Missing Woman's Kin Urge Husband to End 'Circus'

Feb. 5, 2003 -- The family of the pregnant Modesto woman who has been missing since Christmas Eve urged her husband today to talk to the police to help find her, instead of concentrating on himself.

The family of Laci Peterson held a press conference in Modesto, Calif., this afternoon after reports from sources close to the investigation that Laci's husband, Scott Peterson, tried to sell the couple's Modesto home and that he had traded in his missing wife's car.

Instead of keeping the focus on his missing wife, Scott Peterson has shifted the attention to himself, Ron Grantski, Laci's stepfather, said at the press conference.

"The things he's been doing and saying, the focus is all on him," Grantski said.

His advice to his son-in-law: "You want to change the focus Scott, talk to the Modesto police. End this circus," he said.

In the last week, Scott Peterson has granted TV news interviews — including with ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer — and has apparently gone about his business.

Both Names on House Papers

Peterson allegedly looked into selling their home, saying he had issues with it and didn't want Laci coming back to it. The deal to sell the home was scrapped about a week after Scott first began looking into it, according to KOVR television in Sacramento, Calif.

The house is in both Scott and Laci Peterson's name, and the family was incredulous at the idea of Peterson trying to put it on the market.

"I find it hard to believe he thought he could sell it without Laci's signature," Grantski said.

The family learned that Scott Peterson had sold his missing wife's Land Rover SUV after they drove by the house and saw that it was gone, Grantski said. Sitting in the driveway in its place was a 2002 Dodge Ram pickup truck that Scott Peterson had traded it in for, he said.

Police confiscated both the Land Rover and Scott Peterson's pickup as part oftheir investigation into the woman's disappearance. They returned the SUV butare keeping the pickup.

It's unclear what motivated the transaction and Modesto police have not commented.

On Tuesday, the dealer gave the SUV to Laci Peterson's family, and the family is now holding it in anticipation of finding Laci, Grantski said. The family is still asking volunteers to help search for Laci, and is asking ranch owners, and other property owners to open their gates for the search team.

‘A Slap in the Face’

The news of the car trade was shocking to Laci's friends and relatives.

"Sharon, Laci's mom, turned to all of us and said, 'You know Scott sold Laci's car, don't you?' And we were all just shocked, absolutely shocked. And we didn't know, I didn't know what to say," Luceene Gee, who has been volunteering in the search for the missing woman, told KOVR.

"My first thought was, 'How cold.' I mean, that's a piece of Laci," Gee said.

Another volunteer commented on how the news must be affecting Laci's mother.

"I felt so bad for her, because it's just like another slap in the face for her," said Bruceene Norton. "She's grieving her child, she doesn't know where she is, she doesn't know what happened to her, doesn't know what's happened to the grandchild. And [he's] sold the car, wants to sell the house. It's heartbreaking."

Family members held a candlelight vigil on Jan. 31 for 27-year-old Laci and her unborn child, who was to have been named Connor. The baby is due this Monday, Feb. 10, Grantski said.

Scott Peterson says he last saw Laci on the morning of Dec. 24, when he left on a solo fishing trip. She was eight months pregnant at the time.

Police have not named Peterson as a suspect in his wife's disappearance, but attention has focused on him, in part, because he admits he told his wife he was having an affair shortly before she vanished.

In a recent interview with ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer, Peterson said his wife accepted his affair with Amber Frey, a single mother from Fresno, when he told her back in early December. Frey has said she had no idea Peterson was married, and that she contacted Modesto police as soon as she realized the man she was seeing was connected to a missing person's case.

Peterson told Sawyer he and his wife never even had a fight over his extramarital affair, adding that he never laid a hand on Laci and hopes to find her alive.