TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — There is a difficult new twist in the case of a 16-year-old girl who was tortured, murdered and dismembered.

St. Petersburg police said they will not be able to find her remains.

Steven Gress and Michelle Vega are both in jail, accused of kidnapping, killing, and dismembering 16-year-old Miranda Corsette.

Police said the teen’s remains were put in a dumpster in Ruskin and, for days, detectives have been working to find them.

“The dumpster was taken to a transfer station, and from the transfer station, those items were in fact taken to the incinerator,” St. Pete Police Maj. Shannon Halstead said.

Bryant Camareno, an attorney unaffiliated with this case, said the absence of Corsette’s remains could have an impact in the courtroom.

“From a prosecutor’s standpoint, it’s always going to be a challenge because most jurors want to see a body,” Camareno said.

St. Pete police said Corsette was a frequent runaway, something Camareno says paired with the missing remains could pose another challenge for the prosecution.

“If I was a prosecutor, I would have to convince that jury that this is not your typical runaway scenario,” Camareno said. “There’s more to it.”

“For example, the same way the defense may argue, ‘No, she’s doing this all of the time, she leaves all of the time.’ Yes, but she comes back,” he continued.

Now that there are two people behind bars accused of murdering the teen, Camareno said it wouldn’t be abnormal for one of them to get a deal.

“That’s typically what [prosecutors] do,” he said. “The deal may not necessarily be immunity, but hey, let’s say instead of the death penalty, we’ll give you life in prison or maybe 30 years for your testimony.”

“That is a tactic most prosecutors use,” Camareno continued.

Camareno said that then presents the challenge: How does the prosecutor know if they’re giving the deal to the right person?

“How do we know that the one cooperating is telling the truth?” he explained. “How do we know he or she isn’t lying to implicate the other one to get a better deal?”