Husband of missing Modesto woman lied about girlfriend, family says

Modesto Bee ^ | 1/17/03 | Jim Wasserman

[hoosierskypilot]

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) - The husband of a missing pregnant woman may have lied about his relationship with a girlfriend and possibly other things, a spokeswoman for the family said Friday.

Kim Petersen, a spokeswoman for relatives of Laci Peterson, 27, of Modesto, said police have shown the family recent photographs of Scott Peterson with a girlfriend. The husband had previously denied such a relationship, the family said.

"Now, however, they believe he has lied to them about this, and possibly other things as well," Petersen said.

"Approximately two weeks ago, Ron Grantski, Laci's stepfather, asked Scott if he had a girlfriend. Scott told him no and Ron believed him," Petersen said.

"The family is asking him to tell everything he knows and to fully cooperate with the Modesto Police Department," Petersen said. "Their family is the most important thing to them and if Scott has nothing to hide, they ask him to prove that."

Laci Peterson was reported missing on Christmas Eve. She is due to deliver a baby boy on Feb. 10. Her husband told investigators he went fishing at the Berkeley Marina on Christmas Eve morning.

Police did not indicate to the family if investigators believed Scott Peterson was responsible for his wife's disappearance, according to Petersen.

"The family knows that the police are doing their job," Petersen said. "They don't want to do anything that can hurt their chances of finding Laci."

Petersen, executive director of the Carole Sund-Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, which is sponsoring a reward for Laci Peterson's safe return, said the Modesto center closed Thursday.

Volunteers also canceled plans to open a one-day center in Los Angeles on Sunday.

"Although Laci has not been located yet, our search effort will not stop," said Brad Saltzman, general manager of the Red Lion Hotel in Modesto, who had been organizing the volunteer centers. "We will continue to search for Laci and her baby boy."

Police have repeatedly said Scott Peterson is not a suspect but has been less than cooperative.

[Queen Jadis]

hi...yes i'm thinking seriously about it! it opens at 11.0am. wish i had a digital camera!

[texasbluebell]

BTW, has anyone ever said why they are searching in LA?

That's exactly what I want to know. Why the heck are they bothering to search in LA? What possible reason can there be to search there.

Why not in SF (much closer to home) which doesn't even make sense either. They haven't begun to exhaust all the territory around Modesto. Who's behind the search, I know it's a volunteer center in LA, but why do they think there should be a search in LA?

It seems to be another red herring, wild goose chase, what have you. Just more obfuscation.

[Queen Jadis]

SP is being run outta town (Modesto that is).

[Spunky]

Maybe Furhman will write a book.

After the OJ case Mark Furhman moved to Couer'd'alene, Idaho. After he wrote the book about Martha Moxley he wrote one about a serial murderer in Spokane, Wa called Murder in Spokane. I have the book but haven't read it yet. The Spokane police were not to happy with him.

Here's an excerpt from the fly leaf.

"Though the understaffed police force did catch the killer, Fuhrman shows that their reliance on computers and on DNA test results from everyone they interviewed was slower than doing old-fashioned gumshoe detective work. With the clues they had, Fuhrman writes, the police could have made the arrest two years earlier-saving the lives of at least nine women.

I would like to see Furhman really dig into the death of Chandra Levy.

[RGSpincich]

It's just the volunteers with flyers. No searching, per se and no police investigation. It's a one day publicity thing.

[Scupoli]

Why the heck are they bothering to search in LA? What possible reason can there be to search there.

It's far away from the crime scene;-) Scott knows this.

[BunnySlippers]

Someone was saying he is planning on handing out 7,000 fliers in Los Angeles. What do you wanna bet there are more than a few Laci supporters in that 7,000!!!

I can't amek it ... but you ought to go. Ask him to pose. :)

[RGSpincich]

He may try Baha California next. LOL

[swarthyguy]

She's dead, Jim.

[Devil_Anse]

Yes, it does sound right. I just took a side trip to see if I could find any law on this specific to California. I couldn't. But it appears that "slayer's statutes" are present in the majority of states.

There are a lot of ins and outs, but the policy that overlies the law on this is as it should be: that a murderer shouldn't materially benefit from the death of his victim.

Then you get into, what event or condition has to happen to "officially" make him the murderer? The murderer in a legal sense, that is. Judging by what I read, his conviction would do it, and in fact, even if he wasn't convicted, there are other ways that he could be legally deemed to be the "slayer," such that he would still be barred from getting the life insurance, or from inheriting from her.

Of course, if we stand in his shoes, we will remember that no murderer plans to get caught! Who knows what is in the mind of a person who would even think of doing this?

So it looks like Laci's parents would get her estate. BUT, after all that, the life insurance may not even have to pay off. Because if he took out the policy with the specific idea in mind of bumping her off, then his contract with the insurance company would be void anyway, b/c of his fraud in the making of it.

Yada yada yada! This is all my opinion, and I certainly have no personal knowledge of this case!

[Scupoli]

Additional Laci Rally in San Diego next weekend

He is just getting closer and closer to that border......

[STOCKHRSE]

Fresno to Modesto south on 99 is 87.5 miles...

[RGSpincich]

Thanks. Appreciate your diligence, don't bill me okay? Insurance company may skate on this one or maybe settle with the family.

[Scupoli]

I looked at Lake McClure on the map. There are so many bodies of water out there, but going by what the truck driver reported helps to thin out the choices. Eighty miles south of Modesto is approximately the Chowchilla/Madera area. At Chowchilla, he could've turned west and headed to the San Luis Reservoir. If he had driven a little futher south, he could have turned east around Madera and gone to Millerton Lake. In that general area there are other possibilities but driving to them and back wouldn't fit the timeline. If the truck driver is correct, my first vote goes toward San Luis Reservoir.

[TexKat]

I don't think the girlfriend was in on this, because, as an accessory to murder, she'd have spilled specific beans by now.

Another scenerio: What if Scotty and the other woman thought that this unfortunate matter would never hit world wide media. What if they thought it would only get Modesto Bee attention. But once it did get world wide attention the mistress knowing that she had acquaintainces that knew of her and Scott decided to exonarate herself by calling the police and by saying she was Scott's girlfriend but did not know Scotty was married.

[Scupoli]

I hear there's good fishing there! Maybe he can take his boat and we can have a chase a la OJ:-)

[RGSpincich]

he can take his boat and we can have a chase

That would definitely be a low speed chase. Putt-putt : )

[Spunky]

Fresno to Modesto south on 99 is 87.5 miles...

I think you meant to say Fresno is 87.5 miles south of Modesto. :-)

Lake McLure is somewhere between them.

[STOCKHRSE]

right....sorry bout that..

[Amelia]

If he took out the policy with the idea of killing her, and he took out the double indemnity policy so he'd get twice as much, doesn't it make sense that he'd try to make it look like an accident, and have her body found relatively quickly (so he'd get the money fairly soon) rather than hiding her so that she'd never be found?

This is assuming he's smart....