EXCERPTED:
Arrest Warrant Issued For Scott Peterson
POSTED: 8:00 a.m. PDT April 18, 2003
UPDATED: 4:02 p.m. PDT April 18, 2003
MODESTO, Calif. -- Modesto police Friday issued an arrest warrant for Scott Peterson in connection with the Christmas Eve murder of his wife Laci, who vanished from the couple's home and has been the subject of an intensive search for several months.
Fox News was reporting that Peterson had been arrested in San Diego, where his family lives. It was also rumored that police would -- at their scheduled 6 p.m. news conference -- announce that the remains of two bodies -- an adult female and a full-term baby boy -- were those of Laci and her unborn son, Connor.
Earlier in the day, Peterson's attorney had said Scott believed the discovery of bodies in a Richmond park was "for someone…a tragedy," adding that the Modesto man will continue to search for his missing pregnant wife.
While Kirk McAllister told the Modesto Bee he was in regular contact with Peterson and knew his whereabouts, he refused to reveal that location.
"I know his whereabouts, and yes, we're in regular contact," McAllister told the paper. "His thought is that certainly, for somebody, this represents a tragedy."
The Modesto attorney said Peterson was hopeful that the bodies discovered in the park were not those of his missing wife, Laci, and his unborn son, Connor.
"He is hoping this doesn't mean that his search for Laci and the baby is over," McAllister said.
McAllister also told the paper that he has had no contact with Modesto police since the bodies were discovered.
Meanwhile, state medical investigators in the San Francisco Bay area announced Thursday night that they had recovered a usable sample of DNA from the remains of the full-term baby boy's femur bone and muscle tissue.
They expected to know by late Friday if they had a usable sample from the female body's tibia bone and muscle tissue. The investigators have DNA recovered from a hairbrush used by Laci Peterson and samples from her biological parents to use as a comparison. Lab officials have said once they had a usable sample it could take days to weeks before a positive identification could be made.
On Thursday, Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton said he had no doubts about what those investigators would find.
"I feel pretty strongly it is (Laci and her unborn son)," Brazelton