IF... and that is the operative word here... it can be PROVED that he did murder his wife and unborn child, then he should be subjected to the most harsh punishment we have available to us as a society.

My concern was... and remains... over a rush to judgement. While there were oddities in the case, such as the undrawn drapes and many other things, I would remind you that they do not alone, or cumulatively, yet constitute PROOF that the man is responsible for either her disappearance or possible death. There are many unanswered questions, to be certain, but that only means there are unanswered questions. To quote the police spokesman who is speaking as I type this, "It's too early to answer those questions now... We don't have enough information to make any type of statement about the body of the female and the infant... We don't even have the results of the autopsy yet."

It seems to me that is a wise response to speculative questions and the only appropriate thing law enforcement officials should be saying at this juncture. It is in stark contrast to the media feeding frenzy we have seen in the recent cases of the Elizabeth Smart disappearance, the Chandra Levy disappearance and murder and the Jon Benet Ramsey murder. I am more than willing to wait for them to have and make public some substantiated evidence and information in this situation before I am willing to condemn the man. Wild speculation does nothing to solve the mysteries that abound here and can actually be a detriment to potential prosecution should it turn out that the bodies are indeed those of Laci Petersen and her son and that Scott Petersen was really involved in their deaths.

IF... there's that word again... those are the facts that evolve, wouldn't it be tragic were the guilty party to escape punishment because of improprieties commited at this stage? Also, what if subsequent investigation ascertains that Scott Petersen is totally innocent of the heinous crimes with which he is currently being accused? Would you be nearly as vocal then in trying to undo any wrongful damage you and others may have done to him with unsubstantiated finger-pointing at this stage?

For the record, I consider the man to be contemptible for many reasons and have no problem with saying that. He is syptomatic of the malaise that has befallen our society of mankind. That he was conducting an adulterous affair with another woman while his wife was expecting their child makes him scum in my eyes, but it does not necessarily support belief that he is therefore a murderer. His actions since her disappearance have been suspect, for sure, but neither do they constitute proof of his implication in an act of cowardly homicide.

May I remind you that some women, in the final stages of a pregnancy, suffer hormonal imbalances and emotional turmoil that have lead to suicidal acts? What if the results of an autopsy were to prove that were the case here? What purpose would such wild specualtion have served in that case? The only thing I am cautioning is that we owe it to the victims and to the suspect(s) to refuse to rush to a judgement sans a proper investigation and legally conducted trial. If Laci Petersen were slaughtered, we have an overwhelming obligation to her to make absolutely certain that we do this by the numbers to guarantee that the actual killer is brought to justice. Should it be determined that Scott Petersen, while a sleazy human being, is not the perpetrator of that crime, then we would have wasted valuable investigative time and energy with specualtive accusations that must be ruled out before authorities can address the identification of the real killer(s).

Real life is not a television program where a crime is commited and a resolution is instantly available to us within 48 minutes of actual programming content plus 12 minutes of commercials. Real life is an ongoing miniseries usually with more plot twists than even the most successful scriptwriters can ever imagine.