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CNN Saturday Morning News
Search For Missing Californian Pregnant Woman Continues
Aired January 04, 2003 - 07:30 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN: Turning now to the case of the missing pregnant woman in California. It's been 11 days since Laci Peterson was reported missing, and with each passing day police say hope of finding her alive fades.
Joining us now to talk about the investigation is detective Doug Ridenour of the Modesto Police Department. Detective, we do appreciate you being here this morning. Let's go ahead and start with you updating us on the very latest in the investigation. Are authorities learning anything new here?
DET. DOUG RIDENOUR, MODESTO POLICE SPOKESMAN: Well we haven't learned anything really new or significantly at this point. Though we continue our methodical search of this county and our surrounding counties. That's our focus in these later days to try to continue our search to try to find Laci.
COLLINS: What about leads? Is the public helping?
RIDENOUR: Yes they have. We've got around 1400 leads or tips into our tip line and so it's taken us some time to follow through and prioritize those and try to establish which ones are more credible than the other ones, so -- but we have had a number of leads and tips, and we're following through on each of those.
COLLINS: What about Laci's husband, Scott? I know that he is not being considered a suspect, but I also know that they can't actually eliminate him yet. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
RIDENOUR: That's true. We can't eliminate him at this point. We would like to. We continue in that area -- the investigators are working with Scott as much as they can. And we hope to eliminate him, but it is going to take some time to complete that process.
COLLINS: And where does that process stand? We're hearing that he is cooperating, but only to some degree. That's a little confusing. Can you tell us a little more about that?
RIDENOUR: Well it's difficult to explain everything at this point, especially to the media and to the public because investigators have a -- their process that they have to go through. They're in communication with Scott.
It's difficult even for me to know everything that they're doing, so when I -- when we explain to you as much as we can, investigators give us a briefing a couple of times a day and we try to relay what we can to that -- to the public.
COLLINS: Understandably so. Let's also talk for a moment if we could about Laci and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. Could you just go back through that for us and when she was last heard from?
RIDENOUR: We got a call Christmas Eve night around 5:30-5:40 from a family member that told the department that Laci was missing. We learned when we arrived at the home that Scott had gone fishing earlier in the day, told his wife that he was going to Oakland or to the Berkeley Marina.
It was his understanding that Laci was going to take a walk in the East LaLoma Park, and then go shopping. And that's the last time that he saw Laci and the last time that we've had any information about her whereabouts.
COLLINS: All right detective, last question for you. Where does the investigation go from here?
RIDENOUR: Well today we're going to start our searching of the surrounding areas. We did that yesterday and we're going to continue that today and we'll continue that process until we've completed it as we have in this county. So we'll just continue and -- and continue to search for Laci until we find her.
COLLINS: All right, well, the best of luck to you and your crews out there doing just that. Detective Ridenour from Modesto Police Department thank you so much.
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 4, 2003 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN: Turning now to the case of the missing pregnant woman in California. It's been 11 days since Laci Peterson was reported missing, and with each passing day police say hope of finding her alive fades.
Joining us now to talk about the investigation is detective Doug Ridenour of the Modesto Police Department. Detective, we do appreciate you being here this morning. Let's go ahead and start with you updating us on the very latest in the investigation. Are authorities learning anything new here?
DET. DOUG RIDENOUR, MODESTO POLICE SPOKESMAN: Well we haven't learned anything really new or significantly at this point. Though we continue our methodical search of this county and our surrounding counties. That's our focus in these later days to try to continue our search to try to find Laci.
COLLINS: What about leads? Is the public helping?
RIDENOUR: Yes they have. We've got around 1400 leads or tips into our tip line and so it's taken us some time to follow through and prioritize those and try to establish which ones are more credible than the other ones, so -- but we have had a number of leads and tips, and we're following through on each of those.
COLLINS: What about Laci's husband, Scott? I know that he is not being considered a suspect, but I also know that they can't actually eliminate him yet. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
RIDENOUR: That's true. We can't eliminate him at this point. We would like to. We continue in that area -- the investigators are working with Scott as much as they can. And we hope to eliminate him, but it is going to take some time to complete that process.
COLLINS: And where does that process stand? We're hearing that he is cooperating, but only to some degree. That's a little confusing. Can you tell us a little more about that?
RIDENOUR: Well it's difficult to explain everything at this point, especially to the media and to the public because investigators have a -- their process that they have to go through. They're in communication with Scott.
It's difficult even for me to know everything that they're doing, so when I -- when we explain to you as much as we can, investigators give us a briefing a couple of times a day and we try to relay what we can to that -- to the public.
COLLINS: Understandably so. Let's also talk for a moment if we could about Laci and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. Could you just go back through that for us and when she was last heard from?
RIDENOUR: We got a call Christmas Eve night around 5:30-5:40 from a family member that told the department that Laci was missing. We learned when we arrived at the home that Scott had gone fishing earlier in the day, told his wife that he was going to Oakland or to the Berkeley Marina.
It was his understanding that Laci was going to take a walk in the East LaLoma Park, and then go shopping. And that's the last time that he saw Laci and the last time that we've had any information about her whereabouts.
COLLINS: All right detective, last question for you. Where does the investigation go from here?
RIDENOUR: Well today we're going to start our searching of the surrounding areas. We did that yesterday and we're going to continue that today and we'll continue that process until we've completed it as we have in this county. So we'll just continue and -- and continue to search for Laci until we find her.
COLLINS: All right, well, the best of luck to you and your crews out there doing just that. Detective Ridenour from Modesto Police Department thank you so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
