Reiser reportedly leads police to wife's body
Hans Reiser, the Linux programmer convicted in April of murdering his estranged wife, has led police to what is believed to be her body, authorities told the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday.
The remains were found Monday afternoon buried next to a deer trail in the hills of Oakland, Calif., Reiser's defense attorney, who accompanied his client to the site, told the newspaper. Police said the body has not been identified. A news conference is planned for Tuesday.
In April, following a drama-filled six-month trial, a jury found Reiser, 44, guilty of first-degree murder in the 2006 killing of Nina Reiser, with whom he was undergoing a bitter divorce. Reiser is currently being held without bail pending his sentencing scheduled for Wednesday.
Hans Reiser
(Credit: via Stanford University)Throughout the trial, Reiser maintained his innocence. Arguing the so-called "geek defense," his attorney maintained that while Reiser may be strange, arrogant, even abnormal, his odd behavior following Nina's disappearance wasn't evidence of murder.
However, Wired reported in June that a deal was in the works in which Reiser would lead authorities to his wife's body in exchange for a reduced sentence. Wired writer David Kravets quotes an anonymous source familiar with the deal who says Reiser's cooperation could reduce his April conviction from first-degree murder to second degree. A second-degree conviction in California carries a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life, Kravets wrote.
Reiser is known to the technology world as the founder of the ReiserFS file system software, which is available for Linux. Nina Reiser, then 31, was last seen alive on September 3, 2006, in Oakland, as she was dropping off the couple's two children for the Labor Day weekend. Despite exhaustive searches by authorities, Nina's body was not found before the trial.
CNET News.com's Michelle Meyers contributed to this report.
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. Before joining CNET News in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers. E-mail Steven. 
The shame is that he lead to the dead body as part of a plea bargain.
Go Get a Doughnut.
ResierFS is a file system, which is not part of the Linux operating system.
Hans Reiser, the Linux programmer convicted in April of murdering ...
As if the operating system environment has any applicability to the story. Would it be less important to the reporter if Reiser worked in Windoze?
Why did the reporter start the article that way?
a) I wasn't interested in the story until I read that. In fact I had skipped over this story twice on 2 other news sites because I didn't realize that. Yeah, I'm a bit geeky, I've even exchanged emails with Reiser a few years ago related to the file system ... so I'm an edge case ... but it definitely supports why they would put that there.
b) had this been a Microsoft employee who had, say, created NTFS do you think they wouldn't have put that in the article? Sure they would have. And many many more people would have queued into it because of that.
No reason to assume there was some weird OS bias in this article. It briefly mentioned a key way that some people would know of him. That's all.
"In fact I had skipped over this story twice on 2 other news sites because I didn't realize that. "
"Yeah, I'm a bit geeky, I've even exchanged emails with Reiser a few years ago related to the file system"
So you skipped over the articles about Reiser because you didn't know he was a programmer but you emailed him a few times?
***?
Hans Reiser, a convicted murderer in April for the murder of his wife, has led police to her body, according to San Francisco Chronicle on Monday.
In April, he not only murdered Nina, but he further assassinate her character, image and slander her with the power his tongue. Hans Reiser is a pathological liar that is insecure and a plain loser who should never see the day light again.
To drop this to second degree murder to shave 10 years off his sentences to spare his life is a injustice to Nina and to law abiding citizens. The DA should retract their deal as this was in the interest of Justice to recover her body.
Hans Reiser premeditated the murder of his wife as his son watch him drag her body in a rolled up carpet to dispose of the evidence. And this is justice!
Justice is the death penalty with immediate carrying out of the sentences. He obviously thought he was the judge and jury when he took Nina's life, so the same should be applied to him.
It's funny to see three strikes law puts a person a way for life but murder for only 15 years. What justice is this ?
It is revenge.
It fits the legal definition of murder. So I guess we should put the judges, prosecutors, jurors, and those that carry out the murders on death row as well.
- by agreddon July 8, 2008 7:03 PM PDT
- I agree that there isn't a direct cause and effect to child custody and this murder. However, you cannot solve one and ignore the other. From what I can see Nina Reiser obtained Russian citizenship for her children. That sort of thing should be prevented. She didn't deserve to die because of it, but if she was getting ready to move the kids halfway around the world from their father that's another issue.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(31 Comments)