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South Bay Cold Case Murder Solved After 10 Years

CAMPBELL (KCBS) – Jeanine Harms was last seen in a Campbell bar on July 27th, 2001. She invited a man she'd met at the bar to her house, and was never seen again. That man, Maurice Nasmeh, who always proclaimed his innocence, was accused of killing the 42-year-old woman.

Nasmeh was released after spending two years in jail because of problems with the crime lab's testing of carpet fibers from her apartment, which were found in his Jeep Cherokee.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen said that a lab named Micro Trace, based in Illinois, recently completed a three-year re-examination of the evidence and reached two critical conclusions.

KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:

"Number one: on July 27th, 2001 Jeanine Harms was murdered," said Rosen. "Number two: Maurice Nasmeh murdered Ms. Harms, concealed her body in her Persian rug, and used his Jeep Cherokee to dispose of his body."

The body was never found.

In a further twist, Harms' brother Wayne Sanchez shot and killed Nasmeh earlier this year following a chance encounter in a coffee shop. He then turned the gun on himself, committing suicide.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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