Peterson Family Disputes Kidnap Plot Report
Sunday, September 21, 2003
The family of Scott Peterson (search) has disputed an inmate's claims that the accused killer plotted the kidnapping of his pregnant wife weeks before she disappeared.
Janey Peterson told Fox News that she was with Scott Peterson and his wife, Laci, in San Diego, Calif., on Nov. 29, the day Cory Lee Carroll claimed he met with her brother-in-law in Fresno. The meeting was detailed in a report published Saturday by the Fresno Bee.
Carroll, a parolee jailed since August after missing a court date, told investigators that he first met Scott Peterson last November at the City Lights strip club in Fresno. After a conversation in which Carroll revealed he had been in prison, Peterson asked for help in finding someone to steal his wife's car as part of an insurance fraud scheme, according to the Bee report.
Carroll told investigators that he was paid $300 to set up a meeting with two men known as Tony, aka "Dirty"; and Anthony, aka "Skeeter"; The men were both members of a neo-Nazi prison gang known as the Nazi Low Riders (search).
Carroll claimed he and the two men met with Peterson in a northeast Fresno restaurant on Nov. 29. The four went on to a nearby motel where the subject of a kidnapping plot came up, the Bee reported.
But Janey Peterson claims she, her husband, and Scott and Laci Peterson (search) were together in San Diego Nov. 29, two days after a baby shower had been held there for the pregnant 27-year-old.
Calling Carroll's claims in the Bee report "all lies"; she told Fox News that it would have been impossible for Scott Peterson to have left San Diego midday, driven more than seven hours to Modesto, dropped his wife and presents off at their home, then have driven another hour-plus to Fresno for the alleged meeting. Peterson said she was trying to confirm the exact time Scott and Laci Peterson left San Diego that day.
Carroll's attorney, Frank Muna, told Fox News that his client disclosed his story only after recognizing Scott Peterson on television after his April arrest for the murders of Laci Peterson and their unborn child, Conner. Muna said he notified law enforcement after his client passed a polygraph test administered by a former Fresno police lieutenant.
Polygraph examinations are not admissible in court. However, a memo summarizing the test obtained by the Bee shows Carroll correctly identified the model of Peterson's Ford F-150 pickup. In addition, the van like the one Dirty and Skeeter owned was described by a witness as having been across the street from Laci Peterson's home the day of her Dec. 24 disappearance. Police have since played down reports of a so-called suspicious van.
Carroll said he walked out of the Nov. 29 meeting for 45 minutes once he heard one of the three men say something about kidnapping. His attorney told Fox News that his client had nothing to gain by coming forward, and hinted that his life may now be in danger as a result.
Investigators would not comment on Carroll's claims to the Bee due to a court-imposed gag order.
The Modesto Bee reported that police divers returned to San Francisco Bay on Friday, where the bodies of Laci and Conner Peterson were discovered ashore in April. A preliminary hearing for Scott Peterson is scheduled for Oct. 20, after a judge granted a six-week continuance earlier this month at the defense's request.
Fox News' Rita Cosby contributed to this report.