Reward For Missing Woman Jumps To $500K

[Max Power]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20021230/lo_kcra/1434756

If they guy really wrote a check for $375 grand, god bless him. That's incredible.

[Skip]

Cynically - I say that is publicity seeking (eventually) or that there is more to this than meets the eye. I hope I am proven incorrect.

[Max Power]

Could be - - I just hope this doesn't turn into another Jon-Benet Ramsey, Elizabeth Smart, Chandra Levy thing...........I can't believe how many people have bad things happen to them and we never learn the truth and someone is brought to justice.

[Gosfgiants]

I didn't realize this had hit the national scene. It's been on the local news for the past few nights, since Modesto is not that far outside the Bay Area. I guess if half a mil's at stake it hits the national media picks it up.

[Max Power]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20021231/ts_nm/crime_laci_dc_1

SF - what's the local take? Is the husband really not a suspect?

The link above was something I just found - same town as Levy - - freaky.

[Gosfgiants]

Here is the latest report from Bay City News. I would post a link, but the it is part of a long news items post.

Police in Modesto Monday questioned 155 registered sex offenders, pored over a local store's surveillance tape and scoured the land in search of missing 27-year-old Laci Peterson, turning up nothing but vowing to continue the search.
Modesto police Detective Doug Ridenour said authorities have received a tip that Peterson, who is eight months pregnant, may have been seen at a Copeland's sports equipment store in Modesto on Dec. 24, the day she was reported missing.

Police continue to analyze the surveillance tape with no results reported as of Monday evening.

Investigators have also contacted all registered sex offenders who live in southeast Modesto near Peterson's home as part of "the routine of the investigation,'' Ridenour said.

Detectives reported Monday that Scott Peterson, the missing woman's husband, went fishing off the Berkeley marina the day she was reported missing. Investigators say he provided a receipt from the marina.

The missing Peterson is described as standing 5 feet 1 inch tall, weighing 140 pounds, with shoulder-length brown hair and the tattoo of a sunflower on her left ankle.

She was last seen wearing black pants and a long-sleeved white shirt.

More than 500 tips have poured into the Modesto Police Department and all credible leads are being pursued.

Peterson's family will hold a candle light vigil on Dec. 31 at 4:30 p.m. at East La Loma Park in Modesto.

Modesto Police plan to hold a news conference updating the search at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 31.

Anyone with information is urged to call the police hotline at (209) 342-6166.

[Max Power]

The longer this goes, the more likely it will be bad news..............sad. I hate these stories.

[Kev]

She has such a beautiful smile. I know that shouldn't matter--every person is valuable and deserves to be found safe and sound--but it makes all of this harder to watch somehow.

[Wolf Hopper]

Well, now we know.............

MODESTO, Calif. (April 18) - Scott Peterson was arrested Friday to face charges of murdering his wife Laci and their infant son, whose bodies washed up on the rocky shore of San Francisco Bay this week, authorities said.

``He'll be charged with capital murder,'' with the option of seeking the death penalty because Peterson is being charged with a double homicide, said Stanislaus County District Attorney Jim Brazelton. ``There are no other suspects in this case.''

Peterson, 30, was being transported to Modesto for a court appearance next week after his arrest Friday morning in San Diego, where his parents live. He was arrested because he was considered a flight risk and had recognized that he was under police surveillance, said state Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

The badly decomposed bodies of Laci Peterson, 27, and her son were found within a mile of each other early this week, about three miles from where Scott Peterson said he went fishing the day his wife disappeared.

They were identified Friday evening through a comparison with DNA samples from Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson's parents.

``We're scientifically convinced the match is one in billions,'' Lockyer said.

The cause of the deaths has not been determined, said Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren Rupf.

Scott Peterson had not been seen in public since the remains were found in Richmond, 90 miles from the couple's Modesto home.

His attorney, Kirk McAllister, did not immediately return telephone messages Friday from The Associated Press. At knock at his parents' door in Solana Beach went unanswered Friday evening.

An answering service at the hot line set up by the Peterson family said the family ``has no comment. I don't think they'll be returning calls.''

Peterson had told police he last saw his wife Christmas Eve as he left to go fishing at a Berkeley marina three miles from where the bodies washed ashore.

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.

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

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 (the affair) 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 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 child she was to bear.

``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.''

04/18/03 22:22 EDT

[SmedIndy]

Well, we know but we don't know.

He may not be guilty. And even if he's convicted, he may not be guilty.

I'll wait until the evidence and then judge for myself.

[Gosfgiants]

Earlier this week two bodies washed up in Richmond. Today they were positively identified as Laci and her unborn child. Scott Peterson has been taken into custody by the Modesto police. Full coverage can found here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/04/19/BODIES.TMP.

:(

[satchel]

Like gosfgiants said - :(

But you knew this one wouldn't have a happy ending. I just hope that if Peterson is guilty, there's enough to convict him - and if he's not guilty, they figure out who is.

[Ytown Tribe fan]

I get the feeling that Scot won't be golfing with OJ this Summer, or next.

[KCBOOMER]

Scott Peterson was the odds on favorite to be arrested for this. As always let's hope that the truth will out.

[satchel]

It's interesting to me that they waited until they had the body to arrest him, but once they did have it they wasted no time in arresting him. They must have already built a pretty good circumstantial case against him. I know that people have occasionally been tried for murder without a body, but it's not the way prosecutors like to do it.

[Gosfgiants]

I had a feeling that this was the case. The police seemed be right on him as a suspect the entire time.

The story kind of fell out of the news with the war, protests, police scandal, and budget crises going on. I'm now strapped in for this year's media circus. I bet the local TV stations and newspapers are licking their collective lips on this one.

[WiredTigress]

I think what strikes me is it is just such a sad story from beginning to end. Just an overwhelming sense of loss for all families involved.

It's unfortunate that the blame/suspicion seems to jump to the husband/spouse/partner, before every avenue is explored. The statistics on crime and the involvement of someone they know/are related to is staggering!

This case in particular, there was so much vagueness about the husband's whereabouts that day, suspicious behaviors, etc. that I am sure raised alarms for some.