EXCERPTED:
Get the way UPI writes this:
The chief continued his department's tight-lipped approach to the case. However officials told CNN that the identification of the bodies was not necessary to make the arrest, suggesting police were working on evidence closer to the Petersons' home.
Asked if police thought Peterson might flee across the border into Mexico, Chief Wadsen replied, "That was a concern."
A golf pro at the seaside Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla told Fox News she witnessed an unmarked car with four or five plainclothes officers pull Peterson's vehicle over and take him into custody around noon. The pro said there was a set of golf clubs in his car.
Before the day was over, Peterson was being driven the nearly 500 miles from San Diego to Modesto where he was to be arraigned on capital murder charges Monday or Tuesday.
The inclusion of the unborn Conner in the charges could ultimately lead to the death sentence for Peterson should he be convicted.
Under California law, a murder charge can be applied in the death of a fetus if the mother was more than seven weeks pregnant and the killer was aware his actions would cause its death. A conviction in the death of mother and fetus would be considered a multiple murder that would qualify the defendant for execution -- though California seldom carries out death sentences.
"That doesn't mean we will automatically be seeking the death penalty," Stanislaus County District Attorney Jim Brazelton told reporters. "There are a number of things we take into consideration."
The remains of Laci, 27, and her full-term fetus were found not far from the same marina earlier this week and were positively identified Friday using DNA samples provided by Scott and by Laci's parents in a genetic test similar to that used to determine paternity.
The cause of death has not determined.
Scott Peterson's standing in the public eye, however, had suffered a serious blow Jan. 24 when Amber Frey of Fresno came forward and confirmed at a packed news conference that she had been having an affair with Peterson, whom she met in connection with his job as a fertilizer salesman. She said she did not know he was married.
Frey's disclosure was accompanied by reports that Peterson had taken out a $250,000 life insurance policy on his wife while she was pregnant.
Peterson was immediately ostracized from his wife's family and eventually dropped out of sight, retreating to San Diego County, where he had attended University of San Diego High School, a private school run by Jesuit priests, and where his parents still live in the coastal town of Solana Beach.
(Reported by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles
SFGATE:
Cops' endgame with slaying suspect
REACTION: A shrine at Laci's home, but a crowd at the jail
Modesto -- They waited hours for police to bring Scott Peterson home.
When Peterson arrived at the Stanislaus County Jail just before midnight Friday, sporting newly bleached hair and a goatee, the crowd had swelled to about 200 people. They roared and cheered, jostling with news media for a better look.
One man held a sign reading, "Scott is a Murderer." Others lifted their babies up for the television cameras, as one father said, "To show Scott what he missed out on."
RAGE TO GRIEF
The reaction to the news that Scott Peterson had been arrested on suspicion of killing his wife and unborn baby boy ranged from rage to grief.
Across town, at the home Scott Peterson shared with Laci, a steady stream of community members who had used the site as a quiet place to mourn were also showing sparks of anger Saturday.
NO JAILHOUSE INTERVIEWS
Peterson did not grant any jailhouse interviews Saturday. His attorney, Kirk McAllister, didn't come to work and did not return phone calls to his office or home.
People who stopped by the memorial outside the Peterson home Saturday morning were not shy about sharing their opinions.
Many drivers couldn't resist honking or rolling down their windows and shouting their sentiments as they passed the jail. "Scott Peterson, hang his ass!" yelled one woman.
On a tree near the ever-growing memorial of teddy bears, cards and candles to Laci and baby Conner, a poster of Scott Peterson on a deck of playing cards read -- "The only one wanted on our deck of cards."
"It was kind of obvious from the beginning he was guilty," said Nicole Gonzales, 27, a former classmate of Laci's at Downey High School, who had stopped by with a bouquet of white daisies.
"It's disgusting. I don't know how he could do something like that."
Even one of Scott Peterson's few defenders -- Katherine Houle, a 20-year- old mother from Stockton who came to the memorial with her 11-month-old son, Grant -- still got teary-eyed when talking about what she called a "heart- wrenching" case.
"I don't believe that Scott had anything to do with it," Houle said. "I try to put our family, with my husband, in that situation. I just can't fathom it. I really hope he had nothing to do with it."
HOMETOWN GIRL
But even as much as Scott Peterson was a topic of conversation at the memorial, the dominant theme was grief for the loss of the hometown girl with a megawatt smile and her unborn son.
Modesto police Sgt. Ron Cloward, who led the search to find Laci, said Saturday it was a relief to have Peterson behind bars.
"Everyone working on this case gained an emotional attachment to it," he said. "Even though we searched for hundreds of hours, it was Mother Nature who delivered Laci and her son to us and brought a sense of closure to her family."
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