Usually the passage of time weakens cold homicide cases. Key witnesses die or move away, evidence is misplaced and memories fade.
Kimberly Greene-Medina, 19
But in one significant way it was easier to prove Kimberly “Kimmy” Greene-Medina was murdered this past week than it would have been if the case had gone to trial in 1996: it proved that the 19-year-old mother wasn’t just missing, but dead.
A jury found Michael J. Medina guilty Friday of murdering his wife Greene-Medina. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Two prosecutors in District Attorney George Brauchler’s office took the case against Medina to trial despite some big holes in the case.
John Kellner, a deputy district attorney in Brauchler’s newly formed cold case unit, and Cara Morlan, also a deputy district attorney, didn’t have a body, a weapon, a murder scene or an eye witness to help prove their case.
“It wasn’t just not having a body but it was also the complete lack of a crime scene as well,” said Kellner.
Kimmy’s remains have yet to be found. There was little or no physical evidence confirming a story of how she died.
Greene-Medina’s family and friends had long said she would never abandon her two young daughters, then 2 and 3 years old. But it still could have happened.
Kellner and Morlan studied cases around the country in which prosecutors took murder cases to trial without a body.
“There weren’t a lot of cases but there were some,” Kellner said.
Among the cases they reviewed was the murder of Kristina Tournai-Sandoval on Oct. 19, 1995 in Greeley.