This month Werner Lippe was tried for second-degree murder in the death of his wife Faith, who’s been missing since October 2008. It looks like a fairly typical example of a man who didn’t want to go through the legal hassle and financial wrangling of a divorce (he already had two ex-wives), so he opted for another route. Werner did make three confessions, one directly to the police, but the prosecution was hampered by a complete lack of physical evidence of foul play. No blood, bone fragments, not even the barrel they think Werner burned his wife’s body in.
After four days, the jury was unable to reach a verdict, so the judge declared a mistrial. Werner will have to be retried later, probably years from now. He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted. He and Faith have two children together. One detail I saw was that Werner made their son (who was about 13 or so at the time) audio-tape the marital arguments for evidence in the upcoming divorce. That’s cold. But is Werner a killer? I don’t know.
Articles:
Washington Post
Newsday
The Journal News
The Charley Project Blog 