To me, the forensic evidence presented at trial is the strongest evidence that she survived. Apparently, whether Belle died or survived became a political hot potato between the democrats and republicans. The of arson/murder charges against Ray Lamphere, were more about proving Belle was indeed dead. If he was found guilty of her murder, then she must have been dead.
I can't wait for the DNA to come back! I'm so curious if it was her or not.
http://www.alco.org/libraries/lcpl/belle.html
"Ray Lamphere was brought to trial in November of 1908. Although the coroner's inquest had declared the body found in the fire to be that of BelleGunness, the main defense was that the body was not Belle'. If this were the case, then Lamphere could not be guilty of murdering her. Lamphere's lawyer, Wirt Worden, brought forward evidence that contradicted Dr. Norton's identification of the teeth and bridgework.
A local jeweler testified that while the gold in the bridgework had come through the fire almost completely unscathed, the gold plating on several pieces of gold jewelry and watches was melted away.
In a rather spectacular experiment, two local doctors produced a human jaw bone, attached a similar piece of bridgework to it, placed it in a blacksmith's forge and burned it until the bone could easily be crushed. Remember, the head was never found, just the teeth and bridgework. The results of the experiment??? The teeth, being bone, crumbled, the porcelain bridgework was pitted and checked and the gold crowns were "somewhat melted". The condition of the original bridgework, discovered in the fire, was much better. The defense also produced Belle' hired hand, Joe Maxson, who testified that he had seen the person in charge of the sluicing, Klondike Schultz, pull the bridgework out of his pocket shortly before its "discovery" This testimony was corroborated by another witness, who saw much the same thing. "