One of Mr. Reeves's sons from his second marriage -- who was in the yard outside when his mother was shot in her bed in 1978 -- testified for the prosecution, saying he saw Mr. Reeves camping at Lake Whitney on Oct. 13.

Even before the body was found, Arlington police testified, Mr. Reeves brought up Lake Whitney when questioned about his wife.

''I heard him say, 'If Emelita is found or if her body is found in Lake Whitney, am I going to be blamed?,' '' Tom Lenoir, an Arlington police detective, testified.

The Arlington police did not search the Reeves home until more than a year after the woman vanished.

At the trial, District Attorney Andy McMullen acknowledged to the jury that his case was a circumstantial one. But, Mr. McMullen said, ''All the evidence taken together points to one man -- only one man.''

Emelita Reeves had told friends that she was planning to leave Mr. Reeves and that he had attacked her on the day before her disappearance, Mr. McMullen said.

Mr. Reeves's second wife was shot days after winning a divorce, said Sandy Gately, the Coryell County District Attorney. Mr. Reeves got the divorce overturned the day after his wife died when she did not show up in court. A justice of the peace, without an autopsy, later ruled the shooting a suicide, Mrs. Gately said. The 34-year-old woman's body was exhumed after Emelita Reeves disappeared.