Divers find anchor, not missing woman

Search for object found by sonar uncovers only boat anchor

Police divers prepare to leave the marina Saturday.

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VIDEO Volunteers help search for Laci Peterson weeks after the pregnant woman disappeared from Modesto, California. CNN's Rusty Dornin reports. (January 9) PLAY VIDEO RELATED • Laci Peterson Web site  • Interactive: Map of marina

BERKELEY, California (CNN) -- Divers searching San Francisco Bay on Saturday for the body of a missing pregnant woman discovered a boat anchor instead, police said.

The discovery came a few hours after the divers had begun the painstaking search for an object detected by sonar earlier in the week that officials had said might be a body. The crews are searching for 27-year-old Laci Peterson, who is pregnant and due to deliver a boy February 10.

Despite the discovery, divers continued their search on the chance that the anchor was not the object the sonar had picked up.

The search began Saturday at dawn, when several boats launched from the Berkeley Marina en route to the end of a dilapidated pier two miles into the bay.

Laci's husband, Scott Peterson, told police he left their home in Modesto the morning of December 24 for a solo fishing trip in the bay, about 85 miles away. He said his wife told him she intended to walk their golden retriever in a nearby park and then shop for that evening's dinner.

She has not been seen since.

Temperatures hovered near 60 degrees Saturday. The weather was clear and the seas were calm as a crowd of law enforcement officers gathered before dawn in a parking lot at the marina. Five people were wearing jackets emblazoned with the word "Diver."

At 6:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. EST), three boats were launched and another three were readied. A wire basket that could be used to haul objects from the floor of the bay was placed on one of the boats.

Laci Peterson has been missing since December 24.

Modesto Police Detective Doug Ridenour said sonar spotted the object late Thursday, too late for divers to investigate, and bad weather kept them out of the water Friday.

Police said Scott told them he returned home Christmas Eve and found the family's dog, with its leash on, in the back yard. A neighbor had found the dog wandering earlier in the day, authorities said, and put it in the yard. Scott said his wife's purse was still in the house and that nothing had been disturbed.

Ridenour said the last time another family member had contact with Laci was a telephone conversation late December 23.

Police said a receipt that Scott produced from a parking lot at the Berkeley Marina was legitimate. Authorities have also searched the couple's home, their vehicles and Scott's business.

Ridenour said Thursday that neither the husband nor anyone else close to the missing woman had been ruled out as possible suspects.

"We can't go into the Scott Peterson part of the investigation," he told CNN on Saturday.

A $500,000 reward has been posted for Laci's return.

Examiners at the Central Valley Regional Laboratory in Ripon, about 10 miles north of Modesto, were conducting serology tests on evidence collected in the case, authorities told CNN. Serology is the science of studying bodily fluids. The sources would not disclose where, when or from whom the samples were taken, or what they were seeking to determine from the tests.

Katy Ciula, the lab's assistant director, said it would be several months before testing is complete and the results are known.

-- CNN correspondent Rusty Dornin and San Francisco bureau chief Bonnie Gannon contributed to this article.

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