Police can't say whether woman and infant are Laci Peterson and son

The Modesto Bee ^ | Published: April 15, 2003, 04:22:40 AM PDT | John Cote'

[runningbear]

This morning going to work, I saw several media vans heading to Modesto at 0400 hours.....

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[runningbear]

Pinging... I heard from KCBS that SP came to the Covena home to mow the lawn. There is a person who comes there once a week to light a candle, and the reward sign is still there. The neighbors were just finding out this late yesterday on the body finds...further developments....

[FreedomPoster]

The News-Industrial complex had to resurrect this story now that the war is ending.

I hope they have found her body (I think it's a foregone conclusion she is dead), and bring some closure to this story. For many reasons.

[oceanperch]

Could not sleep.
Oregon local news next on Laci.
No new update.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...a baby boy's body about a mile away along San Francisco Bay...It was found about 15 feet from the waterline in marshy wetlands..."

...a neighbor had found the golden retriever, with a muddy leash attached...

I wonder if the police investigators took samples of the mud from the leash. It would be interesting to see if it matches a sample of the mud to be found in the marshy area where the baby's body was discovered. That would place the dog's handler at the scene.

[runningbear]

Bay's complex makeup keeps objects in area

Excerpted

Bay's complex makeup keeps objects in area

BY DAVID W. HILL
BEE BUSINESS EDITOR

Published: April 15, 2003, 04:22:41 AM PDT

For those who know the complex tides and currents of San Francisco Bay, it comes as no surprise that things can be submerged in those waters for weeks or months before coming to the surface or the shore.

Richard Jepsen, chief executive officer for Berkeley Marina-based OCSC sailing school and a longtime bay sailor, is one of those people.

Jepsen, who helped create his school's training program, said the bay is a "unique body of water" in this region because of the massive flows that move in and out each day.

He said the entire bay is a study in fluid dynamics, with its contours and currents creating complicated patterns. Jepsen said even those complex patterns can change depending on the phase of the moon, spring runoff, wind direction and rain.

From late December until just last week, he said, conditions on the bay had been relatively mild. "But the last 2 1/2 days, the wind has been blowing very hard from the west into Berkeley," Jepsen said Monday night.

With the shallow water -- about 6 feet or less in many places -- from the Berkeley Marina north to Richmond, Jepsen said secondary currents and circular flows can hold objects in the area.

It might take something like the recent storms to drive those items on shore, he added.

[BushCountry]

It shouldn't take long to do a DNA Markup to find out if the bodies are related (heck even bloodwork could provide a vital clue). I am sure they have a DNA sample of Laci, so what the hell is the holdup.

[runningbear]

Identification likely to come from DNA

Excerpted

Identification likely to come from DNA

By JEFF JARDINE
BEE STAFF WRITER

Published: April 15, 2003, 04:22:41 AM PDT

Investigators are likely to rely on DNA samples to determine whether the remains found on the shoreline north of Berkeley are those of missing Modesto woman Laci Peterson and her baby.

"If there are no fingerprints or dental (evidence), then you have to go with the DNA," said Rex Cline, a coroner's deputy for Stanislaus County, speaking in generic terms and not specifically about the Peterson case.

Which means that the time it takes to make a positive identification falls into the hands of the person peering into a microscope, another area deputy coroner said.

"It just depends on the lab and the priority they give it," said Al Ortiz, a San Joaquin County sheriff's deputy.

The adult body washed up along Point Isabel on Monday. The discovery came just a day after a person walking a dog found the body of a baby boy about a mile away.

Forensic pathologists frequently are summoned to the scene when a body is discovered. Forensic pathologists are licensed physicians who ultimately determine cause of death.

[runningbear]

and:

Excerpted:

Shock of discoveries hits home

Shock of discoveries hits home

By BLAIR CRADDOCK,
PATRICK GIBLIN
and JULISSA McKINNON
BEE STAFF WRITERS

Published: April 15, 2003, 04:22:40 AM PDT

The people closest to Laci Peterson had the least to say Monday about the discoveries of two bodies along San Francisco Bay.

Laci's father, Dennis Rocha of Escalon, said: "We have to wait and see. This could be another wild-goose chase."

Her mother-in-law, Jackie Peterson,said she had spoken with her son, Scott: "We're praying that it isn't Laci."

Friends and neighbors expressed horror and sorrow, and someone even went to Laci Peterson's home to lay a single rose in front of a sign that notes a reward for information in the missing person case.

Speaking by telephone from her home in San Diego County, Jackie Peterson said her son was in the Modesto area on Monday. The Bee could not get in touch with him.

"We of course feel bad for whoever it is," Peterson said about the two bodies. "We pray for Laci's sake, because we still don't want to give up."

Sharon Rocha and Ron Grantski, the missing woman's mother and stepfather, had no comment. At their Modesto home, a sign on the front door asked reporters to direct their questions to Kim Petersen, who has been acting as the Rocha family's spokeswoman.

Petersen is executive director of the Modesto-based Sund-Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation. An employee there said Petersen did not have a statement from the family.

Shirley Dickerson, who said she has been a neighbor of Sharon Rocha's for about 30 years, said: "It's been a trying time for the whole neighborhood.

"During the holiday, we prayed that Laci would be found safe, but after this long, well, I really don't want to say if they could have found Laci."

Terri Western, a friend of the Rocha family and mother of one of Laci Peterson's best friends, said: "It's a bittersweet moment in that we all want this to be a positive outcome.

"But if it is Laci, there's closure for Laci and her family and friends."

In the Petersons' La Loma neighborhood, Terry Katen and her sister, Kathy Melton, went for a walk Monday and heard the news upon returning to Katen's home.

"It's horrible," Katen said. She and her sister said they had been praying for Laci Peterson and her family.

Nearby, Mike Peel said he arrived home from work, turned on the television news and heard the report about the discovery of two bodies.

"Nobody wants to jump to a conclusion till they know for sure," he said.

Nicole Medrano said she cannot help but wonder every day what has happened to Peterson, whose home is just a block away from hers.

"We would like to know what's going on," said Medrano, who drives past an impromptu shrine in the Petersons' Covena Avenue front yard every time she leaves her house.

In a green minivan, Marianne Wilson of Gustine drove slowly by, pointing out the house for her passenger, Mary Hernandez.

"It's upsetting," Wilson said. "Even if it's not her, it's sad they found a baby."

Katie Heinze, who lives on Covena Avenue, said the news "gives me the chills."

"I just hope they figure out soon who did this," Heinze said. "It's our neighborhood, and if it was a stranger, that's scary."

Jeanette Meyers of Modesto said she brought a rose to the house to show "sympathy to the family."

"She didn't have that coming to her whatsoever," Meyers said.

Salvador Romero, 35, is a hairstylist who works a few chairs away from Peterson's sister, Amy Rocha, at Salon Salon in Modesto.

He was the only person left there late Monday afternoon, preparing to lock up. He said the discovery of what might be Peterson's body triggered shock and nostalgia among the hairstylists.

[spectre]

"I wonder if the police investigators took samples of the mud from the leash. It would be interesting to see if it matches a sample of the mud to be found in the marshy area where the baby's body was discovered. That would place the dog's handler at the scene."

My thoughts exactly, Sam.

Although I had originally thought that Scott could still continue to deny involvment in the murder, putting him at the crime scene would just be too coincidental for even his own comfort.

Viking Chick originally mentioned this, and John Walsh said that Scott placing himself at the scene of the crime was just plain stupid.

If it IS Laci, Scott is so Busted!

[TankerKC]

If I were a betting man...

[runningbear]

Police Investigate Fetus, Body

list location where the full term fetus, baby boy was found.

[oceanperch]

Posted on Tue, Apr. 15, 2003
Woman, baby taken from Bay Investigators pursue Laci Peterson angle, a police source says
By Brian Anderson and Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Hoping to solve a mystery that has gripped a San Joaquin Valley town and the nation, investigators looking into the disappearance of Laci Peterson began focusing Monday on the grisly discovery of a pregnant woman and a baby.
The findings of the badly decomposed bodies of a petite female Monday and a fully developed male infant Sunday along the muddy Contra Costa bayshore has reinvigorated an investigation stunted by months of dead ends.
Peterson, 27, has been missing for the better part of four months, vanishing Christmas Eve from her Modesto home while her husband was fishing the San Francisco Bay waters off Brooks Island, authorities said.
She was eight months pregnant then, expecting a son that she and her husband planned to name Connor.
Law enforcement sources told the Times that investigators are focusing on maternity undergarments found on the woman's headless, legless body.
Someone walking through Richmond's Point Isabel Park dialed 911 at 11:43 a.m. to report the discovery of the remains.
The woman, found front-side down at the water line had been in the Bay for longer than a few days, said Chief Norman Lapera of the East Bay Regional Park District police.
Some flesh was visible to investigators, but little more than human bone remained, Lapera said.
Contra Costa sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee disputed that maternity clothing was found on the body.
There was only a standard woman's bra, Lee said.
Investigators have not identified the remains but are pursuing the Peterson angle, a police source said. "We don't know for sure," the source said.
The find came just hours after storm-driven waves washed the infant ashore a mile northwest of the woman, officials said.
A Richmond Fire Department official said Monday that the umbilical cord was still attached. The body was that of a boy, the official said.
Richmond police and fire officials responded about 4:45 p.m. Sunday to a call from a dog-walker who found the tiny body along a trail near the Richmond marina.
"Right now we're just trying to determine what the cause of death is, how long the child has been in the water and how long it had been up on land," said Richmond police spokesman Sgt. Enos Johnson. "We've had some high tides recently with the stormy weather, and believe that it washed ashore."
It was not clear Monday if the woman's body or that of the baby were in different stages of decomposition.
Authorities have not linked the two. It is possible for a pregnant woman's baby to be found relatively intact and separated from the mother a few months after the woman's death, forensic scientists said.
A phenomenon known as "coffin birth" causes gas from the decomposing mother to expel the baby, said Dr. Patrick Besant-Matthews, a former coroner in Seattle; Anchorage, Alaska; New Orleans and Dallas.
"Babies generally are fairly sterilized when they're inside the mom, so very often babies don't decompose in the same way as an adult," he said.
Variations in San Francisco Bay could make it difficult to tell by a body's appearance if it had been underwater for one month or four, said Herb Hawley, administrator of the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office.
"It all depends on the water temperature, where they are, whether the marine life got to the person," Hawley said.
Local authorities found the discovery of the baby boy suspicious enough to notify Modesto investigators Sunday. A park district police helicopter whisked five Modesto investigators to the scene about 3:30 p.m. Monday after getting word of the woman's body.
The remains were taken to the coroner's office in Martinez, where officials said they were expediting the autopsy.
Modesto investigators witnessed Monday night's autopsy, Lee said. Positive identification of the bodies is not expected for several days. Genetic testing will be used in the process, Lee said.

"We're testing first to determine the identification of the body," he said. "But we're also testing to determine whether the two bodies, the one found today and the one found yesterday by the Richmond Police Department, are related."

Modesto police said they have not connected the body in Richmond with their search for Peterson and would not comment on the East Bay case.
"It's not our jurisdiction," Modesto police Detective Doug Ridenour said.
But a source involved in the local investigation said they were previously told about two possible connections Scott Peterson, 30, has to Brooks Island, a short distance from where the woman's body was discovered.
The source said that title information for property on the island was discovered on a home computer seized in a search of the couple's house. A judge has ordered search warrants related to the case to remain sealed.
Scott Peterson told detectives that he had been fishing the waters off Brooks Island the day he last saw his wife alive.
Authorities used sonar to comb the Bay floor in March but turned up nothing related to the investigation.
While public suspicions have focused on Scott Peterson, police have said they do not have evidence to arrest the man.
Much of the ire Peterson has drawn from the public has to do with an affair he had with Amber Frey of Fresno. Less than a month after Laci Peterson disappeared, her family withdrew their support of her husband after Frey disclosed her relationship with Scott Peterson.
Peterson could not be reached for comment.
He told ABC News in January that he did not kill his pregnant wife and that she knew about his relationship with Frey.
"I had absolutely nothing to do with her disappearance," Peterson said.
Police have not ruled him out as a suspect, they have said.

Scott Peterson's family has stood behind him, helping with his efforts to raise awareness of his missing wife.
News of the discoveries quickly spread after appearing on the Times' Web site.
Television news trucks loaded with reporters filled a Point Isabel parking lot that had been cleared of members of the public earlier in the day.

In Modesto, a sense of uncertainty carried through Peterson's working-class, tree-shaded neighborhood. "I just want the family to be able to put her to rest," said Shannon Barnes, 29, while walking her pit bull

[runningbear]

yeah, this is so gruesome... Here is a video clip from NBC

Autopsy Performed On Decomposed Body

The woman's identity or cause of death isn't expected to be known before Tuesday morning, said Contra County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jimmy Lee.

snip it...

[BushCountry]

It is Tuesday morning.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...putting him at the crime scene would just be too coincidental for even his own comfort.

Since he is a suspect and since he has denied involvement, the first step is to place him at the scene. After that he may crack and the case will be solved.

[melodie]

Thanks for the ping rb

[runningbear]

Richmond body

Body Discovered; Modesto Police Airlifted To Richmond KTVU

Lots of video clips, on the KTVU home page/News

Bodies of Woman and Infant Found Near Site of Search for Laci Peterson

[Illbay]

The News-Industrial complex had to resurrect this story now that the war is ending.

Interesting theory. Pray tell, how did the N-I C happen to arrange for the body to wash up on shore and be found when it was?

Interested to hear your reply.