How Did Scott Peterson Kill Laci and How Was the Baby Out of Her Body
Autopsy: Laci Peterson's Caput Was Missing
May 30, 2003 -- Laci Peterson's caput and parts of her limbs were missing and plastic tape was wrapped around the neck of her child, according to the full autopsy and coroner's photographs exclusively seen by ABCNEWS.
According to the dissection, the pare of the child was non decomposed at all, though the right side of his body was mutilated, and the placenta and umbilical cord were not found with the trunk.
The autopsy said that the cause of Laci Peterson'due south expiry was undetermined, and at that place was no evidence of human-made wounds, despite the fact that her caput and all or part of her limbs were missing.
Peterson's body was then desperately decomposed information technology barely looked like a body after it was found in San Francisco Bay concluding month. All the same, the autopsy report showed her cervix was intact.
Experts are divided over whether the new revelations about the status of Laci Peterson'southward body and that of her child will help prosecutors or attorney's representing Laci'due south husband, Scott, who has been charged in the example.
On Thursday, sources shut to the investigation told ABCNEWS the sealed autopsy report indicated a piece of nylon tape was looped effectually the kid's neck when information technology washed ashore last calendar month, and that there was a laceration or tear on the tiny body.
There also was tape on Laci Peterson's lower body, outside her clothing, when her body was found April 14, a solar day afterwards her baby's remains were recovered, the sources said.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden told Good Morning America that the limbs and caput were probably removed earlier Laci was put in the water.
Baden, the former master pathologist for New York City, said information technology could not be determined from the autopsy how the baby came out of Laci'southward body.
"It does tell us that the babe was in the womb for many months after Laci was in the water and Laci in fact protected the baby until the babe came out shortly before the bodies were institute," Baden said.
He said the tape on Laci's torso and a cement handbag that was institute done up on the shore almost the babe could be important show.
"If whatsoever of that matches cement or duct tape that they've come up in contact with in removing stuff from Scott's place of work or place of residence, that'due south heavy evidence," he said.
Defense Strategy
Legal experts say that the dissection leaks, forth with recent statements from Scott Peterson's lawyers including ane that Laci might take been killed past a satanic cult, could be part of a strategy by the defense to create doubts in the minds of prospective jurors even before the example goes to trial.
"The defense wants to attempt to get out as much information as possible to instill reasonable uncertainty that there might be other people involved in this other than their client," said criminal police adept Leonard Birdsong, a professor at Barry University School of Law in Orlando, Fla.
"I haven't been involved in the investigation, but having washed some defense work in my fourth dimension, if you have something that might assist you instill reasonable dubiety, I would certainly try to float it," he said.
Equally for the autopsy report itself, it does not have to point a cause of death to exist a potent piece of evidence in a murder trial, even if it is only one more slice of circumstantial bear witness.
"The autopsy doesn't have to have, for instance, a bullet wound in the head in society to know that if somebody threatened somebody, they have washed things to them in the past, they make up stories to explain where they were supposedly on the nighttime of the incident, people saw them going to the location, people saw them coming back," said constabulary professor Richard Kling of the Chicago Kent College of Law.
However, because the dissection does not say how Laci Peterson died, the prosecution will still have some work to do to make their case, he said.
"Somebody is going to accept to come in and testify that what caused the death is a-b-c, edgeless instrument, stabbing, shooting," he said. "More significantly, somebody'southward going to accept to talk about the fashion of death — they're going to have to classify it either as an accident, or a homicide or suicide and they're going to take to do that somehow."
Family unit Outrage
The grisly new details could fuel speculation as to whether the infant e'er lived exterior the womb, which defense force attorneys could use to undermine the prosecution's case against Scott Peterson, Laci's married man and the begetter of the child they had planned to name Conner.
The prosecutors handling the case said Thursday that since the dissection was starting to exist leaked to the media, the whole study should be released. They filed a motility late Thursday to unseal the autopsy.
Kim Petersen, a spokeswoman for Laci Peterson's family, said on Thursday that the family would trust the prosecutors' sentence about whether the total reports should be unsealed, but they were horrified past the leaks of details from the dissection reports.
Notwithstanding, Superior Court Gauge Al Girolami ruled this evening that both autopsy reports should remain sealed and said releasing the information could prejudice public opinion before the trial.
The judge as well indicated that he may issue a gag order preventing both sides from speaking to the media.
Unanswered Questions
While the defense and prosecution dispute what the latest revelations might hateful, experts besides appear divided.
When asked what the tape on the bodies might hateful to the case, Robert Pugsley, a law professor at the Southwestern University School of Police force in Los Angeles, told ABCNEWS Radio: "This 8-month-old fetus was the direct intended victim, too as the mother, of the homicidal activities of the murderer.
"This is a clear indication that the state is perfectly justified — indeed, I think, obliged — to pursue the double-homicide example which they've already laid," he said.
But Dr. Robert Goldberg, a forensic pathologist in Marietta, Ga., said Thursday that there are a lot of unanswered questions involving the tape, making it too early on to tell if it means the baby was killed, or who the killer is.
"Information technology could accept been picked up every bit some artifact in the h2o," Goldberg said. "The child could have been expressionless earlier this occurred, and this could only be a connection to keep the child weighted down."
Royal Oakes, a Los Angeles-based attorney, told ABCNEWS the tape revelation could nowadays possibilities for the defense.
"A defence attorney'southward strategy, faced with this kind of bizarre evidence, is substantially going to exist, 'What does this have to exercise with my client? What evidence is there that Scott Peterson did these things?' " Oakes said.
Prosecutors Dismiss Defense Theories
Laci Peterson, 27, of Modesto, Calif., was eight months significant when her husband reported her missing on Dec. 24. Scott Peterson, 30, was arrested April eighteen and is beingness held without bail on 2 counts of murder. He could face up the capital punishment if convicted.
Scott Peterson has best-selling he was having an affair with a massage therapist, merely he insists he never hurt his wife or the baby. His attorneys take suggested the meaning woman may accept been kidnapped and killed by a satanic cult. If there was evidence that the baby might accept been born, that could be used to support the theory.
But investigators do not believe Laci was killed past a satanic cult, or that her baby ever lived on its ain. "The autopsy in its entirety would non leave as much room for speculation," one source told ABCNEWS.
Even so, a defense source maintained the tape was tied effectually the baby'south cervix, the cutting on the trunk appeared to take been made intentionally and the condition of the kid was not consistent with a then-called bury birth, in which a fetus is expelled from the body of a adult female who died while pregnant.
ABCNEWS' Chris Vlasto, Taina Hernandez and Mike Gudgell contributed to this report.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=90600&page=1
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