Police Lose Hope Laci Peterson Still Alive

M O D E S T O, Calif., March 6 -- Police lost hope that Laci Peterson might still be alive when her due date came and went without incident, and that's what prompted them to reclassify the pregnant woman's disappearance as a homicide, a family spokeswoman said.

"From what I've heard, from what I've been told, it's been 2½ months and the hope was that with her due date being Feb. 10, that possibly she would show up in a hospital somewhere giving birth, or a woman would show up with a baby who had not been pregnant," family spokeswoman Kim Petersen said today on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

Modesto police announced the reclassification Wednesday. "As the investigation has progressed we have increasingly come to believe that Laci Peterson is the victim of a violent crime," lead investigator Craig Grogan said in a statement.

The missing woman's family had feared that announcement would come for some time, Petersen said.

"It's been difficult on them. This is the news they absolutely didn't want to hear. It's been very painful," she said.

Laci Peterson, 27, was about eight months pregnant when she disappeared. Her husband, Scott, told police he last saw her on the morning of Dec. 24, when he left their Modesto home to go fishing at Berkeley Marina.

Police have said Scott Peterson is not a suspect in his wife's disappearance, but he has not been ruled out, either. Scott Peterson has acknowledged he was seeing another woman, but maintains he did nothing to hurt his wife.

Laci was due to give birth Feb. 10 to a son she had already named Connor. For a few weeks after that date, police had continued to hope that someone would discover her whereabouts, said Petersen, the family spokeswoman.

The missing woman's family, and everyone searching for her, knew the odds against finding her were increasing with every day that passed, Petersen said.

"With her first pregnancy, they knew that she could have a baby any time up to two weeks after her due date," the spokeswoman said. "The hope was waiting to see if that would happen. That time has passed with no sightings and not hearing from her in 2½ months.