Updated:
The Peterson Case Takes Another Bizarre Turn
POSTED: 10:19 a.m. PDT July 17, 2003
UPDATED: 10:51 a.m. PDT July 17, 2003
MODESTO, Calif. -- In the latest bizarre twist, a newspaper reported Thursday that a neighbor entered the home of Scott and Laci Peterson in January during the height of the search for the murdered Modesto schoolteacher and drank some alcohol and removed several items including her wedding dress.
The Modesto Bee, quoting several unnamed sources, said Kimberly Ann McGregor was never charged in the burglary and the items were returned. McGregor allegedly had access to the home because she was walking the couple's dog.
The burglary occurred sometime around Jan. 18 and was reported to police on Jan. 19 when Scott Peterson returned from Southern California where he had been organizing a search for his wife.
According to the sources -- McGregor, a single mother -- entered the home around midnight, drank some alcohol and then took the items.
At the time, police reported that the suspected burglar was known to the Petersons and had access to the house. The then unnamed suspect, the paper said, returned the items -- including Laci's wedding dress -- and no arrest was made.
Now, police told the Bee that McGregor's actions could somehow be part of the case being prepared against Peterson, who currently is being held without bail on charges he killed his wife and the couple's unborn child.
In another strange twist, Ron Grantski, Laci's stepfather, also confirmed to the paper that McGregor was among those who gathered at the Peterson home on Christmas Eve, the day Laci disappeared. She also was involved in later searches.
Modesto authorities refused to comment further on McGregor, citing a gag order issued by a Stanislaus County Superior Court judge that prevents prosecutors, Scott Peterson's defense team and investigators from commenting on the case.
Laci Peterson, who was eight months pregnant at the time, disappeared without a trace from the couple's home on Christmas Eve. At the time, Scott Peterson has told authorities he was on a day-long fishing trip to Berkeley Marina on the San Francisco Bay, some 90 miles away.
The badly decomposed bodies of Laci and her unborn son washed up in April on the shoreline of a San Francisco Bay waterfront park near where Peterson was allegedly fishing. He was arrested in San Diego days after the bodies were recovered.