Despite Schaefer's efforts, his brother-in-law had given the item to police. Formal murder charges By May 12, investigators had gathered enough physical and circumstantial evidence to link Schaefer to nine murders and unsolved disappearances dating between 1969 and 1973. The same month, a periodical published a list of twenty-eight murdered or missing individuals believed to be linked to Schaefer. The majority of these individuals hailed from Florida, although two victims each hailed from Iowa and West Virginia. At a press conference held on May 14, Chief Investigator Lem Brumley Jr. informed the media that, "in terms of scope and bizarreness", the case was the biggest he had encountered in his career to date. On May 18, Schaefer was formally charged with first-degree murder for the killings of Place and Jessup; he was held without bond pending trial and transferred to Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee to undergo thirty days of psychiatric examinations before being returned to St. Lucie County jail on June 20. The results of these examinations revealed Schaefer to be an individual suffering from paranoia, psychosis and acute sexual deviation who viewed himself as "an eliminator of women he deemed immoral", but nonetheless mentally competent to stand trial. At a circuit court hearing on June 21, District Attorney Robert Stone successfully argued before Judge Cyrus Pfeiffer Trowbridge that Schaefer was sane, and thus competent to stand trial. Schaefer vehemently protested his innocence, claiming the accusations against him were "a mistake" and informing one reporter he remained confident he would be exonerated. Murder trial Schaefer was brought to trial on September 17, 1973. He was tried in St. Lucie County before Judge Trowbridge. The prosecution team consisted of Stone and Philip Shailer, assisted by Richard Purdy and Anthony Young. Schaefer was defended by Schwartz and Bruce Colton, assisted by James Brecker. As the murders of Place and Jessup had been committed at a time when the Supreme Court of Florida had declared the death penalty unconstitutional in the state, prosecutors sought a penalty of life imprisonment for Schaefer. The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and frequently conveyed a distant and aloof demeanor throughout the official proceedings; often staring coldly at prosecution witnesses as they testified, or turning to smile at members of the press when a witness testified for his counsel. Initial proceedings Although Schaefer did testify at the pretrial hearing (in which he denied