Killer or victim? It’s up to the jury

By Scott North

Herald Writer

An Arlington man whose wife mysteriously disappeared in 1989 was characterized Tuesday as either a cunning killer who has gotten away with murder for a dozen years or the victim of cruel speculation.

It is up to a Snohomish County jury to decide which portrait of David C. Schubert, 62, is true.

Schubert, a former Arlington police officer and insurance broker, is charged with first-degree murder in the June 1989 disappearance of his wife, Juliana Schubert, 30. He insists the mother of his sons, then ages 6 and 8, simply walked away from her life, leaving behind her car, cash and children.

Evidence suggests Schubert is a "perfectionist control freak" who married a much younger woman so she could give him children and then reacted with premeditated murder when she began to break away, deputy prosecutor Paul Stern said in the trial’s opening statements.

"David Schubert was beginning to lose control over one of his possessions," and he killed to make sure his life was not unsettled by the costly inconvenience of a divorce, Stern claimed.

But the missing woman’s own sons, now adults, have memories of their mother climbing into a red car driven by a woman with blond hair and simply leaving, countered Rick Leo, one of Schubert’s public defenders.

Juliana Schubert’s body has never been found. No blood or other evidence of her killing was discovered during searches of the Schubert home.

Before David Schubert can be found guilty of his wife’s murder, jurors must first be convinced that she is dead and that she was a victim of homicide, and more particularly, that her husband did the deed, Leo said.

The lawyer said the lack of hard evidence will mean jurors will have "inferences and innuendoes," but too much reasonable doubt to convict Schubert of killing his wife.

Prosecutors on Tuesday called friends and family of Juliana Schubert, who testified that she was breaking away from her husband at the time of her disappearance and had even had a brief affair with one man.

Their suspicions about her disappearance were heightened when David Schubert did not report her missing to police and then told inconsistent stories about where she had gone, jurors were told.

Schubert’s attorneys hammered on the apparent weak parts of the case.

Public defender Richard Tassano grilled sheriff’s detective Joe Ward on the lack of evidence showing how Juliana Schubert was killed. His voice rising, Tassano went through a litany of possible ways to murder, from poisoning to shooting to beating and suffocating.

How, Tassano wondered, did Juliana Schubert die?

Ward said the lack of blood in her house eliminated possible methods of death but did not clear her husband.

"I do not believe she was shot or stabbed in that residence," he said. "Other than that, I cannot say."

You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431

or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.

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