Neighbors Say Police Ignored Sightings of Laci Peterson

M O D E S T O , Calif., Feb. 28 -- Neighbors of Laci Peterson say the Modesto Police Department ignored their report of a Laci Peterson sighting the day she went missing.

Vivian Mitchell, 78, says she and her husband, Bill, were the last people to see Laci Peterson, but she says Modesto police haven't talked to her about their Christmas Eve sighting.

"I called and told them that I'd seen whom I thought was her and it would be pretty difficult to have an identical twin and identical dog," Mitchell told ABCNEWS affiliate KGO in San Francisco. "I did think that it was strange they didn't call. I just thought they had some information that over-rode what I had seen and I just thought it was strange that nobody ever followed up," she said.

Mitchell says it took her a week to call the police, because she assumed others in the neighborhood had also seen Peterson walking her dog.

Mitchell says she remembers seeing Peterson, who was eight months pregnant at the time, between 10 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. on Dec. 24. That's about 45 minutes after Scott Peterson told police he said goodbye to his wife and went fishing.

‘It Was Frustrating’

"It was frustrating when the [local] paper went on and on and they kept on reporting that 9:30 a.m. was the last anybody had seen of her," Mitchell said. "I am pretty well convinced it was her because it was just too close circumstance to be not her. What she looked like, the dog, the time element, the whole thing," Mitchell said.

Mitchell's report prompted frustration from the family of Laci's husband Scott Peterson. His sister-in-law, Janey Peterson, says she doesn't understand why Modesto police haven't focused more on reported sightings and tips.

"When this all started, there was many reports of people who had said they seen her walking," Janey Peterson told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "That's why all the posters say 'Last seen walking her dog' in that area. As time went on, it became, 'well, we cannot confirm that she had been walking her dog.' Then it became, you know, 'we believe she left the area in a vehicle,'" Janey Peterson said.