Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
State’s murder case has no body
Prosecutors trying to prove husband killed Miramar mom
No one has seen Vilet Torrez since March 31, 2012, when she vanished from her home in Miramar.
Prosecutors believe the mother of three is dead, slain by her husband, Cid Torrez, 43. And they’re willing to put him on trial for murder, even though they lack one of the most vital sources of evidence in any homicide case — the body.
“There’s no way to overstate how important it is to have the body,” said former prosecutor Gregg Rossman. “The body is usually the victim’s only way of speaking to us” through the evidence. The condition of the body usually tells investigators how and when someone died, whether he or she struggled, and sometimes, through DNA, who the victim struggled with.
Jury selection has begun in the case, which will resume July 5. Prosecutors and Cid Torrez’s defense lawyer declined to comment on the case, in which jurors will be asked to send Torrez to prison for the rest of his life.
But first, prosecutors will have to prove that Vilet Torrez, 38, is dead, and that her
death was caused by the criminal act of the man she was married to for 13 years.
That won’t be easy, but it won’t be impossible, Rossman said.
In recent years, Broward prosecutors have handled two murder cases involving missing bodies, winning a conviction each time. But one of those convictions was overturned because there was not enough evidence a murder had taken place. The accused killer is now a free man.
Finding even some remains is helpful because they establish the victim is dead. Paul Edwards was convicted in 2015 of killing his girlfriend, Lisa Spence, after investigators found her headless body. Paul Trucchio and Robert Mackey were convicted in 2012 and 2013, respectively, for the murder of Lorraine Hatzakorzian. In that case, a witness found the victim’s head, but the rest of the body was never recovered.
When no part of the body is recovered, the challenge is amplified, Rossman said.
He successfully tried the case against Oscar Camejo, a homeless man accused of killing a Davie woman, Jill Dornbush, who refused to let him use her shower in 2010. Camejo and his girlfriend, Delia Padron, dumped the victim’s body in a garbage bin behind a shopping strip. It was incinerated before police even knew Dornbush was missing.
Still, “a body isn’t the only source of evidence in a murder trial,” Rossman said. “After the body, the next thing we’re going to want is the crime scene.”
In the Dornbush murder, it was her home. Evidence during the trial showed that a wall and door had been painted over and a piece of carpeting removed to hide blood stains. Camejo left blood-stained clothing in the victim’s trash can.
That evidence helped convince the jury Camejo was guilty.
With Vilet Torrez, prosecutors appear to be hoping expert testimony will help establish the victim is dead. Dogs trained to detect human remains were brought to Torrez’s Miramar neighborhood, and they led their police handlers to the Torrez home, although those handlers were not told about the case, according to court records.
One dog led his handler to the trunk of a white Jaguar, records show. The vehicle belonged to Cid Torrez.
The third most significant source of evidence, Rossman said, is witnesses, including statements made by the defendant.
In a 911 call placed days after his wife was last seen at her Harbour Lakes townhome, Cid Torrez told a dispatcher that she disappeared after saying she was going to work. “Saturday, she wasn’t here,” he said during the call. “Friday night, she didn’t come to sleep.”
Surveillance footage at Harbour Lakes showed Vilet Torrez arriving in the community on March 31, 2012, a Saturday morning.
In a later statement, Torrez said, “Now Sunday I definitely did it.”
Torrez’s lawyer, Richard Della Fera, said in a previous interview that the statement was innocuous, a reference to Torrez calling his mother-in-law.
Torrez also made statements to a friend asking for help buying a gun, asking about how to hide a body, and threatening, “if she’s not with me, she will be dead.”
The Torrez marriage was rocky.
Cid Torrez was living in another apartment and Vilet was dating a colleague at a bathroom remodeling company at the time of her disappearance. Police said Cid Torrez installed spyware on his wife’s cellphone to track her movements.
One of the witnesses scheduled to testify is the couple’s daughter, who told police that early on March 31, 2012, she heard a howling sound followed by her father’s voice saying “No, you wake up!”
The three children, the daughter and two sons, are now in the custody of Vilet Torrez’s mother.
It will be up to the jury to decide whether the evidence, without the body, is strong enough to convict. But even a jury’s verdict might not be the last word.
Prosecutors convinced a jury in 2008 that Naraine “Cyril” Ramsammy killed his wife, Annette Rabino, despite her body never being found. Two years later, Ramsammy was freed when an appeals court ruled the suspicions were not enough to support a conviction.
“The mere disappearance, the fact that they were no longer around, in and of itself does not prove criminal action,” said defense lawyer David Bogenschutz, who handled Ramsammy’s appeal.