It was the home where they planned to raise a family. Now the front lawn is a shrine, where people by the thousands have come to mourn the woman who lived there.

Scott Peterson may have been tried, convicted and sentenced to death in the jury of public opinion, but it won't be so easy to win a conviction at trial, according to a variety of legal experts.

Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton said Friday that he will seek the death penalty for Scott Peterson, who is accused of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci.

WASHINGTON -- Baby Girl Vogt's death 34 years ago in Northern California led to the state law that permits Scott Peterson to be charged with murdering his unborn son.

Modesto Mayor Carmen Sabatino has appeared on three national television news shows this week to share his opinion that Scott Peterson cannot get a fair trial in Stanislaus County.

Prosecutors plan to meet today with Laci Peterson's family to discuss whether to seek the death penalty against her husband and accused killer, Scott.

Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton said Wednesday that he would "absolutely" pursue the death penalty against Scott Peterson.

They came by the thousands when they heard the bodies were identified as Laci Peterson and her unborn son: Parents with toddlers, grandparents, neighbors, strangers and gawkers. They piled the front lawn of the Petersons' Modesto home with flowers and toys and other offerings, and they sobbed openly on the sidewalk.

Scott and Laci Peterson's dog, mentioned frequently in news accounts about Laci's disappearance, is with Scott's family in San Diego.

Reserve judgment

Stanislaus County Public Defender Tim Bazar said Tuesday that he and two assistants are handling Scott Peterson's case.

Editor's Note: This is a statement read by Ron Grantski, Laci Peterson's stepfather, to the assembled media at the Modesto Police Department on Monday, April 21, 2003.

Editor's note: This is a statement delivered on Monday, April 21 to media assembled at the Modesto Police Department.

HOLLYWOOD -- As further proof that TV viewers' attention to events in Iraq is waning, cable news viewing continued its steady decline last week, with the combined audience for Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC slipping more than 30 percent from the previous week.

While Scott Peterson's parents proclaimed their son's innocence and criticized Modesto police, two of Scott and Laci's best friends admitted they have some doubts.

Attorney Kirk McAllister nearly made it unscathed to the corner of 11th and I streets Monday afternoon.

Laci Peterson's mother stared into the bright lights of dozens of camera crews Monday to give her daughter something that had been taken away.

Scott Peterson pleaded innocent Monday to two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife Laci and their unborn son, Conner.

Security will be tight and access to the courtroom where Scott Peterson is expected to be arraigned will be strictly controlled, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department announced Sunday.

As a memorial of stuffed animals, flowers and candles swelled in front of his Modesto home Saturday, Scott Peterson sat across town in a 6-by-9-foot cell.

Though the official declaration must come from the coroner's office, technicians said the DNA tests that identified the bodies of Laci Peterson and her unborn son are unquestionably accurate.

Her baby was nearly full-term.

An agitated throng of people, several with young children, converged on downtown Modesto on Friday night to see detectives deliver Scott Peterson to the jail.

Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden was sitting at the Familia Juarez restaurant in Modesto on Monday afternoon when his pager went off.

The statement from Laci Peterson's family, as read Friday by family spokeswoman Kim Petersen:

Back in January, when the Laci Peterson volunteer center was up and running at Modesto's Red Lion Hotel, Scott Peterson developed a daily ritual.

Scott Peterson was arrested Friday morning in the slayings of his wife, Laci, and their son, Conner.

That smile. That dimpled, bursting-with-joy smile. It came through in every photograph, overshadowing her shining, deep-brown eyes.

Even though many presumed a tragic end for Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner, Good Friday's grim news still shocked those who knew her and those who only knew of her.

In a dramatic move Friday, authorities in the northern San Diego County community of La Jolla arrested Modesto’s Scott Peterson, whose pregnant wife Laci disappeared Christmas Eve.

Lab technicians still did not know Thursday if they could get usable DNA from the body of a woman found earlier this week along the San Francisco Bay shoreline, a lab official said.

You are an attorney whose client is at the center of controversy in a high-profile homicide case.

It is hard to win a murder case without having recovered a body or without determining a cause of death, experts say. But it is not impossible.

Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton said Wednesday he thinks Laci Peterson is the woman whose body was found this week along San Francisco Bay.

Here is the text of the statement from Laci Peterson's family, as read by a spokeswoman at Tuesday's press conference:

For the past 3 1/2 months, Heather Richardson has clung to hope that her best friend, Laci Peterson, might still be alive.

The poor condition of many bodies recovered from water can make it hard not only to identify them but to tell whether they were victims of violence, forensic experts say.

Laci Peterson's family says the "waiting is the worst," but Tuesday they learned it might take days, or even weeks, to identify a woman's body found along San Francisco Bay.

RICHMOND -- An autopsy continued into the night Monday after a discovery that sent Modesto police rushing to the East Bay to see if Laci Peterson's body had been found.

For those who know the complex tides and currents of San Francisco Bay, it comes as no surprise that things can be submerged in those waters for weeks or months before coming to the surface or the shore.

Investigators are likely to rely on DNA samples to determine whether the remains found on the shoreline north of Berkeley are those of missing Modesto woman Laci Peterson and her baby.

The people closest to Laci Peterson had the least to say Monday about the discoveries of two bodies along San Francisco Bay.

A man walking a dog by the Berkeley Marina Monday found a bone that may be connected to two bodies found in the area, Contra Costa County coroner's officials said in a press conference Tuesday morning.

Investigators are trying to determine if two bodies found in the East Bay Area in the last two days are connected to the Laci Peterson investigation.

A police officer in Tempe, Ariz., last weekend checked out a tip that Laci Peterson had been spotted there.

Calling it a potential death penalty case, a judge ruled Thursday that he would not release information from search warrants in the investigation into the disappearance of Laci Peterson.

A judge ruled Thursday that he would not release any information from search warrants issued in the investigation of Laci Peterson, a missing Modesto woman police believe is a homicide victim.

Laci Peterson's husband, Scott, hired a psychic investigator about three weeks after Laci disappeared, and the investigator turned over a report to Modesto police.

Stanislaus County Superior Court judges acted improperly when, at the request of law enforcement, they sealed search warrants in two Modesto investigations, one of those judges ruled Friday.

The lawn has not been mowed for two weeks. The shades are always closed.

(From Sunday, March 23, 2003 edition)

A woman says she stopped beside Scott Peterson at a red light on Dec. 24 and alerted him that something might be coming loose from his truck bed.

RICHMOND -- High wind and choppy water Thursday prevented investigators in the Laci Peterson homicide case from continuing their search off Brooks Island in San Francisco Bay.

Modesto police using sonar apparently detected something of interest in San Francisco Bay during another search there in the Laci Peterson investigation.

A judge has ruled that investigators are not allowed to see the contents of an envelope that police found during a recent search of Scott Peterson's home, court records show.

Investigators with the Modesto Police and the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s departments were searching the San Francisco Bay Wednesday in the Laci Peterson case.

Ron Frey came to Modesto this week to visit one daughter and to see for himself the place where a missing person case swept up another.

Police investigating Laci Peterson's disappearance obtained court permission to search an envelope recovered in one of her husband's vehicles, and a storage unit, court records show.

The Bee has filed a petition in Stanislaus County Superior Court asking Judge Wray Ladine to reverse orders sealing search warrants in the Laci Peterson investigation.

The Modesto police decision to reclassify Laci Peterson's disappearance as a homicide will keep people from looking for her, the missing woman's mother-in-law charged Thursday.

Modesto police said Wednesday that they believe Laci Peterson was the victim of a homicide.

Modesto police said Wednesday the Laci Peterson case has evolved into a homicide investigation.

A private investigator looking into Laci Peterson's disappearance said police plan to look at some spilled concrete mix he found near the Delta- Mendota Canal.

Laci Peterson, reported missing Dec. 24, was due to have her baby last month.

Jackie Peterson said Thursday it's not surprising that a man found concrete dust in the bottom of her son Scott Peterson's boat.

Vivian Mitchell says she saw Laci Peterson walking her dog Christmas Eve morning, about 45 minutes after Scott Peterson said he left for a fishing trip.

Volunteers converged Saturday on New Melones Reservoir for a family-organized search in the case of Laci Peterson, missing from Modesto for nearly two months.

The Modesto Police Department maintained its silence Thursday on what officers collected from Scott and Laci Peterson's home during a two-day search this week.

The Modesto Police Department said Thursday afternoon that reports of the discovery of Laci Peterson’s body are false.

Detectives did more than search Scott and Laci Peterson's house for a second day Wednesday. They also measured it.

Detectives returned to Scott and Laci Peterson's home Tuesday, hauling away about 50 bags of evidence in their second search of the house.

Modesto police confiscated Scott Peterson’s new truck Tuesday morning as they served a second search warrant at his Covena Avenue home. Peterson’s wife, Laci, was reported missing Dec. 24. She was eight months pregnant at the time. Her husband said he last saw her when he left at 9:30 a.m. for a fishing trip.

Nearly every day since Christmas, Laci Peterson's lovely face has smiled from the front sections of newspapers and appeared on the evening news, and Donna Raley cannot help but feel cheated.

Modesto police continue to pursue leads in the Laci Peterson case, and a spokesman said Monday that investigators have made some headway.

The family of missing Modesto woman Laci Peterson firmed up plans Thursday for a weekend search, while her in-laws held a press conference to say what they were doing to find her.

The family of missing Modesto woman Laci Peterson firmed up plans Thursday for a weekend search, while her in-laws held a press conference to say what they were doing to find her.

A Modesto police spokesman said Wednesday night that he knew of no "imminent" arrest or other break in the Laci Peterson case. Detective Doug Ridenour's comment came in response to a television report that an arrest "could come in a matter of weeks." In fact, Ridenour said, there were no new developments to report in the missing person case that began Christmas Eve.

First someone broke into Scott Peterson's house, and now someone has bashed in the door at his warehouse.

Feb. 10 was supposed to have been a joyous date in Laci Peterson's life.

Today is the day Laci Peterson's family expected her to give birth to a son.