444 no-body murder trials in the United States since the early 1800s but over 50% of them have occurred since 2000.
http://www.nobodymurdercases.com/blog.htmlExtracts from No Body Murder Investigations by NCOF
‘No Body Murder Investigations’
It is essential in every case that a full review and assessment of the Missing Person Report is undertaken at the outset of such an investigation. The methodology for this review is identified in the paper entitled ‘Useful hints for Police Officers in Suspicious Missing Person Enquiries’. This template can be applied to any missing person report and challenges the reviewing person to answer a number of critical questions in relation to the missing person. It commences with a full victimology enquiry of the missing person followed by the exact circumstances of the disappearance, as indicated below.
Missing Person Report Review
The victimology enquiry should include details of the missing persons, age, sex, race, physical description, height, build, hair and eye colour. Details of any marks, scars, tattoos or body piercing or details of any operations or previous fractures. A copy of the missing person’s dental records is also required. Ascertain if the missing person is recorded on the National DNA Database and if not ensure that a sample of the missing persons DNA is obtained and placed on the NDNA Database as an unsolved crime scene stain. A full description of the missing persons clothing (including buttons, zips and labels) and jewellery worn by the missing person at the time of their disappearance. The lifestyle of the victim must also be analysed and should include, routines, associates, personality, activity at the time of disappearance, location of the last sighting, the victim’s relationship to that location, who they were with that day, and a comprehensive risk assessment of the missing person. Finally all intelligence regarding the area of the last sighting should be analysed for any previous incidents or intelligence regarding the crime profile of that area for any precursor incidents.
Body Disposal, Concealment and Search
Apart from ensuring his/her escape from the scene of a crime, the murderers greatest challenge is to avoid subsequent detection by disposing of the victim’s body. The short-term aim may simply be to conceal the fact that a crime as been committed for long enough to guarantee a comfortable getaway, but the long-term aim is to prevent the body ever being found or identified. That way the murderer’s chances of being forensically linked to a criminal act are greatly reduced.
Research into murder cases has indicated that where there is an established relationship between the victim – missing person there is more concealed deposition of the body. Secret burial is perhaps the most common method of a concealment of a corpse, but this too presents difficulties. Merely putting a body in a clandestine grave is no assurance that the grave will not be found, and that subsequent exhumation will not reveal evidence of foul play. Clandestine burial frequently necessitates transportation of the corpse particularly if the murder was committed in an urban area. One of the greatest drawbacks to burial is that it is never possible to return all the soil to the original hole, with the result that there are visible signs of disturbance. The usual signs are that vegetation has been disturbed and differently coloured sub soil is brought to the surface, leaving a visible scar in the ground. The shallow grave dug in haste or in ignorance of how deep a grave should be has led to the discovery of many graves. The time constraints of a suspect are often a hindrance to a suspect when attempting to complete a concealed deposition. The inadequately buried body is soon exposed by the weather or the activities of animals, particularly dog walkers and their pets. It is possible to locate such sites by the use of aerial imagery to identify such areas to instigate intelligence led searches. In force Air Support or JARIC (Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Cell) directed by the Polsa Search Manager should be used to assist with the search.
Water disposal is also a widely used method of concealment. It is also the one method that is the easiest to achieve without the expenditure of a large amount of energy and physical labour required to dig a hole in the ground. In most cases the victim - missing person will be wrapped in something, which in turn will be tied to weights to keep the body concealed under water. In all cases of missing persons who are suspected of being murdered, the nearest area for water disposal should be considered for an underwater search. An offender’s background can influence the choice of a water deposition.
In a number of recent cases the body has been disposed of over a period of time in the ‘wheelie bin’, the body parts having been frozen in a domestic freezer within the premises.
It is also very wise to have the main drains searched as we have seen many bodies pushed into the drains within the curtilage of the property where the murder was committed. The Serial Killer Denis Nielsen who killed young males used this method of disposal.
In cases involving younger children the cavity required for a disposal is very much smaller. It is worth calculating the amount of space that would be required for a disposal and then ensuring that all such spaces are searched by a Polsa team.
‘The Legal Requirements’
A considerable number of murderers have believed and some still do that the corpus delicti is the body of the victim, and that without it a conviction for murder cannot be obtained. However, many would-be perpetrators have been made painfully aware that a missing body is not an obstacle to pursuing a charge of murder.
In these cases the body of the victim – missing person have not been recovered and there is no trace of the victim or the body despite a very thorough and extensive police investigation. Nevertheless, the police contend that the unlawful killing can be proved beyond all reasonable doubt through the circumstances of the disappearance, and the conduct of the accused both before and after disappearance. The questions of Motive, Opportunity, Preparatory Steps and subsequent actions of an accused should be considered in all cases.
Precedence has been established in law in England over recent years where persons have been convicted of murder in the absence of a body. I quote, “Evidence supported by the accused himself is sufficient, the fact of death is also provable by circumstantial evidence, notwithstanding that neither the body or any trace of the body has been found. Before a defendant can be convicted, the fact of death should be proved by such circumstances as render the commission of a crime certain and leave no grounds for reasonable doubt. The circumstantial evidence should be cogent and compelling as to convince a jury that no rational hypothesis other that murder can the facts be accounted for.
A crime has been committed
Which is illustrated by a series of thorough and extensive enquiries that there is no trace of the missing person and therefore no indication that the victim is still alive and living somewhere else. This fact can also be supported by the discovery of a crime scene, usually established by a forensic link of a victim to that location and to an offender. In many previous cases evidence of spilt blood and cleaning if forensically linked to a victim is very compelling evidence of a murder.
An offender exists
The connection of a suspect to the disappearance (motive, opportunity, preparatory steps and subsequent actions) and /or the circumstances surrounding the disappearance is so closely linked that inference can be properly drawn that they are connected to that disappearance.
In each case the accused is the last person to be seen with the missing person in circumstances that are themselves suspicious.Charlotte Pinkney
DCI Tony Carney
Victim last seen in a vehicle with suspect in early hours of morning. Offender got vehicle stuck in mud at a local beauty spot. Body Dogs indicated that the victims body had been concealed near to where vehicle was stuck in mud. Offender moved the body prior to police search and it remains unfound. Forensic found in vehicle and on suspects shoes.
http://www.belui.ru/Doc/Mejdunar/Angl/17/No%20Body%20Murder%20Investigations.doc
