On Christmas Eve of 2002, Laci Peterson disappeared from the Modesto, California home she shared with her husband, Scott Peterson. The 27-year-old was eight months pregnant with the couple’s first child.
Four months later, the bodies of Laci and her unborn baby, who was to be named Conner, washed ashore in the San Francisco Bay. Shortly after, Scott Peterson, who said he last saw his wife as he was leaving for a fishing trip at Berkeley Marina, about 90 miles west of Modesto, was arrested and charged with murdering Laci and Conner.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murder in 2004 and is currently serving a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole, has always maintained his innocence. In a new docu-series, Face to Face with Scott Peterson, he gives his first on-camera interviews since 2003. Out August 20, Face to Face also features conversations with his sister-in-law Janey Peterson, former Modesto Police Department lead detective Al Brocchini and detective Jon Buehler, Scott’s former defense attorney Lara Yeretsian, and former ABC News Producer Mike Gudgell. The series, directed by Shareen Anderson, who executive produced A&E’s 2017 docuseries The Murder of Laci Peterson, also explores developments in the case since the Los Angeles Innocence Project took it on in early 2024.
Here’s everything you need to know about the murder of Laci Peterson, Scott Peterson’s work with the Innocence Project, and the new revelations in Face to Face.
Just days after Laci and Conner’s bodies were found, Scott Peterson was arrested near a golf course in San Diego on April 18, 2003. He was charged with two counts of murder, and pleaded not guilty to both. At the time, Peterson claimed that he arrived home from fishing to find the couple’s dog on a leash in the backyard and no sign of Laci.
Prior to Peterson’s trial in 2004, a Fresno massage therapist named Amber Frey claimed she had been in a relationship with him and that he had told her he wasn’t married.
The five-month trial began in June 2004 in San Mateo County. Prosecutors alleged that Peterson had faked his wife’s disappearance after dumping her body in the Berkeley Marina on Christmas Eve. However, his defense attorneys argued Laci had been killed in a burglary.
Peterson was ultimately found guilty by a jury and convicted of murdering Laci in the first degree and his unborn child in the second degree. The same jury recommended that Peterson be sentenced to death, a ruling upheld by Judge Alfred Delucchi in 2005.
In 2020, the California Supreme Court overturned Peterson’s death sentence due to a “series of clear and significant errors in jury selection.” While they upheld his murder convictions, two months later, the state’s Supreme Court ordered a re-examination, sending the case back to the San Mateo County Superior Court, who would determine whether Peterson should receive a new trial.
The California Supreme Court also said that an original juror named Richelle Nice had committed “prejudicial misconduct” by failing to disclose that she had been involved with a 2000 lawsuit to obtain a restraining order against her then-boyfriend’s ex, whom she accused of stalking and harassment at the time. Nice also had a fight with her ex-boyfriend that resulted in his arrest; neither incident was disclosed to the court when they asked in 2005: “Have you ever been a victim of a crime?”
In addition to sending Scott multiple letters in prison, Nice has been accused by the defense of being a “stealth juror” and attempting to profit from her position on the jury in the 2005 trial (someone who deliberately hides their biases to ensure they are picked for the jury panel, thus ensuring a guilty verdict).
In the years since, Nice granted interviews to 20/20, Dr. Oz, and E! True Hollywood Story, took part in the documentary The Murder of Laci Peterson, and co-wrote a book with six other panelists: We, the Jury: Deciding the Scott Peterson Case. In February 2022, Nice told the court that she did not disclose those two incidents because she did not consider herself a crime victim. (Nice does personally appear in Face To Face.)
In 2021, Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager announced that she would not retry the penalty phase of the trial, which meant that Peterson would be resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Peterson was denied a request for a new trial in 2022.
In summer 2023, Peterson contacted the Los Angeles Innocence Project with a request for its attorneys to investigate his case.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, L.A.I.P. Director Paula Mitchell, said Peterson had “a claim of actual innocence that is supported by newly discovered evidence.” The nonprofit cited a mattress that was found in a burning van near the Peterson home shortly after Laci’s disappearance as grounds for a new forensic examination.
“Mr. Peterson’s been waiting for 20 years for police reports and audio recordings and video recordings that should have been provided,” Mitchell added. “We are eager to get our investigation underway.”
In a November 2023 statement included in the L.A.I.P.’s discovery motions, Peterson said: “I believe this additional information will assist in determining what happened to my family and prove that I am innocent and had nothing to do with these horrible crimes that were committed against my wife and son. In 2004, I was wrongfully convicted of murdering my wife, Laci, … and our unborn son, Conner.”
The L.A.I.P. will focus on a few key pieces of new evidence, which include witnesses who may have seen Laci walking her dog after Scott left to go fishing, a burglary across the street from the Petersons’ occurring around the same time Laci disappeared (the burglars, later caught and interviewed by police, have denied having anything to do with Laci’s disappearance), and a suspicious van with a blood-stained mattress that caught on fire less than a mile from the Petersons’ home one day after Laci’s disappearance. The L.A.I.P. also points to the fact that a Croton watch, possibly belonging to Laci, had been sold at a pawn shop a few days after she went missing.
Face To Face mostly excavates existing information around the Laci Peterson case and speaks to parties within the prosecution and defense. Viewers have the opportunity to hear from Scott Petersonhimself, as director Shareen Anderson questions him on camera about his affair with Amber Frey, his choice not to testify in his trial, the circumstances surrounding his 2003 arrest (Peterson was arrested 30 miles from the Mexico border with 10K in cash and his brother’s ID), and what he makes of the prosecution’s argument that he killed Laci because he didn’t want to be a father or lead a domestic life.
“Don’t trust me. Look at the evidence,” Peterson says in the series.
In addition to interviewing various neighbors who claim they witnessed Laci walking the family dog after Scott had already left to go fishing, Face to Face builds a narrative that Modesto police were too focused on Scott – and only Scott – during the initial investigation. In a new interview, present-day Scott Peterson accuses Modesto police of having confirmation bias against him. “I just don’t get that argument [that I didn’t want to be a father], “that’s just not true.” Additionally, former neighbors and a private investigator hired by the Peterson family describe a lack of follow up from Modesto Police during the investigation.
Speaking on his affair with Frey, who did testify during the 2005 trial, Peterson reasons that he withheld those details from police because he “wanted the search [for Laci] to continue… I guess I understand why she tried to turn it into a relationship after the fact and made claims that it was something more. But it simply wasn’t. That’s a massive misconception, I think. And I was absolutely wrong. But I embrace the truth on that. It’s a horrible truth.”
As to why he had his brother’s ID and thousands in cash near the Mexico border upon being arrested, Peterson notes that he had been spending time with his family in San Diego. Any evasive maneuvers he’d committed while driving ahead of police (leading to his arrest) were because he’d allegedly mistaken them for paparazzi. He adds that he had his brother’s ID in order to get a discount on the golf range. “I guess I was gonna scam the golf course a little bit.” Finally, he tells Anderson that he thought the police would realize they’d made a mistake after his arrest.
Present-day Peterson also wonders out loud what would have happened if he’d let his defense team waive time on his trial in order to present more evidence around his claimed innocence. “I would not waive time on my trial, and I look back on that now and I wonder if that was the right decision,” Scott says. “They had the evidence of my innocence… [but] It was a nightmare being stuck in county jail… Now I look back on some of the things we learned, some of the things we were still learning during trial, and wondered, gosh, if I had been more prudent or patient or whatever, maybe things would have been different.”
Face To Face also parses newer pieces of evidence currently under examination by the L.A.I.P. and illustrates the likelihood that Laci may have confronted a burglary happening across the street from her home in Modesto. Though the convicted burglars Steven Todd and Donald Pearce claimed that they were not involved with Laci’s case (police also determined that they had alibis for Christmas Eve), investigative journalists and Peterson’s sister-in-law Janey, and members of Peterson’s defense team who were interviewed for Face To Face, point to a larger criminal network based out of Modesto’s high-crime Airport district that may have been involved in Laci’s disappearance.
These claims are bolstered by a tip from Modesto resident Tom Harshman, who says in the series that he called the police twice in 2002 to report seeing a pregnant woman being “forced into the back of a van.” The tip was not followed up on. John Buehler, former Modesto detective, says that they got a lot of “phantom sightings” at the time and didn’t remember hearing about Tom Harshman’s tip.
When asked about the L.A.I.P. taking up Peterson’s case, Buehler tells Face To Face that it’s “not totally unexpected,” while former detective Al Broccini calls it “bullshit… There is absolutely no reasonable doubt he did it. [The] jury got it right.”
“Anybody who says they saw Laci walking the dog got interviewed,” Broccini says. Buehler adds: “Eyewitness testimony is very subjective. It would be very easy for a witness to want to be helpful, to claim later that they saw Laci, when actually they didn’t, it was a mistaken identity thing. Or, more sinister, they wanted to get involved in this because it was high-profile, it was in the news. We had a few things like that that popped up.”
“If we had the wrong guy in prison, we’d want to know about it,” Buehler concludes.
A judge denied the majority of the L.A.I.P.’s DNA testing requests in May 2024. Only the duct tape found on Laci’s body will be tested. If someone else’s DNA is discovered, it may be enough to grant Petersona new trial.
