Expert: Prosecuting MSU student's murder with no body difficult, but not impossible

MASON — The body of a missing Michigan State University student has never been found. 

Krista Lueth, 34, disappeared Nov. 11, 2008. Police suspected her ex-boyfriend, whom she had broken up with just days before, of her death for more than a decade before officially filing a murder charge. 

Tuesday, Ingham County District Court Judge Donald Allen determined there was probable cause for Brad Cournaya, Lueth's ex-boyfriend, to stand trial for her murder. 

Allen said he watched the video of one of Cournaya's first interviews with police after Lueth's disappearance several times. 

"Not once during the course of that did I see a person who seemed to be disturbed about the disappearance of Krista," Allen said. "He didn't even bother to phone her again after November 11 which suggests to me he knew she was not going to be answering that phone." 

Cournaya's attorney, Duane Silverthorn, did not offer an argument but said he did not believe prosecutor's met the probable cause needed to send the case to the circuit court for trial. 

Cournaya is in prison serving 16 to 40 years on an unrelated conviction.

Prosecuting a murder without a body is difficult, but not impossible, said Tad DiBiase, a former federal prosecutor and an expert on trying murder cases without a body.

In murder cases, the best evidence comes from the body, DiBiase said. It can give clues to investigators as to how, when and where the person was killed. 

"When you don’t have a body, you're missing all of those very essential pieces of evidence," DiBiase said, which is what makes these types of cases so challenging. 

Lueth was declared legally dead in March 2017. Police declared her disappearance a homicide in September 2009, and in 2014, named Cournaya as the sole suspect.

Legally dead

Ingham County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Bill Crino brought out several witnesses – a professor at MSU, a friend, a downstairs neighbor, a woman who taught an urban gardening class Lueth was in, Lueth's supervisor at work and her father – to testify that Lueth was happy and making plans for the future.

"This was a young woman who not only was taking a full class load, but was an outstanding student," Crino said. 

She was working toward her second undergraduate degree in horticulture and had excellent grades, Crino said. The day she disappeared, she brought home a bug-pinning project that was due the next week. She had an internship and had plans to take on more work at her job. 

Information like this is a necessary component to prove Lueth is dead, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Someone can be officially declared dead if they have been missing and not heard from for seven years or more. 

Prosecutors must also show it would be unusual for the victim to pack up and disappear. 

Murray Stewart-Jones testified that she went to Lueth's apartment Nov. 14, 2008, to check on her friend and former roommate, who she had not heard from in a week. She found food left out in pots and pans and dirty dishes.

Moei, the cat Leuth adored, had not been fed and was out of food and water, Stewart-Jones said. 

Stephen Fry, who works as a criminal intelligence analyst for the Michigan Intelligence Operations Center, testified that he searched all available databases for any activity from Lueth since 2008 and found no evidence of her using any cards, identifications, bank accounts or other items registered in her name.

Honing in on Cournaya

Cell phone records showed the last person Lueth called before she disappeared was Cournaya, at 5:11 p.m. Nov. 11, 2008, Crino said. Her phone was silent after that. 

Cournaya told police he had not spoken to or seen Lueth that day, but phone records showed he called her 19 times, Crino said. After that 5:11 p.m. call, Cournaya never called Lueth again, phone records show. 

Records also showed Cournaya and Lueth's phones traveled together from her apartment in Lansing to southbound U.S. 127 near College Road, Crino said. Lueth's broken phone, bank card and driver's license were found several months later at that same location. 

"The only way (Cournaya) could have had contact with those items intimately associated with Krista is if (Cournaya) had contact with Krista during that very specific time frame," Crino said. "Lies, lies, lies and more lies...The phone records really expose (Cournaya's) lies." 

The same night, a sheriff's deputy assisted Cournaya when his truck broke down on southbound U.S. 127 near College Road, now-retired Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Tom DeClercq said.

Police questioned Cournaya several times and Cournaya was "untruthful as to his whereabouts," Declercq said. His statements have also included other inconsistencies, he said. 

Cournaya is in prison for showing a child an obscene photo of himself and a sex video, and showing her messages on his phone asking if she wanted to make money.

Circumstantial evidence

Having an old case makes prosecuting the murder more difficult, DiBiase said. People's memories are not as fresh and it can be harder to obtain evidence. 

But sometimes, the age of the case can be an asset, he said. Witnesses may not fear the perpetrator as much — in Lueth's case, the man charged with her death is already in prison — or the suspect may have confessed to someone, thinking they got away with it.

Most cases without a body are circumstantial, DiBiase said. There aren't witnesses or someone who helped get rid of the body. While circumstantial evidence may not seem as strong as direct evidence to a layperson, DiBiase said, the law treats them as equal. 

He said he likes to think of cases without a recovered body as a three-legged stool: one leg is scientific evidence, like DNA, forensics, cell phone records and texts, the second leg is a confession to friends or family and the third leg is a confession to police. 

If the stool has all three legs, it's strong and sturdy, DiBiase said. If there's only one or two legs, the stool will be shaky, but still usable.

Most murder cases without a recovered body have at least one of the three legs, but it's still possible to make a case with none of the legs, DiBiase said. It just makes the prosecutor's job that much harder. 

Contact reporter Kara Berg at 517-377-1113 or kberg@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @karaberg95.