News

Missing Woman's Husband To Talk To Police

Friday, September 15, 2006

Sep. 15 - BCN -- Oakland Deputy Police Chief Howard Jordan said today that the estranged husband of 31-year-old missing woman Nina "Nenasha" Reiser is expected to talk to police next week

Jordan said 43-year-old Hans Reiser's attorney, veteran Oakland criminal defense attorney William DuBois, told police late today "he will make his client available next week."

Jordan said the promise to talk to police is "a very important step in the right direction."

However, he said the search for Nina Reiser, who has been missing for 12 days, is "a little frustrating because the longer it goes on the more harm she could be in."

Nina Reiser, a native of Russia, was last seen about 2 p.m. on Sept. 3 when she dropped off her two children at Hans Reiser's home in the 6900 block of Exeter Drive in Oakland.

She was last seen driving her tan 2001 Honda Odyssey with the license plate number 4UBB491.

The couple married in 1999 and separated in 2004. The two are undergoing divorce proceedings but their divorce hasn't been finalized.

The couple's 6-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter have been placed with Alameda County Child Protective Services.

Oakland police talked to Hans Reiser on Sept. 5, two days after Nina Reiser was last seen alive, but haven't talked to him since then.

Jordan said Reiser, who runs a software company from his home, was "helpful" at the beginning of his interview with police but later became "uncooperative."

He said police want to talk to Reiser because they think he was the last person to see her alive.

Jordan said Reiser isn't considered a suspect at this point because police are still treating the situation as a missing persons case and there's no evidence that a crime has been committed.

Jordan said when police talk to Reiser, "We have a lot of questions and we hope he provides answers."

DuBois, who has handled a great number of murder cases, didn't return phone calls today seeking comment on the case.

Oakland police searched Reiser's home extensively both Wednesday and Thursday.

Jordan said, "We're continuing to search and are canvassing the area" but said he didn't know for sure if officers were still at Reiser's home.

Dispute Over Loan, Accusations Of Affair

According to filings in Alameda County Superior Court, a notice of settlement was filed on Hans Reiser's behalf Wednesday to resolve a lawsuit filed against him by Sean Sturgeon on Dec. 30, 2004, seeking $131,552 in damages.

The terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.

Sturgeon claimed that Reiser and his company, Namesys, Inc., which he ran out of his home, failed to pay back a loan.

In a response to the lawsuit that was filed on Feb. 15, 2005, Reiser, acting as his own attorney, said "under no theory of liability is defendant Reiser liable personally for repayment."

Reiser alleged that Sturgeon "had been having a secret affair with defendant's wife, Nina Reiser, at the time of the loan."

Reiser said Sturgeon "continues this illicit affair even during divorce proceedings currently in action" and that Sturgeon "even apparently is, in defiance of a court order, residing with defendant's wife and children."

Reiser also alleged, "It is well known and was well known to plaintiff (Sturgeon) that the majority of the allegedly loaned funds were spent exclusively by Nina Reiser."

Reiser said the fact that Sturgeon didn't name Nina Reiser as a defendant and named him as an individual "is clear evidence of his malicious intent to destroy defendant's marriage and leave the defendant to clean up the wreckage and pay the debts."

In a cross-complaint that Reiser filed against Sturgeon on Sept. 8, 2005, Reiser said Sturgeon acted as his financial agent from 1999 through 2002 and had access to and control over deposits, withdrawals and funds at the Patelco Credit Union.

Reiser said Sturgeon "worked with my wife Nina Reiser and eventually drugged her with ecstasy and seduced her."

Reiser alleged, "He then engaged in Bondage, Domination, Sadism and Masochism techniques and continued to redrug her repeatedly over time."

He said Sturgeon engaged in those techniques "in an effort to show that he was a better man than I and to convince my wife Nina to conspire with him to steal the Namesys Inc. company assets."

Reiser alleged that, "Sean has threatened to have me beaten up by some of his associates in illegal activities and that he would hurt me, my mother or my children if he did not get what he wanted."

He also accused Sturgeon of engaging in extortion by threatening to make calls to the Internal Revenue Service to report him and his mother.

In addition, Reiser alleged that Sturgeon wrote into a contract that Reiser must participate in "Death Yoga," which he said has the purpose of "slowing down one's heart to the point of death."

Sturgeon's attorney, Richard Meier, didn't return a phone call today seeking comment on the case.

Reiser's attorney, Gregory Silva, declined to comment.

In a Sept. 13, 2005, interview with the Web site KernelTrap.org, Reiser said he dropped out of junior high school after eighth grade but was accepted at the University of California, Berkeley at the age of 15.

In the interview, Reiser said, "Berkeley was a lot better than junior high school, but it still involved homework, which deep down in my heart I could never believe in."

According to a Dec. 29, 1999, article in InfoWorld, Reiser's company is called the Naming System Venture but is more commonly known by the abbreviation Namesys.

The company aims at creating a quicker and easier way to search file databases on Linux-based systems, according to the article.

BCN contributed to this report

Get more News »