Laci Peterson's remains left few clues to her cause of death when they washed ashore four months after her disappearance. The couple soon opened a popular restaurant near the college campus, which they ran for two years. At authorities' request, she began recording her phone calls with Peterson. All of a sudden, the handsome, charming husband was a viable suspect – and that was a much sexier story. Scott Peterson told police he first drove to his nearby warehouse to send emails and retrieve his boat, which he brought to Berkeley Marina. In This Article:

Laci Peterson was last seen alive on Dec. 24, 2002.

Police noted Scott’s strange behavior, such as how he couldn’t remember the kind of bait he’d used when he supposedly went fishing that morning, or what he prioritized during the investigation. Friends and families plastered missing posters around town and organized candlelight vigils. An official cause of … © Copyright 2020 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC.

Before you dive back into the story that captivated—and distracted—millions, here’s what you need to know about Laci Peterson’s disappearance and death. On December 31st, 2002, the town of Modesto held a public vigil for Laci and Connor. She soon learned that she was expecting a baby boy. Sign up for our newsletter. Indeed, the evidence – timestamped emails and a receipt from the marina – backed him up. Scott Peterson was arraigned on April 21st, 2003, and charged with two counts of murder. The district attorney did too. Detectives also gave Scott Peterson another test on the day after Christmas, when they executed a search warrant at his home. Scott Peterson, then 31, was allegedly fishing in the San Francisco bay, about 90 miles from the family home. In a second picture, he is standing with some people and laughing. (In all, she recorded over 29 hours of phone calls with Scott Peterson.) He has asked for a new trial. Amber Frey, massage therapist and single mom, was introduced to Scott by a friend in November 2002 and began a romantic relationship. Connor, with whom Laci was still pregnant at her death, was included as a murder victim under California’s fetal homicide law that protects any fetus eight-weeks-old. Although he claimed to be meeting his father and brother to play golf, he had survival gear, camping equipment, viagra, $15,000 in cash, two diver's licenses and four cell phones in his Mercedes. Police, and eventually lawyers for both sides, began to use the media to leak information – both rumors, like one that Laci had been murdered by a Satanic cult, and facts like how he was hiding a mistress, to sway public opinion. Shortly after 10:15 a.m. the next day, a neighbor found Peterson's dog, McKenzie, running loose in the neighborhood and returned him to the Peterson's yard. But among the increasing anxieties about weapons of mass destruction and the Axis of Evil, another face became a fixture of 24/7 news cycle: A beautiful, white, smiling 26-year-old named Laci Peterson. He also told Sawyer that Laci knew about his affair with Amber and was “OK with it,” a statement which just about threw Nancy Grace into a fit.
After months of jury selection and then a trial, he was convicted on November 12, 2004 of first-degree murder of Laci Peterson and second-degree murder of Connor Peterson. He currently still is sitting on death row. Amber Frey, a 27-year-old massage therapist, had started dating Scott Peterson a month before Laci's disappearance. He had told her that he was a widower.

He was actually at Laci’s vigil.

He was carrying over $10,000 in cash, camping gear, his brother’s ID and four cell phones. He was charged with two felony counts of murder with premeditation and special circumstances. As Laci’s husband, Scott was immediately on police’s radar as suspect, given the fact most acts of violence are committed by people known to the victim.

Laci Peterson, 27, was last seen on December 23, 2002, when her half-sister, Amy, came to her house. “His major concerns were his car door hitting his other car door in the driveway, or me taking a picture of this boat in his shop, or getting a receipt for the pink slipper and sunglasses the tracking-dog people used for Laci’s scent.”. There is, after all, no guidebook on how to behave when one’s eight-months-pregnant wife goes missing. The couple selected the name Conner and began decorating a nursery for him. He pleaded not guilty. According to the Modesto Bee, he filed two appeals, one in 2012 for the murder charge and one in 2015 alleging unlawful detention, which are both still pending. A&E, Crime, Murder. You know, not how a husband and father-to-be should behave in this circumstance. Introducing ... PEOPLE's Products Worth the Hype. It was there that police arrested Scott at a golf course on April 18th. On November 12, 2004, Peterson was convicted of first-degree murder in Laci's death and second-degree murder for Conner's death.

“His major concerns were not Laci,” one detective told People in 2005. The family publicly supported her husband and defended his innocence. "Scott told me he was not married," Frey said in a press conference. Critics were quick to point out that San Diego is also near the Mexican border and Scott had dyed his hair blonde and grown a beard – further suggesting he may have been planning to run. He called his mother-in-law, looking for his wife.

Of course, local news in Modesto covered the story of … Last week, the Bee reports, the California Attorney General rebuked the request for a new trial in a 150-page document and said there is “overwhelming evidence” for Scott Peterson’s guilt. (The legislation was viewed by reproductive rights activists as a sneaky method to establish personhood for fetuses.). The next day, Peterson told Frey he ringing in the New Year in Paris with friends. Authorities were unable to determine a cause of death because the bodies were badly decomposed -- and Laci's body was missing the head and both forearms. Text us for exclusive photos and videos, royal news, and way more.

After Laci vanished, Frey saw a news article about the case. That same month, President Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as “Laci and Connor’s Law,” which criminalized harming a fetus when assaulting a pregnant woman. Police immediately suspected foul play, saying that Laci wouldn't have vanished on Christmas Eve.

Jury selection began on June 1, 2004, and took several weeks. And so were photographers who captured him in two damning photographs that haunted him throughout his eventual trial. From that moment forward, the Rocha family turned on their son-in-law.

On January 24th, Frey – shaking like a leaf – revealed herself a press conference and confessed that Scott Peterson had told her she was single. In December 2004, the jury recommended Scott be sentenced to death and in March 2005, the judge agreed. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. The tragic story established a cast of characters who covered tabloid magazines for years, including Laci’s handsome husband Scott Peterson, Scott’s mistress, and a gaggle of celebrity lawyers. He was good-looking, charming and, it turns out, lying. Scott Peterson was subsequently charged in her murder in April, 2003. Want more Rolling Stone? Quickly, though, media scrutiny – particularly Grace, who had a bulls-eye on Scott from the beginning – lead the public to turn on Scott. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Later that day, a neighbor found their dog, still wearing a leash, wandering in front of the house by himself. Laci Peterson's family sought the death penalty for Scott. She immediately contacted the Modesto Police Department hotline. Police suggested going back to couple’s house – the first of many “tests” placed on Scott to gauge his reactions.
But bigger media fish, like Nancy Grace – then a former prosecutor making a name for herself as a bombastic legal analyst on cable news – capitalized on Laci Peterson’s disappearance as well. Laci Peterson’s disappearance was a bonanza for the burgeoning 24/7 news cycle, as well. Laci Peterson, 27, of Modesto, Calif., was eight months pregnant when her husband reported her missing on Dec. 24. Laci's parents called police at 6 p.m. to report Laci missing. Coyote Ugly Turns 20: Where Is the Cast Now? Nothing says a family vacation like an RV, Princess Diana died when Harry was just 12 years old, It's looked — and felt — like a whole different world as we've been social distancing and attempting to keep each other safe, See All the Celebs Taking RV Trips This Summer, The Sweetest Photos of Princes Harry with Diana, From Empty Streets to Virtual Weddings: What Life Has Looked Like During the Coronavirus Pandemic. But he failed most of these “tests.” For example, when interviewed by police on the first night Laci was missing, he declined to take a polygraph test (and continued to refuse to take a polygraph test going forward). The judge sentenced Peterson to death, calling Laci and Conner's murder "cruel, uncaring, heartless and callous.".

It didn’t take long before Peterson was arrestedOn January 5th, 2002, divers using sonar equipment searched the Berkeley Marina where Scott Peterson had gone fishing – the place where police suspected he had dumped Laci’s body.

In subsequent interviews, jurors said Peterson's lack of emotion and his behavior with Amber Frey indicated that he was guilty. In March 2003, America changed the world’s geopolitical landscape irreparably when President George W. Bush and company led us into a war in Iraq. After eating breakfast and watching some TV, Scott left to go fishing while Laci took the couple’s dog for a walk. In one picture, Scott bends down alongside his niece to set down a candle, a big smile across his face. DNA tests verified that they were the bodies of Laci and Conner peterson. Scott Peterson seemed suspiciously aloof – and the public caught onFrom the moment of her disappearance, the Rocha family – Laci’s mother, stepfather and brother – repeatedly spoke to the media in the teary-eyed manner viewers have come to expect from loved ones in crisis. In the following days, police said Scott did not ask them many questions and seemed unconcerned about the investigation’s progress. So, too, did the small army of volunteers who had been looking for Laci. In early December, around the same time they were photographed at a holiday party together looking cozy, Scott told Amber his (then very-much-still-alive) wife had died and this would be his first Christmas season without her.

Prosecutors also showed the jury two photos in which Peterson was smiling widely while his wife was missing. After the couple tried for more than a year to conceive, Laci Peterson eventually became pregnant in May, 2002. The public’s view of Scott Peterson was a different story.

The prosecution contended that his motive was to collect a $250,000 insurance policy on his wife. We want to hear from you! Laci Peterson disappeared from her Modesto, California home on December 24, 2002. Peterson remains on death row, while his case is currently on appeal to the Supreme Court of California. Scott Peterson had mostly been staying in San Diego with his family, allegedly to avoid media attention. Following a five-month trial, a … By any measure, this behavior at a vigil for his missing wife and unborn child looked bad.