Searches:  San Francisco Bay

The Modesto Police Department expended numerous resources to locate Laci's dead body in the Bay.   The searches were divided into two phases:  before and after the bodies were found. They failed to find any evidence that Laci was in the Bay.  Absence of evidence where evidence is expected demonstrates factual innocence.  The "media reports" indicated in various entries demonstrate how the MPD manipulated the media.

Besides the Modesto Police Department, multiple agencies were involved in the searches, depending on the jurisdiction of the area being searched.  Still other agencies provided divers and equipment.

Berkeley Police Department:  Berkeley Marina searches

Trimble was used to track for Laci's scent at the Berkeley Marina.  They first ran him around the bathroom area and one of the launch areas. Trimble did pick up a scent on another launch ramp, and indicated end of trail near one of the pylons.

Media Report:  The search focused on the waters off the Berkeley Marina for the next few days. Police asked the public to help verify Scott's whereabouts on Christmas Eve day. They released pictures of his pickup truck, boat and boat trailer that they had impounded and pled for anyone who saw Scott in Berkeley to come forward.

Media Report:  The search intensified in the Berkeley Marina overnight, as investigators took to the water for clues. "We're looking as many places we can. We're checking the coves. We're looking in the marinas. We're checking the rock walls -- all the various areas where the shoreline meets the water," said Sgt. Guy Craig of the Berkeley Police Department. "So far nothing."  

Media Report:  Police divers again searched the water near the Berkeley Marina. Special dogs that can detect human scent in the water were used to survey the water and shortly before 3 p.m. a hit came back. "One of the teams detected that there might be something to look for and we at this point don't know if it's substantial.  We've got the divers here and we'll go ahead and use them and check out the spot," said a spokesman from the Berkeley Police Department.

Media Report:  There was no word whether a blue tarp discovered over the weekend in the Berkeley Marina was connected to the case.

Media Report:  Modesto Police were back at the Berkeley Marina, using a borrowed search boat armed with an underwater camera to scour the waters below for any clues. Searchers first turned their attentions to the waters of the marina last weekend, but swift currents and murky waters hindered divers. Sonar gear did spot something unusual in the waters, but by the time divers entered the water, they could not locate what it might have been. If police found anything new on Wednesday at the Marina, they were not saying.

Media Report:  After days of coming up empty in their search for Laci Peterson, the Modesto Police finally may have a clue as to what happened to the missing woman. A sonar search of water at the Berkeley Marina turns up a submerged object that may indicate a human body. But police say inclement weather and fatigue among the divers is preventing them from retrieving the object or investigating it any further until the weekend.  Expert divers, veterans of many Bay water searches, questioned the decision to delay the recovery of whatever lies at the bottom of the Berkeley Marina. When asked if he still supports his son-in-law, Laci's stepfather, Ron Grantski, says he does, but adds "God Help Us" if Scott is somehow involved.

 

January 11, 2003 -- Object was an anchor

Media Report:  A search of the Berkeley Marina, where authorities had found an object using side-scan sonar, an object that might be a body, turned up an old anchor and no clues as to what happened to Laci. In Modesto, the news re-vitalized friends and family at the Peterson search center, but a friend who spent the day with Scott said he was worn out and emotionally fragile.

Detective Phil Owen met officers Mark Larry and Greg Lattice at the Richmond Harbor Master Pier on January 20, 2003. Their assignment was to take a paint sample from the Richmond Turning Basin Buoy Number 6 and see if it matched with any paint transfer on Scott's boat. Owens said, "we discussed the possibility of the boat being tied to something in the Bay to steady the boat for the possibility of a body dump.  .  .  .  Based on that conversation, we discussed the possibility that there could be some sort of paint transfer on the trim of the boat." After getting the paint sample from the Buoy, Owens examined the boat. He did find some red paint transfer on Scott's boat, but it did not match the paint from Buoy Number 6.  Red paint transfer

Documents entered as evidence in the Pre-Trial hearings said Scott made trips to the Berkeley marina on both the 26th and 27th of January, each time in a different vehicle.  On the 26th, he drove the Rover to the Marina, circled around, and then drove south to Sunnyvale. On the 27th, he drove a Dodge pickup along a frontage road just north of the marina at about 3 pm, then circled back before going to San Francisco International Airport about six hours later. Geragos, in his OS, revealed that Grogan called Scott on the 26th to tell him, "She's in the Bay, we're gonna find her."  Geragos said that if Scott had not gone to the Bay, Grogan would have said Scott didn't care.