Nor is that all. According to a source, a detective said, "there is some evidence the child may have been born alive." If so, that could change the case dramatically. Suddenly the timing of the murders, which investigators have previously asserted took place sometime between Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, could be off by days or even weeks.

But just how plausible is that scenario? A source tells PEOPLE there is reason to believe that Conner's remains indicate a gestation period of 35 to 38 weeks, which would put him at about full term. The defense is reportedly trying to obtain a sonogram of Conner that Laci had on Dec. 23, during which the baby was estimated to be 31 weeks along, to compare with the body as it was found. But Jon Nordby, a director of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, who has his own company, Final Analysis Forensics, based in Tacoma, Wash., points out that sonograms don't offer a perfect measurement of a fetus's development. "I've seen them wrong by four weeks," says Nordby, who has himself worked with hundreds of sonograms during his career. "Theoretically they are more accurate toward the end of the pregnancy than the beginning, but it's going to be subject to interpretation." And rest assured, adds one outside prosecutor, "if the defense has an expert testify that the child lived for some period of time, I can guarantee that the prosecution will have one who says that's not credible based upon whatever theories their expert is using."

Leaving aside the question of timing, there is still the fact of the tape around his body, specifically the neck. PEOPLE approached several prominent forensic scientists who have no stake in the outcome of the case to ask what might be concluded from that circumstance and the differing state of decomposition between Laci's and Conner's remains. According to Dr. Gregory Schmunk, the chief medical examiner-coroner for California's Santa Clara County, the most straightforward explanation is that Laci's decomposing body caused Conner to be forced out. "As the decomposition occurs, the abdominal wall breaks down and eventually the baby is expelled right through the abdominal wall," says Schmunk. "That would explain why Conner is less decomposed than Laci, because Conner was in a protected uterine environment for quite some time prior to being expelled." From that point, he continues, "the baby could have easily been entangled in the tape that was surrounding Laci."

But Nordby questions whether it could happen accidentally – that, for example, the tape could have been floating in the water and become wrapped around Conner as the result of the movement of tides or waves. "I would doubt very much that would be something you could attribute to a natural process," he says. The defense is sure to stress the fact that there appears to be a knot in the tape and that it is at the baby's neck, as opposed to the knee or some other comparatively innocuous location. "I would be puzzled by the fact that the mother would be in such an advanced state of decay and the baby would be more well-preserved and have that tape," agrees Nordby. "I would start to suspect that the two didn't go in the water together."

This is an online excerpt of PEOPLE magazine's cover package.

– BILL HEWITT
– RON ARIAS, VICKIE BANE, LYNDON STAMBLER and JOHNNY DODD in California