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Woman’s Body Still Missing But Man Charged With Her Murder
03/03/10 - 09:30 PM
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Authorities say a 37-year-old Natchitoches Parish man has been charged with murder in connection with a missing woman whose body has not yet been found.
Sheriff Victor Jones Jr. says deputies arrested Morgan Prothro Tuesday and charged him with second-degree murder in the disappearance of 47-year-old Clara Patricia “Patty” Bynog. Jones said the arrest came after a 2 1/2 month nvestigation into the Dec. 13 disappearance of Bynog, who was known to have been with Prothro prior to her disappearance.
Prothro is being held in the Natchitoches Parish Detention Center. It wasn’t immediately clear if Prothro has an attorney.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Arlington businessman arrested in 2005 murder case
by WFAA-TV
Posted on February 28, 2010 at 9:14 AM
Updated Sunday, Feb 28 at 9:19 AM
EULESS — An Arlington businessman faces murder charges in connection with the 2005 disappearance of Kristen Charbonneau.
Daniel Glen Moore was arrested Friday by Euless police. The 40-year-old car salesman is married with two young children. Detectives said he has been a "person of interest" in the case.
Charbonneau, whose body has never been found, is presumed dead by police.
She as last seen in August 2005 after leaving her workplace — the Baby Dolls club in Fort Worth — with a man witnesses identified as Moore.
Last fall, volunteers searched along railroad tracks in Euless in the area where Charbonneau, 24, was last known to have been seen.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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No law, no body needed in murder trial
Updated: Tuesday, 02 Mar 2010, 11:49 PM EST
Published : Tuesday, 02 Mar 2010, 11:49 PM EST
* Kate Greene
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Brent England is on trial for the murder of Jack Berry Jr. of Terre Haute.
While it's unclear what the verdict will be for this case, one thing is clear it has been a controversial case.
You may have wondered how there can be a trial without the victims' body? However, News 10 found out there's no law stating otherwise.
It may be unusual for a murder case, but there's no law stating a body is required for a conviction.
It may be the first murder trial like this in Vigo County, but it's certainly not the only case the Hoosier state or the state of Illinois has seen.
Here's a breakdown of murder trials where no body was found before the trial.
According to author and federal homicide prosecutor Tad DiBiase, News 10 found five past murder trials in Indiana where the defendant was found guilty and two cases where the defendant was found not guilty.
In llinois, News 10 found 6 murder cases with no body.and all 6 defendants were convicted. One of those Illinois cases occurred in Clark County in the 1980s.
Prosecutor Terry Modesitt said there's no law that requires a body because it simply comes down to whatever evidence convinces the jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
"There aren't any definite requirements as far as what the evidence has to be or doesn't have to be to obtain a conviction," Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt said.
In fact, prior to October 2009, News 10 found 300 murder trials across the country where a body was never found and listen to this only 27 of those cases were dismissed, acquitted, or had the appeal reversed.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase
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Leniart convicted of murdering missing girl
By Karen Florin
Publication: The Day
Published 03/03/2010 12:00 AM
Updated 03/03/2010 10:31 AM
WTNH CHANNEL 8
George Leniart, seen at his arraignment in April 2008, is likely to be sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of April Dawn Pennington, who disappeared in 1996 and whose remains have still not been found.
Life-without-parole sentence likely; parents of victim still want answers
A guilty verdict in the capital murder trial of George M. Leniart brought some comfort Tuesday to the parents of a teenage girl who went missing from her Montville home 14 years ago.
Walter and Hazel Pennington know now that Leniart, a 44-year-old repeat sex offender, will be spending the rest of his life in a maximum-security prison. The 12-member jury convicted him on three capital-felony counts and one count of murder, so there is no doubt Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed will sentence Leniart to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 27.
But the parents of April Dawn Pennington, who sneaked out a basement window after they had gone to bed on May 29, 1996, would like to know exactly what happened to their 15-year-old daughter that night. They never saw her again.
"I still have plenty of questions, and he (Leniart) is still not talking," Hazel Pennington said in a phone interview from Pleasant Garden, N.C.
Leniart had bragged that state police would never find April's body and would, therefore, never charge him with murder, according to jailhouse informants who testified at the trial. He fished commercially out of Point Judith, R.I., in a boat he had named after his own young daughter, and told a fellow prisoner he had dismembered April's body and put it in lobster pots. Others said Leniart told them April's body was "in the mud" in the Thames River, in Long Island Sound or in a well.
Despite his bravado, the Eastern District Major Crime Squad did charge Leniart in April 2008 after prosecutors agreed to take on the murder case without a body or other physical evidence. They relied heavily on jailhouse witnesses, whom Leniart's attorney called "snitches" and repeatedly attempted to discredit at the trial.
The state had another key witness, however, whose testimony the jury listened to a second time Tuesday before announcing the verdict. A 28-year-old Norwich woman had described being sexually assaulted by Leniart just six months before April Pennington disappeared.
The woman said she is pleased Leniart is locked away.
"I think that he is where he should be, and April's family can have a little closure," she said. "May April rest in peace with the angels."
Leniart, who opted not to testify on his own behalf, shook his head slightly but did not change his facial expression when the jury foreman announced the verdicts. Somebody whispered "Yeah!" from the back of the courtroom.
Prosecutors John P. Gravalec-Pannone and Stephen M. Carney were "psyched."
"We're grateful on behalf of the Pennington family and for the jury's hard work in this difficult task they had," Pannone said as well-wishers congregated in the state's attorney's office.
State troopers who investigated the case hugged and high-fived each other in the courthouse hallway.
"I'm thankful for the state's attorney's office for having the courage to prosecute what was a difficult case, and thankful to the jury for seeing George for what he is," said Sgt. William Bundy, who had supervised the investigation for the past five years.
"I'm proud of all the guys who have investigated this case over the years," Bundy added. "It goes back many, many years."
Bundy said that if April's body is out there to be found, the detectives want to find it.
Defense attorney Norman A. Pattis spoke to Leniart in a holding cell following the verdict and left the courthouse without taking a pile of dress clothes he had provided his client. He could not be reached to comment later in the day, but is expected to be heard at Leniart's sentencing.
The jurors also left quickly after Jongbloed thanked them for their service. Reached later by phone, the foreman said he had no comment.
Walter Pennington, a retired Navy sailor who was stationed at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton when his daughter disappeared, flew from North Carolina to testify on the first day of the trial and caught a return flight the same day. Hazel Pennington has been ill and was advised by a doctor not to attend the trial.
The family, who moved back to their hometown of Pleasant Garden in late 1996, has been reading on the Internet of the graphic testimony about the last hours of their daughter's life.
Patrick "PJ" Allain, a friend of April, testified he and Leniart picked her up and raped her that night in May 1996. Allain said Leniart dropped him off at home first and told him the next day that he had killed the girl and disposed of her body.
Hazel Pennington said she would like to have seen Allain prosecuted, though she knows the statute of limitations for rape has expired.
"He's the one who lured April out that night," she said. "April never knew Leniart. She met him that night, and PJ lured her out knowing he was putting her life in danger."
Allain, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for an unrelated sexual assault, is hoping to have his sentence reduced in exchange for cooperating with the state.
The testimony of the woman who, at age 13, was raped by Leniart had also bolstered the state's case. The judge had ruled the damaging testimony admissible because of similarities between the two cases. The rape victim told the jury she sneaked out to meet her 15-year-old boyfriend, Allain, in November 1995. Leniart, who was 30, picked her up, she said, and they went back to a camper behind Leniart's parents' home on Massapeag Side Road to wait for Allain.
She said Allain never showed up, and when she tried to leave Leniart locked her in and forced her to have sex with him. She said Leniart choked her until she passed out, and that she woke up the next morning and ran for her life when he left to make a phone call.
Leniart was free on bond, awaiting trial for that case, when April Pennington disappeared. He later pleaded guilty in the first matter and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Thomas A. "Tad" DiBiase, a former federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia who tracks "no-body" murder cases, lists two other such convictions in Connecticut on a Web site devoted to the issue.
In the infamous "woodchipper murder," Richard Crafts was convicted in 1989 of killing his wife, Helle, even though Crafts had put her remains through a woodchipper and only fragments were recovered.
In October 2003, Miguel Estrella of Meriden was found guilty of murdering a rival gang member. He suffocated Juan Disla, then dismembered his body with a chain saw and dissolved it in acid.
"It's amazing the lengths some people will go through to dispose of a body," DiBiase said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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No-body prosecution a rarity
Hearing soon to determine if Crow will face trial
By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureau
Posted: 03/03/2010 01:28:54 AM PST
Updated: 03/03/2010 08:36:06 AM PST
Jesse John Crow He is being held as suspect in wife's disappearance.
* Ryann Bunnell Crow case
* Feb 25:
* Civilian clothing gets OK for Jesse John Crow murder trial
* Feb 23:
* Jesse Crow pleads not guilty to murder of his wife, Ryann Bunnell Crow
* Feb 20:
* Crow released, rearrested
* Feb 18:
* Jesse Crow charged with homicide, even though no body found
* Feb 17:
* Update 9:45 a.m.: Ryann Bunnell Crow's husband arrested on homicide charge, $3 million bail set
As sheriff's officials continue to search for Ryann Bunnell Crow, the decision to pursue a murder charge against her husband takes local prosecutors down a perilous path traveled only twice before by their office.
Experts say "no body" murder cases are among the most difficult to prove. Before convincing a jury the defendant is guilty, prosecutors must prove the missing person is dead and died as a result of a crime.
If they fail on either count, the defendant walks free and they cannot return for a second try if a body is found.
Ryann Crow, 23, was last seen Jan. 30 driving near her in-laws' Prunedale home. Her family reported her missing Feb. 2 after she missed two days of work and a family party. Her 2002 white Chevrolet Malibu was found Feb. 9 in a Foster City neighborhood.
A week later, the missing woman's husband, 33-year-old Jesse John Crow, was arrested on suspicion of murdering her. He has pleaded not guilty, and a preliminary hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence to hold him for trial is to be scheduled this morning. He remains in Monterey County Jail in lieu of $3 million bail.
Officials at the Monterey County District Attorney's Office said they could remember only two bodiless murder prosecutions in the past three decades. In one of those cases, the victim's body was located before the preliminary hearing.
In 1979, then-prosecutor John Phillips, now a retired judge, filed a murder charge against Dale Gibson of Seaside,
whose estranged wife was missing and presumed dead. Phillips recalled recently that the two were in the midst of a nasty divorce and child-custody battle. After a lengthy investigation, Gibson was arrested in Florida.
The day before the preliminary hearing, investigators found Mark Watson, an Army buddy of Gibson's who confessed to shooting the woman at Gibson's urging. He took authorities to Big Sur, where they found Darlene Gibson's remains at the base of a cliff, her skull shattered by three shots.
Phillips said he garnered Watson's testimony at the trial by promising he would support his release when he came up for parole. Gibson was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. In the intervening years, laws and attitudes changed, Phillips said, and he has regretfully never been able to win Watson's release.
Blood evidence
Chief Assistant District Attorney Terry Spitz said he knows of only one no-body murder conviction won at trial in Monterey County.
In 1983, Gary Meyer, now a retired judge, charged Gary Hicks of Lockwood with killing Ron Simpson, a parolee whose body has never been found.
Meyer convinced the jury that blood evidence proved Hicks killed Simpson during a drug- and alcohol-influenced argument in his mobile home. Hicks was sentenced to life in prison, where he remains.
Salinas police have indicated they have blood evidence supporting their conclusion that Ryann Bunnell Crow is dead and that her husband killed her, which may be the reason prosecutors felt confident enough to file charges.
Lancaster defense attorney and author Michael Eberhardt said he was surprised prosecutors would file a bodiless murder case just two weeks after the alleged victim was reported missing. The opinion comes from personal experience.
Eberhardt gained national attention for his book "Body of Crime," a novel based on his 1982 defense of Steven A. Jackson, a 27-year-old man charged with killing former love interest Julie Church, 23. The case is a perfect illustration of the risks prosecutors take in filing a no-body murder case.
Similar to Ryann Crow, Church was missing a relatively short period of time when Jackson was charged. The case went to trial in 1983.
Prosecutors argued the victim would have called someone if she was alive. Eberhardt told jurors there was no evidence she was dead, let alone that Jackson killed her. She may have just decided to take off, he said.
The jury acquitted Jackson and he remains a free man. In 1992, Church's remains were found buried about 150 yards from the Antelope Valley house where Jackson was living when she disappeared.
In a 1995 article in the American Bar Association Journal, Eberhardt told investigative journalist Steve Weinberg that missing-and-presumed-dead cases are the ultimate challenge for a defense attorney.
"They're extremely rare, and the DA's office doesn't file such a case unless the circumstantial evidence against the defendant is overwhelming," he said.
"The biggest problem the prosecution has is the jury has to be convinced there is no other possibility," Eberhardt said. "If I was the defense attorney, I'd rush into trial as quickly as possible."
Past convictions
Convictions in such cases are not unheard of. The nation's first occurred in 1959 in the case of L. Ewing Scott, who was convicted on circumstantial evidence of killing his wife, Evelyn, in the Los Angeles area. Scott appealed on the grounds there was no corpus delicti, but the conviction was upheld. The victim's body was never found.
In Oakland in 2008, Hans Reiser was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Nina Reiser, who was still missing during the trial. The computer entrepreneur was later allowed to plead to second-degree murder in exchange for leading authorities to his wife's remains.
Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo said there is "a substantial, tremendous amount of circumstantial evidence" against Jesse Crow. He said there is "persuasive" evidence of a motive, though no details have been released.
On Tuesday, Sheriff's Cmdr. Mike Richards said his office continues to search for Ryann Bunnell Crow.
Virginia Hennessey can be reached at 753-6751 or vhennessey@montereyherald.com.
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Ocean Beach Man Found Guilty In Death Of Estranged Wife
POSTED: 4:28 pm PST March 1, 2010
UPDATED: 4:16 pm PST March 2, 2010
SAN DIEGO -- An Ocean Beach man was convicted Tuesday of killing his estranged wife to avoid paying child support.
Jurors, in their fourth day of deliberations, found 69-year-old Henry Lisowski guilty of first-degree murder, and found true a special circumstance allegation of murder for financial gain in the death of 50-year-old Rosa Lisowski.
Her body has never been found.
Henry Lisowski will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 2.
After Judge John Einhorn read the guilty verdicts, the defendant thanked and shook the hand of his attorney, Richard Gates.
Lisowski spoke when the judge asked him if he was willing to have his sentencing hearing on April 2.
"Your honor, I did not commit the crime ... but you can sentence me to anything you wish now," Lisowski told the judge.
Outside court, one juror, identified as Martha, said the defendant's story that his wife fell down some steps and hit her head didn't add up.
"At the end, we were all very sure of our decision -- completely sure," the juror said.
Veronica Ramos, who is married to Rosa Lisowski's nephew and takes cares of the couple's two young sons, cried as she spoke to reporters.
"For me, knowing Henry, Rosa, and the boys and their situation, it was obvious to me he was guilty," Ramos said. "She knew it could happen. She told me it could, and when it happened, I knew it was Henry."
The couple's boys now live with Ramos and her family in Bakersfield. Rosa Lisowski had two other children from a previous relationship.
Defense attorney Richard Gates maintained the evidence showed the victim hit her head when she fell down some steps at the defendant's home and eventually died.
Deputy District Attorney Nicole Cooper told jurors that the defendant followed through on his threats to kill his wife if she didn't drop her child support case.
Cooper said the defendant had been threatening his estranged wife since November 2006.
Lisowski had told the victim, "If you don't drop the child support case, I'll kill you. The children will be without a mother and I'll be in jail," according to Cooper.
The victim disappeared on March 24, 2008, after walking her 6-year-old son to school from her apartment in the Midway-Loma Portal District.
The day she vanished, Lisowski was looking forward to the resolution of the child support case and anticipating a $30,000 disability settlement from a grocery store, Cooper said.
When she didn't return from dropping off her son, friends and family immediately suspected the defendant, Cooper said.
In February 2008, Lisowski was ordered to pay the victim $1,029 a month and started to search the Internet for poison to kill his wife, Cooper said.
The story was corroborated by the couple's son "Junior," who said his father gave him some green powder and told him to put it in his mother's water, the prosecutor said. The child said he poured the powder into the carpet because he thought it was something bad, Cooper said.
Gates urged the jury to disregard the "incredible" claim that a father would give his then-5-year-old son poison that the child could have ended up ingesting. He said "Junior" most likely picked up from friends and family the notion that his father killed his mother.
Cooper said Lisowski had been facing a hearing on April 2, 2008, at which he was going to have to disprove contentions that he had underreported his assets by $1.3 million, followed by a child support hearing 27 days later.
After she went missing, police looked everywhere for the victim, eventually finding her blood on a kitchen counter in the defendant's home and in the trunk of his vehicle, Cooper said, adding that her blood also was found on the inside of the passenger side door of Lisowski's vehicle.
The prosecutor said Lisowski went to Mexico after his wife disappeared, resurfacing in September 2008 with a letter sent to friends and family giving his version of his wife's death.
In the letter, Lisowski said his wife was knocked unconscious by the fall and he revived her with water and put her in the car to go to the hospital. On the way there, the victim went into seizures and died, the defendant said.
Cooper told the jury that the victim's injuries were consistent not with a fall, but, rather, a violent attack with a hammer or having her head slammed into something.
Copyright 2010 by City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Former boss arrested for murder in teen's 2002 disappearance
By Associated Press
10:39 PM CST, February 26, 2010
WOODSTOCK, Ill. (AP) — McHenry County authorities say that seven years after Brian Carrick vanished from a grocery store in the northwestern Chicago suburb of Johnsburg, his former boss has been charged with killing the 17-year-old stockboy.
Johnsburg police Sgt. Keith VonAllmen said Fox Lake police and an FBI agent arrested 26-year-old Mario Casciaro of McHenry late Friday afternoon, a day after he was indicted for first-degree murder and concealing a homicide.
Casciaro was being held on $5 million bond. A shift sergeant at the McHenry County Jail said late Friday she did not know if he had an attorney
Carrick disappeared on Dec. 20, 2002 from his job at Val's Foods. No body was ever found, but police said they found traces of his blood inside the store.
In 2009, Casciaro was acquitted of perjury charges stemming from Carrick's disappearance.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Replay of testimony in Leniart murder trial sought by jurors
By Karen Florin
Publication: The Day
Published 02/26/2010 12:00 AMUpdated 02/26/2010 01:43 AM
A quartet of witnesses dubbed "The Four Horsemen" by defense attorney Norman A. Pattis quickly became the focus of a jury that began deliberating Thursday in the murder trial of George M. Leniart.
Leniart, 44, of Montville, is accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering 15-year-old April Dawn Pennington, who disappeared from her parents' Montville home on May 29, 1996. The state rarely prosecutes cases when no body has been recovered, but state police brought charges against Leniart, a convicted sex offender, 12 years after April went missing.
The jury of nine men and three women settled into their discussions in mid-afternoon after listening to closing arguments from the attorneys and to legal instructions from Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed. They elected a foreman, requested notepads, and as the business day came to a close sent the judge a note asking for a replay of the recorded testimony of the four men who implicated Leniart.
The panel will listen this morning to the testimony of Patrick "PJ" Allain, who said he and Leniart raped April on the night she sneaked out a window and climbed into the then-30-year-old Leniart's pickup truck. Allain, who said he was dropped off first, said Leniart told him the next day that he had killed the girl and disposed of her body.
The jury also wants to listen again to testimony from Kenneth Buckingham, Michael Douton and Zee Ching, jailhouse informants who testified that Leniart confessed the murder to them when they roomed together or crossed paths in prison.
Thursday morning, the New London courtroom had filled up with spectators for the closing arguments of the seasoned attorneys for the state and defense. Detectives who had investigated the case, some of whom had been sequestered during the trial, filled a few rows of benches behind the state's table to hear the attorneys' summations. Leniart, who had opted not to testify on his own behalf, busied himself with a pen and notepad at the defense table.
Prosecutor Stephen M. Carney gestured toward Leniart while describing him as a man who took pleasure in telling people he would not be charged with murder because April's body has not been recovered. "No body, no crime," Leniart allegedly said to fellow prison inmates.
Carney acknowledged the state's key witnesses are convicted felons, but asked the jury to consider that they "may just be trying to do the right thing" in this case. He pointed to the similarities between the sexual assault that Leniart had committed just six months before April Pennington went missing. The state had called the victim of that crime as its last witness.
Leniart's lawyer continued to attack the credibility of Allain and the three "snitches." He called them "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" in a Biblical reference to when God sends four horsemen to wreak havoc on the world. Noting each of the witnesses gave a different version of Leniart's alleged confession, he asked the jurors to play the "telephone" game in which each person whispers something to another, and the message becomes convoluted as it is passed on from person to person.
Pattis tossed out theories for the jury's consideration, including the fact that April Pennington could still be alive or that Allain is the one who killed her.
"I can tell you straight up: I don't know where April Dawn Pennington is, and you don't either," he said.
k.florin@theday.com
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Arguments made in alleged OB wife murder
By Staff, City News Service
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 print page An Ocean Beach man followed through on his threats to kill his estranged wife if she didn’t drop her child support case, a prosecutor said Wednesday, but a defense attorney said evidence shows the woman hit her head while falling down steps at the defendant’s home and eventually died.
Deputy District Attorney Nicole Cooper, in her closing argument in the trial of Henry Lisowski, said the defendant had been threatening his estranged wife, Rosa, since November 2006 and killed her on March 24, 2008.
The defendant had told the victim, “If you don’t drop the child support case, I’ll kill you. The children will be without a mother and I’ll be in jail,” according to Cooper. The prosecutor said there was no body because Lisowski “threw her away like a piece of trash.”
The 50-year-old victim — a mother of four, including two young boys by the defendant — disappeared in 2008 after walking her 6-year-old son to school from her apartment in the Midway-Loma Portal District. “She was a devoted mother to her kids,” the prosecutor told the jury.
“Rosa would have never have left her kids unattended … would never have walked out on them.”
The day she disappeared, Rosa Lisowski was looking forward to the resolution of the child support case and was also anticipating a $30,000 disability settlement from a grocery store, Cooper said. When the victim didn’t return from dropping off her son, friends and family immediately suspected the defendant, Cooper said.
Lisowski, 69, had told his wife, “I’ll see you dead before I pay you child support,” according to Cooper. The victim had called 911 twice over the years, telling dispatchers her husband had threatened to kill her, the prosecutor said.
Friends and family members testified that she had told them that her husbamd told her “just one phone call and I can make you disappear,” the prosecutor told the jury. In February 2008, Lisowski was ordered to pay the victim $1,029 a month and started to search the Internet for poison to kill his wife, Cooper said.
The story was corroborated by the couple’s son “Junior,” who said his father gave him some green powder and told him to put it in his mother’s water, the prosecutor said. The child said he poured the powder into the carpet because he thought it was something bad, Cooper said.
The prosecutor said Lisowski was facing an April 2, 2008, hearing, at which he was going to have to disprove contentions that he had underreported his assets by $1.3 million, and an April 29 child support hearing.
After she went missing, police looked everywhere for the victim, eventually finding her blood on a kitchen counter in the defendant’s home and in the trunk of his vehicle, the prosecutor said. Lisowski’s blood was also found on the inside of his vehicle’s passenger side door, Cooper said.
After his wife disappeared, a friend testified that Lisowski had scratches on his face, arms, back and neck, which he said could have come from falling while trimming bushes or from his cats, Cooper said. The prosecutor said Lisowski went to Mexico after his wife disappeared, resurfacing in September 2008 with a letter sent to friends and family explaining his wife’s death.
In the letter, Lisowski said his estranged wife came to his house on March 24, 2008, fell down some steps and was knocked unconscious. Lisowski wrote that he revived his wife with water, and put her in the car to take her to the hospital.
On the way there, Rosa Lisowski went into seizures and died, according to his letter. Cooper said the victim’s injuries were consistent not with a trip and a fall, but rather a violent, bloody attack with a hammer or having her head slammed into something. Cooper said Rosa Lisowski was probably begging for her life and instead of letting her go, the defendant killed her in his home.
“How he did it? We won’t know,” the prosecutor said, urging jurors to convict the defendant of first-degree murder and murder for financial gain.
Defense attorney Richard Gates told the jury there was no evidence that his client picked his estranged wife up in his car and took her to his house that fateful day. Gates also said there was no evidence that Rosa Lisowski was begging for her life before she died.
The attorney said something bad happened to the victim, but what it was isn’t known. “They (prosecutors) don’t know how Rosa Lisowski died — other than what Mr. Lisowski said in the letter,” Gates told the jury. “If they don’t know how she died, they can’t prove murder.”
Gates said Rosa Lisowski went to her husband’s house on her own to talk about financial support. “Maybe she didn’t get what she wanted,” the attorney said. “This is a very odd relationship between these two … human through and through.”
The two lived apart, but Rosa Lisowski would come over to her husband’s house for “privacy time,” according to their young son. Gates told the jury to disregard “incredible” evidence that a father would give a then-5-year-old child poison that the child could possibly ingest himself.
The attorney said “Junior” most likely heard from friends and family the notion that his father killed his mother.
The jury began deliberating Lisowski’s fate about mid-afternoon. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of all charges.
City News Service staff wrote and edited this story.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Local News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-02-24/local-county-news/arguments-made-in-alleged-ob-wife-murder#ixzz0gZ6Qu8Cm
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Still no sign of missing St. Charles man after three years
Robyn Repeta, of Hoffman Estates, a friend of John Spira holds up a sign for passing traffic on County Farm Road, north of St. Charles Road, in front of Spira's West Chicago business. A missing person flyer with Spira's picture is fastened to the back of her sign. The event on Monday, Feb. 23, 2009 marks the second anniversary of his disappearance.
Bill Ackerman
Jurate Zubinas, of Willowbrook, a friend of John Spira passes out flyers to passing traffic on County Farm Road, north of St. Charles Road, in front of Spira's West Chicago business. The event on Monday, Feb. 23, 2009 marks the second anniversary of his disappearance.
Bill Ackerman
Donna Brownstone of Wilmette, a friend of John Spira holds up sign for passing northboud traffic on County Farm Road, south of North Avenue, in front of Spira's West Chicago business. The event on Monday, Feb. 23, 2009 marks the second anniversary of his disappearance. Sign says, "Where is John Spira? ...Someone Knows! and you know who you are!!"
More Photos
By Hal Conick, hconick@mysuburbanlife.com
St. Charles Republican
Posted Feb 23, 2010 @ 01:58 PM
St. Charles, IL — A lot can happen over the course of three years. In the missing person case of St. Charles resident John Spira, not nearly enough has happened, according to his family.
Tuesday marks the three-year anniversary of Spira’s disappearance.
Spira last was seen at Universal Cable Construction, a business he ran with Dave Stubben for more than a decade. Stubben and other employees of the company said they last saw Spira at 7:15 p.m. Feb. 23, 2007. His sister, Stephanie McNeil, of Phoenix, said 2010 will be the first year since Spira went missing that a public event won’t be held Feb. 23 to acknowledge his absence.
“It’s really difficult,” McNeil said. “Trust me, I’d love to do something publicly, (but) it’s going to be a hard day for me.”
Last year, friends of Spira held a gathering outside of Universal at the intersection of County Farm and St. Charles roads. A banner still hangs cater-corner from the business, letting passers-by know that Spira remains missing.
While no event will be held to commemorate the three-year anniversary of Spira’s disappearance, McNeil said they still are trying to move the case along. McNeil has hired “no-body” murder case specialist Tad DiBiase to see if he can find anything DuPage County investigators didn’t.
The Spira case also will be featured on Investigation Discovery television series “Disappeared” Monday, March 15.
“This is, in fact, a murder case,” McNeil said. “It’s not a missing-persons case, it’s a murder case. No doubt about it. I’ve been saying that from day one.”
Spira, 46, had made arrangements to meet a friend at an Oak Brook restaurant for dinner at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 23, 2007, but he never arrived. Friends’ suspicions grew when he didn’t show up the next day at a Montgomery restaurant for a gig with his blues band, the Rabble Rousers.
The St. Charles resident was in the middle of a messy divorce at the time of his disappearance.
His estranged wife filed a missing-person report with the St. Charles Police Department two days after he was last seen.
A fire broke out at Spira’s business in September 2007, almost destroying the building. A 20-foot-by-5-foot banner about Spira that friends and family hung across the street from the business two days before the fire also disappeared.
McNeil said there is “no way” that Spira would have left home without a trace voluntarily.
“It’s not even a remote possibility. We had plans. ... Our family is close,” McNeil said. “My brothers and I are best friends.”
Mark Edwalds, DuPage County Sheriff’s Office investigative commander, said the case still is being looked at as a missing-persons case and not much has changed over the past year.
“I think there’s always hope (for solving the case),” Edwalds said. “It’s just coming across the right piece of evidence.”
McNeil informed the Sheriff’s Office she hired DiBiase, but Edwalds said he has yet to hear from the outside investigator.
McNeil said she isn’t sure what to expect from DiBiase, but hopes he brings some movement to the case. She said she has tried to keep in close contact with the Sheriff’s Office, but isn’t happy with the status of her brother’s case.
“I beg them all the time, ‘Please just call it what it is. Please say there was foul play,’” McNeil said. “I think if we had never gotten any media on this, they would have quit.”
TIMELINE
2007
Feb. 23 John Spira last seen at Universal Cable Construction
Feb. 24 Spira doesn’t show for gig at Montgomery restaurant
Feb. 25 Estranged wife files missing person report
Sept. 14 Supporters put up sign across from business
Sept. 16 Fire at business and sign discovered missing
Dec. 8 Family meets with relatives of Stacy Peterson and Lisa Stebic to organize search
2008
Feb. 23 First anniversary marked with event at Kingston Mines
2009
Feb. 23 Supporters mark second anniversary
2010
Feb. 23 Three-year anniversary of Spira’s disappearance date
March 15 Spira’s story to air on “Disappeared”
Copyright 2010 Huntley Farmside. Some rights reserved
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Investigator wants missing musician case treated as a murder
Steve Miller reporting
(WBBM) -- Today marks three years since John Spira disappeared from his West Chicago office, and DuPage County authorities say they are investigating it as a missing persons case.
A former federal prosecutor thinks it should be treated as a murder case.
John Spira was a musician, a pilot and co-owner of a business in West Chicago. Three years ago today, he vanished.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Tad DiBiase says he's convinced Spira is dead - and was murdered.
Spira did not, DiBiase says he believes, not kill himself.
"Oh I'm very strongly convinced. People like that don't just disappear."
"You can't bury yourself. You can't burn yourself up. Generally you jump into a body of water and maybe disappear that way. But most bodies, as gross as it is, rise to the surface of the water."
DiBiase was contacted by John Spira's sister Stephanie McNeil, who has led the search for Spira.
DiBiase says he's tracking this as a "no body" murder case.
"It's an interesting case because typically the victim in the 'no body' case is a female."
Think, as some would allege, Stacy Peterson.
DiBiase has taken the case pro-bono--at no charge. He says his job is to work with Spira's family and police - to maybe nudge police into pursuing some new leads.
"Generally most people don't want to kill random people. They want to kill people who piss them off of jilted them."
The DuPage County sheriff's office says it is still investigating, calling it a "missing persons" case.
More information at:
www.nobodymurdercases.com
www.johnspira.com
Contents of this site are Copyright 2010 by WBBM.
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Most no body murders involve women as victims but here is a case outside of Chicago where the man has been missing for three years today:
Family still has no clues in case of missing STC man
By ERIC SCHELKOPF - eschelkopf@kcchronicle.com
Three years after her brother disappeared, Stephanie McNeil still doesn’t know what happened to him.
“We don’t have any more information today than we did three years ago, which makes it that more frustrating and unbearable,” said McNeil, sister of St. Charles man John Spira.
Spira, 45, last was seen Feb. 23, 2007, at Universal Cable Construction near West Chicago, which Spira co-owned. A fire in September 2007 totaled the business.
DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba said Monday that sheriff’s detectives are continuing their investigation into his disappearance. He urged anyone with information on the case to call the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office at 630-407-2333.
Spira’s disappearance will be featured next month as part of the Investigation Discovery cable channel show, “Disappeared.” The segment will air starting on March 15.
“I am hoping the show will bring new leads and interest to the case,” McNeil said. “The more people who know about the case, the better.”
The family has also engaged the services of a former federal prosecutor who McNeil said is the country’s foremost expert in prosecuting “no body” murder cases.
Susan Olsen knows what it is like having a loved one seemingly disappear. Her son, Bradley Olsen, 26, of Maple Park, has been missing since January 2007.
“There never will be any closure for us if we don’t find some answers,” said Olsen, who keeps in touch with McNeil. “It is a sad, sad situation.”
DeKalb police continue to investigate the case. Bradley Olsen was last seen about 2 a.m. Jan. 20, 2007, at Bar One in DeKalb. DeKalb police have said he arrived at the bar with some friends late Jan. 19.
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Jailhouse informants tell of alleged confessions
By Karen Florin
Publication: The Day
Published 02/19/2010 12:00 AM
Updated 02/19/2010 12:52 AM
Details vary, but all say Leniart bragged about body's disposal
The testimony of jailhouse informants at the murder trial of George M. Leniart has been consistent about one thing - Leniart's confidence that state police would not charge him because they would never find the body of teenager April Dawn Pennington.
Troopers did charge Leniart with the murder in 2008, and the state is relying on the prison informants in the "no-body" murder trial taking place in New London Superior Court this month. April Pennington, 15, sneaked out of her family's Montville home on May 29, 1996, and they never saw her again.
Each of the convicted felons who took the witness stand to implicate Leniart in the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of the teen gave a slightly different version of Leniart's alleged prison confessions. They all said, however, that Leniart boasted he would never be charged because state police would not find the girl's body.
Kenneth S. Buckingham, an accused serial bank robber who testified Thursday, said Leniart was "pretty cool" when he talked about the state police "being after him" for a murder case.
"He said, 'No body, no crime,' '' Buckingham testified.
Leniart told him, when the two of them were housed together at Corrigan Correctional Institution, that he had accidentally killed April by choking her while they were having sex, Buckingham testified.
"He made reference that he dismembered her and put her in lobster pots," Buckingham said. Leniart said he dumped the body in Long Island Sound, Buckingham said.
Zee Y. Ching Jr., who has a history of drug crimes, also testified Thursday, saying Leniart was "kind of bragging" about hiding the girl's body when the two shared a cell at Corrigan in 2007.
"He thought the state police were a bunch of idiots and they were tearing up his property and they couldn't find her and she wasn't there," Ching said.
In Ching's version, Leniart said he and a younger friend got a girl drunk and raped her on a boat.
Ching said Leniart told him the girl started "flipping out" on the way back to the boat and he decided he would have to "do her."
"He said the younger man refused to cooperate, so he did it himself and hid the body," Ching said. Leniart told him he hid her body in a well at Wilson's Marina and later dumped it in Long Island Sound.
Michael Douton, who is serving a six-year sentence for three convictions of driving under the influence, testified Wednesday that Leniart referenced the murder when the two met up in a holding area at Corrigan in May 2009. Douton said Leniart told him April's body was "in the river" and pointed in the direction of the Mohegan Sun casino and the Thames River.
"He told me they would never convict him because they would never find the body," Douton said. Douton said he was amazed by what Leniart said and that he seemed "very confident."
Also Thursday, defense attorney Norman A. Pattis moved for a mistrial when Ching testified that Leniart asked him whether he should kill the man who was with him on the night April disappeared. He was presumably talking about Patrick "PJ" Allain, who has testified that he and Leniart picked up the girl after she sneaked out of her house, drank and smoked marijuana with her and raped her.
Pattis objected to the testimony, saying the state sneaked into evidence a statement that Leniart was speculating about killing Allain. Prosecutor Stephen M. Carney said the state is not alleging that Leniart took any steps to kill Allain, and that this was "just a conversation that took place in Corrigan back in 2007." Judge Barbara B. Jongbloed denied the mistrial motion.
Pattis again moved for a mistrial when Buckingham used the term "ripper" or rapist to refer to Leniart. Jongbloed denied the motion but agreed to strike the "ripper" testimony from the record.
The trial resumes today.
k.florin@theday.com
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Mistrial for NY jeweler accused of killing wife
FILE- In this undated file photo released by the New York State Police on Oct. 31, 2008, Faith Lippe is shown. Werner Lippe is accused of killing his wife Faith Lippe and burning her body. (AP Photo/New York State Police, File)
By JIM FITZGERALD
The Associated Press
Friday, February 19, 2010; 4:51 PM
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A judge declared a mistrial Friday after a jury deadlocked in the trial of a 68-year-old jeweler accused of killing his wife and incinerating her body in an oil drum.
Relatives of the missing woman, Faith Lippe, gasped and burst into tears in the gallery when Westchester County Judge Barbara Zambelli announced the mistrial.
The jurors, seven women and five men, had announced they were split Thursday night over the fate of defendant Werner Lippe. The judge asked them to keep trying Friday, but they sent her a note midafternoon that said, "We are convinced that we are hopelessly deadlocked." It was their fourth day of deliberations.
The jurors were not polled, and it was not known how many favored conviction or acquittal or what the key issue was. They had asked questions about corroborating evidence, involuntary confessions and whether they can assume that Faith Lippe is dead.
After the mistrial was announced, the jurors were escorted away from reporters.
Lippe had confessed three times to the grisly killing and burning of his 49-year-old wife, and the jurors heard each of the confessions at least once.
"I hit her in the head with a piece of wood," Lippe said on one tape. "I dumped her in the barrel and burned her." Police never found the oil drum.
When Lippe testified, he said he made up the story to get investigators off his back until he could make a case to a judge. He claimed it was impossible to burn a body and leave no trace evidence. He said the last time he saw his wife - Oct. 3, 2008 - she was being driven away from their suburban home in Cortlandt, about 40 miles north of Manhattan, in an SUV he didn't recognize.
Prosecutors were hampered by the lack of any forensic evidence: no body, no bone fragments, no DNA. They said Lippe, who had acids and torches at his home jewelry workshop, was an expert who committed "almost a perfect murder."
Lippe testified that when his mother died in 2006, he asked a mortician, "By the way, how do you burn people?"
The district attorney's office said Lippe would be retried, and prosecutor John O'Rourke said he could be ready by next week, although preparations for a second trial are likely to delay it into next month at least.
Defense attorney Andrew Rubin said the trial had been "a long and difficult procedure," but he and Lippe would also be ready for a retrial.
Lippe, who remains in custody, showed no outward reaction when the mistrial was declared.
Faith Lippe's sister, Dawn Faigle, said outside the courthouse, "I'm extremely disappointed, but we are ready to do this again."
Shari Caradonna, Faith Lippe's cousin, said, "We will be back, and we will make sure Werner Lippe stays behind bars."
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Jesse Crow charged with homicide, even though no body found
Police say they have enough evidence against Ryann Bunnell Crow's husband
By JULIA REYNOLDS
Herald Staff Writer
Updated: 02/18/2010 08:40:33 AM PST
Jesse Crow Husband is being held on $3million bail.
Prosecutors in Monterey County may find themselves in the difficult position of having to prove a high-profile murder case without a body.
Salinas police arrested Jesse John Crow, 33, Tuesday night on suspicion of homicide in connection with the disappearance of his wife, Ryann Bunnell Crow.
Officers acknowledged Wednesday that Ryann Crow's body has not been recovered, but they said police investigators believe that the woman is dead and that her husband committed the crime.
They said investigators have been working closely with the Monterey County District Attorney's Office throughout the case.
Police spokesman Lalo Villegas said the District Attorney's Office was aware Tuesday night of the imminent arrest of Crow, indicating prosecutors felt confident they had enough evidence to file charges.
News of Jesse Crow's arrest — and the homicide charge — had a sodden impact on the woman's family and friends, who mounted a huge campaign to find the 23-year-old, who had been recently working part time for a Salinas florist.
The family's Facebook page, "Lets find Ryann Bunnell," was filled with expressions of condolence.
Jesse Crow, a longtime Prunedale resident, was arrested while driving in Pacific Grove about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday. Shortly after he was detained, officers executed a search warrant on the Pacific Grove home of his companion, Summer Donovan, who had previously been interviewed by detectives. Villegas said Donovan, who was riding with
Crow when he was stopped by police, was questioned again Tuesday night.
Following the arrest and a brief stop at the Salinas Police Department, Jesse Crow was booked in Monterey County Jail, where he is being held in lieu of $3million bail. Villegas said arraignment for Crow is expected today.
Villegas said police are still searching for more evidence — and especially for Ryann Crow's body.
"We're not stopping until we find Ryann," Villegas said.
Salinas Police Chief Louis Fetherolf and Monterey County Sheriff Mike Kanalakis have scheduled a news conference today to discuss developments in the case.
Ryann Crow was last seen Jan. 30 driving a white 2002 Chevrolet Malibu in the Prunedale area. Her family notified police three days later after she failed to appear at a family party and did not show up for work. Police found the car Feb. 9 in Foster City, but have declined to discuss evidence they may have found in the vehicle.
In the two weeks since she was reported missing, police investigators routinely said Jesse Crow was cooperating with authorities. However, Crow has been conspicuously absent during the various search-party expeditions and a candlelight vigil held by Ryann Crow's friends and family.
Even before Jesse Crow's arrest, the case had drawn national attention, particularly with victims' rights activist Nancy Grace, who last week included the case on her blog. On Tuesday night, just hours before Jesse Crow's arrest, Grace spent much of her hour-long program on CNN Headline News discussing the case — and much of that time was spent implicating Jesse Crow as the chief suspect.
On Wednesday night, again leading her show with the Crow case, Grace speculated at length on the role Donovan might have had in Ryann Crow's disappearance.
The day Ryann Crow was reported missing, sheriff's deputies allegedly seized about 300 marijuana plants from Jesse Crow's home on Chester Drive. The District Attorney's Office was reviewing whether the plants were legal because Jesse Crow had a medical marijuana card.
While Ryann Crow was last seen in Prunedale, Salinas police have been the lead investigating agency because the woman reportedly spent considerable time living with her sister in the city.
Sheriff's deputies initially joined in the search for Ryann Crow but said they have not been involved in the case since Saturday, when a deputy helped the family during a search party over some North County terrain.
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Conundrum for NY jury: Evidence in husband's murder trial includes confessions, no body
By: JIM FITZGERALD
Associated Press
02/15/10 3:31 PM EST WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Werner Lippe knows a lot about fire.
The 68-year-old jeweler, on trial on charges of killing and incinerating his wife, used a propane-and-oxygen torch to melt platinum and gold in his home workshop. He kept a 55-gallon oil drum as a burn barrel to get rid of trash, tomato plants, even the carcass of a deer he shot to protect his vegetable garden. When his mother died and her body was being prepared for cremation, Lippe testified that he asked a mortician, "By the way, how do you burn people?"
Prosecutors believe Lippe mastered that skill, using the barrel in 2008 to burn up the body of his 49-year-old wife, Faith Lippe, who was divorcing him. The drum disappeared soon after Faith Lippe did; her body hasn't been found.
Westchester County jurors have heard more than two weeks of testimony at Lippe's murder trial. They are expected to hear closing arguments and begin deliberating Tuesday. He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors presented jurors with multiple confessions. The jury has repeatedly heard a recording of him saying, "I hit her with a piece of wood. ... I dumped her in the barrel and burned her" and details like the color of the ash that Faith Lippe's body was reduced to.
Lippe now insists the confessions were made-up stories concocted to get dogged investigators off his back until he could make his case to a judge.
During two days of testimony last week, he spoke coolly and confidently about the intricacies of jewelry making, dangerous acids and high-temperature flames. He said it was just his curiosity that prompted him to talk to the mortician and to ask a friend, after his wife disappeared, how deep a body would have to be buried to fool cadaver dogs.
Defense lawyer Andrew Rubin says Lippe was neither strong enough nor clever enough to pull off the murder.
Born in Poland, Lippe grew up in Austria and went to Germany to study jewelry-making. He came to New York in 1979 and became a topflight craftsman and goldsmith, with his own business in Manhattan's diamond district 40 miles from his Cortlandt home.
He considers his client list confidential, but grudgingly admitted on the stand that he made pieces for Donald Trump and Yoko Ono. An employee said some of Lippe's pieces sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Lippe was married twice in Europe. The first marriage lasted two years, the second eight weeks, he said.
He met his third wife, Faith, in New York. About 17 years younger than him, she had been in the fashion business but concentrated on home and children after they married in 1990, he said. At the time of her death at age 49, she was a part-time nutrition consultant to the Ossining schools.
In recent years, the marriage became contentious. Lippe told prosecutor Christine O'Connor that the couple argued constantly.
He had his son Andrew, now 15, secretly tape arguments for ammunition in the divorce.
"Your control-freakness has to stop. I will stop this. I guarantee it," Lippe told his wife in one recording played at trial.
It seemed both spouses wanted out. Werner Lippe, an accomplished skier, said he wanted to move to a log cabin near the slopes in Utah. His wife wanted no part of it, he said.
She served divorce papers, and he was fighting her claims for child support and maintenance. He envisioned that Andrew would go off with him, while their daughter Stephanie, now 13, would stay with her mother.
A meeting about the divorce between the Lippes, their lawyers, their children and their law guardians was scheduled for Oct. 7, 2008.
On Oct. 3, Faith Lippe missed several appointments. Her husband said he saw her being driven away in an SUV but could not see who was at the wheel. Her handbag was still at home.
Lippe said he became concerned when she did not return that night, but he did not call her cell phone.
The next day, he said, he drove an hour to ask a friend in Connecticut about the rules for filing a missing-person report. He had lunch and checked on his boat at a marina before coming home and calling 911.
Within a few days, state police with dogs searched the grounds of Lippe's home looking for his wife. They noticed, but did not confiscate, the burn barrel.
Later that month, Lippe confessed to a friend, James Learnihan, that he burned his wife's body. Learnihan was wearing a wire at the behest of investigators.
"She doesn't exist anymore," Lippe said in one taped conversation. "They cannot find her. It's impossible. ... I burned her in a barrel."
He said he hit his wife in the head with a piece of wood to knock her out, then shoved her into the barrel. "She burned for close to 24 hours," he said.
State police surprised Lippe with Learnihan's recording and he confessed again, describing to them the silver-gray color of the ash.
But he recanted his confessions after he was arrested. He said he made up the story because he was afraid of Learnihan and feared he was being framed. He said he repeated the story to police because they weren't listening to his claims of innocence.
Lippe testified that he thought he would eventually be able to explain to a prosecutor or judge and be let off. They would have more education and a "higher IQ" than police officers, he testified.
When police went to find the burn barrel, it was gone. Lippe said he had innocently thrown it out.
Prosecutors displayed photos that showed the barrel would have fit into Lippe's Audi.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nation/conundrum-for-ny-jury-evidence-in-husbands-murder-trial-includes-confessions-no-body-84399237.html#ixzz0fiFWc4tE
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Feb. 11, 2010
"48 Hours" Preview: A Time to Kill
A Woman Vanishes from her Upstate N.Y. Home the Day After 9/11; Was it the Perfect Time for a Crime?
48 Hours Mystery Preview: A Time to Kill
A mother of four vanishes the day after 9/11. Was it the day for the perfect crime? Erin Moriarty reports Saturday, Feb. 13 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
For family and friends of Michele Harris, the last 8 1/2 years have been a blur of investigations, trials and jury deliberations.
To the outside world, Michele and her husband, Calvin Harris, had a perfect life - they were young, attractive and successful with a beautiful family and a home in a picturesque upstate New York town. But Michele’s disappearance in the early morning hours of Sept. 12, 2001, revealed a much darker story. With much of New York State Police and canine forces diverted to New York City in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, local investigators were slowed by the limited resources available to them. Was this the perfect time for murder?
Michele’s disappearance remained shrouded in mystery until state police discovered tiny drops of blood in the Harris home. After four years, with no body or murder weapon, investigators felt they had enough circumstantial evidence and arrested Calvin Harris for Michele’s murder. In May 2007, the case went to trial and Harris was convicted of second-degree murder. As he awaited sentencing, a new witness emerged. Harris’ conviction was overturned and a new trial was set for 2009.
In the end, a second trial would reach the same guilty verdict, but as Calvin Harris continues to maintain his innocence, he is now fighting for a third trial. Meanwhile authorities have not given up the search for Michele’s body.
"48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Erin Moriarty has the rest of the story Saturday, Feb. 13 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
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From WTVY:
Investigators began digging for 25-year-old Victor Sanchez last Tuesday.
Sanchez had been missing since March of 2009.
A suspect told investigators last week that he could take them to where the body was buried.
After days of searching, no body has been found.
Officials say they have discontinued the search and will go forward with the trial.
Four people are being charged in the murder case.
District Attorney Doug Valeska allowed the wife of the victim, Jessica Wilson, to plead guilty to manslaughter and serve 17 years in prison.
Two others will be placed on the trial docket.
One suspect remains on the loose.
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A 1995 murder case without a body that relies on veteran informant. It wil be interesting to see whether the court permits the defense to call its expert witness on "snitches."
Tad
Lawyers are set for battle in cold-case murder trial
By Karen Florin
Publication: The Day
Published 02/07/2010 12:00 AMUpdated 02/07/2010 02:59 AM0
The state is ready to take its best run at murder suspect George M. Leniart, bringing him to trial Monday despite not having found a victim's body and with a case that relies heavily on jailhouse informants.
Leniart's defense attorney is prepared also. He gave signs during jury selection that he will assert there is no proof a murder even occurred and that he will aggressively cross-examine the jailhouse witnesses, whom he calls "snitches."
Leniart, 44, of Uncasville, is accused of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing 15-year-old April Dawn Pennington of Montville in May 1996. A panel of 12 jurors and four alternates is in place in New London Superior Court, and Judge Barbara B. Jongbloed is presiding.
On the first day of the trial, prosecutors John P. Gravalec-Pannone and Stephen M. Carney are expected to set the scene for the jury with testimony from one of April's family members and from the police officers who first responded to the report that April was missing.
Later in the week, the state plans to call on Patrick "PJ" Allain, a convicted rapist who has told police many times over the years that he and Leniart were with April Pennington on the night she disappeared.
State police immediately suspected Leniart, who was out on bond for the rape and near-strangulation of another teenager when April crawled out the bedroom window of her parents' home on Orchard Drive and disappeared. Detectives scoured the region for April's body without success and conducted hundreds of interviews.
Leniart was convicted of other sex crimes, and the detectives had information from Allain about the events of May 29, 1996. They kept a close eye on Leniart but could never build a case strong enough to prosecute him until several jailhouse informants told them Leniart had confessed to the murder.
One of those informants is Kenneth Buckingham, an accused serial bank robber from Old Lyme. He told authorities in early 2008 that Leniart, his one-time cellmate at Corrigan Correctional Institution, had confessed to killing a teenage girl. Buckingham said Leniart, who was again incarcerated on rape charges, got upset after another prisoner saw a TV news report about Leniart and started calling him a "ripper" or rapist. Leniart allegedly told Buckingham he would rather be known as a murderer, so he described how he strangled Pennington.
Buckingham is not a newly minted informant. In 2007, he testified at the murder trial of Richard Read, who was accused of fatally shooting a Bristol man. The prosecutor in that case said Buckingham's testimony helped convict Read, who is serving a 50-year prison sentence.
Leniart's attorney, Norman A. Pattis, represented Read, so this will be his second time cross-examining Buckingham. Pattis has indicated he wants "another piece" of Buckingham and is seeking the court's permission to solicit expert testimony from Alexandra Natapoff, a Loyola Law School professor and expert on jailhouse informants. Pattis said he contacted Natapoff in Los Angeles after reading her recently published book, "Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice."
The state, meanwhile, has asked the court to allow testimony about Leniart's previous convictions, including the rape and near-strangulation of a 13-year-old girl. Allain was involved in that crime, too, and the state will argue that the similarities in the allegations merit the jury's attention.
Though Leniart is charged with three counts of capital felony and one count of murder, the state is not seeking the death penalty because there is no body.
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Two held in the murder of former San Marcos man
Suspects under bonds of $500,000 each in death of Michael Van Dyke
By Anita Miller
News Editor
San Marcos — Two people, one a San Marcos resident, have been arrested in Bastrop County in connection with the murder of former San Marcos man Michael Van Dyke.
St. Ric Cole of the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office said 26-year-old Dennis Don Leetch of San Marcos has been charged with murder and is being held on a $500,000 bond. Also charged in the case is 24-year-old Dustin Dickman of Paige, who is also being held on a bond of $500,000.
Cole said Van Dyke was reported missing by his mother, Belinda Van Dyke of San Marcos on Dec. 27, but that he had not shown up at his job since mid-December.
“His parents hadn’t heard from him since Dec. 14. He didn’t show up for Christmas,” Cole said.
At the time of his disappearance, Van Dyke, 23, was living with Dickman at 321 County Line Road in Paige, an area in far eastern Bastrop County that Cole described as ranch country. He had been working at a Paige restaurant, but hadn’t shown up for work since mid-December.
Cole said there apparently were disagreements “over property and relationships” between the roommates. He said Bastrop County investigators “started digging at it and finally got enough information on who was involved to arrest Dickman.”
Dickman gave a confession, he said, that led detectives to Leetch, who also reportedly confessed.
Acting on that additional information, Hays County assisted Bastrop investigators in executing a search warrant Wednesday morning at 500 Roadrunner Road in Rocky Ranch 1, Hays Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Leroy Opiela said.
Cole said the search warrant turned up a vehicle with some evidence inside it and “some evidence of where the body had been.”
He said investigators believe Van Dyke’s body was initially buried on the property where he lived but that the suspects “got nervous and moved the body.” He said a dive team has searched three stock ponds on different area ranches.
Cole said no body was found but the searches did turn up “some of Van Dyke’s property.”
Investigators have found what they believe are the murder weapons, which Cole described as “construction boards and blocks.”
He said no additional arrests are anticipated but investigators are “still looking for some vital information that we haven’t got yet,” and have one more person in mind they would like to talk to.
“It’s a long process, and exhausting process for our guys,” he said. Van Dyke’s mother agreed. “Bastrop County has worked tirelessly on this case,” she said on Wednesday.
Van Dyke graduated from San Marcos High School in 2004 and served in the U.S. Army. Leetch graduated SMHS in 2002.
Van Dyke’s mother said her son and Leetch had been friends since high school. “The connection between those two was longstanding.”
Anyone with any information is urged to contact the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office at (512) 303-1080. Callers who wish to remain anonymous can contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 324-TIPS.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy