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
Self-preservation. Nothing less...nothing more.
DITTO!! This IS a forum that is debating the possibilities of a case involving people that we know NOTHING about. One should not be jumped on or "belittled" for throwing an idea out there. If you don't agree you could always post what I would to Yeti's idea...NAH!!
I love to read all the different views on this case. Maybe MPD is reading and getting some helpful information. Why not?
But I have to cringe when it is suggested that because Laci was pregnant, Scott's "needs" had to be met elsewhere. We are all adults, here, and there ARE ways he could have had that sexual tension relieved, without going outside of the marriage. So, scratch that excuse off the list, at least if I were on the Jury.
sw
Amber's dad said that scott pursued amber after rumors about the affair were 'floating' around.
Yeah, exactly. He killed her LATE AT NIGHT and hid her body EARLY IN THE MORNING !!
OUT OF SIGHT ~ OUT OF MIND ?
could it be that both of these losers aren't aware of the science ? The more SP says the more he will get himself in trouble with his limited "experience" plus the fact that everything has to fit in with other people's timelines, so he has LOTS of thinking to do before he can say anything (which must be kind of a hell in itself)....
Come on, wimpy -- I KNOW you are smarter than that.
There is plenty of sordid detail to come out yet.
The police CHOSE to prance Amber out, to tell us something they apparrantly already knew. If they think they can have something to gain, they will prance out an embarrassing secret of Laci's.
I don't know, and I am not going to let you GOAD me into pretending I DO know something I don't, just because you are.
The facts are consistent with:
Copious amounts of blood having been cleaned up would rule out #2, and lots of blood in the boat or truck would solidify #1. Without either of those, we are left with several possibilities.
And I think some of us have talked ourselves into an elevated perception of the probability of Scott doing it. It is high, but not as high as a jealous girlfriend. It was chrismas and she didn't have a man. Don't underestimate the significance of that. Only in the case of a stranger can we completely rule out the significance of this happening so close to christmas.
All his deceptiveness proves is that he lies and has secrets. That was true before Laci disappeared, and it will probably be true after the dust settles from all of this, whether he did it or not.
We are a nation of liars, but not a nation of wife-killers.
Oh, so nobody feels that way?
I am getting tired of this!
Think, think, think, people!
Everybody is not exactly like you, bonfire. Crap for you is good for some others. SOME PEOPLE FEEL THAT WAY. NOT ME, BUT SOME PEOPLE.
Half of this country votes Democrat!
You aren't Laci or Scott!
We are speculating about OTHER people who are NOT, apparrently, LIKE US!
I guess you don't believe Brenda was trolling for strangers that night at the bar, either?
Were you a cheerleader? Did your husband work 3 jobs to get through school? Did you give him your phone number the first time you met him, after hardly talking to him? Do you kick your husband out of the house for the night to have your girlfriends over to spend the night? Did you declare bankrupcy, then immediately rack up 100k + in debt?
No, you didn't. So why can't you and those like you who won't consider anything but "Scott did it" get it through your collective heads that this is not about you and your husband or you and your favorite soap opera or men vs women or anything else about you?
It is obviously a unique situation, with unique people. And I am just freaking speculating based on the very broad variety of experience I have had with many different kinds of people.
If any of us want to figure any of this out, the only way to do it -- besides getting lucky -- is to cultivate all of the different possible theories, until each of them has been ruled out. Picking one and defending it no matter what is idiotic. Just plain stupid. I haven't ruled out the possibility that Scott did it, even though he has a better alibi than anyone else I have seen.
I just think that there are a multitude of other possibilities that need to be explored and ruled out.
I guess everyone on here must advocate wife-killing, since they speculate about Scott doing it.
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