Evidence from bay prompts speculation in Peterson case

When authorities recovered Laci Peterson's remains on the shore of San Francisco Bay, they also found tape and clear plastic sheeting nearby.

The significance is unknown, given a court-imposed gag order on the double-murder case that prevents either side from discussing evidence.

But that hasn't prevented a host of theories from pundits, observers and experts on what the plastic may or may not mean. There appear to be equal numbers of scenarios presented that support the prosecution's contention that Scott Peterson murdered his pregnant wife and their unborn son, Conner, or that the Modesto man is innocent of the charges.

Connecting the plastic to Scott Peterson could bolster the prosecution's claim that he killed his wife on Dec. 23 or 24, when she was about eight months pregnant, and dumped her body in the bay.

But others argue that a link to Conner could cast doubt on that charge by suggesting that the boy was born before he was killed. Scott Peterson presumably wouldn't have had the opportunity to commit that murder because he came under heavy police surveillance soon after Laci Peterson was reported missing Christmas Eve.

A sizable bundle of the distinctive clear plastic with what appeared to be a length of black electrical tape attached to it was recovered 50 yards from Laci Peterson's remains and was forensically analyzed, according to a source. Results of those tests are not known.

A separate length of black plastic similar to roofing material also was found about 50 yards from the body. The objects appear to be among at least 31 items the defense has asked to examine after they were recovered from the East Bay and logged as potential evidence.

Conner's body was recovered with a thin circle of plastic tape wrapped 1 1/2 times around his neck, extending in another loop that resembles a bow knot.

A theory benefiting Scott Peterson's defense considers that as evidence of someone else's involvement, while others have speculated that the body became entangled in ocean debris.

Walkers found Laci Peterson's badly decomposed torso and lower body April 14 among the rocks at Point Isabel Regional Shoreline south of Richmond. The body was missing its head, feet and hands. The baby's relatively well-preserved body had been found the day before just more than a mile north in marshy grassland, about 15 feet inland from the shoreline, officials said.

A body in plastic would be expected to decompose slower than one exposed to the elements, said Harry J. Bonnell, a San Diego forensic pathologist.

But there are several other reasons that the body of a woman would deteriorate faster if neither was wrapped in plastic, Bonnell said. They include:

Adult stomachs contain bacteria, "a large element in decomposition," Bonnell said, while the stomachs of fetuses do not.

Cold water preserves small bodies better. Adults have more fat, which keeps bodies warmer, allowing bacteria to break down tissues.

Predators like crabs and fish would be expected to seek large food sources first.

The plastic sheeting and plastic material around Conner's neck "may be just normal garbage in the bay," Bonnell said.

Other experts have speculated that the boy was expelled from the womb when the mother's body sufficiently decomposed. He would have been partially protected from predators while in her body.

The wad of clear plastic found near Laci Peterson's remains sports a logo for Target Products Ltd., a Canada-based company that manufactures items such as concrete, grout and stucco for use in building, mining and golf industries.

The polyethylene sheeting appears consistent with plastic commonly used to cover items on pallets.

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In this May 21, 1990, file photo, Janice Keson reacts to the news of her daughter's death in Salida. BART AH YOU/THE BEE

Then-Deputy District Attorney James Brazelton, left, watches as defendants David Beck, Ronald Willey, Gerald Cruz, Michelle Lee Evans and Ricky Vieira are arraigned in connection with the Salida murders on May 24, 1990. BART AH YOU/THE BEE

Both cases have been colored with questions of ritualistic murder by Satan worshippers. Some are debating if the current high-profile proceeding could have a connection to the 1990 slaughter of four people in Salida.

Scott Peterson's legal team six weeks ago laid out a strategy relying on the theory that his wife, Laci Peterson, may have been kidnapped in Modesto and slain by Satan worshippers. She was eight months pregnant with a son, Conner, when she disappeared at Christmastime.

Sources close to the case say that in June, Peterson's defense team acquired a coat worn by a Modesto resident allegedly affiliated with an occult group. The man bragged about being involved in Laci Peterson's death, a source said.

The defense submitted the trenchcoat-type jacket for forensic analysis. The jacket bore an Oakland Raiders logo, had a downward rip from one side pocket, and had been torn and sewn in other places.

Also, authorities are consulting with Randy Cerny, a local expert on ritualistic crimes whom they directed not to speak to the media because he may testify in Peterson's proceedings, he said. Cerny had testified in the Salida killers' cases.

TV personalities such as talk show host Larry King and NBC reporter Dan Abrams have discussed a seeming similarity between the Peterson case and the one that shined regional attention on Salida in the early 1990s. The Salida case ended with three defendants on death row and two others with life sentences.

One survivor and two former cult members not involved in that massacre -- all three admittedly scarred by the butchery -- aren't willing to rule out a possible connection.

Some lawyers involved in the Salida case, however, and other experts scoff at the notion. They chalk it up to a trial balloon floated by Peterson's defense camp.

Observers may find out next month whether his attorneys will raise the issue in court. A preliminary hearing is scheduled to begin Oct. 20.

However, such proceedings typically focus on the prosecution's evidence. Defense strategy often doesn't become apparent until the actual trial, which might be a year or more away.

Peterson has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife and unborn son. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Locals were horrified 13 years ago at the gruesome details of the Salida murders, committed by a paramilitary cult whose charismatic and sadistic leader had a deep interest in the occult.

"It was very serious, not just dabbled in," said former group member Angela Young of their unconventional worship. She broke away from the group before the murders, but her younger brother, Ricky Vieira, stayed and was sentenced to death.

Leader Gerald Cruz manipulated group members through bizarre activities that included indoctrination into various forms of the occult, sleep deprivation and brainwashing. At his direction, witnesses said, some members beat, raped and tortured each other.

Cruz eventually led his followers from their living compound in Salida to a nearby duplex where they bashed and slashed the occupants to death with baseball bats and knives. At least some of the victims were disassociated members of Cruz's circle.

Killed were Darlene Paris, 23, Frank Raper, 51, Dennis Colwell, 35, and Richard T. Ritchey, 25.

James Brazelton, a deputy district attorney at the time, steered the prosecution. A few years later, he became district attorney and now oversees the Peterson case, although his senior prosecutors are handling courtroom proceedings.

Sentenced to death in the Salida case were Cruz, now 41; his "enforcer," David Beck, 47; and Vieira, 34. Jason LaMarsh, 36, and Ronald Willey, 37, received prison sentences of 64 years to life. All remain under appeal.

Their trials were sprinkled with testimony on the occult, including blood-letting rituals and black magic.

But many details were excluded from parts of the proceedings, sometimes because Brazelton protested, sometimes at the request of Cruz's lawyer.

In a recent interview, Brazelton said, "There was no evidence of any cult or rituals, though the defense tried to make it seem that way."

Cruz's Van Nuys lawyer, Seymour Amster, agreed, saying, "It didn't come out (in court) because it wasn't a cult murder in any sense, in my opinion."

Ramon Magana of Modesto, who represented LaMarsh, remembers stories of rituals under the full moon at midnight along the Stanislaus River. Diaries and letters by group members made reference to desecrating graves, forced sodomy and beatings for disobedience, and even murder, Magana said, calling the writings "chilling."

"My recollection is that Brazelton wanted to focus only on the (Salida slayings) themselves," Magana said. "If the case got cluttered up with anything else, it might hurt his case."

Amster fought to exclude evidence of the occult from much of the proceedings, arguing that the group's worship was irrelevant to the quadruple murder.

Modesto attorney William Arthur Miller, who represented Willey, recalled many of the same things as Magana, plus allegations of animal sacrifice. He said group members listened to heavy metal music just before the murders, and remembered talk of group members dancing at one point, as if in a ritual............

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Stockton attorney Douglas Jacobsen represented Jerry Bunyard in a 1981 trial when he faced charges of paying a friend to murder his wife and unborn child in 1979. Bunyard was the first person sent to death row under the state's fetal murder law. BART AH YOU/THE BEE

His wife was pregnant with their first baby, and he was having an affair. He killed her, and their unborn child. Jurors sent the unrepentant, 30-year-old husband to death row in what eventually was recognized as California's first test case of its fetal murder law.

Twenty-two years later, prosecutors are using the same law to seek the death penalty for Modesto's Scott Peterson, 30, if he is convicted in the slayings of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner.

People vs. Bunyard generated little media interest when that grisly 1981 case was tried in Stockton.

"It's unfair to those who don't get the publicity," said Douglas Jacobsen, a Stockton attorney who represented Jerry Bunyard then. "It's like they're less worthy or something."

Bunyard's wife of three years, Elaine, a nurse's aide in Manteca, was days shy of delivering their baby girl in 1979. In anticipation of a stay in the maternity ward, she had packed a bag and kept it by the front door.

But Jerry Bunyard wasn't as excited. The good-looking, well- spoken carpenter had been carrying on with a Tracy woman and thought his wife would "take him for everything he had" if he divorced her, a witness said.

Enter Earlin Popham, a biker-type boyhood friend who had been helping the Bunyards build a home in Patterson. When Elaine Bunyard was alone in the kitchen, Popham broke an iron skillet on her skull. He then shot her in the head with a shotgun and tried to make the crime look like both a robbery and a suicide.

Popham later testified that his buddy had promised him $1,000 to kill Elaine Bunyard. Popham received a sentence of 25 years to life in exchange for his testimony against Bunyard.

California law requires special circumstances for a death sentence. They include multiple murder and murder for hire.

Murder-for-hire prosecution parameters still were evolving, so Stockton prosecutors chose to go after Bunyard for multiple murder. A 1970 law -- which resulted from the prosecution of a Stockton man who had killed his ex-wife's fetus -- makes no differentiation between children who are born and those who aren't.

Jacobsen doesn't recall any significance attached to the Bunyard trial as a test case for the fetal murder law. He does recall that prosecutors played up evidence that Elaine Bunyard struggled mightily against her attacker, as if "fighting to stay alive for her unborn child."

William Murray, who prosecuted the case, now is a San Joaquin County Superior Court judge and recently was appointed to the prestigious California Judicial Council.

Murray refrained from commenting on the Bunyard case, citing its pending status before the Supreme Court. Death sentences are considered on appeal until carried out.

The case was among the first the California Supreme Court considered under the fetal murder law. In a 1988 appellate ruling, Justice John Arguelles cited "the unique relationship between a pregnant woman and her unborn fetus" in rejecting Bunyard's claim that no one intended to kill the unborn child.

Arguelles cited "the Legislature's determination that viable fetuses receive the same protection under the murder statute."

Bunyard also had claimed that a death sentence for killing an unborn child was tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment, noting that at the time, only four states allowed death for such a crime. The state Supreme Court rejected those contentions as well.

The same court since has upheld similar sentences, including the 1984 Halloween slayings of a San Jose woman and her unborn child by her former husband..........

Yes it does sound like murder-for-hire. Did anyone listen carefully to the last Rita segment with the lawyers? Hubby was talking so I didn't catch it all but it almost sounded like the attorney was strongly implying that these guys and Scott did the killing. He said something to the effect that LE has caught ONE of the people responsible for Laci's death. Is that what he said?

Luv-lee. Hey, why was he at a strip club after his so-called passion for Amber? He "needs" someone to be worshiping him (like Momma did), and Laci must have stopped (maybe more into the coming baby who was going to usurp him), so Amber fit the bill. I think he was just a sleaze who used women.

And I never heard the story of the strip club in SD before he crossed the border. Glad LE was watching his sorry golf-panted butt.

Scott had no scholarship to Arizona State, that has been proven to be another lie, he apparently went out there thinking he could do a walk on or something of the sort. The story of the scholarship has been passed around as truth and taken on a life of it's own.

The university has officially gone on the record to state he never had a scholarship and they can find no records for him.

That bears repeating.

How pathologic. He has been living constant lies. I would seriously start to suspect him in other killings. A guy this cold has done this before. Ask John Douglas, the Mindhunter of the FBI. This guy is bad. He had better get nailed for this crime or someone else will die. I sound so dramatic and he has not been convicted, but seriously, he has the exact personality type to be a serial killer. Although the ones who went the longest without being caught had 3-digit IQs, something Scaughty can only dream of.

I think your theory sounds quite plausible. In fact, I think your theory would be THE theory except for the fact that we've never heard that they found any significant blood evidence in the house! That's the part that always stops me, when I visualize gruesome goings-on in the house. I mean, he could have drugged her, gotten her into the truck, and driven out in the country and shot her in the head....... no, then the TRUCK would have blood traces in it.... I guess this is why we keep coming back to strangulation as a possible means....

Which brings back to mind the statement from MPD before finding Laci's body. "Laci died as a result of a violent homocide at the house". I suspect that they found something there such as brain matter which would lead me to believe the method of death might have been a blow to the head.

Yes it does sound like murder-for-hire.

That's where I'm having trouble. The article and all that I have read or heard is "kidnapping". If Scott were implicated for plotting a "kidnap", versus a murder, would he still face a death penaty in CA?

From,KTLA TV January 23,reported by Lynne Hostein.
"......Scott Peterson arrives with three men in a gray Lincoln Town Car. They park, get out and walk into his house. Medina believes the men are police officers. She is wrong.

Peterson, in a long, dark overcoat, will answer no questions from a reporter: "I'm not interested in talking to any media."

The Modesto newspaper identifies one of the men as Peterson's boss, Eric Van Innis, executive director of Tradecorp. Peterson is a salesman for the speciality fertilizer company. Van Innis is visiting from Portugal.

That evening, Peterson and the men stop in the quiet lounge at the Red Lion Hotel. Peterson wears casual clothes."

You are right,Sandylapper, Brad Sltzman the manager of the Red Lion did not like the fact,Scott was there drinking and living it up,while Laci is so tragically missing.

You have a great memory,way to go!!!

I don't know whether he could be charged with the DP for arranging a kidnapping that evolved into murder. I think, though, that he probably was looking for someone to murder her but he was easing into by maybe initially joking about it, then asking if the person would steal the car. They agree so then he moves on to kidnapping. If they agree to kidnapping then he could hint to them that they could kill her. Nontheless, I do think he was very involved (probably even did it) with the actual murder. Either he couldn't afford their price, they ripped him off, the plan fell threw, or they only did half the job. What a weird case!

Ta-da! There it is--courtesy of hergus! Scott DID have a handgun!

Speaking only for myself, I can say I've hardly ever pictured him just walking up to the bed where she lay asleep, and putting the gun under a pillow or something, and shooting her in the head. Or a handy, do-it-yourself type guy like Scott could easily have fashioned some sort of silencer...

If there were a bullet in poor Laci's head, then Scott would figure that ballistics tests still couldn't tie it to any gun of his as long as her head couldn't be found.

And once again, speaking for myself, it's just that I haven't thought much about brain matter, etc., b/c we haven't HEARD about such things. But that doesn't mean they weren't there, and found by the police. And yesssss... I have forgotten the CLOROX! There must be some reason for it.

It's not like spouses haven't shot their other halves while they were lying in bed! Of course, I've watched so many crime shows and read so many crime books, I'm in danger of thinking such things are everyday occurrences! Thank God they're not.

That's what I heard too...he actually looked like he believes this story.

Attorney for Carroll also said that Scott wanted Laci's car stolen so he could get her a new car for Christmas (that does add up with wallet only for Christmas). He didn't think he could get enough money by selling the car.

Laci Peterson Disappearance

No, you're right. The way Carroll's story goes, it sounds like he met Scott in the strip club, and later set up a second meeting at which both Carroll and Scott were present--but with Carroll supposedly leaving that second meeting for most of its duration.

Hey, I hesitate to bring up such a trivial point, but it bothers me when they say Scott supposedly met this Carroll at a pool table in a strip joint (or a go-go joint.)

I don't think strip or go-go places usually HAVE pool tables, do they? I can't picture it. There are just, like... different kinds of dives, and I can't picture a strip or go-go place where the focus isn't on the stage.

Ray, whaddya think? Can you think of any strip/go-go joint that ever also had pool tables?

Yeah, it's definitely possible.

I would be worn out after the 6-7 hour drive. But a 30-yr-old stud-on-the-make like Scott wouldn't necessarily be. AND if said stud-muffin were doing something like methamphetamine... doesn't that stuff just make people go go go, maybe for days, till they practically drop?

charged the Chili's meeting on his company credit card as a business meeting

Wouldn't THAT just be the topper!! Yes, Scott has the, er, mentality to do such a thing!

The way I understand it, you have to provide a physical (street) address in order to get a regular U.S. postal service post office box. But mailboxes at places like Mailboxes, Etc. can be purchased and used anonymously.

Reference posts 189,197,199 and 206.

This is the dialog between Nancy Grace and Ted Rowlands,about the San Diego stripper:

Nancy: there are three others plus a stripper he asked to take him to Mexico. What was the alleged date of that proposal?

Ted: sources in San Diego, SP came into strip club with other people (friends or family) the day before he was arrested; asked her to go to Mexico; she has stayed silent. She has refused to come out in media, may bolster her credibility.

I don't think Amber was the main motivation, oh no. Scott's MAIN love is Scott. It was his love for and obsession with Scott that would have made him do this!

The weird, stomach-turning thing, to me, is that he seemed to have some sort of mental deadline... it seems as though he "knew" he "had" to kill her before that baby was loosed on the world... before that little bundle was seen by the grandmas, and before everyone (maybe even Scott himself) just went all ga-ga over Connor, and before all the focus of everyone shifted to the baby, making it obvious even to SCOTT (an emotional infant) that if anything happened to that little bundle, NO ONE, not even his mommy, would ever want to have anything whatsoever to do with Scott again.

I mean, it's almost like a guy who wanted to drown some puppies or kittens b/c animals were overrunning the place, but couldn't bring himself to do it unless he put the tiny things in a burlap bag.

The post office box - true he could have left a key there for Dirty & Skeeter. Cause/manner of death - does anyone remember when Sharon Rocha made a statement and said something to the effect that Laci begged for her life and the life of her child. This is another thing that I've always wondered about. I think she was told something about how Laci might have died. I still can't think of how Scott would have killed her in a way that would have given her a chance to beg for her life. Also...the supposed rope marks on the chairs? Like she was tied up?

LOL! A strip club with a website! (I'm probably off-base... they probably all have websites nowadays.) Wouldn't you know Scott would favor a strip club that is so hip, it has a website?

That place sounds EXPENSIVE. Mr. Big Spender...

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