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OAKLAND (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― A prosecutor told jurors Tuesday that the only reasonable conclusion they can draw from the mountain of circumstantial evidence in computer engineer Hans Reiser's trial is that he murdered his estranged wife Nina, even though her body has never been found and authorities don't know how she might have been killed.

"Like almost every case, we don't know it all, but we know enough," Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hora said.

"We don't know the method of murder, if he choked her, hit her over the head or stabbed her and we don't know where he hid her," but Hora said Reiser "had tons of motive" to kill Nina because he was upset about their acrimonious two-year-long divorce proceedings and the fact that Nina had legal custody over their two children.

With no body ever found, lawyers for 44-year-old Hans Reiser, have suggested Nina Reiser might be living secretly in her native Russia.

But in his closing argument in Reiser's trial, Hora said "there's no doubt" that Nina, who was 31 when she disappeared on Sept. 3, 2006 after dropping off the couple's two children at Hans Reiser's house in the Oakland hills, is dead because she never would have abandoned her children.

Nina Reiser "vanished from the face of the earth" and it has now been "591 days without a trace and counting," Hora said.

Speaking in the packed courtroom of Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman and displaying photographs of Nina with her children to jurors, Hora said, "There's no way she leaves these kids. No way."
 
"Can you think of anything more cruel?" Hora asked. "She wouldn't do that to those kids. It's vicious. It's cruel to do that to kids."

Hora said the fact that Nina was a devoted mother was proved when police found three books on parenting in her minivan when it was discovered a week after she disappeared.

The prosecutor also noted that Hans had the means to kill Nina because he has a black belt in judo and outweighed her by about 80 pounds.

Hans Reiser, known in programming circles for his ReiserFS computer file system, testified that he had nothing to do with Nina Reiser's disappearance. He said the last time he saw her she was driving away from his house at 6979 Exeter Drive.

The prosecutor said the fact that Nina was never seen again after coming to Hans' house is powerful circumstantial evidence by itself and is bolstered by the additional fact that her blood is on a wood pillar 70 inches from the front door of the house.

Hora said the defense's own DNA expert even admitted that the evidence shows "blood flying through the air striking the post."

He said, "That sounds like violence" and not blood from Nina cutting her hand on a knife in the kitchen, which is the possible explanation that Hans Reiser offered when he was on the witness stand. 

The couple met in Russia, where she was born and trained as a physician, and where he often spent time doing business for his computer file system company.

They married in 1999, but she filed for divorce and separated from him in 2004. Nina was awarded legal custody of their children, but Hans had visitation rights. Their divorce case, which Hans has admitted was acrimonious, was still pending when she disappeared.

Hora, who is expected to continue his closing argument on Wednesday, told jurors they have to answer three questions: Is Nina Reiser dead? Did Hans Reiser kill her? And, if so, was it murder or manslaughter?

He began by giving his answer to the first question, detailing all the plans Nina Reiser had made that fall, arranging for daycare for her children, landing a new job and studying for upcoming medical exams. After she disappeared, authorities found her U.S. and Russian passports at her home, along with hundreds in cash.

Her abandoned minivan was found with her purse inside, along with sacks of groceries, by that time rotting, that she had bought before going to Hans Reiser's house.

"There's no doubt she's dead. That's what all this means," Hora said. The evidence may be circumstantial, he said, but "it's powerful. It's convincing. It's persuasive and it's the truth."

Hora also covered Reiser's behavior after Nina Reiser went missing.

When a friend of Nina Reiser's called on the evening of Sept. 5 to say the mother of two was missing and asked if Hans Reiser could help with any information since he apparently had seen her last, Hans Reiser said he needed to talk with his lawyer, Hora said.

He did not call Nina Reiser.

"He doesn't even bother to pick up the phone and dial her number once! Not once!" Hora said, his voice rising to a shout. "That's absolutely mind-boggling."
 
Instead, Hora said the defendant hired William DuBois the very next day, paying the veteran lawyer a $5,000 retainer fee.

"That was a $5,000 bet that Nina was dead," Hora said, saying that Hans Reiser's actions strongly indicate that he killed her.

Meanwhile, the Honda CRX that Hans Reiser was driving at the time went missing when Nina disappeared. "The exact same time. What a coincidence," Hora said.

When the car was located two weeks later, the front passenger seat was missing and the floorboards were soaked.

Reiser said he took the seat out to make the car more comfortable to sleep in and hosed down the floor because it was dirty.

But Hora said the real reason was the car contained evidence linking Reiser to his estranged wife's murder.

"It's incredibly incriminating that that seat's missing," he said. "It's devastating, actually."

Hora portrayed Reiser as a man obsessed with a bitter divorce battle, reading from an e-mail in which Reiser described his estranged wife as "evil."

While authorities don't know everything that happened in the case, or where Nina's body is located, the prosecutor maintained "we know enough."

Closing arguments by the prosecution and then the defense are expected to conclude by the end of the day Thursday and jury deliberations are expected to begin next Monday.

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