Appellate Court upholds police search in no-body case:
Appellate Court Backs Los Gatos Police
Search of vehicle in murder case ruled ok
By Alastair Dallas 05/24/07 10:01 am
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The 6th District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that the Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department's search of Maurice Nasmeh's Jeep Grand Cherokee was reasonable because "the police clearly had cause to believe that Nasmeh's vehicle contained evidence related to [Los Gatan Jeanine] Harms' disappearance." Campbell architect Nasmeh has been in jail since December 2004, charged with murder.
The LGMSPD executed a search warrant after their investigation of Jeanine Harms' disappearance led them to suspect Nasmeh, apparently the last person to see Jeanine Harms alive on the night of July 27, 2001. They confiscated his Jeep and held it for three weeks, eventually discovering fibers from a carpet that may have been used to dispose of Harms' body.
In February 2006, Judge Linda Condron ruled that the search was unreasonable and disallowed the fiber evidence. The Santa Clara County District Attorney's office appealed Condron's ruling because the fiber evidence was important to a murder case that has no body. The appeal was heard in February 2007 and the lower court's ruling was overturned yesterday.
"Maybe we can get on with this and get this trial over with," Nasmeh's attorney Dan Jensen told the Mercury News' Connie Skipitares. Jensen doesn't believe the fiber evidence is very important, calling it "much ado about nothing."
Man charged in "no-body" case one week after victim's disappearance:
Man charged with murder; victim still missing
David Mahler, 43, is accused of shooting Kristin Baldwin even though her body hasn’t been found. He also faces a charge of assault with a firearm on another person.
By Tami Abdollah and Richard Winton, Times Staff Writers
2:15 PM PDT, June 5, 2007
Related Stories
- Detectives seek body in alleged killing
Prosecutors today charged a 43-year-old with murder for allegedly shooting a woman at his posh Hollywood Hills home -- then disposing of her body, which authorities have still not found.
Detectives said they believe a shooting occurred May 27 in the 8500 block of Cole Crest Drive. But authorities were not called to the house for five days, when someone alerted the LAPD that a woman had been killed there.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office charged David Mahler with shooting Kristin Baldwin and assault with a firearm on another person. Prosecutors allege that Mahler argued with Baldwin before opening fire. They said he then disposed of her body at an unknown location and tried to clean up the crime scene.
Detectives are still trying to find Baldwin's body.
Mahler was arrested Monday after police interviewed residents of the house and neighbors. He is being held without bail at the County Jail.
The killing occurred in a sprawling, multilevel, pink stucco home on Cole Crest Drive in an area of million-dollar houses.
Neighbors said police told them that the body had been moved out of the house, and said that authorities were reviewing video footage from nearby home surveillance cameras for clues.
On Monday, police requested the public's help in identifying and finding the alleged victim. They said she was blond, in her late 30s, 5 feet 4 and 120 pounds, who was wearing black Spandex bike shorts and a tank top and may have been named Chrissie.
"We're hoping either the detectives are going to get a lead on where the body is, or somebody from the public is going to call," LAPD spokesman Kevin Maiberger said.
Detectives said the case is highly unusual. Police responded Friday to a 911 call from the residence about 12:30 a.m. reporting that a woman had been shot to death. When police arrived at the house, several people were detained for questioning.
But as police talked to witnesses, they discovered that the shooting actually had occurred days earlier. (Officials would not provide details of the physical evidence or witnesses' statements.)
A neighbor, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said someone who lives at the house told him a cleaner had been hired to work there at some point before police arrived.
"It's a one-off thing, it's a good neighborhood, generally," a neighbor said. Police swarmed the area for about a day after they received the 911 call, conducting interviews and examining the area, the neighbor said.
Mahler is believed to be the landlord, although it is not clear whether he also owns the home. Neighbors said bottom portion of the property had been rented out to a couple, while Mahler lived upstairs.
Anyone with information is asked to call Hollywood homicide detectives at (213) 972-2910 or (213) 972-2915 during business hours and (877) 529-3855 at other times.
tami.abdollah@latimes.com
richard.winton@latimes.com
Maine man charged in murder of two women, one of whom is still missing:
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/3976065.html
California Sergeant on trial in No body case:
ormer sergeant goes to trial in wife's killing
BY CONNIE LLANOS, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 06/18/2007 10:21:51 PM PDT
SAN FERNANDO - Sixteen years after his estranged wife disappeared, a former sheriff's sergeant from Valencia sat before a judge Monday charged with killing the mother of his three children.
Jury selection is expected to conclude today in the trial of John Racz, long suspected of killing Ann Mineko Racz, whose body never has been found.
Racz, 61, was indicted in October, but Los Angeles County Superior Court officials have refused to divulge the grand jury testimony that after so many years led to a charge of murder against Racz.
Prosecutors said Monday they expect to bring 60 witnesses to testify, but they still offered no new evidence.
"We'll present multiple witnesses who will talk about the fact that she was scared to death of her husband, including a pastor, and that she told them that he threatened to kill her if she ever left," Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said.
Racz, 61, has pleaded not guilty. Wearing a blue suit and tie, Racz sat quietly during the first day of jury selection, frequently writing notes. Two of the Racz's children, now grown, and Ann Racz's brother were among family members in court.
Defense attorney Philip D. Israels appeared confident. "I
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don't think anything is different," he said. "There's still no body, no crime scene, no murder weapon, no DNA or scientific evidence of any kind."
Among the pool of potential jurors - most of them from the Santa Clarita Valley - were an FBI agent, a law professor and a video game programmer.
Ann Racz hasn't been seen since April22,1991, four days after the 43-year-old filed for divorce from her husband of 19 years. She took their children, Joanne, Glenn and Katelin, then 14, 11 and 7, to visit their father at his Valencia home, drove to McDonald's to get them dinner and never came back.
All signs pointed to foul play, sheriff's homicide detectives said at the time. She didn't say goodbye to her children, her sister or the pastor at the church where she volunteered, and there were signs she had expected to return home.
Racz, however, said his estranged wife had planned a trip. Her Plymouth station wagon was found three days later at the FlyAway terminal parking lot in Van Nuys.
Racz retired about 20 years ago from the Sheriff's Department and recently left a second career as a teacher at a Compton elementary school.
connie.llanos@dailynews.com
(661) 257-5254
Federal Indictment in Spokane, Washington No Body case
No body, but persistence gets indictment
Bill Morlin
Staff writer
May 25, 2007
From The Spokesman-Review, Sunday, January 22, 2006: Lynda Tonasket’s two brothers went missing on the Colville Indian Reservation more than 15 years ago, leaving her heartsick and convinced they were murdered, possibly by the drug underworld.
For years she tried to get authorities interested, but without bodies they would only listen and add reports to their thick files.
That changed a month ago when FBI agents got a federal murder indictment against a criminal with a lengthy record, who was about to get out of prison.
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Instead of going free, James H. Gallaher Jr. is scheduled to be brought to Spokane on Wednesday to be arraigned in U.S. District Court for the 1991 murder of Edwin O. "Eddy" Pooler, one of Tonasket’s two missing brothers.
"I’ll be there in court – just to look him in the eye," Tonasket said last week from her home on the 1.4 million-acre reservation in northeastern Washington. Because the alleged crime occurred on an Indian reservation, the FBI has jurisdiction, along with tribal police.
"I’m just so glad something is finally being done," she said.
Tribal elder Jude Stensgar, former longtime chairman of the Colville Tribal Council, said justice is unfolding largely because of Tonasket’s one-woman crusade. Stensgar was on the council when Tonasket persuaded its members to post a reward.
"After this long, long delay, it seems miraculous that they finally brought this charge," Stensgar said last week.
"She’s been working diligently for years and years on this," he said. "Law enforcement probably would have put it in the ‘dead file’ unless she continuously pressed them to do something."
Even without finding Eddy Pooler’s body, the federal murder case will go forward – an extraordinary step in any criminal justice system.
It is believed to be the first time that a federal murder case has been brought to trial in the Eastern District of Washington without discovery of the victim’s body.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Harrington, who obtained the grand jury indictment, said Justice Department guidelines prevent him from discussing particulars of the case.
Prosecutors customarily don’t seek an indictment, however, unless they believe they can convince a jury a defendant isguilty.
Other sources familiar with the case said the prosecution of Gallaher will be built around statements from witnesses, who are terrified of the 47-year-old suspect and the possibility of his return to the Colville reservation.
If fear and reward money helped move the case toward resolution, Tonasket said she’s glad.
She’s also hoping the arrest of a suspect in Eddy’s death will prompt new leads in the earlier disappearance of her other brother, George Pooler.
He was last seen at a bar Nov. 18, 1988, with two other men, one of whom may have been angry or jealous of George’s relationship with a woman, Tonasket said.
Police took a report on George Pooler’s disappearance and followed some leads, but have found no trace of the 37-year-old man.
Gallaher is not suspected of any involvement in George Pooler’s disappearance, and no one has ever been charged, authorities said.
Tribal Police Detective Mike Carter, who investigated both disappearances, died in 1997, but the cases remained with tribal Detective Kevin Anderson. He said he couldn’t discuss either man’s case.
But Tribal Police Chief Rory Gilliland said it was Anderson’s work last year and new leads that triggered renewed interest by the FBI.
"I’m pleased with the fact that we’ve got a federal charge in connection with the disappearance of a person that’s been missing this long," the chief said Friday.
While Tribal Police are tight-lipped, Tonasket is not. She has tried everything to keep interest in her brothers alive.
"Over the years we wrote to ‘Unsolved Mysteries,’ and they didn’t want it. I called the FBI. Without a body, they didn’t want it. They just weren’t interested. Nobody wanted it," she said.
Her brother Eddy, who battled alcoholism, disappeared in April 1991, shortly after he turned 45.
Tonasket vividly remembers the last time she saw him.
"It was during the Keller Rodeo. He’d been drinking a lot. I saw him walking down the road, and I pulled over and talked to him. He said he was planning on going to the rodeo."
When he didn’t show up, Tonasket wasn’t immediately concerned. "I didn’t think much about it at first."
"He and George would take off for a while, sometimes go up to Canada, just disappear for a few days."
But her concern grew in the days to come, when Eddy was nowhere to be found. He had a failed relationship and two teenage sons and a daughter, but was living alone when he disappeared.
The previous year, Eddy had been baptized and became involved in a Christian church to help him battle his alcoholism. But he remained troubled by the disappearance of his brother George, Tonasket said.
After a couple of weeks, when Tonasket couldn’t find Eddy or anyone who had seen him, she reported him missing to the Colville Tribal Police.
Authorities initially accused her of "making the whole thing up" to draw attention to George’s disappearance, Tonasket said.
"They kind of mocked me," she said. "They didn’t believe me when I said Eddy was missing, too. They thought we were hiding Eddy out. They were just acting like he wasn’t gone."
Her brothers’ lives, like so many others on the reservation, were scarred by alcohol and drugs, Tonasket said.
She, too, battled alcoholism, but getting a Head Start job about 20 years ago and working with children helped her focus her life, she said.
"I asked God to help me get the job so I could stop drinking," she said. "Now, working with the kids gives me a purpose."
She still finds it difficult dealing with the disappearances of her two brothers.
The mysteries consume her.
She immediately believed Eddy had been the victim of foul play, based on bits and pieces of information she picked up after his disappearance. She tried to convey that belief to police, Tonasket said.
Eddy had served prison time for robbery years earlier, was known to use cocaine and marijuana, and hung out with other drug users and dealers, she said.
"He was no ‘Mr. Nice,’ and the police thought he’d gone into hiding," she said.
Days and weeks passed. Tonasket printed and distributed missing person fliers, hoping someone had seen Eddy, who occasionally would direct wisecracks at himself.
Years earlier, he had lost his left eye working in the woods. It was replaced with a removable glass eye, which became part of a standard joke he’d tell friends.
"In the bar, he’d take his glass eye out and set it by his beer when he went to the bathroom," Tonasket recalled. "He’d say, ‘Nobody touch my beer ’cause I’ve got my eye on it.’ "
When he disappeared, Eddy no longer had the prosthetic eye. "He finally lost it one day washing his face. It went down the drain."
Telling that story is one of the few times Tonasket smiles.
As fast as she nailed up posters of her missing brothers, they, too, disappeared.
"I think the guilty ones didn’t want to see those reward posters," she said.
Tonasket decided to start her own investigation in her spare time when she wasn’t working at the Head Start program in Keller.
"I’d go to the bar, pick up on the rumors," she said. She’d even buy someone a beer if leads about her brothers were flowing.
"People seemed to think Eddy was either into drugs or messed with somebody, crossed somebody bad," Tonasket said. "To me, the motive is a woman."
"One guy told me, ‘Ed’s dead,’ and he told me who killed him," Tonasket said. But that potential witness later died of natural causes.
Tonasket kept her interview notes, police reports, correspondence and news clippings about her brothers in a file. Tribal police once asked her to supply copies of reports about George’s disappearance that they’d misplaced, she said.
"If you read and go through this file, you’d say, ‘Oh, my gosh! How come they didn’t solve these right after they disappeared?’ "
After George disappeared in 1988, witnesses reported that he had been stabbed and his body transported in a vehicle with blood stains were seen by witnesses.
Some people speculated where Tonasket should look for the bodies.
Over the years, those leads prompted her and her husband, Bob, to go on various "digs."
"We’ve dug up so many areas all over this reservation," she said. "I figure I’ve gone on 30 or 40 digs." Once, she found bones buried in a tarp. But authorities told her they were animal remains.
Midway through one dig, someone fired a shot at her, but missed, Tonasket said. "We just got in the car and took off."
Tonasket eventually persuaded the Colville Tribal Council to post a $3,000 reward for information leading to the discovery of either Eddy’s or George’s body. That reward and word that Gallaher would be released from federal prison this month convinced witnesses with information to come forward last spring, she said.
"People who live up here are afraid of these killers, and they’re afraid to talk," Tonasket said. "But they need to know these cases can be solved if people come forward and tell authorities what they know."
Tonasket said it’s an important part of her Native American cultural beliefs to find the remains of both her missing brothers "for closure."
"You have to bury him or his soul is still wandering and not at rest," she explained. "In our hearts, he’s still lost."
