Hans Reiser leads cops to wife’s body

Posted by Greg Laden on July 8, 2008
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First, an important note: According to what I’ve read lately the Reiser File System does have a maintainer, and should progress as a project. If you want, I can give you more details.

Now, for some breaking news just in (Hat tip: Virgil Samms)

CONVICTED MURDERER Hans Reiser led prosecutors and police in Oakland, California to his missing wife’s body Monday afternoon, just two days before he was scheduled to be sentenced to prison, possibly for life.

…[he] … reportedly agreed to show authorities the location of his estranged wife’s body in exchange for a shorter prison term. Reiser also admitted that he had strangled his wife Nina during a fight at his Oakland home in September 2006.

Reiser and his attorneys apparently negotiated a deal with prosecutors that could find him sentenced for second-degree murder instead of the jury’s verdict of first-degree murder … His maximum sentence for second-degree murder would be 15 years to life, rather than the 25 years to life term that is mandated under California law for first-degree murder.

The body was found at about 4 pm Monday, buried in a shallow grave on the side of a steep hill, just beside a deer trail running between a couple of parklands in the Oakland hills and less than 200 yards behind a house, said lawyer William Du Bois, who accompanied his client. The remains were about a half mile from Reiser’s house, where Nina was last seen.

Reiser’s sentencing that had been set for Wednesday will likely be delayed while prosecutors work out details with defence attorneys and the judge.

source

I find it astonishing that authorities could not find this body themselves. A shallow grave a half mile from his house? I’ve seen them do that on CSI using fancy technologies and dogs a dozen times!!!

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Comments

  1. #1 Virgil Samms
    July 8, 2008

    Wouldn’t recovery of dead files be a good feature to add to a file system? Some Linux file systems are not so good at that.

  2. #2 Roger the Shrubber
    July 8, 2008

    Fieldwork requires leaving the comfort of the police station.

  3. #3 crf
    July 8, 2008

    He may have moved the body more than once. There was the fact of the missing car seat, and blood in the car. If he had strangled and buried her immediately, there would not likely be blood in the car, nor fluids on the car seat. But if he had killed her, hidden her body, and only later buried her, her body might have leaked in the car.

    It’s hard to blame the police for not finding a body. The earth is pretty dry, so a body in a shallow grave would dessicate.

  4. #4 Andrew
    July 8, 2008

    You seem to know a lot about the details…

  5. #5 OriGuy
    July 8, 2008

    While I’m not familiar with that exact location, the parklands in the Oakland hills are very steep and have a lot of thick brush. Very few people venture off the trails, including park rangers. You could be only a few feet from a well-hidden burial and never suspect it.
    While orienteering in the Bay Area, I’ve never come across a body, but it’s often in the back of my mind

    CSI is not a documentary, by the way.

  6. #6 Greg Laden
    July 8, 2008

    CSI is not a documentary, by the way.

    In my own defense, I will point out that I’m a bioanthropologist (and thus have some training in forensics); pointing out that CSI is not a documentary is part of the routine in my biz; and I’ve only actually watched CSI once or twice. Good stories, horrific acting.

    Now, give me a Gideon Oliver mystery, and then we’re talking!

  7. #7 Stephanie Z
    July 8, 2008

    I recommend Waking the Dead in place of CSI. The characters on the show actually have real jobs; i.e., you don’t see the pathologist interviewing suspects. Of course, it’s British, so it helps to know someone who owns a season or two. It’s probably also on Netflix.