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CNN Saturday Morning News
Divers Are Searching for Clues to Laci Peterson Case in San Francisco Bay
Aired May 17, 2003 - 09:00 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we go to the story of Laci Peterson, the death of Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner, in California. Divers are to be back in San Francisco Bay today searching for clues.
CNN's Rusty Dornin is on the case in Richmond, California. Good morning, Rusty.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, it's just daybreak here now, but divers are expected to be here in just a couple of hours to dive back into the bay and continue the search.
They searched for about five hours yesterday before the winds came up. It got pretty choppy out there. They left a marker buoy which they will be returning to today, and that's where divers will be going back down, hand over hand on a line, and literally reaching out into the bay to see if they can find anything.
Now, this is a multiagency task force involved in this. There's at least five different police agencies involved from throughout northern California, along with the Coast Guard. They also called in a special FBI dive team that specializes in evidence retrieval under water, and they use remote devices to do that. They also have a couple of different side-scanning sonar devices so they can really take a good look at the bottom of the bay and see what's down there.
Now, the reason why they are searching this particular part of the bay is a USGS scientist predicted that after her body washed ashore, the winds were from that direction, from the southwest, they moved towards this direction and washed her body up on the beach right here in Richmond, California.
Now, there are other theories, though, out there about where, perhaps, the body might have been weighted down into the bay, and that is across the channel here near an island where they believe that Scott Peterson went fishing. That's Brooks Island. There -- sonar experts had spotted an object on the bottom of the bay during March they believed might have been the body. There was a very bad storm. They went back afterwards, and that object was missing.
So there are a few people who would like to go back in that area and look as well.
As you can see, it is a very large area they are going to have to be searching, but if they do use these sonar devices, they can -- and they know what they are looking for in the area, they will be able to see even very small objects on the bottom. And we believe they may be looking for some kind of weights, or some kind of concrete anchors that might have weighted her body down that might still be there. And there may be some evidence attached to it, Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Rusty Dornin on the story. Thanks, Rusty.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
San Francisco Bay>
Aired May 17, 2003 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we go to the story of Laci Peterson, the death of Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner, in California. Divers are to be back in San Francisco Bay today searching for clues.
CNN's Rusty Dornin is on the case in Richmond, California. Good morning, Rusty.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, it's just daybreak here now, but divers are expected to be here in just a couple of hours to dive back into the bay and continue the search.
They searched for about five hours yesterday before the winds came up. It got pretty choppy out there. They left a marker buoy which they will be returning to today, and that's where divers will be going back down, hand over hand on a line, and literally reaching out into the bay to see if they can find anything.
Now, this is a multiagency task force involved in this. There's at least five different police agencies involved from throughout northern California, along with the Coast Guard. They also called in a special FBI dive team that specializes in evidence retrieval under water, and they use remote devices to do that. They also have a couple of different side-scanning sonar devices so they can really take a good look at the bottom of the bay and see what's down there.
Now, the reason why they are searching this particular part of the bay is a USGS scientist predicted that after her body washed ashore, the winds were from that direction, from the southwest, they moved towards this direction and washed her body up on the beach right here in Richmond, California.
Now, there are other theories, though, out there about where, perhaps, the body might have been weighted down into the bay, and that is across the channel here near an island where they believe that Scott Peterson went fishing. That's Brooks Island. There -- sonar experts had spotted an object on the bottom of the bay during March they believed might have been the body. There was a very bad storm. They went back afterwards, and that object was missing.
So there are a few people who would like to go back in that area and look as well.
As you can see, it is a very large area they are going to have to be searching, but if they do use these sonar devices, they can -- and they know what they are looking for in the area, they will be able to see even very small objects on the bottom. And we believe they may be looking for some kind of weights, or some kind of concrete anchors that might have weighted her body down that might still be there. And there may be some evidence attached to it, Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Rusty Dornin on the story. Thanks, Rusty.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
San Francisco Bay>
