lack of motive

We keep coming back to that, the lack of motive.

Moreover, there appeared to be a complete lack of motive.

Aside from her very obvious lack of motive and physical strength.

The case against him seems pretty clear but for the lack of motive, and that may come out later.'

The police were baffled by the lack of motive in the killings.

The problem here was the lack of motive.

"With a lack of motive, there is reasonable doubt.

I've been working on him--what we're up against there is lack of motive.

It came back to lack of motive.

The lack of motive makes it very intriguing."

Note the lack of motive power.

"Surely," said Vole eagerly, "the strongest point in my favor is the lack of motive.

Because one of the beauties of this time was his apparent (or indeed real) lack of motive.

(The utter lack of motive, however, has led modern historians to generally discredit this assertion.)

The worst effects of slavery - dependence, lack of motive - could be removed even before the end of the institution was agreed upon.

This story takes place in 1890 as Fandorin is investigating an apparent murder, but is baffled by the suspect's complete lack of motives.

The recantation and lack of motive have cast a shadow over the credibility of the other female cadets who have reported incidents of harassment.

Instead, they proposed the intellectual challenge of committing a perfect murder, a crime for which one could not be prosecuted partly because of its apparent lack of motive.

Given the lack of motive and the total absence of hard evidence linking F.D.R. to foreknowledge of the Japanese plan, the conspiracy case collapses.

The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It - A man tried for murder and acquitted for lack of motive tells his story to sympathetic friends.

These and other bizarre acts of cruelty and psychopathology are linked only by the killer's use of luxury vehicles and a baffling lack of motive.

Based on the disappearance of the beer glass, the lack of motive, and the fact that the fluid sample was rendered meaningless, there is no direct evidence to tie Rusty to the murder.

The street, two blocks from the Van Wyck Expressway, is generally considered a safe one, but several neighbors said the seeming lack of motive for the killings made them fear for their safety.

Despite the evidence, the prosecution was hampered by the lack of motive for MacDonald to have committed the murders, since he had no history of violence or domestic abuse with his wife or children.

Yesterday's shooting, at 6 a.m. at the 24-hour, brightly lit Laundry King Superstore at 1384 Atlantic Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, was similar in its apparent lack of motive, the police said.