|
Better-than-expected
turnout at first of
three weekend searches for Laci
POSTED:
Sunday, February 9, 2003 at 4:53 AM PST
UPDATE: Monday, February 24, 2003 at 9:46 AM PST
by
Gregg L. DesElms
The first of three planned Saturday search days organized by Laci Peterson's family and the Sund/Carrington Foundation
had a better-than-expected turnout of nearly 500 people, all outfitted and ready to traverse rough terrain and
lend whatever support they could to the effort to find the missing Modesto woman.
During its press
conference
on Wednesday, February 5, 2003, Laci's family announced that it was organizing the first search in the Delta Mendota
Canal area on Saturday, February 8, 2003. Two other searches were announced as well in the Lake Don Pedro area on February
15th
and in the Lake Pardee area on February 22nd. The Lake Pardee area search on February 22nd was later changed to
the New
Melones Reservoir area.
The meeting place or staging area for the search on Saturday the 8th was the Orchard Restaurant on state highway
132, just East of interstate-5. Volunteers assembled at 9:00 AM PST in the parking lot of the restaurant. We asked
on this web site before the event that everyone please assemble peacefully and in an orderly manner so the restaurant's
business would not be disturbed.
Some 500 volunteers showed-up for the search day -- all of them arriving on time in the restaurant's parking lot,
and all of them orderly and mindful not to disturb the restaurant's business, as requested. Most came dressed in
their hiking clothes and boots and seemed ready to traverse rough terrain. As a group, they brought with them about
a dozen four-wheel all terrain vehicles (quads), a half dozen or so canoes, several trailered boats, at least six
trailers full of horses, and even an airplane or two and a helicopeter.
The staging
area for Saturday's search was the parking lot of the Orchard 24-hour Restaurant in Vernalis. Starting at shortly
after 9:00 AM PST, volunteer searchers fanned-out from there in every direction -- some of them as far as nearly
40 miles away. The search ended at around 3:00 PM PST. |
Volunteers were given
basic instructions for how to conduct their searches and what to look for. Some 250 serial-numbered maps, each
with different areas highlighted on them were signed-out to volunteers who were asked to return them at the end
of the search day at around 3:00 PM PST. Each map contained a different area to be searched. All maps were returned,
as requested.
While some searchers held out hope of finding Laci alive, Kim Petersen, family spokesperson and Executive Director
of the Sund/Carrington Foundation who organized the volunteer search party, advised people on what to do should
they come across a body.
"Don't leave it, don't approach it," said Petersen, reminding volunteers that clumsy searching could
destroy crucial evidence. Searchers were advised to simply keep their distance from the evidence and to call one
of the several telephone numbers they were given before the search began -- telephone numbers which belonged to
cell phones of search organizers who stayed in the restaurant's parking lot all day to greet volunteers who were
both arriving and leaving, and to generally act as the command center for the day's search.
Shortly after 9:00 AM PST, volunteers fanned out in every direction from the restaurant to begin covering the search
area which extended as far some 40 miles in at least two directions.
Wherever
Laci is, volunteers intend to find her
Modesto
Bee staff writer Jim McDevitt wrote a firsthand account of what it was like to be one of the volunteer searchers
on Saturday.
Click here to read his account. |
The area around the intersection of highways 132 and 33 was selected because it was one of the first locations
search dogs were alerted to after Laci was reported missing some 47 days ago.
Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, said the sight of so many strangers looking for her missing daughter, who is pregnant
and scheduled to deliver a baby boy on Monday, gave her hope and helped her endure the pain of a child gone missing.
"It means the world to me," she said. "There are no words to even describe it."
For many volunteers, it seemed that imagining themselves in the Rocha's place compelled them to join Saturday's
search party.
"God forbid, if anything should happen in my family, I would appreciate any help I could have," said
Pat DeBock, a 65-year-old Stockton resident who was accompanied by her son, Jeff DeBock, 36, also of Stockton.
Ron Jones, 37, a sheriff's deputy from Sacramento, said that seeing banners and posters pleading for Laci Peterson's
safe return while he was on a business trip in Modesto compelled him to enlist in the search.
"I just can't imagine what the family is going through," Jones said.
Some volunteers were given a new version of the Laci Peterson MISSING poster/flyer that is specifically targeted
at campgrounds and lake areas. They were asked to distribute and post the flyers in appropriate places as long
as they were out searching in those areas. The new campground and fishing area version of the MISSING poster is
available for download
on this web site.
The Associated Press reported late on Saturday that volunteers had found a woman's dress and several other items
during the search. However, according to Modesto Police Sgt. Ron Cloward, neither the dress nor any of the items
belonged to Laci or were relevant to the case. Nor were any other items found which Cloward believed were helpful.
"As far as anything good or solid, they didn't find anything like that,'' Cloward said.
Cloward said he welcomed the assistance, which comes as police scale back their earlier massive hunt for Laci.
He said police are now concentrating on sorting through more than 6,000 tips from the public obtained either by
means of the police tip line at (209) 342-6166 or via this web site's leads and tips form.
Many of the volunteers searched beyond the areas to which they were assigned, some of them venturing into both
the Lake Don Pedro and even the Lake Pardee areas -- both of which had been slated for searches on February 15th
and 22nd, respectively. Because both of those areas were at least partially searched on February 8th, and because
it was later determined that most or all of the Lake Pardee area was completely inaccessible at the time of Laci's
disappearance, Laci's family and the Sund Carrington Foundation reconsidered the areas they wanted to search on
the 15th and the 22nd. They ended-up staying with the plan to search the Lake Don Pedro area on the 15th, but they changed the
search on the 22nd
to the New
Melones Reservoir area.
Though Laci's family would like as many participants as possible to help on the designated search Saturdays, independent
searching at other times is also encouraged. Reading from his prepared statement at the family's press conference
on Wednesday, February 5, 2003, Laci's older brother, Brent Rocha, said:
"Where appropriate,
the family encourages searches by boat, horseback, quads, bikes, etc. If you are unable to join us in any of these
organized searches we still ask that ranchers, farmers, and property owners with acreage search their land, any
bodies of water, and any areas surrounding their properties."
But please do it safely!
And please do
not disturb any evidence you might happen to find.
If you find anything, keep your distance from it but do not leave it. Keep others away from it as well. Then call the Modesto Police Department at (209) 342-6166.
Please click here to learn about other things you can do to help!
|