Betrayal

A Computer Genius, His Russian Bride, The KGB And The Ultimate Betrayal

(CBS)  Update: Hans Reiser led police to what is believed to be her body on Monday, July 7, 2008, defense attorneys said. Read more.

California computer whiz Hans Reiser seemed to have it all-a beautiful Russian wife, two children, and a successful career. But the seemingly perfect life hit turbulence when several years into the marriage his wife Nina had an affair with one of his friends. The couple eventually separated and would become embroiled in a nasty custody fight.

Fast forward to September 2006, Labor Day weekend, when Nina dropped the children off at their father's house and mysteriously vanished in the hours that followed. Nina's body has never been found.

Was her husband-or someone else-somehow involved in her disappearance?

Correspondent Maureen Maher reports.

---

With questions swirling about Nina's 2006 disappearance, Oakland's Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan sent out an army of investigators to the last place she was seen: the Oakland Hills house where she had dropped off her children.

Technology writer Josh Davis, a 48 Hours consultant, has interviewed Hans several times and says parts of the story just don't add up. "How could a mother suddenly just say, 'Snap, that's it, forget it? I'm taking off?' Unless it was a massive orchestrated disappearance?" he asks.

But that is exactly what some people think-that Nina concocted an elaborate plot to escape to her homeland. Asked if there's a chance that Nina is alive and living in Russia someplace, Davis says, "I think there's a slim chance."

Years before she disappeared, a photograph of Nina in a Russian bride magazine first caught Hans' eye. He quickly got in touch and the two seemingly fell in love. "She called me and said 'I’m going to go to the U.S. to visit Hans and his parents and I don't know how it will work out but I really love him and this is probably the real guy,'" remembers Katia Filippova, who has known Nina since childhood.

Apparently it worked out rather well-within a month of setting foot on U.S. soil, Nina announced she was pregnant with their son Rory.

That raised a red flag with Hans' father, Ramon Reiser. He thinks the pregnancy was planned on her part, and points out that she was an OB/GYN and would have known everything about birth control. He also believes Nina's plan was to get a free ride to America and U.S. citizenship.

Ramon demanded to know more about this new woman from Russia. "So I said, 'What are her strong points?' And he said, 'Well, she's widely read, she's had the discipline to be a doctor, she's fairly quick, but compared to the girls I've known, she's very shallow.' And I said, 'Do not marry her,'" he remembers.

But Hans ignored his father's advice and married Nina in 1999 when she was five months pregnant.

"Hans is an unusual person, there's no doubt about it. When you sit in a room with him, there's a kind of an energy that's both intense and a little off-putting," Davis says.

Nina took it all in stride; after all, Hans was a successful businessman who was building up his computer software company.

In 2002, Hans made over $1 million; his code was so ingenious that even the U.S. Department of Defense was a client. "He got a $600,000 grant from them and that financed him for a while," Davis explains.

With Hans a computer star and Nina studying for her U.S. medical license, the Reisers seemed to have it all. They had a second child, a daughter named Nio.

According to Nina's friend Ellen Doren, Nina was devoted to her children. But Hans' work became his life and now he was the one living in Russia while Nina stayed back in Oakland. "Nina ended up raising the children by herself most of the time here in the States," Ellen says.

And Ellen says Nina felt abandoned.

[colonel_panik]

Hans Reiser led police to Nina's body on July 7, 2008.
See the wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser#Recovery_of_Nina.27s_body_and_sentencing

pretty conclusive. Sean was apparently a "red sturgeon"

[babooph]

Sounds like she may be dead,he may have killed her ,but maybe not.......

[graigrsmith]

"What nailed it for me was the testimony of the son. He drew a picture of his father possibly carrying his dead mother down the stairs. That explains the mother''''s blood on the beam."

i don''t remember ever seeing any news about that. Well if that''s true he probably did do it.

[graigrsmith]

you know. i don''t know how they could actually convict him. they really had no evidence. other than the fact that he was weird and strange and did weird and strange things.

nothing conclusively points out a definitive answer on weather or not he killed her. if i was a juror i would have to put myself in his shoes and look for actual evidence. i could imagine how much it must suck to be imprisoned for something you didn''t do. that''s why there has to be definitive evidence, which i don''t believe they had any of that. just feelings and wishy washy weirdness is all they used to convict him.

[apprxam]

CBS, please don''t turn into ABC NEWS by feeding us commercials on blogs. 48Hours suck anyway.

[patriot12436]

Even if she was a ***, the worst woman in the world, she was a person and had a right to live. Do you think because she came from Russia she wasn''t human ?

[patriot12436]

nopatriot
Are you on drugs or just cannot speak english fluently. Your posts are only babble. I can''t see what point you are trying to make.

[Latrocinor]

But Hans ignored his father''s advice and married Nina in 1999 when she was five months pregnant.
.. .. ..
That say''s it all.

[roscoezzz]

Hans should never have taken the witness stand. He should''ve kept his mouth shut. I read the "statement" after the show, where the police will offer him a lesser charge if he leads them to the body. He''ll take it I''m sure.
What nailed it for me was the testimony of the son. He drew a picture of his father possibly carrying his dead mother down the stairs. That explains the mother''s blood on the beam. Plus, that phone call to his mother was pretty cold and he talked about his ex-wife in a past tense sort-of-way.
It''s too bad. This woman surrounded herself with weird men. Her lover, who claimed he had killed 8 women, I think that was a made up story to throw suspicion away from Hans.

[nanging3]

We can make a difference, lets%u2019 tell the ArchBishop that muzzling %u201CFather%u201D
Pfleger for the 100th time, just won%u2019t cut it. We want him removed, he is a
disgrace to the Catholic church and everything Holy%u2026
Petition site%u2026please pass it on%u2026

www.thepetitionsite.com/1/removable-of
-father-michael-pfleger

[nopatriot]

He really apologized to me again and again.So I did not suit him but I wonder why I had to have court process with my own money to take back my right title "No arrested record". I believe it is not happened in japan, Japanese police apology and will change my status if they did wrong to me, but Oakland police did not charge me but no apology. I want to make a big deal this more than suit police station to get small amount of money. I did not get any money from any law suit yet, because I am not doing this for money but for right human rights.
So I am discussing this issue in japan also inter nationally. I know what''s to happen to me.
I was sleeping in our bed , suddenly my partner started to be temper called 911. Could police arrest me at that time? Thank you for America, you are so kind. And some japanese people talk about these selfish Americans sometime do this way. They don''t care they tell lies or call 911 to proceed their own way. They don''t care if they hit a car and claim victimized to sue real victims etc...
Even Japanese embassy note attention about those crazy Americans involve innocent Japanese in trouble in USA.

[nanging3]

speaking of betrayal...Betrayal to Catholics

www.thepetitionsite.com/1/removable-of-father-michael-pfleger


Please sign the petition to get "Father" Pfleger removed permanently. He is a disgrace to the Catholic church.

[nopatriot]

I had a finger mark he has grabbing my both arms he was pretty excite by himself. But even police did not see any thing to me. Only doctor in Jail listened to me. I believe it was abuse. However he apologized to me and he proceeded to destroy my arrested record but Oakland police rejected. I have never had such a crazy incident in my life. I am a Japanese protected by Japanese police for 38 years, suddenly abused by Oakland police officers who are racists do not ask me anything what'' s happened.
I don''t really believe USA police system, I did not do anything wrong, the crazy boyfriend did not want to stay with me and temporary wanted to take me away from his house. Anyway I hired a lawyer to take back my right status"destroy arrested record"
But I really get upset about this USA system.
IF the charge happened to me at that time, some racists might attack me as a criminal woman who attacked him.I was a successful in Japan, I was better live in japan more than proceed to get marry with temper horrible guy.

[nopatriot]

Only Hans knows what''s happened to him.
But I really felt strange if he had motivation to kill wife more than his successful business life.
By the way, Oakland Police does wrong way sometime.
When I was victimized in small argument, my boyfriend called 911 and told lies to police. Then police came to our house and took me away. It was horrible.Because I had no idea when my boyfriend started to get up set.Police did not listen to me at all. And they asked me "You hit him, scratched him."
Was torture to me. I did not charged (Of corse I did not touch him and I was afraid of him.) But amazingly He had scratch mark. I guess he got a mark from branch of trees or the corner of tray.
I know what'' really happened to me. I asked him "When will you get marry me?" He started to go out of the room and called police and told lies. I stayed at two nights in Oakland jail from his lies.
He insisted on even if he did not lie to police, police could take me away from his house. Yes, he was so mean to me. I had option to go back my own house but he did not let me go.

[carolcape]

This kind of crime happens quite regularly in severe custody disputes. She should never have gone to his home by herself, she was putting her children in harms way also. He definitely did kill her, the money issues and losing his children and the infidelity with his friend, who she left and then picked up with another man, doesn''t give much weight to her integrity. But from all accounts she was a good mother. The father in this case should have gotten custody of his children, with help from family members. He had as much right to them as she did. She should not have gone to his home by herself, she should have taken a lawyer. I''d say they had a severe argument and it got out of hand. The evidence against him was the blood in the home and also the car seat which was not in his car, very suspicious. Yes, the jury was right in convicting him, but I don''t know if they would have if they had the evidence of the boyfriend that killed 8 people, if he is telling the truth. She sure didn''t screen her men too good. Well, there is no justice for the children, because they now are motherless and fatherless, nobody really wins. The law won to get him behind bars, that is a good ending. Hope the children are well and happy.

[carolcape]

Why some of these women still put themselves in harms way when going through a custody dispute. She knew his temper and how volotile he could be, why put herself in his company alone? This is not the first woman who has done this and she is also putting her children in harms way, which has been evident recently by a family being wiped out by the father, because of custody matters. She should have never been in his company alone and should have taken another person with her, even her lawyer. This is a crime that happens over and over again, which doesn''t need to. I don''t think it was premeditated, I believe he went in a rage and killed her. If his carseat hadn''t been missing, possibly he would have gotten away with it. He did not have time to clean up the crime and that is what got him caught. He could have very well have gotten away with it if he hadn''t made so many foul ups, which was an excellent thing to happen for the law. Blessings to the two innocent children, who now have no mother and no father. Nobody wins. The law won here which is excellent. If the jury had known about this other boyfriend that had killed 8 people, I wonder would they have convicted him, I don''t think so.

[gopsoccermom]

Like many women, she just married him for his money and didnt care. Its sad how some women have evolved.

[killtheliars]

she is a Russian and gold digger. who cares what happened to her. She should have never been here in the first place.

[patriot12436]

If the wife was connected to the KGB they could give her a fake identity with a passport. It left out a lot of details as o why Hans was working in Russia, conviction without a body is very rare, a friend that admitted to killing other people and was her lover, another boyfriend, I wonder with so many holes to fill how did the jury convit. They are supposed to listen to the evidence and convict on facts. If i had been on the jury for O.J. Simpson i would have had to vote not guilty and i think he did it, but the prosecutor tuned out to be his best defense. Also why was the grandmother allowed to remove two American citizens to the Soviet Union. Sounds like maybe the sate department had some involvement here.

Hey! Didn''t you watch til the end? Hans is said to be willing to take authorities to where Nena''s body was buried in exchange for a lesser sentence...no body/no murder..ha! You peeps are dopes. Listen to his phone conversation with his mother...speaking of his "missing" wife in the PAST TENSE...wow...ignorance surely must be bliss.