Murder convictions still possible in cases where no body has been found

No one has seen or heard from Jacque Waller in more than four months. She has not touched her bank account or used her cellphone. Her vehicle was found abandoned on the side of Interstate 55 near Fruitland.

Legions of volunteers and police officers have combed the Cape Girardeau area for any trace of Jacque. Cadaver dogs have sniffed through miles of wooded areas, looking for her beneath the ground. The searches have yielded no results, and searchers are still investigating leads.

Despite the intensive yet fruitless searches, the state anticipates charging Jacque's husband Clay Waller with murder, according to court records.

Although Jacque has not been found dead or alive, history and experts say a murder conviction without her body is possible.

Missouri has had four bodiless murder trials, and all resulted in convictions. The first occurred in 1858, when George H. Lamb was convicted of drowning his wife in St. Louis.

The most recent conviction occurred in January in Columbia. Becky Doisy disappeared in 1976 and has not been seen since. She was last seen with Johnny Wright, who fled to St. Louis in the days following Doisy's disappearance. A warrant for his arrest was issued in 1985 after someone Wright had met in a methadone clinic told police Wright had mentioned murdering someone in Columbia.

Wright was arrested on the warrant in 2009 when he tried to apply for a job in Georgia. The tipster from the methadone clinic testified that Wright had confessed to the crime, while Wright's roommate admitted to seeing the body in Wright's car. Wright was convicted and received 30 years in prison.

Not having a body and not knowing the manner of Doisy's death were the biggest issues the state had in the trial, said Boone County assistant prosecuting attorney Richard Hicks. Despite not having the body, Hicks was able to prove both her death and Wright's guilt.

"Time really helped me in this case," Hicks said. "It had been 34 years and Doisy had never shown up."

Had the case been tried when the arrest warrant for Wright had been issued in 1985, a conviction may not have been possible, Hicks said, noting Wright's former roommate Harry Moore came forward more than 30 years after the murder.

"Moore came forward on his own," Hicks said. "He didn't have a deal with us. He just wanted to come clean after all these years."

Though there was no body or DNA evidence, Hicks said, Moore's testimony served as the case's corpus delicti, the principle that a crime must have been proven to have occurred before a person can be convicted of committing that crime.

Three types of evidence

While having a body is ideal in murder cases, three types of evidence can help convict in bodiless murder cases, said Tad DiBiase, an assistant federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who prosecuted that city's second no-body murder case in 2006 and provides advice to lawyers about bodiless murder trials. A confession to a friend or relative, a confession to police and blood evidence are all crucial in getting a conviction, DiBiase said.

"Having one of those three types of evidence is huge," he said. "The blood can be very helpful, and a confession strengthens believability."

Clay Waller allegedly admitted to his father, James Waller, that he snapped Jacque Waller's neck during a fight and buried her, according to court records. Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle is trying to preserve James Waller's testimony in case he dies before a trial starts. The elder Waller is bedridden in a nursing home, according to court documents. Swingle has declined to comment on the case.

In addition to the alleged confession, blood evidence was taken from two walls and from carpet that had been cut from the floor and hidden in a basement crawl space at the house Clay Waller had been staying at. DNA testing confirmed the blood was Jacque Waller's.

According to Clay Waller's testimony in an affidavit submitted in federal court, Jacque fell down and lay there. He also said she was "thrashing around." But Clay said he and Jacque cleaned up the blood together. Waller admitted to police he cut up and removed the carpet with the blood and hid it in the crawl space so the landlords wouldn't think anything wrong had happened. Throughout the affidavit, Clay Waller maintains his innocence.

"She started bleeding like a ... a lot," Waller said, according to the document.

DiBiase said that when a victim's blood in found in the home of a suspect, it can raise red flags about the suspect.

"Look in your own house for blood," DiBiase said. "You'll rarely find it because you know when it's spilled and you clean it up."

DiBiase said large amounts of blood can help forensic scientists find a cause of death if no body is present. Blood found in trace amounts is not as helpful, he said.

Examining history

The victim's history must also be examined along with tangible evidence, DiBiase said. Someone with a family and job don't just disappear without a trace, he said.

"A jury is not going to believe someone just walked away from their family," DiBiase said.

Jacque Waller has three children and had worked at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield before she disappeared.

Victims with a family and job are normally killed by someone they're close to, DiBiase said, noting prostitutes and drug users are more likely to be murdered by strangers.

"Suspects are usually closest to the victim," DiBiase said. "It's highly unlikely a stranger would kill someone without knowing them before."

While the state has evidence DiBiase considers to be crucial in convicting Clay Waller, he said trying Waller four months after his wife's disappearance may be a bit premature.

"Four months is rather aggressive," he said.

Despite a looming murder charge against Clay Waller without a body, the search still continues.

Bobby Sherrill led a 25-person team from the CUE Center for Missing Persons and a few community volunteers on another search of about 200 acres for 10 hours Saturday in four locations near the Jackson city limits. The places searched were determined by law enforcement to be areas of interest. Sherrill, of Jackson, is a childhood friend of Jacque Waller's.

"I'm not going to stop looking, and my teams aren't going to stop looking," Sherrill said Saturday.

psullivan@semissourian.com

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Jackson, MO