Laci Peterson and child found dead. Scott Peterson arrested
 

Man charged with killing pregnant wife

JACQUI GODDARD IN MIAMI


ONE of America’s most gripping crime investigations appeared to be at an end yesterday after the husband of Laci Peterson, a young mother-to-be who vanished on Christmas Eve, faced charges in the murder of his wife and their unborn child.

Scott Peterson, 30, was arrested by police five days after the headless body of a woman and a male foetus were found washed up in San Francisco Bay. DNA tests late on Friday established them as those of Mrs Peterson, 27, and her baby, whom she had planned to name Connor.

Peterson, 30, is expected to be arraigned on double homicide charges today . Prosecutors are likely to push for the death penalty, saying the case against Peterson is compelling.

"It has truly been a difficult four months, not just for our community but for our nation as we watched, hoped for, prayed for, a different outcome than this one," said Roy Wasden, police chief in Mrs Peterson’s home town of Modesto, California.

Married for two years, the Petersons had seemed a perfect couple looking forward to their first child when Mrs Peterson went missing.

But then came reports that Peterson was not co-operating with police, that he had sold his wife’s car weeks after her disappearance and that he had taken out a $250,000 (£160,000) life insurance policy on her a few months earlier. It also emerged he had been having an affair.

The two bodies were washed up 90 miles from the couple’s home, but just three miles from where Peterson went fishing on the day his wife disappeared.

"There is a very strong case in this instance ... there’ll be compelling information for the district attorney to take forward into the prosecution," Mr Wasden said.

When forensic experts examined Peterson’s car after his wife’s disappearance, they secretly fitted it with a satellite tracking device before returning it to him and tapped his telephones, allowing them to keep tabs on his movements, it emerged yesterday.

"You look to eliminate possibilities and that’s what we kept doing and Scott could just never be eliminated," Mr Wasden said.

When arrested, Peterson had been staying with his parents but appeared to be preparing to flee the country. He had dyed his hair blond, grown a beard and was reportedly carrying $10,000 cash.

He could be charged under a controversial California law that makes it a crime to kill a foetus and that has become deeply entangled in abortion politics.

Mavra Stark, head of the Morris County, California, chapter of the National Organisation for Women, complained that such a charge in the Peterson case could provide ammunition to the pro-life lobby.

"If this is murder, then any time a late-term foetus is aborted, they could call it murder," she said.

A stream of residents passed by the Peterson home over the weekend, some lighting candles in memory of Mrs Peterson and her son. Children brought Easter toys and stood with their families and prayed.

A makeshift wooden cross covered with aluminium foil on the lawn read: "We prayed everyday that Laci and Baby Connor would come home. Now, Laci and Baby Connor are home with the Lord."

I am so glad they caught this fool before he made his way into Mexico.

But WHY oh WHY are they separating him from the other inmates?? Apparently, when the prisoners found out who he was, they were trying to kick his butt - so now he's secluded. I say throw him to the wolves!! He deserves whatever punishment he gets.

No, they said they were going to KILL him! I also don't understand why hi mother is trying to say that the police are wrong! Lady, they found your son 30 miles away from the Mexican border with a new hair color, a beard, AND over $10,000!!! And you want to tell me that he's innocent!!! :rolleyes: :mad: :mad: :mad: And I've also heard that they believe that he has been involved in TWO previous murders!!


Give me a freakin' break!

SIDENOTE: On the Doug Banks Morning Show, why did Dee Dee say that if they have a movie about this that Ben Affleck should play Scott Peterson. After she said that, they DO look alike. Scary!

This is just sick beyond words, he derserve anything he gets other than freedom.:mad:

And, although the death penalty is what they will probably use in this case. Honestly, to me that is waaaaaaayyyyyyy too easy.

I would decorate his cell of SOLITARY CONFINEMENT with pictures of his wife, and lil Connor from top to bottom and he would not be able to remove the pics. They wouldn't be the Sear's portrait type (well they couldn't be because Connor wasn't born technically), they would be the ones that forensics took at the crime scene when they were found.......dead and helpless.

Every morning I would play a tape of a baby crying and at night I would have a tape of a woman screeming. His meal would consist of a baby bottle of milk and all of his wifes favorite foods.

The death penalty would probably be sufficient for for the victims families but for me, I would rather his a$$ suffer like the victims that didn't ask for an early end to their lives.:mad: :mad: :mad:

See, men like him make me sick!!!:mad: Why didn't he just walk away like all the other men do when they are tired of their wife/baby mama and kid/kids??!!

And maybe it's just me, but it seems to me that it's the men who have $$ that kill their wives/baby mamas and kids.

Yes, Scott Peterson deverves everything coming to him!! Death is too good for him right about now. :mad:

What do you guys think about the fact that he is being charged with 2 murders--Laci's and baby Conner's? NOW is concerned that if he is successfully convicted of Conner's murder it will be the first nail in the coffin (no pun intented) of late term abortions in California.

I think he should MOST DEFINATELY be charged with 2 murders. For a number of reasons:
1. It is unknown when the two were killed (the child may have been born).
2. Even in the case of abortion (which I do not wish to debate) it is usually a conscious choice of the mother to terminate the pregnancy. In this case, Laci and Connor (the baby) were murdered.
3. This is simply my opinion, but late term abortions do seem to border on murder. I won't get into a whole pro-choice/pro-life thing here, but I have to wonder why a woman who is pregnant would decide to have an abortion 6,7,8 months into her term. So if the Scott Peterson does put a nail the the coffin of late term abortions. I don't think that would be such a bad thing.

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it
 

I knew her husband did it when they said they found the bodies.
Actually, I knew her husband did it when she came up missing.
This same type story is played on Lifetime time and time again.
Husband kills wife and then acts like she's just missing OR husband kills wife and acts like someone else did it during a robbery of some sort. What a loser!!!!!

I agree 3hunnit %!;)

INNOCENT UNTIL PROVING GUILTY! Now having said that, my friend Scott it looks like you're gonna fry for this one. One word, DIVORCE!

This case reminds me somewhat
 

of Rae Carruth, the former NFL player, who had his GF Cherica Adams wasted in the car. Baby Chance survived, but he has problems.

:(

Re: This case reminds me somewhat
 

I was home on Good Friday, and A&E aired this case on American Justice. I didn't know that Cherica had not only called the cops and remained lucid until paramedics found her but also that, from her hospital bed, she was able to write down a good amount of what happened before she went into a coma. Very sad situation all around ... all in an effort to avoid paying child support.

From what i understand the baby was actually "born" from the mother after the murder. Two bodies washed ashore, the medical people are stating that "coffin birth" sometimes occurs when a deceased pregnant woman is not embalmbed (sp).

Re: Re: This case reminds me somewhat
 

:mad:
Pathetic doesn't begin to describe it. Bottom line, whether you're married or not, if you don't want to procreate, wrap it up. Certainly Scott Peterson and Rae Carruth had enough money to buy a box of Trojans.

Butang, you are right, the baby was "born" after she died, but Cali evidently has a law that says if you kill a woman and her unborn child dies as a result then you can be charged with 2 murders.

What happened.....
 

What ever happened to leaving people when you no longer want to be with them? When did the kill when tired thing start? I guess I missed that memo and hope that the man I marry missed it too!

Let me make it known now, that you don't have to kill me or even say a word...get your stuff and go.....nobody's mad!

How heartless he must be to be able to do something like this and pretend as though nothing happened.

There is nothing on this earth that can be done to him that is worst than answering to the Lord. The Lord said "vengenance is mine" and he meant it!

Scott Peterson Pleads Innocent to Murder
2 hours, 3 minutes ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!


By BRIAN MELLEY, Associated Press Writer

MODESTO, Calif. - Scott Peterson (news - web sites) pleaded innocent Wednesday to charges of murdering his wife and unborn son, and a judge scheduled his trial to begin Jan. 26.


AP Photo


Reuters
Slideshow: Laci Peterson Case




It was the second time that Peterson, 31, had answered the charges that could send him to death row. He first denied the accusations after his arrest in April. A judge decided last month there was enough evidence for prosecutors to take the case to trial, so Peterson was arraigned again.


Judge Al Girolami set the trial date and scheduled a hearing for Jan. 6 so the defense can request that the trial be moved from Stanislaus County. He also planned to set hearings for the defense to challenge wiretaps, the use of devices that tracked Peterson and cadaver-sniffing dogs used to search for Laci Peterson (news - web sites)'s scent in the boat her husband said he took fishing the day she vanished.


Defense lawyer Mark Geragos, who is simultaneously representing Michael Jackson, also persuaded the judge on Wednesday to order prosecutors to return Scott Peterson's pickup truck to his family.


In court papers, prosecutors said they don't want to return the 2002 Ford pickup because they believe it was used in the murder of Peterson's pregnant wife. They said they believe Scott Peterson bled inside the truck's cab while using the vehicle to haul his wife's body to his fertilizer warehouse and then to San Francisco Bay.


It was the first time prosecutors had hinted at parts of their theory behind the slaying and the first mention that Peterson was injured.


The defense wanted the truck returned to Peterson's family because he faces mounting legal bills and continues to pay $643 in monthly auto payments.


Laci Peterson, 27, a substitute teacher who was eight months pregnant with the couple's first child, was reported missing Christmas Eve when her husband returned from a purported fishing trip at the Berkeley Marina. Her remains and her fetus washed ashore a few miles from the marina in April.


The allegation that her body was taken to Peterson's warehouse indicates she was probably killed at the couple's home, explaining why lawyers grappled at the preliminary hearing over a mop and bucket used to clean up the kitchen area in the couple's house.


The charges Scott Peterson faces say his wife was killed on Dec. 23 or Dec. 24. Authorities believe her body was weighted down and tossed into in the bay.


Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton said in the court papers that cement-like material was found in the bed of the pickup truck. A detective at the preliminary hearing said there was evidence Peterson fashioned several concrete anchors using a bucket in his warehouse, but only one of those anchors was found in his boat.


Girolami also refused to lift a gag order Wednesday or unseal any of the sealed court documents. A lawyer representing The Modesto Bee and four other newspapers had asked the judge to release police reports filed in support of arrest and search warrants now that some of that evidence has been revealed in the preliminary hearing.

Wow...he's plate is pretty full huh?

Did anyone watch The Perfect Husband with Dean Cain as Scott Peterson on USA this weekend? I watched it last night.

What did you think?

I never really followed the case before Laci and baby were found but I saw that cheating bastid did it. He should have just asked her for a divorce if he wanted to be with Amber so badly.

Scott PETERSON is GUILTY!!!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.../laci_peterson

WOW! I was really unsure of which way the jury was going to go on this. It's a sad case all around.

Well DUH!!! this one was a no brainer.

I agree. I wholeheartedly agree.