Local News

OAKLAND (BCN) ― Blood that very likely came from Nina Reiser was found on a pillar inside the entrance to her husband Hans Reiser's home as well as on a sleeping bag sack found in his car, a DNA expert testified at his murder trial Tuesday.

Oakland police criminalist Shannon Cavness, testifying as an expert witness, said there is a less than 1 in 45 trillion chance that the female blood samples on those two locations were from someone other than Nina Reiser, who was last seen alive on Sept 3, 2006, when she dropped off the couple's two children at his house in the Oakland hills.

Her body has never been found, despite extensive searches in the Oakland hills and elsewhere.

Cavness also said there is a less than 1 in 208 chance that a male blood sample on the pillar at Hans Reiser's home at 6979 Exeter Drive home from someone other than him.

She said the reason for the large difference in odds is that the female sample was much bigger than the male sample, which was nearby.

In addition, Cavness said there's a less than 1 in 1 billion chance that a male blood sample found on the sleeping bag sack was from someone other than Reiser.

Cavness said the female blood samples matched DNA samples that were found on a woman's underpants, a razor and a contact lens case that police recovered from Nina Reiser's home in Oakland after she disappeared.

Hans Reiser, a 44-year-old computer engineer, and Nina Reiser, who was 31 when she disappeared, married in 1999 but she filed for divorce and separated from him in 2004. The couple was in the midst of an acrimonious divorce and a battle over the custody of their two children when she disappeared.

Hans Reiser has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

His attorney, William DuBois, has said he thinks Nina might still be alive and be in hiding in Russia, where she was born and raised and where she was trained as a physician.

DuBois's co-defense counsel, Richard Tamor, will cross-examine Cavness on Wednesday.

During Reiser's preliminary examination, which began on Dec. 11, 2006, and met intermittently before concluding on March 9, 2007, DuBois questioned the significance of the blood samples that Cavness examined, getting her to admit that DNA testing can't reveal the time and age of blood samples, so it's impossible to know when the blood got on the pillar and the sleeping bag sack.

Cavness said cleaning supplies, wrenches; a sleeping bag and books on crime were among the many items found in Hans Reiser's car when Oakland police recovered it several weeks after Nina disappeared.

Cavness said she examined his 1988 Honda Civic CRX on Sept. 26, 2006; a week after police recovered it on Monterey Boulevard in Oakland.

That location is several miles away from the home at 6979 Exeter Drive in the Oakland hills where Reiser lived with his mother and where Nina Reiser was last seen alive.

Cavness said one of the things she noticed is that the right front passenger seat of Reiser's car was missing.

Prosecutor Paul Hora suggested to jurors in his opening statement that Reiser might have removed the passenger seat so that he would have room to carry Nina's body to a spot where it could be disposed.

Cavness said another thing she noticed is that there was a bumper sticker on the back of Reiser's car which said, "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty."

There also was a newspaper article about the case dated Sept. 14, 2006, and headlined, "Police search home of missing woman's spouse," Cavness said.

In addition, police found a U-Haul printout dated Sept. 17, 2006, detailing a possible trip from Manteca to Oakland that day, she said.

Hora mentioned the U-Haul printout in his opening statement to jurors, hinting that Reiser may have planned at one point to use a U-Haul vehicle to carry Nina's body.

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