We’ve all heard the saying. It seems reasonable, even likely that a person can’t be convicted of murder if a dead body hasn’t even been found. In fact, the notorious mother-son murder team Sante and Kenny Kimes considered it the family motto. The truth is, it’s a common misconception. In the Kimes case, both were sentenced to life in prison in addition to the more than 100 years they were already serving, for two murders in which no bodies were recovered.
Dr. Henry Lee is sought after for his ability to reconstruct a crime scene and look at it in a methodical and logical way. In the case of a missing 16-year-old massage therapist, his crime solving abilities proved invaluable. The young lady went out on an appointment and should have returned to the office by 2:00 p.m. When she had still not returned by 4:00 p.m. her manager became concerned and called the residence where she was suppose to have been. Upon learning that she had left the location much earlier, concern turned to fear and the police were notified. They obtained a search warrant and paid a visit to the home where she was last known to be, but there was no evidence of a crime. Dr. Henry Lee was called in on the case. When he visited the crime scene he noticed that the basement was too clean. There was wall to wall carpeting that had recently been shampooed and was still damp. A chemical test on the carpet showed traces of blood. Based on that, the carpet was removed and a pool of blood was discovered underneath. The amount of blood was estimate to be approximately 2000cc. Dr. Lee had written a paper in 1979 about estimating blood volume and was fortunate to be able to draw upon that knowledge in this case. Based on the amount of blood loss he could determine that a person the size of the presumed victim would be dead. Reverse paternity tests were performed on her parents to confirm her identity. Two years later the body was found some 60 miles from the crime scene.
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