing wife. Investigators are contacted by Anna's family in Poland through a local man from Warsaw who has regular contact with them. Anna was supposed to come to Warsaw to visit her father on his birthday. But she didn't come and didn't explain. She sent a text message that she wasn't coming. Anna's parents say what really bothered them is a suspicious text message that was sent from Anna's phone to her father on March 30.

[A]

Now, the family, her family in Poland learned through a local man from Warsaw. Anna was supposed to come to Warsaw and visit. But she didn't come and didn't explain. Instead, she sends a text. She's not coming. They found this text to be very suspicious. But why?

[B]

On March 30, Anna, who spoke perfect.

[A]

Polish because she grew up in Poland, sent a text message to her father on that day wishing him a happy birthday.

[B]

The problem is the Polish grammar doesn't make sense.

[C]

The suspicious text message sent from Anna's phone to her father in Poland was a birthday greeting. The suspicious part is it was written in Polish but contained grammatical errors. Anna was born and raised in Poland and speaks perfect Polish and doesn't talk or text. Using poor grammar, investigators determine the same birthday message sent from Anna's phone was researched via Google Translate. Anna would have no need for a Google Translate message. But investigators find the same Google Translate birthday message printed out in Alan Gould's home.

[A]

Someone had researched how to make that exact message via Google Translate.

[B]

Anna had no reason to use Google Translate.

[A]

That from our friends at kywtv, CBS Philadelphia. Ruh Roh Mark Tate. Somebody had to Google how to say Happy Birthday, dad in Polish. They had to Google with Google Translate. Don't you just hate when that happens?

[F]

Well, you know, I think the notion here is that the state's going to have to prove somehow that that is evidence of murder, and they've got to prove this beyond a reasonable Doubt. And I believe right here on your show, not three minutes ago, someone mentioned that. It's always hard to know. I wrote it down. It's always hard to know who said what and who did what. And so we have a problem here with this case because in addition to that Google Translate issue, we also texts from Anna that say, I don't want to come home, I might go and hurt myself rather than rush home to you. We have her visiting suicide hotline websites to talk about how to deal with people who are contemplating suicide. We have instances where. And we know she's had statements in her medical records as well as text that she had a miscarriage. What? In October, prior to her going missing. And she was very depressed about that. She searched about depression a lot. And so.

[A]

Okay, wait a minute. So she. You're saying, first of all, that there were texts that Anna sent. Okay, let's just let that sink in for a moment about how depressed and suicidal she was. Gee, I wonder who wrote those. And you're also stating that she was so depressed about losing a baby to miscarriage that she would rather kill herself and leave her 4 year old son behind to what, be with the baby she miscarried. That's your reasoning? Spoken like a true man.

[F]

It's more nuanced than that. And so what it is here is we have to figure out what the state of Pennsylvania is going to be able to prove to 12 jurors beyond a reasonable doubt.

[A]

And remember, you think that's nuanced because I don't.

[F]

Yeah, I do.

[A]

The same person that had to look up Google Translate. How do I say Happy Birthday, Daddy in Polish? The same person that did that and sent that freaky, grammatically imperfect message. The same person that did that, sent the I'm so sad I'm going to kill myself rather than come home to you and my son that is the light of my life. Yeah, with your teeth.

[G]

Tate.

[F]

No, no, I've got another thing I can't prove.

[A]

I don't know. I don't see what's. Okay, you know what?

[F]

What?

[A]

Go ahead.

[F]

I'm just saying that I can't believe you're not going to pull your usual.

[A]

There's no playbook for grief.

[F]

I don't know. I'm not going to say that. I wouldn't say that, but I would say this is that. I don't know. I mean, I have no idea how he's going to act. Clearly, this guy is a different kind of criminal defendant who anticipated properly that he's going to need a lawyer and an investigator. Because, you know, you love to say it's always the husband or always the spouse who kills the spouse.

[A]

I never said that. You got that off a T shirt. I never said that.

[F]

No, that's exactly what you think. We always look at the husband first. Always this lady who's happy.

[A]

You know what? And I'm glad you said clairvoyant, Tate, because apparently this guy's clairvoyant, because before anybody said she's missing, he researches criminal defense attorneys, and while police are in his home, they find a check written out. Okay, Joe Holden, help me out here. Isn't it true that when police were at the home just trying to gather some information, they find a check to a criminal defense attorney that says for defense if needed.

[D]

Trial defense. $75,000 in the memo. Trial defense if needed. Also Googled and researched law firms in the area and also other disappearance cases.

[A]

Could I please see Mark Tate's face?

[F]

That's what he's supposed to do. That's what he's supposed to do. No, it's what he's supposed to do.

[A]

He knows look at other missing people in the area.

[F]

Sure he does. Absolutely. He needs to figure out he's going to defend himself when he's going to be accused of murdering his suicidal wife. He's never said anything.

[A]

Even know she's dead.

[F]

And I tell you what else I think. Those searches she was doing about who owes what in paternity, in child, in alimony. I don't think she's searching to figure out what she can get from him. Her income was vastly greater than his, and she was concerned about whether she's going to be paying him alimony.

[A]

Are you saying that she not only made all the money, she was extremely frugal. And I love her clothes. I dress the same way. Extremely frugal. And you can tell from the pictures, she spent no money on herself. Everything was saved. So she makes all the money. She designs the house, she raises the baby, she works every day. What is he doing? Kicking back slicks?

[F]

Well, he's delivering the child a swim lesson.

[A]

Murder mysteries.

[F]

He's delivering the child to swim lessons. He's taking the child to school. Yeah, the wrong kind of breakfast. And buying her too many. Buying too many pumpkins. But the fact is. But the fact of the matter is, is that.

[A]

Yeah, swimming classes. One time. Swimming classes, tennis classes, and then a movie. Hey, was it a double feature? Because it was the same day she goes missing and he needed an alibi. Tate.

[F]

Well, it's what he did, you know. So she'd been sick for a week. He's taking care of the kid, but he doesn't have to explain any of these things. It's the state of Pennsylvania that's got to convince 12 people.

[C]

Yeah.

[F]

I mean, she never came home. Well, she was sick for the week before she went to work on the morning of the 10th, apparently. And she thought, just because nobody else thinks these meetings are important to her. This lady is a very exacting mathematician.

[A]

She never made it to work. Straighten him out, Holden. He never made it work.

[F]

We didn't.

[D]

We only. But also, we're talking about pattern here. If you want to talk about which parent is really involved in the child's life, let's talk about that. Polish school every Friday for more than a year and a half. That's two hours from Charlestown Township over to Lakewood, New Jersey. And all of a sudden she's. She's not doing that any longer. And then here we see in these documents a plane trip there, a plane ticket to Warsaw for the dates of March 28th to April 2nd. Almost a $3,500 ticket doesn't happen. And then in the paragraph above, that is an email the parents finally sent right to Anna saying, please contact us. We love you. You can confide in us. You can tell us what's wrong. That's April 10th. So now the thing is languishing. The questions are building and state police aren't getting anywhere a visit. They don't answer. There's no one at the door. No one comes to the door. And then the reports are made the day after. And then Alan Gould finally is approached, calls 911 to make a report and well, things are flat.

[B]

As someone else said, neighbors begin putting up flyers. Have you seen Anna? Ellen Lee, co worker and friend, sets up a Facebook page finding Anna Macieska and asks Alan Gould to help. He tells her her it's not a good idea and refuses to help. Searches are conducted in the neighborhood by friends and co workers of Anna.

[C]

Nearly four weeks after Ana vanished, her car is found on May 8th in the Charlestown Meadows overflow parking lot. The car was found near the neighborhood walking trails in an area she did not live. Friends say the car was found backed into a parking spot. Not something Ana would do. Since Pennsylvania cars are not required to have a front license plate. Backing a car into a space would prevent the license plate from being seen. Embryville state troopers, search dogs and police cadets performed a search of the woods, neighborhoods and surrounding area of Charlestown Meadows.

[A]

So a car is found parked bat cave style backed in at an overflow parking lot at a nearby ritzy. There it is, residential area. People in the neighborhood say they don't know who she is. They've never met her. So why was her car there? I understand her brother, married to her sister, flies in from Poland from Warsaw to try to find her. And the husband, Gould, refuses to meet with him. To Joe Holden joining us, CBS News, Philly. What can you tell me about cadaver dogs brought onto the home premises? The whole area. Crime stories with nancy grace.

[D]

So the dog's name is Kratos. And after troopers set him free, he showed alert behavior to human remains in the area of the northeast corner of the property. They continue to search of that area and found the soil to have been disturbed. They also found a small piece of a tarp and burnt debris mixed into the soil.

[A]

The northeast part of Gold's property, where the dream home is, they find just, and I've used them ground penetrating radar. It works great. Kind of looks like a sonogram. And you see the baby, you're looking at this and you see the disturbed soil. They not only see it on the ground penetrating radar, they see it with the naked eye that some of the soil is disturbed on top of the ground. And that happens to be where the cadaver dog hits. And not only that, they find bits of charred something and part of a blue tarp. Now, isn't it true, Joe Holden, that a while back, about a year before the husband by three blue tarps at Home Depot, two of them are found in the home. When the home is searched, one is missing. Isn't that true?

[D]

He has these tarps. They're able to go back, they're able to research these purchases. And there is. There were three. Now there's just two. And to add to the search of that property with the cadaver dog, there's a piece of a tarp, a blue tarp found in that area where there's also burnt debris.

[A]

You know, another thing that's really interesting to Glenn K. Bard, former Pennsylvania State trooper, that the cleaning people that routinely clean the family home notice that the home is very messy when they come to clean it up. Except the master bedroom sinks in the bathroom are perfectly clean, like nobody's ever even lived there. And they notice. Thank you, ladies. They notice that all the family's wash rags, they're all gone. And now there are brand new sets of wash rags in the linen closet.

[C]

Hmm.

[G]

That's obviously going to be an indicator that there is something being cleaned up and certain items disposed of. Obviously, again, that kind of goes along with. When a person tries to hide their actions, they're going to do anything they can to get rid of the evidence that may be used against them. And we always like to say a lot, lot of times the absence of evidence is the evidence we're looking for. And that seems like one of those situations like that.

[A]

Mark Tate TRIAL LAWYER DEFENSE ATTORNEY what about the brand new wash rags? When's the last time you hopped on over to Bed Bath and Beyond and, and bought all new wash racks, not towels, but the wash rags, all new and all the old ones you got, I'll throw them all away.

[F]

So according to the criminal complaint that's filed, it said that they had, he had new cleaning rags. And, and that may be something about. And apparently his, his side of the sink was pretty clean. You know, that's something that someone's going to testify to, I suppose. But at some point there's going to have to be a bridge made, there's going to be a connection made that links all of those things to prove that Gould murdered his wife beyond a reasonable doubt. And my point with all this is.

[A]

You don't believe cadaver dogs are real.

[F]

No, I believe they're real, but I believe they're very susceptible to false positives. Anything can trigger that.

[A]

Dogs lie all the time. I hate that they don't lie, but.

[F]

They can be tricked into responding. It could be any other animal that had died there. It could be any number of things that cause a false alert and each one of those things. Yeah, this lawyer who got paid $75,000, I hope that's just a retainer because he's going to spend a lot more time than that to defend this guy. This myriad of things to take care of.

[A]

Now, to hear veteran defense attorney Mark Tate tell it, the cadaver dogs were tricked and all of the wash rags in the home were thrown away and new ones were bought because the old ones left behind lint. Now, I wonder who would have noticed the lint issue since Anna is gone. What the husband's cleaning and decides, oh, I see, lint. Let me get rid of the wash rags. That's not going to work. Okay, anybody, any woman on this jury that has cleaned her home before, no offense, men, is going to know that that's bs so don't say that, defense attorney, but I want to talk about something more substantial and that would be nav system evidence. To Joe Holden joining us, isn't it true that Anna's nav system in her Audi showed the movements of her car? Just like in Alex Murdock's case, his nav system and his suv, technical legal term. Screwed him because it showed he was lying. What did Anna's nav system show?

[D]

Showed regular movement around town. Five miles here one day, four miles the next, three, two. And remember, she's missing since March 28th. So now here we are, April 12th, and the vehicle's moving, and yet there's no Anna. And that's her car. She's the only one who drove that car. Oh, by the way, Nancy, when we remember that the vehicle is discovered less than a mile from where this couple and their son lived, cadaver dogs once again visit that Audi there circled and hit on the presence of the odor of either blood, bone, tissue or decomposition fluid within a specified area in the trunk of the Audi.

[A]

Isn't it true that neighbors observed Anna's Audi being driven around but not by her? It was the husband driving her Audi. And specifically the nav system showed that her car was never even cranked up on April 10th. Isn't that the day that she was rushing to work in a hurry? Joe Holden.

[D]

That's right. And here are all of those entries in the court documents showing the trips of the Audi going around on April 4th, April 5th. 17 minutes, 2 minutes, 9 minutes. Neighbors saying it wasn't Anna behind the wheel of that car.

[A]

So the morning that the husband says she raced out and left her phone behind, updating her car wasn't even started that day. April 10th. The last trip that car made was on April 11th. Based on the nav system and the battery information, at 1:30am Total time 9.6 minutes. Exactly the time it would take to travel from her home to the overflow parking lot where her Audi was found. Isn't that true, Joe Holden?

[D]

You know what else was found in that car? In the trunk? Her purse and receipts. Spending pattern that shows she stopped making purchases or at least stopped storing the receipts from whatever was going on on March 28th. That was the last time a receipt was found for a purchase.

[A]

And what other Google searches Joe Holden were found?

[D]

Quite extensive strangulation and other things. How to handle crime scenes and taking you from, you know, being married one day. More searches about divorce. You know, Anna was really precipitating the divorce, but Allen appeared to be trying to mop up a mess. Really? According to the Pennsylvania State Police, we.

[A]

Wait as justice unfolds. The centerpiece of this case is that then four year old little boy now living without his mother. We remember an American hero, Deputy Sheriff dan Thomas Glaze Jr. Russ County Sheriff's Wisconsin, shot and killed in the line of duty. Leaving behind a loving wife, his high school sweetheart, Sarah, and children Kendall, Levi and Eliana. American hero, Deputy Sheriff dan Thomas Glaze, Jr. Thank you to our guests for being with us, even you, Tate. But especially to you for being with us tonight and every night. Nancy Gray signing off. I'll see you tomorrow night, six and nine o' clock sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.