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Criminal Law Keyed to Gershowitz
State v. Grissom
Citation:
251 Kan. 851, 840 P.2d 1142.Facts
Three women, in their early twenties, disappeared in June, 1989. They were never heard from since and no remains were found. The evidence showed that the defendant owned an apartment maintenance business and had “pass keys” for all three women’s apartments. He was also seen operating a car rented by one of the missing women after her own car had been totaled in an accident. Blood from another of the missing women was found in the car. Additional evidence showed large transactions on the women’s’ bank accounts from ATMs, where tellers later described a man fitting the description of the defendant as a passenger in the vehicle. Other evidence, including hair samples, also tied the defendant to the women.
He was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and other crimes. He appealed, arguing that since the bodies have not been found and the exact events leading up to the deaths of the women are not known, the state failed to prove the corpus delciti of homicide.
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