Дело для Райзера обстоит хуже, чем могло показаться по первым публикациям.
Children apparently home when missing mom slain, police say
By Harry Harris and Jason Dearen, STAFF WRITERS
OAKLAND - Nina Reiser's two children were in the house on the day police believe
her husband killed her, according to a probable cause statement filed by Oakland
police Thursday morning.
Police arrested Hans Reiser, 42, Tuesday after discovering splattered blood in the
living room of his Montclair home and in his car. Forensic tests on the blood
cannot exclude Nina Reiser, 31, as its donor, according to police.
Reiser will be arraigned on a murder charge this afternoon in Alameda County
Superior Court. While police believe Nina Reiser is dead, her whereabouts is still
unknown.
The Reiser's two children, a girl, 5, and a boy, 7, were taken into protective
custody and interviewed by police in the days after their mother's disappearance.
Nina Reiser dropped her kids off at her estranged husband's home on Sept. 3, after
picking up groceries at the Berkeley Bowl market. The statement said that
authorities believe the kids were downstairs playing video games at Hans Reiser's
Montclair home on Sept. 3, and that the kids heard their parents arguing.
``One of the children indicated that Hans Reiser and Nina Reiser were possibly
involved in an argument,'' wrote Missing Persons Investigator Ryan Gill.
``The child indicated that his parents were talking at a `medium' volume and that
they were using `not nice words.''' Gill wrote. One of the children later told an
investigator that he had gone upstairs and that his mom and dad were in the living
room.
The child said that Hans Reiser told him to go back downstairs and not to come back
upstairs, not even to the kitchen area, according to the statement.
Nina Reiser was supposed to drop her off kids and had plans that Sept. 3 evening to
meet a friend for dinner. She never showed. Nina and Hans Reiser lived together
until about April 2004, when Nina kicked her husband out, police said. That's when
Hans Reiser moved into his mother's Montclair home. Nina Reiser filed for divorce
in 2004, and eventually won custody of their kids.
Investigators also learned that during the course of the separation that Hans
Reiser had physically assaulted Nina Reiser and has made verbal threats of causing
her bodily harm ``for the rest of her life.''
On the weekend she disappeared, the couple had argued about the weekend custody of
their children. Nina Reiser had agreed to split the weekend days with her husband.
The two kids were taken to school on Tuesday, Sept. 5. She never picked them up.
Concerned friends and Nina Reiser's boyfriend notified police.
``When the officer attempted to gather information for his preliminary
investigation Hans Reiser became uncooperative and advised the officer to contact
his lawyer,'' Gill wrote in the probable cause statement.
Police also interviewed Hans Reiser's mother, Beverly Palmer, who refused to
provide a formal statement. Palmer was not at home on Sept. 3, and she told
investigators that she was attending Burning Man in Nevada.
Palmer did not allow investigators inside her home when first asked, the report
states.
On. Sept. 9 Nina Reiser's tan minivan was located in the 1500 block of Fernwood
Drive, a short distance from Hans Reiser's home. It was unoccupied and locked, and
grocery bags were inside.
``Nina Reiser's cell phone remained in the vehicle, and had been dismantled
(battery removed and phone flipped open),'' according to the statement.
Inside the van were personal checks, receipts and more than $100 in cash. The
evidence recovered in the vehicle did not indicate to investigators that robbery
was the intended motive.
Police later reviewed surveillance footage showing that Nina Reiser and her two
children left Berkeley Bowl at about 1:55 p.m., before heading to her husband's
house.
In the days after the disappearance police said they began following Hans Reiser,
and that he began trying to lose them by driving at varying speeds, turning down
quiet residential streets, and making abrupt stops.
Police recovered the 1988 Honda CRX that Reiser drove in Berkeley, and noticed it
was missing the right, front passenger seat. The seat has still not been found,
police said.
Inside the car investigators also found a roll of large black trash bags and a
socket wrench.
Hans Reiser purchased two books ``Homicide'' by David Simon and ``Masterpieces of
Murder'' by Jonathan Goodman on Sept. 8 from Barnes & Noble in Berkeley.
Also inside the car forensics investigators found a blood stain on a sleeping bag
stuff sack which measured one inch by three inches. The stain was tested and Nina
Reiser could not be excluded as its donor. In addition, investigators found
evidence they believe shows the car was cleaned _ including water residue under the
rug.
When police on Sept. 28 detained Hans Reiser briefly to obtain a DNA sample Reiser
had about $8,900 in cash, his passport, and receipts, including one for a siphon
pump found in his car.
Police said the last purchase they've been able to track by Nina Reiser is from the
Berkeley Bowl on Sept. 3. Her last phone call was made to Hans Reiser's house.
Reiser's attorney, William H. Du Bois, said he will not comment about any evidence
until he is given a chance to review it.
``We're going to roll up our sleeves, examine the evidence carefully and get busy
defending him on a case I think pushes the very limits of the doctrine of
circumstantial evidence ... in a murder case'' where there is no body, Du Bois
said.
Я-то сначала понял так, что она оставила детей и уехала, а оказывается – они ещё некоторое время были в доме вместе и ругались.
Если найдуться свидетельства, что незадолго до исчезновения пассажирское кресло было на месте и было в порядке, то дела у Райзера будут довольно паршивые.
Паспорт и кэш конкретно у Райзера как раз нифига не улика – он постоянно ездил в Россию и возил кэш для покупок и зарплат своим сотрудникам. Привык, типа.
Книга, купленная после исчезновения, тоже слабовата в качестве улики.
