| DR. GREGGORY RUSSELL DEVORE OB-GYN - Specialist in High Risk Pregnancy |
| LACI & CONNER "I don't have any poem or bible verse to type. I just wanted her family to know people think about her. You were blessed to have her as a daughter/sister/friend." MANDI * CA * GUESTBOOK |
| Thursday, September 23, 2004 Expert says fetus died about Dec. 23 Opinion fits well with theory of prosecution in Peterson case By Jason Dearen, STAFF WRITER Laci and Scott Peterson's unborn child died on Dec. 23, 2002 -- one of the days prosecutors believe the Modesto man murdered his pregnant wife -- a prosecution expert testified Wednesday in Peterson's double-murder trial. Dr. Greggory DeVore, a specialist who works only on cases with a mother or fetus at risk, said his age-of-death calculation is based on the length of the fetus' leg bone compared with Laci Petersons' earlier ultrasounds. His results have a margin of error of plus or minus three days, he said. The gestational age of the Petersons' unborn child when it died cuts to the heart of the cases on both sides in this capital murder trial. The Dec. 23 date fits perfectly with the prosecution's theory that Peterson murdered his pregnant wife on Dec. 23 or 24, 2002. Peterson told police he was fishing in San Francisco Bay the morning of Dec. 24, and his wife's body washed up on the Bay's shores four months later. Peterson's defense is trying to convince jurors that the baby died after Dec. 24, 2002. After that date, Peterson was followed closely by police and the media, and could not have murdered Laci, his attorney Mark Geragos says. The defense says Laci was abducted by men in a brown van and held for a time before being murdered. Geragos also claims that the bodies were thrown into the Bay by the actual killers, who learned of Peterson's alibi through the media. Geragos said DeVore's findings conflict with those of a forensic anthropologist who testified last week. Her study of the fetus' bones determined the gestational age at the time of death to be 35 weeks, which correlates to a Jan. 6, 2003 date of death, Geragos said. With the margin of error the fetus could have been 33 to 38 weeks old. But Dr. DeVore said the fetus could have died on Dec. 21 through 24, based on his three measurements of a bone and using measurements of the fetus from Laci's first sonogram. "The first trimester ... is much more accurate than ... the second trimester," DeVore said, explaining his reasons for basing his study on the first sonogram. Geragos attempted to throw doubt on DeVore's theory by providing jurors a different calculation based on Laci's second sonogram, which moved DeVore's calculated day of death back four days, to Dec. 28. As DeVore and Geragos debated the science and data behind his determination of the date of death, jurors looked on, some with puzzled looks on their faces. Pointing to DeVore's finding that the baby could have died on Dec. 21, 22, or 24, Geragos said: "Two out of three of his calculations are wrong, because the baby was alive on Dec. 23 in the afternoon." Laci had her last sonogram on that day, her doctor testified earlier in the trial. HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL PG 1 PG 2 ALIBI-WITNESS LIST LACI'S DOCTOR #1 DOCTOR #2 WIRETAPS AUTOPSY |
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