Posted on 02/24/2003 5:54:19 AM PST by runningbear
Woman Supposedly Meeting Photographer Missing Foul Play Feared In Disappearance
Woman Supposedly Meeting Photographer Missing Foul Play Feared In Disappearance
UPDATED: 9:47 a.m. PST February 20, 2003
LOS ANGELES -- Police asked for the public's help in finding a 21-year-old woman who disappeared on Saturday after saying she was going to meet a photographer in Beverly Hills who told her she had an unusual look.
"A preliminary investigation disclosed that Kristine Louise Johnson was last seen leaving her residence in Santa Monica on Saturday afternoon," Lt. Frank Fabrega said Wednesday. "The circumstances behind her disappearance are suspicious in nature and a cause for great concern to her family and law enforcement.
"When she left, she was possibly en route to see a photographer," Fabrega said.
Johnson last was seen driving away in her 1996 white, Mazda Miata with black convertible top and California license plates 3RSV484. A missing person investigation began on Monday.
"The family and Police Department are very concerned because this is very uncharacteristic of her behavior to not show up to work yesterday and today and no one has seen her since Saturday afternoon," Fabrega said.
"You know as each day goes by you get more frantic," said Johnson's grandmother, Kristine Johnson of Santa Maria.
She said her granddaughter visited her in Santa Maria one week before her disappearance.
"She had a cell phone and she would have been in contact with one of us," she said.
Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Police end 2-day search of Peterson home
Police tape cordons off the Peterson home in Modesto, California.
Police end 2-day search of Peterson home
Spokesman: No arrests imminent
Thursday, February 20, 2003 Posted: 1:26 PM EST (1826 GMT)
Police finished a two-day search of the home of Scott Peterson, whose pregnant wife, Laci, disappeared on Christmas Eve. CNN's Rusty Dornin reports (February 20)
MODESTO, California (CNN) -- Police have finished their two-day search of the home of Scott Peterson, whose pregnant wife, Laci, disappeared on Christmas Eve.
Modesto Police spokesman Detective Doug Ridenour said investigators took a total of "94 or 95" items from the home, which will be processed at the police department or at other labs.
When Scott Peterson returns to his home, he'll be walked through the residence by a detective who will give him receipts for all the items taken.
Ridenour refused to say what police were looking for and what they had found.
"They came here for a reason," he told reporters at a second briefing Wednesday. "They had to establish that through their affidavit in order to get the search warrant."
As the second day of the search got under way Wednesday morning, police tape was put up around the Peterson yard.
When one detective stringing the tape around fences was asked if the area was a crime scene, he replied, "Yes."
But Ridenour said the tape was put up mostly to keep out overzealous members of the media.
However, he said, any evidence taken away from the home could potentially be connected to a crime at some point in the future. Investigators first executed a search warrant at the home on December 26 -- two days after the 27-year-old woman disappeared.
In the afternoon, police were seen leaving the residence with more brown paper evidence bags. Tuesday, some of the 40 to 50 evidence bags taken from the home were labeled "phone books" and "photo albums."
Police also impounded Scott Peterson's new white Dodge Ram truck for a few hours Tuesday.
The truck, which Peterson bought five weeks after his wife disappeared, was in the driveway Wednesday after being returned by police Tuesday evening.
Peterson's Ford 150 pickup truck and a 14-foot boat were impounded by police shortly after he reported his wife missing.
Peterson told police he last saw his wife on Christmas Eve morning when he left to go on a fishing trip alone about 85 miles away. When he returned home later that day, she was gone.
Laci Peterson has been missing since December 24. Police have verified that a receipt Scott produced came from a parking lot at the marina where he said he was fishing.
Laci was due to deliver their son, to be named Connor, February 10.
Shortly after her disappearance, police announced that Laci Peterson was likely taken against her will.
Police have maintained that although Scott Peterson is "not a suspect," he can't be eliminated from the investigation.
"Discoveries during the investigation necessitated this second search warrant," Ridenour said Tuesday, adding, "No arrests are imminent."
The missing woman's family, which initially had stood by her husband, has urged him to be more cooperative with police, especially after he acknowledged publicly that he was having an affair with another woman.
'Knows what he did'
In an interview Wednesday on CNN's "Larry King Live," Janey Peterson, Scott's sister-in-law, said she was angry herself when she found out about the infidelity. (Transcript of interview)LKL
"I told him on the phone I was going to slug him and then I was going to hug him," she said. "He knows what he did was wrong."
Janey said her brother-in-law has endured heavy media scrutiny.
"What we're seeing on the news is so much attention on Scott, and that's a very difficult thing," she said. "We all love Scott very much and support him 100-percent and want everyone to understand that. But more importantly, Laci's gone."
She also denied that Scott hasn't been cooperative with police. "He has spent hours and hours being questioned."
Hundreds of volunteers have joined police and the FBI in searching for Laci.
Police say they've received more than 5,000 tips in the case, and a $500,000 reward has been posted for Laci's return.
CNN Correspondent Rusty Dornin, San Francisco Bureau Chief Bonnie Gannon and Producer Chuck Afflerbach contributed to this report.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbc4.tv ...
"Ridenour refused to say what police were looking for and what they had found.
"They came here for a reason," he told reporters at a second briefing Wednesday. "They had to establish that through their affidavit in order to get the search warrant."
As the second day of the search got under way Wednesday morning, police tape was put up around the Peterson yard.
When one detective stringing the tape around fences was asked if the area was a crime scene, he replied, "Yes".
"In the afternoon, police were seen leaving the residence with more brown paper evidence bags. Tuesday, some of the 40 to 50 evidence bags taken from the home were labeled "phone books" and "photo albums."
Police also impounded Scott Peterson's new white Dodge Ram truck for a few hours Tuesday.
The truck, which Peterson bought five weeks after his wife disappeared, was in the driveway Wednesday after being returned by police Tuesday evening."
Police have verified that a receipt Scott produced came from a parking lot at the marina where he said he was fishing.
Article Last Updated: Monday, February 24, 2003 - 2:59:44 AM PST
Reservoir search yields no breaks
By STAFF WRITER
MODESTO -- After Saturday's volunteer search of the New Melones Reservoir near Sonora, authorities, friends and family still have no clues in the disappearance of Laci Peterson.
This latest search was the third in February.
Volunteers scoured the Don Pedro Reservoir in Tuolumne County last weekend and the Delta Mendota Canal on Feb. 8.
Volunteers Saturday explored the reservoir in Calaveras County in boats and probed the surrounding area on foot and horseback, but found nothing.
Last week police seized Peterson's husband's recently purchased Dodge Ram pickup but later returned the vehicle. Police still have Scott Peterson's 2002 Ford F-150 pickup and his aluminum boat, though.
Police have not named Scott Peterson a suspect in his wife's disappearance.
She was last seen at her Modesto home on the morning of Dec. 24, 2002.
excerpted....
Rumors abound in Laci search
Modesto police squelch reports as untrue, continue with case on smaller scale
By Dave Myhra, STAFF WRITER
MODESTO -- Rumors continue to swirl around the Laci Peterson disappearance while the search for her continues.
This week there were rumors that:
- Her body was found in Fresno, or
- It was under her house, or
- It was in a warehouse.
Nobody knew which report was right because none of them was true.
The Modesto Police Department had not been contacted about a body anywhere and so is not investigating any reports, according to a spokesman.
On Friday morning, a local news agency reported that the police had asked for a sample of the DNA of 30-year-old Scott Peterson's, Laci's husband. That report seems to be false, too.
"I couldn't even come close to commenting on that, I know nothing about it, it's just a bunch of rumors," said Detective Doug Ridenour, a police spokesman.
Court records reveal the issuance of five other search warrants in the Peterson investigation -- for Scott Peterson's workplace, phone records and vehicles, and his "person."
They show that all of them have been sealed by judges' orders. Three were sealed Jan. 22. Those warrants were for Scott Peterson's "person," which usually means hair and bodily fluids; one was for an unspecified vehicle used by Scott Peterson; and one was for his phone records.
Two warrants were sealed Feb. 10. Each was for one of Peterson's vehicles. Under state law, a search warrant must be returned to the issuing court within 10 days after being issued. Each warrant must be accompanied by a list of items collected as possible evidence, and an explanation of why authorities believed that they needed the warrant. Warrant documents become public record unless a judge seals them.
Although Ridenour says he does not know about every detail of the investigation, he does know about the important developments.
If the police had requested a sample of Scott Peterson's DNA, he would know about it, Ridenour said.
Most of the rumors he hears come from the media and "who knows where they get their stuff," Ridenour said.
Police are trying not to respond to the crush of rumors that pop up every day and they are taking time to make sure the rumors are true before acting, he said.
"We're trying not to respond to every rumor, that would work us to death. We figure if someone has a legitimate find we're going to know about it," Ridenour said.
In the meantime, the police department continues its ground search for the missing woman.
Although the search has nowhere near the manpower it had in the first days after her disappearance, it continues.
During the first couple of weeks of the search, among others, teams from the sheriff's department, dog teams, search and rescue teams, a helicopter and horses were utilized.
Now "we primarily stick to the search teams and the investigators," Ridenour said.
The exact number of people currently searching is a hard thing to calculate, it changes day to day. Ridenour did not even want to hazard a guess.
"It depends on the day and what we have planned for that day," Ridenour said.
The department is still searching within Stanislaus County as well as in surrounding counties for the missing lady.
Modesto police will not say whether they expect to find Laci Peterson and her son, Connor, scheduled to be born on Feb. 10, alive.
"We're hopeful," Ridenour said.
The Peterson home was searched on Tuesday and Wednesday, and more than 70 bags of evidence were removed from the premises by detectives.
On Tuesday, Scott Peterson's recently purchased Dodge Ram pickup was seized by the police but later returned. Police still are in possession of his 2002 Ford F-150 pickup and his aluminum boat.
Police still have not named Scott Peterson a suspect in his wife's disappearance.
She went missing from her Modesto home on the morning of Dec. 24. She was supposedly taken while walking her golden Retriever in East La Loma Park. But since her disappearance the investigation through the use of bloodhounds has discovered she may have gotten into a car before ever entering the park.
Scott Peterson said he left his wife at 9:30 a.m. to go fishing in the Berkeley Marina. When he returned home that night, she was gone. Police were called later that evening by Laci's stepfather, Ron Grantski.
Wire services contributed to this report.
Okaland Tribune clarifying some rumors.....
Starting to Accept ‘the Worst’
Update: Laci Peterson’s family now focuses on finding the body
NEWSWEEK
March 3 issue — Last week’s police search of the Modesto, Calif., home of Laci and Scott Peterson brought new trauma to the family of the missing pregnant woman. Investigators won’t say what was among the nearly 100 items they hauled away, but the search spawned a rumor that Laci’s body had been found under the house.
LACI’S FAMILY REMAINS convinced Scott Peterson hasn’t revealed all he knows to police. Public suspicion fell on him in January after a woman told police she’d been having an affair with him in the weeks before Laci disappeared. Peterson insists he’s innocent. Police will say only that Peterson is not a suspect but hasn’t been ruled out as one, either.
(He didn’t return NEWSWEEK’s calls.)
In the weeks after Laci’s disappearance in December, her family concentrated on asking the public to report any sightings, and checking with hospitals. But now they are focused on finding her body. In recent weeks, her brother, Brent Rocha, has led hundreds of volunteers in boats, on horseback and on foot in searches of three local reservoirs. “That’s my whole focus right now,” he told NEWSWEEK. “We’re coordinating our searches with the police department, and they think we should be looking in water,” says Rocha. “We’ve realized that the worst-case scenario might have occurred.”
—Andrew Murr
At least they got that animal.
LOS ANGELES -- Police asked for the public's help in finding a 21-year-old woman who disappeared on Saturday after saying she was going to meet a photographer in Beverly Hills who told her she had an unusual look.
I take it she disappeared Saturday, February 15, not February 22?
Shades of two old California cases, actually. The strangulation murder of Raiderette Linda Sobek in November of 1995 had its own similarities to those committed in the late 1950s by photographer and serial killer- before that term was coined- Harvey Glatman, who hired unsuspecting models for photo shoots in remote locations, raped and then strangled them. But Glatman is no longer around to be a suspect in this most recent possible homicide; on 18 September 1959 he passed away from a most appropriate slow suffocation, brought on by the inhalation of cyanide in the green room of San Quentin's gas chamber. Though he had previously murdered at least three young women, after his execution he reformed his ways and never committed any criminal acts again....
He obviously did it. -PG
PG, how did you know?
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