Foul Play Feared in Case of Detective’s Missing Wife

Law enforcement officials, still baffled by last week’s disappearance of a Brea woman who is married to a Los Angeles police detective, now suspect foul play, police spokesmen in Orange and Los Angeles counties said Monday.

Marie Andrea Malmgreen, 38, has not been seen since she dropped off her 16-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son at a school near their home last Tuesday morning. Later that day, Malmgreen missed a lunch appointment and an exercise class.

“We are receiving a lot of calls. But so far we have not discovered her whereabouts or located her vehicle,” Brea Police Detective Douglas Dickerson said.

Malmgreen was driving a light-blue 1981 Cadillac Biarritz when she disappeared.

Both Brea and Los Angeles police investigators said they had no leads in the case and could not determine any possible motives for Malmgreen’s disappearance.

The woman is married to Los Angeles Police Detective Russell Malmgreen, who serves as judicial liaison officer in Chief Daryl Gates’ office. Commander Bill Booth said that the 19-year police veteran previously worked in the department’s anti-terrorist division.

Booth said Detective Malmgreen is staying at his Brea home and “is on call if we need him” for the investigation of his wife’s disappearance.

Police added that the missing woman has no history of family disputes, nor has she ever suffered from mental problems.

“There are no leads,” Booth said. “But we do believe that she is missing under involuntary circumstances. There is the possibility of foul play and that possibility concerns us.”

Booth added that investigators do not think the woman’s disappearance is connected with her husband’s work.