No Body, No Problem: Murder Convictions in Missing Persons Cases

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Photo courtesy of dailymail.co.uk.

The old Hollywood trope of no body, no conviction is usually accurate, but not always true. Generally, it is very difficult to prove the murder of a missing person.

But, between the tenacity of investigators and the legal precedent of the United States v. Scott, plenty of killers are convicted without a body.

In the Scott case, the judge essentially stated that when the prosecution uses enough credible circumstantial evidence, thereby excluding any other...