Investigation to Identify Bodies Found in Bay Focuses Solely on Peterson Case

The identification of two bodies found in San Francisco Bay this week is focused solely on whether they are the remains of Laci Peterson and the baby she was carrying, a state crime lab supervisor said Wednesday.

The lab is comparing DNA from Peterson and her parents with tissue and bone taken from the decomposed bodies of a woman and an infant boy found earlier this week a mile apart on the rocky shoreline at the eastern edge of San Francisco Bay.

“We don’t have another person in mind,” said John Tonkyn, a missing persons supervisor at the state crime lab.

Peterson, 27, a substitute teacher, vanished on Christmas Eve from her home in Modesto, 90 miles southeast of Richmond. Her husband, Scott Peterson, said he saw her as he left to go fishing that morning in Berkeley, not far from where the bodies were found.

The lab was analyzing cheek swabs taken from Laci Peterson’s parents and hair from Laci Peterson’s hairbrush. Those results will be compared with DNA from the bodies found in the bay.

When asked why they weren’t using dental records, Tonkyn said the lab hadn’t been provided with teeth from the Contra Costa County coroner’s office. Published reports have said the woman’s body was headless.

If the woman’s body is not identified as Peterson’s, the lab will begin comparing the samples with likely matches in a database of 100 DNA samples of other missing people.