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1 Feb 2003 Scott's polygraph arranged by Amber At 12:06 a.m., Amber called Buehler again, and they agreed to pursue the polygraph for Scott. Calls between Amber and Buehler resumed at 9:01 a.m. At 9:19 a.m., Amber called Melvin King, the same polygrapher who tested Cory Carroll, and then called Buehler again. At 9:36 a.m., she called Scott, and they talked for 13 minutes. Another report back to Buehler, and another call before 10 a.m. to King to setup the appointment. 2 undercover cops in Fresno would be on hand to arrest Scott if he said something incriminating. Later, Amber called Scott to tell him she was on her way to King's, and was he coming? He replied, "I would do it but my lawyers say I can't. The police are trying to frame me." Amber called Scott a total of 9 times, for a total talk time of almost 90 minutes. She called Buehler 19 times the same day, with the calls lasting a total of 61 minutes. Scott and Amber exchanged a total of 12 calls, with 4 from Scott to Amber. (The total number of calls from the two sources don't add up.)
However, Amber tells a different story in her book, "Witness." She says Buehler never consented to have her participate in the polygraph with Scott and that she never intended to meet Scott at King's. She said Scott had arrived at King's to take the polygraph, but then spotted Detective Brocchini's car. She said Scott "went up to his car, angry, and demanded to know whether I'd tipped him off. Brocchini said nothing, and Scott stormed away" (p. 150-51). Scott then called her and accused her, "You set me up!" She denied having anything to do with it. She said Scott was sobbing (p. 151).
Detective Brocchini tells a different story. He testified that Scott did go to Fresno. Brocchini said the police learned through a wiretap that Scott was going to be at a location in Fresno, but did not specify the location, except to say it was near where Amber lived. Brocchini went to Fresno to try to locate Scott. Scott was parked, and Brocchini drove by him for a few blocks and parked in a school parking lot. Scott approached Brocchini's car, so Brocchini got out.
Brocchini told Scott he wasn't acting like somebody that missed is his pregnant wife, and Scott had to explain the other girlfriends that he had identified. Scott said, "Right, other girlfriends." Brocchini replied, "Well, I got pictures." Brocchini described Scott's demeanor as "Emotionless, matter of fact. Just calm." and that Scott just walked away.
3 Feb 2003 Grogan's report outlined theory Detective Grogan filed a police report on February 3, 2003, which outlined the current theory on how Scott disposed of Laci. Grogan and Detective Phil Owens, also a member of the core detective group working this case, thought Scott's boat would have to be tied to something to get the necessary stability in order to dump Laci's body without capsizing. They suggested areas by buoys be searched as that would provide an area for both cover and to tie off the boat. Owens was tasked with examining the boat for any signs of red paint transfer. He found some red paint on the side of the boat and in some of the threads of the screws on one side where the fishing pole holder was located. Samples of the paint transfer from the boat and red chips taken from Buoy 6 were sent to the DOJ for testing, but they were not similar. In fact, the paint transfer likely came from a red dolly that was by the side of the boat in the MPD's storage unit.
4 Feb 2003 Wire-tap ended Investigators ended the wire-tap on Scott's phones, saying "further progress in the investigation would not be gained through additional interception." Amber called Scott at 9:20 p.m., 10:02 p.m., and 11:19 p.m. Amber continued to call Scott until February 19. Amber also spoke on the phone for 22 minutes with Sharon Rocha. Amber and Scott exchanged 5 calls.
5 Feb 2003 Scott in Mexico Scott checked out of a hotel in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he had been attending a trade show. Geragos said in his OS that LE tried to get Trade Corps to not let him go to Mexico.
Word leaked out that he sold Laci's Land Rover and inquired into selling the house. Ron Grantski held a news conference to issue a family statement, which included their comments on his selling the Rover and his attempts to sell the house. Ron said they found out about the Rover when they saw the new truck in the driveway. Later, Scott called Ted Rowlands, KTVU, from Mexico to answer the Rocha family criticisms. Talking from an undisclosed location, he said of selling the car: "Yes, I traded in the car. We were planning on buying a new one when the baby arrived and I needed a truck for work." The truck he had used for his fertilizer business was taken into custody by the Modesto Police early in the investigation. On the house, he said: "Yes, I tried to sell the house. Who the hell would want to live in a house that's unsafe where your wife was kidnapped from?"
5 Feb 2003 LE subpoenaed credit card information Detective Brocchini gave FBI agent Terry Scott a list of Visa purchases made by Scott from Home Depot, Orchard Supply, other hardware stores, and Lowes. Agent Scott obtained these records through a Federal Grand Jury subpoena. In the preliminary hearing, McAllister suggested the purpose was to get Scott fired from Trade Corp, and this information was turned over to Trade Corp and that Brocchini had conversations about it with Trade Corp's corporate attorney, Ross Lee. Brocchini denied the investigation into these Visa charges had anything to do with Trade Corp, but did admit he had communications with Trade Corp on some Trade Corp expenditures Scott made, to see if they were legitimate. He said he received records from Trade Corp on consent from Trade Corp. McAllister asked Brocchini if he received an email from Lee on March 19 confirming an internal audit that concluded nothing inappropriate about the purchases. The question was overruled.
7 Feb 2003 Scott asked Amber to meet him In a 10:43 pm call transcript Scott asked Amber to meet him somewhere. He wanted to come to Fresno, but she said no, that there was too much risk from the media. He suggested Lake Arrowhead, near LA. He said he wanted to see her in person because there were things he wanted to tell her and he wanted to look into her eyes.
8 Feb 2003 Scott asked again to see Amber Scott expressed a continued desire to be with Amber:
He also offered helped to help her financially and send her on a trip so she could get away for a few days. She declined his offers. Transcript
In a second phone call that same day, they discussed the nude photos of Amber in the media, and the conversation suggests another set of nude photos exists, which Scott personally saw. He also asked her the significant of March 28, 2003 to her, but she didn't recall having told her it was significant. Transcript
8 Feb 2003 Sharon begged Scott to bring Laci home Transcript of phone message to Scott Peterson from Sharon Rocha Feb. 8, 2003
Recording
8 Feb 2003 Family Search - Delta-Mendota Canal For the first time in weeks, a large scale volunteer search is staged for Laci. This first of three planned by the Rocha family for consecutive weekends in February. The 500 searchers, some with dogs, others on horseback, combed the Delta- Mendota Canal area near Vernalis, Calif. The search turned up nothing new.
10 Feb 2003 Laci's due date & Amber's Birthday The first of two due dates for Laci (the other being 16 Feb), Amber Frey's birthday, nude photos of Frey taken four years earlier first hit some National Enquirer newsstands. Amber called Scott 4 times, and they exchanged 5 phone calls. The previous night, Amber and Scott spoke for 34 minutes.
Scott called Amber at 8:55 a.m. to wish her a Happy Birthday and to tell her he wanted her to make a stop at a certain place on her way to work. Transcript Also entered into evidence were transcripts of 3 more calls that day. In the calls, he tells her he wants her to stop by the Children's Hospital, but does not tell her why. Amber testified that Scott left her birthday present there. Transcripts for the 9:30 am, 9:31 am, and 12:01 pm calls.
11 Feb 2003 Detectives become aware of the pliers Detectives Brocchini and Grogan were examining all of the pictures taken in the various searches and noticed the picture of a pair of pliers with a big long hair sticking out of it. Brocchini then reviewed the pictures he had taken of the boat on the night of the 24th, and discovered that the pliers did show in one of the pictures.
11 Feb 2003 Request for another Search Warrant outlined Grogan's theory Seeking another search warrant for the Covena home and storage shed, Lead Detective Grogan outlined his theory.
Grogan listed 24 items he was looking for, including any poisons or injectable drugs or fluids that could cause death and any syringes or items used for injection of drugs. He also wanted to take a sample of McKenzie's hair so it could be compared to dog hairs found on a blue tarp recovered in the Bay. When Grogan asked Scott where McKenzie was, he asked if they were going to impound his dog, too.
11 Feb 2003 Suspicious Man on raft south of Bay Bridge A predawn sighting of a man in a wetsuit steering a motorized raft toward the Bay Bridge on Tuesday sparked a massive multi-agency effort to explain a report that raised grave homeland-security concerns. The search began soon after 3 a.m., when the captain of the Alameda-based tugboat Polaris telephoned the U.S. Coast Guard to say his boat had nearly collided with a 10-foot Zodiac-style raft about a mile south of the Bay Bridge." This raft had no lights, which looked fairly suspicious," said Dale Kline, Seaway's general manager." The guy (on the raft) is either incredibly stupid or he was trying to hide something."
12 Feb 2003 The hair in the pliers Detectives Al Brocchini and Dodge Hendee examined the hair found in the pliers in Scott's boat on December 27 before sending it to the lab to be tested. Their intent was to determine if the single strand of hair about 5-6 inches in length had a root. If it did, nuclear DNA testing (can indicate probabilities of 1 in 1.2 billion) could be done; if not, mitochondrial DNA testing (probabilities of 1 in 250,000) would be performed. The hair did not have a root. However, the detectives found two strands of hair on the 12th. Hendee wrote in his report: "When Detective Brocchini and I opened and emptied the envelope, we both observed what I had originally thought was a single hair, was actually two hairs." The two hairs were submitted to a state Department of Justice crime lab the next day along with two of Laci's brushes. Citing a "complete break in the chain of custody" and the relatively new and unreliable mitochondrial DNA testing used to positively identify the hair as Laci's, Scott's defense sought to have the hair excluded as evidence. Several experts have voiced opinions on how the single hair could become two hairs without involving a break in the chain of custody, and prosecutors contend the single hair found broke in an evidence package and was not mishandled by investigators. When a criminalist at the state Department of Justice lab examined the two hairs, he found one measured 4 inches and the other 1 inches. Both had damaged ends that "appear to match each other, meaning the hair broke apart in the package."
12 Feb 2003 Connie Chung Interview KTVU's Ted Rowlands asked Scott if he was concerned about a leak from a reliable source that claimed he was the focus of the police investigation and that an arrest may come in "weeks, not months." "Not all," he said. "They have to have something to arrest me on. I'm not worried." In an interview, Connie Chung asked Sharon, "Do you believe that Scott Peterson is capable of doing something terrible to your daughter?" Sharon replied: "The way they were as a couple, we would never be able to believe that. They were just so loving to each other. They were always happy together. And there was no indication that there was ever any kind of a problem between the two of them." Laci's family now described Scott's behavior as "weird" and said they are troubled about what they call his lack of emotion and grief since Laci disappeared. "When my sister's car needed to be repaired from the police work that was done to her car, he asked that one of us take it there, so he didn't have to go there and be questioned by police," said Brent Rocha. "It's just little actions like that where he's trying to avoid them that make you wonder."
13 Feb 2003 Sharon called Scott About 10 a.m., while Sharon was talking to Gwen Kemple, a call came from Scott on call waiting. This was a brief conversation in which Scott told Sharon about the press conference that was to be held in San Diego that day.
After the press conference, Sharon called Scott back with specific questions. She used a recording device provided by LE to record the conversation. Click here for the complete transcript. Sharon told Scott she just wanted to know everything that happened from the time Laci called her at 8:30 on the 23rd till Scott said goodbye to her on the 24th. She asked what they did the night of the 23rd, if Laci was sick or tired, what time they went to bed on the 23rd, what she wore to bed, what time she got up on the 24th, what she was wearing on the 24th, what plans they had for the 24th. She also asked if they had previously had plans to do something else besides go to Sharon's, since Sharon had to ask Laci a couple of times before Laci said yes. Sharon testified at the trial that she had attempted to have this conversation several times before with Scott, notably on December 28 and January 1, but he always had something else he had to do. About 4 p.m., Sharon called Scott a second time, with more questions, and again recorded the conversation. In her book, For Laci, Sharon provides a transcript of this call. In addition to asking some of the same questions about what Laci was doing on the morning of the 23rd, she specifically asked him if he told Laci about the affair and when. Scott said early December, but he would figure out the exact date if she wanted. He admitted to seeing Amber once again after telling Laci about the affair.
13 Feb 2003 Scott offered to pay Amber's Phone bill In one of the phone conversations Amber taped, she told Scott her cell phone was disconnected fro service because her bill had reached over $800. When she called for an explanation, she was told she had gone 2000 minutes over her plan. Scott offered to pay for the phone bill, but she declined. She also asked for the PO box address so she could send him a book. And, interestingly, she notes an apparent breach in her relationship with Shawn Sibley. Shawn did not attend Amber's birthday party and did not otherwise send birthday greetings, and Amber didn't receive an invitation to Shawn's wedding. Click here for the transcript and audio of this phone call.
14 Feb 2003 Scott called Amber 7 times Amber reported that Scott called her 7 times on Valentine's Day. Phone records show that she also called Scott. However, Investigator Steven Jacobson testified at the preliminary that Amber and Scott did not exchange any phone calls on the 14th.
15 Feb 2003 Family Search - Lake Don Pedro Second of three Rocha family searches, focusing on Lake Don Pedro. 25-30 private boats were employed in the search.
15 Feb 2003 Scott's note to Amber During a conversation in the wee hours of the morning, Scott asked Amber to read a note he had sent her:
Amber is calling Scott at 2:42 am because she promised Scott she would call when she got home from a party she attended. Transcript
18 Feb 2003 Scott criticized Grogan and MPD investigation On February 18, 2003, Scott voiced concerns that he was not permitted to view the surveillance tape from Longview WA after the clerk said she thought Laci might have been in the store. He told Grogan that being a family member, he would be better able to identify her than strangers. He also criticized the police for releasing photos of his truck and boat under pretense of wanting to verify his alibi on the 24th when they already had witnesses to verify it. Finally, he chastised Grogan for spending so much time investigating him instead of following up on other leads.
18-19 Feb 2003 2-day Search of the Covena home Police conducted a 2-day search of the Covena home. According to the Globe, this search was prompted by the results of the forensic tests on the kitchen mop removed during the December 26-27 search--tests which detected traces of Laci's blood and vomit. Detective teams wearing rubber gloves measured the home's driveway, yard and front side, while others gathered more evidence inside. After driving away with more than 90 items, Modesto police spokesman Doug Ridenour repeated that the husband is neither a suspect, nor has he been ruled out as one. "We have not been able to eliminate Scott from the investigation," Ridenour said. "We'd like to and are hoping we are going to be able to do that at some point." Sources later admitted no traces of blood were found in either this 2-day search or the December 26-27 search. However, information from a GPS tracking device put into Scott's new Dodge Dakota pickup will likely be introduced into evidence by the prosecution. The police seized the pickup during this search, but returned it after a few hours. The police obtained search warrants for 3 other vehicles used by Scott, but media reports do not specify the vehicles or the dates of the warrants.
Scott's storage unit was also searched. A trash can contained a small album of Scott and Laci's wedding pictures. The nursery at the Covena home was beginning to look like a storage room, with several rocking chairs and other items in it.
18 Feb 2003 Envelope addressed to Kirk McAllister During the execution of the search warrant on the Covena home, officers found an envelope addressed to Modesto Attorney Kirk McAllister, who was hired by Scott in the early days after Laci's disappearance, and asked the Court to appoint a special master to examine its contents. State law requires a special master when the gathering of evidence might violate four legally protected relationships: between an individual and his or her (1) lawyer, (2) psychologist or psychiatrist, (3) priest or (4) doctor. During a February 26 hearing, Judge Wray Ladine ruled that the envelope contained confidential information between client and attorney. According to court records, at least 3 items were in the envelope.
18 Feb 2003 Amy identified Laci's clothes Amy Rocha was asked to facilitate the search of the Covena home by identifying the clothes Laci was wearing at the Salon Salon on Dec. 23.
19 Feb 2003 Amber's last call to Scott Investigator Steve Jacobson testified at the preliminary hearing that this was last documented phone call between Scott and Amber. During the 93 day period from November 19, 2002 through February 19, 2003, Scott and Amber exchanged a total of 241 calls. According to Detective Jon Buehler, Amber told Scott to stop calling her. However, the Enquirer claims "their frequent conversations continued almost until April 18, when Scott was arrested." In the call that started at Amber's initiative at 7:36 a.m. Amber told Scott she didn't think they should talk anymore until there was a resolution. Scott agreed. The call lasted only 2 minutes 52 seconds. Transcript
19 Feb 2003 Jackie Peterson interviewed by Greta Van Susteren In the interview, Jackie confirmed her confidence that Scott had nothing to do with Laci's disappearance and her concern that everyone had stopped looking for her. She also said: in the beginning, there was the dog found with his leash and their hound dogs found that she had gotten into a car in the middle of the street, and they followed the scent out to a rural area, out of town, and people have lost sight of that total picture. Jackie described Laci as: She's wonderful. She's like the sparkle in the family. We all just couldn't wait for her to come and be around us, and we visited her as often as we could. She's just delight, and everybody loved her. The grandkids are nuts about her. The siblings adore her. She just makes everything wonderful for people. She's just the nicest person you'd ever want to meet.
20 Feb 2003 Det. Buehler called a tip in to the Peterson hot line Scott and his mother Jackie had set up a tip line separate from the LE. Detective Buehler suspected that the Petersons might not be reporting all the tips to the LE, so he called in a tip that the LE had received, exactly as the LE received it. The tip was the Marietta Wallace tip called in on January 9, which implicated Scott. Buehler testified in the Preliminary Hearing that the Petersons never referred this tip to the LE. McAllister's cross examination suggested the Petersons had someone other than the LE following up on the tips they were getting. Buehler said in his testimony that a female FBI agent also called tips in to the Peterson tip line to see if they would then report them to the LE. Buehler had the FBI subpoena the tip line records.
21 Feb 2003 Hair fragments & Pliers examined by Federal Crime Lab The hair fragments reportedly found in the pliers taken from Scott's boat were examined by criminalist Rodney Oswalt at the Federal Crime Lab in Ripon CA. Oswalt's comparison tests determined that the two fragments were in a range of variation for sample hairs taken from a hairbrush that belonged to Laci, and thus could have been Laci's hair. The hair color varied between the two fragments. Fragment 1, which would have been closest to the root, the hair got lighter, from darker to lighter moving away from the root. Fragment 2, which would have been furthest from the root, was brown all the way through. Also, fragment 2 was darker brown than fragment 1. The hair fragments were not sent for mtDNA testing until June. Oswalt also examined some hairs that were collected from a red rope and a black and orange nylon rope. These hairs were nonhuman, some of which were dog hairs and some of which could have been cat hairs or dog hairs. Oswalt was asked to compare the nonhuman hairs to a sample from McKenzie, but not to a sample from Twist, a cadaver dog who was taken through the Covena house on December 27th to sniff out cadaver scents and then taken to the boat to do the same.
About the same time, the pliers and a pair of wire cutters were examined at the Federal Crime Lab by criminalist Sarah Yoshida. Yoshida reported rust on the cutting edges of both tools, and they had not been used recently because the cutting edges did not show a clearing or destruction in the rust.
22 Feb 2003 Family Search - New Melones Reservoir Volunteers searched the waterways and wilderness areas of the New Melones Reservoir over the weekend, but came up empty in their attempt to find any trace of Laci. More than 100 volunteers came out under clear skies Saturday to mount the search. Scott did not take part. "We had about 100 people (on foot), six teams of horses and 10 boats searching the reservoir today, but we didn't find anything," Ron Grantski said. It was the last of three searches organized in February by Laci's family.
24 Feb 2003 Scott suspected an Asian Crime Gang "Scott told me he felt the checks may be linked to his wife Laci's disappearance and the suspects that took the checks may also be responsible for abducting his wife," Det. Grogan wrote in a Feb. 24, 2003 report. The checks referred to were sent by Scott's credit card company as part of his Jan 22 billing statement to the Trade Corps mailbox, which is part of the cluster-type mailboxes used by so many industrial complexes. Sarah Taberna, the woman arrested for having the checks in her possession, along with keys to a stolen car and a Laci Peterson missing persons flyer, said she often used a crowbar to break into cluster-type mailboxes and removed mail from credit card companies and banks. Taberna told MPD that she was high on meth on Christmas Eve, 2002, and partied with her friends much of that night. She said she was also high on meth the day she took the checks, and didn't actually remember taking them.
Det. Mike Hermosa, the arresting officer, testified on July 21, and on cross Geragos asked about the thefts at the cluster mailboxes previous to Laci's disappearance. Hermosa said MPD focus was on Taberna and her alibi for the 24th, not the previous thefts at the cluster mailboxes. Other information came out about Taberna during the cross examination: she had a miscarriage in July 02, she was afraid to steal from the house so she stole from the cluster mailboxes at the warehouse, and she learned how to do the break-ins from the Asian gang.
26 Feb 2003 Cement residue in the boat Police asked Bruce Peterson to examine the boat he sold to Scott. Bruce told police one life preserver was missing, as well as the boat's auxiliary wheels. He also noticed something else: "It looked like cement residue. Like the powdery stuff that comes out of the bag."
27 Feb 2003 Vacant house at 344 Covena re-investigated On December 27, 2002, Officer Corder was dispatched to 344 Covena, which is one block down from Encina. A person passing out fliers walked up to the house and thought they saw someone run to the back of the house. It was a vacant house under renovation. Corder peered through the windows on all sides. A van was parked outside that looked like it hadnt been driven for some time. Buehler asked about it, and so Corder went back to the house on February 27, 2003, and the house was in the same condition.
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