It's on the local news right now. Autopsies will be performed as soon as possible and the adult female body that was found was reported to be decapitated and wearing maternity clothes. The Peterson's were supposed to have a baby boy named Connor, and the full term fetus that washed ashore was a male.

This does sound like too much of a coincidence to me. It's tragic, but at the very least, Laci's family will know and not have to wonder anymore... :(

Decapitated?!?! I have no words to express what I am feeling right now.

ohmygosh.

i can't even express what i'm thinking right now :(

This is so terribly sad. :(

Did y'all notice that his mistress' birthday is the same as the baby's due date?

:eek:

Oh God that is so sad. To decapitate a pregnant mother is unspeakably inhumane. While it's a horrible discovery, I hope that her family can at least begin closure. Maybe not knowing was better, but I hope they find peace. And if her husband is indeed responsible, I hope they punish him. Hard.

KTVU.com
Body Discovered; Modesto Police Airlifted To Richmond
POSTED: 3:15 p.m. PDT April 14, 2003
UPDATED: 7:06 p.m. PDT April 14, 2003



RICHMOND, Calif. -- Modesto investigators were airlifted to Richmond's Point Isabel Regional Park Monday after a badly decomposed female body was spotted in shallow water a little more than a mile from where the corpse of a male fetus was discovered on Sunday.

However, authorities would not speculate if the grisly discoveries had anything to do with missing Modesto schoolteacher Laci Peterson.

"What we have is a badly decomposed body that appears to have been in the water for some time," said chief Norman Lapera, of the East Bay Regional Park Police. "But it's (been in the water) longer than a few days. The body shows just some skeleton remains, there is some flesh on the body."

Lapera said it was impossible to immediately know the gender of the body, but added "I think you can infer by the fact that we called the Modesto Police Department that we have not eliminated that it may be a female."

Hours later, the coroner's office confirmed to KTVU Channel 2 that the body was that of a female. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday evening.

When asked directly whether the discovery had anything to do with Peterson, Lapera answered: "We don't know...It would be unreasonable for me to speculate, (but) that is the concern of everyone."

In a copyrighted story, the Contra Costa Times quoted a source as telling the paper that the head and legs of the body were missing and it was apparent that the corpse had been pregnant. The body was identified, according to the newspaper source, to be a petite female that apparently was clothed in maternity wear.

Once they were called, Modesto police immediately dispatched a team to the scene via a helicopter.

"Modesto investigators were very interested and appreciated the phone call," he said. "Rather than processing the crime right now, where we would call in the coroner, as a courtesy to the Modesto Police, we are waiting for them."

"There is no danger of any kind of evidence being damaged because the tide is out. We have some time and the coroner is waiting."

The body was sighted by a dog walker around 11:30 a.m. Monday.

Speculation that the discovery could be a major break in the Peterson case arose from the fact that Scott Peterson, Laci's husband, has told authorities he was fishing in the nearby Berkeley Marina on Christmas Eve day when his wife allegedly disappeared without a trace from their Modesto home. The waters off Berkeley and Richmond have been the sites of an intensive underwater search.

Laci Peterson also was eight months pregnant with a baby boy at the time of her disappearance. Authorities said the fetus discovered along the shoreline on Sunday was that of a late-term baby boy.

Copyright 2003

It worries me how everyone is so ready to convict him because of the way he's presented himself on camera thus far! He's supposed to be crying and he sold her SUV..

This theory that someone must be a good performer and present themselves well on camera is pretty dangerous when it comes to high-profile cases. Good for Johnny Cochran and Hollywood types that get accused, bad for us 'little people'.

Being 'convicted in the media' has unfortunately become a too-common process. Media folks need to avoid discussions of guild or innocence of people who haven't been accused and just generally be a little more responsible. The justice system needs room to work.

On another note, I hope that if it IS her body, I hope her killer is caught.

TV news just isn't news anymore... it's been sacrificed at the altar of entertainment and ratings. Speculation, innuendo, among other things seem to govern the interests of electronic media, which barely -- if they haven't already done so -- dropped off the slippery slope of the tabloid scandal sheets.

It's also a lot easier to fill time with speculation/innuendo than to fill it with hard news. Kind of sad but you have to really LOOK through the newspaper and almost totally discount TV news if you want good hard news.

Especially on slow news days.

I don't expect the findings to get better from this point. If the husband is guilty, he will eventually drop his guard and do something stupid (not that he hasn't already made a number of questionable, if not incriminating, moves), and I hope he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

And that's if Modesto's Finest and the Stanislaus County DA don't wind up stepping on their own d*cks like LA County did with OJ back about 10 years ago. The DA office there was so bent on bagging a celebrity and sending him up the river that the defense found a weakness in the prosecution's case and ripped 'em to shreds on TV. And it wasn't just the race card... the circumstantial evidence was close but not enough to stick.

LA's at it again with the Robert Blake case, but I think this one's gonna be less sensational than OJ.

Hold on a sec... it's very possible that exposure to the elements and the Bay's marine life may give the initial impression that someone underwent a gruesome death. The medical examiner may come up with a better theory as to the cause of death.

We can only hope. :(