Premeditated II – The “Secret” Boat & Internet Searches
In the Prosecution’s case against Scott Peterson, they suggested that prior to 7 December, he already knew that he was going to murder Laci and dispose of her body by putting it in the Bay. According to their theory he didn’t want anyone to know about the boat – it was to be a SECRET boat.
How would you go about purchasing a boat that you don’t want ANYONE to know about or be able to trace?
According to Scott Peterson, even though you have planned this all in advance, you don’t use the anonymity of buying a copy of the ModBee, leafing through the classifieds and then phoning up from a call box, no – you use your computer. You use it to look up advertisements, you call the owners from your own telephone and then you go one Monday morning, purchase the boat legally giving your correct name and address for the liability release forms (which will be sent to DMV) and then drive it back in broad daylight to your place of work and leave it there.
Are you confused? I am. One reason is that Scott Peterson evidently knew that the computer would sooner or later be searched by Law Enforcement. How do we know this? Because apparently, he specifically went on the home computer the morning of 24 December (with Laci’s body still in the house) to make it look like Laci was alive at that hour and viewing website. So how could he want the boat to be a secret if he placed all the information in a place where he knew MPD would find it?
If you suggest that he DIDN’T know the computers would be searched, then why was the home computer accessed by Scott? He’s sitting with a dead body in the house with him which he needs to disposed of and yet he can coolly surf the internet, viewing Gap scarves and umbrella stands?
Furthermore, if he had no idea the computer's activity would be checked, why didn’t he also use the computer to check how much weight is required to sink a body, or how easy or difficult it is for one to resurface? Why didn’t he research how soon Cadaver dogs can pick up a scent? Why was there no research into insurance policy payouts and the law? Since he’d already decided to kill Laci 23/24 December, then why didn’t he even check in advance what the weather was likely to be like those days? It could have been blowing a gale and then he would have had a real problem! All these topics are surely information that someone who has spent approximately 3 weeks planning a murder would have or should have read.
In truth, there was nothing incriminating whatsoever on those computers. What was “researched” was exactly what anyone purchasing and going out in a new boat on the Bay for the first time SHOULD have looked up. Had Laci never disappeared that day, but Scott had gone fishing, and later washed up drowned, there would be plenty of people who immediately would have asked “Which fool goes out in unfamiliar waters, in an unfamiliar boat without looking at the depths and currents etc. first.?”