Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner Were allegedly murdered by Scott Peterson, Laci’s husband. This is a case that happened in 2002 but has been in the media recently due to a new push to try to prove Scott’s innocence.
Laci was born on May 4, 1975 to parents Sharon Anderson and Dennis Rocha. Her parents were high school sweethearts. They owned a dairy farm near Escalon, California. Lacy had an older brother, Brent, born in 1971.
“I always knew she was going to be a good, happy baby,” Sharon told the media. “Within a few days, she was sleeping through the night. When I would go get her out of her crib, she would always wake up with a smile on her face. All her life, she has been a happy person.”
Sharon and Dennis divorced when Laci was young. Sharon took the kids to live in Modesto after the divorce. The kids would come back to the farm on weekends.
“It was a great place to grow up,” said Brent. “We always had a good time out there. As a kid on a dairy, you kind of have to make your own fun.”
Sharon remarried a man named Ron Grantski. We believe this happened when Laci was around two years old. Laci gained two stepbrothers, Nathan and Darren. Her father Dennis had a child, Amy, with his new partner, Nancy.
Laci participated in cheerleading while she was in both junior high and high schools. She graduated from Thomas Downey High School and went on to attend California Polytechnic State University. She majored there in ornamental horticulture.
Laci’s friend Rene Tomlinson said “Honestly, thinking back, she is the only person I know who has never changed. Always perky, bubbly, energetic, chatty. She always wants to have fun.”
“I saw her develop a lot in those days,” her brother said. “She was very excited about college. She met a lot of people and really grew.”
Scott was born on October 24, 1972 in San Diego, California. His parents are Lee Arthur Peterson and Jackie Latham. Lee owned a crate-packaging company and Jackie owned a boutique in La Jolla called The Put On. The couple had six children from previous relationships and Scott was the only child they had together.
Scott shared a bedroom with his half-brother John while he grew up. The family lived in a two bedroom apartment in La Jolla. Scott loved playing golf and started playing as a child. By the age of 14, he could beat his father at the game. He had dreams of becoming a professional golfer.
While at the University of San Diego High School, he was teammates with future pro golfer Phil Mickelson. By the time Scott finished high school, he was one of the top junior golfers in San Diego.
Scott enrolled at Arizona State University in 1990 on a partial golf scholarship. Scott apparently was removed from the golf team there after he took another student out drinking.
Scott transferred to Cuesta College and then to California Polytechnic State University, the same school that Laci attended.
Scott was described as a model student. One professor, Jim Ahern said ‘I wouldn’t mind having a class full of Scott Petersons.’
While he was at university, Scott worked at Pacific Cafe in Morro Bay. Laci had a friend who worked at the same restaurant and she would occasionally visit there.
In mid-1994, Laci sent Scott her phone number. Laci told her mother that she had met the man she would marry.
“Mother,” Laci said, “I have met the man I am going to marry. You’ve just got to get down here and meet him.” Sharon asked if they had gone out yet. “Not yet, but we will.”
The two began dating. Their first date was a deep-sea fishing trip and Laci got seasick.
That weekend, Sharon came to visit Laci. They went to the Pacific Cafe. Scott had placed roses — a dozen white for Sharon, a dozen red for Laci — at their table.
“She was in love from the beginning,” Sharon said.
As they got more serious, Scott focused more on a business career instead of professional golf.
After they had been dating for two years, they decided to move in together. Laci graduated in 1997 and the couple got married that year, at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort.
Scott finished his senior year and Laci started working.
It is thought that while they were newly married, Scott had his first of many extramarital affairs.
Around 1998, the couple opened a burger place called The Shack in San Luis Obispo.
Scott graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural business in June 1998.
Laci and Scott sold The Shack in April 2001 when they decided to move to Modesto, Laci’s hometown, to start a family.
In October 2000, they purchased a three-bedroom home near East La Loma Park in Modesto for $177k.
The house is now valued at just over $500k.
Laci started working part-time as a substitute teacher. Scott got a job for Tradecorp USA, a subsidiary of a European fertilizer company. He was making $5,000 per month before taxes. That is equal to around $9k per month now.
Laci loved being a housewife. She enjoyed cooking, entertaining and watching Martha Stewart.
In 2002, Laci found out that she was pregnant. Her due date was February 10, 2003. The couple found out that they were having a son and they picked out the name Conner.
In November 2002, Scott was introduced to a woman named Amber Frey. Amber was a massage therapist in Fresno, California. The two began having an affair.
Amber has been very public about the affair and has given many interviews. We will discuss those chronologically as the story goes on.
In November and December, Scott began researching fishing boats. He had not held a fishing license since 1994. On December 9, he purchased a small boat.
On the same day that he bought the boat, Scott told Amber that he had ‘lost his wife.’
“Scott had told her in December, the same day that he bought the boat, that he had actually lost his wife, and this was going to be his first Christmas without her,” said Jon Buehler, a former detective with the Modesto police department.
On December 21, 2002, Scott got a fishing license, his first in 8 years.
On December 23, 2002, Laci was very pregnant. She had around six weeks until she was due to give birth. That day, she and Scott went to Salon Salon, where Laci’s sister Amy worked. Amy would cut Scott’s hair each month. This was at around 5.45pm.
Scott told Amy that he would pick up a fruit basket that she had ordered the following day, because he would be playing golf near the retailer.
Scott also told other people that he would be playing golf on Christmas Eve.
Sharon spoke with Laci on the phone that night at around 8.30pm. The last three people to have contact with Laci before she disappeared were Amy, Sharon and Scott.
Scott said that the following day, December 24, he left home at around 9.30am to go fishing at Berkeley Marina. He said that Laci was watching an episode of Martha Stewart that was about meringue. She had apparently been planning to mop the floor, bake cookies and take their Golden Retriever, McKenzie, to the park for a walk.
A neighbor of the Peterson’s, Karen Servas, said that she found McKenzie alone outside the home. She put the dog back into the Peterson’s back yard at around 10.30am. She would later narrow the time frame and say that she found the dog at 10.18am. There are some varying reports because another neighbor, Mike Chiavetta, said that he saw the dog at 10.45am.
At 2.15pm that day, Scott left a message for Laci. He said ‘Hey beautiful, it’s 2.15. I’m leaving Berkeley.’
Scott said that he got home and found Laci’s car in the driveway. He said that the house was empty. McKenzie was in the backyard.
Scott had a shower and put his clothes in the wash.
A neighbor, Amie Krigbaum, would later say that Scott knocked on the door, asking if he had seen Laci. “He told me he was golfing all day and he had tried to call her,” said Amie.
A relative of Laci’s would also later say that Scott told her that he had played golf on Christmas Eve.
Scott called Sharon and asked if Laci was with her. This is how Sharon learned that Laci was missing.
Both Scott and Laci’s stepfather reported her missing just before 6pm that night.
Modesto Police Detectives Allen Brocchini and Jon Buehler responded to the missing person call. When they got to the Peterson house, they found Laci’s purse, keys, wallet and sunglasses were all in a closet.
Detective Buehler would later tell ABC News, “I suspected Scott when I first met him. Didn’t mean he did it, but I was a little bit thrown off by his calm, cool demeanor and his lack of questioning…he wasn’t, ‘Will you call me back? Can I have one of your cards? What are you guys doing now?'”
The detective described Scott’s behavior as “a strange combination of polite and arrogant, disaffectedly distant and impatiently irritable. He just didn’t seem like a man who was crushed or even greatly disturbed by his wife’s disappearance and possible death.”
Scott told police that he had gone fishing at the Berkeley Marine, which is around 90 miles from their home in Modesto. Some reports say that Scott said he went sturgeon fishing, while Detective Jon Evers would later say in court that when asked what he was fishing for, Scott ‘couldn’t say.’
“At that point, the defendant paused and had a blank look on his face for a second or so, his eyes shifted a little bit and hesitated in answering him, before he mumbled something, but did not give the officer an answer,” prosecutors would later write in court documents.
According to the Modesto Bee, on December 26, police searched the Peterson home but did not disclose what was found there. Thousands of fliers with Laci’s details and reward information were printed that day.
On December 27, police searched a warehouse that had been used by Scott in his work with fertilizers. They also went to Berkeley Marina to search the area.
By December 28, 2002, the reward for Laci’s safe return had grown to $500k.
A bloodhound was used in the search for Laci. On December 30, the handler of the dog said that he believed Laci left her home in a vehicle, not on foot.
That same day, Amber Frey spoke to the police. She did so after she discovered that Scott was a person of interest in Laci’s disappearance. She told police that she had first met Scott on November 20, 2002 and that he initially said he was single. She also told police that on December 9, Scott told her that he was a widower and that it would be his first Christmas without his wife. Amber agreed to record any future phone conversations that she had with Scott.
“You know, I tell you how special you are, and very unique and everything,” Scott said in a call on December 30. “And you know how much I mean that, right? And you need to know how true that is, how wonderful you are.”
Scott added, “I’ve got my picture of you here … I think about you, and I can feel you in my arms, and feel your lips.”
Amber would end up recording 29 hours of calls between her and Scott.
Scott began to set up a lie to Amber about traveling to Europe for the holidays. At the end of December, he called her and said that he was in France for the New Year’s Holiday.
“Amber? It’s 2 o’clock here, a.m.,” Scott said on a recorded call. “Hey, I’ll be in Paris tomorrow. I’m outside of Normandy right now.”
A candlelight vigil was held for Laci on December 31, 2002 and more than 1000 people turned up.
During the vigil, Scott called Amber and pretended he was in Paris. He pretended he was calling her from the Eiffel Tower.
“The crowd is huge,” he told her to cover the background noise of people at the vigil.
On January 2, 2003, police asked for the public’s help to verify Scott’s story. They asked anyone who saw his truck or boat to call the info in.
On January 4, 20023, divers searched the San Francisco Bay and the area near Berkeley Marina but did not find anything related to the case.
Police kept searching waterways and any other areas that the public thought may be related to the case as January progressed.
Helicopters with searchlights, horseback police, canine units and water-rescue units all participated in the search. There were a total of 30 police officers assigned to the case.
On January 16, a relative of Laci’s said that police told her family that Scott had an affair and took out a $250k life insurance policy on Laci.
Around this time, the family were shown photos of Scott and Amber together. Sharon said that at this point she believed Scott had killed Laci.
During one recorded conversation around this time, Amber asked Scott about what he had meant when he said he ‘lost his wife.’
“How did you lose her then, before she was lost? Explain that,” Amber said to Scott, and he replied, “There are different kinds of lost, Amber.”
Scott added, “So, you think I had something to do with [Laci’s] disappearance? I am not evil like that.”
On January 24, Amber revealed the affair with Scott at a press conference. She said “I am very sorry for Laci’s family and the pain that this has caused them. “And I pray for her safe return, as well.”.
On this day, Brent told reporters that the family were withdrawing their support from Scott.
On January 28, Scott did an interview with Diane Sawyer for Good Morning America.
In it, he cried and said that he did not kill Laci and their unborn son and that he had nothing to do with their disappearance. He said that he told police on December 24 about his affair with Amber. He also said that Laci knew about the affair and had made peace with it. He told Diane that the affair was ‘inappropriate’ but said that he kept seeing Amber after Laci knew about the affair.
The second part of the interview took place on January 29. Scott sat down for interviews with several media outlets, without his attorney. He said that both he and Laci had $250k insurance policies which had been taken out years prior.
By January 30, almost 6,000 tips had come in to police.
February 10 marked Laci’s due date. A candlelight vigil was held by her friends and family with poetry and prayer.
On February 13, Scott’s relatives held a press conference and said they had been contacting hospitals around the country to try to determine if Laci had given birth. Scott did not attend the press conference.
On February 18, police searched the Peterson house again. They spent around 10 hours in the house and seized Scott’s truck. They took it off the property and returned it around four hours later. Amy Rocha was also taken into the home and she stayed with police there for around two hours.
Police returned the following day to continue the search. They took dozens of bags of evidence from the property – almost 100 items.
On February 26, police acknowledged that they had not been able to follow up on every tip. A neighbor said that she saw Laci on Dec. 24, between 10 and 10:15 a.m., about 45 minutes after Scott said he left on his fishing trip. Vivian Mitchell says police never called her back. Police Chief Roy Wasden said the department has received more than 8,000 tips since the case began.
On March 5, Laci’s case was classified as a homicide. “As the investigation has progressed, we have increasingly come to believe that Laci Peterson is the victim of a violent crime,” says the lead investigator, Detective Craig Grogan.
On March 20, a woman came forward to say that she had been stopped at a red light beside Scott at around 9.45am on Christmas Eve. She told him that something might be coming loose from the bed of his truck. “He looked out his side window, and he gave me a look that was the most horrifying, scary look I have ever seen in my life,” Connie Fleeman said. She says police had not responded to two calls to the tips line.
Momentum in the case started to dwindle as time went on. Less tips were being received.
On April 13, a member of the public found the body of a baby boy in Richmond, on the shore of the San Francisco Bay.
The following day, a woman walking her dog, found the body of an adult female. The body was lodged in rocks at Port Isabel Regional Shoreline. The body was found around one mile from where the baby was found.
Both bodies were sent to the Contra Costa County Coroner for autopsy.
The Contra Costa County coroner’s office said that the autopsy on the woman’s body did not show an obvious cause of death. The baby’s autopsy also was inconclusive. DNA testing was needed to try to identify the remains, and to see if the baby and the woman are related. The coroner’s office said the testing could take days, or weeks or longer.
On April 16,Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton said: “I feel pretty strongly it is (Peterson).”
On April 18, Scott was arrested in San Diego and charged with two counts of murder. When he was arrested, he was found near a La Jolla golf course where he said he was meeting his father and brother to play golf. Interestingly, La Jolla is around 28 miles/30 min drive from the Mexican border.
When Scott was arrested, he had dyed his brown hair blonde. His Mercedes was said to be ‘overstuffed’ with items including almost $10k USD in cash, 12 viagra tablets, survival gear, camping equipment, many change of clothes, four cell phones and two driver’s licenses. One license belonged to Scott and the other belonged to his brother. Scott’s father Lee Peterson would explain the brother’s license by saying Scott had used it the day before to get a San Diego resident discount at the golf course. Scott would later say that he dyed his hair in an attempt to disguise himself as he was being harassed. Lee also said that Scott’s car held the clothing because Scott had been living out of his car in an attempt to escape the media.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer said that Modesto police and state agents used wire taps on phones and radio transponders on vehicles to keep track of Scott. He says that Scott indicated moments before his arrest that he discovered he was under police surveillance.
On the day that Scott was arrested, California Attorney General Bill Locker confirmed that the bodies found were those of Laci and Conner.
On April 21, Scott was arraigned and he pleaded not guilty on the two murder charges.
In the day following Scott’s arrest, we learned more about how Laci and Conner had been found. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the cord was torn, and that it had not been cut or clamped as per what would happen in a normal birth.
Dr Brian Peterson would autopsy both Laci and Conner (no relation). Dr Peterson would say that the fetus had not been born before Laci’s death and that it was expelled from her body following her death. This is known as a ‘coffin birth’ and explains why the baby was not found with Laci’s remains.
Conner’s body was said to be more preserved and intact than Laci’s. “My conclusion … is that Conner had likely been protected by the uterus” and expelled possibly weeks after Laci’s body was put in the water, he said.
Conner had been found with a twine like material wrapped around his neck. Dr Peterson indicated that the material may have become attached while the body floated in the San Francisco Bay. He said there was no indication that the twine had been used to strangle the baby after birth.
“I could see neither external nor internal damage that could have been caused by this material,” Dr. Peterson said.
Dr Peterson was unable to determine a cause of death for either Laci or Conner.
He did speculate that Laci may have died from strangulation or smothering which would have left behind no forensic evidence. Laci was missing her head and neck, as well as her forearms, most of her legs and all internal organs, except for her uterus, when she was found. Due to the state of her remains, the doctor was unable to confirm how she died.
Dr Peterson did testify that the conditions of the remains were consistent with them being weighed down at the wrists and ankles and being submerged in the ocean for months.
Police and the FBI conducted more forensic searches at Scott and Laci’s home. They did DNA testing on hair that was found in a pair of pliers that were found in Scott’s fishing boat. The hairs were linked with ones that were recovered from Laci’s brush.
According to Oxygen, a specially trained police K-9 also picked up Laci’s scent at the boat ramp that Scott told detectives he used that day.
Police found a homemade anchor in the boat that Scott had purchased.
Scott told police that he had made the anchor using a 90 lb bag of concrete. He said he used the rest of the concrete to repair his driveway.
Detective Henry Dodge Hendee would later testify that he had found a cement-like substance on a boat trailer that was found in Scott’s warehouse on December 27. The detective also said there was a dustpan surrounded by white powder found, as well as a sledgehammer.
Prosecutors would later allege that Scott actually made five anchors and used four of them to sink Laci’s body in the bay. Police conducted searches to try to find the other anchors, but nothing was found.
Scott’s trial began on June 1, 2004. He was represented by Mark Geragos, a high profile criminal defense attorney,
Amber Frey was a prosecution witness and she hired Gloria Allred to represent her.
We are going to run through the most important parts of the trial in this episode.
The prosecution’s argument was that Scott killed Laci and Conner because he wanted to continue his affair with Amber.
The defense agreed that Scott was a ‘cad’ for carrying out the affair but denied that he would have thrown away his marriage for a mistress that he had only taken on four dates.
The defense also emphazised the lack of physical evidence in the case. Mark Geragos specifically spoke about the hair found in the pliers on Scott’s boat and said that it could have been left days before Laci disappeared.
Sharon Rocha, Laci’s mother testified and spoke about Scott’s unusual behavior. She said that Scott failed to attend at least one vigil for Laci and other relatives said that Scott had shown little emotion after his wife vanished.
The prosecution also alleged that Scott added two pornographic channels to his cable service in the days after Laci vanished. It was also alleged that Scott spoke to a realtor about selling the home in January 2003. He said that he did not want Laci to have to live in the house if she came back alive. The court also heard that Scott traded in Laci’s Land Rover for a Dodge pickup truck.
Amber Frey spoke in court and the jury heard the calls that she had recorded, including the ones where he said he was in Paris when he was really at the vigil for Laci.
An auditor testified during the trial and said that Scott and Laci had been having financial troubles. They had accumulated around $23k of credit card debt according to the auditor. During cross examination, the auditor did acknowledge that Scott paid all of his bills on time and had $50kof credit available on other cards.
The hair found on the boat was also extensively discussed in court. Two separate experts argued about the hair and who it belonged to – Rodney Oswalt said that he could not determine if the hair belonged to Laci. Karen Korsberg, an FBI trace evidence expert said though, that one of the hairs matched Laci’s through DNA tests.
The prosecution argued that the hair must have come from Laci after death because she had not seen the boat while alive. One witness was called and said that she had seen Laci at the warehouse and near the boat on the day before she was reported missing.
Detective Allen Brocchini admitted that he had left the reference to this witness out of police reports.
Mark Geragos implied that the detective left it out because it did not fit with the prosecution’s story that Laci had never been near the boat.
“Can you tell me how that particular piece of information got excised out of your police report?” Geragos asked. “I excised it,” Detective Brocchini replied. “You did?” Geragos replied, seemingly shocked. “I guess I did.”
Scott’s defense team based their case on the lack of direct evidence and also played down the circumstantial evidence. There were some juror dramas during the trial. One juror was removed after she conducted independent research on the case. The foreman requested his own removal after he had received threats.
On November 12, 2004, more than five months after the trial started, Scott was found guilty of two counts of murder – first degree murder with special circumstances for the death of Laci, and second-degree murder for Conner’s death.
The penalty phase of the trial started on November 30 and finished on December 13, when the jury handed down a death sentence to Scott. In March 2005, Judge Delucchi agreed with the jury, and sentenced Scott to death by lethal injection. He was also ordered to pay $10k towards the cost of Laci’s funeral. The judge described Laci’s murder as ‘cruel’ uncaring, heartless and callous.’
Some members of the jury would later speak and they said that Scott’s lack of emotion, as well as his phone calls/relationship with Amber, meant that he was guilty.
In October 2005, a judge ruled that a $250k life insurance policy that Scott had taken out on Laci should be awarded to her mother Sharon. This judgement was also reaffirmed by the Fifth District Court of Appeal in October 2007.
Scott was taken to San Quentin State Prison on Wednesday, March 17, 2005.
Scott’s appeal was filed with the Supreme Court of California on July 5, 2012. His attorney for the appeal, Cliff Gardner, filed a 423 page document arguing that Scott did not receive a fair trial.
The appeals process is very lengthy and the defense filed a response to it in January 2015, 2.5 years after Scott’s appeal was filed.
In June 2020, the Supreme Court heard the argument about Scott’s appeal.
In August 2020, in a 7-0 decision, the Supreme Court upheld Scott’s conviction but overturned his death sentence.
California Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massuullo ruled in September 2021 that Scott should be re-sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. On December 8, 2021, the judge confirmed that the re-sentence was life in prison without the possibility of parole, for the first-degree murder of Laci, and a concurrent sentence of 15 years to life for the second-degree murder of Conner.
Following this, Scott was taken off death row and was transferred to Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California.
There is still movement in this case, all these years later. In March 2024, Scott attended a status hearing that had been granted by a San Mateo County Judge. This was in response to a request by LA Innocence Project. The Project said that it had new evidence which supported Scott’s claims that he was innocent.
It is important to note that the LA Innocence Project is totally separate to the Innocence Project that most people know about.
Info about the LA Innocence Project
LAIP’s mission is to exonerate the wrongly convicted; free the wrongfully incarcerated; uncover and remedy past misuse of forensic and other scientific evidence in the courtroom; improve standards for the use of forensic and other scientific evidence in the courtroom; and reform the criminal legal system to prevent future injustice.
Thanks to the generous support of our Founding Donor, Andy Wilson, LAIP provides pro bono investigatory services and legal representation to indigent individuals in Central and Southern California who assert claims of innocence.
Info about the primary Innocence Project
Founded in 1992 by visionary attorneys Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, the Innocence Project has been at the forefront of criminal justice reform, using DNA and other scientific advancements to prove wrongful conviction.
One of the arguments by Scott and his team is that there was a break-in in the neighborhood around the time that Laci vanished and that the perpetrators of that crime may be her actual killers.’
“There was a burglary across the street from our home,” Scott said recently via video call from Mule Creek State Prison “And I believe that Laci went over there to see what was going on, and that’s when she was taken.”
A burglary was committed near the Peterson home around the time Laci went missing – but one of the convicted burglars testified that the break-in took place on December 26, 2002 rather than on December 24, when Laci went missing.
The burglary wasn’t mentioned during the trial in 2004, and Scott has said this could be evidence that police did not turn over evidence during the discovery process that potentially could have exonerated him.
“There are so many instances where there was evidence that didn’t fit the detectives’ theory that they ignored,” Scott has said.
As part of the push by the LA Innocence Project, Scott’s defense team asked for DNA testing on a blood-stained mattress found in the bed of a burned-out van located near their home the day after Laci disappeared. In the past, the LA Innocence Project says, only a sample of the mattress was tested. Now they want the entire mattress tested, saying that advancements in DNA technology could find DNA that would support their client’s claim.
The prosecution responded to the push for new testing in April 2024 and said that it was ‘unnecessary.’ It was stated that DNA testing had already been carried out in 2013 and 2019.
But a judge ruled in May that a piece of duct tape found on Laci’s body could be retested, along with a dozen other pieces of evidence. It is unclear whether the mattress will be among the tested items.
Lara Yeretsian, one of Peterson’s lawyers from his first trial, remains hopeful that her client will be exonerated.
“This is not the end of it,” she said in the docuseries. “It’s just the beginning, and at least we’ve got one win.”
Scott also claims that detectives on the case assumed he was guilty from their first walk through of his home.
“When [Modesto Detective Al Brocchini] took a first walk through the house with the other officers, I don’t think that they knew that I was near them when they said ‘we know what’s going on here – it was the husband. Then he realized I was there and kind of turned around.”
Scott has also recently spoken about his relationship with Laci. “We loved one another, we enjoyed one another,” he said in his jailhouse interview. “We were great friends.”
“Every moment remains so tactile. I’m still there, and the smells and the lighting, the sound of when I said goodbye to Laci. And then my family was gone.”
SOURCE LIST
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Laci_Peterson
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/THE-PETERSON-TRIAL-He-was-golfing-not-fishing-2750368.php