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Laci Peterson Case: Searching For Evidence

Aired May 16, 2003 - 13:11   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: New developments at this hour in the Laci Peterson murder investigation. Divers are searching the San Francisco Bay for evidence in that case.
Our Rusty Dornin is there, joins me now from Richmond, California -- Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, ever since Laci Peterson disappeared, the Modesto police department has been very tight-lipped about this investigation and today is no exception. They will not comment on it, but three other agencies in the area say they have donated divers and equipment and boats towards, once again, searching San Francisco Bay for evidence in the Laci Peterson investigation.

They launched about an hour ago from (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Island, from the Coast Guard station there and just off the Bay here, out off the east part of the Bay, there is a sheriff's department boat that we did see them dropping some equipment. We believe it to be side- scanning sonar, dropping it into the Bay, searching the bottom of the Bay.

Now there are a couple other boats in the area as well. No one has gone in the water yet. None of the divers have gone in the water. But they have marked off areas, buoyed off areas where we believe the divers will be going into the water and searching along lines, along the bottom of the Bay. Very meticulous work here, very painstaking, of course. It's very -- the water out there of course, it's very murky and it can be even difficult for that equipment.

We are here, actually, where Laci Peterson's body washed up on the beach a little more than a month ago. Her son, Connor, about two miles from here.

Now this is the channel where -- the area where Scott Peterson had told police he went fishing the night that his -- or the day his wife disappeared. Now off in the distance, you'll see the big tankers. Now that's a shipping lane.

From what we understand, there were some sonar experts who spotted what they believed was a body in March, at the bottom in a very deep area of that shipping lane. They went back -- although there was a storm that stirred up the area. They went back a few days later, they couldn't find anything. And it was about three or four days later that the bodies washed up. They do believe perhaps the body was weighted down with some kind of concrete anchors or weights and that the storm and the turbulence pulled the body away from those weights.

We believe that they are now going back to search for what may be left there. A source close to the investigation has told us that they did find a concrete anchor in Scott Peterson's warehouse. If they did find some anchors, with evidence, with perhaps part of her body or her clothes attached to that and it did match the concrete that was in Scott Peterson's warehouse. Of course that could be the smoking gun that they've been looking for.

So all we know right now is they are out in the water. The divers have not yet jumped into the water. We believe they're going to be out here for the next few days, though, searching the bay -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Rusty Dornin from Richmond, thank you very much.

Well what are law enforcement officials looking for in that bay, besides what Rusty said, and what evidence do they already have against Scott Peterson?

Bo Dietl knows something about homicide investigations. He's the president of his own security firm, Bo Dietl and Associates, and he's a former New York City homicide detective.

Good to see you, Bo.

BO DIETL, FMR. NEW YORK CITY HOMICIDE DETECTIVE: Hi. How you doing?

PHILLIPS: All right. So what is that smoking gun that they're looking for? Are they going to find it? Rusty says it's a concrete anchor.

DIETL: Well, you know, we got to go back a little bit. I've been following this thing closely from the beginning and all the times that the police have spoke to Mr. Peterson there, he's made all kinds of statements and they've recorded and they've documented all his statements.

One of the statements I remember way back was the fact that there was some empty, concrete bags that were found in his backyard. And when asked what they were for, he made the statements, well, he put the concrete on his anchor to weigh them down. Now if I was the detectives involved with this, we certainly are very interested where them anchors are. And I think we all kind of know where the anchors lie right now.

The big piece of evidence that could be found here is when he tied his ex-wife up to the anchor and used rope -- you know, there will be cuttings on that rope. We had a case here in New York City where a woman was thrown into the Hudson River, she was hog tied, and the rope was found that she was tied up with -- the similar rope was found in his backyard. We matched that through forensics to be the exact rope that was cut and when in fact (ph). You get a piece of evidence like that, that's real good stuff. Again, the police are not alluding to all the evidence that they have. They had two search warrants there. They took 90 pieces of evidence out of there. There could be plenty of evidence. There could be plenty of evidence they're not letting you know.

As far as these new defense actions here, about these cults, about these cults killing people, carving them up -- you know, this is just the defense's action to try to deter the prosecution. What they want to do is they want to try to put this doubt in people's minds. Maybe Charles Manson's back running around, maybe that's what the defense...

PHILLIPS: Well, Bo, let's stay away from that. Let's stay away from the tabloid journalism. We don't want to talk about cults and carving right now...

DIETL: No. No, I'm talking about what the defense attorney is saying.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about the facts. Let's talk about the facts.

You're talking as if Scott Peterson has been convicted already, but he hasn't. What makes you so sure this is the man that committed this crime?

DIETL: Well, I mean, you can just take a case, and homicide is what we do. We investigate homicides. For 30 years, I've been involved in doing this. The majority of times, when something looks the way it looks it turns out to be -- you look for a motive, means and opportunity, and they all fit here. You can't let me believe that that man's actions upon his wife disappearing with the child inside of eight months old, his actions when he was going through the headquarters, how he was acting, how he was cocky about the whole thing, and then on top of it, he drives 90 miles to go fishing. Just happens to be that why his wife's body and son's body pops up in that area. He had to go get his car checked. He had his alibi. He thought he was smarter than the police.

The fact of the matter is his actions have been telling the story of this from the beginning and my investigative ability and my being a detective always brings out when it looks the obvious, it becomes the obvious and it is the obvious.

PHILLIPS: Bo, let's go back to the search that's taking place now. Why go back now? Is it because the autopsy has been sealed, and there needs to be more evidence in this case? Why are they waiting -- why didn't they go back a couple weeks ago?

DIETL: Well, people have to understand about an investigation.

She disappeared back in December. This investigation was ongoing. They felt enough that they can arrest them and they can hold him at least for the preliminary hearing.

This investigation will continue for the next year, year and a half, until they go up to trial. And they'll develop, new information all the time. Hey, they're trying to find -- and they're going to find, eventually, with them scuba divers, the reason why her body was being held down by that anchor. That's going to be a key piece of evidence.

An investigation with a murder is just like a puzzle. You put all the pieces together, you show it to a jury. The defense's side is to try to make the jury believe that there's doubt. But when you have enough evidence, you put enough pieces together, any intelligent jury is going to come back with what it is.

And a lot of people don't realize -- you know this is not rocket science. Being a detective is all the pieces all put together. When you talk to a person -- he's made statements. They've gotten search warrants to take his phone and to record conversations. They have conversations when he didn't even know he was being recorded, talking to news media. He's making statements, all these statements.

Now he's going to have conflicting statements of what he first told the police. He's going to say, Well, I know nothing about the concrete bags. But we made a statement initially. You weigh this all out, you present this to the jury and you get your convictions of who did this murder.

PHILLIPS: Bo Dietl, you have never lost your passion as a former New York City homicide detective.

DIETL: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: You should have been on this case. Thank you so much for being with us today. We'll check in with you again, Bo.

DIETL: OK.

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 May 16, 2003 - 13:11   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: New developments at this hour in the Laci Peterson murder investigation. Divers are searching the San Francisco Bay for evidence in that case.
Our Rusty Dornin is there, joins me now from Richmond, California -- Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, ever since Laci Peterson disappeared, the Modesto police department has been very tight-lipped about this investigation and today is no exception. They will not comment on it, but three other agencies in the area say they have donated divers and equipment and boats towards, once again, searching San Francisco Bay for evidence in the Laci Peterson investigation.

They launched about an hour ago from (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Island, from the Coast Guard station there and just off the Bay here, out off the east part of the Bay, there is a sheriff's department boat that we did see them dropping some equipment. We believe it to be side- scanning sonar, dropping it into the Bay, searching the bottom of the Bay.

Now there are a couple other boats in the area as well. No one has gone in the water yet. None of the divers have gone in the water. But they have marked off areas, buoyed off areas where we believe the divers will be going into the water and searching along lines, along the bottom of the Bay. Very meticulous work here, very painstaking, of course. It's very -- the water out there of course, it's very murky and it can be even difficult for that equipment.

We are here, actually, where Laci Peterson's body washed up on the beach a little more than a month ago. Her son, Connor, about two miles from here.

Now this is the channel where -- the area where Scott Peterson had told police he went fishing the night that his -- or the day his wife disappeared. Now off in the distance, you'll see the big tankers. Now that's a shipping lane.

From what we understand, there were some sonar experts who spotted what they believed was a body in March, at the bottom in a very deep area of that shipping lane. They went back -- although there was a storm that stirred up the area. They went back a few days later, they couldn't find anything. And it was about three or four days later that the bodies washed up. They do believe perhaps the body was weighted down with some kind of concrete anchors or weights and that the storm and the turbulence pulled the body away from those weights.

We believe that they are now going back to search for what may be left there. A source close to the investigation has told us that they did find a concrete anchor in Scott Peterson's warehouse. If they did find some anchors, with evidence, with perhaps part of her body or her clothes attached to that and it did match the concrete that was in Scott Peterson's warehouse. Of course that could be the smoking gun that they've been looking for.

So all we know right now is they are out in the water. The divers have not yet jumped into the water. We believe they're going to be out here for the next few days, though, searching the bay -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Rusty Dornin from Richmond, thank you very much.

Well what are law enforcement officials looking for in that bay, besides what Rusty said, and what evidence do they already have against Scott Peterson?

Bo Dietl knows something about homicide investigations. He's the president of his own security firm, Bo Dietl and Associates, and he's a former New York City homicide detective.

Good to see you, Bo.

BO DIETL, FMR. NEW YORK CITY HOMICIDE DETECTIVE: Hi. How you doing?

PHILLIPS: All right. So what is that smoking gun that they're looking for? Are they going to find it? Rusty says it's a concrete anchor.

DIETL: Well, you know, we got to go back a little bit. I've been following this thing closely from the beginning and all the times that the police have spoke to Mr. Peterson there, he's made all kinds of statements and they've recorded and they've documented all his statements.

One of the statements I remember way back was the fact that there was some empty, concrete bags that were found in his backyard. And when asked what they were for, he made the statements, well, he put the concrete on his anchor to weigh them down. Now if I was the detectives involved with this, we certainly are very interested where them anchors are. And I think we all kind of know where the anchors lie right now.

The big piece of evidence that could be found here is when he tied his ex-wife up to the anchor and used rope -- you know, there will be cuttings on that rope. We had a case here in New York City where a woman was thrown into the Hudson River, she was hog tied, and the rope was found that she was tied up with -- the similar rope was found in his backyard. We matched that through forensics to be the exact rope that was cut and when in fact (ph). You get a piece of evidence like that, that's real good stuff. Again, the police are not alluding to all the evidence that they have. They had two search warrants there. They took 90 pieces of evidence out of there. There could be plenty of evidence. There could be plenty of evidence they're not letting you know.

As far as these new defense actions here, about these cults, about these cults killing people, carving them up -- you know, this is just the defense's action to try to deter the prosecution. What they want to do is they want to try to put this doubt in people's minds. Maybe Charles Manson's back running around, maybe that's what the defense...

PHILLIPS: Well, Bo, let's stay away from that. Let's stay away from the tabloid journalism. We don't want to talk about cults and carving right now...

DIETL: No. No, I'm talking about what the defense attorney is saying.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about the facts. Let's talk about the facts.

You're talking as if Scott Peterson has been convicted already, but he hasn't. What makes you so sure this is the man that committed this crime?

DIETL: Well, I mean, you can just take a case, and homicide is what we do. We investigate homicides. For 30 years, I've been involved in doing this. The majority of times, when something looks the way it looks it turns out to be -- you look for a motive, means and opportunity, and they all fit here. You can't let me believe that that man's actions upon his wife disappearing with the child inside of eight months old, his actions when he was going through the headquarters, how he was acting, how he was cocky about the whole thing, and then on top of it, he drives 90 miles to go fishing. Just happens to be that why his wife's body and son's body pops up in that area. He had to go get his car checked. He had his alibi. He thought he was smarter than the police.

The fact of the matter is his actions have been telling the story of this from the beginning and my investigative ability and my being a detective always brings out when it looks the obvious, it becomes the obvious and it is the obvious.

PHILLIPS: Bo, let's go back to the search that's taking place now. Why go back now? Is it because the autopsy has been sealed, and there needs to be more evidence in this case? Why are they waiting -- why didn't they go back a couple weeks ago?

DIETL: Well, people have to understand about an investigation.

She disappeared back in December. This investigation was ongoing. They felt enough that they can arrest them and they can hold him at least for the preliminary hearing.

This investigation will continue for the next year, year and a half, until they go up to trial. And they'll develop, new information all the time. Hey, they're trying to find -- and they're going to find, eventually, with them scuba divers, the reason why her body was being held down by that anchor. That's going to be a key piece of evidence.

An investigation with a murder is just like a puzzle. You put all the pieces together, you show it to a jury. The defense's side is to try to make the jury believe that there's doubt. But when you have enough evidence, you put enough pieces together, any intelligent jury is going to come back with what it is.

And a lot of people don't realize -- you know this is not rocket science. Being a detective is all the pieces all put together. When you talk to a person -- he's made statements. They've gotten search warrants to take his phone and to record conversations. They have conversations when he didn't even know he was being recorded, talking to news media. He's making statements, all these statements.

Now he's going to have conflicting statements of what he first told the police. He's going to say, Well, I know nothing about the concrete bags. But we made a statement initially. You weigh this all out, you present this to the jury and you get your convictions of who did this murder.

PHILLIPS: Bo Dietl, you have never lost your passion as a former New York City homicide detective.

DIETL: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: You should have been on this case. Thank you so much for being with us today. We'll check in with you again, Bo.

DIETL: OK.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com