No body, no crime? How prosecutors prove murder when a victim is missing

In every successful homicide case, a prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a homicide took place and that the accused committed it. But when there’s no body, proving that a homicide took place could be an extra challenge.

Thomas DiBiase worked as a federal homicide prosecutor in Washington D.C. for over 12 years. He has also consulted on dozens of homicide cases where a body was never found, including a few MMIP cases in North Dakota.

DiBiase told Buffalo’s Fire that confessions can be strong evidence in “no-body” cases, either to police or to a friend or family member. In over half of no-body cases, he said, the “obvious” suspect is someone known to the victim, such as a partner, spouse or parent.

Mark Friese, a criminal law attorney who has worked for Vogel Law Firm in Fargo for more than two decades, said digital evidence can carry weight in no-body cases. Internet search history and pings from a cell tower can place a suspect in proximity to traces of blood, fibers of hair, or residue of bleach that suggest a crime was committed.

According to DiBiase, who wrote the book “No-Body Homicide Cases: A Practical Guide to Investigating, Prosecuting, and Winning Cases When the Victim is Missing,” over 600 “no-body” homicide cases have gone to trial in the U.S. since the early 1800s.

“It seems like a large number, but when you think of how many murder trials there have been in the United States, it’s a very small percentage,” DiBiase said.

Monty Mertz, supervising attorney for Fargo Public Defender Office, said throughout his approximately 50 years of practicing law, he hasn’t heard of or worked on a homicide case where there is no body.

Friese said when there’s no body, prosecutors have a “more difficult challenge but not an insurmountable one.”

In most homicide cases, a medical examiner can provide a time and cause of death, which can help construct a timeline, but in no-body cases, the prosecution usually relies on circumstantial evidence, DiBiase said.

A prosecutor does not need to prove time or cause of death for homicide charges, Mertz said, but proving a homicide occurred without a body can be “tough, no question about it.”

“It’s a bit more complicated because if someone is missing, that doesn’t mean they are dead,” Friese said.

Surprisingly, the conviction rate on no-body homicide cases is “significantly” higher than in cases where there is a body, with 87% of no-body cases in the United States leading to a conviction, compared to 70% of other homicide cases, according to DiBiase.

This is in part due to the amount of evidence needed to prove the missing person is dead, but also because the victim in such cases typically has a relationship with the suspect, DiBiase said.

“Prosecutors only take very strong cases to trial when it is a no-body murder case,” DiBiase said, adding prosecutors will only charge someone with homicide without a body when they have other strong evidence that a homicide took place, such as a confession to family or surveillance cameras that captured the crime. Officially charging someone can be difficult, DiBiase said, but “once a prosecutor can do that, the conviction rate is pretty high.”

DiBiase said he found homicide cases in Native communities to be “vastly underprosecuted,” particularly with Native women. He said he’s noticed some law enforcement officers stereotype Native women who are missing or murdered, referring to them as runaways or sex workers.

“The biggest difficulty I’ve found in Indian Country cases is a lack of interest from the beginning from police,” DiBiase said. “There has been a real discounting of Native American women as victims.”

This leads to fewer MMIP cases, including no-body cases, being investigated, prosecuted or even reported.