Memorial Service Marks Laci's Birthday

In an extraordinary outpouring of sympathy, more than 3,000 people packed a church Sunday for a memorial service filled with music, pictures and prayer as they remembered Laci Peterson on what would have been her 28th birthday.

Many mourners who had never met the young substitute teacher filled the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church in Modesto for a nationally televised service that reflected the way in which the Peterson story has touched so many Americans.

"Even though Laci is not with us here today, she will always be in my heart and in my memories," her 13-year-old cousin, T.J. Vasquez, said as he choked back tears. "Happy birthday, Laci."

In a series of eulogies, family and friends remembered Peterson as a woman who connected with people naturally and easily and eagerly awaited her life as a mother. There was no mention of her husband, Scott Peterson, who has been arrested and charged with killing his wife and unborn son, whose remains washed ashore three weeks ago.

"Each of them is now roaming the hallways of heaven, hand in hand," said Terry Western, whose daughter grew up with Peterson. "They have already earned their wings, and they are golden."

Addie Hansberry, Laci Peterson's cousin, said she came to the ceremony "with a heavy heart because we know now Laci is never coming back."

"So many questions and no answers. No real answers," Hansberry said.

The crowd overflowed the huge church, and many of the mourners ended up watching the service on closed-circuit television. But despite the long wait, mourners said they were glad they attended.

"My daughter just had a baby. I can imagine what the family is going through," said Lisa Maldonado, who drove from San Jose with her husband and two children. "It's made me feel better that I came."

Peterson was eight months pregnant when she vanished just before Christmas, setting off a media frenzy in the following months as investigators searched for the body and her husband admitted to having an affair with a massage therapist.

Last month, people walking along the eastern shoreline of San Francisco Bay found Laci's body near that of her unborn son that she and her husband had planned to name Connor.

Scott Peterson, 30, was arrested April 18 in San Diego and has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder. A bail hearing is set for Tuesday.

His request to attend the memorial service was denied by the Stanislaus County Sheriff, said spokesman Kelly Huston.

Outside of the church before the service, two young girls near the front of one line waited to honor Laci Peterson, who served as their substitute teacher.

"She was very easy to love," said Tiffany Collins, 14.

At the Peterson house hours before the memorial service, streams of people toting small children approached the home leaving flowers and balloons. The street is blocked with yellow cones but people parked their cars and walked to the house where they posed for family photos in the front yard.

It was a far different scene than a month ago when media swarmed the house day and night, Caudle said. Now, it's just a steady flow of onlookers.

"We're ready for it all to quiet down and be our neighborhood again," said neighbor Linda Caudle.

She called the passers-by "tourists" and "gawkers."

"I just can't see how any good can come from walking up and looking at the house. I just cannot understand the curiosity with a house," Caudle said. "This goes on morning, day and night. It's almost ghoulish."

At the service, Peterson's brother, Brent Rocha, said that his sister would have wanted no sadness on the day of her memorial.

Rocha recalled that at a family funeral a few years ago, Peterson had discussed how she hoped to be remembered.

"When I die I don't want people to be missing me," Rocha remembered his sister as saying. "I want people to be happy."

By Juliana Barbassa