Ex-Spouse Accused of 2 Slayings

A Hollywood man 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, were reported missing Friday from the Sunset Canyon Drive home in Burbank where they lived. Their bodies have not been found, police said, but evidence gathered in the couple’s bedroom and in their car, which was recovered when the suspect was arrested in Tijuana over the weekend, has led investigators to believe that the Cirdeis are dead.

“We are proceeding with the theory that they were both shot to death and dumped in the Southern California area, or in Mexico,” Police 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 the border city while driving the missing couple’s 1984 Datsun, police said.

Burbank detectives returned from Mexico with Pop early Monday. He was booked on suspicion of murder and is being held without bail pending arraignment on two murder charges 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.

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

“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 found in the car came from the Cirdeis and whether it matches samples found in the home.

“There were indications there had been two bodies in the car,” said Goldberg, who 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 for investigation of spousal abuse at the house in the 200 block of South Sunset Canyon Drive, police said.

Pop was later convicted of the charge and placed on probation. Violeta Cirdei also obtained a restraining order to prevent Pop from threatening her, police said.

After her divorce, Violeta and Constantin Cirdei, a contractor, were married on Feb. 14, 1988. They lived in the Sunset Canyon home, where Violeta continued to care for Dr. Elbert Pratt, 94, and his 90-year-old wife.

Neighbors said Violeta Cirdei regularly took her daughter to visit Pop on Saturdays.

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 the afternoon, when a neighbor found the child wandering in the driveway of the home, police said.

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