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Karen Servas Timeline
Karen Servas lived
directly south of Scott and Laci Peterson at 517 Covena Avenue. On
the morning of December 24, 2002, as she backed out of her driveway,
she found the Peterson’s dog, McKenzie, in the street with his leash
attached. She parked her car, returned McKenzie to the Peterson’s
back yard and closed the gate. She returned home to wash her hands,
then got back in her car and left to do her errands.
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Servas spoke first
to Detective Brocchini of the Modesto Police Department on the
evening of December 24. There are no details about this conversation
in trial testimony. On the morning of December 25, around 11:30
a.m., Servas was interviewed by Detective Jon Buehler. She told him
that she found the dog around 10:30 a.m.
On December 28, Servas found a store receipt in her jeans pocket as
she was doing her laundry, and she sent Detective Buehler a note
about this dated January 3, 2003. On the basis of this receipt, she
reconstructed her timeline and said that she found McKenzie at 10:18
a.m.
To verify her story, Servas provided a faded receipt from Austin’s
Christmas store for 10:34 a.m. on December 24 and the record of a
cell phone call made at 10:37 a.m. She did not provide a record for
a transaction she made at the Bank of America at 10:53 a.m.
Servas’ timeline
was crucial to the prosecution’s case. On the basis of her timeline,
the MPD discredited a connection between the burglary at Rudy and
Susan Medina’s house (516 Covena) and failed to investigate numerous
sightings of Laci Peterson walking her dog in the Covena
neighborhood on the morning of December 24. Rick Distaso used
Servas’ timeline as the reason for omitting all possibilities that
someone other than Scott had committed this crime.
Karen [Servas] finds the dog at
10:18. So we're talking about, if he left at 10:08, as his cell
phone records show, not as he told us, we're talking a 10-minute
time window when Laci Peterson must have finished mopping the
floor, changed her clothes, gotten -- gotten the dog together,
gone on a walk, gotten far enough away where then she got
abducted and had time for the dog to come back. All of these
things were impossible. If those things are impossible, then
this man murdered Laci Peterson.
And Judge Delucchi
used her timeline to discredit the Aponte tip and to deny Defense
Motion for a New Trial.
Exhibits:
Testimony:
(Modesto Bee;
December 28, 2002)
Karen Servas, the
couple's next-door neighbor, said she was pulling out of her
driveway about 10:30 a.m. the day Laci Peterson disappeared and
found the retriever standing in the street. As she led him back
to her neighbor's house, she saw the side gate open and figured
he had just wandered out as he had previously.
- TWO NEW
OFFICERS JOIN THE RANKS OF STANISLAUS YMCA
(Modesto Bee; May
2, 2002)
The YMCA of Stanislaus County, one of the largest nonprofit
service organizations in the county, got a new executive officer
and a new development officer Wednesday. ..Steve Smith, vice
president of client services for the Modesto-based Stanislaus
County Economic Development Corp., took over the top spot at the
Y. Smith is now interim president of SCEDCO...Karen Servas, who
has been the Y's chief executive officer for eight years, will
serve as chief development officer . . .
Karen Servas
timeline is based on invalid time sources and unverified
information. There is no evidence to confirm that she found the
Peterson’s dog at 10:18 a.m. on December 24, 2002.
Karen Servas
timeline is not believable because she is an unreliable
witness. Examples of her inattention to detail regarding time
show that her testimony is questionable.
The leash
was collected during the Search Warrant of December 26-27. Pin
Kyo, the CA DOJ criminalist who examined it found nothing on
the leash of evidentiary value.
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