Posted on 01/28/2003 5:13:29 AM PST by runningbear
Homicide victims usually know killer
Homicide victims usually know killer
By PATRICK GIBLIN
BEE STAFF WRITER
If Laci Peterson has been killed, statistics say she was likely slain by someone close to her.
Police still hold out hope for the pregnant, 27-year-old woman's safe return, but veteran investigators know that with each passing day since her disappearance on Christmas Eve, the chance diminishes.
"For much of our search, when we're looking in places under water, we're looking for a body," Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden said earlier this month.
According to the California Department of Justice, more than 63 percent of the people who were arrested in California on homicide charges in 2001 knew their victims.
That's why detectives usually start investigating family members when they suspect a homicide has occurred, said Mike Van Winkle, spokesman for the department's Division of Law Enforcement.
"About three years ago, we had a female agent who didn't show up for work," he said. "The husband said she left in the morning, but our detectives took a look at him anyway. Pretty soon, he told us where to find the body."
It makes sense statistically why police are increasingly focusing on Laci Peterson's 30-year-old husband, Scott Peterson. According to the California homicide figures:
Approximately 46 percent of victims were related to the killer in some other way.
Nearly 7 percent of victims were killed by their spouses.
About 7 percent of the victims were killed by a parent or child.
About 4 percent of the killers had an "other" relationship with the victim. That could mean they were dating or roommates, for example.
About 36 percent of the victims did not know the person who killed them.
But just because Scott Peterson is the husband does not mean he's guilty of anything, Van Winkle cautioned.
Neither does the news that he had a romantic relationship with a Fresno woman he met in late November, a criminal justice expert said Monday.
Jeanette Sereno, a lawyer and assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice with California State University, Stanislaus, warned that Scott Peterson's reported liaison doesn't make him guilty of homicide.
"In fact, just because he (might be) a suspect doesn't automatically make him the defendant," she said.
According to several studies on marriage -- including a 1998 study by the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California at San Francisco -- nearly one-fifth of spouses will have affairs during their marriages. Yet few end up in homicide.
Laci Peterson's case has another factor -- she's pregnant. Their son is due on Feb. 10.
According to a 2001 study by the American Medical Association, the leading cause of death for pregnant women is homicide. The study randomly looked at the cases of 247 pregnant women who died and found that 50 of them were murdered.
The other women died from heart problems, car accidents, previously unknown medical problems or complications from the pregnancy.
"Typically, pregnant women don't participate in risky activities such as hiking, mountain climbing or drinking in bars," Sereno said. "They are eating well and seeing their doctors, so their deaths normally would be something out of their control."
Bee staff writer Patrick Giblin can be reached at 578-2347 or pgiblin@modbee.com.
Posted: January 28, 2003 @ 04:50:10 AM PST
I wish we could get a nice leak out of the MPD for this one: DID HE tell the cops on the 24th about his affair, or didn't he? If he did, your question above comes into play.
But if he DID NOT, his lying about that so carefully on national TV means that he almost doesn't care what the cops have on him; he just wants the public to think well of him (which is pretty impossible, except in his mind).
Just wanted to add this..
I'm not sure where the sociology professor got her stats, but this is just as valid.
"During 2001 -- For murder victims, 45% were related to or acquainted with their assailants; 15% of victims were murdered by strangers, while almost 40% of victims had an unknown relationship to their murderer. "
KING: "Kim, that family is staunchly behind him, are they not, as they showed earlier tonight here?"
PETERSEN: "Yes, they are, as they stated earlier on your show, yes. They love him and their marriage everything everybody says was one what everybody would dream of."
Dream of? Only in a nightmare!
sw
Yes, she did. He got it mixed up and repeated something like "Laci did know" and Diane said, "No, did Amber know?" And he answered that Amber did not.
Thinking again about this, it is another proof of his lying because even if for some unfathomable reason Laci agreed to let him keep seeing Amber (HIGHLY UNLIKELY), I think Laci would never have stood for the fact that SP was still stringing Amber along with the "unmarried" lie, not wanting to lose Amber if she knew he was married. That basically says to Laci, "I don't care about you and your feelings, but I DON'T WANT TO LOSE MY NEW HONEY."
I saw that too, a smile when discussing the biggest tragedy one can go thru in a lifetime...wonder if he will be smiling like that when BUBBA gets done with him in prison ? It's only a matter of time, the cops are no match for this novice who thinks he is home free w/o the body.
abcnews.com
L O S A N G E L E S, Jan. 28 — Scott Peterson, the husband of the missing pregnant Modesto, Calif., woman, says he didn't murder his wife Laci, but admits she knew about his affair with another woman.
Peterson told ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer that his wife accepted his affair with Amber Frey, a single mom from Fresno, when he told her back in early December. He says he and his wife never even had a fight over his extramarital affair, adding that he never laid a hand on Laci and hopes to find her alive.
"I had absolutely nothing to do with her disappearance," Peterson said. "And you used the word murder," he told ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer on Good Morning Ameirca. "Yeah, I mean, that is a possibility. It's not one we're ready to accept and it creeps into my mind late at night, and early in the morning," Peterson said.
Peterson said he decided to speak out after a month of silence because the suspicion about his involvement in Laci's disappearance had distracted the public from the search.
He denies that his revelation of his affair led to any kind of physical confrontation with his missing wife.
Wife Not ‘OK’ With the Cheating
"You know, I can't say that even, you know, she was OK with the idea, but it wasn't — it wasn't anything that would break us apart," Peterson said.
In the one-and-a-half-hour interview with ABCNEWS, Peterson was composed at moments, and soaked in tears at others.
"In the morning I've been taking the dog down to the park where she walked," Peterson said. "It was our time. It's a way to experience her now, for me. A lot of times I can't make it very far," he said, crying. Laci Peterson's family supported Peterson when his pregnant wife went missing Christmas Eve, but news of an alleged lover has left the missing young woman's family angry and skeptical.
"There's other questions we have that if he wasn't truthful about that, it makes us wonder if he's been truthful about everything else," said Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America Monday.
Peterson, who has not spoken publicly about the case until now, has been under close scrutiny by Modesto Police since they found difficulty corroborating his alibi, and more recently when it was discovered that he had been having an affair in the months prior to her disappearance.
Laci Peterson disappeared on Christmas Eve. The 27-year-old is due to deliver a baby boy in two weeks. While Modesto authorities say they have no suspects in the case, Laci's husband has not been eliminated as a suspect yet.
Peterson said Laci told him she was taking the family dog, McKenzie, for a walk at a nearby park before she disappeared. McKenzie was later found in the backyard, trailing a muddy leash.
Peterson says he understands that police immediately looked at him went Laci went missing.
"It's turned me, one, because I'm her husband," Scott Peterson said. "And it turned to me because of the inappropriate romantic [relationship] … that I had with Amber Frey."
Scott Peterson says he never loved Frey and can't even explain why he pursued a relationship with her or why he continued it after telling his wife.
"That's a question you should have an answer to definitely, and I don't know," Peterson said.
Despite the couple's problems, Scott Peterson said there was no anger or cruelty expressed between him and Laci.
"Violence towards women is unapproachable," Scott Peterson said. "It is the most disgusting act, to me."
In a press conference Friday night, Frey admitted that she had a romantic relationship with Peterson. When she discovered he was involved in the Laci Peterson disappearance case, Frey said she immediately called the Modesto Police Department on Dec. 30.
Watch Good Morning America Wednesday for part two of Diane Sawyer's interview with Scott Peterson and his family.
Yep. All the sleazebags are using it. I think that they think it implies something as mild as eating five cookies off the plate when two would have been more polite.
Would love to be a fly on the wall when MPD is reviewing the talking points Scott made on TV today. They must be slapping their thighs!
Scott is soooo Busted!
sw
That's my first reaction.
I could pick this apart, line by line. But the worst part is saying he didn't love Amber...after the facts, huh Scott?
He paid her back Good, didn't he. The ultimate slap in the face.
sw
I hope you're right, but I wouldn't be so sure if they don't find a body some time soon. If they found enough blood or any other evidence, Scott would be behind bars right now. It's been about 34 days since her disappearance, and that should be enough time for the lab work to come back. If there was anything there, they would have arrested SP, and already be building the capital murder case against him. No witnesses, no body, and no evidence are in SP's favor. LE probably had some sort of plan to use Amber Frey as a source of info from SP, and maybe even get him to confess, but now the media hounding of her has forced the LEs' hand. They had to do something to use her, because they were getting ready to lose her. I think they trotted her out to put pressure on SP, because that's all they could do with her. I think LE knows SP had something to do with it, but they are held back by a lack of evidence. Scott is the key to this mystery, and he doesn't seem to be very forthcoming.
sw
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