Prospective jurors screened on missing body issue in Oakland case OAKLAND

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Attorneys asked prospective Alameda County jurors in the murder trial of computer programmer Hans Reiser on Wednesday whether they were comfortable hearing a circumstantial-evidence case in which the body of Reiser's alleged victim - his wife - has never been found.

Deputy District Attorney Paul Hora and defense attorney William Du Bois took turns questioning prospective jurors on whether they could be objective about the case, given that Nina Reiser has not been seen since disappearing last September.

Hans Reiser, 43, who is well known in computer-programming circles as the creator of the ReiserFS file system, has pleaded not guilty to killing his estranged wife, who was 31 when she vanished.

"This case is a little bit different than other cases," Hora told prospective jurors in the Oakland courtroom of Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman. Usually, there's a body, an autopsy and a cause of death, but not so in this case, Hora noted.

Du Bois told prospective jurors that he would argue for acquittal because "there is no direct evidence of a homicide, let alone that there even was a homicide."

One man made it clear Wednesday that he didn't want to be on the panel.

"I'm uncomfortable about this," the man told Hora. Pressed by the prosecutor for an explanation, the man said, "Just this whole show, that's all. You're not going to like what I have to say."

The judge excused the man after he concluded by saying, "I just don't think I'd be fair."

Nina Reiser was last seen Sept. 3, 2006, at the home her estranged husband shared with his mother on Exeter Drive in the Oakland hills. Prosecutors theorize that he killed her there that day and hid the body.

The couple's two children were in the house when Nina Reiser was there, but Reiser's mother was not, authorities said.

Nina Reiser's 2001 Honda Odyssey was found six days after she disappeared about 3 miles from the home, groceries askew in the back seat, police said. Investigators have said they found small amounts of Nina Reiser's blood in the Exeter Drive home as well as in Hans Reiser's Honda Civic CRX.

Friends of Nina Reiser held a vigil for her Tuesday at Montclair Park in Oakland.

Prosecutors say the couple's children are now with their grandmother in Russia, where Nina Reiser was born. Du Bois has suggested that she could be alive and with her children.

The jury-selection process continues this month and next, and opening statements in the trial are scheduled for Oct. 29.