AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- After two weeks and 75 witnesses, the trial of the only man charged in the mysterious disappearance of atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair appears to hinge on one question: Is she alive?
Prosecutors hope to convince the jury that a vast web of mostly circumstantial evidence is enough to convict Gary Karr, 52, with conspiring to kidnap and extort money from O'Hair, her son Jon Garth Murray and her granddaughter Robin Murray O'Hair.Karr's attorneys point out that -- despite testimony that the O'Hairs were killed and dismembered -- no bodies have been found, leaving open the possibility the O'Hairs are still alive. Closing arguments were scheduled to begin Tuesday.
"The crime for which Mr. Karr is presently indicted is a crime of violence," assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald Carruth said shortly before the trial started. "We do believe Mr. Karr is a very dangerous individual."
Prison inmates testified earlier in the trial that Karr told them he was involved the slayings. Federal agents presented hundreds of telephone calls, car rentals, airplane trips and other financial transactions they said implicated Karr in the plot.
Still, Tom Mills, Karr's attorney, said last week that the prosecution hadn't proved its case. "The defense analysis is that the government's case is not factually tight and insufficient in some significant areas," Mills said.
Two people testified for the defense that they saw O'Hair alive during the time prosecutors say she was kidnapped or killed -- once during the summer or fall of 1995 in a San Antonio bar and once in a restaurant in Romania in November 1997.
O'Hair is best known for launching the legal challenge that led to the 1963 Supreme Court decision effectively striking down organized prayer in public schools as unconstitutional.
The O'Hairs disappeared in 1995 with $500,000 in gold coins purchased with money from their organization, United Secularists of America. Investigators believe the trio was kidnapped by Karr, O'Hair's former office manager David R. Waters and their cohort, Danny Fry.
Only Karr has been charged. Waters is in prison on federal weapons charges and Fry was found dead in Dallas County in 1995 with his head and hands chopped off.
Karr faces life in prison if convicted.