Scott Peterson arrested in wife's death as remains identified

By BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press Writer

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) Authorities said genetic odds ``in the billions'' proved that two bodies that recently washed ashore were those of Laci Peterson and her baby, in an announcement that came hours after the missing woman's husband was arrested in their deaths.

Scott Peterson, 30, arrived at the Stanislaus County jail just before midnight Friday after being driven there from San Diego, where he was arrested 12 hours earlier. Prosecutors said they planned on charging Peterson with double murder, which would make him eligible for the death penalty.

Plainclothes agents who had been tracking Peterson's movements with phone taps and vehicle sensors made the arrest hours before the DNA test results on the bodies were known because Peterson had indicated he knew he was under surveillance and was considered a flight risk, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said.

Photos of Peterson released after his arrest showed that he had recently bleached his dark hair and grown a beard.

Apart from the two bodies that washed ashore this week about three miles from where Scott Peterson said he was fishing when his wife disappeared Christmas Eve, Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden refused to describe the state's evidence. But he said it suggested that Laci Peterson may have been killed on Dec. 23 because no ``credible witness'' saw or heard from her after that.

Officials wouldn't discuss Scott Peterson's possible motives.

Wasden said there were no other suspects in the case. The fact that a $50,000 reward for information leading to her body went unclaimed, he said, ``continued to reinforce that one person knew what happened to Laci and where Laci was'' he said.

``This is a case where it's a process of elimination,'' Wasden told CNN Saturday morning. ``We never were able to eliminate Scott.''

Peterson's first court appearance will come on Monday or Tuesday. His attorney, Kirk McAllister, did not immediately return telephone messages Friday from The Associated Press.

The dramatic turn in the case came nearly a week after pedestrians found the bodies of Laci Peterson and the son she had already named Conner washed up about a mile apart on the shoreline.

The bodies were identified Friday evening through a comparison with DNA samples from Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson's parents.

``There is no question in our minds that the unidentified female is Laci Peterson. The unidentified fetus is the biological child of Laci and Scott Peterson,'' Lockyer said. ``We're scientifically convinced the match is one in billions.''

A spokeswoman for Laci Peterson's family said relatives were devastated by the confirmation of the deaths, but grateful they finally had an answer after months of uncertainty.

``Families in their circumstances will always tell you the worst thing is not knowing,'' said spokeswoman Kim Peterson, executive director of the Carole Sund-Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation. ``I don't know if relief is the right word. ... The waiting this week has been horrific for them.''

From virtually the moment his wife was reported missing, Scott Peterson's moves and statements have been scrutinized by authorities.

Modesto police seized his boat, pickup truck and nearly 100 items from the couple's house but had not formally named him as a suspect in his wife's disappearance.

Peterson traded in his wife's Land Rover for a new pickup truck, considered selling their home and eventually admitted an extramarital affair with a massage therapist while his wife was pregnant with the couple's baby.

Shortly after, Peterson said he'd told his wife about the affair in the days before she vanished.

``It (the affair) was not a positive, obviously ... but it was not something that we weren't dealing with,'' he told ABC's ``Good Morning America.'' ``It wasn't anything that would break us apart.''

The affair turned Laci Peterson's family against the son-in-law they had earlier supported. They begged him to cooperate with Modesto police, who had labeled him ``uncooperative.''

Scott Peterson launched his own search effort, separate from the one organized by his wife's family and sanctioned by police. At one point, as searchers looked in the San Francisco Bay and around Modesto, Scott Peterson showed up in Los Angeles to distribute fliers to volunteers at a local hotel.

``We simply have to expand the geographical area,'' he said at the time.

In February, Scott Peterson told MSNBC he missed his wife and the child she was to bear.

``I can't drive. I can't sleep,'' he said then. ``Sometimes I feel I just can't do it. I feel like I'm in a dark corner and I just can't function.''

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)