Witnesses at trial told the jury that he had done landscaping work in the backyard — a detail consistent with having buried something there. A neighbor had noticed new turf in the yard around the time of the disappearances, which he explained by referencing plumbing work.
Among the most significant physical evidence in the 2013 trial were two book bags found buried with the remains: one from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, one from the University of Southern California. Jurors, in post-verdict interviews, identified the book bags as among the most compelling evidence in the case — physical objects that connected the man who had passed through Wisconsin on his way to California to the burial site in San Marino.
The murder weapon was never recovered. No weapon was ever identified with certainty. The nature of the injuries — blunt force trauma to the head, multiple stab wounds, dismemberment — established that the killing had been deliberate and that significant effort had been made to conceal the remains, but did not by itself establish who had committed it.
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## The 2013 Murder Trial
The trial in Los Angeles County took place in March and April 2013. Gerhartsreiter entered a not guilty plea. He did not take the stand.
The prosecution built its case around the circumstances of the disappearance, the discovery and identification of the remains, the defendant’s documented presence on the property, and the accumulated evidence of his flight — the identity changes, the false story about the Sohuses going to Europe, the Sohus truck in Greenwich.