Ladies...How Do you Know?

Ladies, how do you know that you can trust your husband?

Scott Peterson arrested in pregnant wife's death as bodies found on shore identified

By Brian Melley, Associated Press, 4/19/03




CHRONOLOGY


Dec. 24, 2002: Laci Peterson reported missing from her Modesto, Calif., home by her husband, Scott Peterson. He says he came home from a fishing trip to Berkeley Marina and his wife, who was eight months pregnant, wasn't there.

Dec. 28: Authorities search water near Berkeley Marina for the first time.

Dec. 31: Modesto police shift their focus in the case to foul play. "The investigation is progressing with that as the main focus, but we have not ruled out other possibilities," homicide detective Jon Buehler says.

Jan. 3, 2003: Modesto police ask the public for help verifying the whereabouts of Scott Peterson in the days before Christmas. In Berkeley, police spend hours combing the waters near the marina.

Jan. 9: A sonar search in the water near the marina reveals an object that authorities think is a body. It turns to be an anchor.

Jan. 14: Authorities and friends expand their search to Southern California.

Jan. 17: Laci Peterson's family and friends hold a news conference to demand that Scott Peterson tell authorities everything he knows about the case.

Jan. 18: As suspicion of Scott Peterson grows, authorities investigate his whereabouts in connection with the disappearance of a San Luis Obispo woman in 1996, when Scott and Laci Peterson lived there. Authorities later determine he had nothing to do with the second missing woman.

Jan. 19: Scott Peterson brings search for his missing wife to Los Angeles, where he and his family distribute fliers to volunteers at a hotel.

Jan. 23: Laci Peterson's family says Scott Peterson told authorities he had been involved with another woman.

Jan. 24: One month after Laci Peterson disappeared, Amber Frey, a massage therapist from Fresno, comes forward and confirms she had an intimate romantic relationship with Scott Peterson.

Jan. 28: In a televised interview, Scott Peterson admits he had a relationship with Frey and says he had told his wife about it. "It wasn't anything that would break us apart," he says.

Feb. 5: Laci Peterson's family members step up their criticism of Scott Peterson, saying he sold his pregnant wife's car and considered selling the couple's house.

Feb. 10: Laci Peterson's expected due date. "Everybody's aware of it," says Modesto police Sgt. Ron Cloward.

Feb. 17: Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie, tells The Associated Press her family believes kidnappers abducted Laci Peterson with intentions of holding her captive until she delivered the baby.

Feb. 18: Authorities issue a search warrant for the Petersons' home in Modesto, where they remove possible evidence and take measurements.

March 6: Modesto police officially declare the case a homicide.

March 12: Authorities search San Francisco Bay again.

April 14: The body of a woman and a male fetus that washed ashore in Richmond, Calif., are found.

April 18: Police in San Diego arrest Scott Peterson. Attorney General Bill Lockyer says bodies found in Richmond are those of Laci Peterson and her unborn son.

ON THE WEB


www.lacipeterson.com

www.modestopolice.com


MODESTO, Calif. — Authorities said genetic odds "in the billions" proved that two bodies found on the California shore were Laci Peterson and her baby. The announcement came hours after the missing Modesto woman's husband was arrested in their deaths.

Prosecutors said they plan to charge Scott Peterson, 30, with double murder, which would make him eligible for the death penalty.

Officials wouldn't discuss possible motives in the slaying of his pregnant wife, whose body washed ashore earlier this week. Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden refused to describe the evidence or say how Laci Peterson died, but he said it appeared she was killed the day before Christmas because no "credible witness" saw or heard from her after that.

On Friday, hours before the genetic test results on the bodies were released, plainclothes agents tracking Scott Peterson's movements with phone taps and vehicle sensors pulled him over as he was driving in the San Diego area, where his parents live, and arrested him.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer said they feared Scott Peterson might try to flee. His dark hair was dyed blond and he had a beard a when he was booked into the Stanislaus County jail Friday night. His arraignment is expected early next week.

The bodies of 27-year-old Laci Peterson and her infant son, his umbilical cord still attached, washed ashore about three miles from where Scott Peterson said he was fishing the morning his wife disappeared.

Wasden said authorities had no other suspects in her death. That a $50,000 reward for information leading to her body remained unclaimed "continued to reinforce that one person knew what happened to Laci and where Laci was" he said.

"This is a case where it's a process of elimination," Wasden told CNN Saturday morning. "We never were able to eliminate Scott."

Peterson's attorney, Kirk McAllister, did not immediately return telephone messages for comment.

The bodies were identified through a comparison with DNA samples from Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson's parents.

"There is no question in our minds that the unidentified female is Laci Peterson. The unidentified fetus is the biological child of Laci and Scott Peterson," Lockyer said. "We're scientifically convinced the match is one in billions."

A spokeswoman for Laci Peterson's family said relatives were devastated by the confirmation of the deaths, but grateful they finally had an answer after months of uncertainty.

"Families in their circumstances will always tell you the worst thing is not knowing," said family spokeswoman Kim Peterson, executive director of the Carole Sund-Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation. "I don't know if relief is the right word. ... The waiting this week has been horrific for them."

From almost the moment his wife was reported missing, Scott Peterson's moves and statements have been scrutinized by authorities.

Modesto police seized his boat, pickup truck and nearly 100 items from the couple's house but had not formally named him as a suspect in his wife's disappearance.

Peterson traded in his wife's Land Rover for a new pickup truck, considered selling their home and eventually admitted an extramarital affair with a massage therapist while his wife was pregnant with the couple's baby.

Shortly after, Peterson said he'd told his wife about the affair in the days before she vanished.

"It was not a positive, obviously ... but it was not something that we weren't dealing with," he told ABC's "Good Morning America." "It wasn't anything that would break us apart."

The affair turned Laci Peterson's family against the son-in-law they had earlier supported. They begged him to cooperate with Modesto police, who had labeled him "uncooperative."

Scott Peterson, a fertilizer salesman, launched his own search effort, separate from the one organized by his wife's family and sanctioned by police. At one point, as searchers looked in the San Francisco Bay and around Modesto, Scott Peterson showed up in Los Angeles to distribute fliers to volunteers at a local hotel.

"We simply have to expand the geographical area," he said at the time.

In February, Scott Peterson told MSNBC he missed his wife and the son she had already named Conner. She was eight months pregnant when she disappeared.

"I can't drive. I can't sleep," he said then. "Sometimes I feel I just can't do it. I feel like I'm in a dark corner and I just can't function."




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