This is a strange crime documentary indeed: an American computer whizz kid and his Russian mail order bride; a murder trial without a body; a fantasist/attention seeker/idiot who confesses to killing "eight and a half people", and a conditional confession following conviction.
Hans Reiser has the sort of creepy voice that could give Boris Karloff nightmares; his chum and cuckold is not much better; the "48 Hours" team must have relished putting this one together, although they play it straight. So does everyone else including Reiser's attorney who genuinely believed his client to be innocent; it was certainly plausible that Nina Reiser had taken off to her native Russian where she would at one point reappear and join their two offspring. There was though the little matter of the forensic evidence that while not exactly overwhelming was certainly incriminating. Reiser took the stand - how can anyone accused of murder not take the stand, exceptional circumstances considered? Whatever, it didn't do him any good. It remains to be seen if his later reduced sentence will ever allow him to see daylight again.