In his first on-camera interview since being convicted of his wife’s murder two decades ago, Scott Peterson maintains his innocence and offers his version of what really happened to his pregnant wife.
“Why do I want to talk? I regret not testifying,” Peterson said in Peacock’s new three-part series. Meeting Scott Peterson“I have a chance to show people the truth, and if they accept it, that’s the greatest thing I can achieve right now, because I didn’t kill my family.”
Lacey, 27, was eight months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002. Peterson reported that Lacey had gone fishing alone and found her Modesto home empty. Lacey’s body, along with that of her unborn child, Connor, washed up on a shore near Peterson’s fishing spot four months later.
Scott Peterson’s most outrageous defense claims exposed
Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson in a still from the documentary series “American Murder: Laci Peterson.” (Courtesy of Netflix)
After he was arrested at the Mexican border with bleached hair and his brother’s passport, prosecutors uncovered a mountain of evidence against him: The police dog unit picked up Rashi’s scent at a Berkeley boat launch where Peterson claimed to have gone fishing, and found Rashi’s hair caught in the teeth of a pair of needle-nose pliers on Peterson’s boat.
Peterson, who was convicted of Laci’s murder in 2004, was once again in the spotlight after the Los Angeles Innocence Project announced it would hear his latest appeal in a new trial.
“There was a robbery across the street from our house,” Peterson told the filmmakers in a video call from Mule Creek State Prison, “and I believe Lacey went over there to see what was going on, and that’s when she was taken.”
A burglary had occurred near the Peterson home around the time Lacie went missing, but one of the convicted burglars testified that the break-in occurred on Dec. 26, 2002, not Dec. 24, the day Lacie went missing.
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Scott Peterson listens to Stanislaus County Deputy District Attorney Dave Harris speak during a hearing in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City, California, on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. Peterson appeared in San Mateo Superior Court for the first time since being sentenced to death for the murder of his wife, Lacey, and their unborn child, Connor, more than 17 years ago. (Andy Alfaro/The Modesto Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) (Andy Alfaro/The Modesto Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Timeline: The Laci Peterson Case
According to journalists and legal experts interviewed for the documentary, witnesses told police they saw a suspicious van near Peterson’s Modesto home on December 24, with one witness claiming to have seen a pregnant woman being forced into the van.
The theft was not mentioned at Peterson’s 2004 trial, and the defendant cites it as evidence that police withheld evidence during discovery that could have exonerated him.
“There are numerous instances where evidence existed that didn’t fit the detectives’ theories and they ignored it,” Peterson argued.
Peterson even claims that detectives working on the case presumed he was guilty from the first time they searched his home.
“when [Modesto Detective Al Brocchini] “I don’t think he realized I was nearby when he first walked through the house with the other officers and said, ‘We know what’s going on here, and this is your husband,'” Peterson alleged in an interview at the jail. “Then he realized I was there and turned around.”
Prosecutor Scott Peterson presents ‘overwhelming evidence’ against murderer’s new appeal in 337-page document
Photo of Scott Peterson and Amber Frey at a Christmas party on December 14, 2002, before Laci Peterson was murdered and before Frey found out Scott Peterson was married. (California Superior Court, County of San Mateo)
But Brocchini and former Modesto police officer John Buller told the filmmakers they hid evidence in the case and failed to investigate leads.
“He just seemed casual, there was no sense of urgency,” Brocchini said of his first meeting with Peterson. “That seemed suspicious to me.”
Peterson, who had been involved in multiple extramarital affairs, quickly became the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance.
Brocchini said the voicemail Peterson left for his wife at 2:15 p.m. on Dec. 24, 2022, telling her he loved her and “hoped to see her soon” was left in an attempt to cover his tracks, just hours after he killed Laci and dumped her body in San Francisco Bay. “To me, it was something I really needed to hear,” Brocchini said, calling the voicemail “Googley.”
But Peterson said the heartfelt message was typical of his relationship with Rashi and suggested police must be in a “really sad marriage” to question the intent of the answering machine.
“We loved each other and enjoyed spending time together,” he said in a jailhouse interview. “We were great friends.”
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Prosecutors said police recovered Laci Peterson’s hair from the teeth of the pliers on the boat of her husband, convicted murderer Scott Peterson. (California Superior Court, County of San Mateo)
“Every moment is so vivid,” Peterson said of his final memories of his wife. “I’m still there. The smells, the lights, the sounds of saying goodbye to Lacey and then my family left.”
Amber Frey, Peterson’s mistress, found out about Laci’s disappearance and went to the police: Peterson, who she thought was her boyfriend, had previously said he’d never been married, but then changed his story and said he was a widower.
Rashi was missing his head and three limbs, and a forensic pathologist determined that although his body was not dismembered, it was likely that sea conditions had caused the dismemberment after the ship anchored.
Prosecutors argued that the homemade concrete anchors Peterson used on his boat could have been easily duplicated, and they speculated that he may have built more anchors to use to keep his wife’s body on the ocean floor.
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Prosecutors said the photos, showing Scott Peterson smiling, were taken at a vigil for Laci Peterson on New Year’s Eve 2002. A jury found at the end of his trial in 2004 that he killed her days later. She was more than eight months pregnant with their son, Connor. (California Superior Court, County of San Mateo)
After Laci disappeared, Peterson allegedly told Frey that his wife was alive and pregnant but missing, and Frey began recording phone conversations with the suspected killer to assist police in the investigation.
Last week, these recorded conversations were aired for the first time in a new Netflix documentary. American Murder: Laci Peterson.
“So what, you want to join me?” Frey asks Peterson in the recording.
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“I think we can take care of each other for the rest of our lives,” Peterson replied.
In May of this year, Peterson’s lawyers requested DNA testing of a bloodstained mattress found in the bed of a burned van near Peterson’s Modesto home the day after Laci disappeared. According to the LA Innocence Project, in the past only samples from the mattress have been tested. Now, they are asking for the entire mattress to be tested, saying advances in DNA technology may turn up DNA that will support their client’s claim.
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But a judge ruled in May that the duct tape found on Lacey’s body could be re-examined, along with 12 other pieces of evidence. It’s unclear whether that will include the mattress.
Lara Yeretsian, one of Peterson’s lawyers since his first trial, remains hopeful her client will be acquitted.
“This is not the end,” she said in the documentary series. “This is just the beginning. At least we have a victory.”
