ID focus only on Modesto woman
Discovery of pregnant female, infant leaves 1 option: Laci Peterson.
Bee News Services
(Published Thursday, April 17, 2003, 4:45 AM)
RICHMOND -- The identification of two bodies found in San Francisco Bay is focused solely on whether it was Laci Peterson and the baby she was carrying, a state crime lab supervisor said Wednesday.
The lab is comparing DNA from Peterson and her parents with tissue and bone taken from the decomposed bodies of a woman and infant boy found earlier this week less than two miles apart on the rocky shoreline of this city.
"We don't have another person in mind," said John Tonkyn, supervisor of the state Attorney General's Missing Persons Unit at the state DNA lab in Richmond.
Barring complications, it might take two weeks to tell whether the woman's body that washed up Monday at Point Isabel Regional Shoreline belonged to the missing Modesto woman, authorities said, and whether the "full-term fetus" discovered the day before near the Richmond Marina was her child.
"We do not consider this to be a long time," Tonkyn said. "We consider it an appropriate amount of time to get accurate results."
Peterson, 27, a substitute teacher, vanished on Christmas Eve from her Modesto home, 90 miles southeast of Richmond. Her husband, Scott, 30, said he last saw her as he left to go fishing that morning at the Berkeley Marina, not far from where the bodies were found.
Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton said Wednesday he thinks the woman's body found this week is Peterson's,
"I feel pretty strongly it is [her]," the county's top prosecutor said. "It's too much of a coincidence to have a female and a baby found close to each other a day apart and no others were reported missing. If I were a betting man, I'd put money on it."
The DNA lab received from the coroner muscle tissue and a leg bone taken from the woman's body, and muscle tissue and a thigh bone from what Tonkyn described as a "full-term fetus."
Longer bones, such as the tibia and femur, are most likely to contain usable genetic samples, Tonkyn said.
The lab was analyzing cheek swabs taken from Laci Peterson's parents and hair from her hairbrush. Those results will be compared with DNA from the bodies that were found.
When asked why they weren't using dental records, Tonkyn said the lab wasn't provided with teeth from the Contra Costa County Coroner's office.
"Sometimes not a full skeleton has been found," Tonkyn said.
Published reports have said the woman's body was headless. The full-term baby still had an umbilical cord attached.
If officials find the bodies are related and rule the case a homicide, whoever killed the woman could be charged with double homicide for killing the child, making it a possible death penalty case. Modesto police changed the status of the Laci Peterson case from a missing-person to a homicide case in March.
California's fetal homicide law outlaws killing a fetus beyond eight weeks gestation during a criminal act.
Other forensic scientists said Wednesday that they doubted any meaningful evidence would be left if the body is indeed that of Peterson and has been in the water since Dec. 24.
While a body recently placed in water may have wounds or other signs of trauma indicating how the victim died, a body that is severely decomposed will reveal no soft-tissue trauma. Wounds that affect bones will produce evidence -- a gunshot wound to the skull, for example, or intentional dismemberment.
Despite the popular television shows, those kinds of telltale signs are rare.
Even a body in water a relatively short time may yield no concrete cause of death.
"If we pull a body out of the water, and we've ruled out obvious trauma, like a gunshot wound, it would probably go as an undetermined death," said Dr. Stephany Fiore, a Sacramento medical examiner who was working in New York City in September 2001 and helped perform autopsies and identifications on victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. "You can't do much on a decomposed body."
If the woman's body is not identified as Laci Peterson, the lab will begin comparing the samples with likely matches in a database of 100 DNA samples of other missing people or their relatives. The state has more than 25,000 active missing-person cases.
Laci Peterson's family members remained sequestered Wednesday in Modesto.
"There's no news; we're just waiting," said Ron Grantski, Laci Peterson's stepfather. "Until they confirm there really isn't anything."
Scott Peterson, a fertilizer salesman, has not been seen in Modesto in recent days. He hasn't surfaced publicly since the bodies were discovered Sunday and Monday.
While Laci Peterson's family issued a brief statement Tuesday, not a word has come from his camp. Scott Peterson has not been named as a suspect in his wife's disappearance, but police have seized his boat, truck and nearly 100 items from his house.
His father, Lee, told reporters Tuesday at his house north of San Diego that he didn't know where his son was.
"What if Scott were here?" he asked. "Is that a big deal?"
The lawn in front of the house the couple shared was freshly cut Wednesday, but neighbors said someone had stopped by and cut it the night before. Scott Peterson hasn't been seen in the neighborhood for more than a week.
The property manager of the building where Scott Peterson rented an office, a man who identified himself only as Mark, said Scott Peterson moved out earlier this year and is trying to find someone to take over the lease for another six to eight months.
The Associated Press, The Sacramento Bee, The Modesto Bee and Contra Costa Times contributed to this report.
I was adding this link here, because many of ya are worldwide on the web: a heads up alert from Cali...
National all-points bulletin for parolee in officer slaying
National all-points bulletin for parolee in officer slaying
The Associated Press
(Published Thursday, April 17, 2003, 4:55 AM)
Pittsburg (AP) - - Pittsburg police have issued a national all-points bulletin for a parolee who lived in the house where a detective working on a week-old murder was shot to death.
A Pittsburg police spokeswoman says Earl Foster Junior is wanted for questioning in the death of homicide inspector Ray Giacomelli. The 46-year-old detective is the first Pittsburg officer killed on duty in nearly 70 years.
Giacomelli was to meet another inspector Tuesday at a home where they were investigating a case. When the second officer arrived, he found Giacomelli dead from gunshot wounds.
Police searched the home of Foster's sister and his father's car with guns drawn and accompanied by police dogs - but came up empty-handed.
Officials say Foster hasn't been named a suspect in Giacomelli's death - but his outstanding parole violation means investigators are eager to question him.
Police agencies nationwide have been asked to look out for Foster's car, a gold Mercedes 300 E with gold rims and tinted windows.
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A tad defensive, Daddy dearest? I'd be sitting on my son's face if I was presented with this much evidence that he had done such a horrific thing.
I've read some posts on FR saying there was a lot of blood and other fluids in the Peterson's home. But I've also read that there was fluid evidence taken from a mop that was in the house.
Which is correct? It seems to me that if the scene had been cleaned up with a mop, there wouldn't be a lot of blood and other fluids.
Thank you.