Looking west toward Alcatraz Island from the restored Berkeley pier, you can see the old pier stretching out into San Francisco Bay.
AL GOLUB/THE BEE
Posted on 01/11/2003 5:53:58 AM PST by runningbear
Looking west toward Alcatraz Island from the restored Berkeley pier, you can see the old pier stretching out into San Francisco Bay.
AL GOLUB/THE BEE
Susan Caudillo, center, sister of Scott Peterson, and Kim McGregor, a neighbor of the Petersons, watch as Laci Peterson's brother, Brent Rocha, is interviewed on KFIV 1360 AM on Friday morning in Modesto.
JOAN BARNETT LEE/THE BEE
Divers set to renew search in SF Bay
January 11, 2003 Posted: 04:55:09 AM PST
By TY PHILLIPS and PATRICK GIBLIN
Divers plan to return to San Francisco Bay today to determine if an object found two days ago is a body.
Searchers with sonar equipment spotted the object Thursday afternoon while hunting for clues in the disappearance of
Laci Peterson, the 27-year-old pregnant Modestan who has been missing since Christmas Eve.
Modesto police said they put off the object's retrieval until today to give divers a rest and to let stormy weather pass.
Nevertheless, the media showed up Friday at the Berkeley Marina on the chance that divers would go after the object. But police stuck to their plan to attempt the retrieval today.
Officials said there was a 50 percent chance of the object's being a body.
The Bee reported incorrectly Friday that a body -- not Laci Peterson's -- had been pulled from the bay. Police told of the body's recovery on Thursday, then later in the day alerted The Bee that the report was incorrect, and that no body had been found. The Bee received the corrected information before press time, but the incorrect report still appeared in Friday's editions.
"Clearly, in the media frenzy that is associated with this case, there have been a number of rumors that have made it difficult to separate fact from fiction," Police Chief Roy Wasden said. "That led to a miscommunication between The Bee and the Police Department."
Peterson's husband, Scott, 30, has told police that he last saw his wife at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 24 as he left to go fishing out of the Berkeley Marina. He said his wife had planned on taking their dog for a walk in East La Loma Park.
Family members at the volunteer search center Friday clung to hope that gets more difficult to summon with each passing day.
"As a family, we don't feel that (today's) search will end up having anything to do with finding Laci," said Amy Rocha, Laci Peterson's sister.
"They're trying to clear Scott, and they're going to have to search that area to do that. We just feel that it's been so hyped that it's going to be Laci. And we don't believe that it is."
She said the family has "the same positive attitude we've always had."
"But it has gotten harder. The days go by so quickly for us that sometimes we don't realize how long it has been."
At the marina, harbor master Ann Rial Hardinger said the mystery object was found close to the end of the old Berkeley pier, which is 2 1/2 miles long. Anglers said the water depth at the end of the pier is 12 to 17 feet.
Hardinger said searchers had been using three of the harbor's boats while operating the sonar device.
(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...
If they don't find the body, and there are no witnesses, and there is either little or no circumstantial lab evidence linking him to her disappearance, and he keeps his mouth shut, and his lawyer runs the usual legal arguments on the cops and prosecuters, Scotty boy is about ready to set sail on the 'Love Boat."
Prediction: Scotty and his "new" squeeze will be leaving the state in six months to a year for some balmy clime! Laci's parents will realize (if they have't already) that Scotty pulled a fast one on them and played them all for suckers. His parents, however, will continue to insist that their little boy had NOTHING to do with Laci's death.
Just a guess, but I will predict a 5'4" blond bombshell named "Candy". We'll see!
And that he "had" to leave the country to "get away from all the questions."
sw
Jeffrey McDonald received 3 consecutive, not concurrent, sentences. The pompous, arrogant, guilty SOB didn't luck out like his equally pompous, arrogant and guilty counterpart, OJ Simpson, so he'll protest his innocence from prison, hopefully until he dies. OJ's personality constantly made me think of Jeffrey McDonald while OJ was all over the news.
I can still see his sh.t eating grin when he realized that after all that evidence the stupid and rascist jury was letting him free ...
but you know who is even stupider than him?...all his white girlfriends....
Nobody saw SP at the Berkeley Marina but he ended up with a receipt from there. I have been to the area of the marina that he would have to pass by to get to Brooks Island. It's a grassy area with asphalt paths and a clear open view of boats as they pass by. There is also a parking area that looks out over the inlet to the marina. I have never seen an aluminum boat such as his with the 15hp outboard pass through that inlet to the harbor. I'm sure it's quite uncommon and somebody should have noticed, it's a very public area. I double checked yesterday.
I didn't see any but found this one using google. Can't tell exactly where this camera is located in relation to where SP would have been. A little daylight will help. Several businesses are in the area of where he would have to exit the freeway and loop around. Berkeley may have a traffic cam at University and Seventh, anybody know?
So what you're saying is that this kind of boat is unusual to see at this location? Since word was out very soon after Christmas eve (about her missing) I am of the opinion that it would be HIGHLY unusual for someone not to remember seeing this boat. NOTE: It was reported from the beginning that he went fishing at the berkley marina in an aluminum fishing boat.
Not to say that the type boat he had NEVER goes through there. Just that it would be noticed. Furthering the previous poster's speculation that somebody else might be involved and that somebody could be responsible for obtaining the parking receipt.
There must be a way to question people who WERE fishing there that day, or maybe those who just hang out at the dock or pier to ask if they saw anything?
So maybe the LE already has done this, and maybe you are right, he just had his "friend" pick up a receipt to cover his arse.
AND, if he did launch his little toy boat in that area, how often did the Coast Guard drive by the particular location he claims to have fished in? CG would have noticed him for sure!
sw
Scott's alibi or anchor ... or nothing?
The waterway directly in front of you is the only way into the boat ramps that SP used to launch his 14 footer on Christmas Eve. He would have traveled left to right heading out in that open waterway between the large sections of docks. This is an active webcam. I just went out and observed it and lots of people using the park. The park paths are just yards from where SP would have boated out around to Brooks Island. Brooks Island looks like it's only a mile or so away but the waters can be rough once you get away from the breakwater devices installed near the inlet to Berkeley Marina.
In addition, I traced SP's most likely route off the freeway to the Marina. Many illegals(?)near a building supply house looking for day work, all kinds of public access businesses with front doors and windows facing the street SP would have pulled his boat down. AND, AND an ATM facing the roadway. A very busy ATM in a trendy area of revitalized Berkeley near Spenger's Grotto.
Hopefully LE has the tapes from the ATM and the sailing club. They could have been recorded over before they were analyzed, though.
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