A Deadly Game (42 page)

When Grogan reviewed the information, he developed a new theory that was never publicized. On Christmas morning, when Scott left for the warehouse, he may have cleaned out Laci's dirty clothing from the laundry hamper and taken the items with him. "Laci had likely changed into nightclothes on December 23, possibly the blue pajamas belonging to Scott Peterson, which may explain why those items were packaged separately in a paper bag," Grogan wrote in his report. "The pajamas may have been removed from Laci Peterson at the warehouse."

During a meeting with investigators the following month, the first-response team couldn't remember if any of that particular clothing had been in the washing machine or in the laundry basket next to the machine, and no one recalled seeing a paper bag in the area. Although police would continue to speculate about these items, Laci's body was ultimately discovered still clad in a bra, partial beige pants, and jockey underwear. It made no sense that Scott would redress his wife after killing her in her pajamas.

During the search, investigators also observed that the couple's cat, a gray-and-white Siamese, kept checking its bowl for food. An examination of the kitchen revealed that there seemed to be no food for the animal, which appeared to be very hungry. Scott told officers that he was going to the store to get cat food, but returned to the house several times empty-handed.

Concerned about the cat, officers searched inside the kitchen until they found a can of salmon in the kitchen, which the animal devoured. Grogan observed that the cat regularly went outside, rose on its hind legs, and scratched at one of the small trees in the rear yard. Grogan remembered Scott saying he'd bought the chicken wire to wrap around the trees to stop the cat from doing just that. Grogan inspected the trees and bushes in the rear yard; several showed evidence of scratches at the base, but none had been protected with the wire. Inside the home, police noticed that several chairs, cushions, and other miscellaneous items had been piled into Conner's room, making it impossible to walk through the once-tidy space. Despite what he'd told Gloria Gomez-that he couldn't bring himself to go into the nursery until "a little guy" was sleeping in there-Scott had clearly turned the nursery into a storage space. The photographs of this room, juxtaposed with Scott's tearful lament, would provide powerful moments during his murder trial almost two years later.

On an upper shelf of the hallway closet, officers found three of the framed college diplomas in Scott's name that they'd seen displayed on the living room wall during the December search. Police also found a poster with a note from "Laci's husband" to volunteers that had been pinned to the door of the Red Lion Hotel, a photo of Laci, and a teddy bear in a box on the patio. The letter to volunteers read:

AS I SEE EVERY PERSON COMING THROUGH THIS DOOR, OR OUT SEARCHING, I TELL LACI ABOUT THEM, LOOKING FOR HER. EARLY THIS MORNING, I FELT SHE COULD HEAR ME. SHE THANKS YOU. LACI'S HUSBAND.

Throughout this case, I found so many moments like this that telegraphed what chumps Scott thought the rest of the world must be. He truly believed he could act his way out of suspicion.

Police also confiscated a bottle of prescription medication, as well as some Benadryl capsules and a sample of Robitussin cough syrup. Detectives were still looking at the possibility that Scott had poisoned Laci or immobilized her with drugs before killing her. (A thorough toxicology examination on Laci's remains would ultimately turn up no evidence of any such substances.)

At one point during the search, Grogan invited Laci's sister, Amy, into the house, asking if she could identify the garments Laci wore on December 23. Grogan showed her a pair of white size 7M slip-on shoes near the French doors leading out to the backyard and sun-room. Amy said she hadn't seen Laci wearing those shoes-her sister normally wore a size 6-but said that Laci might have worn that type of shoe while working in the yard.

In a later interview with Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha said that her daughter wore a "light boat shoe" around the house, but that she wore lace-up tennis shoes-not slip-ons-when she went walking in the mornings.

Checking the rest of the house, Amy made an unusual find in the bedroom. While going through Laci's dresser, she came upon a sheer black maternity blouse with a tan-colored square pattern and a black lining. It was the one Amy had described Laci wearing on December 23. Oddly, the blouse's sleeves were pulled inside out. Amy remarked that her sister wasn't one to remove and wad up a nice blouse, then put it in her underwear drawer. Bunched in the same drawer were several other items that appeared to have been worn, including a maternity skirt, maternity jeans, and a tan sweater.

Amy said that her sister would never have put dirty clothing on top of clean underwear. And, indeed, when Grogan later reviewed photos of the drawers taken during the initial search on December 26, none of the items Amy found was present.

Checking Laci's closet, Amy pointed out a pair of cream-colored pants clipped at the cuffs and hanging upside down on a hanger. The slacks looked wrinkled, suggesting that they'd been worn at least once after ironing. Amy also pointed out a scarf she believed Laci was wearing in Salon Salon the night before she disappeared. Sorting

through Laci's shoes, though, she couldn't find the black Mary Janes her sister had on that evening.

The officers did allow themselves one light moment in the Petersons' home. As they were searching, one of the investigators spotted a crown that must have belonged to a party costume of Scott's. The officer put it on, and one of the crime scene photographers chuckled and snapped a picture. It was an innocent moment, under emotionally trying circumstances, but the incident would come back to haunt them later when defense lawyer Mark Geragos would use the photo at trial in a bid to paint the officers as callous clowns.

In a search of Scott's white Dodge, the original bill of sale for the Gamefisher boat was found in a brown duffel bag. Also in the bag was a receipt for $27.01 from a Borders' bookstore in Emeryville, California. Police speculated that the purchase might have included the books Scott sent to Amber Frey. Also in the duffel bag were three collection notices from the company that had installed the Peterson's swimming pool, and a notice of resignation from the Del Rio Country Club. The resignation form confirmed that Scott was attempting to sell his new country club membership. There was also a check made out to the Del Rio for $750.

Perhaps the strangest find, which police came across in a black plastic case on the passenger floorboard, was a typed short story, a single page long, concerning how a person of "low" character could be attracted to a person of "high" character. The story also dealt with "weak" souls and "strong" souls. "It is unknown if this was written by Scott Peterson to be delivered to Amber Frey or anyone else," Brocchini wrote in a report.

A day planner seized from the truck outlined Scott's activities between January 6 and February 23, 2003. In the date box for March 28 was written "Important Date for A." It was the only entry for the month. In a blue notebook also found in the truck was a second note, "3/28/03 important date for Amber."

A sealed envelope addressed to Kirk McAllister using Amber's home address was also confiscated from the Dodge but was later ruled as a privileged communication by the court. The police were never allowed to read the enclosed letter.

During the search of the storage locker that Scott had quietly rented at Security Public Storage on Woodland Avenue in Fresno, police found Scott and Laci's wedding album. It had been dumped into a metal wastebasket with some bills. Mark Geragos would later protest that Scott had simply used the trash can as a storage container for the album as he was moving into his new space, but the choice of containers was not lost on members of the jury. Police also confiscated a buck knife with an "unknown" stain on the handle and blade, two sets of boat wheels with reddish brown stains, and miscellaneous papers and other items.

As police searched, Scott got on the phone with the Dish Network. A clerk for the company later told police that at 2:03 P.M. she received a call from a man identifying himself as "Mr. Peterson." Laci Peterson was a Dish Network subscriber.

"I have an account in my wife's name," Scott had said. As the clerk told police, "He wanted to disconnect their account because he was moving. I offered him a Dish moving option to have the service continued at his new residence. He said he didn't want to do that because he was moving overseas." Police would eventually conclude that Scott pulled the plug on his satellite TV to prevent detectives from finding the two explicit pornography channels.

This information would produce heated debate at trial. The defense objected strenuously to its admission. The issue also generated some serious argument on my program. Many pundits pointed out that it isn't illegal to watch this garbage, and that there's nothing about the act of watching an X-rated film that constitutes evidence of guilt in a murder case. Allowing the jury to consider it, they said, would be highly prejudicial. However, I agreed with Judge Delucchi's ruling to admit the information. It wasn't the fact that Scott was watching porn, but the idea that he was behaving as if Laci wasn't coming home, that qualified this testimony as evidence of his state of mind. Certainly no one was ever outrageous enough to suggest that his wife would have approved of his new subscription, had she come home with Conner to find him watching these channels.

The twenty investigating officers, under the direction of Crime Scene Manager Rudy Skultety, spent about ten hours inside Scott's house on February 18, along with Detective Grogan and profiler Sharon Hagan. Reporters were stationed outside the home throughout the day, and many remained overnight and into the next day, when investigators returned to continue their work. Journalists watched as detectives took measurements of the perimeter, driveway, and other sections of the property. Ultimately, police confiscated nearly one hundred items, including fur samples from McKenzie for comparison with hairs found on a blue tarp that washed up in mid-January. Those tests did not produce a match.

During the afternoon, Grogan received a call from Scott saying that he didn't want police to allow anyone to enter his house while the search was being carried out.

"Are you specifically speaking about Sharon Rocha?" Grogan asked. "Yes," Scott replied. He told Grogan that he might meet with Sharon later to give her some of Laci's things, but he was not yet granting her permission to remove any items.

While the search continued, Scott stayed with his sister, Anne Bird, in Berkeley. Grogan later talked with Bird about the family's recent trip to Disneyland with Scott and Laci in late November 2002. The thirty-seven-year-old mother of two told him that she and her family had joined her brother John and his wife, Scott and Laci, and Jackie Peterson for a two-day visit to the theme park. Anne had visited with the Petersons several times after learning that Jackie was her birth mother, but she always considered her adoptive parents to be her "true parents."

Anne recalled that Scott and Laci seemed "very happy" during the family's Thanksgiving trip. Scott had even rented Laci a wheelchair so that he could wheel his pregnant wife around Disney's California Adventure Park and "pamper her."

Anne didn't think Laci needed the wheelchair, but she went along with it to humor Scott. Scott told police he had rented it "to cut down on the amount of walking" she had to do. The young couple appeared to get along well, and Scott seemed excited over his impending fatherhood. During the trip, he carried Anne's six-month-old son in a car seat. He even comforted him one night at dinner and managed to stop his crying, Anne recalled.

While Scott was staying with Anne during the search, they talked about Laci's disappearance. Anne wondered what he thought had happened to her. He described the suspicious purple car with Confederate flags that had supposedly been spotted parked near his home on the morning of Christmas Eve. Kim McGregor's mother had reported hearing screams coming from the park at about 10:15 that morning, Scott told her. He theorized that his wife's disappearance could be tied to some "psycho" who abducted her that morning-or, he added, by Kim McGregor's boyfriend. Having done some research, Scott said that Laci was the fifth pregnant woman in the state of California to disappear in recent years. He also speculated that Laci's body was in an area known as Mapes Ranch because, he told Anne, the bloodhounds had led officers to that area.

During the conversation, Scott admitted to Anne that he had an affair while living in San Luis Obispo when he and Laci were first married.

When I interviewed Anne Bird, she told me something that I never heard elsewhere throughout this investigation. Before the November trip to Disneyland, Jackie confided to her that "Scott and Laci were having trouble again." This comment made Anne watch the couple carefully. She noticed that Scott seemed to be going through all the motions, wheeling Laci around and catering to her needs, but upon reflection she thought that he seemed distant throughout the trip.

Anne recalled that after Laci's disappearance, Jackie's attitude about Laci's mother changed dramatically. Beforehand, Jackie had referred to Sharon as "cool." By late January, she would be calling her "that bitch with all those 'catty' friends."

Anne also observed that Scott was a heavy drinker, and that his excessive use of alcohol continued during future visits to her home. On one occasion, he called her house and found that an attractive babysitter he had met before was there. He stopped off and bought the ingredients for a special kind of martini popularized by the TV show Sex and the City. Once home, he mixed the drinks and tried to get the young woman to "party" with him. Anne was surprised at his behavior; his wife and baby were still missing.