RACZ PROSECUTORS SUM UP CASE MISSING WOMAN'S LIFE POINTS TO MURDER.

Byline: PATRICIA FARRELL AIDEM

Staff Writer

SAN FERNANDO -- Ann Racz was so detail-oriented and involved in her children's lives, she never would have abandoned her son and two daughters or left no trace of her whereabouts.

That was the central theme of prosecutors' closing arguments Thursday as they summarized the testimony of some two dozen witnesses in the two-month-long murder trial against Ann's estranged husband, John Racz.

Racz, now 61, is charged with murdering Ann on April 22, 1991, in a largely circumstantial case.

There is no smoking gun, no body, no eyewitness.

But friends, co-workers, neighbors and sheriff's homicide investigators testified how Ann doted on her children and looked to the future. And they described how she feared her husband, a former sheriff's sergeant and retired schoolteacher.

On Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman laid out the details as the case heads to the San Fernando Superior Court jury. She is expected to finish the prosecution's closing argument today and the defense will follow with its final comments.

As John Racz alternately took notes and stared intently at jurors, and his three children -- 14, 11 and 7 when their mother vanished -- sat separately in the courtroom, Silverman recapped her witnesses' testimony.

"You have to know who Ann Racz was in order to solve this puzzle," Silverman told the six-man, six-woman jury.

She reviewed the witness account of Racz's meticulous habits -- her lists, her documentation, her detailed financial records, her notes to teachers. She spoke of the school volunteer, the soccer team mom, the Brownie helper, the devoted mother who stole away to a secret condominium with the children when her husband was at work and days later vanished.

She repeated the words of several witnesses who recalled Ann's fear of her husband, including the testimony of one friend who said Ann feared John would kill her and her body would never be found.

She reminded jurors of inconsistencies in testimony describing John Racz's stories to friends, family and homicide investigators who stepped in when Ann's church pastor reported her missing.

While friends and Ann's lover were frantic with worry, John Racz "was completely unconcerned and indifferent."

Silverman urged jurors to stick to the evidence against Racz and avoid defense efforts to divert their attention. Yes, Ann Racz was seeing a high school sweetheart and planned a future with him, she said. That, in part, was a motive for murder.

"This case is not about Ann Racz's affair," Silverman said. "The penalty for adultery, by the way, is not death."

Silverman called the evidence overwhelming.

"His story doesn't make sense. All of the statements conflict with one another."

Unable after years of interviews, excavations in remote hills, even consultations with a psychic, homicide investigators never found the missing woman's body. But they doubted John Racz's account from Day One that his estranged wife had decided to take a vacation, retired homicide investigator Louis Danoff said during a court break.

"This is a circumstantial case," Danoff said. "It's based on the actions of people. We're here because this is John Racz's story and we could not corroborate it."

Danoff termed the case a "terrible tragedy" for the Racz children, but said he was relieved it had finally come to trial. Joann Racz, now 31, was a star prosecution witness; Glenn Racz, 27, a reluctant one and Katelin Racz, 23, testified for the defense.

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com

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