Police Test to See if Body Is Laci Peterson’s

The bodies of a petite young woman and a baby boy washed up on the shores of San Francisco Bay, and authorities are investigating whether the badly decomposed remains are those of Laci Denise Peterson and her son.

Peterson was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she disappeared Christmas Eve while walking her dog in the Central Valley farm community of Modesto, about 100 miles from the windswept shoreline.

Modesto police flew by helicopter Monday afternoon to the Point Isabel Regional Shoreline, where the adult body was discovered in the rocks just above the high-tide line.

The discovery of the woman’s remains came one day after a passerby spotted a tiny body near the Richmond Marina, about a mile to the north. Police identified it as a “full-term” fetus.

The infant was so decomposed that it took an autopsy to determine that it was a boy.

The cause of death was unknown late Monday, and it remains unclear whether the baby had been delivered, said Richmond Police Sgt. Enos Johnson.

At a news conference late Monday, Johnson said there could be a link between the two bodies “because of their close proximity, the time they were found and the fact that they had both been in the water -- they’re both decomposed.”

Officials in the Contra Costa County coroner’s office began to examine the female corpse Monday night.

They declined to predict when they would complete their work and report the findings to police. But they said that identifying the remains would be a “time-consuming process.”

The case of the 27-year-old Peterson has grabbed the attention of the national media and mystified police.

For months, pictures of the pregnant woman with the gleaming smile have been affixed to shop windows and utility poles throughout California and as far away as Salt Lake City and Mexico.

Scott Peterson told police that he saw his wife the morning she disappeared, as she left their house to walk the dog. She was due to give birth to a baby boy.

Peterson said he took a fishing trip to the Berkeley Marina, a few miles south of where the adult body washed ashore.

He told police he tried to call his wife when he was done, but could not reach her.

In the weeks following Peterson’s disappearance, investigators scoured the area around the marina. They have not named Scott Peterson as a suspect, but neither have they ruled him out.

Police initially treated the disappearance as a missing persons case, but detectives reclassified it as a homicide in early March.

Authorities have searched Scott Peterson’s home and vehicles and seized two family computers.

Scott Peterson became estranged from his wife’s family after news reports that he was having an affair with a Fresno-area massage therapist.

Laci’s family has criticized Peterson for selling his missing wife’s car and for considering the sale of the couple’s house.

More than 500 volunteers have participated in a massive search since Laci Peterson’s disappearance -- some using airplanes and helicopters, others on horseback and foot.

Gail Smith, a spokeswoman for the Modesto Police Department, said that she was not aware of another woman who had been reported missing in California.

“I was just doing a search for missing pregnant woman and all I came up with was Laci,” she said.

But Modesto Police Det. Doug Ridenour stressed that there is still no proof the body is Peterson’s. “We’ve sent several investigators up to the scene and they haven’t come back yet,” he said. “There’s no information, though, that it’s connected. If they haven’t been able to identify it by now, then it’s not going to be easily identifiable.”

Modesto resident Brad Saltzman, who has helped coordinate volunteer efforts to find Peterson, said most of those involved would not comment until the bodies were identified.

“I really don’t think any of us are saying anything,” he said. “Everybody’s just waiting to see if it’s her body.”

Authorities said Monday that the bodies may have been washed ashore by weekend storms.

They said if the bodies had been ashore earlier, they would have been spotted by many pedestrians and dog walkers who use the area.

The infant’s body was discovered around 4 p.m. Sunday along a trail near the Richmond marina by two people walking their dog.

Authorities said the baby had been dead for some time and was lying in a pool of water about 15 feet away from the shoreline.

Just before noon Monday, another dog walker came upon the adult remains along the Point Isabel Regional Shoreline. The body was facing down on an embankment of large concrete blocks, authorities said.

East Bay Regional Park District Police Chief Norman Lapera said officials called Modesto police after determining that the adult body was probably a female.

The agency sent a helicopter to summon a Modesto police detective and two crime scene investigators. By late afternoon, they were joined by a police lieutenant and an investigator from the Modesto County district attorney’s office.

As a medical examiner’s van drove off with the body about 5:30 p.m, reporters and news media helicopters watched from across a parking lot.

Police brought in dogs to scour the area for more remains.

Authorities said Modesto police would assume the lead role in the probe, if the body is determined to be Peterson’s.

Lapera said he decided to call Modesto police because the remains were found so close to the Berkeley Marina, searched previously by investigators.

District police thought that, because of where the body was found “and the notoriety of the case involving Modesto that it was prudent for us to notify them,” Lapera said.

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Times staff writer Monte Morin and special correspondent Imran Vittachi contributed to this report.