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Nancy Grace

Family Men Who Murder: Christopher Vaughn and Scott Peterson

Aired April 18, 2014 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANNOUNCER: Husbands, fathers wipe out their families in cold blood. But what drives these family men to murder? Tonight, we look at one husband who surprises his wife and three kids with an early morning car ride to the water park, but they never make it back home. Instead, the husband slaughters them all, pinning the gruesome killings on his wife.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is the coldest -- I don`t even want to call him a human being -- the coldest creature I`ve seen in my life. He showed no emotion during any of the interviews. He was showed pictures of his children, no emotion. He was more concerned about his cowboy boots, where they were, were they damaged?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: And up later, Scott Peterson speaks out, the convicted murderer on death row. Is he just spilling more lies? Tonight, we go into the mind of both family men killers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: June 14, a Thursday, a work day. Everybody`s going to work. This is a little earlier than most people drive to work. It`s around 5:00 AM. Imagine, I-55, Chicago area. A motorist en route to work, 5:00 AM, spots a bloody Christopher Vaughn walking alongside I-55 interstate, limping, pulls over. Vaughn says cryptically, I think my wife just shot me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vaughn told investigators he pulled off I-55 to secure luggage atop the SUV. And when he got back into the vehicle, his wife began firing a handgun. He was shot in the leg and fled, and when he returned, his family was dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And he begins mumbling something about, She has the children, and then abruptly quits speaking. When asked further questions -- you know, he`s in the car now, being taken to safety. When asked further questions, Vaughn mumbles something about a red truck. He`s referring to the family`s SUV, as it turns out.

Now, consider his injuries, Christopher Vaughn. Christopher Vaughn`s injuries are all to his left side. He`s right-handed. He has a shot, a gunshot wound, to the left thigh and a gunshot wound to the left wrist, both deemed superficial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went to the scene. And I`ll never forget. It was 100 degrees and the heat was reflecting up off the blacktop. And this, you know, SUV was sitting there. And I couldn`t -- I didn`t go up and look inside because I couldn`t. I`ve got five children, and you know, with the way it was described to me, the children were shot forehead, chest, at close range, and the mother was shot under the chin. And that wasn`t something I wanted to see, nor did I need to at that time.

I remember talking to the forensic pathologist and he said, You know, I`ve done so many autopsies in my career, but nothing disturbed me more than carrying those children`s bodies from the vehicle to the tables.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Kimberly Vaughn was slumped over, still sitting in the passenger side of the car, up front. She had been shot once, directly under the chin, which would have been consistent with suicide. She was bleeding from the mouth, the nose, the chin. It was a close-range shot. Interesting. It could never be deemed to be a contact wound where the gun is actually touching the skin.

Now, that would have been suggestive of suicide. This is where the suicide story falls through. All three of her children were shot dead. That is extremely rare, for a mother to kill her children, infanticide, very, very rare.

Now, yes, we hear of it, those rare cases where mothers kill their children, but it`s not very common. And in this case, to kill all three? When you study the methods and assessment of homicide or suicide, for a woman in her social strata, her economic strata, at her age, to kill with a gun or to commit suicide by facial disfiguration with a gun is almost unheard of, statistically speaking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Vaughn was -- I would classify him as an arrogant psychopath. And so he talked to the police endlessly and gave statements on his version of what happened, which turned out to be critical because the physical evidence inside the vehicle clearly showed that he was lying.

He claimed that his wife just suddenly produced a gun and pointed it at him, and then shot him through his left forearm superficially, and then superficially shot him in his left leg, which would have been the arm and leg furthest from him -- from her. Then he jumped out of the vehicle and ran, and that`s when she allegedly completed the acts.

The blood evidence inside the car -- Mrs. Vaughn had her seatbelt on when he came in the passenger door and shot her under the chin. And then he shot the children. He then got back in the car and staged the wounds to himself. He then realized, Oh, my gosh, she`s got her seatbelt on. So now bleeding from these wounds, he reaches across her, drips his blood upon her. And then down on her seatbelt buckle down at the floor, his blood was found. It couldn`t possibly be there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Not only do you have statistics against Kimberly Vaughn committing suicide in this manner, in front of her children, there`s other forensic evidence that suggests otherwise. Let`s go the children. Abbi Vaughn was just 12 years old, still strapped into her seat. She looked as if she had been sleeping. She was holding a Harry Potter book and a stuffy, a stuffed animal. She was shot below the right eyebrow and in the right chest.

Now, think of those forensics. Think about whether the mother, sitting in the passenger side, could turn around and shoot in this manner. Or is it more indicative of someone getting out of the vehicle and shooting? That`s Abbi, the 12-year-old.

Then, sitting in the middle, in the middle seat, all three children were lined up, still strapped in, Cassandra, or Sandi Vaughn, just 11 years old. Sandi was shot in the forehead and in the chest. And last but not least, the youngest of the three, 8-year-old Blake Vaughn. He was shot in the middle of the forehead, and very important, shot under the left underarm.

Police have reason to believe he was the last one killed and that he was raising his arm to protect himself. Hence the gunshot entry wound being under the left arm. So think about it. He saw his two sisters being brutally murdered. He`s an 8-year-old boy. And he raises his hand to protect himself, still strapped into the car with a seatbelt, shot dead.

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, what sick fantasy brought Christopher Vaughn to kill his own wife and beautiful children? We`ll see what he was planning for his future.

And later, Scott Peterson speaks out after killing his pregnant wife, Laci, more eerie words from the mind of a murderer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a loner. He could get divorced, or he could kill them and take off. And he chose the latter. It just doesn`t make sense to a compassionate, rational human being. We can`t expect to make sense of it. And again, the clear motive was he wanted to get rid of them and be by himself. And that`s the decision he made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Almost immediately, police began questioning Christopher Vaughn. What`s interesting is, during all of this questioning, he never once asked about his wife, or more significantly, his three children. He never asked about how they were, were they dead or alive, where were they, had they been taken to the hospital, could he go to the hospital? Nothing, nothing about his three children, ages 8, 11 and 12. In fact, what he did complain about, he was concerned paramedics would damage his cowboy boots and his leather jacket. Yes.

Another interesting thing about Christopher Vaughn during all of this, there were photos, crime scene photos, that showed the bodies of his children. He refused to look at them. He got angry when he saw them. And remember, he didn`t know they were dead when he flagged down a driver. So he has no idea, according to him, whether his children are dead or alive. But when he`s shown photos, he hits them away.

They leave him alone in the interrogation room, of course, watching him, and he pushes the pictures away from him. He actually took one and crumpled it up and threw it away. That was all of his knowledge of his children were those photos. That was his reaction, completely disinterested.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the police first took him into the interrogation room and started talking to him about what happened, he had first wouldn`t accept it. He wouldn`t even acknowledge what happened. And then finally, he told them, yes, Kimberly had a gun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: This is Christopher Vaughn`s explanation. He said his wife, Kimberly Vaughn, had been complaining he did not spend enough time with the family, so he, Christopher, plans a last-minute road trip to a Springfield- area water park. Remember, it is summertime. It`s also 5:00 AM.

So he says he`s taking the children to spend more time with them to make his wife happy, that en route, she gets sick, and he pulls over, finds a secluded area and pulls over so she could have more privacy. That`s why he was not out in the open. It was to help her.

That he gets out of the car while she`s sick to check the overhead luggage rack on top of the Ford Expedition. When he gets back in, she starts shooting. Now, he never said he heard her shoot the children. In fact, he got very vague in describing how he was shot, that he immediately jumped out of the car and left his children.

On the second day of questioning, he started remembering more details. He seemed to remember more about his wife shooting him the second day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While this entire case played out, he said he got out of the truck, he walked around to the side, checked the luggage carrier, got back into the car, and that`s when Kimberly shot him. And he walked away.

Probably the most damning evidence of all was the blood evidence that was introduced. The story that Christopher Vaughn told and the places where they found his blood in the car just didn`t match up. It didn`t make sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: The blood evidence, the forensics, do not match Christopher Vaughn`s story. First of all, the interior of the Ford Expedition is covered in his blood, which does not jibe with his story that she shot at him as he was getting in and then he took off. In fact, his blood was even on his wife, all over her shorts. So his story, based on the forensics, is a lie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he got back into that car and Kimberly shot him and he got out, like he said he did, why was his blood on the floor in front of Kimberly, where they found the gun?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: This is what we learn. Backtracking Christopher Vaughn`s movements, we learn that he had planned to vanish into the Canadian wilderness -- yes, the Yukon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the many layers to this case had to do with a Canadian man that Christopher Vaughn had been communicating with. Investigators found a slew of e-mails where Christopher Vaughn talked about wanting to go and disappear into the wilderness in the Yukon.

And they flew a Canadian man down to testify in the courtroom. And it was, as far as we know, the first time these two men saw each other, but they had corresponded at length about going and getting off the grid.

Christopher Vaughn apparently just was sick of his suburban Chicago life and wanted to get away from society, and he talked with this man about doing so. He had even taken a scouting trip a month or so before the murders. Christopher Vaughn went to the Yukon and scouted out a location where he would go and disappear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Now, he did broach the subject with a stripper -- so predictable -- on whom he had spent thousands and thousands of dollars in the weeks leading up to the murders. He invited her along on his wilderness trip to the Yukon.

His computer revealed e-mails to friends complaining that he longed for a life with no cell phones or any of the other hallmarks of modern life. He even had a list on his computer of things he needed to take with him to the Yukon and to start his new life. Also, his computer revealed that he had taken a scouting trip. He had actually gone on a trip to scout out where he was going to live, minus his wife and children.

ANNOUNCER: Next, Christopher Vaughn meeting his fate. Will his wife and three children get justice?

And up later, Scott Peterson speaks out again on his wife`s killing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT PETERSON, CONVICTED OF MURDER: It would be foolish to speculate because that could possibly narrow people`s thoughts on what`s important, and every tip is important. So instead of answering that question, I`d rather tell you exactly what we know. That is that I left the house here right around 9:30. Laci was still in the house at that time. There`s been some erroneous reports. That is the fact. She was in the house. I left at 9:30.

The dog was returned to the yard by a neighbor with his leash on at 10:30. Those are the two things that we know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 45-minute verdict in a case like this is very unusual, but I think it showed the certainty with which the jury reviewed the facts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Let`s talk about the stripper. I`m talking about at least $5,000 he spends on this stripper. He complains ad nauseam about his wife, never mentions that he`s got three children by her. He talks a lot about the wilderness and poetry with the stripper.

He writes a love poem around the time of his wife and his 13th wedding anniversary, but the love poem is not to the wife. The love poem is to the stripper. And the love poem talks about ancient souls, hopeful dreams and speechless conversations -- with a stripper. He writes a poem to the stripper, drops at least $5,000 on her, and his wife and children end up dead.

Two and two, two and two -- yes, it equals four.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He would pay these enormous fees to take the young lady in the back room, and then he would just talk to her about, you know, running off to Canada. I think one bill was, like, $10,000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Then investigation reveals that he had taken out a $1 million life insurance policy on his wife. Now, the policy stipulated it would not pay out if she committed suicide within two years of him taking out the policy. Guess what? The two years had just passed when she committed suicide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He went to the shooting range the night before the killings, and wore the same clothing the next morning when they had to all rush into the car at 3:00 o`clock in the morning for this ridiculous trip to an antiquated water park 180 miles away, when there`s state-of-the-art water parks all around this area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Well, the jury heard reams of evidence. But in the end, it took them only 45 minutes to return a verdict of guilty on all counts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This jury didn`t even need an hour to decide and agree among themselves that this man killed his wife and his three little children. Christopher Vaughn himself -- his expression rarely ever changed in the courtroom. It was the same as it always was. And a sob went up from Kimberly`s -- where Kimberly`s family was sitting when the verdict was read back, four guilty verdicts, one for Kimberly, one for Blake, one for Cassandra and one for Abigayle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: The sad part, the judge complained -- and I agree with the judge completely. The judge complained he couldn`t give him the death penalty because there is a temporary moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois. As it stands, he has four life sentences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s still in Menard Correctional Center, where he`s expected to spend the rest of his days.

ANNOUNCER: Next, Scott Peterson on camera, his interview full of shocking revelations about his wife`s murder you won`t want to miss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETERSON: That`s the important thing, is that I had nothing to do with Laci`s disappearance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Berkeley police took to the bay waters last night, it was hardly a routine patrol. The department continues to assist Modesto investigators in the Laci Peterson case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Laci Peterson was married and eight months pregnant when she vanished from her home in Modesto, California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After his wife`s disappearance, Scott Peterson told police he had come here to the Berkeley marina on Christmas Eve day in his Ford 150 truck and 14-foot boat to fish for sturgeon. He presented a launch ticket voucher, like this one, as evidence.

PETERSON: I also called Amber shortly after Laci`s disappearance, a few days after, and told her that I was married and told her, you know, about Laci`s disappearance, so she knew. And then shortly after that, she had a meeting with the police.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scott told me he was not married. We did have a romantic relationship.

PETERSON: I`m very glad that she came forward, Amber did. in the press conference. That clears the way -- not clears the way, but we can keep looking for Laci easier since that`s out there and done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: I remember when I first heard about Laci Peterson, an expectant mother, going missing. The facts surrounding the story made it so much more poignant. It was Christmastime. She was just about to give birth. The delivery of her son, her unborn son, Conner, was imminent.

And I recall going to Laci`s home, and it was lovely, very homey, and she put so much time and love and energy into her home. There was a big get-together planned for that evening, and she had worked so hard on it. You know, her whole family was coming -- just very, very happy time in her life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETERSON: It is entirely too selfish for me to defend myself amongst these accusations while Laci`s missing. And all the media time should be spent towards finding her and all our energy should be spent towards finding her. Unfortunately, suspicion about me has risen to such a degree that I think people have stopped looking for Laci. They`ve stopped (INAUDIBLE) and that`s why I`m interested in being in the media now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scott and Laci Peterson seemed like the all- American couple. I mean, they were a beautiful couple and they seemed like they were so much in love and their families said that they were so much in love. Scott and Laci originally met in college, at Cal Poly. Laci frequented a restaurant where Scott was a server. And there seemed to be an instant connection between the two of them. They moved in together around 1994, and then they got married in 1997 and were building a life together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The timing of Laci Peterson`s disappearance was so shocking -- goes missing on Christmas Eve. You know, her husband says that he last sees her watching an episode of "Martha Stewart." She`s planning to get things ready for dinner. They were going to celebrate Christmas Eve with a dinner with her family. So it just seemed really shocking. Who goes missing on Christmas Eve?

I mean, she`s pregnant. She`s looking forward to the holidays. She`s obviously not going to take off, or you know, just be gone longer than expected. So that seemed really strange right off the bat, that she would go missing at holiday time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They had just moved into a new home near her family in Modesto. They were expecting their first child, just about a month away. It seemed like this was a very happy time. But looks can be deceiving.

PETERSON: That`s why these next couple weeks are so critical. February 16th is the due date. So we need to get the flyers out there to all the medical offices that we can. The nursery`s ready for him. That door is closed. I can`t, you know, open that door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You worked on it? What was the sort of preparation did you do?

PETERSON: Yes, it`s completely outfitted. The furniture`s there. It`s painted. It`s ready, you know, all the little itty-bitty clothes and all those wonderful things that we have for him. It`s very important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Conner would be her first child, a baby boy. And she and her family, I guess, were living out the happiest time of their life when she went missing.

I remember the fact scenario striking me wrong. Everything was wrong about it, taking the dog for a walk in the park. The facts didn`t seem to gel together for me the way that Scott Peterson delivered them. And I felt instinctively that it would be a matter of time before we found out more about Scott Peterson. There was something in his demeanor. When he did not publicly beg for her return, I think I was stunned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETERSON: Well, the polygraph is another one of those things. I`m not saying I have, not saying I haven`t. It`s within the scope that the investigators asked me not to speak about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you describe yourself as a proud father (INAUDIBLE) Was it -- what...

PETERSON: I don`t -- I don`t -- it`s too difficult. You know, there are times -- times when you can keep going, and those are times when you have a task. And there are times that you completely lose it and can`t do anything productive. I don`t want to reach that second point right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Laci was just so pure. I mean, she`s the all-American girl -- cheerleader, sweetheart, good neighbor, good daughter, planning to be a good mother. I saw it through the eyes, I guess, of Sharon Rocha, her mother, that -- just the devastation this heinous act wreaked on Sharon and her husband and their family.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know that you mentioned on "Good Morning America" that it wouldn`t surprise you if they found blood...

PETERSON: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... in your vehicles. Explain why.

PETERSON: Well, take a look at my hand. You can see, you know, cuts here on my knuckles, numerous scars. I work on farms. I work with machinery. I know I cut my knuckle that day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On what day?

PETERSON: On Christmas Eve.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doing what?

PETERSON: Reaching into the toolbox of my truck and then into the pocket on the door. I cut open my knuckle and there`s a blood stain on the door.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Many court watchers, and probably the jury, looked at Scott Peterson during the trial, and many people -- not me, of course, but many people thought that Scott Peterson was handsome, attractive -- attractive, good-looking, smart, college degree, job, car, golfer. His whole family worshipped him. He had everything, right, beautiful wife, home, baby on the way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETERSON: The facts are that we know that on Christmas Eve, I left the house here around 9:30. She was here in the home. OK, that`s a fact that has to get out there because it`s been reported erroneously that I saw her leave the house. OK, she was in the house. That`s one thing we know.

Second thing we know is that the dog was returned to our yard with its leash on at 10:30 by a neighbor. Those are the two things we know about her disappearance. Hopefully, those can help some people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: How many millions of people in the world would kill to have what he had? So it was as if the mind was tricking the eye because you would see this guy that seemingly had everything, yet you were hearing evidence that he had murdered his beautiful and loving wife and his baby. It`s very hard to reconcile what you see and what you know. And that was the conundrum for me.

We all can make a difference. Need proof? Check out this week`s "CNN Hero."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETERSON: I had nothing to do with Laci`s disappearance. Even if you think I did, think about Laci. And I know that there`s a nation that wants to bring her home to our families, OK, so you can think what you want of me. You can question my moral character, question how I`ve acted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Family members may offer testimony of the impact of an execution on them if, by so doing, they illuminate some positive quality of the defendant`s background or character which is offered as a basis for a sentence less than death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: I have learned the hard way that murderers come in all shapes and sizes and colors and with all sorts of college degrees and -- or not, and all that matters -- just the facts. That`s all that matters.

And I believed from the get-go that the facts of the Scott Peterson case were overwhelming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I think the fact that the bodies were found where he was fishing was the most compelling piece of physical evidence. And then I think what the -- you know, if you think Scott Peterson did it, his actions after his wife went missing are repulsive. If you don`t think he did it, then the actions are just a little strange.

But I think that the bodies showing up where he was fishing are by far and away the most compelling evidence. It`s hard really to get around that. And I know the Peterson family and the defense believes that whoever did this took the time then to dump Laci and Conner in the bay to frame Scott Peterson because of all of the attention that this case got.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People of the state of California versus Scott Peterson. We the jury in the above entitled cause fix the penalty at death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scott has a way of sort of displacing himself from the arena in which he`s in. It`s like he`s not the one on trial. He`s very, very subdued at times. And at other times, he`ll be laughing with his attorney. So it`s -- he`s never taking anything serious, it looks like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it`s fair to say that the Petersons were warned that this was most likely going to be the verdict of death. Therefore, they didn`t seem to show any emotion on the outside. Scott Peterson showed no emotion on the outside, as well. In fact, when he walked in, he had the same sort of swagger, and he nodded and smiled at his family when he sat down.

Most emotion in the room came from jurors. Obviously, at the end of this horribly difficult process, to come to this conclusion, they were obviously upset, or you know, just emotional about what they were about to do. And then collectively, because so much has gone into this, you could feel the raw emotion in the room, even though it really wasn`t articulated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most difficult day for me would be today. This doesn`t get any harder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was two miles from where he went fishing, and for me, it wasn`t a coincidence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A big part of it was at the end, the verdict, no emotion, no anything. That spoke a thousand words. That was loud and clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This wasn`t an act of, he flipped out and went and did something. You know, I can understand that and I can -- you know, this was planned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The way the jurors talked today, they were convinced by the main points the prosecution made, which was the bodies were found in the bay where he said he was. He had a strange demeanor. He lied a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: The Modesto law enforcement and the district attorney`s office did such a great job. And really, what it all boiled down to was the credibility of Scott Peterson, who, of course, did not take the stand, but credibility in the sense that he had pulled the wool over the eyes of so many people in the past.

I mean, come on. If you`re going to lie to the people that love you just to have a sex affair, you won`t lie to save your own skin? Of course you will.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And of course, I do wonder what did happen. And sometimes, I think I want to know what happened. Other times, I`m afraid to know what happened. I think the one thing that I want to know more than anything is that she didn`t know what was happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you -- I mean, I`m sure you`ve gone over it a million times in your mind. You said at night, it`s tough to sleep.

PETERSON: Definitely, yes. Sure, you reach exhaustion. That`s the only way that your eyes close.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think happened to Laci? What are the scenarios? What are the possibilities?

PETERSON: Obviously, I have possibilities in my mind. You know, there`s so many things that occurred a day prior during that day in this neighborhood that have been reported, that there`s a lot of different possibilities out there. It would be -- the right word`s not "inappropriate," but it would be foolish to speculate because that could possibly narrow people`s thoughts on what`s important, and every tip is important.

So instead of answering that question, I`d rather tell you exactly what we know, that is that I left the house here right around 9:30. Laci was still in the house at that time. There`s been some erroneous reports. That is the fact. She was in the house. I left at 9:30. The dog was returned to the yard by a neighbor with his leash on at 10:30. Those are the two things that we know. So any tip that can lead us from there to finding Laci is important.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about Conner, approaching due date and...

PETERSON: That`s why these next couple weeks are so critical. February 16th`s the due date. So we need to get the flyers out there to all of the medical offices that we can. The nursery`s ready for him. That door is closed. I can`t, you know, open that door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You worked on it. What sort of preparation did you do?

PETERSON: Yes, it`s -- you know, it`s completely outfitted. The furniture`s there. Paint is ready. All the little itty-bitty clothes and all those wonderful things (INAUDIBLE) It`s very important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And when that verdict came out, I was rushing out to the anchor chair for Court TV. And I wanted to cheer, too, because there was no happiness, but there was justice, such as it is.

END