Pinging ya to today's continuing of this thread from Friday ;o)
As mystery unfolded, fear turned to despair
As mystery unfolded, fear turned to despair
BEE STAFF REPORTS
Published: April 20, 2003, 06:58:59 AM PDT
Her baby was nearly full-term.
The nursery was almost complete.>br> The presents were wrapped and waiting beneath the Christmas tree.
As the holidays progressed, Laci Peterson seemed to have everything in order.
On Dec. 23, the Modesto woman had time to join her husband when he went for a haircut. They went to Salon Salon at McHenry Village, where Laci's sister, Amy Rocha, cut Scott's hair. The sisters chatted.
It was the last time that anybody besides her husband reported seeing Laci.
Laci's mother said she spoke with Laci by telephone that night, and they ended their conversation about 8:30. Laci and Scott were due for dinner the next night at the home of Laci's mom and stepfather.
Christmas Eve dawned, and at 9:30, according to Scott, he left on a solo fishing trip as his wife prepared to take their dog for a walk at East La Loma Park.
Her normal route would have taken her to a trail, about a block from their home at 523 Covena Ave., which leads to the park.
A neighbor later said she found the dog, McKenzie, wandering alone with muddy leash attached about 10:30 a.m. The neighbor, not thinking that anything was amiss, put the golden retriever in the Petersons' yard.
Scott said he returned home that evening, and his wife was not there, even though her Land Rover was in the driveway. He called his in-laws, Sharon Rocha and Ron Grantski. He checked with neighbors and friends.
Peterson alone in cell
By JOHN COTÉ
BEE STAFF WRITER
Published: April 20, 2003, 05:55:58 AM PDT
As a memorial of stuffed animals, flowers and candles swelled in front of his Modesto home Saturday, Scott Peterson sat across town in a 6-by-9-foot cell. Peterson spent his first night behind bars, sleeping on a 2-inch-thick mattress in a single-person cell, officials said.
"We absolutely do not want to treat this gentleman any differently than we do anyone else," said Stanislaus County sheriff's Lt. Janet Rasmussen, who oversees the downtown Modesto jail. "He's being treated exactly as we would anybody else."
But the nature of the allegations against Peterson and the national attention given the case prompted officials to segregate him from the rest of the jail population.
"There are inmates in the jail who definitely have some unfavorable opinions of him, and they have expressed that," said Kelly Huston, a Sheriff's Department spokesman. "He is in the highest security area so he does not have access to other inmates, nor do they have access to him."
Prosecutors plan to charge Peterson, 30, with two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner, District Attorney James Brazelton said Friday.
Peterson likely will be arraigned Monday or Tuesday. He could face the death penalty if convicted of both counts.
Laci Peterson, 27, was eight months pregnant when she was reported missing Christmas Eve.
DNA tests confirmed Friday that two bodies found last week along the San Francisco Bay's eastern shoreline were those of Laci and her child, Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced.
Peterson was arrested in La Jolla on Friday morning. At the time, he was carrying a large amount of money; law enforcement officers on Saturday would not say how much.
Detectives returned him to Modesto by car, and he was booked into Stanislaus County Jail at 12:09 a.m. Saturday.
The white polo shirt and khaki shorts he wore Friday were replaced by a red jumpsuit designated for maximum-security prisoners, officials said.
His cell is within eyeshot of a deputy "pretty much all of the time," but he was not placed on a suicide watch, Huston said. A television set is within view.
Peterson made several phone calls Saturday and requested a haircut, Huston said. He was booked into jail sporting a full goatee and his dark hair had been dyed a lighter shade. Haircuts are given once a month on a rotating basis by cell block, Huston said.
Crowd on hand to see Scott's arrival at jail
About 200 people, not including media, were on hand to witness the arrival of Scott Peterson late Friday at the Stanislaus County Jail.
ADRIAN MENDOZA/THE BEE
Kelly Huston, spokesman for the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, said the magnitude of the crowd was a surprise.
"We were considering doing a last-minute booking change," Huston said. "Our No. 1 goal was to make sure he was booked safely, and that included that he didn't get lynched when he came in the driveway. There were people out there screaming, 'Murderer.'"
Officers arrested Peterson, 30, in San Diego County on Friday morning on murder charges in the deaths of his wife, Laci, and their unborn son.
DNA tests leave little doubt on identities
Using DNA taken from the shin bone of the female body and from a blood sample taken from Scott Peterson by law enforcement officials, serologists in the state forensics lab in Richmond determined that the infant was the child of the female and Scott Peterson, Lockyer said. He said the statistic was 1 to 18 billion, meaning that only one out of every 18 billion people also could positively test as the parents of the child.
The world's population is roughly 6.3 billion.
Using cheek swabs from Laci Peterson's parents, Sharon Rocha and Dennis Rocha, the lab determined there was a 1 in 1.9 billion chance that Sharon and Dennis Rocha were not the parents of the adult female.
John Tonkyn, supervisor of the state's Missing Persons DNA project, explained that the DNA samples taken from the remains also were compared with random DNA samples to see if there were positive matches there. There were none.
"Law code assumes paternity when the code exceeds the hundreds, and this is in the billions," California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said. "There is no question in our mind the unidentified female is Laci Peterson and the unidentified infant is the child of Scott and Laci Peterson."
Scott Peterson focus of investigation from beginning, police say
Many of his Modesto friends began to shun him. His fellow golfers at the Del Rio Country Club quietly bought out his membership for an estimated $25,000 in cash.
He eventually moved to San Diego, his hometown.
There, he was aware of the surveillance, waved at detectives and was "being kind of a smart aleck" before Friday, said California Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
Wasden sought an arrest warrant Thursday, a day before the confirmation of the identities of the bodies, in part because he feared Peterson might flee to Mexico, which forbids the extradition of anyone who faces the death penalty.
"That was a concern," Lockyer spokesman Nathan Barankin said Saturday. "While we've improved our relationship with Mexico, extraditions, death penalty or not, can be very troublesome, expensive and tiresome."
Calif attorney general marries pregnant girlfriend
The Ca AG story is too fitting on a Democrat.. but wish him luck
And a little bit off humor... Hey did scotty escape?... (yes I know it isn't him...;o)
An unidentified man climbed to the top of the fence on the south side of the Briggsmore Avenue overpass, over the northbound lanes of Highway 99, on Saturday afternoon. Freeway traffic was stopped, causing major congestion for about an hour around 3 p.m. Modesto police officers finally convinced the man to come down.
BART AH YOU/THE BEE