ANCHORAGE — An Anchorage woman missing for at least eight months told a friend before she vanished that she was threatening to expose a scheme by her husband, whom police say was stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from another man, according to documents that prosecutors filed in court Friday.
William Michael Dixiano, 60, appeared in court Friday afternoon in Anchorage charged with seven felony counts -- including scheming to defraud, first-degree theft, and multiple counts of forgery -- none of which was directly related to the disappearance of his wife, Angela Dixiano.
At the request of prosecutor Gustaf Olson, a judge raised Dixiano's bail from $25,000 to $100,000 cash.
"This defendant has access to a lot of cash," Olson said, noting that he feared Dixiano might flee prosecution.
The judge agreed. Dixiano's attorney was not present, and he did not enter a plea to the charges.
The court documents reveal tangled financial maneuvering that came to light during the investigation into Angela Dixiano's disappearance.
Detectives started looking at Dixiano after another man, Curtis West, reported to Anchorage police in December 2010 that he had not seen Angela since April. The last time they talked, West told police, Angela told him she had threatened to snitch on her husband for embezzlement.
West told financial crimes detective Joe Barth that Dixiano, who goes by "Mike," told him multiple times that Angela was dead, according to the documents.
A follow-up by Alaska State Troopers and Anchorage police found no official record of Angela's death, but an obituary published in Angela's home state, Washington, says she died "after an ongoing battle with her health."
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