Husband expands search

LOS ANGELES (AP) The husband of a missing Modesto woman said he traveled to Southern California to spread the search over a wider geographic area.
Scott Peterson and members of his family distributed fliers Sunday to volunteers at a Los Angeles hotel. The 30-year-old fertilizer salesman, who hasn’t been ruled out as a suspect, refused to answer most questions from reporters as he and his family distributed fliers.
“If you go to Modesto, you see in every store, every corner, there’s posters for her everywhere. We’ve been working on that for 26 days. We simply have to expand the geographical area,” he said. “So we’ll do it here, we’ll do it in San Diego next weekend and we’ll continue to expand until we find her.”
Laci Peterson, 27, has been missing since Christmas Eve. Scott Peterson told police he was fishing at the Berkeley Marina at the time and said his pregnant wife had planned to take her dog for a walk that morning.
Police have not named him as a suspect, but attention has focused on him since police told Mrs. Peterson’s relatives they believe he was having an affair.
Police said they were searching in and around Modesto, which is roughly 80 miles east of San Francisco, not Los Angeles.
“There’s nothing connected with our investigation in L.A.,” Modesto Police Detective Doug Ridenour said Sunday.
Mrs. Peterson’s brother, Brent Rocha, said Sunday that her family was not commenting. The missing woman’s relatives have distanced themselves from Scott Peterson. But his parents, brother and sister were with him in Los Angeles and said in a statement that he “has our absolute and complete support.”
About three dozen volunteers showed up to help distribute posters.
“The husband bothers me a lot being he hasn’t been upfront on this,” said volunteer Diane Fernandez. But another volunteer, Ana Ramirez, said she “just wanted to do a good deed.”