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The Noose Tightens
On Saturday, February 15, 2003, the second of three searches organized by Laci's family and the Sund/Carrington
Foundation
took place. During its February 5, 2003 press conference, Laci's family announced that it would conduct three organized
searches during the remaining Saturdays in February: The first on February 8th in the Delta Mendota
Canal area;
the second on February
15th in the Lake Don Pedro area;
and the third on February
22nd
in the Lake Pardee area (later changed to the New Melones Reservoir area).
On Saturday, February 15, 2003, just under 200 volunteer searchers followed the directions provided on this web
site and showed-up promptly at 9:00 AM PST at the staging area at the Fleming Meadows Recreation Area on Bonds
Flat Road at Lake Don Pedro in La Grange, California.
Volunteers
fan out from the staging area and begin searching the Lake Don Pedro area on Saturday, February 15, 2003.
AP
Photo |
Because of the rough terrain, only volunteer searchers in boats and on foot were required. For this search, searchers
on horseback and those will four-wheel all-terrain vehicles (quads) were advised to stay away.
The search yielded no trace of Laci, however. Click here to read more about it.
On February 17, 2003,
Scott's mother, Jackie Peterson, stood up for her son and talked about the pain he and his entire family are going
through.
Saying she believes time is running out to find her daughter-in-law before she gives birth, Peterson said her family
believes kidnappers abducted the 27-year-old woman from outside her Modesto home with intentions of holding her
captive until she delivered the baby.
"There's no other explanation," she said by telephone from her home in Solana Beach, north of San Diego.
Jackie Peterson addressed the discrepancy in her daughter-in-law's due dates that Laci's and Scott's families were
talking about in the press in the days leading up to the Rochas' press conference
on February 5th
wherein they clarified that Laci's due date was February 10th and not the 16th as the Petersons had been saying.
Peterson said Laci's due date initially was estimated for February 10th, but was later revised to February 16th.
Laci's family (the Rochas) have maintained all along that she was due on February 10th and took issue with the
February 16th date during their February 5th press conference.
Jackie Peterson noted that first pregnancies often go past the due date.
"We believe she is still pregnant," she said. "If everybody were looking, they'd find her because
she's pregnant. But she's not going to be pregnant for much longer."
Jackie Peterson expressed frustration over suspicion focused on her son, especially since reports surfaced that
he had an affair with a Fresno woman late last year. Peterson said the reports have detracted from the search for
Laci and hurt the volunteer effort.
"At first we didn't mind but it became more about him than about Laci," Peterson said. "We had a
lot of people volunteering and the (Carole Sund/Carrington) foundation closed the volunteer center the day they
heard he had an affair. And that put people to stop looking for her, which makes no sense to me."
The negative attention has compounded the exhaustion Peterson said she and her family have experienced throughout
the ordeal.
"I'd like to crawl into bed and cover up my head but I can't do that," she said. "I can't until
I find Laci."
Peterson defended her son's actions that have raised speculation. She explained that he attempted to sell Laci's
1996 Land Rover because police had confiscated his own pickup and Laci had wanted to have a new car because she
thought the Land Rover was unsafe.
Peterson said she and her husband had gone out with the couple to look for a new car in the days before Laci disappeared.
She said the young woman picked out a Mercedes and that Scott still hopes to buy one for her.
A report that Scott considered selling the couple's home, she said, came from a "flip statement" he made
about not wanting to live in the house after Laci is found.
Scott is hurt by the allegations against him and the divide it has created between him and Laci's family, she said.
"But he has to set that aside and continue to search for her. He can't think about it."
Scott, a specialty fertilizer salesman, is staying in Modesto, she said. And he's searching daily for Laci, walking
through remote areas and visiting police stations to post fliers.
"She could be anywhere," Peterson said. "It's been well over a month since she vanished. There's
just (got to be) someone somewhere in this country who knows where she is."
The next morning after
giving her interview, above, Jackie Peterson awoke on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 to the disquieting news that police
had arrived at her son's Covena Avenue home in Modesto and had unexpectedly served new search warrants on him for
his home, his back yard and his vehicle. Jackie Peterson would later tell reporters from her San Diego home that
the search was part of an effort by police to harass her son.
Scott Peterson
waits outside his home on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 while Modesto police detectives execute a search warrant for
his home, his back yard and his white 2002 Dodge RAM pickup truck.
Scott Peterson
carries to his rented Chevy Tahoe SUV some personal and business items packed for him into bags by Modesto police
detectives who were executing a search warrant on his home.
Photos
by DEBBIE NODA
of the Modesto Bee |
"Scott
is a victim in this," Jackie Peterson told MS-NBC's Dan Abrams. "We’re talking about Laci’s family. It’s
Scott Peterson, her husband, who is missing his wife and baby. And I think people need to start remembering that."
Detectives arrived at the Peterson home at around 8:00 AM PST, saw Scott driving down the street in his white Dodge
RAM pickup truck, and stopped him, said Modesto Police Detective Doug Ridenour. At police request, Scott returned
to the home where police then served him with a warrant to search the house, the yard and the truck.
The details of the warrants were sealed by the judge who issued them, and police did not specify precisely what
they were looking for or what they removed from the home.
"The position of the Modesto Police Department has been and remains that no details about this investigation
will be released," said Detective Craig Grogan, lead investigator in the Peterson case, in a prepared statement.
But Modesto police Detective Doug Ridenour, who has been doing most of the talking on behalf of the department
since the beginning of the case, gave the press a bit more of a glimpse into the background of the search.
"Discoveries during the investigation have necessitated the revisiting of the scene," Ridenour said.
But he did not elaborate. He said the purpose of the search was to either "eliminate or connect (Scott)"
as a suspect in Laci's disappearance.
Ridenour said the application for the search warrant had been sealed by court order. He added that police did not
plan to announce the results of the search unless there was a major development.
The search on February 18, 2003 marked the second time police had come to Scott's and Laci's home to remove potential
evidence in the case. The first search of the home took place on December 26, 2002 when police removed unspecified
items, many of which were then taken to the state crime lab in Ripon, California, just a few miles north of Modesto.
During the search on December 26th, both Scott's and Laci's computers were seized, along with Scott's 2002 silver
Ford F-150 pickup truck, his 14-foot aluminum boat and trailer, and Laci's green 1996 Range Rover SUV. The SUV
was later returned to Scott who then traded it in on a white 2002 Dodge RAM pickup truck. The SUV was subsequently
given to Laci's family by the auto dealer who did the trade. The silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and the boat and
trailer remain in police custody.
"We are still not calling Scott Peterson a suspect yet," said Detective Doug Ridenour, adding, "but
he has not been cleared from this case (either)." He stated that no arrest was imminent.
Ridenour said that Scott had cooperated with investigators and had asked them for some personal and work-related
items from inside the home that he could take with him while they searched. Having requested the items from police,
Scott then left the premises in a car driven by an unidentified person. He returned about 45 minutes later in a
rented black Chevrolet Tahoe SUV.
Detectives spoke with him in his driveway on several occasions during the next hour, taking notes on a legal note
pad.
While investigators searched, Scott alternately stood in his driveway, stayed in the Tahoe, and sat on a nearby
brick wall. He was not permitted to re-enter the home or the back yard without police accompanying him. He ended-up
never re-entering the home at any time during the search.
But at around 10:15 AM PST, while talking to detectives, Scott was seen throwing his arms up in apparent frustration.
He then went into his back yard with detectives.
Scott Peterson
stands in his driveway and speaks with Modesto police detectives during their execution of a search warrant on
his home and vehicle on Tuesday, February 18, 2003.
Photo
by DEBBIE NODA
of the Modesto Bee |
About 15 minutes later, he left in the rental truck, taking two duffel bags and a clear plastic bag filled with
the clothes and other items that investigators had packed for him at his request.
An hour later, a police officer drove Scott's white 2002 Dodge RAM pickup truck to the police station where police
kept it for about four hours before finally returning it to Scott's driveway late that same afternoon. Other than
confirming that it was "searched," Police would not say precisely what they did with or to the truck
during the few hours that it was in their custody.
Speculation in the popular press later that night and the following morning ran from the police having checked
the truck for telltale indications of his having used the truck to move possibly incriminating evidence -- or perhaps
even Laci's body -- to the simple downloading of global positioning satellite (GPS) data from a GPS recording device
which police may have secretly hidden on Scott's vehicle either before or shortly after he took delivery of it
a few weeks earlier.
At noon on Tuesday the 18th, police sealed off both ends of the 500 block of Covena Avenue because there were so
many spectators driving down the street, many of whom had seen live news reports on television. Dozens of people
parked their cars elsewhere and walked down the street to get near the Petersons' home.
During the day Scott returned to the house twice. Once he handed a detective a bag of cat food. The second time,
according to Ridenour, he "returned to the scene with items he had that detectives requested." Ridenour
would not say what those items were.
At one point, a UPS delivery man attempted to deliver a package from a wine-of-the-month club to Laci Peterson,
but was turned away.
Turlock
police Detective Kipp Loving and an unidentified officer place a half-dozen or so evidence bags removed from Scott
Peterson's home into a car so they can be taken to Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force offices.
Photo
by BART AH YOU
of the Modesto Bee |
A short
while later police brought Laci's younger half-sister, Amy Rocha, to the house. Detective Doug Ridenour said investigators
asked Rocha to help them, but he would not say what they asked her to do.
"Amy was asked to come here today to assist detectives," Ridenour said. "That isn't unusual if there's
something that a relative would know that detectives wouldn't."
Detectives took Rocha, 21, into the house at about 12:30 PM PST. She came out about two hours later looking distressed.
She did not make a statement.
At about 1:30 PM PST, Turlock police Detective Kipp Loving put about a half-dozen brown paper grocery sacks of
evidence into a car. Loving works with the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force where the evidence was headed.
At about 4:30 PM PST, several officers took about 45 assorted packages of evidence out of the home, including a
manila envelope, a lunch sack, several boxes, dozens of brown grocery bags and one large green garbage bag. Except
for the half-dozen or so brown paper grocery sacks taken by Loving in the car, all items removed by Modesto police
were meticulously cataloged into the Modesto police evidence truck.
Of course police would not say what was in any of the bags. But MS-NBC reported late Tuesday night that the evidence
collected included a binder with photographs, a phone book, and even some Viagra.
Tuesday's search ended at about 6:00 PM PST after about 10 hours. Police then took down the yellow barricade tape
around the outer perimeter of the property, posted a patrolman whose marked patrol car sat in the driveway all
night long as a guard, and sealed the home for the night, saying they would return the next morning to resume their
work.
When contacted by reporters later that day, Brent Rocha, Laci's older brother, said he did not want to comment
very much about the search until he had more information.
"In reality, I hope it helps them uncover my sister's whereabouts," he said.
The search turned Covena Avenue, a modest neighborhood of single-story homes, into a spectacle. Some 18 television
trucks sprouted satellite towers among the city's signature Modesto Ash trees in the Covena Avenue neighborhood,
while helicopters buzzing overhead attracted scores of onlookers. Some even brought visiting out-of-town relatives
to contribute to the disruption even more.
More than two dozen cameras were set up facing the home. Yards of electrical cables ran along the curbs and lawns
of Peterson's neighbors. More than a dozen news crews from Los Angeles to Sacramento camped out front. Many of
the reporters huddled under a tent hastily erected by one of them as it rained and hailed.
Two police cruisers and four orange cones blocked access on one side of the street. When one neighbor wanted to
back her sport utility vehicle out of her driveway, it was a 15-minute production, requiring the rearrangement
of half a dozen cameras.
A crowd of at least 75 journalists and onlookers waited in the middle of the street with little to do for most
of the time on both days of the search -- though they certainly snapped to attention every time a rubber-gloved
police officer emerged from the Petersons' house.
The media circus was only the latest in a long line that have sprung up around high-profile criminal cases, where
the news is scant but the demand for information -- even the smallest morsel -- soars off the charts. In a story
published in the San Jose Mercury News on Thursday, February 20, 2003, staff writer Lori Aratani analyzed the situation. She
wrote, in part:
The story attracted
national media attention almost immediately. It has been featured numerous times on Fox's "On the Record with
Greta Van Susteren,'' CNN's "Connie Chung Tonight'' and "Larry King Live.'
Lloyd LaCuesta, reporter for Oakland-based KTVU-TV, was happy to explain the media obsession: "It has everything
that intrigues the public -- a pregnant woman, her husband having an affair.
"It's the kind of thing we think our viewership or readership is interested in,'' he said. And he couldn't
help but bring up Modesto's other spin in the tabloids.
"I have to say this brings back memories of being in front of Chandra Levy's house," LaCuesta said. "It
was a quiet little street just like this.''
National
and even international news media satellite trucks and other vehicles block access to the Covena Avenue neighborhood
where Scott and Laci Peterson's home was being searched by police on Tuesday, February 18, 2003, leading to neighbors'
complaints to police that they could no longer conduct their normal lives in their own homes and yards.
Photo
by ART GOLUB
of the Modesto Bee |
Juan Fernandez,
reporter for KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV, two Los Angeles stations, said that Southern California media have focused on
the story since Laci Peterson was reported missing, even though Modesto is far from their broadcast market. In
part, that's because it was a compelling story, and, in part, because it was another story from Modesto.
"Laci was a pregnant woman who disappeared for no reason," said Fernandez. "People on the street
are curious about the case. They just want to know what's going on. This is big. I compare this to a Chandra or
a Robert Blake. When we were chasing the Robert Blake case, there were just as many crews.''
"People have been interested in this type of story since pre-biblical times,'' said Joe Saltzman, associate
dean at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Southern California. "We live in a global
village where everyone is our neighbor, and this is an interesting story about a man whose pregnant wife is kidnapped.''
Saltzman, who is director of the Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture Project at the University of Southern
California, said the media circuses can't really be blamed on the media -- or the public that allegedly pants for
each new tidbit.
"It's not really the media's fault,'' he said. "The police are there, it's an official action. This has
to do with basic human curiosity.''
Such spectacles have only grown in intensity and size for more than a decade.
"It's the criminal case that feeds on itself,'' said New York attorney Marvyn Kornberg, who has been in the
glare of television lights on high-profile criminal cases several times. "It becomes a soap opera, it becomes
the proverbial `sex, lies and videotape.' ''
Kornberg, who is best known for representing a man the public loved to hate -- Joey Buttafuoco, who had a torrid
affair with Long Island teenager Amy Fisher -- said the only way to end such sideshows is to convert the American
system of justice "to the English system, where you announce the arrest of an individual and then you announce
the verdict when it's over.''
Overnight on the night
and morning of Tuesday, February 18, and Wednesday, February 19, 2003, respectively, news media vehicles and reporters
from around the globe camped outside the Peterson's home with satellite trucks and other vehicles. They broadcast
live through the night using the front of the home as background. Neighbors nearest the home later complained to
police that they were unable to sleep or to conduct their lives in any sort of normal manner.
On Wednesday morning, February 19, 2003, Police prevented access to the block on Covena Avenue where the Peterson's
home is located and began strictly enforcing a parking ban there in an effort to help give nearby residents some
peace during the planned second day of their search. Oakland's KTVU TV reporter Ted Rowlands was seen doing live
reports on the station's "Mornings on 2" program from a much greater distance from Peterson's residence
than he had been during his reports the previous day. Reporters from other TV stations were also forced to broadcast
from a somewhat greater distance, with the home barely visible through the morning mist behind them in some cases.
Police arrived at the Covena Avenue residence to resume their work at around 9:30 AM PST on Wednesday, February
19, 2003. Using yellow barricade tape, they expanded the cordoned-off area into the street to increase the buffer
between police officers doing their work, and reporters and the quite literally hundreds of spectators who crowded around the home to get a glimpse
of the event.
Detective Ridenour said that the search crew consisted of Modesto police detectives, members of the Sacramento
Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force, and detectives from the state Department of Justice.
Detective teams wearing rubber gloves measured the home's driveway, yard and front side, while others gathered
more evidence inside. A police technician identified one of the men taking measurements as an investigator with
the district attorney's office.
"Part of the search warrant requires you to take measurements so you can figure out where you got items from,"
Ridenour said. "That's so you can put items back where they came from during a court trial or any other situations
that may arise."
As had happened the day before, early in the afternoon on Wednesday a police officer drove away in Scott's white
Dodge RAM pickup truck. Investigators had seized and searched the truck on Tuesday and then returned it. But, according
to Ridenour, this time the officer was taking the truck to a place where Scott had arranged with police to pick
it up. He would not disclose where.
Modesto
police officer Denise Docot removes marked evidence bags from Scott and Laci Peterson's home on Wednesday, February
19, 2003.
Photo
by ART GOLUB
of the Modesto Bee |
At about
2:00 PM PST, detectives and other officers carried out a dozen or so brown paper bags marked as evidence and took
them to the police department's evidence truck for cataloging. In all, Ridenour would later say, police removed
some "94 or 95" items of potential evidence from the residence during the two day search.
The evidence truck drove away from the house about 3:30 PM PST. About 90 minutes later, after an accumulated total
of nearly 18 hours of searching over the two days, Ridenour announced that the search had been completed and the
house would be returned to Peterson.
Ridenour repeated that Scott is not a suspect in his wife's disappearance, adding, "We would like to eliminate
Scott from the investigation."
"We've been able to accomplish a lot,'' Ridenour told reporters while standing outside the Peterson house.
"But here at this point we just don't have the significant evidence we need to find Laci or to move in another
direction.''
Ridenour would not reveal when detectives would analyze what they took away during the search or when they would
release a detailed description of what they found.
Later that evening, on various cable television news programs, Mark Geragos, a Los Angeles defense attorney who
has represented such notables as Modesto-area former US Rep. Gary Condit and also actress Winona Ryder, said it
is clear from detectives' actions that they are taking a long, hard look at Peterson. By taking measurements of
the house, he said, investigators are clearly preparing for a criminal trial.
"That, to me, is a telltale sign they think this is a crime scene," Garagos commented, "and they
are mapping it out. Clearly, there's some kind of focus on (Scott Peterson). I can't think of a better time (for
Scott) to have a lawyer."
On February 11, 2003 is was reported that Scott's relationship with relationship with Modesto
criminal defense attorney Kirk McAllister,
whom he had retained early in the investigation, had been terminated. McAllister was said to have been very unhappy
with Scott after he did his whirlwind round of media interviews, beginning with his exclusive interview with ABC
television's Diane Sawyer on the "Good Morning America" program on January 28 and 29, 2003. It is unknown
at this writing whether Scott has retained new counsel.
Though Scott was nowhere near his home during the search on Wednesday, February 19, 2003, he told MSNBC's Dan Abrams
by telephone:
"I hope the police
are doing everything they can to find Laci, and I trust that they are. I am missing my wife and my child. I can’t
drive, I can’t sleep. Sometimes I feel I just can’t do it. I feel like I’m in a dark corner, and I just can’t function."
Abrams said he believed
that Scott sounded like a broken man –- and no wonder considering all the pressure Scott's been under from police,
media and Laci’s family.
Scott told KTVU TV that he was not really bothered by the search, saying he wants officers to do whatever is necessary
to find his wife.
As the second day of searching at Scott's home was finishing-up, another rumor about Laci and her disappearance
was getting stirred-up. This time the rumors involved reports of Laci's remains having been found. Various rumors
reported that they had been found in either Fresno County, Madera County, or even under the home owned by her and
her husband, Scott.
"There is a rumor about a body being found,” said Detective Doug Ridenour. "No one has contacted this
department (informing us of a body being found) and we have not responded to any inquiries regarding that rumor.
There is no significant change in this case as we speak right now."
On Friday morning, February 21, 2003, a local news agency reported that the police had asked for a sample of Scott's
DNA. That report seems to be false, too.
"I couldn't even come close to commenting on that, I know nothing about it, it's just a bunch of rumors,"
said Ridenour, adding that although he does not know about every detail of the investigation, he does know about the important developments.
If the police had requested a sample of Scott Peterson's DNA, he said, he would certainly know about it.
On Sunday, February 23, 2003, someone called police and reported seeing Laci at Stagnaro Brothers Seafood Co. on
the Municipal Wharf in Santa Cruz. The call to police was made about 20 minutes after the alleged sighting. Security
officers from Seaside Co. and three police units responded immediately and at around 3:00 PM PST on Sunday determined
the woman sighted was not Laci.
Santa Cruz officials told the Santa Cruz Sentinal newspaper that local police have not fielded many such calls,
but will take them all seriously.
Most of the rumors Ridenour said he hears come from the media. "And who knows where they get their stuff," he said. He added
that police are trying not to respond to the crush of rumors that pop up every day; that they are taking time to
make sure the rumors are true before acting.
"We're trying not to respond to every rumor," Ridenour said. "That would work us to death! We figure
if someone has a legitimate find, we're going to know about it."
A Modesto
police technician places into an evidence truck some of the 95 sealed sacks of evidence taken from Scott Peterson's
home on February 18, 2003.
CNN
photo |
On Thursday, February 20, 2003, Modesto Police turned their attention from Scott's Covena Avenue home to his office
and warehouse space on Emerald Avenue just north of Kansas Avenue. Another search warrant for the office/warehouse
was served on Scott early Thursday morning and police immediately entered the space to perform another search.
Police questioned people who work near Scott's warehouse. And they were seen closely examining a nearby dumpster.
One of the police detectives reportedly asked Scott's warehouse-area neighbors about his interest in cement --
specifically, bags of redi-mix cement that any of them may have seen him carrying into or out of the space or using
in any manner.
Court records reveal the issuance of five other search warrants in the Peterson investigation... for Scott's workplace,
phone records and vehicles, and his "person."
Records show that all of them have been sealed by judges' orders. Three were sealed on January 22, 2003. Those
warrants were for Scott's "person," which usually means hair and bodily fluids; one was for an unspecified
vehicle used by Scott; and one was for his phone records.
Two warrants were sealed February 10, 2003. Each was for one of Scott's vehicles.
Under state law, a search warrant must be returned to the issuing court within 10 days after being issued. Each
warrant must be accompanied by a list of items collected as possible evidence, and an explanation of why authorities
believed that they needed the warrant in the first place. Warrant documents become public record unless a judge
specifically seals them.
"As far as I know, all the warrants have been sealed," Ridenour said. "We are not going to try this
case in public."
Phaedra Norton, a senior Modesto deputy city attorney, in a letter to The Modesto
Bee,
said the warrant records in the Peterson case are exempt from public disclosure.
Norton cited the California Public Records Act, which states that records
are public "unless the disclosure would endanger the safety of a witness or other person involved in the investigation,
or unless disclosure would endanger the successful completion of the investigation."
In the meantime, the Modesto police department continues its ground search for Laci. Although the search has nowhere
near the manpower it had in the first days after her disappearance, it continues, nevertheless.
During the first few weeks of the search teams from the sheriff's department, dog teams, search and rescue teams,
a helicopter and horses were utilized.
Now "we primarily stick to the search teams and the investigators," Ridenour said.
The exact number of people currently searching is a hard thing to calculate, Ridenour said. It changes day to day.
He did not even want to hazard a guess.
"It depends on the day and what we have planned for that day," Ridenour said.
The department is still searching for Laci within Stanislaus County as well as in surrounding counties. Modesto
police will not say whether they expect to find her alive.
"We're hopeful," Ridenour said.
Adding to police search efforts which have, to date, covered an extensive area from the foothills all the way to
the Berkeley Marina, the third and final organized search sponsored by Laci's family and the Sund/Carrington Foundation took place on Saturday, February
22, 2003 at the New Melones Reservoir about 60 miles northeast of Modesto.
"We had about 100 people (on foot and in vehicles), six teams of horses and 10 boats searching the reservoir
today, but we didn't find anything," said Laci's stepfather, Ron Grantski.
Volunteer searchers converged on the staging area at the Black Bart Day-use Area of the reservoir's Glory Hole
Recreation Area at 9:00 AM PST. Searchers on horseback descended to the southern end of the reservoir near French
Flat road, while searchers on foot and in vehicles covered the northeastern area near Rose Creek. The boats covered
the main body of the reservoir all day until the search wound-up around 3:00 PM PST.
Previous searches on Saturday,
February 8th
and on Saturday,
February 15th
looked at range land and waterways in western Stanislaus and southern San Joaquin counties, and Don Pedro Reservoir
in Tuolumne County. Police have assisted the family in choosing the Saturday search sites.
Laci's older brother, Brent Rocha, described New Melones as "a place where the Modesto Police Department would
like searched with more eyes."
As of Thursday, no other searches had been scheduled beyond the one on the 22nd. Rocha said that now that Saturday's
search is over, his family will discuss how to proceed.
"We will re-evaluate our goals," he said. "We will keep searching, but we don't know in what manner."
Click here to read more about the New
Melones search on Saturday, February 22, 2003.
Brent Rocha,
Laci's older brother (left), and Amy Rocha, Laci's younger half-sister (right), appear on NBC's Today Show on Monday
morning, February 24, 2003.
NBC
News video stillshot |
On Monday,
February 24, 2003, Laci's older brother, Brent Rocha, and her younger half-sister, Amy Rocha, appeared on NBC's
"Today" show and talked about their continuing search for Laci and their feelings about Scott.
They said that they continue to struggle for answers as to what happened to their sister.
"I think it has been a difficult process," Brent said. "We've taken it in phases. In the beginning,
when she first went missing, I think friends and family just really focused on getting the word out. And then as
time went by, I think that reality set in that the worst could have happened."
Brent added that his relationship with Scott changed a few days after a phone call on January 16, 2003 during which
Scott confessed to having an extramarital affair.
"It wasn't because of the affair," Brent said. "I think the affair... what that did was lead us to ask other
questions and pose questions to Scott. And when he was not able to answer those questions, and maybe he gave us
different answers to those questions and contradicted himself, I think that's when we really started to question
Scott's actions."
On Tuesday evening,
February 25, 2003, Laci's family members appeared on CNN's Larry King Live in a much slower-paced, calmer sort
of interview than they have done with anyone to date. For roughly the first half of the hourlong program, King,
in a calm and empathetic tone of voice, put questions to Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, her husband (Laci's stepfather),
Ron Grantski, and Laci's older brother and younger half-sister, Brent and Amy Rocha. They were visibly tired and
clearly emotionally drained. They wrestle with the emotions of missing a loved one.
Grantski said the constant searching since his stepdaughter disappeared without a trace on Christmas Eve day had
taken a toll on his family.
"We never lose hope," he said "We want to have a chance to regroup as a family and decide what we
are going to do later."
"Not a minute goes by that I don't think of Laci," Sharon Rocha said. "There is nothing normal about
our lives now or will there ever be. Our lives have been changed forever ... Each day is minute to minute."
Sharon said it had gotten to a point where she once thought her daughter was in her home.
"I opened the front door and I walked in and I just stopped," she said. "And Ron (Grantski) literally
walked right into me because I (thought I) saw Laci on the sofa turn around and say 'Hi Mom!' And it was so real."
Family members are finally beginning to feel like they can return to work. But only a month ago that seemed impossible.
"I tried to go back to work," Brent Rocha said. "But I wasn't able to do that ... (so) I organized
the searches the last three weeks."
Brent was referring to the three searches announced during the family's February 5, 2003 press conference. He told reporters that day
that there would be organized searches on the remaining Saturdays of February. On February 8th a search of the Delta Mendota
Canal area was conducted. On February 15th volunteers searched the Lake Don Pedro area. And though the
Lake Pardee area was originally to have been searched on February 22nd, a search of the New Melones Reservoir area was conducted
instead.
Noticeably absent from those search efforts was Scott Peterson, Laci's husband. Modesto police have yet to name
his as a suspect, but they haven't eliminated him, either. Since Laci's disappearance, Scott's extramarital affair
has become public knowledge, he has traded in his wife's SUV for a new pickup truck, apparently tried to arrange
the sale of the couple's home, has gone to Mexico on a business trip, has been making contradictory statements
to the press and has even told them a few lies -- or at least what appear to be lies.
However, when asked by King on the CNN program Brent Rocha would not say that he thought Scott was involved in
his sister's disappearance.
"I won't comment or make that kind of statement," Brent said. "It's premature ... There are a lot
of questions we need answered from him, but I wouldn't go that far (to say he's involved) ... It's (Scott's actions
over the last few weeks are) very disturbing ... It makes us question why he is doing certain things ... It leaves
us to wonder."
Laci Peterson,
waving, with husband Scott in happier times. |
The situation has clearly taken its toll on Scott, too. Photos of him on this very page, above, are beginning to
show the results of the long-term, unending stress he most cetainly must be feeling these days. They are in sharp
contrast to the photos of him from earlier in the case as displayed elsewhere on these What's Happening pages... or in the photo shown
at right.
KTVU TV's Ted Rowlands talked by phone with Scott on February 19, 2003. In the short conversation, a weary Peterson
said: "I just want my wife and kid back."
When asked about Laci's family and the toll it's all taken on them, Kim Petersen, Executive Director of the Carole
Sund/Carrington Foundation
told reporters that they're all trying to get back to work at their regular jobs this week after being off for
nearly two months while working full-time on the daunting task fo finding Laci or at least trying to figure out
what fate may have befallen her.
"The family is back to work," Petersen said. "They need to pay their bills, they've been off for
almost two months now."
The family is burned out, and are not planning on staging anymore searches for now, she said. But they have not
lost all hope of finding Laci.
To find her alive "is certainly their hope," Petersen said, " but they are realistic, they know
that as each day goes by, chances get slimmer."
Scott has not been seen at his Covena Avenue home very much lately -- especially since the police searches on February
18th and 19th. In fact, as of Wednesday, February 26, 2003, no one seems to know quite were Scott is... even police.
"The police department does not know where he is, we do not have a mandate to know where he is at all times,"
said police spokesman Detective Doug Ridenour.
However, on the aforementioned Larry King Live program on CNN, KTVU-TV reporter Ted Rowlands told viewers it was
his understanding that police were keeping much closer tabs on Scott and probably did
know where he was pretty much all the time now.
A yellow "Laci Missing" sign Scott put on the front lawn of Scott's home appeared damaged on Wednesday
morning, February 26, 2003. It was not known what or who damaged the sign. The sign has turned into a makeshift
floral memorial by passersby who routinely stop their cars in front of the house, get out, pause for a moment,
and then place flowers and religious icons at the base of the sign.
In early
January, 2003, Modesto police released this photo of Scott Peterson's Ford F150 pickup truck and his 14-foot boat
and trailer.
At the time police were asking for help from the public in corroborating his claim that on Christmas eve he had
driven the truck pulling the trailer with the boat on it from Modesto to the Berkeley Marina, some 85 miles away.
Police were hoping that anyone who had seen Peterson that morning might recognize his vehicle, the boat and trailer
from the above photo. |
Also on
Wednesday, February 26, 2003, several media outlets were reporting that the couple who sold Scott his 14-foot fishing
boat for $1,400 in cash just weeks before Laci disappeared reportedly had been brought in by police early in the
investigation to look over the craft. The boat, a 1991 Sears Gamefisher, equipped with a 15-horsepower Gamefisher
outboard motor, has been impounded by police, along with Scott's silver 2002 Ford F-150 pickup truck, since December
26, 2002.
"We sold it to him on December 9th," Bruce said. "We negotiated the sale price and he came back
the next morning with the cash after the banks opened and (he) bought the boat."
Laci's family says what they find strange about the boat is that as far as they knew, Scott never told Laci about
it. And Scott told them later that he was saving the boat as a surprise for Christmas Day. But Bruce Peterson says
Scott never mentioned anything about the boat being a surprise for Laci or anyone else, for that matter.
Bruce and Christine Peterson (no relation to Scott or Laci) say they inspected the boat at police request and they
noted that a life preserver was missing, as well as some of the auxiliary wheels used to haul the boat in and out
of the water. They also noticed something strange inside the boat, they said.
"It looked like cement residue," Bruce Peterson said. "Like the powdery stuff that comes out of
the bag. I just knew it wasn't that way when I sold it to him. I don't know what he used it for, if he was hauling
stuff or anything."
Police have reportedly found cement mix at Scott and Laci Peterson's home, as well as Scott's office/warehouse
on Emerald Avenue. Last week an auto body shop employee who works near Scott's office/warehouse says police questioned
him about cement.
"They came in and asked if we'd seen Scott or his truck or his boat," said Tony Sexton. "Then they
asked a few questions about ready-mix concrete. If we'd seen any ready mix concrete in the dumpster. They actually
got in the dumpster to see if there were bags or empty bags or anything."
Scott reportedly told police that the cement mix found at his home was left there by pool workers. But when the
workers were contacted, they denied using or leaving any cement mix at the Peterson's house.
Jackie Peterson, Scott's mother, said Thursday, February 27, 2003 that it's not surprising that a man found concrete
dust in the bottom of Scott's boat.
The residue was likely there because of the boat's concrete anchor, she said. "It was mentioned long ago that
Scott had a cement anchor."
And there was yet another rumor that Laci's body may have been found on Wednesday, January 26, 2003. At around
8:15 AM PST, KTLA TV in Los Angeles reported that the body of a woman had been found in the Pacific Ocean near
Carmel, California. Carmel is about 130 miles from Modesto, on the California coast.
Carmel Police said they recovered the body late in the afternoon on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 after getting a
call from a diver who apparently spotted it while driving along Pacific Coast Highway (US Hwy 1).
At first authorities weren't saying how long the body had been in the water or who the woman was, but Modesto police
said almost immediately after the news first broke on Tuesday evening that the discovery of the body near Carmel
has nothing to do with the investigation into the disappearance of Laci Peterson. They seemed fairly certain about
that.
And, clearly, they were right. On Wednesday, February 26, 2003, the Monterey County Coroner's Office identified
the body as that of 55-year-old Susan Driscoll of San Jose, California.
She was found dead Tuesday night floating off Garrapata State Beach about 10 miles south of Carmel, California.
Her partially-clothed body was recovered about 150 yards offshore. A witness had reported seeing the body floating
facedown in the ocean and search-and-rescue teams were dispatched to the scene and quickly recovered it. Driscoll's
car was found parked at a turnout near Rocky Point, deputies said. Though the circumstances surrounding her death
are still under investigation, the Monterey County Coroner's Office reported on Thursday, February 27, 2003 that
her death was due to drowning.
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