BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Proving someone has committed murder without finding the victim’s body is difficult, but not impossible.
A Kern County jury found Trezell and Jacqueline West — the adoptive parents of Orrin and Orson West — guilty of five of seven charges related to their disappearance and the death of Orrin West. The boys have never been found.
The last such case of a no-body murder conviction in Kern County was the case of Daniel Rhoads.
The Caliente man was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for gunning down William Alford in 2018.
Rhoads admitted to officials he shot Alford, after Alford forced his way into his house and threatened him.
Rhoads told investigators after the shooting, he loaded Alford’s body into his pickup and tossed it inside a large trash bin off Caliente Bodfish Road.
Alford’s body was never found.
Test results from the scene of the shooting revealed a bullet fragment was found and had DNA on it consistent with Alford’s DNA profile.
