Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Saturday
Police Divers Search for Laci Peterson
Aired January 11, 2003 - 16:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN Center. Welcome to this special edition of CNN SATURDAY. First, this check of our top stories in our news alert.
Police divers are headed into the waters of San Francisco Bay today as part of the search for missing pregnant woman Laci Peterson. Divers will try to further explore an object detected by sonar underwater.
CNN's Rusty Dornin joins us now from Peterson's hometown of Modesto, California with the very latest -- Rusty.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Fredricka, we initially thought the divers were going to begin the search just after dawn this morning, but they did not get into the water of San Francisco Bay until just about an hour ago. Now, the object that they are saying resembles a body, they're saying there's a 50/50 chance it could be a human body. It's out in a channel off the Berkeley pier.
Now, we understand that there are two teams of three divers apiece, and each diver, they will spend 20 minutes being the lead person leading that search. Now, diving in the waters of the San Francisco Bay in this area is not like diving in the Caribbean. They will be using a lead line. It will be very meticulous and it will be a hands-on search.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. GENE BATTAGLIA, ALAMEDA COUNTY DIVE CAPT: Once he starts, he turns and he starts his sweeping. What he will do is he sits his hands like this and he takes his hands and he runs out, comes back, hits that hand, runs out, comes back, hits that hand, that hand goes up, that hand goes up, and he's out. So you can see it's very meticulous. My guys will be able to find anything that's on the bottom out there. That's why it's going to take some time to take care of business. They want to make sure that they hit everything and nothing's missed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DORNIN: Now what you're looking at is a live picture of the search going on out in San Francisco Bay. What you see in the distance there is a 40-foot Coast Guard Cutter that's filled with divers, it's about two and a half miles off the Berkeley pier, another five miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, they only have about another four and a half hours to search before they lose the light. So we don't know whether they're going to be able to find that object or bring that to the surface. Apparently it takes hours if it actually was a human body, to be able to bring that to the surface. So there's a possibility this could continue through the morning.
Meantime, the folks here, the family of Laci Peterson has remained out of sight, although Scott Peterson's family was at the volunteer center, and they're still saying they do not believe that Scott Peterson will be implicated and they do not believe that will be Laci Peterson's body that is discovered out in the Bay -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Rusty Dornin, thank you very much, from Modesto, California.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 11, 2003 - 16:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN Center. Welcome to this special edition of CNN SATURDAY. First, this check of our top stories in our news alert.
Police divers are headed into the waters of San Francisco Bay today as part of the search for missing pregnant woman Laci Peterson. Divers will try to further explore an object detected by sonar underwater.
CNN's Rusty Dornin joins us now from Peterson's hometown of Modesto, California with the very latest -- Rusty.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Fredricka, we initially thought the divers were going to begin the search just after dawn this morning, but they did not get into the water of San Francisco Bay until just about an hour ago. Now, the object that they are saying resembles a body, they're saying there's a 50/50 chance it could be a human body. It's out in a channel off the Berkeley pier.
Now, we understand that there are two teams of three divers apiece, and each diver, they will spend 20 minutes being the lead person leading that search. Now, diving in the waters of the San Francisco Bay in this area is not like diving in the Caribbean. They will be using a lead line. It will be very meticulous and it will be a hands-on search.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. GENE BATTAGLIA, ALAMEDA COUNTY DIVE CAPT: Once he starts, he turns and he starts his sweeping. What he will do is he sits his hands like this and he takes his hands and he runs out, comes back, hits that hand, runs out, comes back, hits that hand, that hand goes up, that hand goes up, and he's out. So you can see it's very meticulous. My guys will be able to find anything that's on the bottom out there. That's why it's going to take some time to take care of business. They want to make sure that they hit everything and nothing's missed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DORNIN: Now what you're looking at is a live picture of the search going on out in San Francisco Bay. What you see in the distance there is a 40-foot Coast Guard Cutter that's filled with divers, it's about two and a half miles off the Berkeley pier, another five miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, they only have about another four and a half hours to search before they lose the light. So we don't know whether they're going to be able to find that object or bring that to the surface. Apparently it takes hours if it actually was a human body, to be able to bring that to the surface. So there's a possibility this could continue through the morning.
Meantime, the folks here, the family of Laci Peterson has remained out of sight, although Scott Peterson's family was at the volunteer center, and they're still saying they do not believe that Scott Peterson will be implicated and they do not believe that will be Laci Peterson's body that is discovered out in the Bay -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Rusty Dornin, thank you very much, from Modesto, California.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
