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

[Doc Savage]

Playing the "Devil's Advocate" can be fun at times but you appear to act as a Contrarian merely for the sake of hearing yourself speak. Your posts fly in the face of established facts.

Naturally, you have every right to defend Scott Peterson but you seem oblivious to the fatal flaws of his character (or lack thereof)that would suggest he had a hand in his wife's disappearance.

[Rheo]

Is it incompetent for LEO to check into everywhere and everyone she may have had contact with in the recent past?..I don't believe the baby was cut out of her...even tho it has happened before.

And since there are no witness to a daylight abduction in Modesto, no signs of a struggle, and no screams for help heard by anyone, the abducters must have been extremely efficient and lucky.

Abductions happen without anyone hearing or seeing anything...If I recall, no one heard Alice Donovan either in the Walmart parking lot.

I can see the only dialogue acceptable on this thread is hang Scott...so carry on.

[alexandria]

Yes! On post 272 Devil used that term. I believe I know what Devil means but I was wanting a clarification.

For a hint see the tag line on post # 313.

[Devil_Anse]

Yeti, the way I understood it, those adult "sleepovers" (Laci and her friends) were basically "girls' night out."

All over, where I live, the women have what used to be called "hen parties," now called "girls' night out." The, ahem, older ones do not go out anywhere, they just go to one of their houses. Some of these "girls" take trips to the beach together, or maybe a short ski trip.

They don't do it often--maybe once a year, or if it's just a simple get-together, maybe 2 or 3 times a year.

The husbands don't seem to mind at all. A night or two a year, away from one's spouse, is not going to cramp anyone's marriage. And the women get a little vacation from the kiddies, with whom they otherwise spend much more time than the husbands do (due to the necessities of the husbands' work, which itself often involves travel.)

I realize Laci's girl get-togethers were overnighters, but I definitely don't think the women were using them as an opportunity to cheat. It all comes down to, you know, the basic differences btw the female personality, and the male personality. Vive la difference!

[iaf97]

Speaking of facts... The Laci Peterson site has added additional evidence in blue today. It seems that Scott did admit to other affairs in his conversation with Laci's brother. This still doesn't change my present belief that Scott was the culprit but may be slim support for Yeti's theory of a jealous girlfriend. To me the factual evidence together with SP's actions,demeanor and credibility are even at this point enough to convince me that he did it. I don't see any other reasonable explaination unless I was to create one based on speculation.

[spectre]

I haven't heard if the either family has responded to the GMA interview yet. Maybe they will after the one tomorrow?

Good to see you, Rheo!

sw

[iaf97]

Okay, what factual evidence do we have that might point to Scott's innocence?

[Queen Jadis]

There is something ...um..."Clintonesque" about SP having the gaul to say that "Laci knew about the affair and was ok with it." Or that "It would not have split us up".

[Yeti]

Yeti, the way I understood it, those adult "sleepovers" (Laci and her friends) were basically "girls' night out."

Hm, where have I heard that term before?

Anyway, I have no idea what the little gatherings are about, but they are different. At least, for the standard married couple.

Am I way off base about that? Not saying they prove or disprove anything, but I am curious, are there married women on this thread who run their husbands off for spend-the-night parties?

[alexandria]

I could entertain the idea of a jelous GF doing the killing if not for the fact that they have not found the body.
Laci may have been under 120 Lbs. before her pregnancy. However, at 8 or so months she would be near to impossible for a woman to carry, drag, and lift. Seemingly doing so with enough ease to avoid leaving OBVIOUS signs of such happening.

The fact that a body HAS NOT been found shows to me that the person that was involved w/ her disapearance ALSO had the most amount of accessible time with her.

[Velveeta]

but I am curious, are there married women on this thread who run their husbands off for spend-the-night parties?

Not me.

[Yeti]

Your posts make me think that you are a nice girl, Velveeta.

[iaf97]

Yep,I did when married and still go on weekends with married friends. Wild hardly. Tennis,Golf, Bridge, Shopping, Dinner. It's fun and usually a breather from the kids. Men can go to their duck clubs, fishing trips, golf weekends so why not? Working and having kids was exhausting. Plus sometimes it's fun to be with the girls. My mother who is 90 used to do it too especially when we all went off to college. Hardly, risque.

[alexandria]

Okay, what factual evidence do we have that might point to Scott's innocence?

UM, the marina ticket?
Remember you said that MIGHT point to his innocence.
Frankly, I'd like to know if police checked out his "I went to my office to do some work" story. I mean there should be calls logged, dates and times that e-mail was sent / read, Inventory lists, or ordering lists...etc.

[spectre]

Right out of the Clinton Play Book!

sw

[tubebender]

The fact that a body HAS NOT been found shows to me that the person that was involved w/ her disapearance ALSO had the most amount of accessible time with her.

Early in this case someone posted many many missing women from the Bay area that have never been found. We have a few here in Eueka plus they found a womens torso floating in a slough and she has never been identified. Laci Peterson is not the first person to disapear and won't be the last.

[Queen Jadis]

If he had told her, and Laci had "outwardly" been ok with the affair to Scott, it follows that, IF Scott had NOTHING to do with Lacis disappearance, the first thing he would have done, as a distraught husband, would have been to tell the Rochas that indeed he had, had an affair and perhaps Laci was not as ok with it as she initially appeared to be. As a distraught loving innocent husband he would have ASKED her family what they thought, would Laci run off? Had she told any of them about being upset. ETC ETC ETC....instead NOTHING. Ole Scotty boy should listen to his attorney and keep his trap shut. On second thoughts...i like how he is digging HIS grave, unlike the one he dug for Laci.

[Freedom2specul8]

I think it may be time for the peterson family to hire their own investigator(s) to try to find Laci. I was reading an older article where it discussed chandra levy's mom meeting with the petersons....and if I recall correctly, that is how Chandra Levy was found.

[Velveeta]

Aw shucks Yeti, thanks.

I'd also love to be willing to entertain the idea that Scott is innocent, mainly because I shudder to think of a husband *disappearing* his wife and baby.

Scott's stories just don't add up. Once a liar, always a liar in my book.

[Yeti]

. I mean there should be calls logged, dates and times that e-mail was sent / read, Inventory lists, or ordering lists...etc.

Good point, alexandria.

There is a bunch of detail that would rule in or out a number of theories, but none of it is available to us. Phone logs, specifics of alibi from the girlfriend we know about and from the burglars. Medical records from Laci. The step-dad went fishing too, what was his proof?

Lots of information the cops have that we don't know would help reduce the number of theories to be juggled and maintained.