| Mar. 8, 2004 NATIONAL ENQUIRER: Laci's Ghost! From: RICKAMORTI SCOTT PETERSON: I SAW LACI'S GHOST COPS KNEW HE WAS CRACKING WHEN HE TOSSED OUT HIS WEDDING ALBUM! BY: Don Gentile, David Wright, and Charlie Montgomery Picture Captions: Dr. Joyce Brothers -- "If ever there was a symbolic rejection of marriage, throwing the wedding album in the trash would be it." synopsis Scott Peterson saw his wife Laci's ghost! That's what Scott confided to a close friend of Laci, who is now a potential key witness in his murder trial. Scott saw the eerie apparition just days after cops began searching for the supposedly "missing" pregnant woman, a NE obtained report reveals. The bizarre disclosure immediately made cops suspicious of Scott. They began to believe that he knew Laci was dead because he murdered her. That was why he saw her ghost at a time when she was only "missing" and possibly still alive. The NE has learned from Police reports that several weeks later, as a man seemingly haunted by his wife's image, Scott tossed Laci's precious album of wedding photos in the trash in a storage locker he secretly rented! "Cops were always hoping Scott would crack under the pressure of the guilt he was feeling," said an insider. Seeing Laci's ghost and then tossing her wedding album in the trash told them he was falling apart inside. Scott reported his frightening encounter with Laci's apparition to her good friend Kim McNeely, according to the police report. He told Kim that he had been awakened in the middle of the night. He got up and his gaze fell on a mirror in his bedroom and suddenly he saw Laci's image in the mirror, standing behind him! Kim McNeely passed his story on to Det. Jon Buehler, who conducted repeated interviews with Laci's good friends in the months after she went missing. Kim thought it strange that Scott was seeing Laci's ghost when everyone else thought she was still alive. Scott's ghost story was just one piece of information that told LE that Scott was exhibiting signs of guilt, the insider disclosed. "Bit by bit, LE pieced together a profile of Scott that convinced them that he was a heartless killer." The NE has also learned that another piece of the profile came from John Yarborough, an expert on facial analysis at Arizona's Institute of Analytical Interview. On the recommendation of Sharon Pagaling Hagan- a California Dept. of Justice profiler, working with police on the Peterson case- detectives sent Yarborough video tapes of television interviews Scott gave in the first few weeks. Yarborough studied the tapes, looking for what are called facial "micro expressions" that indicate hidden anxiety. In his report to police, Yarborough said he spotted "significant micro expressions" on two occasions during an interview Scott gave to KTVU, a TV station in Oakland, California. The first occurred when reporter Ted Rowlands asked Scott if Laci's blood was in his truck. Yarborough told LE that Scott "micro expressed fear." He then "micro expressed anger" when Rowlands asked him why window shades that Laci normally opened each morning were closed on the day she vanished. "The facial expression expert was telling LE that Scott experienced fear and anger over two things that could implicate him in Laci's disappearance. Yarborough also pointed out to LE that Scott referred to Laci in the past tense on more than one occasion during his interviews." Another incident that raised LE suspicion of Scott, Laci's friends, Stacey Bowers and Lori Ellsworth, told Det. Buehler, that they visited Scott's house 2 days after Laci disappeared. Scott's mother, Jackie Peterson was there and she gave them a shopping list of things that were needed at the store. It included napkins, paper towels and garbage bags. "None of these items were in the house," Jackie told them. "Stacey and Lori found this extremely unusual, said the insider. "Laci was always prepared, especially around Christmas. She entertained a lot and would never be without napkins, paper towels or garbage bags. "Police wondered if Scott had done a major cleanup job after murdering Laci." Scott's callous dumping of the wedding album-until now one of the best kept secrets in the case-also raised red flags for the LE. Police turned a microscope on the Peterson marriage at that point, and began interviewing family and friends, because they suspected Laci's love for Scott was only a one way street. The album was obviously something that Laci cherished and would one day want to show to the child she was carrying. "Its a major indication of unsolved problems in the marriage." On Feb.18, LE served a search warrant on a second storage locker that Scott had rented when they got a tip from someone that Scott was unloading boxes there. LE were, until then, unaware of the second storage locker. Among the items found were a Buck hunting knife, shrink-wrap, rope, a backpack containing a blanket, and socks-and Laci and Scott's wedding album. LE was amazed when they found the album in the wastebasket. Until then even Laci's staunch friends had insisted that her marriage was a happy one. But one of her close friends did say, "Scott told a male buddy, that Laci talked too much." "Scott told him that frequently he'd try to escape from Laci's constant talking by retreating to the bathroom only to have her continue talking through an outside window." Investigators decided to see if there was other underlying irritants in the marriage. That's when Kim McNeely told them about Laci's "honey do lists." Scott secretly was fuming at Laci's imperfections, and Laci was apparently blissfully unaware of it. Laci's aunt, Maria Rocha, told police she never heard Laci say a bad word about Scott. And another of Laci's friends, told LE that she and Laci went to a bachelorette party, where "suggestive intimate things" where on display and Laci told her friend that her marriage did not need "romantic aids". Many friends described the union between Scott and Laci as one a lot of couples would like to have, but for LE, finding the wedding album in the trash was a major clue that when it came to his marriage Scott had fooled everyone. HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT PRELIMINARY HEARING COURT DATES ALIBI-WITNESS LIST INCONSISTENT STATEMENTS EVIDENCE-NEWS AUTOPSY INDEX WIRETAPS MAGAZINES |
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| LACI & CONNER May The Truth Be Told |
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