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Join Telegram ChannelIn his first on-camera interview since being convicted of murdering his wife two decades ago, Scott Peterson maintains his innocence — and shares his theory about what really happened to his pregnant wife.
“Why do I want to talk? I regret not testifying,” Peterson says in Peacock’s new three-part series Face to Face with Scott Peterson“I have the opportunity to show people what the truth is, and if they're willing to accept it, that would be the greatest thing I can accomplish right now – because I didn't kill my family.”
Laci, 27, was eight months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002. Peterson reported her missing after returning from a solo fishing trip to find their Modesto home empty. Laci's body, along with that of her unborn child, Conner, was found washed ashore near Peterson's fishing spot four months later.
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Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson in a photo featured in the docuseries “American Murder: Laci Peterson.” (Courtesy of Netflix)
After his arrest at the Mexican border, with his hair bleached and his brother’s passport, prosecutors uncovered a mountain of evidence against him. A police K9 unit tracked Laci’s scent to a boat launch in Berkeley, where Peterson says he went fishing, and found the woman’s hair caught in the teeth of a pair of needle-nose pliers on Peterson’s boat.
Convicted of Laci's murder in 2004, Peterson returned to headlines after the Los Angeles Innocence Project announced it would handle his final appeal for a new trial.
“There was a break-in across the street from our house,” Peterson told the filmmakers via video call from Mule Creek State Prison. “And I believe Laci went over there to see what was going on, and that’s when she was taken away.”
A burglary occurred near the Peterson home around the time Laci disappeared – but one of the convicted burglars testified that the break-in occurred on December 26, 2002, rather than December 24, the date Laci disappeared.
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Scott Peterson listens as Stanislaus County Assistant District Attorney Dave Harris speaks during a hearing in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. Peterson appeared in San Mateo Superior Court for the first time since he was sentenced to death more than 17 years ago for the murders of his wife Laci and their unborn son Conner. (Andy Alfaro/The Modesto Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) (Andy Alfaro/The Modesto Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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Reporters and legal experts interviewed in the docuseries said witnesses told police they saw a suspicious van in the neighborhood of Peterson's Modesto home on Dec. 24 — one witness even claimed to have seen a pregnant woman being forced into a van.
The burglary was not mentioned at Peterson's 2004 trial, and the convicted man cites that as evidence that police failed to turn over evidence during the discovery process that could have potentially exonerated him.
“There are so many cases where there was evidence that didn't fit the detectives' theory, that they ignored,” Peterson insisted.
Peterson even claims that detectives assigned to the case assumed he was guilty from their first visit to his home.
“When [Modesto Detective Al Brocchini] “I did a first walk around the house with the other officers, I don’t think they knew I was near them when they said ‘we know what’s going on here — it was the husband,’” Peterson said in his jailhouse interview. “Then he realized I was there and kind of turned around.”
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Scott Peterson and Amber Frey photographed at a Christmas party on December 14, 2002, before Laci Peterson's murder and before Frey knew Scott Peterson was a married man. (Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo)
But Brocchini and former Modesto police officer Jon Buhler told the filmmakers they withheld evidence or failed to investigate leads in the case.
“He was pretty nonchalant, there was no urgency about him,” Brocchini said of his first meeting with Peterson. “To me, it was suspicious.”
Peterson, involved in multiple extramarital affairs, quickly became the prime suspect in his wife's disappearance.
Brocchini said a voicemail Peterson left for his wife at 2:15 p.m. on Dec. 24, 2022, telling her he loved her and would see her “in a moment,” was created to cover his tracks hours after he killed Laci and abandoned her in the San Francisco Bay Area. “To me, it was really meant for me to hear it,” Brocchini said, calling the voicemail “sticky.”
But Peterson said the heartfelt messages were typical of his relationship with Laci, and suggested that officers who question the intent of the voicemail must have “really sad marriages.”
“We loved each other, we liked each other,” he said in his prison interview. “We were great friends.”
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Prosecutors said police recovered Laci Peterson's hair from the teeth of those needle-nose pliers, which they found on the boat of her husband and convicted murderer Scott Peterson. (Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo)
“Every moment is so touching,” Peterson said of his final memories with his wife. “I’m still here, with the smells and the light, the sound of saying goodbye to Laci. And then my family is gone.”
Amber Frey, Peterson's mistress, went to police when she learned of Laci's disappearance. Peterson, the man she thought was her boyfriend, had told her he had never been married, then changed his mind and claimed he was a widower.
Laci had lost her head and three limbs. A medical examiner determined that she had not been dismembered, but that her body had likely dismembered due to marine conditions after being anchored.
Prosecutors argued that the homemade concrete anchor Peterson used for his boat could have been easily replicated. They suggested he made others and used them to try to hold his wife's body to the seafloor.
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Prosecutors said the photographs showing Scott Peterson smiling were taken at a wake for Laci Peterson on New Year's Eve in 2002. Jurors found out at the end of his trial in 2004 that he killed her days later. She was more than eight months pregnant with their son, Conner. (Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo)
After Laci disappeared, Peterson allegedly told Frey that his wife was alive and pregnant, but had disappeared. Frey began recording her phone conversations with the alleged killer in an effort to help police.
Last week, those recorded conversations were aired for the first time in a new Netflix documentary, American Murder: Laci Peterson.
“So, do you want to be with me?” Frey asked Peterson in one of the recordings.
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“I think we could take care of each other for the rest of our lives,” Peterson replied.
Last May, Peterson’s defense team requested DNA testing on a bloodstained mattress found in the back of a burned-out pickup truck near Peterson’s Modesto home the day after Laci disappeared. According to the LA Innocence Project, in the past, only a sample of the mattress had been tested. Now, they want the entire mattress tested, saying advances in DNA technology could find DNA that would support their client’s claim.
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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's not yet clear whether the mattress will be among the items tested.
Lara Yeretsian, one of Peterson's lawyers at his first trial, remains hopeful that her client will be exonerated.
“This is not the end,” she said in the documentary series. “This is just the beginning, and at least we have won a victory.”