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
Well, I am getting exasperated, wimpy. "My theory"
See, that wasn't MY theory, I didn't come up with it, I don't advocate it, it isn't "MY THEORY." As I have said ad-nauseam in response to this and other posts, it is one of several possibilities, consistent with the facts, that has not yet been solidly ruled out.
I don't know. Do a search for yeti on this thread and reread my posts with any significant body. I say over and over and over, "I don't know"... "Many possibilities not ruled out" ... "open mind to all the possibilities" etc... etc...
And you are like "Then show me a boyfriend." As if I am just sure that's what happened, as if I could show you a boyfriend, as if we all know all there is to know about the case. And as if you somehow know that there was NOT a boyfriend. I have said that I don't know a dozen-plus times, while you not only seem to think you *do* know, but credit me with thinking wrongly that I *do* know. And I don't.
If the police or the tabloids show me a boyfriend, I will let you know.
I'm not afraid of being wrong. You just do your thing, and let me do mine, OK?
Okay. But if one of "my" four theories turns out to be right, I get to do the Yeti vicory dance, and you have post over and over how smart I am.
I've never been there but I can't imagine I would tell anyone either if it would ever happen. Of course, my close neighbors might know something was wrong because there would be one heck of an argument.
Soooo, we find ourselves with different views this time, LOL. Darn it, Rheo, we just don't have a whole cast of characters to work with. Help me out here!
sw
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Same here...then he just might have tire tracks on his back
We also have no real facts either...we have media accounts and Scott's weird behavior.
It is reasonable to think that Scott told Laci about the affair if you consider that everyone thought her marriage perfect, she would want to avoid her family hating him if they were working it out...and from this article it sounds as if she didn't discuss Scott:
''I remember one of her girlfriends said when the girls would get together, they'd complain about their husbands, but Laci never did.''
The financial motive that we are reading about has it been proved?..when exactly and what are the details of the life insurance?....can find no record of this bankruptcy on Pacer, who confirmed the $25k membership, etc.
Laci's step dad went fishing on Christmas yet for Scott to do so is proof he killed her.
I think Scott probably did it....just haven't seen facts yet that support it without asking other questions...Scott seems to be right in this statement...lol
Make me the biggest villain in the world if you want to, as long as it keeps her photograph in the press," he said. The simple fact is ... I really don't care what people think of me as long as it continues to keep Laci's picture, description, tip line in the media," he said
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