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Today I was quoted on WBBM Radio regarding a Chicago no body murder case: here, WBBM
and in the Chicago Tribune: Chicago Tribune
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Proving murder without Glendale girl's body a challenge
Authorities say missing Glendale 5-year-old was killed
by Lisa Halverstadt - Jan. 2, 2012 11:36 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
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Police suspect that a 5-year-old Glendale girl who went missing a few months ago is dead, her body callously disposed of and probably lying buried beneath tons of trash in a giant landfill.
If Jhessye Shockley's body is not found, bringing a killer to justice will be a daunting task. But experts say it is not impossible.
Across the nation, prosecutors have won murder convictions in dozens of cases in which there was no victim's body. In the past year, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office successfully prosecuted two such cases.
Read more: AZ Central
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Court of Appeals sends murder case back to Whatcom County
ZOE FRALEY - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
A former Bellingham man who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for the murder of his wife has had his conviction reversed by the Court of Appeals because of jury selection errors at his trial.
Whatcom County Prosecutor Dave McEachran said the prosecutor's office is asking the appeals court to reconsider its decision in the case of Bruce Hummel, who had been convicted of killing his wife, Alice, in 1990.
The reversal doesn't acquit Hummel. The appeals court sent the case back to Whatcom County for retrial.
For more: Bellingham Herald
Posted by Thomas A.(Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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I was on In Session yesterday morning on TruTV talking aboout the Michigan v. Stewart no body murder case from last year. I'd post a link but couldn't find one!
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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I'll be teaching a seminar on How to Investigate and Prosecute a No Body Murder case in Olympia, Washington in January and in Las Vegas in March. See links below for more information and if you'd like to attend:
No Body Seminar in January
Seminar in March
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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An interesting case: the judge acquits the defendant after the jury found him guilty. Federal no body cases are rare, acquittals in no body cases are rare and reversals by judges almost unheard of......
Federal judge acquits defendant in kidnapping, death of missing Saranac man
Published: Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 1:10 PM Updated: Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 9:37 PM
John Agar | The Grand Rapids Press By John Agar | The Grand Rapids Press The Grand Rapids Press
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Raogo Ouedraogo.JPGRaogo Ouedraogo
GRAND RAPIDS – A federal judge acquitted Raogo Ouedraogo of kidnapping resulting in death in the 2007 disappearance of Saranac resident Donald Dietz.
U.S. District Judge Janet Neff issued a 36-page opinion today after earlier having misgivings about evidence that also led to his jury convictions for kidnapping and fraud conspiracies involving co-defendant Rami Saba.
Federal prosecutors plan to appeal.
Ouedraogo, a Philadelphia resident, had asked for a judgment of acquittal or new trial on the three charges. A jury had acquitted him of a fourth charge, interstate murder-for-hire.
During a recent hearing, Neff questioned the evidence, and her own rulings, in trials for the defendants.
Her opinion said: “Although there was no dispute that Dietz was dead, no body had been found, and there was no crime scene, no murder weapon or direct evidence linking Ouedraogo to Dietz’s disappearance or murder. The government’s case was based purely on circumstantial evidence, most of which pointed to Saba, and very little of which implicated Ouedraogo.”
Ouedraogo was convicted on testimony largely focused on Saba. When Saba went to trial, Neff acquitted Saba on charges of murder and kidnapping resulting in death.
Saba was convicted of lesser charges, and sentenced to 32 years in prison. Prosecutors asked for a life sentence.
For more: MLive
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Man sentenced to 54 years in 'no body' homicide
by The Associated Press
azfamily.com
Posted on December 22, 2011 at 3:29 PM
Updated Thursday, Dec 22 at 3:40 PM
PHOENIX (AP) -- A man convicted in the presumed death of a Chandler woman has been sentenced to a total of 54 years in prison.
Maricopa County prosecutors say Bryan Stewart was sentenced Thursday to 22 years for second-degree murder and 20 years for fraudulent schemes with the terms running consecutively.
For more: AZ Family
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Clay Waller's father dies at nursing home before prosecutors could record testimony
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
By Patrick T. Sullivan ~ Southeast Missourian
Paula Martin of Jackson hikes through a wooded area northeast of Cape Girardeau Sunday, June 26, 2011 in search of her friend Jacque Waller. James Clay Waller Sr., Jacque Waller's father-in-law, died Tuesday, taking an alleged confession by his son to her murder with him before prosecutors could have it recorded for evidence.
(Laura Simon)
Officials involved in the Jacque Waller disappearance investigation no longer will have access to testimony that claims Clay Waller confessed to killing his wife.
James Clay Waller Sr., the only person Clay Waller allegedly recounted murdering Jacque Waller to, died Tuesday morning in a Cape Girardeau nursing home, Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Clifton confirmed Tuesday afternoon. Clifton said he was unsure of Waller's age and his cause of death.
James Waller's death comes a month after Cape Girardeau Judge William Syler denied the preservation of his testimony that alleges Clay Waller confessed to murdering his estranged wife, Jacque Waller, who has been missing since June 1.
Cape Girardeau Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle submitted a motion Sept. 22 to preserve testimony from the elder Waller that alleged Clay Waller confessed to him shortly after Jacque Waller's disappearance. In a federal affidavit, an FBI agent writes that James Clay Waller Sr. told him Clay Waller confessed to breaking Jacque's neck and burying her body.
In the application, Swingle wrote that the state anticipates filing a murder charge against Clay Waller.
The alleged confession was laid out in an affidavit of FBI agent Brian Ritter, who talked to James Waller in the course of investigating Clay Waller for making an Internet threat. Clay Waller later pleaded guilty to that charge.
Click here for more:
Southeast Missourian
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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I'm going all international....
Legebokoff trial a rare case of missing victim
November 2, 2011
Frank PEEBLES
Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Among the charges 21-year-old Cody Alan Legebokoff faces is the first degree murder of Natasha Lynn Montgomery, despite her still being a missing person.
Getting a murder prosecution without a victim’s body is a rare occurrence, but Prince George has had two such cases in the past year.
The first resulted in a conviction that is now under appeal. In December, Denis Florian Ratte was found guilty of murdering his wife Wendy Ratte in 1997 even though investigators never located her body. Legebokoff faces three other murder charges of women whose bodies have been recovered.
Allegations against Legebokoff state that police scientists discovered the DNA of Montgomery and the others alleged victims on crucial items in his possession - allegations that have yet to be tested in court.
“Evidence can take a variety of forms. In a murder case that doesn’t necessarily have to include a deceased person being located,” said provincial Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie.
“We proceed with prosecution if the available evidence provides a substantial likelihood of conviction, even if that is based largely on material evidence. Most murder prosecutions do have the presence of a body as part of the evidence, but it is not exclusively the case in B.C. history. Robert Pickton is certainly one case.”
Washington, D.C.-based prosecutor Tad DiBiase has made a study of the “no body” murder trial since he first conducted one in 2006.
He teaches, blogs, and is working on a book on the subject when he isn’t busy with his position as deputy general counsel for the U.S. Capitol Police.
Click here for more: Prince George Citizen
Posted by Thomas A. DiBiase, No Body Guy
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An Aruban judge ruled last week that prosecutors cannot detain Gary Giordano any longer without charging him in the murder of Maryland resident Robyn Gardner. Giordano, who has been held in an Aruban jail since early August, was released from jail this past Tuesday. The difficulty the Arubans appear to be having is that while Gardner is missing, no one can confirm she is dead. Giordano claims that she drowned during a scuba trip but Gardner’s body has not been found.
Like the case of missing Natalee Holloway, the lack of a body seems to have stymied Aruban authorities who even this week continue to search for Gardner who was reported missing on August 2nd of this year. Despite the difficulty of prosecuting no body murder cases, it can be done. In 2006, I successfully prosecuted the second no body case ever in D.C. and since then have been fascinated with these cases. My research has uncovered over 350 no body murder trials in the United States since the 1800s, the vast majority occurring in the last 15 years. On top of those 350 plus trials are countless guilty pleas in no body cases. The evidence is clear: prosecuting no body cases is no longer as difficult as it used to be. Indeed, the overall conviction rate for the cases that went to trial is 90%.
But that’s here in the U.S. and it doesn’t appear that a no body case has ever been prosecuted in Aruba. However, due to a little known facet of the U.S. federal criminal code, any prosecution of Giordano does not have to be lodged in Aruba: Giordano can be prosecuted right here in the U.S. Under Title 18, Section 1119 of the U.S. Code, a U.S. national who murders a fellow U.S. national in another country can be prosecuted in the United States if four conditions are met. First, and foremost, the person cannot have been prosecuted in the foreign country. Second, the Attorney General or his designee must approve the prosecution. Third, the Attorney General must consult with the Secretary of State to determine if the suspect is no longer in the foreign country and, finally, that the foreign country must lack the ability to lawfully secure the suspect’s return. Although this last provision might seem to mean that the foreign country must lack an extradition treaty with the United States, several cases have demonstrated that is not the case. In 2000, Curtis Wharton murdered his wife in Haiti as part of an insurance scheme. He was prosecuted in federal court in Louisiana after he left Haiti. Although he argued that the existence of an extradition treaty between Haiti and the United States meant that Haiti could lawfully secure his return, the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Fifth Circuit disagreed and held that the existence of an extradition treaty was not determinative of whether Haiti could secure Wharton’s return to Haiti. Other courts have ruled the same way with regard to Japan.
Even if Giordano can be prosecuted here, should he be? One of the main pieces of evidence against Giordano, the $1.5 million travel insurance policy he took out on Gardner (and she on him), was taken out in the U.S. Moreover, 18 USC 1119 was designed to prevent events such as this: a sophisticated murderer seeking to conceal his crime in a smaller, less sophisticated country where he might more easily get away with his deed. It’s probably no coincidence that federal prosecutors previously decided to use 18 USC 1119 in a Haitian murder case. Finally, the vast number of no body murder cases means the bench and bar have much greater familiarity with these cases. These cases are almost becoming commonplace with times when two or three cases are in trial at the same time. Indeed, in DC the first no body case was prosecuted in 1984 and then there were no more cases for over 20 years. Since my case in 2006, there have two other no body cases to go to trial in DC (both resulting in convictions) and another case where the defendant pled guilty before trial. Both D.C. and Maryland (where both Giordano and Gardner are from) would be appropriate venues for this case. Experienced prosecutors there and elsewhere in this country known what Aruban authorities may not: no body murder cases can be won. If Aruba won’t move forward to give Robyn Gardner and her family justice, then the U.S. should.
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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No Body? No Problem for Baltimore County Homicide Prosecutors
Technology played a critical role in the murder convictions of Jason Gross and Dennis Tetso.
* By Ron Snyder
* November 29, 2011
Like many teenagers, Rochelle Battle was attached to her cell phone.
Battle’s phone was a lifeline to her world to the point that she made 1,900 calls in December 2008. The 16-year-old also made 129 calls from her phone through the first six days of March 2009.
Then, without any warning, the calls stopped on March 6, 2009. No more texts, voicemails or photos. Battle, who lived in the Pimlico community of Baltimore, just disappeared.
Baltimore County prosecutors said Battle was murdered and her cell phone would go a long way toward proving who killed her.
That killer turned out to be 36-year-old Jason Gross. The Middle River man was convicted in October of murdering the teen. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 6.
Prosecutors obtained a conviction despite never finding Battle’s body. Such no-body cases are difficult to prosecute, let alone win. But Baltimore County prosecutors have proven such cases are not impossible.
Click here for more: Perry Hall Patch.com
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Will Seth Winder Ever Stand Trial (Again) For Allegedly Killing, Dismembering Dallas Man?
By Brantley Hargrove Mon., Nov. 21 2011 at 3:55 PM
Denton County Judge Bruce McFarling declared a mistrial Friday when it was found that Seth Winder of The Colony -- who is accused of allegedly murdering and dismembering his lover in the man's Far North Dallas apartment -- hadn't been taking and/or receiving his meds. In fact, defense attorney Derek Adame even speculated afterward that he'd been completely un-medicated for most of the trial.
Unfair Park was sitting almost directly behind the paranoid schizophrenic, so the thought was a little unsettling.
It was the second time, actually, that Winder had been declared unfit to stand trial. This time, his attorney told us, Winder hadn't been receiving his morning meds at the Denton County lockup. There was also the possibility, he said, that he hadn't been swallowing his evening dose for "much longer." From Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning, everyone from the bailiffs to his attorneys seemed to notice a change in Winder. Adame described him as "catatonic."
For more click here: Dallas Observer
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Yoshikawa pleads guilty to murdering Carlee Morse
3:08 PM, Nov. 23, 2011 |
Written by
LeAnne Rogers
Observer Staff Writer
On the third day of his jury trial for murdering Westland teenager Carlee Morse, Justin Yoshikawa accepted a plea bargain that will send him to prison for 35 to 65 years.
On Wednesday morning, Yoshikawa, who turned 20 in July, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder which gives him the possibility of parole. Had he been convicted as charged of first-degree murder, Yoshikawa would have had a mandatory sentence of life in prison without chance of parole.
Before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Ulysses Boykin accepted the plea, Yoshikawa was asked about his role in the murder by his attorney George Chedraue and prosecutor Lisa Screen.
Responding to questions, Yoshikawa confirmed that he and co-defendant Nicholas Cottrell lured Morse, 16, from her family’s Westland apartment late August 19 or early August 20, 2010.
Describing Morse as someone he dated briefly during the summer of 2010, Yoshikawa responded “Yes, sir” when asked if he hid in the backseat of a car before strangling front seat passenger Morse and later placed her body in trash bags.
For more, click here:Observer & Eccentric
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Jury convicts Chandler man in 'no body' homicide
by Catherine Holland
Posted on November 23, 2011 at 3:33 PM
Updated yesterday at 5:21 PM
CHANDLER, Ariz. -- Jurors on Wednesday found Bryan Stewart guilty of second-degree murder in the presumed death of Jamie Laiaddee, the Chandler woman who vanished March 17, 2010.
"Jamie literally dropped off the grid and that just doesn't happen," said Chandler Police Sergeant Joe Favazzo in September.
Even though Laiaddee's body has not been found, there's no crime scene and no weapon was ever recovered, Chandler investigators went ahead took their case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
For more, click here: AZ Family.com
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Acquittal of Lee Evans ends 33-year-old Newark case but leaves a haunting mystery unresolved
Published: Thursday, November 24, 2011, 7:00 AM Updated: Thursday, November 24, 2011, 7:54 AM
By Alexi Friedman/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger
NEWARK — With Wednesday’s acquittal of the so-called "mastermind" behind the decades-old killing of five teenage boys in Newark, the case has been officially closed but the mystery surrounding what had been one of the state’s oldest cold cases may forever remain unsolved.
The jury found Evans not guilty on five counts of murder and five counts of felony murder in the Aug. 20, 1978, arson killing of the five boys.
Evans, 58, faced multiple life sentences if convicted but instead walked out of Superior Court in Newark a free man, barely managing a smile as he greeted his son and several supporters with hugs.
Click here for more: NJ.com
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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An interesting "no body murder" twist to the Penn State scandal.....if it's a murder case......
Questions on Sandusky Are Wrapped in a 2005 Mystery
By KEN BELSON
Published: November 8, 2011
One of the questions surrounding the sex-abuse case against Jerry Sandusky is why a former district attorney chose not to prosecute the then-Penn State assistant coach in 1998 after reports surfaced that he had inappropriate interactions with a boy.
In 2005, divers searched the Susquehanna River in Lewisburg, Pa., for Ray Gricar, who was a Centre County prosecutor.
The answer is unknowable because of an unsolved mystery: What happened to Ray Gricar, the Centre County, Pa., district attorney?
Gricar went missing in April 2005. The murky circumstances surrounding his disappearance — an abandoned car, a laptop recovered months later in a river without a hard drive, his body was never found — have spawned Web sites, television programs and conspiracy theories. More than six years later, the police still receive tips and reports of sightings. The police in central Pennsylvania continue to investigate even though Gricar’s daughter, Lara, successfully petitioned in July to have her father declared legally dead so the family could find some closure and begin dividing his estate.
For more: New York Times
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Lewiston man pleads not guilty in slaying of missing woman
Staff Report
Published on Thursday, Nov 10, 2011 at 2:02 pm | Last updated on Thursday, Nov 10, 2011 at 10:10 pm
Buddy Robinson, left, confers with his attorney, Edward Dilworth, in Androscoggin County Superior Court in Auburn on Thursday. Robinson is charged in the killing of Christiana Melusine Fesmire.
Buy a print
- Jose Leiva/Sun Journal
AUBURN — A 30-year-old Lewiston man pleaded not guilty in court Thursday to murder in connection with the slaying of a 22-year-old woman.
Buddy Robinson was indicted by an Androscoggin County grand jury Wednesday on one count of knowing or intentional murder.
His attorney, Edward "Ted" Dilworth, said Thursday in Androscoggin County Superior Court that his client waived reading of the indictment.
Justice MaryGay Kennedy said Robinson was to be held without bail pending a hearing at the end of the month when bail would be discussed.
Click here for more: Sun Journal
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Attorney: Body not needed to prove Chandler woman's death
by Laurie Merrill - Oct. 20, 2011 09:55 PM
The Arizona Republic
Rick Valentini had a burning question when first jailed in the sudden disappearance of his girlfriend of three years, Jamie Laiaddee, a prosecutor said Thursday.
"Do you think they can charge me with murder if they can't find the body?" Valentini, 42, asked a fellow jail inmate, according to Maricopa County deputy prosecutor Juan Martinez.
Speaking during opening arguments of Valentini's murder trial, Martinez said that even without Laiaddee's body, the lack of any trace of her in any aspect, place or capacity, the absence of e-mails, credit-card use, phone calls or cash withdrawal, as good as show she is dead. "She just vanished on March 17, 2010," Martinez said.
Valentini who had used the alias Bryan Stewart for at least seven years, is charged with murdering Laiaddee.
AZ Central
Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Murder Guy
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Dad gets life in prison for 3-year-old son's murder
Boy's body has yet to be found
BRIAN ROGER, HOUSTON CHRONICLE Copyright 2011 HOUSTON CHRONICLE. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
By BRIAN ROGERS, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Updated 12:20 a.m., Friday, October 28, 2011
Roderick Fountain, 37, received the maximum punishment in the death of Kendrick Jackson.
Jurors on Thursday sentenced Roderick Fountain to life in prison for felony murder in the death of his 3-year-old son, Kendrick Jackson, whose body has never been found.
Fountain was convicted a day earlier of killing the boy he reported missing on April 7, 2006. Hours after that mid-morning call to police, he became a suspect in the case.
Police later said he was "too calm."
Within days, investigators said they were suspicious because Fountain told them different stories about the night before the boy disappeared.
Cellular telephone records shown at trial showed that Fountain spent the early morning hours of that day on the phone with different women as he drove from his home in west Houston to east Houston on Interstate 10.
For more: Houston Chronicle
Posted by Thomas A. DiBiase, No Body Guy
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Middle River Man Convicted in 'No Body' Murder Trial
Jason Gross, 36, was found guilty of killing 16-year-old Rochelle Battle despite her body never being found.
* By Ron Snyder
* October 21, 2011
A Middle River man was convicted Thursday of second degree murder in the death of a 16-year-old girl whose body has never been found.
A Baltimore County jury found Jason Gross, 36, guilty in the death of Rochelle Battle. Prosecutors said Gross killed Rochelle Battle on or about March 6, 2009.
While Battle’s body has never been found, prosecutors linked her to Gross through cell phone tracking that had the pair in the same area at the same time, WBAL-TV reported. There is also an MTA security camera that shows Battle taking a bus from Baltimore to Essex. Her mother believed she was going shopping at Eastpoint Mall, WBAL-TV also reported.
For more: Patch.com
Posted by Thomas A. DiBiase, No Body Guy