PETERSON May face death
Posted on 05/16/2003 6:16:00 AM PDT by runningbear
Stanislaus County Superior Court judge seals Laci Peterson autopsy
Posted on Thu, May. 15, 2003
Stanislaus County Superior Court judge seals Laci Peterson autopsy
MODESTO, Calif. (AP) - The autopsies of Laci Peterson and her unborn son were completed by the Contra Costa County coroner and sealed Thursday by a judge in Stanislaus County Superior Court, prosecutors said.
The autopsies were completed sooner than expected, but it wasn't clear if a cause of death had been determined in the homicides. Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa sheriff would not comment, but has said in the past that the cause of death may never be known.
Scott Peterson, 30, is being held without bail on two counts of murder and could face the death penalty if convicted. He has pleaded innocent.
He was arrested last month after the decomposed remains of his wife and the son they planned to name Conner were found on the shore of San Francisco Bay in Richmond near where Peterson told police he went fishing on Christmas Eve, the day he reported his wife missing.
Police have not revealed how they believe Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old substitute teacher, was killed or any of the evidence they compiled against her husband, a fertilizer salesman.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers asked to seal the autopsy and Judge Al Girolami agreed. The autopsy report could be unsealed at a May 27 hearing in which news organizations are seeking the release of other court documents, including search warrants and police reports.
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Click this site for an image of remains, from www.voodooscott.com
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PETERSON May face death
KILLER 'CARVED' LACI'
By HOWARD BREUER and ANDY GELLER --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 16, 2003 -- Laci Peterson was savagely carved up, her killer cutting off her head and removing internal body parts, a chilling new report said yesterday. Fox News quoted a source on the legal team of her husband, Scott, as saying the condition of Laci's body was "horrendous" - "awful, awful, awful."
The source - who saw documents revealing the condition of the body - said the 27-year-old Modesto, Calif., woman "was carved up" - and "the head is not the only part that is missing."
Asked if the damage to the body could have been caused by it being underwater for three months, the source said, "No . . . there are internal parts missing."
John Goold, the chief investigator in the infamous case, declined to comment on the report.
"We want to protect the integrity of the investigation," he said.
Mark Geragos, Scott Peterson's lawyer, did not return calls.
The remains of Laci, a substitute teacher, and her unborn son, Conner, washed up from San Francisco Bay around April 14.
Scott, who reported her missing on Christmas Eve, was arrested days later in San Diego. He pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder, for which prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.
The coroner's office in Contra Costa County completed the autopsies of Laci and Conner yesterday, but the results were immediately sealed by Judge Al Girolami in Stanislaus County, which includes Modesto.
Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the coroner's office, said the autopsy reports would be turned over to the Stanislaus district attorney's office in the next few days.
Goold, chief deputy district attorney in Stanislaus, said he would send the reports to defense attorneys. Asked if medical examiners had gotten answers to the main questions in the case, Lee said, "In a very general sense, the answer is yes."
Police sources believe Scott, who was having an affair, killed Laci in their home the night of Dec. 23 and weighed down her body with concrete anchors before tossing it into the waters of the bay.
The defense source conceded Scott could have inflicted the unspeakable damage on his wife's body, but questioned where and how.
"With the exception of a single hair that may be Laci's, found on that pair of needle-nose pliers found in Scott's boat, there's nothing forensically to link Scott to this crime," the source asserted.
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Defense claims 'credible' suspects
Article Last Updated: Friday, May 16, 2003 - 3:57:14 AM PST
Defense claims 'credible' suspects
Peterson's attorneys refuse to name names; Laci's autopsy complete
By FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Defense attorneys for murder suspect Scott Peterson are stay-ing tight-lipped in a number of new developments in the case of his dead wife.
The attorneys say they have identified one or more "credible suspects," but will not say who the suspects are. They also will not reveal what the defense theory is regarding the disappearance of Laci Peterson.
The autopsies of the 27-year-old Modesto woman and her unborn son were completed Thursday morning by the Contra Costa County coroner and reports were sealed by a judge in Stanislaus County Su-
perior Court, prosecutors said.
The autopsies were complet-ed sooner than expected, but it wasn't clear if a cause of death had been determined in the homicides.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers asked to seal the autopsy report and Judge Al Girolami agreed. The report could be unsealed at a May 27 hearing in which news organizations are seeking the release of other court documents, including search warrants and police reports.
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Autopsies on Laci Peterson and Baby Ordered Sealed
Autopsies on Laci Peterson and Baby Ordered Sealed
Thu May 15, 2003 05:14 PM ET
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Coroner's officials completed autopsies on the bodies of Laci Peterson and her unborn son on Thursday but immediately sealed the results under a court order sought by prosecutors and lawyers for accused killer Scott Peterson.
Both sides agreed to the order "in order to protect the integrity of the case, the defendant's right to a fair trial and avoid undue media exposure, Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton said in a statement.
The order was apparently signed on Thursday by Superior Court Judge Al Girolami, who is presiding over Scott Peterson's trial on double murder charges and who has also sealed other key documents in the sensational case.
A spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, which handled the autopsies, said that they would comply with the order and that the remains of Laci and her unborn son were being kept there until further order from the court.
Officials declined to comment on a report by the Fox News Channel that coroner's officials had been unable to determine a cause of death for Laci, whose body washed out of San Francisco Bay last month.
Fox, in a story posted on its Web site (http://www.foxnews.com) said an unnamed defense source had told the network that Laci's body had been "carved up" and was missing the head and other body parts. The source said the extensive injuries could not have been caused by being underwater for three months.
Mark Geragos, Scott Peterson's lead defense attorney, could not be reached for comment.
Police arrested Peterson last month and prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against the 30-year-old fertilizer salesman.
Authorities have released little of the evidence they have against Peterson, who has pleaded innocent to two counts of first-degree murder. Peterson, who is being held without bail, said he last saw his 27-year-old pregnant wife on Christmas Eve as he left to go fishing.
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Peterson Case, Similar Crimes, Build Momentum for Protection of Unborn
Peterson Case, Similar Crimes, Build Momentum for Protection of Unborn
By Steve Brown
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
May 16, 2003
(CNSNews.com) - With a high-profile murder case providing momentum, pro-life activists are mounting an aggressive campaign to persuade Congress to pass the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.
Please don't tell me that my dead son was not a real crime victim!
In addition to citing the Laci and Conner Peterson murders, the National Right to Life Committee's ad campaign uses the photo of a mother at a funeral cradling the dead body of her son who had died in the womb when the mother was beaten.
According to the mother in the photo, Tracy Marciniak, law enforcement authorities in Milwaukee, Wis., told her, "Nobody died in the attack." Marciniak's testimony is included in the print ad, which began running May 14.
"When I was hospitalized and grieving for my dead baby, law enforcement authorities told my family that they could charge the man who attacked only with assault," Marciniak stated in the ad. "I was devastated."
Marciniak's husband attacked her in Milwaukee in 1992, when her son, Zachariah, was four days away from his birth due date. The husband, Glendale Black, was convicted of beating his wife, but there was no law to punish him for the death of his unborn son.
In 1998, Wisconsin lawmakers approved legislation treating such instances as two crimes - not one.
"Thank God California has such a law," Marciniak said. "That's why prosecutors were able to file a double homicide charge in the brutal murders of Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner. They didn't have to tell surviving family members that legally, Conner had never lived and never died."
The recent revelations in the Laci Peterson case have bolstered interest and support for federal legislation to deal with violence committed against unborn children. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act is awaiting action in both the House and Senate. In the House, the bill has been renamed "Laci and Conner's Law" in honor of Peterson and her unborn son. Peterson's husband, Scott, is charged in the crimes.
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Posted on Fri, May. 16, 2003
BILL MANN: MEDIA NOTES
Pondering the Laci phenomena
YOU'VE PROBABLY wondered the same thing: Why has the Laci Peterson story gotten so much TV coverage? At times, it's been more than excessive -- e.g., one local TV station recently ran a pointless live shot of Scott Peterson, husband and accused murderer, in a rooftop jail exercise yard.
KGO-TV anchor Pete Wilson claimed on his radio chat show the other day he'd been petitioning Channel 7 news management to back off the Peterson coverage a bit, saying, "unsuccessfully, I might add."
This does seem like classic media overkill -- even though I'm not part of the horde that blames an amorphous entity called "the media" for many of the evils in society. It's obvious from talking to local TV news people that there is, in actual fact, a high level of public interest in the story of the murdered Modesto housewife.
One Alameda reader, Gloria A., e-mails: "Laci was pretty and cute and she lived in a nice house in a good neighborhood. It's a reality show in the truest sense." Gloria adds: "Sure, I'm interested in the story, but certainly not to the degree it's been played on TV." And then something you can't totally dismiss: "I have to wonder that if Laci had been plain-looking or if she'd been black, would this story have been half as big?"
Almost certainly not. TV likes pretty people (no big surprise there). As for the other part, one African-American TV newsman told me, "That's probably part of it, but that still doesn't fully explain why the story's so big."
One local TV news exec who asked to remain anonymous said, "Like Wilson, I've said in our news meetings the story shouldn't get this much play. I know that we don't play it as big on my newscast as the station does on others."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Another APB alert:
Sketch of suspect
Police Seek Man For Questioning In Trail Killing
2 Witnesses Saw A Man In The Area Of Trail Murder, Police Say
POSTED: 4:18 p.m. PDT May 15, 2003
UPDATED: 5:47 p.m. PDT May 15, 2003
CONCORD -- Police have released the description of a man they want to question in connection with the killing of a 49-year-old Antioch woman who was beaten to death on a trail near her workplace in Concord on Tuesday.
Two separate witness accounts led police to prepare a sketch and description of a white man they say was in the area when Kathleen Aiello-Loreck was on her noontime stroll on a popular walking trail.
Sgt. Stephen Price said that the man hasn't been named a suspect, but police think he may have seen something that could prove valuable to the investigation.
At a 2 p.m. news conference police described the man as a 25 to 40-year-old white male between 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet tall, weighing between 180 and 200 pounds with a medium build and a pronounced belly. He is said to be clean-shaven with brown, medium length hair and was wearing brown Docker-style khakis, a light-colored Polo or T-shirt with a dark-colored zip-up sweatshirt. He was also wearing dark brown sunglasses.
Aiello-Loreck, a mother of three, never returned to the offices of Systron Donner Inertial Division from a walk along the Contra Costa Canal, between Cowell and Tioga roads.
She was found near the path with fatal injuries to her head. Medical personnel pronounced her dead at an area hospital shortly before 5 p.m., police said.
Price Thursday described the killing is an isolated incident. "We still see Concord as a safe city," he said. "We don't think there's any reason to be alarmed."
He added that it remains unclear whether the attacker was lying in wait or if Aiello-Loreck was a random target.
At the time of the attack, Aiello-Loreck was on a cell phone call with a man police have not yet identified. Price said they have made contact with the man and that he is cooperating with the investigation.
Tuesday's was the second murder in Concord this year, according to the Police Department. Price said there was no evidence that Aiello-Loreck was sexually assaulted.
(Excerpt) Read more at bayarea.com ...
For some it's just a fashion statement, for others it's a way of life.
Diagnosis: Chronic stupidity.
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