Peterson Visited Marina Several Times During Search

Several police witnesses who were assigned to follow Scott Peterson after his wife Laci disappeared testified that Peterson repeatedly visited the bay where her body was later found and appeared to try to allude the police who were tailing him.

Police witnesses said Peterson visited the Berkeley Marina three times while police were searching the bay for Laci's body. The contend that he was concerned her body would surface. They said he sometimes drove at speeds up to 90 miles an hour to try to lose the police following him.

Defense attorneys however tried to indicate to the jury that Peterson was checking on search efforts and visited a reservoir miles away from the marina after learning that police were considering searching there.

Earlier Wednesday, Scott Peterson's defense attorneys attacked the reliability of evidence introduced by prosecutors that a search dog picked up Laci Peterson's near the Berkeley Marina by pointing out that the dog in question previously failed a training exercise, recorded on video tape.

The defense attempted to show that the dog tracking evidence is not reliable and not based on science. Attorney Mark Geragos showed the jury a video tape of the dog used in the search for Laci Peterson in which the dog failed the test.

In earlier testimony, dog handler Eloise Anderson said the dog followed the scent from the marina's parking area, along a tree line and down a pier, where the dog stopped at a pylon at the water's edge, she said. The dog then "stopped, checked out over the water, the wind was coming into her face ... turned around and gave me end-of-trail indication," Anderson said.

Geragos pointed out that Anderson did not perform a procedure at the marina which is intended to rule out the possibility that the dog was smelling Scott Peterson and not his wife. Anderson, however, insisted the step was not necessary.

See AP report: Police Followed Peterson to Marina Several Times
See ABC News: Peterson Lawyer Questions Scent Accuracy

Background: The Scott Peterson Trial
See Also: More Headline Cases