Without a Body: Forensic Investigations When There's Not a Lot Left

By J. Gunnar Grey

Criminals have known for a long time that it’s not enough to move a victim’s body; the evidence is still there and can still be used in court against them. Only the absolute erasure of the victim from the face of the earth helps a killer escape justice, and so for as long as there have been killers, they’ve been searching for the perfect method of corpse disposal.

But that’s not easy. Getting rid of a body is a monumental undertaking, and even without a body, forensic evidence always remains, sometimes in the most esoteric and strange forms, waiting to bring a killer to justice.

Without a Body presents nine fascinating cases, spanning from the 1890s to the 21st century. How does an investigator capture a killer when the body’s not around for investigating? What clues can be gathered in the body’s absence? And how can a jury convict without that single most important piece of evidence?

Here’s how.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dingbat Publishing
• Release date: Mar 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370331772

Book preview

Without a Body

Forensic investigations when there’s not a lot left

J. Gunnar Grey

Dingbat Publishing

Humble, Texas

Published in the United States of America 2017 by Dingbat Publishing, Humble, Texas

Without a Body: Forensic investigations when there’s not a lot left

Copyright © 2017 by J. Gunnar Grey

ISBN 9781370331772

Cover design by Dingbat Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written consent, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

eBooks cannot be sold, shared, uploaded to Torrent sites, or given away because that's an infringement on the copyright of this work.

This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of International Copyright Law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines and/or imprisonment. No part of this e-book can be reproduced or sold by any person or business without the express permission of the publisher.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Part One: Early Forensics

One: Louise Luetgert, 1897

Two: Emily Kaye, 1924

Three: Sam Lakey, 1933

Four: Olive Durand-Deacon, 1949

Interim: Forensics Comes of Age

Five: Helle Crafts, 1986

Part Two: DNA

Six: Carla Almeida, 1988

Seven: Helen McCourt, 1988

Eight: Laura Houghteling, 1992

Epilogue: Beyond DNA

Nine: Danielle Jones, 2001

Foreword

There’s something about the scene of a murder, littered with the sad remains of a human being, that calls out for answers and for justice. The corpse, of course, is the starting point for any investigation, and generally the forensic clues that lead to an indictment and then a conviction are collected from the body and from the place where the crime occurred. Small wonder, then, that so many murderers tinker with the crime scene, attempting to scrub it clean of evidence, or attempt to move the body away from that rich source of clues — and moving a body is not an easy task.

But the ultimate in camouflaging a crime is the complete disposal of the body itself. It’s not enough to move it; the evidence is still there and can still be used in court against the murderer. No, it’s the absolute erasure of the victim from the face of the earth that helps a killer escape justice, and so for as long as there have been killers, they’ve been searching for the perfect method of corpse disposal.

However, that’s not easy, either. Getting rid of a body is a monumental undertaking, and there are almost always some sort of traces left behind. Fire leaves ashes that can be analyzed. Acid baths leave sludge. Even the seas have been known to give up their dead. And even without a body, forensic evidence always remains, sometimes in the most esoteric and strange forms, waiting to bring a killer to justice.

How does an investigator capture a killer when the body’s not around for investigating? What clues can be gathered in its absence? And how can a jury convict without that single most important piece of evidence?

Here’s how.

Gunnar Grey

Part 1: Early Forensics

Chapter One

Louise Luetgert, 1897

Adolph Luetgert took his wife Louise to work with him on the evening of May 1, 1897. At some time later that night or early the next morning, he left the building. She never did.

***

Adolph Leutgert owned a successful sausage factory in Chicago, at 601-629 Diversey. His three-story house fronted on Hermitage Avenue but shared the industrial lot with the business. Like other sausage factories in those pre-refrigeration days, Leutgert’s was in operation only between October and April of each year, when stinking hot weather wouldn’t destroy the product faster than the employees could create it.

Adolph Luetgert

His wife Louise was a small, pretty woman, barely five feet in height and weighing 115 pounds. Some reports say she wore her hair up to appear taller, and in her most famous image, a single curl dangles in the middle of her forehead.

Louise Luetgert

She’d worked as a domestic on a local farm before marrying Leutgert, and reportedly her fingers swelled so much she couldn’t remove her rings, especially not her massive gold wedding band, three times the size of most modern ones and weighing more than two ounces. Leutgert had the ring engraved with her married initials, L.L., and without much choice, she wore it always.

Devoted to her children, she wound up spending more and more time with them as her husband’s business prospered and he grew more distant. But he became greedy and tried to expand enough to compete with the large national corporations. Layers of investments and funding worth $500,000 (in 1890’s dollars) teetered on a knife’s edge, then one bank panicked and called in a $30,000 mortgage. Everything collapsed. Leutgert was bankrupt, his dreams of expansion shattered. All he had left was the existing sausage factory, and since the collapse happened in late March, it would soon close for the summer.

Louise Leutgert had put up with a lot, including several reported affairs and her husband’s risky business venture. But the public humiliation of bankruptcy infuriated her, and vindictive, sometimes violent arguments over finances became common knowledge in their neighborhood. Several times, when their yelling could no longer be ignored, she was overheard threatening to leave him.

Then on May 1, 1897, the couple were