HART (AP) -- An appeals court has reinstated a murder charge against a man accused of killing his estranged wife in northwestern Michigan's Oceana County in 2000.
The court said Friday there's enough circumstantial evidence to put Mark Coulier on trial in the death of Joyce Coulier, whose body was found in a shallow grave, 75 miles northwest of Grand Rapids.
Mark Coulier was charged in 2009, nine years after his wife's death. But an Oceana County judge dismissed the case, saying the couple had a stormy relationship but there was not enough evidence to show that Coulier was responsible.
The appeals court disagrees and points to the testimony of friends who said Coulier repeatedly threatened to harm his wife.
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