No Breakthroughs in Search of Home

Modesto police said they made no breakthroughs in this week’s search at the home of Laci Peterson, where they had been seeking clues that would either clear or implicate Scott Peterson in his wife’s Christmas Eve disappearance.

The 27-year-old substitute teacher was pregnant with the couple’s first child when she vanished nearly two months ago while on a walk with the family dog.

Police declined to say what they were seeking, or what they found, in a two-day search that ended Wednesday.

They continued their oft-repeated refrain that Scott Peterson is neither a suspect, nor ruled out as one.

Peterson, 30, a fertilizer salesman, told MSNBC that he hoped the police were doing everything they could to find his wife.

“I’m missing my wife and my child,” Peterson said. “I can’t drive. I can’t sleep. Sometimes I feel I just can’t do it. I feel like I’m in a dark corner and I just can’t function.”

Officers armed with a search warrant on Tuesday took over the modest house owned by the couple since October 2000. Investigators wearing rubber gloves measured dimensions of his driveway and yard. Detectives searched for clues inside, removing nearly 100 items of possible evidence over two days.

By measuring parts of the home Wednesday, authorities are working the house as a crime scene, said Mark Geragos, a Los Angeles defense attorney.

“That to me is a telltale sign they think this is a crime scene, and they are mapping it out,” said Geragos, who has defended actors Robert Downey Jr. and Winona Ryder.

Det. Doug Ridenour said he wouldn’t characterize the house as a crime scene. Ridenour also said he didn’t know if Peterson had a new attorney.

His first lawyer, Kirk McAllister of Modesto, withdrew from the case when Peterson appeared on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” Jan. 27-28 and acknowledged having an extramarital affair with a Fresno woman.

Geragos, however, said police must have learned something in their investigation that prompted a second search of the home.

Peterson said he last saw his wife about 9:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve when he left to go fishing at the Berkeley Marina.

Police searched the home with a warrant two days later, but waited nearly two months to return. They returned a white 2002 Dodge Ram pickup to Peterson early Wednesday after combing it for evidence.

On Covena Avenue, television trucks sprouted satellite towers among the city’s signature Modesto ash trees, while helicopters buzzing overhead attracted scores of onlookers. Police eventually closed off the street to vehicles.