Stephanie Croston

    Editor's note: This is the first in a series of three articles looking more in-depth at the Lucas Peterson case.
     It all started Jan. 3, 2007.
     That's the day 11-month-old Trista Peterson died, according to her father, Lucas.
     Peterson later told investigators he buried Trista on Jan. 4.
     On Jan. 24, Trista's grandparents called the Seward County Sheriff's Office, concerned about both the girl and her father, neither of whom had been seen since around Christmas.
     Deputy Tina Matulka said in a probable cause determination dated March 28 that Peterson had run from law enforcement on Jan. 19 and there was no sign of Trista in his vehicle at that time.
     A report was filed by Health and Human Services on Feb. 1, Matulka said in the September suppression hearing.
     Peterson's mother reported him missing again on Feb. 24.
     The next contact with Peterson was March 28, 2007, when he was arrested by the Seward Police Department and charged with tampering with physical evidence, criminal mischief more than $1,500, first-degree criminal trespass, obstructing a peace officer, possession of marijuana one ounce or less and possession of drug paraphernalia.
     At that time, Peterson told Matulka that Trista was "in a safe place" but would not elaborate.
     Matulka told Peterson she would charge him with child abandonment and child neglect if he did not divulge the child's whereabouts. He still did not say where Trista was.
     "He told me that he had been screwing up his life lately and that the baby just wasn't safe with him," Matulka said in the suppression hearing.
     Matulka did not read Peterson his Miranda rights during the three interviews she conducted with him that day, according to the transcript from the suppression hearing in September.
     Matulka contacted Jennifer Williams, Trista's mother, who was serving one year at York Correctional Services for writing bad checks and asked her to try to learn Trista's location from Peterson. She was unsuccessful in both telephone calls and letters.
     On March 29, Peterson told Williams Trista was in Dallas, Texas. He also told investigators that a black man called Junior took Trista. Peterson said Junior was a drug dealer and drove a black BMW. He and a couple others came to Peterson's apartment in Pleasant Dale, beat him up and took Trista, he told Chief Deputy Dan Hejl according to the suppression hearing transcripts.
     Hejl completed a missing persons report on Trista on March 31.
     Officers interviewed Peterson multiple times between March 28 and April 12, trying to learn where Trista was.
     April 3, County Attorney Wendy Elston and Trish Croghan of the Victims Advocate program met with Peterson to ask about the drug dealer who had taken Trista. At that time, according to the suppression transcript, Elston told Peterson if Trista's death were accidental "that there wasn't gonna be any charges."
     Hejl and Elston met April 12 to talk about an upcoming interview with Peterson and, at that time, "she said that if it became necessary during that interview to offer him a deal, we could," Hejl said during the hearing.
     Elston explained that she meant "that the felony charges did not matter to me because they were a property offense and that he could use them if it became necessary" during her testimony. The charges she said she was referring to were related to Peterson taking his car from Vanderslice Towing's lot.
     On April 12, Peterson finally agreed to take law enforcement to Trista. She was buried on an abandoned farmstead in rural Butler County.
     The autopsy on April 16 found that Trista had died of multiple blunt-force trauma to the head, neck and chest. Dr. Matthias Okoye said the trauma probably happened more than twice.
     In an interview with Hejl and Sgt. Mike Vance April 16, Peterson said he was on meth and Trista crawled out of her bed.
     "I just remembered throwing her back in there," he said according to the transcript. "And when I came back she wasn't breathing."
     He said he tried to give Trista CPR but he didn't know how. He gave her a bath and dressed her in a fresh diaper, Hejl's suppression testimony said.
     Elston filed charges of child abuse, death of a child and tampering with physical evidence in Seward County Court April 24. On May 14, Peterson pleaded not guilty to both charges, which are felonies.
     On June 19, Peterson told a corrections officer at the Seward County Jail that he had been on drugs when Trista died and had been up for four days. Corrections Officer Chara Bauld told the court that Peterson told her "Trista crawled out of her playpen and he got mad and that's what happened."
     An amended motion to enforce cooperation agreement was filed in Seward County District Court Sept. 20. In it, Peterson's attorney asked that the charges be dismissed because Peterson was not read his Miranda rights in nine different interviews and his attorney was not present and because when he took officers to Trista's body he was under the impression that he would not face any felony charges.
     Seward County District Court Judge Alan Gless ruled on the motion Feb. 20, 2008, and said the felony charges should be dropped and replaced with a misdemeanor charge of concealing the death of a human.
     In his ruling, Gless discussed Miranda rights and how they can grow stale in time. Peterson was advised of his rights on March 30 and April 2. The April 2 waiver covered interviews done April 3 and 4, as well. The interviews done beginning April 12, however, were too far removed from the April 2 Miranda waiver to be considered continuous, one of the requirements for multiple interviews under one waiver.
     "Fresh warnings were required for the April 12th interrogation," Gless wrote, adding that statements made April 12, 13, 14, 16 and 17 should also be suppressed.
     Regarding the cooperation agreement, Gless determined that the deputies had promised leniency if Peterson took them to Trista.
     "No evidence supports the idea that Lucas was motivated by a desire to do the right thing," Gless wrote.
     He said Peterson avoided his family after Trista's death and lied to investigators and family members when asked about the child. He finally gave up her location "because the deputies promised him that he would not be charged with any felonies if he helped them find Trista's body."
     Therefore, Gless said, Peterson's actions in taking law enforcement to Trista's grave should be suppressed.
     Appeals have been filed in the Nebraska Court of Appeals on both the suppressions and the cooperative agreement. No timeline has been set on when those appeals will be considered or ruled upon.