Wife Goes Missing, Now Husband Arrested

Southern Calif. police have arrested husband in wife's disappearance.

ByABC News via logo
August 28, 2010, 10:06 PM

Aug. 31, 2010— -- Richard Forsberg, the husband of missing 61-year-old Marcia Forsberg, has been arrested and accused of her murder.

Forsberg was picked up by Orange County Sheriff's Office authorities on Monday night at a hospital in Palm Springs, according to ABC News Los Angeles station KABC-TV. Hospital officials told authorities that Forsberg had attempted suicide, according to the report.

A call made to the Sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino was not immediately returned, but KABC reports that investigators are combing campgrounds near Lake Piru in the Venurtra County mountains for Marcia Fosberg's body.

Police said they believe Forsberg, 61, murdered his wife six months ago and dumped her body.

"He did make incriminating statements that implicated himself in his wife's murder," Amormino told KABC. "We believe that the murder happened at the couple's home in Rancho Santa Margarita, and Mr. Forsberg rented a vehicle and transported the body to a secondary location."

Forsberg is jailed on one count of murder and is on suicide watch. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday.

The 61-year-old college administrator had drawn the suspicion of neighbors because, when they asked him why they hadn't seen Marcia for months and months, he kept changing stories about where she had gone.

One of those neighbors finally called police to report the woman missing, and then, after investigators questioned him last week, Forsberg vanished, too.

"He hasn't been to work in a couple of days, which is unusual," Amormino told "Good Morning America" on Sunday.

Before his arrest, Forsberg had not been seen since Aug. 24, the day police questioned him about his wife, a retired magazine writer and cancer survivor.

"He stated he last saw his wife on March 13, but has not filed a missing persons report," Amormino said.