Police watched Peterson as he lived close to Mexican border

By JENNIFER COLEMAN
Associated Press Writer

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) They seemed a picture-perfect couple. Family photos show Scott and Laci Peterson at parties, leaning in close and smiling, always smiling.

They often held hands when they strolled through their neighborhood. Friends say they never argued.

But investigators saw a different picture. They focused on 30-year-old Scott Peterson from the start, monitoring his movements, trying to debunk his alibi that he was fishing at the Berkeley Marina when his pregnant wife vanished.

Scott Peterson is now being held without bail at the Stanislaus County Jail. He hasn't yet been arraigned, but a prosecutor said he faces two counts of murder.

Though police pursued nearly 10,000 tips, they couldn't keep from returning to one person: Laci Peterson's husband.

``We haven't been able to eliminate him for a long while,'' Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden said.

The fact that no credible information was ever received on tip lines even when the award was boosted to $500,000 also led them to Scott Peterson.

``Had anyone known about where Laci was, had any information about where she was and if she was alive, we would have heard about it,'' Wasden said.

Then two bodies washed ashore a few miles north of the marina where Scott Peterson said he'd been on Christmas Eve. They were identified Friday through DNA as Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Connor.

Scott Peterson was booked into the Stanislaus County Jail late Friday, after being transported from San Diego, where he was arrested near a golf course. NBC News reported that when he was arrested, Peterson had $10,000 in cash and his brother's identification.

Modesto police spokesman Lt. Doug Ridenour declined to comment on the NBC report.

Peterson is expected to be arraigned Monday or Tuesday. And District Attorney Jim Brazelton said he hasn't decided whether he will seek the death penalty.

Scott Peterson would seem an unlikely suspect.

He worked three jobs, his family said, to put himself through college in San Luis Obispo. It was there he met his future wife, Laci Rocha.

The couple married in 1997 and opened a cafe in San Luis Obispo that quickly became a popular hangout for students. They sold the place two years ago and moved to Modesto.

After his wife got pregnant, Scott Peterson spent hours fixing up the baby's room, friends said, and seemed every bit the devoted husband.

He'll be charged in Stanislaus County Superior Court because police believe Laci Peterson was killed in Modesto. Police said they could find no proof she was alive after a phone conversation with her mother about 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 23. Authorities have refused to speculate about a motive.

For weeks, the couple's family and friends staunchly stood behind Scott Peterson.

Laci Peterson's brother, Brent Rocha, said in January that Scott Peterson loved his wife too much to ever harm her. Her friends at the volunteer center said he showed up daily to help with the search effort.

Days later, Laci Peterson's family severed ties with him after learning he had an affair with a Fresno woman. They publicly called on him to help police, who labeled him ``uncooperative.''

After the rift with his in-laws, Scott Peterson launched his own search effort. As searchers looked in the San Francisco Bay and near Modesto, he showed up in Los Angeles to distribute fliers.

He traded in his wife's Land Rover for a new pickup truck and approached real estate agents about selling their home.

Many of his Modesto friends began to shun him. His fellow golfers at the Del Rio Country Club quietly bought out his membership for an estimated $25,000 in cash.

He stopped making public statements and eventually left Modesto for San Diego, his hometown.

Modesto police, who had already gotten search warrants to seize Peterson's boat, pickup truck, a sample of his DNA and nearly 100 items from the couple's house, began tracking him in San Diego using phone taps and vehicle sensors.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Peterson was aware of the surveillance, waved at detectives and was ``being kind of a smart aleck'' before Friday.

Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden sought an arrest warrant Thursday, in part because he feared Peterson might flee to Mexico.

Mexican law forbids the extradition of any person facing the death penalty.

``That was a concern,'' Lockyer spokesman Nathan Barankin said Saturday. ``While we've improved our relationship with Mexico, extraditions, death penalty or not, can be very troublesome, expensive and tiresome.''

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)