290 Sex Registrants and Parolees Investigation

Assigned to Detective Ray Coyle. (Coyle)

People's 113, 'List of 290 Sex Registrants and Parolees' was sealed by the Court

List contained 309 parolees and sex registrants.  285 were contacted; 24 still had not been contacted or located.  Coyle "was in charge of looking at each report as they were completed to determine if as much investigation that could be done had been done on that particular person."  He tallied up the contacts from reports he received.

The purpose of this investigation was to "determine their whereabouts and some verification of that on December 24th, 2002."

Coyle explained the process:

Some of the folks were registrants. They have dates that they have to be in and register by. If we hadn't contacted them prior to that, on the date that they came in to register, we would interview them then. Many of the folks were contacted because we had their home addresses either through parole or through their 290 records. We put out information through our warrants system that when an officer ran a particular person that we needed to talk to, that name would pop up. They would then be held until the detective or an investigator could interview them.

Once their whereabouts were determined, Coyle said, the next step was to verify their stories:  employers, friends, family members, anyone who could confirm the alibi.  Coyle said they tried to contact the alibi person while the person under question was still with the officer. 

Of those that were not contacted, Coyle said:

Several of them we determined were deceased, had gone someplace else, out of state, moved out of state, and had died prior to us being able to contact them. Several of them, through the Department of Justice Sex Registrants Website, had indications from other agencies that this person had left the jurisdiction of the State of California. So obviously they moved someplace, but we didn't have any indication as to where. Several of them we determined are actually in prison serving time, and have not been able to contact those folks.

At the end of the investigation, Coyle concluded that none of the registrants and parolees was responsible for Laci's disappearance.

For the 8-page report that Coyle provided, the majority of the names had not been "eliminated," that is, the column marked Elim had a No.  Coyle explained that the Elim column was already filled out when he got the list.

Coyle clarified that 285 had been "completed," meaning it had been taken as far as it could go. " In some of those cases it was merely checking with vital statistics to find out that that person was deceased. Obviously that's as far as we could go. In some of the cases we interviewed the person himself and an alibi person or two. In some cases we interviewed a staff person for several of the guys that were in a particular program and were in a lock-down facility during that time period. So there's, there's a lot of variation in what we did to complete that." 

#42:  completed.  Bates stamp 3579

Registered sex offender.  Owned a 1985 Chevy van.  Claimed he was with his sister in Patterson.  Detective Blake found an address through DMV, but the person living there for the past three years was not the sister and didn't know the sister.  The Stanislaus County Sheriff's office had no record of such a sister.  One contact was at the mental health facility.  When contacted by Sgt. Corder, he said he had committed a murder in Modesto around Christmastime, had murdered a female named "Alisa Peterson" at Scenic Park.  Said the only witness was a dog.  Was driving his sister's white Chevy van during that time period.  Said her murdered her by breaking her neck, and then called friends to bring her to the Bay area.  He was again interviewed in December 2003.  Brocchini eliminated Kegel because he had a history of mental illness, but Coyle said he did not eliminate him.  

#18:  completed. 

Registered sex offender.  Said he slept at the Gospel Mission on the 23rd, left in the morning, went to the library at 8:30, then to the park, then to the grocery store.  When questioned, August 18, 2003, he showed no indications of struggle.  Coyle didn't know if anyone had gone to any of the places he said he had been, or check the DMV to see if he had a vehicle.

#141: completed. 

Both a registered sex offender and a parolee.  Last known address, Gospel Mission.  Mid-January 2003 whereabouts unknown.  Checked on the address for a similar name in Citrus Heights, and with his last known employer -- both dead ends. 

#139: completed.

Registered sex offender.  Contacted in Stanislaus County Jail in July 2003.  Last known address, Gospel Mission. 

Had a day pass for December 24, but didn't remember checking out, had no family or friends to visit, had no alibi.  Admitted being near the foot bridge at Scenic and Coffee Road. Had no visible injuries or scars in July 2003, claimed he had no access to a vehicle on December 24. 

#68: completed

Contacted on December 31, 2002.  Said he was alone on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and his family live in Oakland.  Gave the name of his employer.  No follow-up.

#248: completed

Registered sex offender.  Contacted May 6, 2003.  Gave his daughter as his contact person.  The daughter said he was going to come to her home, but didn't show up, but she did talk to him on the phone.  He said he was home alone.  Daughter did not remember times she talked to him on the phone, and phone records were not checked.

#66: not completed

Registered sex offender.  Bates 38513.  Arrested for rape and oral copulation of a child under 14 in 1983; in 1985 arrested for sexual battery; July 2003 arrested for being drunk in public.  In Bates 38496, classified as a high risk sex offender.  Bates 38497 is another report.  Contacted in July 2003.  Coyle didn't sign off on this one because he gave his father as his alibi, and attempts to contact his father failed. His sister was contacted, but she didn't know where he was on December 24.  DMV was not checked for vehicles.  Coyle didn't know whether the DMV was checked to see if his father had any vehicles.

#238: completed

Bates 32582.  Officer Beffa checked with the halfway house on Angle Lane in Modesto, about 8-10 blocks from Covena.  Beffa was told there were 4 registered sex offenders living there on December 24, 2002.  #238 said he was at the Bethesda Ministries all day the entire day.  Randall Hughes was contacted and verified he was there.

#70: completed.

Also one of the four sex offenders living at the halfway house on Angle Lane.  He said he was there all day, which was verified by Randall Hughes.

#1: not completed.

Also one of the four sex offenders living at the halfway house on Angle Lane.  Not contacted.

#155: completed

Also one of the four sex offenders living at the halfway house on Angle Lane.  Said he was there all day, confirmed.

For the previous four,  records from the halfway house were not obtained to verify that they were there that day.  They took the word of Randall Hughes, who was on staff at the halfway house.

#35: completed.

Said he was visiting his brother out of town, who couldn't recall whether it was the 24th or 25th that he was there, and said he needed to think about it.  Coyle contacted the brother again, and he said he couldn't remember if it was Christmas Eve/Christmas Day he was there, or Christmas Day/day after Christmas. 

#9: completed

Registered sex offender. Tried to contact on December 29, 2002.  Residence on Kerr.  Two officers went to the address, but the two residents who lived there did not know the person.  In a return visit, the two residents said they had lived there for 2 years, and no one by that name had been there.  The had a back house, but the woman who had lived there for over a year denied knowing the person.  A driver's license check identified a different address, which was checked on May 5, 2003.  No answer, so a note was left. He contacted MPD and said he was at home on December 24th between 8:30 and 5.  Said he might have visited some friends, but would not have done so until after 5.  Owned a 4-door Accord.

#101: completed

Bates 3120.  Contacted by phone.  Said he had never seen Laci Peterson before and never had contact with her.  The officer wrote in his report that he had no visible signs of cuts or scratches.  He had access to a car.