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| JULY 13, 2004 Prosecutors on Tuesday presented their first piece of physical evidence in Scott Peterson's murder trial -- a single strand of dark hair found on a pair of pliers and believed to be from his pregnant wife. Modesto Detective Henry Hendee testified that he noticed the hair while collecting items from the warehouse where Peterson stored a 14-foot boat. Hendee took the stand and described his searches of Scott's pickup truck and warehouse, where Peterson kept his boat. Hendee said he found "small, little chunks of cement" and a hammer in the bed of Peterson's truck and some cement powder on Peterson's boat trailer. Police would later theorize that the cement residue came from Peterson's homemade boat anchors, which authorities believe he used to weight down his wife's body. Hendee also said he found suspected blood samples inside Peterson's truck. But it was not immediately disclosed in court whether the substance was, in fact, blood. According to earlier testimony, Peterson told relatives that he had cut his hand and that police would probably find blood in the truck. Hendee told jurors he collected samples near the driver's door handle and on the steering wheel. Hendee testified he was assigned to search the nursery in the Petersons' home, finding two pairs of black maternity pants in a bag that raised his suspicions. He did not elaborate. Peterson told authorities his wife was wearing black maternity pants when he left to go fishing the day he said he last saw her. Hendee said he also found a printout from the Internet listing fishing spots in the San Francisco Bay as well as a suspicious-looking stain on the warehouse door. Peterson told police he went fishing at the Berkeley marina the day his wife disappeared. Her body and that of their unborn child washed up separately along the bay shore in April 2003, not far from where Peterson said he was fishing. Hendee testified that he found a single hair in a pair of pliers in Peterson's boat, and put the hair into an evidence folder. Prosecutors have suggested the dark brown hair belonged to Laci Peterson, and was there because Scott Peterson used his boat to dump her body into the San Francisco Bay. Prosecutors claim Laci never knew about the boat and that her husband bought it weeks earlier for the sole purpose of disposing of her body. But testimony from another Modesto police detective earlier in the trial revealed that a witness saw Laci Peterson visiting her husband's warehouse the day before she disappeared. This could provide a reasonable explanation as to why her hair could have been in the boat. During Peterson's preliminary hearing, experts testified that DNA analysis indicated the hair likely came from Laci Peterson, but the defense has not conceded that point. HENDEE'S PRELIM TESTIMONY HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST EVIDENCE PHOTOS |
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| LACI & CONNER "A Child Loaned" |
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