corpus de·lic·ti /-di-'lik-ˌtī, -dā-, -tē/ n [New Latin, literally, the body of the offense]: the substance of a crime that the prosecutor must prove and that consists of an injury or loss (as death of a victim or disappearance of property) and the criminal act that resulted in it
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam-Webster. 1996.