Scott Peterson Arrested
Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2003 8:00 pm
Husband of missing pregnant woman in custody
Friday, April 18, 2003
CNN
MODESTO, California -- Police took the husband of missing pregnant woman Laci Peterson into custody Friday, sources told CNN.
Modesto police apprehended Scott Peterson in San Diego and were taking him back to Modesto. The sources would not say what charges were filed. Police planned a news conference for 9 p.m. EST.
Peterson's wife, eight months pregnant with a son who was to be named Connor, disappeared on December 24, a day he says he went fishing alone at Berkeley Marina in the San Francisco Bay area.
Two bodies -- one of a full-term male fetus and one of a woman -- washed ashore Sunday and Monday in separate locations about two miles from the marina at Point Isabel Regional Park on San Francisco Bay.
Forensic teams could not immediately identify the bodies and Contra Costa County coroner's office called in a forensic anthropologist to examine the remains.
The expert should be able to tell the age and race of the person, coroner's office spokesman Jimmy Lee said. She will also try to determine what happened to the body after death and while it was in the water.
The Contra Costa County coroner's office also was trying to determine if there was a relationship between the female and the body of the baby.
Hair samples from a brush used by Peterson were being analyzed to see whether her DNA matched the woman's body.
The DNA tests were being conducted because the body was missing its head, sources close to the investigation told CNN. Without the skull, investigators could use dental records, the quickest tool in body identification.
The sources said it could take weeks through DNA testing to tell whether the remains belong to Peterson.
"To date, we don't have another person in mind," said John Tonkyn, supervisor of California's missing persons crime lab.
Laci's cousin, Candace Rocha, told CNN on Friday: "I have a gut feeling it is my cousin. Hopefully justice will be done."
A passer-by discovered the woman's badly decomposed remains Monday less than two miles away from where those of the baby boy were found a day earlier.
The corpses were about 80 miles west of Modesto, where the Petersons made their home.
The recovery of the bodies fueled speculation that the remains may be Peterson and her unborn son she was due to deliver February 10.
On Thursday, Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton said he felt "pretty strongly" that the bodies are that of Laci Peterson and her child, according to a published report.
Brazelton told the Modesto Bee: "It's too much of a coincidence to have a female and a baby found close to each other a day apart and no others were reported missing. If I were a betting man, I'd put money on it."
Ron Grantski, Laci Peterson's stepfather, said Thursday he had not heard from the prosecutor, according to The Associated Press. "Our family is waiting until we are told personally, not told by the press," he said.
Modesto police recently reclassified the Peterson case as a homicide.
Investigators have twice searched the Petersons' home and impounded Scott's car and boat shortly after Laci's disappearance. Police had not called Scott Peterson a suspect in the case.
