YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A mistrial was declared late Monday in the retrial of a man accused of the murder of a missing Smith Township teen.

Judge Maureen Sweeney declared the mistrial as jury selection was underway in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for Robert Moore, 52.

Moore is charged with murder. Prosecutors say he killed Glenna Jean White, 17, of Smith Township, in June 2009. Her body has never been found. 

This is the fourth time since August that efforts to seat a jury for Moore’s second trial in the case have failed.

Moore also went on trial in May 2022 but jurors could not reach a verdict then and a mistrial was declared.

Assistant Prosecutor Mike Yacovone said the mistrial was declared because the attorneys in the case ran through the pool of 50 jurors without enough to serve.

Yacovone said the trial is expected to last into Thanksgiving week and a lot of jurors could not serve because of travel plans that week.

A fifth effort to pick a jury will take place Jan. 8. This time, the pool will be expanded to 75 jurors. 

Moore was indicted in December 2021 by a grand jury after the case was reopened by the Portage County Drug Task Force and new evidence was found.

White was last seen alive on June 2, 2009, at an Alliance home where she had been drinking with several people, including Moore. Prosecutors said White claimed Moore tried to rape her and Moore angrily took her home. That was the last time White was seen alive. Her body has never been found.

When Moore returned, he was covered in mud and blood, according to witnesses. A witness also said that Moore claimed he was stopped at a stop sign in front of a bar when White jumped out of the car and three men from the bar jumped him and beat him up.

Moore also served 15 years on a manslaughter charge for the death of a woman in 1993 at Berlin Lake in Stark County. Moore’s previous defense attorney objected several times to allowing prosecutors to tell jurors about that case, saying it would prejudice juries against his client, but Judge Sweeney overruled each objection.

There were witnesses in the first trial of White’s death who also testified that they saw White alive after the time prosecutors claimed she was killed.