Ex-Husband Arrested in Slaying of Missing Pair

A Romanian immigrant has been arrested in the murder of his former wife and her new husband, believed shot to death in their bed, Burbank police said Monday.

Constantin Cirdei, 27, and his wife, Violeta, 24, also Romanian immigrants, were reported missing Friday from the Sunset Canyon Drive home where they lived.

Their bodies have not been found, police said. But authorities said evidence gathered in the missing couple’s bedroom and car, recovered in Tijuana during the weekend, has led them to believe the Cirdeis are dead.

‘Shot to Death and Dumped’

“We are proceeding with the theory that they were both shot to death and dumped in the Southern California area or in Mexico,” Sgt. Don Goldberg said. “We feel quite certain we are dealing with a double homicide.”

Violeta Cirdei’s former husband, Dumitru Pop, 35, was arrested Saturday in Tijuana while driving the missing couple’s 1984 car, police said. Burbank detectives returned from Mexico with Pop early Monday. He was arrested on suspicion of murder and is being held without bail in the Burbank Jail. He is scheduled to be arraigned on two charges of murder today.

Goldberg said Pop, a carpenter convicted last year of spousal abuse, had a record of threatening his former wife.

Pop was driving erratically when pulled over by Tijuana police, Goldberg said. The officers arrested Pop after they noticed that the car had been “hot-wired,” or started without a key, and that there was bloody clothing inside, Goldberg said. Mexican authorities contacted San Diego police who contacted Burbank police.

Police declined to outline a suspected motive for the suspected double slaying.

Violence in the Bed

“It was a highly emotional situation and, assuming they are dead, the motivation should be obvious,” Goldberg said. “The indications are that the acts of violence occurred in the bed and then the bodies were taken away.”

Police said they are conducting tests to determine if blood in the car Pop was driving came from two people and if it matches samples found in the home where the Cirdeis are thought to have been killed.

Blood, a bullet shell and other signs of a struggle were found in the Cirdeis’ bedroom, and bloody clothing and bedcovers belonging to the couple were found in the car in Tijuana, authorities said.

“There were indications there had been two bodies in the car,” Goldberg said. He declined to elaborate.

Violeta Cirdei and Dumitru Pop, who had an 18-month-old daughter, were divorced in October, five months after Pop was arrested on suspicion of spousal abuse at the house in the 200 block of South Sunset Canyon Drive, police said.

Pop was later convicted of that charge and was sentenced to probation. Violeta also obtained a restraining order to prevent him from threatening her, police said.

Violeta and Constantin Cirdei, a contractor, were married on Feb. 14. They lived in the Sunset Canyon home, where Violeta continued to care for Dr. Elbert Pratt, 94, an invalid, and his 90-year-old wife. Neighbors said Violeta Cirdei took her daughter to visit Pop on Saturdays.

Discovered Missing on Friday

The Pratts noticed the Cirdeis were missing at 7 a.m. Friday when they were not served breakfast, police said. But the couple’s disappearance was not reported to police until that afternoon when a neighbor found the daughter wandering in the driveway of the Sunset Canyon property, police said.

Neither the Pratts nor the daughter could provide information about what happened to the couple, police said.

Police said six detectives are searching for the Cirdeis’ bodies. But authorities said they have been hampered by not knowing Pop’s latest address. A week before the couple’s disappearance, Pop moved from a home in Hollywood, police said.