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Police reclassify Laci's case as a homicide
investigation; terms of reward changed
POSTED: Wednesday, March 5, 2003 at 8:20 PM PST
REVISED: Sunday, March 9, 2003 at 1:20 PM PST
by Gregg L. DesElms
MODESTO, CA -- An afternoon press conference was held at Modesto police headquarters on Wednesday, March 5, 2003
during which it was announced that the case of Laci Peterson's disappearance was now being considered a homicide
investigation. At the same time, the Executive Director of The Sund/Carrington Foundation
announced a concomitant change to the terms and conditions under which any reward would be paid.
Modesto Police Detective Craig Grogan of the department's Investigative Services Unit, and lead investigator on
the case read a statement that was in striking contrast with what
Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden said during a press conference on January 24, 2003.
"As the investigation has progressed, we have increasingly come to believe that Laci Peterson is the victim
of a violent crime," Grogan said. "This investigation began as a missing person case, and we all were
hopeful that Laci would return home safely. However, we have come to consider this a homicide case."
Not quite six weeks earlier, on January 24, 2003, Chief Wasden reponded quite differently to a reporter's question
asking if police had yet begun considering Laci's case a homicide investigation.
"Well," Wasden said, "this
is still a missing person case. We'd love to find Laci alive and well and bring her home safe."
Laci Peterson's family members listen and weep quietly as Modesto Police announce
that the missing person case has been reclassified as a probably homicide. From left to right, Amy Rocha (Laci's
younger half-sister), Sharon Rocha (Laci's mother), and Ron Grantski (Laci's step-father).
Photo by ART GOLEB
of the Modesto
Bee |
During questioning from reporters at the March 5th press conference, Police spokesman Det. Doug Ridenour would
not elaborate on why or when the missing person case had become a homicide investigation.
"This hasn't really changed anything for us; it's only changed for (the media)," Ridenour said. "Investigators
told me yesterday that the investigation is going well. We're confident this case will be resolved, and we're continuing
in that direction."
After the police announcement, Kim Petersen, family spokesperson and Executive Director of the Sund/Carrington
Foundation, stepped to the microphone and read a prepared statemen in which she explained how the change in
status of the case necessitated a concomitant change in the terms and conditions under which any reward would be
given.
She said the Foundation's board of directors and those who had donated the bulk of the $500,000 reward that had
originally been offered "for information leading to a safe return" had authorized $50,000 of that money
to be used as a reward "for information that leads to her location and recovery."
Petersen then read a brief statement from Laci's family:
"Our family desperately needs to know where (Laci) is and what has happened
to her. We now realize that with every day that passes the possibility of finding her alive diminishes. Our hope
is that this $50,000 reward will bring information that leads us to her.
"Our lives these past two and a half months have been horrific. It's been a never-ending nightmare. We know
someone out there has the information that can end our nightmare, and we plead with them to tell us where she is
so we can find these answers we so desperately seek. We will continue our search for her until she's found. We
will never stop looking for Laci.
"We plead to the person or persons responsible for Laci's disappearance to dig deep within yourself, find
the compassion for our family and provide the information necessary for her recovery. Until we find Laci, our lives
are in turmoil. We feel as though we can't go on. We can't look on beyond today. You can provide this information
through an anonymous phone call or letter.
"We appreciate all the support we've received from the public, the Modesto Police Department, the media, our
family and friends. Your support and thoughtfulness have helped our family endure the unbearable."
No one from Scott Peterson's side of the family was present at the press conference, but relatives from Laci's
side did attend. They stood along the wall at the side of the room, held hands and wept quietly as they
listened intently to the police announcement and to Petersen's reading of their statement. As soon as Ridenour
began taking questions, they quietly filed out of the room and left the building without speaking to or taking
questions from reporters.
The change in reward terms was reflected on the front page of this web site later on Wednesday
March 5, 2003. And within a few days, revised MISSING posters reflecting the change were also posted to this site
so they could then be downloaded by site visitors from the "download a flyer or poster"
page.
At one point in the press conference, reporters asked Ridenour about
Bill Garcia, a San
Diego area private investigator who had come to Modesto to help in the search; and who had found what he felt
might be a suspicious concrete spill alongside the Delta Mendota Canal. Garcia reported the spill to police as
worthy of inspection related to Laci's case, and there were several local media reports about the find in the days
leading up to the March 5th press conference.
Ridenour did not address the concrete spill but did
talk about Garcia.
"We did not ask him (Garcia) to come into the case," Ridenour said, continuing, "nor, to my knowledge,
did he call and ask permission to be involved."
But police investigators later told San Francisco's KPIX TV
that Garcia's discovery was not being discounted and that they (police) were looking at it to assess its credibility.
Standing on the sidewalk outside police headquarters after the March 5th press conference, Garcia told reporters
that he received a call from detectives on Tuesday, March 4, 2003, telling him that they were going to take a look
at the spill the following day -- Wednesday, March 5th, the same day as the press conference. And, indeed, a few
hours before Wednesday's press conference, local media outlets videotaped police checking-out Garcia's find near
the canal.
After Ridenour's remarks about Garcia, Kim Petersen stepped back up to the microphone and attempted to distance
both the Sund/Carrington Foundation and Laci's family from the
San Diego investigator and his search efforts.
She told reporters that she had heard from sources close to the family of missing San Diego grade-schooler Danielle
Van Dam. Petersen said that, according to those sources, and contrary to what Garcia had been claiming in the press,
he had not been
the person who found Danielle Van Dam's body and that, in fact, had had nothing whatsoever to do with the Van Dam
case.
"Well, it's just not true that I had nothing to
do with the Van Dam case," Garcia said when contacted by phone later Wednesday evening. "Anyone can certainly
verify that with police down there (in the San Diego area)."
And, in a telephone interview with this web site late on Friday, March 7, 2003, a San Diego Police Department homicide
detective sergeant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Garcia had, indeed, been helpful in the
Van Dam investigation and search.
"But it is
true that I'm not the one who found Danielle Van Dam's body," Garcia continued, "and I've never said
I did!"
"The circumstances surrounding my involvement in that case were complex," Garcia said, "and so the
press often mangles it. Here, we have a situation where Kim Petersen believes she's discredited me as a liar in
the eyes of the reporters who were at that press conference today. But the alleged claim of mine, which she says
I lied about, I never claimed in the first place."
"But I don't believe Kim said it to be mean," Garcia added. "I believe she wants to protect Laci's
family from opportunists and others who don't have their best interests at heart. It's too bad she didn't take
the time to understand what we're about before speaking out against us. But I certainly am not upset with her or
angry about it. We've seen this sort of thing before. She's just doing her job as she sees it."
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