Posted on 01/01/2003 10:53:24 AM PST by vikingchick
A week after Laci Peterson disappeared, Modesto police said Tuesday that foul play had become the main focus of the investigation.
Detective Jon Buehler said other possibilities had not been ruled out.
But, he said, "as we continue to profile Laci's background, gather witness statements, recognize her close relationship with family and friends, investigate the circumstances of her disappearance, and in view of the timing with the holiday season, it is becoming more apparent that her disappearance is the result of foul play."
Police spokesman Doug Ridenour said: "We are hopeful that we will find her alive. But seven days after the fact, we are not as optimistic."
Peterson, 27 and pregnant, has been missing since Christmas Eve. Her husband, Scott, 30, said he last saw her at 9:30 a.m. when he departed their La Loma neighborhood home en route to San Francisco Bay to go fishing.
At a news conference Tuesday, police said they had confirmed the validity of a time-stamped parking receipt, presented by Peterson, from a vending machine at Berkeley Marina, which is where he said he launched his aluminum boat in the hours after he last saw his wife.
Peterson said he departed as his wife prepared to go to East La Loma Park, not far from their Covena Avenue home, for a walk with their golden retriever.
Police said Saturday that their investigation had led them to doubt whether Peterson ever made it to the park. They believe she disappeared between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m.
Ridenour said police still have no strong leads. Two more seemed to fizzle Tuesday:
Video surveillance tapes from Copeland's sporting goods store on McHenry Avenue showed that Peterson did not shop there on Christmas Eve. Monday, police said they had received a credible tip that she had been there in the afternoon.
Detectives said it seemed less likely that a burglary across the street from Peterson's home had anything to do with her disappearance. The timing does not seem to fit, detectives said. The burglary occurred some time between 10:30 a.m. Dec 24 and 4 p.m. Dec. 26.
Witnesses reported that they saw three suspicious-looking people in front of the home at about 11:40 a.m. Dec. 24, Detective George Stough said. That sighting was more than an hour after a neighbor found Peterson's dog -- with leash attached -- wandering in the neighborhood.
Still, police said they could not discount a connection, and they again announced a $1,000 reward for information leading to suspects in the burglary.
Police described the possible burglars as short, dark-skinned men. They were seen in an older, full-size van, either tan or light brown, with one or two doors in the rear.
Detectives especially want to know if the burglars were not involved in Peterson's disappearance. "If we got a call from the suspects saying that they saw something happening over there but they are afraid to come in, we might be able to work out a deal," Stough said.
Police launched their search soon after Peterson reported her missing at about 6 p.m. Christmas Eve.
Ridenour would not comment on whether Scott Peterson had taken or been asked to take a lie detector test. Such an examination would be part of the investigation, and as such he said he could not comment.
"It would be wonderful to be able to eliminate Scott from the investigation," Ridenour said. "Mr. Peterson is still considered a suspect." In fact, no one has been ruled out, police have said.
Peterson's relatives said Tuesday that he had hired an attorney. Securing legal representation is not unusual in cases like this one.
Police started their search at East La Loma Park and the rest of Dry Creek Regional Park, and later went to Tuolumne River Regional Park. Police also have checked parts of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers, and the wetlands where the rivers empty into the San Joaquin River.
Tuesday, volunteers continued to check various neighborhoods, moving to Salida and Ceres, Sgt. Ron Cloward said.
The Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department dive team searched parts of the California Aqueduct and the Delta Mendota Canal, as well as the Fox Grove Fishing Access on the Tuolumne River near Hughson and the
Orange Blossom Recreation Area on the Stanislaus River outside of Oakdale.
Police are continuing their effort to talk to 155 known sex offenders who live in southeast Modesto. Some of them listed the Modesto Union Gospel Mission on Yosemite Boulevard as their residence, but were not there when police came calling.
In an effort to locate them, officers planned today to go by horseback to homeless camps.
The police tips line is 342-6166.
Bee staff writer Patrick Giblin can be reached at 578-2347 or pgiblin@modbee.com
I want to keep an open mind about him, but something doesn't 'feel' right about his actions. Not about the fishing trip, but about the way he has not appeared as the rest of her family has. You know, appealing for her return, telling her 'we'll find you'. That seems more normal to me. Maybe i'm wrong...
Discussing the husbands activities and window of opportunity is not "wedded" to anything, but don't you think that was the pot calling the kettle black? LOL.
sw
That's nice. I'm not baiting. I posted the fact that witnesses have said they saw her at the park and I posted that they could be wrong--and even lying about it. What is bait-worthy about that? I also posted that the husband viewed as suspect is fair speculation.
but don't you think that was the pot calling the kettle black?
Absolutely not. I have never seen a crime case and made up my mind about it without hearing a lot more evidence than I've heard here.
There is much against that. This tiny little alum fish boat could not of course have ever left the Bay for the ocean, it is almost too small for the Bay, except in good weather.
One 200 lb man trying to maneuver a possibly weighted, 140 lb corpse, it is a wonders the whole thing didn't capsize. Both marina and bay are likely to be very full of people and watercraft, who would now be coming out of the woodwork to say what they saw, a suspicious guy throwing something big out of the boat...
I still say that the likely source of the problem is that she saw, and obsequiously NOTICED, goings-on across the street at a time when her house had been noted down as "unoccupied," which on Xmas Eve could have been due to a pleasure-exped's having been seen departing from it...
This as she either left the door to go shopping or dog walking, or returned from same. My own guess is that she was in a hurry-up and decided to walk dog only briefly and not go to park [or at least any distance into it]...
and returned to find burglary perps in VERY compromising position. Christmas Eve, everyone in holiday mood, she didn't think she was in danger, might have said hiya guys, whatcha doin, are you the Medinas cousins, or what? Mighta been thinking of offering them a drink, or a cookie! [Appears that both the homeowners there and the perps were Mexican-American]...as she herself may have appeared, in that community...
sw
Compare that with the dozens, even hundreds, of permutations in the Van Dams stories in San Diego! Or Condit's stories in DC!
He left with the boat at 9:30, had it in the water from 11 till 4 MOL, and then returned home, getting there well before 6.
All was well at home except wife wasn't there...one has to wonder if he had caught any fish, did he have them with him? They were to have eaten at her parents' place that evening...
Apparently one quick call to her parents, and immediate reporting of missing person and panic button hit. I was wondering if he saw or felt something that made him really freak, besides just that her purse & car were there and everything OK, but she was gone... Dog was in backyard, it wasn't that...or WAS it something about the dog?
sw
I have. I think several others here have too. Do we get special honored status on these threads? :-)))))
Are there people like that?
38 weeks pregnant???? I'm no pregatologist or anything but that would indicate that you were 2 weeks overdue. 9 months x 4 weeks per month = 36 months.
Forgive my bluntness, but I find your actions apalling and reckless. You could've gone into labor at any moment. Unless you were hunting from the bed of your truck, it is possible you would've had to give birth right out there in the woods. With all the yelling and screaming that comes with giving birth, I hope you realize you very well could've ruined the hunting for everybody else who may have been in the area.
How selfish.
Do you really think this makes any sense as to how he would do it?
The burglary perps, or random baddy scoping out neighborhood and park, during diminished wariness of Christmas Eve...are a 87% chance.
13% chance, somehow an altercation went wrong and her husband had a body on his hands, much to his own distress and regret.
Standing before Zod saying "I have". Do I get a prize? Please?
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