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CNN Live Today

Interview With Former FBI Investigator

Aired February 20, 2003 - 10:23   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Scott Peterson may return to his Modesto, California home today to find numerous items inside missing. Police finished a two-day search of the home yesterday, the second time they have been inside that residence. A detective said the premises are a crime scene, but would not disclose what, if any, evidence they had found inside.
Now Peterson has not been named a suspect in his wife Laci's disappearance. She disappeared Christmas Eve. She was due to deliver a baby boy earlier this month.

Some expert insight now into the investigation comes from former FBI investigator Don Clark, who joins us once again from Houston. Welcome back, Don. Good to see you again today.

DON CLARK, FORMER FBI INVESTIGATOR: Good to see you, Leon.

HARRIS: Let me ask you about this. How is it now we have seen that there has been crime tape spread around the house, and inside as well. We also now understand that police are saying that it is a crime scene. Why is it, then, that after a second search through this home again, Scott Peterson still not officially being called a suspect?

CLARK: Well, Leon, what's happened here, and looking at this thing, they have said, Look, we have some reason to be in here with a search warrant. And clearly, they had to articulate those reasons. So it is a crime scene, obviously, because this is perhaps the last place that this lady could have been alive. So they've got to go back there, and I think what they're doing is really doing some pretty good police work, because it's fairly obvious that leads are not in abundance as to what could have happened to her, but nonetheless, they keep going back to the initial scene to try to pick up tidbits.

HARRIS: Let me ask you this. If they go back to the house a second time, for a second search here, and we hear they took out 90, 95 bags -- almost 100 bags. How is it you can miss that much evidence in the first search?

CLARK: Well, you know what I think may have happened here, and again, a bit of speculation, but looking from my experience in the past, is that they've talked to people, and they have developed information, and that's where these reasons came from, and perhaps the first time around that things may have been overlooked. It's somewhat very difficult in a search warrant situation as to what to exactly pick up, as opposed to just going in, which I think is inappropriate, and just grabbing everything. You've got to be somewhat targeted, Leon. And perhaps the information that they've developed have led them to some specific areas to pick up.

HARRIS: All right. Now, tell us this, if you can. We also read this morning -- reading in the "Modesto Bee" this morning, the local newspaper there, that the police who were there, and there were a number of different agencies represented yesterday. As I read it here this morning, the Sacramento Valley high-tech crimes task force was there. The Department of Justice had investigators there, as well as the local district attorney's office, and what they were doing, I understand, is they were measuring. They took measurements of the entire premises, according to what I am reading this morning. What does that tell you?

CLARK: Well, I think this is just a part of their investigative techniques, and they are, again, looking at every aspect here, because again, this is the focal point. I'm guessing right now, Leon, that this is the only place -- one of very few places that have to really develop any initial information, and I suspect that if they're going to get that clue as to what happened to Laci, it's got to be right from this spot.

HARRIS: I know this may lead or sound like we are leading you to speculation, but I'm not. But I am just curious about your experience here. What would you learn from measuring the house itself?

CLARK: Well, you are going to be looking at what could have been used to, maybe, bring a body out of a house, and how could you have gotten through doors, and you may also be looking at how furnitures may have been disturbed, realigned, that type of thing. So the measurements could do a lot thing for them that they need if, in fact -- again, if in fact something did happen in the house, was there some other object used to go inside the house to help to bring a body out, a person out? So there are just a number of things that the scientific aspect of these people from the laboratories could be looking for.

HARRIS: In the meantime, the head scratching continues.

CLARK: It really does.

HARRIS: All right, Don, thanks. Appreciate it. Good to see you again. Don Clark in Houston.

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 February 20, 2003 - 10:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Scott Peterson may return to his Modesto, California home today to find numerous items inside missing. Police finished a two-day search of the home yesterday, the second time they have been inside that residence. A detective said the premises are a crime scene, but would not disclose what, if any, evidence they had found inside.
Now Peterson has not been named a suspect in his wife Laci's disappearance. She disappeared Christmas Eve. She was due to deliver a baby boy earlier this month.

Some expert insight now into the investigation comes from former FBI investigator Don Clark, who joins us once again from Houston. Welcome back, Don. Good to see you again today.

DON CLARK, FORMER FBI INVESTIGATOR: Good to see you, Leon.

HARRIS: Let me ask you about this. How is it now we have seen that there has been crime tape spread around the house, and inside as well. We also now understand that police are saying that it is a crime scene. Why is it, then, that after a second search through this home again, Scott Peterson still not officially being called a suspect?

CLARK: Well, Leon, what's happened here, and looking at this thing, they have said, Look, we have some reason to be in here with a search warrant. And clearly, they had to articulate those reasons. So it is a crime scene, obviously, because this is perhaps the last place that this lady could have been alive. So they've got to go back there, and I think what they're doing is really doing some pretty good police work, because it's fairly obvious that leads are not in abundance as to what could have happened to her, but nonetheless, they keep going back to the initial scene to try to pick up tidbits.

HARRIS: Let me ask you this. If they go back to the house a second time, for a second search here, and we hear they took out 90, 95 bags -- almost 100 bags. How is it you can miss that much evidence in the first search?

CLARK: Well, you know what I think may have happened here, and again, a bit of speculation, but looking from my experience in the past, is that they've talked to people, and they have developed information, and that's where these reasons came from, and perhaps the first time around that things may have been overlooked. It's somewhat very difficult in a search warrant situation as to what to exactly pick up, as opposed to just going in, which I think is inappropriate, and just grabbing everything. You've got to be somewhat targeted, Leon. And perhaps the information that they've developed have led them to some specific areas to pick up.

HARRIS: All right. Now, tell us this, if you can. We also read this morning -- reading in the "Modesto Bee" this morning, the local newspaper there, that the police who were there, and there were a number of different agencies represented yesterday. As I read it here this morning, the Sacramento Valley high-tech crimes task force was there. The Department of Justice had investigators there, as well as the local district attorney's office, and what they were doing, I understand, is they were measuring. They took measurements of the entire premises, according to what I am reading this morning. What does that tell you?

CLARK: Well, I think this is just a part of their investigative techniques, and they are, again, looking at every aspect here, because again, this is the focal point. I'm guessing right now, Leon, that this is the only place -- one of very few places that have to really develop any initial information, and I suspect that if they're going to get that clue as to what happened to Laci, it's got to be right from this spot.

HARRIS: I know this may lead or sound like we are leading you to speculation, but I'm not. But I am just curious about your experience here. What would you learn from measuring the house itself?

CLARK: Well, you are going to be looking at what could have been used to, maybe, bring a body out of a house, and how could you have gotten through doors, and you may also be looking at how furnitures may have been disturbed, realigned, that type of thing. So the measurements could do a lot thing for them that they need if, in fact -- again, if in fact something did happen in the house, was there some other object used to go inside the house to help to bring a body out, a person out? So there are just a number of things that the scientific aspect of these people from the laboratories could be looking for.

HARRIS: In the meantime, the head scratching continues.

CLARK: It really does.

HARRIS: All right, Don, thanks. Appreciate it. Good to see you again. Don Clark in Houston.

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