Peterson tackles rumors, reports

The Modesto Bee ^ | Jan 30, 2003 | Ty Phillips

[spectre]

I just got back home and stopped at your post to read the link.

I don't understand? Most every single time I have written a check, I've had to show ID to go along with it...at a convenience store, especially.

I don't buy this story.

sw

[Doc Savage]

Reminds me of when I worked on a ranch in Wyoming during college and I had to clean out the cow barn. When you milk them they "plop" and it falls into this trough. Eventually the trough has to be cleaned out. We used to put bandanas over our faces with clips on our noses and use pick-axes.
Every so often you'd hit a gas pocket that had been (shall we say) "festering" beneath the surface. It was quite an odor!

[BonneBlue]

He stores his boat at the warehouse. I may be wrong but I thought he left home with only his truck and went to the warehouse where he works and hooked up his boat there. The neighbors saw him throw the large type thing into his truck, not the boat.

[spectre]

Hi Rheo...should have read on down! You beat me to it! No way did anyone write this clerk a check without ID...none. So where's the check? On what bank? I mean, this is too much.

sw

[spectre]

Whoops, didn't read well, did I? LOL. OK, so the man took the check BACK, and the clerk didn't get it. Laci left her purse at home, but took her checkbook on the walk with her when she was kidnapped? Yes, that's what happened...I absolutely never go for a walk without my checkbook :~)

sw

[iaf97]

Sorry about the formatting on the article but if you read the article Laci never got that far about the check because the guy with her paid cash. Apparently, MPD aren't discounting the sighting yet. I did at first and then thought a little more about it.

[homeschool mama]

The check was grabbed back by the other man and the items were paid for with cash....no cancelled check.

[texasbluebell]

Is possible she was killed in her sleep and never knew what hit her?

I've been hoping so much that little Laci didn't know what hit her. The thought that her last sight in this world was of her husband doing something to her is just too sad for words. I hope she was unconscious quickly (IF this is what happened to her....just speculation here).

[spectre]

Yes, that post was well thought out, bell!

We need for Greta to start asking some of these questions..especially to Fuhrman.

Scott never did go fishing, did he?

sw

[Wednesday's Child]

I've helped clean a cow barn many times.. It's not too bad scraping it into the gutters(troughs), but once the manure cleaner gets going, and it starts agitating, you can really smell some awful odors! Took years to get used to it.....no, on second thought, I'll NEVER get used to it! lol

[Rheo]

Exactly

That is why I wondered if that person HAD corroborated his 9:30 am story.....they looked enuf to see him loading stuff so their time would be fairly accurate, at least not off by hours.

If he had been out several times during the night, disposing of stuff, why wait until the daylight to haul out those umbrellas?

He could have left at 7am and still used the dog story....we were lying in our glorious marital bed, discussing her plans for the day..she was going to walk the dog, go to the store, bake, etc.

[Yeti]

OTOH if he strangled her in her sleep (or suffocated her) during the early morning hours of the 24th, he may have been so busy prepping the body and getting prepared for the drive to Berkely that he didn't get away until 9:30.

I realize that the details are probably something we will never know for sure, but I really want to know what his precise motive was.

If it were premeditated by more than a few hours, you would think he'd have done a better job with alibi and timing. Christmas Eve just doesn't sound like a likely date to plan for your pregnant wife's murder, especially with the busy family schedule they had.

[spectre]

I can always count on YOU to keep me straight, mamma! Thanks. But still, even if she took the check back, how could she have had ANY checks with her? Her purse was home? Did Scott report any checks missing? (Oh GAWD, I don't want to give Scott any ideas...)

sw

[Rheo]

Ha...I did the same thing...missed the kidnapper taking back the check.

Story sounds a bit wonky to me.

[alexandria]

There was a death involving one of the "lagoons" around here recently. One of the persons involved in removing some of the waste into a truck that they later use to spread it was overcome by the fumes and died. It seems that when they are removing it there is "stirring" going on.

The fact that this death was recent and printed in the paper combined with the fact that SP would HAVE to know where the dariy farmers got THEIR fertilizer and the fact that many of these lagoons are "drive-up" access from a deserted feild.
Well, Bada - Bing! Better than a Saprano's swan song.

[tubebender]

I just called a local golf club near Eureka and she said their dues are $2,600 to join plus fees etc. She did say supply and demand drive prices for membership. I wonder if his employer pciked up part of the cost.

The dairy farmers with sludge pits here in Humboldt County are facing more restrictions. The envirols are forcing Water Quality Control to stop the spraying of sludge on the pastures.

[texasbluebell]

"There is no ambiguity in this. I have never in my life spoken to Scott Peterson," Klaas said. "Where he comes off thinking he can make a statement like that in the public forum and get away with it, I don't know...It's not the first time." ....

Peterson responded: "I have had conversations with both those gentlemen. ....

.... [Klaas]--"Obviously, this guy is stacking lie upon lie upon lie. He's indicting himself. It's like watching a train wreck."

This is truly amazing to me. I'm not getting this SP guy. Is he delusional? What? Somebody help me out here. How does he think he can keep up this game? He says something, and it's refuted, he tries again, still no go. He should just give it up.

If he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance, then none of this makes any sense.

[homeschool mama]

I don't know if it was Laci's check or a check owned by one of the men...

Ok, I admit...I'm soooo confused.

[iaf97]

Fertilizer sales field tough, competitive

By RICHARD T. ESTRADA
BEE STAFF WRITER


Selling fertilizer would appear to be an easy job in the San Joaquin Valley, where agriculture is the No. 1 industry.
But Scott Peterson faces a challenge every day he goes to work, trying to beat the odds in a lucrative, yet competitive, field.

He is the California-Arizona sales representative for Tradecorp, a Spanish company that produces fertilizer and sells it around the world. He works the wholesale end, marketing Tradecorp products to retailers.

Peterson is one of hundreds of chemical salespeople -- hawking everything from ammonia to zinc -- fighting for a slice of the valley's $15 billion agriculture industry.

"We're bombarded by salesmen with new products or products they say work better than what we're using," said Gary Layne of Simplot Soil Builders in Hughson. "A lot of times they're just blowing smoke, but they sound very convincing. That comes with this business."

It helps to have an armor-plated ego, valley chemical dealers say, because rejection is routine.

"There are sales guys for every chemical company out there, trying to make the same deals with the same customers," said Doug Doty, manager of the Western Farm Service outlet in Modesto. "There's a lot of competition."

Not only does Peterson have to try to outperform the competition each day, dealers say, he must do it with more expensive products. He markets premium fertilizers and minerals, including acids, iron, boron and other materials that are applied periodically to protect the valley's crops and help generate plentiful harvests.

Peterson's job is to spread Tradecorp's name through the ag community and get its products into the hands of farmers.

The company exports to 30 countries but has little presence in California. Few dealers carry the products, and those that do not said they have shown little interest in adding them.

Tradecorp's products target the horticulture, fruit tree and citrus segments, and its top markets include South Africa, France, Chile and Turkey.

One of the selling points used by Peterson is that the company's solid fertilizers break down quickly in water, allowing them to be carried to plants via drip and microirrigation systems.

While his ultimate customer is the farmer, Peterson spends more time in his car and in offices than he does on farms.

His role is to convince fertilizer dealers that they need to carry the products.

He has encountered some difficulty, dealers said, because many of his products are more expensive than available alternatives.

Tradecorp products cost 15 percent to 25 percent more than the average retail price for similar products, according to dealers.

He sells premium goods, dealers agree, but in this tight farm economy it is a challenge convincing farmers to spend more than they must.

Tradecorp backs Peterson

Traditional -- and cheaper -- materials might be slightly less effective, but dealers say that rarely is enough to justify a grower paying the higher price.

Tradecorp did not answer The Bee's requests for information about Peterson's performance. However, it appears that Peterson still is working for the company.

Eric Van Innis, Tradecorp executive director, visited Peterson in Modesto on Jan. 21 and said the company supports Peterson "100 percent."

Chemical dealers who previously were in contact with Peterson said they had not heard from him since his wife's disappearance Christmas Eve.

Peterson did not respond to requests to discuss his job.

Many dealers who have bought products from Peterson, or had been approached by him, declined to be identified for this story.

"It's a tragic story that no one wants to be linked to," one dealer said. "I've already taken calls about this, and I don't want to spend any more time with it."

But that does not mean that those in the industry do not talk about it.

"He's been a topic of conversation since we found out he's a fertilizer salesman," Doty said. "He's never come to our store to sell, but I've lost count of the people who asked me if I met him."

Bee staff writer Richard T. Estrada can be reached at 578-2316 or restrada@modbee.com.

[homeschool mama]

Country Club dues in my town is $50k. We're an hour north of Modesto.