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

Investigators load a decomposed woman's body discovered Monday at Point Isabel Shoreline Park in Richmond. Officials are looking into the possibility the body is that of Laci Peterson. The Bay Bridge can be seen in the background.

RICHMOND -- An autopsy continued into the night Monday after a discovery that sent Modesto police rushing to the East Bay to see if Laci Peterson's body had been found.

A woman walking her dog along the beach found a female adult body at 11:43 a.m. Monday, less than a day after someone else found a baby boy's body about a mile away along San Francisco Bay.

Peterson, 27, was eight months pregnant when she was reported missing on Christmas Eve. Authorities described the body found Sunday afternoon as that of a "full-term male child."

It was found about 15 feet from the waterline in marshy wetlands bordered by condominiums and an industrial area, said Sgt. Enos Johnson of the Richmond Police Department.

Residents said the grassy patch where the baby's body was found is often covered by water.

An autopsy Monday morning did not confirm if the baby was connected to the Peterson case, or to the adult body found Monday, authorities said.

Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, said it was "way too early" to tell if the baby's body and woman's body had been in the water the same amount of time.

The adult's body was found lodged in rocks in the vicinity of Point Isabel Regional Shoreline. East Bay Regional Park District police notified Modesto detectives after the discovery.

"Because of the location of where we found the body and the notoriety of the case involving Modesto, it was prudent to notify the Modesto Police Department," said Norman Lapera, police chief of the park district. "This potentially could be a drowning victim."

Doug Ridenour, spokesman for Modesto police, said his department got the call at 12:15 p.m. Investigators were flown to the scene by helicopter; they arrived about 5 p.m.

"At this point, we have no information nor has the recovered body been identified as that of Laci Peterson," Ridenour said in a news release Monday evening. "Until such time as our department has been notified and it has been confirmed that the East Bay body is related to the Modesto case, this is an East Bay Regional Park District Police Department case."

Still, Modesto police and Stanislaus County sent five people, including a representative of the district attorney's office.

At one point, a total of about 20 investigators converged at the scene. The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department dispatched canine teams trained to detect human remains.

Lapera said it appeared the woman's body had been in the water for "quite some time" but he could not give specifics about the condition of the body.

The autopsy on the woman's body began shortly after 6 p.m. at the county coroner's office in Martinez.

Lee said it could take several days to process the information and determine the cause of death and the identity of the body.

Lee said investigators were examining some clothes found with the woman's body. He would not elaborate on the clothes, other than to say they were not maternity clothes.

The autopsy on the baby's body did not yield cause of death, Lee said. DNA-type tests were performed, but results could take weeks.

Peterson's stepfather reported her missing Dec. 24 after talking with his son-in-law, Scott. Scott said he had returned from a fishing trip out of Berkeley, and Laci was gone when he came home. Police started searching in East La Loma Park, where Scott says his wife had planned to take their dog for a walk. Earlier in the day, a neighbor had found the golden retriever, with a muddy leash attached, and returned the dog to the Petersons' back yard.

Police have conducted a number of searches at Scott and Laci Peterson's Covena Avenue home and a Modesto warehouse used by Scott Peterson in his work as a fertilizer salesman. They also confiscated Scott Peterson's 2002 Ford F-150 pickup and his wife's Land Rover sport utility vehicle. They also have searched several waterways, including the area around the Berkeley Marina.

The case gained worldwide attention, and a $500,000 reward was offered for Laci Peterson's safe return. In February, Peterson's due date passed; she was expected to give birth about Feb. 10 to the couple's first child, a son they had named Connor.

In March, police reclassified the case as a homicide, and a $50,000 reward was issued for information that leads directly to the location and recovery of her body.

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.

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.

and:

Excerpted:

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.

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

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