Prosecuting Without a Body
By: Whitney Ray
Updated: June 19, 2007
Even though deputies are scanning the bottom of Beaver Lake, investigators continue to treat Alicia Minton’s disappearance as a missing persons case, not a homicide investigation. Prosecutors say investigating a disappearance is similar to investigating a murder.
They still question witnesses and look at forensic evidence, but many times key evidence in a murder trial is the victim. Prosecutors need the body to determine if the person is dead and to identify the cause of death. Those things can be hard to prove if the body is never found but its not necessary to find a body before pressing murder charges.
Several prosecutors I spoke with say they cant think of a more difficult case and thats one reason theyre not very common. They say common sense tells you if a person has been missing for a long period of time then theyre probably no longer with us. Still, the law requires more proof than that and there have been cases were people return home after being missing for years.
There is no statue of limitations on homicide cases. So if a body found 30 years later, then someone may still go to jail for murder.
