Could Duck Tape Be Smoking Gun?
POSTED: 7:34 AM PST November 3, 2003
MODESTO, Calif. -- Authorities have found similarities between duck tape found with the remains of Laci Peterson and her unborn son and strips used to post a missing person's flyer on pole earlier this year, a source close to the case told KTVU on Monday.
Reporting on Mornings On 2, Ted Rowlands said the source told him Scott Peterson's fingerprints were found on the tape used to anchor the search poster to a pole in Modesto. However, the source did not believe that prosecutors would introduce the evidence during the ongoing preliminary hearing, but would wait until trial.
The source also did not know what effect the months in the waters of the San Francisco Bay would have on the tape and the ability of scientists to determine if the two samples were exact matches.
Meanwhile, Peterson's defense team was expected to call their own DNA expert to the stand on Monday to counter testimony given by an FBI expert last week, At issue is a strain of hair – allegedly that of Laci Peterson's – found in a pair of pliers discovered in Scott Peterson's boat.
The hair is considered important to the case against the Modesto fertilizer salesman because it links Laci Peterson with her husband's boat. At the time of her Christmas Eve disappearance, Scott Peterson claims he was fishing off the Berkeley Marina in San Francisco Bay.
That fishing trip was the focus of testimony on Friday,
Laci Peterson's sister testified on Friday that Scott Peterson said he had golf plans on Christmas Eve, throwing into question his story about going fishing the day his pregnant wife vanished.
Amy Rocha, a hairdresser, said she cut Scott Peterson's hair Dec. 23 and that he had offered to pick up a gift basket for their grandfather near the country club where he was a member.
"He said he was going to be out that way golfing," she testified. "I assumed all day."
Peterson, 31, told police he last saw his wife about 9:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve as he left to go fishing near Berkeley. He told them he returned to Modesto late that afternoon, shortly before family members reported Laci Peterson missing about 6 p.m.
On the third day of a preliminary hearing to determine if Peterson will stand trial for the slaying of his 27-year-old wife and unborn son, prosecutors began laying the foundation for Laci Peterson's disappearance with testimony from the last people to see her alive.
Among them, Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, told a jammed courtroom that she thought "the world" of Scott Peterson before last Dec. 24.
She recalled Peterson calling at 5:17 p.m. on Christmas Eve to say her daughter was missing.
"I was getting really scared by then when he said 'missing.' He didn't say she wasn't home or he couldn't find her. He said 'missing."'
She and others described a happy but weary-looking Laci Peterson who was "ecstatic" and looking forward to having her first child.
Housekeeper Margarita Nava said she cleaned the family's modest single-story house the day before the disappearance was reported. Nava said Laci Peterson seemed tired after shopping for groceries, but otherwise appeared much as she had the three previous times she cleaned the house.
"Like all the other days I had gone she was content," Nava said. "She looked happy."
Scott Peterson's father, Lee Peterson, also took the stand, saying, "I proudly say Scott's my son."
Peterson recalled talking with his son between noon and 2 p.m. last Christmas Eve. Asked by prosecutor Rick DiStaso if Scott Peterson said he was going fishing, he said no.
Lee Peterson said he didn't know his son owned a boat, but added it wasn't unusual for Scott Peterson not to tell him about major purchases, including a motorcycle and a pickup truck.
Sharon and Amy Rocha also testified they had never seen Scott Peterson's hair blond like it was he was when arrested last April in San Diego.
Authorities have speculated that Peterson, who had also grown a beard and was carrying $10,000 in cash, planned to flee to Mexico.
The bodies of his wife and unborn son washed ashore in April, about three miles from where Peterson said he was fishing. Prosecutors may argue that Peterson used the boat to throw his pregnant wife's body in San Francisco Bay. '
http://www.ktvu.com/news/2604850/detail.htmlAhhh...yess....the sweet smell of a smoking gun. :)
I also agree with Sharon that it was way too soon for Scott to have used the word "missing." You come home and you wonder where your spouse is, and in that case (keys and car home, pg wife not) it's OK to be somewhat alarmed, but MISSING?