| LACI & CONNER "I am following the trial and hope with all my heart that justice is done, and that you can begin to heal.." Kelly Kehoe ~ New York ~ Guestbook |
| Long before Laci Peterson's remains washed up on the San Francisco Bay shore, detectives came up with list of 41 reasons why they believed her body ultimately would be found there, the lead investigator testified Tuesday. The list Modesto police detective Craig Grogan described for jurors Tuesday took as a given the involvement of her husband, Scott, and included reasons ranging from the obvious, such as the fishing trip he took to the bay the day she vanished, to the obscure, such as the amount of gas he bought that day. Grogan, in his second day on the witness stand at Peterson's double-murder trial, ticked off more than a dozen reasons in an attempt to show jurors how authorities zeroed in on the bay and the fertilizer salesman. -The detective said investigators were convinced early on that the mother-to-be had been dumped in some body of water because Peterson kept his recent purchase of a boat secret from friends and relatives and because cement debris was found scattered around the warehouse where he kept it. During a brainstorming session on Jan. 22, 2003, a month and a day after the 27-year-old woman was last seen, Grogan and other detectives made two lists: one for freshwater lakes and another for the bay. By the end of the meeting, they had only 10 clues pointing toward freshwater, Grogan said. "The ultimate conclusion was that Laci Peterson's body was in San Francisco Bay," he testified. "And that's where we focused our efforts." Police dive teams searched the bay floor for months, but did not find Laci Peterson's body. Among the 41 reasons cited by Grogan: -A tracking dog detected the victim's scent on a bay boat launch used by Peterson. -Peterson said his angling excursion was impromptu, but he purchased a two-day fishing license four days before the trip. -The tackle in his boat was primarily freshwater, leaving him unprepared for successful bay fishing. -He returned to the bay three times after her disappearance. -He paid cash for the boat and never registered it. -A boat cover large enough to hide a body was later found under a leaf blower that was leaking gas. -He had large patio umbrellas in his truck bed. The detective said the umbrellas were the same height as Laci and would be a convenient explanation if anyone saw him loading something large into his truck. The detective also said there was evidence that Peterson was wavering between two alibis: golfing and fishing. -Grogan said Peterson seemed at times to be gathering proof of his trip to the bay. He collected a receipt at the boat launch and bought $13 in gas from a service station en route from the bay. The detective said he found the purchase strange because it was a "not significant" amount for a large pick-up truck. But he never mentioned fishing in conversations with his father and a good friend. -Grogan noted that Peterson told his sister-in-law he planned to go golfing and first told a neighbor and a cousin he was on the golf course when his wife disappeared. -Grogan said he suspected that "initially his plan was [to say] that he was golfing on that day and for no one to know that he had a boat or that he made a trip to San Francisco Bay." -He speculated that Peterson did not clean up the concrete debris at his warehouse because he planned to go with the golfing story, which would not lead police to inspect immediately the warehouse where he kept the boat. Under questioning by prosecutor Birgit Fladager, Grogan continued the day-by-day recitation of the investigation that he began Monday. Money test He said that on Feb. 3, officers met about changing the $500,000 reward for information leading to the safe return of the missing woman to a reward for information leading to the recovery of the body. He noted that the fact no one responded to either offer indicated to him that one person had committed the crime. "The large amount of that reward kind of told us that it was less likely we were dealing with multiple offenders," he said, noting that amount would be "a powerful incentive" for the perpetrators to turn against each other. -Grogan also described a Feb. 18 search of Peterson's home. He said Peterson had two large duffle bags packed and waiting by the door. Grogan said one bag contained $2,081 in cash, a bottle of wine and Peterson's wedding ring. Grogan's testimony is proceeding very slowly, and as Fladager began questioning the detective Tuesday morning, she appeared to try to justify the pace by noting the scope of the investigation Grogan supervised. He said 300 officers from 92 jurisdictions worked 10,000 tips. Fladager pointed to a pile of case binders that stretched across the courtroom wall. "I'll stipulate there are 42,000 pages of documents," defense lawyer Mark Geragos said. Grogan himself said he typed 1,500 pages of reports and audiotaped 50 interviews. DETECTIVE GROGAN INDEX HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL PG1 PG2 ALIBI-WITNESS LIST WIRETAPS AUTOPSY EVIDENCE PHOTOS ROCHA FAMILY PETERSON INDEX |
| Detective: 41 reasons why Laci Peterson was dumped in San Francisco Bay September 22, 2004 |
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