Police Lose Hope Laci Peterson Still Alive

M O D E S T O, Calif., March 6, 2003 -- 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.

"This [reclassification], unfortunately, is a natural step," she said.

The reclassification has prompted a new $50,000 reward for "information that leads to her location and recovery." Previously, a $500,000 reward was offered for information leading to Peterson's safe return.

Petersen said she did not know whether Scott Peterson has contacted Laci's family since the announcement of the reclassification. Laci's family initially spoke up in support of her husband, but after learning of his affair, they said they no longer trusted him.

In a two-day search last month, police removed 95 items from the Peterson home. Among those items were containers of cement, which Scott Peterson said were for people who were working on his pool. When police questioned the pool workers, though, they said the cement was not theirs.

Police have also contacted the man who sold Peterson the boat he said he used for fishing on the day his wife disappeared. Investigators asked the seller to look over the boat to see if anything was different about it. The seller said that he saw traces of cement on the boat that were not there when he turned it over to Peterson.

"I know it wasn't that way when I sold it to him," the man, Bruce Peterson (who is not related to Scott Peterson), told ABCNEWS affiliate KGO in San Francisco. "I don't know what he used it for, if he was hauling stuff or anything."

When asked about the cement last week, Scott's sister, Janey Peterson, told Good Morning America that her brother and Laci spent a lot of time on home improvement. "I know they've done a lot of work on their home," she said.

Laci's family released a statement Wednesday urging anyone with knowledge of her whereabouts to contact authorities.

The statement read, in part: "Until we find Laci our lives are in turmoil. We feel as though we can't go on. We can't look beyond today."

ABCNEWS affiliate KGO in San Francisco contributed to this report.