| CHILLING LACI PIX
By HOWARD BREUER ~ NEW YORK POST June 29, 2004 Eerie photos released at Scott Peterson's trial yesterday show that the night he reported his wife, Laci, missing, cops found a phone book on his kitchen counter — opened to a full-page ad for a defense lawyer. Prosecutors are banking on the startling snapshot and a slew of others — taken by investigators first on the scene at the couple's Modesto home on Christmas Eve 2002 — to help nail Peterson for the murders of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son. The haunting photos include seemingly mundane but emotionally laden images of: * The nursery for the baby, whose name, Conner, already had been chosen. The sweet and cheerful blue room included a small white crib, a mobile of miniature sailboats and a life preserver on the wall that bore the words, "Welcome Aboard!" * The couple's dining-room table, which Laci had lovingly set for a holiday dinner with family and friends. Quaint place settings and romantic candles grace the table. * Laci's royal-blue cleaning mop, still in its pail. Peterson claims that Laci was mopping the floors the last time he saw her. That would help explain why the mop was out and there was the odor of cleaning fluids in the air when cops arrived later that night. But the couple's maid said she herself had just cleaned the floors the day before — potentially boosting the prosecution's claim that Peterson had to clean up after murdering his wife there. As for the photo of the phone book, Modesto Detective Matthew Spurlock wrote in his confidential police report that the bizarre sight of the Yellow Pages — open to the striking, color ad for a local lawyer specializing in murder, helped first sound the alarm that Scott might be involved in Laci's disappearance. That's because at the time, no one had yet suggested Scott might be involved. "Criminal defense. Former deputy DA," blares the full-page ad for Modesto lawyer Richard S. Herman. It adds that Herman specializes in murder and domestic violence, while featuring illustrations of a cop putting handcuffs on a man, and the face of a crying woman. The jarring photo and others of the Peterson's home were released to the media for the first time yesterday by the San Mateo Superior Court via its Web site. They were part of the first few dozen exhibits already shared with the jury in the double-slay trial, now in its fifth week. Peterson's high-powered lawyer, Mark Geragos, could not comment on the newly released evidence because of a gag order. Herman said he had never been contacted by Peterson — which the lawyer regrets. "I would very much have enjoyed taking the case," Herman told The Post. Around the time the photos were taken, Peterson was telling cops he had been fishing that day, only to return home in the early evening to find his eight-months-pregnant wife missing. The suspect — a 31-year-old fertilizer salesman who had been cheating on his wife with a massage therapist — was finally arrested in the case in April 2003, after the decomposed bodies of Laci and her unborn son were found washed up on the shore of San Francisco Bay. Peterson has pleaded not guilty. His defense claims, among other things, that the cops' sloppy probe virtually ruled out other possible suspects too early. HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT AMBER TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST EVIDENCE-NEWS PETERSON INDEX PETERSON ALBUM |
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| DINING ROOM |
| LACI & CONNER "Laci & Conner will always live in my heart & in the heart of my family" Juanita Rocha -Inglewood, CA. - Guestbook |
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| From Lil Cali Girl |