Homicide victims usually know killer

The Modesto Bee ^ | Posted: January 28, 2003 @ 04:50:10 AM PST | Patick Giblin

[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

[Devil_Anse]

I see your point. Sounds like the statistics-users are playing into the politically correct view: that women are in more danger in their own homes than out on the street. That is, in a way, an anti-family point of view--since the statistics are so cloudy that we can't necessarily draw that conclusion.

Why should "domestic violence" be considered a more urgent problem than other types of violence? [Readers, please wait and read the whole post.] And here's one that sticks in my craw: why "child abuse"? If you punch your young child in the face, it is an ASSAULT, plain and simple, the same as if you'd gone outside and punched your neighbor's child of the same age in the face.

If we treated violent assaults on children and other family members exactly the same as we treat violent assaults on other people, I think we wouldn't see as many unbelievably low sentences for things like, say, women who murder their children and claim it was "SIDS."

I am NOT saying that domestic assaults are in any way less deplorable than other assaults. I am saying that if we quit with the special designation, and treated such assaults exactly the way we treat other assaults, it would be to the advantage of the victims, and would probably result in greater punishment for the perpetrator. At least, that would be my hope.

[Freedom2specul8]

Thanks for the info!

"Diane Sawyer asked him if he expects people to believe that a very pregnant Laci was accepting of his relationship and they didn't fight about it! Scott stated that he and Laci didn't argue about it. "

Well, if the poor girl just left on Christmas Eve for the baby's sake rather than FIGHT him, that would be one thing..but would she leave without telling anyone else.. I don't think so..

[BonneBlue]

Oh, ok, thanks for clarifying some of Scotts statements.
I do believe him now.

NOT!

[Devil_Anse]

I missed Part One. (Hard to tell, I know, I've been going on the transcription, as though I'd seen it! Well, here's my confession!)

I hope I get to see Part Two. Thanks for the notice!

[Devil_Anse]

P.S. I guess Diane Sawyer's a little too old for Scott to have asked her out after the interview.....?

[spectre]

Wrangler, your thoughts are my fears. I suspect he hid her body, or parts of it, so well, we will NEVER find it.

I hope he goes broke paying his lawyer.

sw

[Devil_Anse]

That's because, underneath all the false bravado and Potemkin Villages of "supporters," Hillary Clinton is a weak sister!

[spectre]

LOL, you devil you! Any old port in a storm, tho. He has NEEDS, ya know!

sw

[MaggieMay]

Thanks for the ping.I have spent so much time on these threads, my husband, is wondering when Scott Pederson is going to make his anchor blueprints available.(That is the one and only fact he knows about this whole case. Yes, he does think it a damming piece of evidence.) Please hurry with your response, I think he's hooking up the fishing boat now. Signed,Worried in Woodinville.....

[Devil_Anse]

LOL! Bet he wasn't wearing his cap!

He's saving his cap for The Jerry Springer Show.

[Freedom2specul8]

"Are you trying to tell us that someone else hid the body for you after you murdered her??!? "

I'm sorry I don't remember who said this, or which show it was on..I think it was one of the defense lawyers on greta's show... They said there is at least one third party involved.. the one that introduced them. Could there be any further involvement?

[Freedom2specul8]

"I wonder if she would "disappear" to protect her baby from him and may have seen that as her only alternative."

I thought the same thing, but w/the publicity and her poor family.. it just doesn't seem likely.

[Devil_Anse]

He is indeed the sleaze in this picture!

I do think that when Amber said "romantic relationship," that she was using that as a more polite code phrase for "yes, for all you people out there wondering, we did sleep together."

I don't blame Amber at this point. She appears to have redeemed herself well for her rash act of having developed a liking for this chameleon. She is just another victim of the fast-talking, smooth, "caring" con artist type.

I sincerely hope she heeds the great big loud wake-up call of learning that she had spent time alone with a man who could well be a murderer!

[BonneBlue]

If a 3rd party was involved as you suggest, Scott may have been telling the truth;


Diane; Did you murder your wife?

Scott; I had nothing to do with her disappearance.

[jdontom]

thanks for the ping rb.

bump for later read.

[ElTianti]

Putting aside what Scott told his wife, I don't believe for a
minute that the other gal didn't know or suspect he was
married. And the fact that Amber hasn't been challenged on
this speaks loudly to the Women=Good, Men=Bad media bias.

[SarahW]

Her baby wasn't due until February. She had a month and a half to go on the date she disappeared.

I'm not saying he didn't kill her, in fact, I think he did.
That said, there is room for another fate.

[Freedom2specul8]

thanks for the new article..

"it creeps into my mind late at night, and early in the morning"


That is the final straw..Who wouldn't worry about that 24 hrs, 7 days a week?

[texasbluebell]

Asked on ABC if he had murdered her, he said, ''I had absolutely nothing to do with her disappearance.''

Is that like when a clintoon says: "There is no evidence" or "It depends on what the meaning of "is" is."

Just asking.

[Freedom2specul8]

exactly... or he could have killed her but didn't hide the body.. I don't know. That guy is warped.