NEW YORK (Court TV) — Though they have no corpse, no eyewitnesses, nor the blood of the victim, Manhattan prosecutors Thursday begin selecting a jury Thursday for the trial of a mother and son accused of murdering a millionaire widow who has been missing since July 1998.

Sante Kimes, 65, and her son, Kenneth, 24, are accused of second-degree murder and kidnapping in the presumed death of Irene Silverman. Prosecutors say that Kenneth Kimes, who used the name Manny Guerin, plotted with his mother to steal Silverman's $5 million townhouse. In addition to murder, the Kimeses also face conspiracy, robbery and forgery charges.

Despite not having a body, prosecutors appear to have strong circumstantial evidence against the two defendants. The Kimeses have been jailed without bond since July 5, 1998, the day Silverman disappeared. On that day, they were arrested on a warrant from Utah where they were accused of using a bad check for $14,900 to buy a Lincoln Town Car. When police searched their car, they found loaded .9 mm and .22 caliber pistols, several wigs and masks, plastic handcuffs, $30,000 in cash, an empty stun gun box and a pink liquid substance similar to a known "date rape" drug.

Investigators also found cassettes of Mrs. Silverman's telephone conversations — apparently taken from wiretaps — and a forged deed purporting to transfer her $4 million Manhattan townhouse to the Kimeses for a fraction of its value. Prosecutors believe the Kimeses killed Silverman to steal her luxurious townhouse.

On the day of the disappearance, Silverman's staff reportedly told investigators that their boss had refused to leave the house alone in the past 15 years. In addition, they told police that one of the tenants, Guerin [Kenneth Kimes], was also missing.

The mother-son pair also are suspected in the 1996 disappearance of a Bahrain banker in the Bahamas, the death of Los Angeles businessman David Kazdin last March, and the disappearance of a drifter who was working with the Kimeses and vanished around the time Kadzin was killed. If convicted of Silverman's presumed murder, they could face life in prison.

The Kimeses have denied all the charges. Though their defense remains unknown, their attorney has said that prosecutors cannot prove that Silverman is indeed dead. The defense has also said the Kimeses had no motive for killing Silverman.

Jury selection is expected to last through next week.