REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Court TV) — Scott Peterson (news - web sites)'s defense suggested Tuesday that police ignored an anonymous tip that a violent band of convicts was holding his pregnant wife, Laci, at a remote flophouse.
A sheriff's deputy called by prosecutors acknowledged that no officers ever searched the rural compound known as a haven for drug dealing, cockfights and parole violators.
"They didn't even make one search?" defense.....
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Peterson Prosecutors Go on the Defensive
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Prosecutors on Tuesday sought to counter arguments by Scott Peterson's defense team that they were so eager to charge him with his wife's murder that other credible leads were ignored.
Two law enforcement investigators testified that in the weeks after Laci Peterson vanished they pursued a tip that the pregnant schoolteacher was being held about 30 miles from her hometown.
Modesto police officer Eric Beffa testified about an anonymous tip received ......
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Scott
September 8, 2004 -- REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A friend of Laci Peterson's family wept yesterday as she detailed the tragic mom-to-be's lonely holiday season — attending a Christmas party without her husband, who was out cavorting with his mistress.
Terri Western, a real-estate agent, cried and pulled tissues down from the judge's desk as she recalled last seeing Laci alive on Dec. 14, 2002.
Scott Peterson's mistress, Amber Frey, has testified that the double-murder suspect accompanied her to a different Christmas party that night.
Western recalled asking Laci why Scott wasn't .....
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Peterson testimony turns to tips, behavior, lack of blood
REDWOOD CITY – Scott Peterson's defense team has consistently tried to show that prosecutors were so eager to charge their client with the murder of his wife and fetus that they ignored other credible tips.
On Tuesday, prosecutors sought to counter that argument.
Two law enforcement investigators testified that in the weeks after Laci Peterson vanished they pursued a tip that the pregnant schoolteacher was being held in a rural area about 30 miles from her hometown.
The testimony was intended to bolster the prosecution's contention that police exhausted all leads in their investigation of Laci Peterson's disappearance.
Modesto police officer Eric Beffa testified about an anonymous tip police received in early January 2003, just weeks after the disappearance, that .......
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Thick mud, strong currents, dark waters and a strong surge made it nearly impossible to locate Laci Peterson's body or anchors on the floor of San Francisco Bay, an expert diver testified Tuesday.
Searching the bay water was so difficult that even when divers had a known target, they had trouble retrieving it, said Geoffrey Baehr, who helped lead the search effort off the Berkeley Marina.
Prosecutors in Scott Peterson's double-murder trial are trying to show why the body of the eight-months-pregnant Laci Peterson went undetected in the bay despite months of searching.
Baehr said he had participated in more than 15 diving expeditions between late December 2002, when Laci Peterson was reported missing, and May 2003, a month after the body of the 27-year-old missing Modesto woman......
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Criminalist testifies pliers had no sign of blood
Peterson trial centers on possible DNA evidence as expert takes the stand
By Jason Dearen, STAFF WRITER
REDWOOD CITY -- The needle-nose pliers that detectives found in Scott Peterson's boat with strands of hair attached had no visible signs of blood or other forensic evidence, a California Department of Justice expert testified Tuesday in the fertilizer salesman's double-murder trial.
Sarah Yoshida, a senior criminalist with the state, also said her analysis of the pliers determined that they were rusted shut and had not been used recently. Investigators searching Peterson's warehouse on Dec. 27, 2002, found hair attached to the pliers, and Yoshida tested the tool for traces of forensic evidence two months later.....
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Police testify about tracing Peterson tips
Prosecution seeks to counter defense on investigationThe Associated Press Updated: 9:03 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2004REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Prosecutors on Tuesday sought to counter arguments by Scott Peterson’s defense team that they were so eager to charge him with his wife’s murder that other credible leads were ignored.
Two law enforcement investigators testified that in the weeks after Laci Peterson vanished they pursued a tip that the pregnant schoolteacher was being held about 30 miles from her hometown.
Modesto police .....
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Testimony focuses on Laci sightings
:20 p.m.: REDWOOD CITY -- Sharon Rocha cried softly this morning as a Modesto real-estate agent testified about seeing Laci Peterson at a holiday party, which she attended without her husband, in December 2002.
Meanwhile, Modesto police officer Eric Beffa and San Joaquin County sheriff's deputy Paul Mears said they searched in vain in January 2003 after an anonymous tipster told authorities that Laci Peterson was being held in a ramshackle house near Tracy.
Also this morning:
Roger Contente, a salesman for Roberts Auto Sales of Modesto, said he sold Scott Peterson a used Dodge Dakota pickup truck for $17,500 after Peterson traded his missing wife's Land Rover for $7,500.
Senior criminalist Sarah Yoshida of the state Department of Justice crime lab said she tested pliers found in Peterson's fishing boat twice, on Feb. 24, 2003, and again on March 19, 2003.
She said the pliers had more rust on them during the second set of tests, even though they had been kept........
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Selling started soon after case began
REDWOOD CITY — Scott Peterson explored selling his home three weeks after his pregnant wife was reported missing and succeeded in unloading her vehicle five weeks after she vanished, witnesses testified Tuesday.
His attorney countered by disparaging officers and a diver who had looked for Laci Peterson, as well as a laboratory criminalist who examined tools in Scott Peterson’s boat.
Also Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Alfred Delucchi announced to jurors that prosecutors told him they plan to wrap up their part of the case, now in its 15th week, by the end of the month.
The day’s most moving testimony came from real estate agent Terri Western, who sold Scott and Laci Peterson their home at 523 Covena Ave. in Modesto for $160,000 in the fall of 2000. Western’s daughter was a close childhood friend of Laci Peterson’s, and Western helped establish a volunteer search center shortly after the substitute teacher disappeared...........
