And they had not charged him as of the time he died. But don't forget--at the time he died, they didn't know if Elizabeth was alive or dead. So what, exactly, would they have charged him with? Kidnapping? Suppose they'd done that. Suppose he'd lived, and gone to trial. THEN suppose her obviously-murdered body were found. No matter how the kdinapping trial had come out, Ricci would have been protected by double jeopardy. How the public would have howled! "You idiots, you let a murderer get off with just a kidnapping trial!"