People want to know: Who is Scott Peterson?

The Modesto Bee ^ | January 23, 2003 Posted: 05:10:11 AM PST | Ty Phillips

[runningbear]

People want to know: Who is Scott Peterson?

People want to know: Who is Scott Peterson?

January 23, 2003 Posted: 05:10:11 AM PST

By TY PHILLIPS
BEE STAFF WRITER

His cell phone rings incessantly. TV camera crews capture his every move. Curious people drive, slowly, by his home every few minutes.

For Scott Peterson, privacy is a thing of the past. He has become perhaps the most recognizable man in Modesto.

"I feel badly for him," said Brian Argain, a friend of Scott and Laci Peterson's. "I can't even imagine being in Scott's shoes. Everybody has a theory on what happened to Laci, but nobody really knows. It's all very sad."

Laci, Scott's wife, was reported missing on Christmas Eve. The story has been a nightly fixture on many national TV news programs. Internet forums and talk shows brim with wild speculation about what happened to the pregnant woman.

Early on, family and friends described the couple's relationship as perfect. Most pledged unwavering support. Then cracks began to appear.

Last week, police detectives told

Laci's side of the family that her husband had an affair and during the summer took out a $250,000 life insurance policy on his 27-year-old wife, according to family members.

The family felt betrayed, and they distanced themselves from Scott. Many of Laci's friends also left his side. Others remain loyal to a man whom they consider a good friend.

"We're all looking for the truth," Argain said. "I'm going to support Scott no matter what the rumors are. It doesn't affect my friendship with him. Just because he may have had an affair doesn't mean he has anything to do with her disappearance."

Still, his recent behavior has many people -- including some who know him -- asking the same question:

Who is Scott Peterson?

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He was born Oct. 24, 1971, at Sharp Hospital in San Diego. His mother, Jacqueline, described him as a healthy, happy baby. The youngest of Lee and Jacqueline Peterson's seven children, Scott enjoyed no shortage of attention growing up.

As Lee raised his five sons, he instilled in them his passions for golfing, fishing and hunting. Scott quickly took to hunting and fishing as a young boy; golf was another story.

"When he was about 6 or 7 years old, we'd all go golfing together," Jacqueline said in an interview last week. "He would put his fishing pole in his bag because the course we often went to was on the San Diego River. By the second hole, he'd stop golfing and start fishing. We'd pass by him every so often, and he usually fished until we were done golfing."

The family, especially the Peterson boys, often took fishing trips to the mountains. Scott eventually convinced his father to buy a fishing boat.

As Scott got older, his parents enticed him to go golfing with them by letting him drive the cart. Over time, he began to excel at the sport.

He made the golf team at University of San Diego High School, playing alongside Phil Mickelson, who is now a touring professional.

"Lee told him once if he ever played a round of scratch golf, he'd buy him a Ferrari," Jacqueline said. "Lee never thought it would happen, but Scott was doing that before he got out of high school. We did get him a car, but it was a used Peugeot sedan. We thought it would be safer."

Scott had no living grandparents. So, while he was in high school, he befriended an elderly woman who had no grandchildren and visited her on Sundays after church, Jacqueline said.

"The school he went to encouraged community service," she said. "One day, he told us he was bringing his grandmother to Grandparents Day at the school. I asked where he got a grandmother. He told me he'd had one for a while.

"I went and met her the following Sunday. She just kept saying what a great kid he was, and how nice it was that he visited an old lady and brightened her day."

While Scott was in high school, his parents received two letters from people whose cars had broken down on the road, Jacqueline said. Scott had stopped to help them get going.

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Scott graduated from high school in 1990. He briefly attended Arizona State University on a partial golf scholarship, but he moved back with his parents, who had bought a house in Morro Bay.

He moved out about six months later, telling them that he was too old to be living at home. He began working three jobs to put himself through

Cuesta College and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

While he was a waiter at

Pacific Cafe, Scott met Laci Rocha, an upbeat young woman with a beautiful smile. Laci's neighbor worked at the cafe, and Laci ended up there from time to time, sometimes having brief conversations with Scott over a counter as she ordered coffee.

One day, Laci wrote her phone number on a piece of paper, handing it to her neighbor to give to Scott. Thinking his friend was playing a mean trick on him, Scott crumpled the paper and threw it in the garbage. After being convinced it was no joke, he retrieved the number from the trash and called her soon.

Everyone who knew them then said they quickly fell in love. When Sharon Rocha came to Morro Bay to meet Scott, the mother and daughter each were greeted by a dozen roses at their dinner table at Pacific Cafe.

A few weeks later, Scott brought Laci to San Diego to meet his brothers and sisters, and they noticed how their brother could not stop smiling.

"The moment he was with Laci, they just beamed at each other," Jacqueline said. "No one else ever made my son smile like that. They did everything right."

After graduation, the couple opened a popular eatery called The Shack, a place near the Cal Poly campus where students came for hamburgers and sandwiches. The restaurant, a converted bakery, featured barrels of peanuts and numerous televisions showing sports.

The business quickly became a success. The couple sold The Shack two years later after deciding to move to Modesto to start a family and be closer to Laci's parents.

They rented a home for a while before buying a fixer-upper on Covena Avenue in the La Loma neighborhood. Scott is a salesman for a specialty fertilizer company.

After several years of trying, Laci became pregnant last summer. She was so excited when she found out that she began calling family and friends at 7 a.m. after taking a pregnancy test.

As the holiday season progressed, the Petersons held several parties at their home. Guests walking in noticed that the house no longer resembled the place that the Petersons had purchased.

"Scott remodeled the entire house, doing woodwork, tile, plumbing, a little bit of everything," said Guy Miligi, a friend of the Petersons'. "I know he put a lot of hours into making that baby room just right. He was real excited about having his first child. He talked about that all the time."

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On Dec. 23, Laci and her mother spoke by telephone. The call ended about 8:30 p.m. Scott told police he last saw his wife the next morning as he left for a fishing trip out of the Berkeley Marina, and was unable to find her when he returned home that evening.

Early on, police obtained a search warrant for the couple's home and vehicles and his warehouse. Police said they gathered evidence during those searches, but have not elaborated.

When they released pictures of Scott's truck and boat several weeks ago, police said they had been unable to corroborate his story. Police have said he is cooperating with investigators "to some degree."

Scott has not been named a suspect in his wife's disappearance; Police Chief Roy Wasden said Wednesday that detectives have not been able to eliminate Scott from the investigation.

Initially, Scott refused nearly every media request for interviews, saying that he preferred to keep the focus on his wife and not himself. He broke his silence roughly at about the same time that reports surfaced about the affair and life insurance policy.

Since he began talking with the media last week, Scott mostly has given one- and two-sentence comments, mostly about his plans to keep searching for his wife and child. He has ended most interviews quickly and abruptly.

He has not issued a direct denial of allegations of the affair. During a brief interview Friday with a Bay Area TV station, Scott called The Bee's report "a bunch of lies."

That same day, the Rocha family issued a statement asking Scott to tell police everything he knows, imploring him to prove that he has nothing to hide.

That weekend, as national media trucks inundated the area around the Modesto Police Department, Scott headed to Southern California to help with a one-day event to raise awareness of his wife's disappearance

[pbear8]

Thanks for the programing note. You'll in reruns for a week, have a great trip. Type at you soon.

[cry4justice]

Bravo! I'm really tired of the baby snatcher scenario. Thank you very much, Doc!

[TexKat]

While I was reading that part, I started to get fearful, wondering: did she disappear too? So whatever happened to the old lady anyway?? lol

Great minds think alike, or is it suspicious minds.

Gee, this is a busy news day.

Laci Peterson case, Scott Critter pervert, Hans Blitz little interview, Turkey & 5 countries meeting today, Colin Powell and Jack Straw meeting interview,and Q&A, the mounting Caracas, Venezuela uprising, and I believe Chavez is bussing in some Colombian terrorist there, Wolfowitz news conference and Q&A, Colin and Rumsfeld briefing all the senators this afternoon, etc. I'm glad I got my house cleaning done yesterday. It's leftovers tonight.

[maggief]

Maybe he lied to get the car. But, he was a member of his high school golf team and probably played tournaments which enabled him to get the partial scholarship at ASU. After six months he left ASU and moved in with his folks and the question never came up?!? I think that's a bunch of fertilizer, lol.

[iconoclast]

Anyway, the picture I am getting of these two is that they were maybe, well.. .. a little shallow, if you know what I mean.

Sheesh! Does the term judgemental ring a bell with you?

I'm constantly amazed by the long range analyses that show up on these threads.

[iconoclast]

Quite frankly I don't see that in the police comments. Must have been something said "off the record".

You really can't put any stock in anything LE says since the Atlanta bomber debacle.

They (LE) are fulltime covering their butts.

[iconoclast]

Even par ==== no extra strokes.

That ain't gonna help Muggs much, she is obviously golf impaired.

[clouda]

http://www.ktvu.com/news/1931100/detail.html#

Rocha Family Breaks Silence

POSTED: 8:25 a.m. PST January 23, 2003
UPDATED: 11:32 a.m. PST January 23, 2003

The family of Laci Peterson broke their week-long silence Wednesday night, talking about the missing woman's case for the first time publicly since a series of stunning revelations came to light.

Laci's relatives had been interviewed by America's Most Wanted -- for an episode to be aired this week -- before it was revealed to them that her husband, Scott, was having an affair and had taken out a $250,000 life insurance policy out on her.




Since that meeting with investigators a week ago, a deep rift has developed between the families involved in the case. The Rocha family -- Laci's relatives -- asked to have their segment re-shot, which it was on Wednesday.


While they did not talk with reporters as they left the interview, one family member has broken her silence.

Kathy Rocha said the family felt betrayed when they were told about Scott's actions.

"I think our whole side of the family would like to talk to Scott," Rocha said. "We have a lot of questions--I think we just hung our head (when told about what was uncovered) and it just kind felt like a stab in the back. We don't have good feelings right now and we hope something proves us wrong."

Scott Peterson has repeatedly denied the police allegations.

At the same time when the Rocha were meeting with America's Most Wanted, Peterson's family was meeting in San Diego -- the city where Scott grew up. They were reportedly planning out strategy for a one-day search effort in the Southern California city for this weekend.

Meanwhile, Modesto police said they know who broke into the Peterson house over the weekend. They have refused to identify the suspect and no charges have been filed. The items taken have been returned.

It's been a little more than four weeks since Laci disappeared from her Modesto home on Christmas Eve day. At the time, Scott Peterson has told authorities he was on a day fishing trip to the Berkeley Marina in the Bay Area.

When he arrived home, his wife -- who was more than eight months pregnant -- had vanished.

While Peterson was traveling to the southland, work continued at a state crime lab near Modesto.

John Yoshida, a member of the crime lab staff, told KTVU Wednesday that "a lot of evidence" had already been processed in the case and returned to the Modesto police.

"We have processed a lot of things," he said. "And as the case changes, we change our priorities. We continue to get evidence in all the time."

Yoshida said the latest advances in forensic medicine have changed the way cases like Laci Peterson's are handled by police.

"We've done several cases (that have) been bodyless," he said. "In other words, no body has ever been found. Certainly as good as the science now is, it's easier to get a conviction. A lot of times, what we see is because the science is so good, it never sees the light of day."

"What we get is a lot of pleas because they (the legal system) trust the science much more now."

While work at the lab goes on, Modesto Police say they continue to track down leads in the case. However, they have not revealed where, or if, any searches were currently underway.

[iconoclast]

if they have 40 police working on the case, it must be much larger than I thought.

They beefed up the force after Condit came home.

[Yeti]

7 or 8 years ago, I was at the mall with a girl I had been seeing for a few years. While we were walking, this guy passed us.

He was about 17, and he had a girl with him. As we passed, he spoke to my GF. He was silly - cheerful, kind of goofy. They chatted for a while, and the whole time the girl he was with was sort of rubbing his back, and holding onto his arm affectionately and he was grinning.

Shortly, my GF gave him a hug and came back to where I was standing. She had a smile on her face but she was whispering "oh my god, oh my god that is so wierd." When we were headed out the door, she reminded me about when she told me a few days before about a guy who had killed himself and I think someone else, and left a note with some hurtful stuff in it, and that his son had been the one to find the scene. He was very shaken and was on suicide watch.

The kid in the mall was the son and it had only been 5-6 days since it happened.

She said she thought it was kind of scary that some pills could make you that happy no matter what. I think she said it was prozac or something like it that he was on. Anyway, the grin on his face looked just like this, right down to the glow and twinkle:

If he did or didn't kill her, the happy grinning at a time like this is wierd. I wouldn't be surprised if it was pharmaceutically induced.

[Rusty Roberts]

I see your point, and can see why he might do that. This is starting to sound like a really bad soap opera, but the sad thing is it's real life. I'd believe almost anything now.

We need a great investigative reporter on this case, someone to delve deeply in to both family histories and the last 4 weeks of the key players. Therein lies Laci's fate, there is no outsider, no kidnapping, and yes, shades of the Ramseys, casebook , and friends were saying their marriage was "perfect", "What a gentleman" Scott was, Laci referred to as the "light of the family". Even heard one say everyone envied Laci's and Scott's marriage, in a positive way. At least no one has said spark plug, like John Ramsey did of his daughter. That said, I look toward her husband and possibly someone in his family as his accomplice, most likely after the fact

Here are some things I really want to learn:

1) Why did Scott leave ASU? Don’t believe his family has no clue.
2) Why no one manning the house and phone, in case Laci should break away, or her kidnapper should call (not going to happen, but how could Scott know this and be so cavalier
3) What was Scott’s present to Laci for Christmas (could be quite interesting, was it wrapped and under the tree)?
4) What were Laci’s and Scott’s financial situation? How many cars did they own? On Lacipeterson.com it states when Scott returned on 12/24 “both cars were in the drive….” If that is true, Scott was driving his pickup, so that would mean they had 3 cars, right?
5) How much did Laci ever work? As a substitute, one can work almost fulltime, but others can work sporadically, so would like to know if she ever really contributed considerably to the household income? Thinking about whether the pregnancy was a sudden drain on the finances?
6) How much did Scott regularly travel? How much was overnight, out of country?
7) Did Scott have an apartment or any other id in another city? (ok, this is reaching, but just thinking about gf)
8) Where has Scott been staying since Laci disappeared? I’d like to know, since the very first day, how many nights he has actually stayed in their house?
9) What was Scott actually doing in the Command center each day while it was open? Like to hear more about his interaction with those who worked there.
10)Whose dog was the dog? Usually, the pet is more aligned with one or the other , maybe even owned by one of them prior to the marriage. Just curious as to the dog’s behavior in the house, long shot, and it’s probably too late now, but in the first few days, might have been a clue. Remember Nicole Brown Simpson’s dog was quite frantic after witnessing her murder.
11)Last night, another of Scott's brother's (this one with the last name of Chapman I believe in PA) spoke to Greta on Fox and said he and his sister found 4 "witnesses" at the marina who can verify Scott was there on 12/24. Well, funny, how with all the publicity this case has had, no one has stepped forward till Scott's family goes down and finds them? If that's the case, why didn't they immediately take these people to the nearest police official and introduce them to each other? Need research, unbiased on this one.

There's more, but I do wish someone would dig in and find some answers to questions that have begged to be answered.

[Yeti]

Maybe there is more to the forensic evidence that was found in that house.

Ah! Like maybe some placenta or amniotic fluid, maybe?

Sorry about the imagery, folks.

[alexandria]

You bet, If a struggle occured with someone pregnet their could be DNA that even we are unaware of.

Two DNA profiles? Neither matching Scott? I wonder if they've asked for her parents DNA to be able to have a partial comparasion?

[TexKat]

Your post #92 too funny. I was thinking what you typed.

[iconoclast]

I also think that Laci is/was not perfect or smart here. Her worst transgression, IMO, was (apparently) to want to sell the successful restaurant in SLO and move to MODESTO(!!!) so she could be closer to mommy and daddy.

Oh, my. And I guess somewhere in your Bible is proscribed that murder is the fit punishment for not "cleaving" to your mate.

The guy returned from the college where he had a partial scholarship. My guess is he was homesick. Is their an appropriate penalty for not cleaving to your scholarship?

[alexandria]

Both these scenarios assume they the perp(s) have been following Laci's pregnancy for some time and decided to make their move on Christmas eve in broad daylight.

And why, oh why, would they pick a MARRIED pregnant woman, from a semi-upscale neighborhood, in a rather SMALL city?

[iaf97]

Local news reporting body found at Millerton Lake about 20 miles outside of Fresno. No release yet as to sex or identity pending autopsy.

[Freedom2specul8]

What a sad story. You're right you know..The first things the docs want to do is give ya anti-depressants if you indeed seek help either at your own request or family members. I don't know yeti.. I keep thinking about the grief that is trying to be suppressed with pills. Even if he had sleeping pills at night, would he look rested?

[iaf97]

www.47tv.com Here is the link to the report of the body found in Millerton Lake.

[Freedom2specul8]

Uhoh.... that kind of news is always horrifying. Especially when family members are still searching. (regardless of who the missing person is..not just Laci)