In his closing argument in Reiser's trial, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hora said "there's no doubt" that Nina, who was 31 when she disappeared on Sept. 3, 2006 after dropping off the couple's two children at Hans Reiser's house in the Oakland hills, is dead because she never would have abandoned her children.
Speaking in the packed courtroom of Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman and displaying photographs of Nina with her children, Hora said, "There's no way she leaves these kids. No way."
Hora said the fact that Nina was a devoted mother was proved when police found three books on parenting in her car when it was discovered a week after she disappeared.
Hora said Nina "vanished from the face of the earth" and Sept. 3, 2006, and it has now been "591 days without a trace and counting." Nina and Hans Reiser met in Russia, where she was born and was trained as a physician, and where he often spent time doing business for his computer file system company.
They married in 1999, but she filed for divorce and separated from him in 2004. Nina was awarded legal custody of their children, but Hans had visitation rights. Their divorce case, which Hans Reiser has admitted was acrimonious, was still pending when she disappeared.
Hans Reiser has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
DuBois, who will give his closing argument later this week, has said that he thinks Nina may still be alive and be in hiding somewhere, possibly in Russia.
