| Peterson testimony turns to tips September 7, 2004 Scott Peterson's defense team has consistently tried to show that prosecutors were so eager to charge their client with the murder of his wife and fetus that they ignored other credible tips. On Tuesday, prosecutors sought to counter that argument. Two law enforcement investigators testified that in the weeks after Laci Peterson vanished they pursued a tip that the pregnant schoolteacher was being held in a rural area about 30 miles from her hometown. The testimony was intended to bolster the prosecution's contention that police exhausted all leads in their investigation of Laci Peterson's disappearance. Modesto police officer Eric Beffa testified about an anonymous tip police received in early January 2003, just weeks after the disappearance, that Laci was being held captive near Tracy, a growing suburb west of Modesto. Beffa quoted from a report about the tip: "They have a pregnant woman there and he states he recognizes her to be Laci ... He doesn't want the reward money; he just wants her to be found." Beffa said he and another officer responded to the area but were unable to find any sign of the woman. On cross-examination, defense lawyer Mark Geragos noted the tip also included mention of a van. Neighbors of the Petersons told police they saw a van with three men in the area around the time Laci vanished. It's a detail Geragos has continually brought up as he works to create reasonable doubt. Beffa said he met with a San Joaquin County sheriff's deputy but was unable to find the location provided by the tipster, who described the area as being behind two small white houses in a rural area off a nearby highway. That deputy, Paul Mears, testified that he met with Beffa in Tracy and continued to pursue the tip after the officer returned to Modesto. Mears, who regularly patrols the area near where they thought the tipster was referring to, described a four-day search with other deputies. They came upon a compound that Mears described as "a bunch of shanties and shacks, old trailers that had been abandoned." Mears said he had responded to that location before and knew that many of the people who lived there were on probation or parole. Police found marijuana plants being cultivated but no connection to the Peterson case, he said. Prosecutors allege Peterson killed his wife in their Modesto home on or around Dec. 24, 2002, then drove to San Francisco Bay and dumped her body. The badly decomposed remains of Laci and the couple's fetus washed ashore in April 2003, not far from where Peterson set out for what he claims was a solo fishing trip on the bay that Christmas Eve morning. Defense lawyers contend someone else abducted and killed Laci, then framed their client after learning of his widely publicized alibi. The case against the 31-year-old fertilizer salesman is circumstantial. Prosecutors have yet to show jurors a murder weapon or a cause of death and have no direct witnesses to the killing. HOME INDEX LACI CONNER TRIAL SCOTT AMBER LACI'S ALBUM ALIBI-WITNESS LIST WIRETAPS AUTOPSY MAGAZINES DOGS |
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| LACI & CONNER "Just know that Laci and Conner are looking down on your family, andwill always be watching over you." HEATHER ~ MISSOURI ~ GUESTBOOK |
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