When I come home and find my wife missing I put my clothes in the washer and take a shower ...
“When I come home and find my wife missing I put my clothes in the washer and take a shower”
And why not? Why would you assume that she was in danger when she could have simply been out of the house for some reason?
Besides, in California at the time you couldn’t even call the police on a missing CHILD until the child was missing more than 24 hours.