Man on Trial for 3rd Time in Murder Case in Which No Bodies Were Found

Ten years after a Northridge family disappeared without a trace, a 49-year-old Englishman who once owned a Reseda auto body shop went on trial Monday for their murder--for the third time.

In one of the most unusual murder cases ever to hit the Los Angeles criminal justice system, prosecutors say Harvey Rader killed Sol Salomon, his wife and two children. But there are no bodies and, defense lawyers say, there is no physical evidence to prove that Rader committed a crime--or even that the Salomon family is dead.

“There is no concrete evidence that the family was killed,” defense lawyer Joel Isaacson told a jury Monday during his opening argument. “They have no bodies. They have no body parts. They have no idea whether this family was killed. . . . The real situation with the Salomon family is that their whereabouts are unknown.”

But prosecutor Lonnie Felker told the jury that there is enough circumstantial evidence--including scratches on Rader’s forearms and the fact that Rader was spotted with a car belonging to Salomon’s wife, Elaine--to convict him.

Felker also told the jury that a friend of Elaine Salomon would testify that, when the two ended a telephone conversation on the night the family disappeared, Mrs. Salomon said she had to hang up because Rader was at the door.

The Salomon family--Sol, Elaine and their two children, 9-year-old Mitchell and 10-year-old Michalle--disappeared on Oct. 12, 1982. Rader was not charged with the crime until 1988.

The prosecution says that Rader killed Salomon, an Israeli immigrant who sold and repaired fire extinguishers for a living, after their business relationship went sour.

Rader, being held without bail in Los Angeles County Jail, has maintained his innocence.

His first trial ended with the jury deadlocked 11 to 1 for conviction, and the second trial ended in a mistrial.