Al Brocchini testified at Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing that police discovered on December 9, 2002, that Peterson bought a boat and paid for it with 14 $100 bills, according to the man who sold the boat to Peterson.

Brocchini testified he later learned Amber Frey, who was having an affair with Scott Peterson, confronted him December 9 about being married. Frey told police that Peterson explained his wife was dead -- and that the upcoming holidays would be his first without her, Brocchini said.

Frey also told police that Peterson said he would be able to spend more time with her after January 26, Brocchini said.

Peterson, 31, told police he was on the boat, fishing in San Francisco Bay, the day his wife disappeared. Laci's body and that of their unborn son, washed up on shore in April, just miles from where Peterson told police he was fishing. He is charged with their murders.

The man who sold the boat to Peterson told police that it had never been used before in salt water, Brocchini testified. San Francisco Bay is salt water.

After Laci's disappearance was reported, police asked Scott Peterson directly if he was having an affair, Brocchini said. "He said no."

Peterson later publicly acknowledged that he was having an affair with Frey, a Fresno massage therapist. After learning of Laci's disappearance, Frey contacted police. Brocchini said police then began recording phone calls between the two.

Frey, a key prosecution witness, is expected to take the stand next week in the preliminary hearing, which will determine whether there is enough evidence to bind Peterson over for trial.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Brocchini said that when questioned by detectives, Peterson also said his wife -- more than seven months pregnant -- was mopping the floor when he left on his fishing trip. However, the couple's maid has testified that she cleaned the house the day before, and Brocchini said detectives smelled no traces of cleaning fluids, nor saw any signs of mopping.

Brocchini also testified about information police received from a man in San Diego, California, who sold Scott Peterson a car shortly before his arrest.

Peterson paid for the car with 36 $100 bills, and he used his mother's name when filling out the paperwork. The man said when he questioned Peterson about the name, "He said that was the name his parents had given him, kind of a 'Boy Named Sue' kind of thing," Brocchini testified.

"Boy Named Sue" is a song made famous by Johnny Cash about a man given a woman's name by his father.

After his wife's disappearance, Peterson gave police permission to search his house, truck, warehouse and boat, as well as Laci Peterson's Land Rover, Brocchini said. He also allowed police to test his hands for gunpowder residue.

Inside the truck, police found an unopened box of fishing lures, a fishing license that expired in 1999 and a loaded .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun in the glove box, the detective testified. Police also examined his cell phone to get the numbers of calls he had made and received.

Brocchini said Peterson never revealed to detectives that he had more than one cell phone number. But subsequent searches eventually turned up three cell phones, the detective said.

Under cross-examination by the defense, Brocchini admitted that Peterson told police about the gun before detectives found it. He also said that while police had swabbed Peterson's hands for the gunshot residue test, the swabs were never actually tested to determine if he had fired a gun.

Brocchini also said Peterson was cooperative during the questioning and searches of his property.

Police also found a homemade anchor in the boat, made from cement put in a bucket with a hook made of reinforcing bar, Brocchini said. CNN has previously reported that according to a source close to the case that police found evidence Peterson fashioned more of these anchors that have not been located.

In their search of the house, Brocchini said the clothes Peterson was wearing on the day his wife vanished were found in the washing machine. He told police he had washed his clothes and taken a shower after returning home, Brocchini said.

"Did he say why he washed ?" asked Deputy District Attorney Rick Distaso.

"He said they were wet from the bay and being rained on," Brocchini said.

After police left the house on Christmas Eve, Brocchini said Peterson called him at 2 a.m. on Christmas to ask him if they had taken his gun. Brocchini said he told Peterson that police had taken the gun into evidence -- and that it was illegal to carry a loaded gun in his glove box.

Later Christmas Day, Peterson called Brocchini again, asking him if police were using cadaver-sniffing dogs to search a park near their home. The detective said he told Peterson that the dogs weren't being used because they had no reason to believe Laci was not still alive.

In another development Thursday, defense attorney Mark Geragos raised the question of whether the FBI had made surveillance videos of Peterson after his wife disappeared. He asked Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami to order the FBI to turn over the material.

But Distaso said he knows of no such material.

"We've made multiple requests to the FBI. We've turned over everything the FBI has given us," he said.

and it makes some interesting points (although many have already been known by this forum for quite awhile).

But some I didn't know:

**The car being purchased by him under a false name.

**The fact that he told Amber they could be together more after Jan 25/26...I find this interesting. Wonder why the specific date (almost exactly one month after Laci's disappearance)...did he think everyone would simply forget about her after just one month and that he could just bring Amber into his life? I know he didn't anticipate the extreme media coverage and nationawide interest, but I just wonder what was going to happen after one month that would put him in a position to spend so much more time with Amber?

** The gun in the glovebox. Probably doesn't mean much, though...(IMO)

** The clothes in the washer. Another report on Courttv.com says that although there was a hamper full of dirty clothes, the only clothes in the washer was what he had worn "fishing".

** The cement anchor found that day. Thought this was a much later development....

** His questions about "cadaver dogs".... is this just his ignorance showing or something more ominous?

Anyway-in response to Evening2's post above- How is it that Scott called Laci on the 24th to ask her to pick up the basket? I mean, was it on the answering machine or did he just SAY that's what he did? I hadn't heard this one before....I had heard that he told police he had tried her several times that day but didn't reach her...

He is expressionless. He shows no sign of guilt or innocence, but to me, he looks like a killer.

He has such a track-record of lies that it's unbelievable (yes, pun intended):

"No, I'm not having an affair, officer"
"No, I'm not married, Amber"
"Yes, okay, I had an affair but I told Laci and she had made peace with it"
"I LOST my wife-this is my first Christmas without her (okay, so not exactly a lie NOW, but it was at the time he told it on Dec 9)"
"I'll be in Paris for Christmas, Amber-baby, that's why I cannot spend it with you, but don't worry, we'll be together soon..."

Lies, lies, lies.....this man is USED to covering his tracks (to keep both Laci and Amber in the dark)...it would be practically second-nature to him to make some phone calls during the day so his phone records would show that he tried to call his wife. I also think he's perfectly capable of dropping off his dog in the park with leash attached so that someone might find the dog later and help back up his "laci went to walk the dog" story....

Police said Scott Peterson tried calling his wife on his cell phone when he finished fishing but was not able to reach her. When he arrived home, he said he found her purse in the house and her sport-utility vehicle in the driveway.

He started contacting neighbors and family members, and then called police, officials said.

Scott Peterson and others began searching the park. The Petersons' home is only about a block and a half from a footpath leading into the park...."
....

DragonFly2 I don't have a copy of the message to you w/ subject MORE, somehow the forum program doesn't save (?) I can resend the entire if you like.

SAM I sent links that I searched for, to you regarding Barbara and how to locate her for info ( Darlie R ), I don't know IF you ever received the message. BTW, my favorite profiler is still top of the list, John Douglas.

Its not the fact that he is a cad that is important, there are lots of those around.

Buying a boat while having an affair?
OR
Buying a boat for cash while having an affair?
Its the absence of a paper trail and the time interval that become suspicious. I'm sure alot of men who were having affairs bought boats: but they didn't try to buy them for cash and they didn't then use them quite so promptly in a murder case.

Right from the start this case stank. A man with a very pregnant wife goes almost a hundred miles away on a fishing trip at Christmas time?
Right there the focus of the case is determined.

Odor of cleaning chemicals but a statement that his wife was mopping the floor despite some contradictory evidence later developed from the maid? Face it, no one believed that wife mopping the floor stuff.

Scott's lies, coupled with the circumstances surrounding Laci's death, all the suspicious pre-activity on his part, and the fact that he still called Amber after Laci's disappearance makes me believe this guy is guilty.

The only glitch is the few people who claim to have seen Laci the morning she disappeared...but statistics show that "eyewitnesses" are the most UNRELIABLE sources of info in an investigation. Many people are well-meaning and honestly believe they've seen someone, when it was really someone else. Others are opportunists who are looking for attention or to play the hero (example: the guy who made the false claims during the search for the Washington area snipers).

If it is shown that Laci was still wearing what Amy had seen her in the previous night, then it is impossible for those witnesses to have seen Laci walking the dog the next morning....(IMO)

I honestly think that he was using the 23rd's events to describe the 24th... to confuse times.

The operative word here is "still",,,,

Well, unfortunately, it's not that simple. She could have put back on the same clothes she wore the night before when she took the "dog for a walk." Or, she might have "walked the dog" in the black and white outfit and changed back into the clothes from the night before when she was finished. Think how often many of us change clothes in a given day. Patsy Ramsey was criticized "FOR" wearing the same clothes and many said that was evidence of guilt.

We have no way of knowing if she was "still" wearing the same clothes.

Modesto police Detective Phil Owen acknowledged that he interviewed three people Dec. 27 with stories that Geragos said could "negate an element of the crime."

John and Karma Souza told the detective they saw a suspicious man in a puffy jacket and blue jeans who "popped out of bushes" as they jogged on a trail in East La Loma Park early that morning.

About 10:45 a.m. Dec. 24, Diana Campos, an employee of a nearby hospital, saw a pregnant woman walking a golden retriever with two men along a path in the park, Owen said.

Campos described the woman as six to seven months pregnant with straight, shoulder-length hair, and the men as extremely dirty.

Campos told Owen one of the men used an expletive when telling the woman to quiet the dog, Owen testified.

Campos saw a flier on Dec. 26 about Laci Peterson's disappearance and called police the next day. "She said to herself, 'I know that girl,' and realized it was the same subject she saw walking through the park," Geragos said.

Owen agreed, but said he thought the witness had seen media reports on the disappearance.

" I felt she was giving me information that was not going in the right direction ", he testified.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/7743764p-8647728c.html

NOTE: Desperately searching on December 27, 2002 for Laci and I would ask which would be the right direction ? How would Det Owen know which direction was right or wrong?

but a subjective feeling of how they are being fed garbage by some witness is just that: they still write it all down and check it all out.

Laci was not seen walking her dog that morning by anyone, she was already dead and already at Davy Jones' Locker. You will always beable to find someone who gets the days mixed up or wants to be 'helpful' or remembers something because he has seen it on TV so many times.

How many posters here knew what the "right direction" was as soon as they heard about a married man going fishing a hundred miles away just before Christmas with a wife who was 8 months gone? That doesn't mean they didn't read the posts that had Laci running off with another man or something.

I have to agree with you 100%.

I think that the ONLY reason that neighbors say that they saw Laci on that particular day rather than the 23rd, is because Scott went to the neighbors and asked if they had seen her that day, emphazing that she was going to walk the dog that day. I think that they were remembering seeing her the day of the 23rd, but because Scott planted the seed, they confused the two days.

All the while also telling neighbors that he had been golfing all day long.... and came home to Laci missing. Why didn't he tell the neighbors the truth?

Robert Durst wasn't on trial for cutting up Morris Black and tossing body parts into the water, he was on trial for murder.

Robert Durst's wife disappeared years ago, never found. When Durst learned his wife's case was being reopened, he disappeared, rented an apartment in Texas...where he met Black who was also a tenant. Was Black blackmailing Durst? Did Black learn the Robert Durst secrets? Morris Black had no money but he had the ability to get big $ if he wanted...how? He knew where...

Robert's closest friend, daughter of a mobster, an author, screen writer, Susan Behrman, LosAngeles, CA was a victim of execution homicide (12/98), also shot in the head...if they could only find Morris Black's head and that gun that killed him the murder of Susan B. might be clues to solve the case, however with the case closed doubt Texas will search for it...too many cases.

The book will answer many questions :
" A Deadly Secret " by Birkback(sp)

P.S. I may have erred the year Susan was executed.
Sam, you haven't answered me regarding Darlie or Barbara Davis.