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Homicide victims usually know killer
The Modesto Bee ^ | Posted: January 28, 2003 @ 04:50:10 AM PST | Patick Giblin

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


TOPICS: Activism/Chapters; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: lacipeterson; scottcheaterson
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To: Doc Savage
If he told Laci BEFORE Dec. 23rd, she would have at the least, called her sister, crying her eyes out.

Scott is pathologicial. But think about it, now that he has admitted to the world that he and Laci "discussed" the other woman, it is one step closer to passing that Polygraph.

I can't deal with this guy, Doc. Something is very wrong with him.

sw

41 posted on 01/28/2003 6:09:50 AM PST by spectre (spectre's wife (Scott, just disappear))
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To: wimpycat
He also said that Laci ' Was at peace' with the affair.

Isn't it DEAD PEOPLE who are at peace?
42 posted on 01/28/2003 6:10:54 AM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs (Happy people live longer. I plan on living forever)
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To: Doc Savage
Scott's attorney to Scott: Just shut the hell up, boy, and don't dig yourself in any deeper.
43 posted on 01/28/2003 6:11:05 AM PST by wimpycat (Hands off my Moral Compass!)
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To: Velveeta
He made it sound like Laci was ok with it!

We might be surprised how many people are like that when the wife is pregnant. Many husbands and wives feel uncomfortable with sexuality during pregnancy, and a fling with a sleazebag on the side is seen by the wife as a non-threatening way to attend to the husband's "needs" temporarily.

44 posted on 01/28/2003 6:14:09 AM PST by Yeti
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To: Doc Savage
Exactly! The eyes. I noticed the exact same thing. A friend of mine who graduated in criminal justice clued me into this a long time ago.
45 posted on 01/28/2003 6:15:14 AM PST by BonneBlue
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To: wimpycat
Good points wimpy and spec! I can't believe this idiot went on TV and opened himself up like this. He probably thought he could rehearse the answers and BS the Press. Well, he was right, you can BS the Press,...but you can't BS Freepers.

Interesting speculation, spec! So you think this may be one way to PASS a poly? Hey, this guy is so devious you just might be correct!

46 posted on 01/28/2003 6:16:08 AM PST by Doc Savage
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To: Hillary's Lovely Legs
Nothing he says makes sense. So now we find out Laci KNEW. It changes the picture entirely.

Did she call Amber? Did she know the woman's identity?

Laci didn't keep this bottled up inside of her. NO WAY!

Remember she is the same girl who physically had it out with another girl when she was a teen?

NOOOOO. Laci threatened to LEAVE Scott, and he killed her. She was going to get the house, alimony, child support and the child. She was going to fianancilly destroy him. AND then, he killed her.

Why did Scott say SHE KNEW! WHY? We don't know everything...

sw

47 posted on 01/28/2003 6:16:11 AM PST by spectre (spectre's wife (Scott, just disappear))
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To: Doc Savage
"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."

Correct. Where is his outrage? There is none.
48 posted on 01/28/2003 6:17:06 AM PST by BonneBlue
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To: Yeti
Say what???????????????
49 posted on 01/28/2003 6:17:46 AM PST by Doc Savage
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To: BonneBlue
If it is true and he told police about Amber, the affair, right away, he was probably trying to nail the disappearance on her!

If I were him and I didn't do it, that would be among the first possibilities that occurred to me.

50 posted on 01/28/2003 6:18:14 AM PST by Yeti
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To: spectre
No "proof" that she had been murdered. I agree with you. I think that as the days go by, he is becoming more confident that she will never be found. My own feeling on this is that he did kill her, probably in a rage, and that he feels he's going to get away with it because they haven't been able to find her body. I also think that after he killed her, he needed an alibi and the boat trip was it. He went off and got his receipt thinking it would be enough proof so that the police would not suspect him. I also think that she is not in water but on land. One further opinion..... during the interview he kept looking down or away and spoke in very flat tones.....no emotion, no pleading for his wife's safe return.....nothing........
51 posted on 01/28/2003 6:20:45 AM PST by Wednesday's Child
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To: Hillary's Lovely Legs
The right thing to do is to be faithful to your wife....to have an affair when your wife is pregnant, is particularly disgusting....
52 posted on 01/28/2003 6:21:06 AM PST by little-e
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To: Yeti
a fling with a sleazebag on the side is seen by the wife as a non-threatening way to attend to the husband's "needs" temporarily.

I can see who has the keys to the gun safe in your family...
Mrs. Slim would fill me fulla so much lead, she wouldn't need Scotty's cement to make me a boat anchor.

53 posted on 01/28/2003 6:21:21 AM PST by Tijeras_Slim (Had to lock up my guns, 'cause they was goin' out drinkin'.)
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To: spectre
It only makes sense if we don't listen to a word that Scott says.

Laci didn't know. The minute she found out she would have high tailed it to her mother's house.

Amber didn't know because she expected to spend Christmas with Scott. He was also calling her and saying that he was in Europe. If she knew about Laci, why would he have to carry on the charade?

Scott didn't go fishing for sturgeon in the San Francisco Bay in a dingy. I will bet you that they will find that his boat was never in salt water.

54 posted on 01/28/2003 6:21:28 AM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs (Happy people live longer. I plan on living forever)
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To: spectre
If Laci "knew" then why did he not tell Laci's brother, oh she knew, when he admitted to him of the affair? If Laci "knew" then why the secrecy? Why the comment, "it's all a pack of lies"? I could go even further...if he did in fact tell the police immediately of the affair after the disappearace, then why the secrecy?
55 posted on 01/28/2003 6:23:28 AM PST by BonneBlue
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To: Yeti
Let me guess. You're a man, right?
56 posted on 01/28/2003 6:23:47 AM PST by Yellowcat
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To: Yeti
"If I were him and I didn't do it, that would be among the first possibilities that occurred to me."

If I were him and I DID do it, that would be among the first possibilities that occurred to me to shift the focus away from me!
57 posted on 01/28/2003 6:26:23 AM PST by BonneBlue
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To: Hillary's Lovely Legs
Scott said he told Laci about his inappropriate romantic relationship in early December, but yet he continued to see Amber and did not tell Amber he was married.

He told the police on the 24th of December about the affair. Sharon Rocha, last night told Greta on Fox that a week ago on Friday, Scott was still denying the affair to her on the phone.

What a liar! I am sure Scott never told Laci about the affair. I mean, his inappropriate romantic relationship. He knows Laci is not coming back, so he can lie all he wants about what she knew.

58 posted on 01/28/2003 6:26:42 AM PST by clouda
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To: Doc Savage
Scott had his reasons to come out and confess that Laci knew about the affair. By further stating "she was alright with it" and they didn't argue about it, means he is nixing any theories she found out and they fought like hell and she ended up dead! He's desperately trying to control the outcome.

Does he think it makes him look better?

How dumb can he be? The possibilities Laci ended up dead over this are legion.

The only part of the polygraph he is going to have a problem with is, "did you kill your wife"? But then again, he's such a pathological sociopath that he just may pass.

I bet her family is going BALLISTIC over his new revelations.

sw

59 posted on 01/28/2003 6:26:52 AM PST by spectre (spectre's wife (Scott, just disappear))
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To: Doc Savage
"...say what!!!!"

Oh yeah, Doc. You're reading my mind. Husband's needs, my ass!

sw

60 posted on 01/28/2003 6:29:37 AM PST by spectre (spectre's wife (Scott, just disappear))
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