Although PEOPLE has not reviewed all of the evidence that may be relevant to the case, among the documents and photographs that correspondents have seen, and interviews they have done, there are certainly bombshells to be found. The question is whether they will pulverize Peterson's defense – or offer attorney Mark Geragos a chance to sow enough reasonable doubt to blow a breach in the prosecution's wall of guilt.

THE CRIME SCENE
From the start, prosecutors and their supporters emphasized the fact that the bodies of Laci and Conner had turned up in the same waters, San Francisco Bay, where Scott said he had taken his boat on Dec. 24. As a deputy district attorney in L.A. county who is not involved in the case drily observes, "What a coincidence that of all the places in California or the western United States the body just happens to wash ashore in the place he was fishing." But the actual location of the remains may pose some sticking points for the prosecution as well. Although Laci's body, which was found on April 14, was on the rocks, Conner's body, which was discovered a day earlier, was found roughly 15 feet from the shoreline, near footprints and some tire marks, raising the possibility at least that someone or something had deposited him there separately. What's more, it seems clear that the defense intends to argue that investigators did not properly secure the crime scene around Conner's remains, because no casts of the tire marks or footprints were ever made. An official with the Richmond police says, however, "That was just a big huge watery area, and there was nothing to take footprints of. It looked like the body was just washed up by the tide."

Of potentially far greater significance, however, is the condition of the two sets of remains. The photos viewed by PEOPLE of Laci's and Conner's bodies are horrific, but disturbing in very different ways. As reported initially, Laci's body was little more than a torso. She was found with shreds of what appeared to be light-colored maternity pants – Scott said on the morning she disappeared she was wearing black pants – which had gray duct tape wrapped around the outside of the crotch area, tape that some experts believe could have been used to bind her. Given the condition of the body, no cause of death could be determined.

Then there is Conner – and a host of bizarre circumstances. In contrast to his mother's remains, Conner's were remarkably well-preserved. Except for a laceration across his right shoulder and chest, his outer skin was more or less intact, with no sign of the umbilical cord or a placenta. But that is not to say his body was undisturbed. There is adhesive tape wrapped 1 1/2 times around the baby's neck, with a knot two centimeters from the neck, then under the left arm and drawn across the chest to the right arm. One source speculates that the baby had been bagged and someone had wrapped the tape around the body. Next to the body investigators found what appeared to be the remnants of a plastic bag.