No Clues In Search for Pregnant Woman

M O D E S T O, Calif., Jan. 2, 2003 -- Police say they haven't been able to eliminate anyone as a potential suspect in the disappearance of Laci Peterson, the pregnant 27-year-old who went missing on Christmas Eve.

The missing woman's husband, Scott Peterson, told police his wife planned to go grocery shopping and walk the dog in Modesto's East La Loma Park on Christmas Eve. But the handler of a bloodhound used in the search told police Monday that the woman left her home in a car and not by foot as originally thought.

Hundreds of volunteers and police officers have continued the search for Laci Peterson, who is eight months pregnant. She was first reported missing by her husband, who said he tried to call his wife from his cell phone on Dec. 24, but was not able to reach her. He said that when he arrived home from a solo fishing trip later that day he found her purse in the house and her car in the driveway.

Looking Everywhere and at Everyone

Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden said investigators have not been able to eliminate anyone as a potential suspect in the case. "Nothing has been eliminated, but rather there are many angles that we're pursuing," Wasden said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

Wasden said police had not eliminated Scott Peterson as a suspect, "Because we can't account for a number of things. So at this point in time, we're having to follow all of those potentials."

Wasden said authorities have searched the park several times. They even brought the Petersons' dog — which had returned home alone on Christmas Eve trailing its muddy leash — to the park to help them search, but the family pet didn't find any clues.

Wasden said their search has gone beyond the park in the last few days. "We're concentrating much on a burglary that occurred across the street just a short time after the time the dog was returned to Laci's yard," he said.

$500,000 Reward

Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, told Good Morning America she is frustrated by the lack of clues and she doesn't think her son-in-law knows anything about her daughter's disappearance.

"I feel that Scott has nothing to do with this at all, with Laci's disappearance," Rocha said. "It's very frustrating, the fact that we don't know where Laci is."

Rocha says there is no way her daughter would have ever left on her own.

Officers on horseback searched along the Tuolumne River Wednesday, asking people encamped on its banks if they had seen the missing pregnant woman, but they found no new leads.

At a volunteer command center, Peterson's family, including her husband, joined others on the phone bank. Her family has not given up hope that Peterson will be found alive, even though police say they have shifted their focus to foul play.

The family is offering a reward of $500,000 for any information leading to her safe return.