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
Hummm, do I detect some play words here? Past and present tense, and only a killer would know these answers! Scott!
Don't drink the water.
Not yet, Scott. Be patient.
sw
He HAS to say they didn't fight.......to admit they fought brings him directly to the question of December 23rd. He keeps trying to alibi his way out but he just keeps tripping over the truth.
Right! Laci LOVED the idea of her husband having sex with another woman while she was pregnant. NO PROBLEM! And they never argued about it or fought about it. It was a divinely OPEN marriage......well, at least one side of it was divine and open!!
His trying to deflect the "concept" that they might have ever argued about this PROVES beyond a doubt that he killed her. She was fine with it my foot!
Of course being a Wellesley "woman", and a flaming liberal, Diane Sawyer is probably sizing him up for one of her nieces after this dies down!
Yeah, Laci was relieved he was getting some on the side, so that he won't be bugging HER for sex...it was all very convenient, really, everybody's happy, we're all adults here, etc.,etc............NOOOOOOOOOT!!!
I'd love to hear what Laci's family has to say about how Laci might have dealt with this...no anger? LOL.
sw
No I'm not an expert and I can't read minds, but I know when someone is lying to me and his facial expression and eyes give him away.
I also find it strange that he never postulates what might have happened re: who the hell else is a suspect???? There are no other suspects.
I mean can he point to any threatening phone calls prior to her disappearance; any indication that Laci was being stalked; any business deal that went south and the people he dealt with might attempt to strike back at his family; any similar abductions in the immediate neighborhood that had the the same MO; any reprobates or perverts or strangers seen immediately before in the vicinity of his house; any one he might know of with a vendetta against "them" or their extended families; anyone who might have been attempting to extort money from him for some reason; drug dealers who didn't get paid off; loan sharks who wouldn't hesitate to collect by force; something, anything.................but nothing!
That ain't much!
Stranger is more than 5 times as likely as that.
So why would he do ' The right thing' by Laci, while lying and still sleeping with Amber.
If it wasn't so pathetic it would be laughable.
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