| A "Frantic" Act? December 5, 2003 Scott Peterson sounded frantic when he called a friend after Peterson's pregnant wife disappeared Christmas Eve, Modesto businessman Gregory Reed said Thursday. Reed's name surfaced in the intrigue-packed preliminary hearing for Scott Peterson. The hearing ended Nov. 18 with a judge ordering the 31-year-old former fertilizer salesman to stand trial on charges of slaying Laci Peterson and their unborn son, Conner. Other former acquaintances of the defendant, also mentioned at the proceeding, refused to comment. Reed and his wife, Kristen, held private Lamaze sessions attended by the Petersons, who lived a few blocks away in the La Loma neighborhood. Gregory Reed previously said the Petersons brought meals and visited after the Reeds' child was born. "They were good people," Reed said Thursday. At the preliminary hearing, detectives testified that on the night of Dec. 24, Scott Peterson told them he fished alone briefly that day in San Francisco Bay. Peterson said his wife, who had been planning to walk their dog when he left, was gone when he returned. Prosecutors contend that Peterson used his pickup to transport the body of his wife to his work warehouse and then to the bay. Steve Jacobson, a prosecution investigator, testified that Peterson used his cell phone to call Reed shortly after leaving the Berkeley Marina on Dec. 24, and again later that evening. There was nothing unusual about the first call, Reed said. "I could tell he was driving," Reed said, "but I don't know where. I could hear road noise and feedback. "A few hours later I did get that frantic phone call. I caught up with him and went over to the house." Family members, friends and neighbors gathered that night to post fliers and search for the mother-to-be. Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos of Los Angeles, appeared at the hearing to draw the image of a man concerned at having returned to an empty house. Jacobson confirmed that Peterson made numerous calls the evening of Dec. 24, including several to his wife's mother, Sharon Rocha, and sister, Amy Rocha, and later to 911. Under questioning by Geragos, Jacobson acknowledged that Peterson that evening also called "close friends" Reed and Guy Miligi; his father, Lee Peterson; and Stacey Boyers, Lori Ellsworth, Rene Garza and Rene Tomlinson, all longtime friends of Laci Peterson. Scott Peterson also called his next-door neighbor, Karen Servas, Jacobson said. At the hearing, Servas testified that she found the Petersons' dog roaming free with a leash attached at 10:18 a.m. Dec. 24. Miligi, a Modesto businessman, said Thursday that he and his wife were close to Laci Peterson but refused further comment. Boyers, Ellsworth, Garza and Tomlinson have not spoken with the media for several months. Sharon and Amy Rocha, Lee Peterson and Karen Servas are prevented by a court-imposed gag order from speaking in detail about the case. Also surfacing at the preliminary hearing was the name of Shawn Sibley, 28, of Fresno, who brought Scott Peterson together with her friend, Amber Frey, in November 2002. Peterson and Frey had a romance that might have provided him with a motive for killing his wife, prosecutors suggested at the hearing. "I'm not making any statement," a woman who identified herself as Sibley said on the telephone. She said she has been hounded by media since being named as the Peterson-Frey matchmaker. A detective testified that Peterson met Sibley at an agricultural conference in Anaheim, and told her and Frey that he was single. Sibley later suspected he was married and confronted him in early December; he then told both women separately that he had "lost his wife," the detective testified. Reed said he keeps in touch with Peterson "a little bit," mostly through others who visit him in jail. "I just don't know what to think," Reed said. "I hope information gets shared that enlightens all of us. I just hope justice prevails." HOME INDEX LACI CONNER TRIAL SCOTT WIRETAPS AMBER PETERSON INDEX PRELIMINARY HEARING ALIBI-WITNESS LIST EVIDENCE-NEWS |
| LACI & CONNER "It is my only hope that somehow, someway justice will prevail.." J. & L. Jacobs - CA - Guestbook Entry |
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