Following testimony from 12 witnesses over the span of three days, a civil trial surrounding the Phoenix Police Department’s failure to find the body of longtime Southern Oregonian and onetime child actor Dennis Day inside his own home until nine months after he went missing ended without jury deliberations.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Tim Barnack, after plaintiffs rested their case, agreed Thursday afternoon to Phoenix police’s lawyer Thomas Armosino’s motions for a directed verdict dismissing the four claims filed by Day’s family. Day’s sister Nelda Adkins, nieces Janel Showers, Marla Seese and Denise Norris and nephew Fred Richardson had sought $2.2 million in damages on claims of negligent investigation, tortious interference with a corpse, negligent infliction of emotional distress and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Day was best known for his childhood acting role as a founding cast member of Walt Disney’s “The Mickey Mouse Club” television variety program. He was 76 years old when he was last seen alive in mid July 2018. At the time, Day lived in the 500 block of West Pine Street in Phoenix with his husband, Henry “Ernie” Caswell and live-in handyman Daniel James Burda.

At the time of Day’s disappearance, Caswell had suffered a fall in the home and was moved to a skilled nursing facility. Day grew uncomfortable sharing his home with Burda, according to prosecutors during Burda’s sentencing hearing earlier this summer where he pleaded guilty to charges of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree abuse of a corpse. Day’s death is believed to be linked to a dispute with Burda surrounding an eviction, and Burda reportedly threw clothes over Day’s body and stayed in the home for months.

Burda was sentenced to more than six years in prison in July.

Jackson County Sheriff’s Office cadaver dogs found Day’s body in April 2019, nearly nine months after Day went missing. The family had alleged that Phoenix police, including Lt. Jeffrey Price, stepped on Day’s body located underneath the clothes pile, which they claimed limited the Jackson County District Attorney’s office’s ability to point to a cause of death and prosecute Burda on more serious homicide charges.

The trial this week drew from a dozen witnesses including Oregon State Police Lt. John Anderson with the multi-agency Major Assault and Death Investigation Unit, Jackson County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue Sgt. Shawn Richards, Senior Deputy DA Michael Cohen and expert witness Adam Bercovici, a retired Los Angeles Police Department lieutenant with 40 years of law enforcement experience.

Court records show that during the trial, Armosino made 46 objections, 38 of which Barnack sustained, four of which the judge allowed the family’s lawyer, Erin Gould, to rephrase, and three of which the judge overruled.

Gould made five objections during the trial, one of which was sustained, three of which were overruled and another of which was withdrawn.