Is it possible to be convicted of murder if there's no body?

[padanarm]

Can someone be convicted of murder if there's no body? How can the prosecutor prove that someone is dead if there's no body?

[Schutzengel]

Yes, definitely. There have been cases where this has happened, but I don't know how the justice system arrived at a guilty verdict. Perhap there were strong factors indicating that person had been murdered by the defendant. Interesting question.

[rov1200]

Yes, by circumstantial evidence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_conviction _without_a_body

[Schutzengel]

There are three cases that I have come across where a guilty verdict for murder have been given, when the bodies have not been found.
Peter Falconio - Murdered in Australia - Bradley John Murdoch found guilty.
Martin Baker - wife murder - Surrey 2005 - found guilty.
David Hodgson - found guilty of the Yorkshire murder of Jenny Nicholl in 2005, verdict given Feb 2008.
The reasons for the jury's guilty verdict in each case obviously is not given. However in each case the circumstantial evidence presented to the juries, pointed overwhelmingly to the guilt of the defendants.

[padanarm]

Interesting. But surely there are three stages: prove that the victim had died, that the accused caused the death and that the accused had planned the death.

The examples cited have physical evidence that the victim is probably dead, such as the gallstones and dentures from the acid bath murders.

If there was no physical evidence how would prosecutors prove death and murder?

[Schutzengel]

The prosecutors don't have to 'prove' murder. It is up to the jury to decide whether the circumstantial evidence presented by the prosecution is so strong that it leaves little or no doubt that the accused is guilty. It is their decision.

[Schutzengel]

Should also have said that at the end of the trial the jury is directed by the judge in his summing up of the case, as to points of law, and he/she also points out that it is their decision entirely. He also states whether the jury are to bring in a unanimous verdict or whether he will accept a majority verdict, and in what proportion.

[DSJ]

One of the first cases of a successful murder prosecution without a body that I can recall was that of James Camb in 1948. He was a deck steward aboard the 'Durban Castle' sailing from South Africa to Southampton. In October 1947, a passenger named Gay Gibson vanished without trace from her cabin. James Camb had been seen entering Miss Gibson's cabin and there was plenty of forensic evidence to suggest that she had been sexually assaulted & brutally attacked afterwards. The ship was at that point in shark-infested seas. Camb was sentenced to death at Winchester but later reprieved.

Another well known case is that of Mrs. Muriel McKay, kidnapped & murdered by the Hussain brothers in (I think) 1969.

[Beanmistriss]

Arlene Fraser went missing in 1998 (I think). No body, no signs of a struggle or of a violent incident taking place but her husband was convicted of murder.