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From the outset of this tragedy, Scott has maintained that he knows nothing about, nor has had anything to do with, Laci's disappearance. He has shown up every morning at the Volunteer & Command Center and has seemed to work tirelessly for her safe return. And friends and family have steadfastly supported him throughout this terrible ordeal. While police have been unable to eliminate Scott as a suspect in Laci's disappearance, they have not officially called him one, either. But they have commented that at times he has seemed less than completely cooperative with their investigation.
But as if that news wasn't bad enough, Police also told the family that Scott had taken out a $250,000 life insurance policy on Laci shortly after the couple learned she was pregnant. It was unclear precisely what type of policy it was, who was the beneficiary, or whether Laci even knew about it. In fact police would not confirm publicly that they had even told the family about an insurance policy. At a press conference on January 17, 2003, family spokesperson Kim Petersen (no relation) explained the family's upset. Approximately two weeks earlier, she said, Ron Grantski, Laci's stepfather, asked Scott if he had a girlfriend. Scott told him, unequivocally, "no," and Ron believed him. Petersen is also the executive director of the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, which contributed in large measure to the $500,000 reward. Now, however, having seen the photos shown to them by police, the family believed Scott had lied to them about this, and possibly other things as well. The family was (and still is, at this writing) asking him to tell everything he knows and to fully cooperate with the Modesto Police Department. "Their family is the most important thing to them," Petersen said, "and if he has nothing to hide, they ask him to prove that." Speaking off-camera with KTVU TV reporter Ted Rowlands after his jog on Wednesday morning, January 22, 2003, Scott said that he had absolutely nothing to do with his wife's disappearance, and he added that he cannot understand why her family is calling on him to be more cooperative with police. He categorically denies not fully cooperating with everything the Modesto police have asked him to do. But noticeably missing from his comments was any mention of the polygraph examination that Modesto police have requested and to which he initially said he would submit, but about which he has since changed his mind. "If he's innocent, fine, then take a lie detector test," one family member told the Modesto Bee newspaper shortly after Laci's family learned from police on January 15, 2003 that Scott had had an affair, and also that he had taken out a $250,000 life insurance policy on his wife. "At first, he told us he was willing to (take a polygraph). But then he said he talked to his parents and they told him not to." Scott told a KNTV reporter that he doesn't mind having suspicion cast upon him as long as it keeps Laci in the public's collective consciousness.
As a precaution, Scott retained Modesto criminal defense attorney Kirk McAllister. It is worthy of note, however, that that is not an uncommon thing in cases like this wherein the police are clearly interested in a husband as a strong potential suspect in his wife's disappearance. Scott's in-laws, of course have been badly shaken by these revelations -- so much so that it contributed to (but was certainly not the only reason for) their decision to permanently close the Laci Peterson Volunteer & Command Center at the Red Lion Hotel in Modesto on Friday, January 17, 2003 -- a week or so earlier than originally planned, they said. All manner of rumors, suspicions and criticism have now begun to swirl around Scott. The press has reported that the recent news has made some volunteers staffing the command center feel uncomfortable being around him. Some criticized him for not sitting with the rest of Laci's family during the New Year's Eve Vigil, adding that he "hung around" with his friends there and appeared to be smiling, and having a good time. Others have openly wondered why anyone would go fishing nearly 100 miles away on a typically hectic family-oriented day like Christmas eve. And still others wonder why he will not take a polygraph test. It didn't help that local TV stations were by then interviewing a woman at the Berkeley Marina who said, on camera, that she heard a woman screaming for a few seconds on Christmas eve morning -- right around the time that Scott said he was there. She said she couldn't figure out precisely where the screams were coming from before they finally stopped. And in an interview on January 21, 2003, former FBI profiler Candice Delong told KTVU TV's "Mornings on 2" program that one thing she found very troubling was how Scott appeared on ABC's Good Morning America fairly early in the case and spoke of his missing wife and baby in the past tense. "He said words to the effect 'Gee, we worked so hard on the nursery and now we aren't going to use it,'" she said, continuing, "And then he quickly corrected himself and said 'That is unless she comes home.'" I've been around a lot of people under stress and chaos of a missing person," Delong said, "and the last thing they ever want to verbalize is their worst fear. These (Peterson's responses) are the kind of things that raise the level of suspicion quite high." Many people watching the case from afar have begun to interpret the recent news as a clear indication of Scott's probable guilt, as can be seen in many of the postings in this web site's guestbook. Theories abound, too -- including one from a neighbor of Scott and Laci who has stated to the press her suspicion that whatever happened to Laci must have happened on the night of December 23rd, not on the morning of December 24th, as Scott has stated. The neighbor reasoned this because, she said, for as long as she could remember the first thing Laci did in the morning was throw open her living room drapes. But on the morning of December 24th, for the first time, the neighbor said, those drapes remained closed.
"The idea of me being involved with the disappearance of Kristin Smart is ridiculous," said Scott when contacted by KTVU TV on Saturday, January 18, 2003. And by that evening even the San Luis Obispo police appeared to agree. In an official statement, detectives there said there was no link between Scott and the missing woman. Police added that they were no longer looking at him as a potential suspect in that case. The primary suspect in the Smart case has always been Paul Flores, a 1995 graduate of Arroyo Grande High School in San Luis Obispo, and a freshman at Cal Poly at the time of Smart's disappearance. Flores is known to be the last person to see Smart alive, and he had been interviewed by police many times before he finally began refusing to cooperate with authorities in mid-2000. The case remains unsolved, and Flores has never been arrested in connection therewith. Undaunted, Scott has said he wants to get back to the business of finding Laci, and he has even talked about opening his own command center to keep the momentum going. In a telephone interview with KTVU-TV in Oakland, Scott said, with a hint of frustration in his voice, "I'm going to come back to Modesto and open my own volunteer center and find my wife and my kid." But after the closing of the command center started by Laci's family, some say Peterson's weakened credibility will make it tough to staff a new center. "I don't think Scott has any support left, not from people I interact with," said neighbor Kim McGregor, 30. "It appears he's on his own." While the greatest amount of suspicion seems to be falling on Scott, he is not the only person that police are looking at. "Scott is in the mix, but we're not putting our eggs all in one basket," said Modesto police detective Doug Ridenour. He said that there were even some family members who had not been cleared as potential suspects. He added that there are still forty police officers working on the case, checking-out every reasonable lead and investigating other possibilities besides that of Scott having had something to do with his wife's disappearance. As of January 24, 2003, some 4,500 leads have come to the Modesto police department -- roughly 1,400 of which were during the week of January 12th through the 18th, 2003. Scott's mother, Jackie Peterson, is unmoved by all the negative press about her son. Speaking with MS-NBC's Dan Abrams on Wednesday, January 22, 2003, she stood steadfastly by him, and countered the now-popular notion that he has been uncooperative with police. "I was there at the beginning when they talked to Scott," she said, "and he opened his home to them, he opened his business to them, he opened his cars to them. There was never any time that he didn’t cooperate with them. He was interviewed for hour upon hour. They know more about him than anybody." She added that Scott frequently called the chief of police to ask him questions or to follow up on leads. "Scott and Laci’s relationship was wonderful,” Jackie said. “They were very much in love with each other. They dote on each other. They were very excited about their pregnancy. They were looking forward to this child. And they just treat each other with so much respect, and love, and care. He really adored her. When they’re together, anybody around them would notice that.” "He called me totally distraught on Christmas morning," she continued. "He couldn’t even speak because Laci was missing. (At first) I thought that she had had a miscarriage when he called because he couldn’t get it out." She added, "Scott told me he didn’t want to live if he didn’t find her alive. Both families, you know, we can’t give up hope, and I think part of this has tried to take hope away from us." Jackie said she worried that the police are missing leads in searching for a dead body, instead of Laci potentially being held captive somewhere. "We just don’t think it’s gone in the right direction,” she said. "We feel like this was determined very early to be a homicide without the proper investigation. I don’t know what you need to make of that." "I’m worried about them not looking for a live Laci. I’m worried about them not looking at houses, or abandoned sheds, or buildings, or places that somebody might be holding her. It doesn’t make sense that she would vanish like this." Scott's family stands behind him, according to his sister-in-law, Janey Peterson, adding that the focus on an affair is a "distraction" from the mission of finding Laci. "There's absolutely no way Scott had anything to do with Laci's disappearance," she said on CNN's Connie Chung Tonight program. "When all this is said and done ... the truth is going to settle, and Scott's going to be OK at the end of this road. But we don't know that about Laci, and that's where our focus needs to be."
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