FLINT, MI – Sometimes the gun is thrown in the garbage. Other times it disappears along with the suspect.

Of the 16 gun homicides in which criminal charges were issued last year, six of the guns were never found, according to a Flint Journal analysis of court records and interviews with police and defense attorneys.

"The gun may still be on the street for use in future crimes," Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said. "Obviously, we prefer it when the gun is recovered."

It's unknown exactly how many guns used in homicides are still on the street but officials say it's common for the gun to remain missing.

Flint has ranked as the most violent city with more than 100,000 people in the nation the last three years and has led the nation in that category five times since 2005.

Of the record-breaking 67 homicides in Flint last year, 59 involved a gun, according to records.

Without a doubt, taking a gun used in a homicide off the street is a top priority, said First Lt. Matt Bolger, commander of the Michigan State Police post.

"No. 1, it's evidence and No. 2 it's taken off the street," he said.

Flint Police Chief Alvern Lock echoed those statements.

"That's prime evidence," he said.

Flint Police Capt. T.P. Johnson said it's hard to say how many guns are recovered when charges are not yet issued because it varies case to case. Police use search warrants and interviews with witnesses and suspects to try and locate the gun to get it off the street.

Over time and combined with other crimes, the number of unrecovered guns adds up, said Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, who belongs to the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition.

During a four-month period last year, authorities seized 125 firearms in Flint during a targeted enforcement by local, state and federal police agencies. Flint police collected 547 guns last year, according to a Freedom of Information Act request.

"The number of gun-related crimes where the gun is not confiscated year after year adds up to a crisis," he said.

The missing guns can also hamper efforts to prosecute homicides.

In two 2012 Flint murder cases where the gun was not recovered, criminal charges were dismissed -- in part because there was no evidence.

"When a gun is not recovered in a homicide, we are unable to test it for ballistics, DNA or fingerprints," said Leyton, adding that police make every effort to recover weapons used in crimes.

In one of the 2012 homicide case where no gun was recovered, charges were dismissed against Brandon Sillman and two others charged in the Nov. 11 slaying of 23-year-old Mauricia Christensen at a home on Gracelawn near King Avenue.

"They have nothing on Mr. Sillman," said his attorney, Patricia Lazzio. "There's no admissible evidence."

Leyton said the dismissals had to do with a witness, who also was a victim in the shooting, backing out.

In the other, charges were dismissed against Terence Brock in the December death of Gerrell Tyler in Flint.

No gun was recovered in that case either and Lazzio said the lone evidence prosecutors have is a fingerprint in the back exterior of the car.

"There's no evidence against Terence Brock,"said Lazzio, who said prosecutors could still refile charges in the case.

The lack of a gun, however, doesn't always doom a criminal case.

In one of the shootings where no gun was found, the suspect's girlfriend testified that she threw it away after woman scrapping an abandoned home found it and gave to her.

"I just wrapped it up and put it in a trash bag and put it at my back door," Charman Taylor testified at a preliminary examination for Michael McDonald in the Oct. 22 slaying of Jasper Simmons, according to court records.

Without the gun, Leyton said prosecutors used other evidence to try the case.

In cases where police did recover the gun used in a homicide, it was usually found near the victim or at the suspect's home. In four of the 10 slayings where guns were recovered, court records show that the defendant either claimed self defense or told police the shooting was accidental.