By Brian Skoloff, The Associated Press
Redwood City, Calif. (AP) -- Within hours of responding to Scott Peterson’s home the evening he reported his pregnant wife missing, police determined the scene was suspicious and summoned a detective, according to testimony Thursday.
Modesto Police Sgt. Byron Duerfeldt said he received a missing person report about 6 p.m. on Dec. 24, 2002.
Duerfeldt first went to a park near the Petersons’ home where friends and family had gathered to search for Laci Peterson. Her husband, Scott, told authorities she had been preparing to walk the couple’s dog in the park when he left for a solo fishing trip that morning.
Duerfeldt said he met briefly with three other officers there before heading to the Petersons’ home.
“I wanted to make sure that Laci wasn’t inside the house, that she wasn’t in the backyard somewhere,” Duerfeldt testified. “To just make sure that we weren’t missing her somewhere inside the house.”
Duerfeldt said he then summoned a helicopter to fly over the park, and received a briefing from the other officers who had already been inside the house about whether they found anything “unusual or suspicious.”
“Based on what they told me I felt it was necessary to have a detective respond,” Duerfeldt said, acknowledging that wasn’t common practice.
He was stopped from explaining further because he’s not allowed to testify about what others told him, but he made it clear their observations led him to call the detective.
Prosecutors allege Peterson killed his wife in their Modesto home, then dumped her body from his small boat on San Francisco Bay. His attorneys have speculated someone else abducted her while she walked the dog. They have accused authorities of focusing too quickly on Peterson, ignoring other leads.
When the remains of Laci Peterson and her fetus washed ashore nearly four months later, just two miles from where her Scott Peterson claims to have been fishing, he was arrested.
Duerfeldt was the first law enforcement officer to testify in the capital murder trial, which concluded its second week of testimony Thursday.
Duerfeldt said officers searched a vacant home on the street as friends and family gathered at the Petersons’ house.
“There was a possibility that Laci could have been in that house,” he said.
Additional officers were summoned to search the park and a frantic scene unfolded at the house.
“Chaotic. Emotional,” Duerfeldt said describing it.
He said he was peppered with questions from friends and family.
“I was the source of a lot of emotions, questions and anger,” he said, adding that Scott Peterson never approached him that night.
A detective later took over the investigation, Duerfeldt said.
Also Thursday, Peterson neighbor Susan Medina testified about a burglary at her home sometime between Christmas Eve and Dec. 26.
Medina said she and her husband left their home on Dec. 24 around midday on a trip to visit family. When they returned, their home had been burglarized.
Defense lawyers have hinted that the burglars may have been involved in Laci’s disappearance, but prosecutors hammered home the point that the Petersons’ dog was found wandering alone in the street before the Medinas left their home, indicating Laci met her demise prior to the break-in.
Police recovered much of the stolen property and arrested two men in the case, ruling out any connection to Laci’s disappearance.
Medina later testified she saw “nothing unusual” in the neighborhood that morning.
“You didn’t see anybody drag anything out of the (Peterson) house? You didn’t see anybody load anything into a truck?” defense lawyer Pat Harris asked.
“No,” Medina replied.
“You could see directly what’s going on at the Petersons’ house in the driveway?” Pat Harris asked.
“Correct,” she replied.
Medina said Peterson visited her house with an investigator hired by his former attorney several days after Laci vanished.
“He was crying and he was really upset at that point,” she said.
Many of Laci Peterson’s friends and family have described Scott as unemotional and indifferent in the days after his wife vanished.
Prosecutor Dave Harris tried to imply that Peterson conjured up the tears for affect.
“The defendant starts to cry for you?” Dave Harris asked.
Defense lawyers objected to the tone and Dave Harris moved on with questioning.
Three more law enforcement officers followed Duerfeldt on the witness stand, describing the search for Laci Peterson in the park and surrounding neighborhood.
Testimony was set to resume Monday.