MAHONING COUNTY, Ohio - The ruling of a Mahoning County judge will play a crucial role in the trial of an Alliance man, Robert Moore.

Moore is accused of killing a Smith Township teenager, Glenna Jean White, more than a decade ago.

In a move to strengthen this case, the prosecution wants to present similarities from a previous killing committed by the same defendant.

It's unusual because, unlike most murder trials, nobody was ever found.

Now, prosecutors need to not only convince a jury that Moore is the person who killed White, but also that she was murdered at all.

White went missing in June 2009 after visiting Moore's home. Police said Glenna Jean was there to meet a teenage girlfriend of hers, but then left with Moore that night and was never seen again.

It's the similarities between this case and another death in Moore's past that investigators said is more than just a coincidence.

"I think Bobby [Robert] Moore has done it in the past," U.S. Marshal Deputy Eric Midock said, "I think Bobby Moore is absolutely invovled with this one...whether that makes him a serial killer or not... I don't know."

The Mahoning County prosecutor's office filed court records stating that witnesses said the night Glenna Jean went missing, she accused Robert Moore of "touching her inappropriately and/or trying to rape her" and then after she confronted him, he "demanded to take Glenna Jean home."

Eyewitnesses claimed when Moore returned, he was muddy and covered with "...so much blood you could not see his tattoos."

Moore said he was in a bar fight.

Days later, the car he left in with White was found burned.

Moore previously served 15 years after confessing to the brutal killing of a 22-year-old woman, Virginia Lecorchick, near Berlin Lake in 1993.

Mahoning County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Yacovone said the details, in that case, are "strikingly similar" and should be used as evidence.

In that case, Moore admitted to beating and killing Lecorchick after she refused his sexual advances, dragging her body into the water and burning his clothes.

However, Moore's defense attorney, Jeffrey Haupt, is asking that Judge Maureen Sweeney not allow the 1993 case to be used against him now.

Haupt also said there's a sworn statement from a family friend who claims they saw Glenna Jean in 2010, a year after the alleged murder took place.

Since the prosecution has to prove Moore's guilt, the defense is likely seeking to place doubt in the minds of jurors about whether White is even deceased.

However, Yacavone said, "...Everything of concern has been checked out and ultimately we still felt that there was a murder and Robert Moore did it."

Judge Sweeney has not yet made her ruling on whether Robert Moore's past convictions can be used against him in this case.

The trial is set to begin next month.