Can an AR-15 function without any type of butt stock or tube assymbly at the rear of the gun? I don't think it can, to my knowledge the recoil spring and buffer tube is held there. Am I correct?

I am asking because a 13 year old was killed in a drive by less than 2mi. away from where I live. The murder weapon that was recovered was an AR without a butt stock. I was wondering had they taken the butt stock off after the crime or did it function like that. I saw when the shooting first started at a local gas station and more than 20 rounds were fired. The shooters then followed a car to some apartments where the victim lived. They proceeded to fire 2 more shots. One of which went through the rear of the car hitting the 13 year old in the back. All people involved have now been arrested.  

It would be able to fire a round, but there's no way it could cycle.

The receiver extension houses the spring and and buffer.  The bolt carrier would just come flying out the back, which I would personally like to see

It may shoot once without the stock assembly but that is it.  Something does not sound right about this.  If the buffer spring and buffer tube are not present the whole bolt carrier group would come flying out of the back of the gin the first time it was shot.

It may have been taken off after the shooting. The gun was recovered from a creek.

You sure it had NO buttstock?  It could have been a pistol AR with just a short buffer tube.  

Yeah your bolt would just fly back in your face probobly ripping out the CH with it.
IOW:  It wouldnt be able to cycle.  The buffer/spring needs to be there to slam the bolt back home.

maybe it was something similar to this Olympic carbine (OA-93 CAR)

ARs can be bought with a upper that has a completely different gas setup that doesn't require a recoil spring and buffer tube. Have seen them advertised but never saw one in person. They have a pistol with nothing behind the pistol grip and a rifle with a folding stock. Don't remember what company sells them or the exact price but prices but were very high, well over $1,000.

My bet is that it had a buffer tube attached without the stock.  Who has the time or desire to disassemble a firearm in the heat passion.

 DO NOT leave us hanging on your question.  Find out the what happened.  Post back!  It is your job now to solve the mystery. You have asked the question!

I am almost certain that this gun does not have any sort of tube assymbly. Here is a link to the news report abclocal.go.com/wtvd/index?section=news&id=3224685 look under "new details about teens shooting death".

Quoted: ARs can be bought with a upper that has a completely different gas setup that doesn't require a recoil spring and buffer tube. Have seen them advertised but never saw one in person. They have a pistol with nothing behind the pistol grip and a rifle with a folding stock. Don't remember what company sells them or the exact price but prices but were very high, well over $1,000.

This is probably what you are thinking of:

www.yankeehillmachine.com/store/lr.html

Instead of the main spring being extended into a tube behind the receiver, this system has the sping mounted in a slilghtly different system inside the upper - kind of like the HK system used in the G-3 I suppose.

So some AR models DO exist that function fine without any butt stock or tube at the end - but they are very rare, and (as you point out) quite expensive.