No Body, No Doubt:Bryan Stewart·Jamie Laiaddee

Jamie Laiaddee was a successful medical supply saleswoman living in Chandler, Arizona. Her live-in boyfriend called himself Bryan Stewart, but his legal name was Rick Wayne Valentini. He had taken the new identity in 2001, using forged documents, to leave behind a troubled past that included three ex-wives.

Jamie was last seen on March 18, 2010, the day she was due to start a new job in Phoenix. Her suitcases and passport stayed at home, and her bank and email activity stopped. Stewart said the couple had broken up and that she had talked of moving to Denver. Meanwhile, he was found driving her car and using her credit cards. At his Scottsdale apartment, investigators found her wallet and credit cards, plus her driver’s license cut into pieces, and DNA showed he had sealed the envelope holding the shredded license.

With no body, Maricopa County prosecutor Juan Martinez built a case from financial records, witnesses and Stewart’s own lies. In November 2011, a jury convicted him of second-degree murder and fraud after about four hours, and he was sentenced to a total of 54 years. In June 2018, workers at a landscaping supply business in Chandler found Jamie’s skeletal remains, which were identified later that month.