Hans Reiser, the Linux programmer convicted in April of killing his wife, Nina Reiser, has led authorities to her body in the Oakland hills, one of his attorneys has confirmed.
The Oakland Police Department also confirms a body was found Monday, but the remains "have not yet been positively identified," spokesman Roland Holmgren said.
Threat Level reported last month that Reiser was attempting to negotiate a deal for a 15-to-life sentence instead of 25-to-life if he produced his wife's body. Monday, a woman's body was found outside a park in the Oakland hills, about a half mile from where Nina was last seen in 2006 at Reiser's house in the Oakland hills in California.
"She was buried in a quasi-shallow grave, about four feet," said defense attorney Richard Tamor. "She was in head-first and her feet sideways."
Tamor said it was not far from the road. "You could see and hear traffic where it was," he said.
According to Tamor, dozens of armed officers followed Reiser and co-counsel William DuBois -- who was handcuffed to Reiser -- down a steep hillside before Reiser pointed out the spot where the body was concealed.
Nina Reiser's body was just half a mile from Hans Reiser's home, the last place she was seen alive.
View Larger Map"He passed it, and as he passed it, Bill said, 'Does any of this look familiar? Look at this flat spot right here. Does that look familiar at all?,'" Tamor said. "He said, 'Yeah, we passed it. It's up there.' He pointed it out, they started digging. They found a bag and they started exhuming."
Tamor said authorities discovered the decomposing body in one piece and said it was in what he described as a "duffel bag."
Reiser was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday. During his 11 days on the stand, he claimed his 31-year-old wife abandoned the couple's two young children after he accused her of bilking Namesys, his software company.
Sentencing is likely to be put off as defense attorneys and the authorities broker a deal for a reduced term, Tamor said. "He really has changed his tune. He wants to give something to his children. He has a different focus now. So part of this is the machinations of a deal, and part of it is, quite frankly, wanting to do the right thing now."
Before authorities brought him back to a nearby jail, they gave Reiser, who was wearing his red jail jumpsuit, a few moments "to reflect a little, to meditate near the body."
"They were very kind to him," Tamor added.
Update:
Nina Reiser's body was recovered Monday from a ravine along this Oakland hills hiking trail.
Jon Snyder/ Wired.comAt about 12:30 p.m. Pacific, we returned from the Oakland hills, across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco, where the authorities retrieved Nina's body. The police had already left the scene, which is where a residential neighborhood meets the woods.
We parked near a house and walked about five minutes up a trail near a hillside thick with brush and littered with poison oak. A hawk soared overhead as a hiker approached.
"I walk these trails constantly," said Mary Gulick, who could not believe a body was pulled out of the brush the night before near where she was standing. "I walk right here every day."
Albert Chui's big red house almost abuts the trailhead where Reiser dumped his wife's body. As he pointed to miles of open space, he said: "I had a feeling it was somewhere out here."
See Also:
- Lawyers Claim Hans Reiser is Competent, Incompetent
- In Note to Judge, Hans Reiser Asks for New Lawyer
- Lawyers to Judge: Hans Reiser May Be 'Mentally Incompetent' -- UPDATE
- Hans Reiser Offers To Lead Cops to Nina's Body
- Hans Reiser Guilty of First Degree Murder
- Juror: Hans Reiser Planned the Murder, 'Thought It Out'
- Reiser Jurors Reach Verdict
