American Murder: Laci Peterson (2024) s01e01 Episode Script

1
[suspenseful music playing]
[phone rings]
[phone receiver clicks]
[woman] Um, the last night
I talked to Laci
[man] Hmm.
[woman] what was going on?
What happened after 8:30 that night?
Were you at home when she called me?
[man] Yeah, we picked up a pizza,
watched a movie, and went to bed.
[woman] Was she feeling okay
when she went to bed?
[man] Fine.
[woman] How was she feeling
when she got up? What time did she get up?
[man] She got up before I did.
About seven.
[woman] I just want to know
I mean, I talked to her at 8:30 at night.
I need to know everything
that happened after that.
[man] Sure. Of course.
[woman] I mean, what she how she acted,
if she was sick or if she was tired or
[man] No, she was
I mean, she was feeling good,
you know, that morning.
She was beyond excited to be baking.
She was into her gingerbread thing.
And then, you know,
get ready for Christmas Day.
[woman] How come you didn't notice
when you walked in the door that
she hadn't been baking
or the lights were off or anything?
I just have some questions
I need to have answered.
Residents, police, and the FBI are
searching for a missing pregnant woman.
Laci Peterson was reported missing
by her husband Christmas Eve.
[reporter 1] The authorities are baffled
and the community severely shaken.
The media coverage
was just something I've never seen.
Our entire nation
and possibly most of the world
is aware that Laci Peterson is missing.
I've had missing-person cases before,
but this one was bigger already.
[reporter 2] Search teams in helicopters,
on horseback, in boats, and on foot.
It was surreal. This is unbelievable.
[reporter 3] Laci has become
a household name.
[woman 1] We all had the same want.
We all wanted her back.
[reporter 4] Of all the people
who turned out for the search,
there was one person
who was conspicuous by his absence.
[woman 2] Modesto Police
zeroed in on Scott from the beginning.
Didn't focus on anyone else.
Statistically speaking, boyfriends,
husbands are suspect number one.
[woman 3] Scott has
our absolute and complete support,
and we do not believe any speculation
that he was involved
in Laci's disappearance.
[reporter 5] Scott Peterson
denied interview requests.
[woman 4] You'd lost your wife,
and this was the first holidays
you'd spend without her?
I keep hearing Laci say to me,
"Mom, please find me and Conner
and bring us home."
[sniffs] "I'm scared."
[sobbing] "Please don't leave us
out here all alone."
[woman 5] Not only does pregnancy
increase the risk of victimization,
it is the number one cause of death
for pregnant women.
[reporter 6] Someone out there knows
what happened to Laci Peterson.
It's a matter of finding the right person.
[woman 6] They were the perfect couple,
and he broke everything
that she thought he was.
[woman 7] There's no way
that our friend Laci would choose to marry
and love someone
that would do this to her.
[Scott] Laci's still alive.
She's out there,
and someone's holding her.
These are critical days that we have left,
and we just need all of your help.
[woman 4] How could I believe
anything you say?
[Scott] I am not evil like that.
[soft music playing]
[birds singing]
[woman] There are times
I look back and I think,
"Gosh. It's hard to believe
it was 20 years ago,"
and on the other hand,
it seems like it wasn't 20 years ago.
[sniffs softly]
[Sharon] Nothing's gonna change
what really happened.
Nothing can change the truth.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Sharon] I was having
Christmas Eve at my house,
and she was going to have
Christmas morning at her house.
And that's pretty much
when everything started.
Scott called me to find out
if Laci was at my house.
And I said, "No,"
and he said, "Well, then she's missing."
"Missing? What do you mean, missing?"
I mean, people don't use
that term lightly.
So I told him
to call her friends and find out
if anybody had seen her.
[phone rings]
[woman] Christmas Eve,
I got a call from Scott.
"Laci's missing.
Have you talked to her today?"
"What do you mean, missing?"
"Where could she possibly be?"
He called and said the same thing to me,
that she's missing.
I was like, "What do you mean, missing?"
[Sharon] Scott called me back
and said nobody had seen her.
I told Ron to call the police.
I called a friend to pick me up
'cause I was so upset.
[phone line crackles]
[operator] Hi. Can I help you?
[Ron] Yes, uh, my son-in-law called.
- He was playing golf this morning at 9:30.
- [operator] Mm-hmm.
[Ron] My daughter's been missing
since this morning.
She's eight months pregnant.
She took her dog for a walk in the park.
- The dog came home with just the leash on.
- [operator] Without your daughter?
- [Ron] Right.
- [operator] What is your address, sir?
I mean, instantly,
it was panic. Instantly.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Sharon] First place I thought to look
was in the park
in case she was walking the dog.
It was just one house away, practically.
There was a lot
of homeless people down there,
and where she would come back up
from the park,
it was very steep and muddy and slippery.
That concerned me.
There were a couple of people walking,
and I remember stopping this man
and asking him if he'd seen her.
I described her. He said, "No."
And I called Scott.
I told him I was down in the park.
"Meet me down there."
[distant siren wailing]
[Lori] We're walking the neighborhood.
[woman] Knocking on doors, telling people,
"Have you seen this person?"
"No, I haven't."
- Rene got us into
- Dittos.
Dittos to make flyers.
Within an hour of me being there,
I'm like, "Okay, girls,
we need to get a picture."
"Yep, we have one
from the Christmas party."
[distant siren wailing]
[Rene] I remember going up
to one of the detectives and said,
"What can we do? Call media?"
And he goes, "Yes, absolutely."
[reporter 1] Friends, family,
and police are searching.
They're posting flyers, trying to find
26-year-old Laci Peterson.
She was last seen walking
her golden retriever
at nearby Dry Creek Park.
Scott and Laci lived on Covena,
a few blocks away from where we lived.
I'd missed a couple
of phone calls from Scott.
That evening, as we had finished up
our Christmas Eve dinner,
I did reach him,
and he said, "We're looking for Laci,"
or "Laci's missing," or "Laci's gone."
We immediately headed down to the house.
It was just, you know, un out of control,
a numerous amount of people.
Lots of lights, lots of activity,
police cars, and so forth.
[Kristen] Her high-school friends
were there.
- [Greg] Yes. Lots and lots of people.
- They were very distraught.
[reporter 2] Surrounded by Christmas joy,
one household's holiday
darkened by despair.
We hold hope. We keep praying.
We keep passing out our flyers.
[reporter 2] Rene Tomlinson's
good friend, missing.
Twenty-six-year-old Laci Peterson,
eight months pregnant,
vanishing while her husband
was gone for the day on a fishing trip.
[tense music playing]
[Rene] Everyone was congregating
at the house again. I'm bouncing around.
You know, Sharon is just
[voice breaking] I can still see
her face just devastated.
And, you know, I said,
"Oh, we're gonna find her."
"We're gonna find her.
She's gonna be back." [sniffs]
[helicopter whirring]
[Sharon] A lot of people were coming over,
and the police were there,
and they were
in and out of the house, and
and then the helicopter came.
Searching everywhere.
The area in the park
and down by the creek and
Okay, that's, uh Stop.
[suspenseful music playing]
[man] Christmas Eve, I was up at my cabin.
So when the sergeant called me, he said,
"You know, hey, Al. Your kids are grown."
"This is just a missing person.
They want a detective involved,
so do you mind going down there?"
I pull up,
and there's all kinds of people.
[distant siren wailing]
[Al] There's thermoses
in the driveway of coffee.
- [police radio chatter]
- [Al] There's a helicopter.
We had people in the creek just walking it
to make sure nobody was in the creek.
[police radio chatter continues]
And then they introduced me to Scott.
He was calm and answered questions.
Very polite.
This is the first time I meet him.
We're on a first-name basis
almost right away.
He's not calling me
detective or officer or
He's calling me Al. It was just kinda odd.
Told me he went fishing,
and that was his plan for the day,
and his wife was gonna go walk the dog
and maybe go grocery shopping.
And when he came home, he didn't find her.
Whenever you have a missing person,
we go in the house and we search.
I was looking for evidence
of an abduction, like.
Was there a struggle in the house?
[suspenseful music continues playing]
Scott took me right to his bedroom.
We're in the closet.
He says, "Look, there's Laci's purse."
He even took it off the hook
and opened it, and said,
"Everything's still in here."
That's unusual.
I'd ask him some basic questions, like,
"Does she got a boyfriend
or any of that?" "No."
I said, "Does she have a cell phone?"
"Yeah, I think it's in her car."
I said, "Do you mind
if I search the cars?"
He gave me permission.
He had a truck, and in the back,
I noticed there was a big tarp,
and in the tarp was a bunch of umbrellas.
They're the kind, uh, that you have
outside in your backyard.
And then Scott, he's like,
"Well, I went fishing in the bay,
and here's my parking stub."
When he bought his ticket
to launch his boat.
And then he had a bag,
and in the bag was a receipt from Big 5.
He bought a fishing license
on December 20th.
He bought these lures on December 20th,
and he told one of the officers
he's using a big silver lure.
There was a big silver lure,
but it was still in the package.
I thought that was kind of odd.
After I searched the cars, I said,
"Scott, will you take me to your shop?"
Scott was a fertilizer salesman,
and so this little, uh, strip mall,
it was packed full of fertilizer.
So I flicked some pictures.
Whatever I saw in there
didn't all of a sudden
click me into, "Oh, this is bad."
I'm still thinking
we're just looking for Laci.
But after I did this search of his shop,
I told Scott,
"My job is to eliminate you as a suspect
because you are her husband."
"You are first the last person
we know for sure that was with her,
and so I have to eliminate you."
So I took him back to the police station,
and I did sit him down
and videotape-interview him.
Thank you.
[Al] Let's just go over what
what we already talked about
so I can make some notes.
Just tell me about the morning.
Scott told me that when he got up,
she was watching TV.
We were watching her favorite show,
Martha Stewart.
[Al] You remember what part you saw?
I don't know what they had on.
- Some cooking deal. I don't know.
- [Al] Okay.
Cookies of some sort. They were talking
about what to do with meringue.
[Al] Scott said
her plan was to go shopping,
and she's gonna go walk McKenzie,
their dog.
And then he said he was gonna go golfing,
but because it was too cold,
he decided he was gonna go fishing.
When did you realize
you were gonna go fishing?
- That was a morning decision.
- [Al] That was a morning decision?
It was either go play golf at the club
or go fishing.
[Al] Okay.
Seemed too cold
to go play golf at the club, so
He says he went to his shop,
picked up his boat.
Checked my email. Sent one email.
[Al] He drove to the Berkeley Marina,
which is almost 90 miles away.
And he launched his boat.
He said he drove out about a mile,
and he was going by this island.
A lot of the reason I went was just to get
that boat in the water, in the sea.
- You know?
- [Al] Yeah.
He got back into, uh, the marina.
After he loads his boat up, he calls Laci.
[Scott] I called Laci, uh,
just as I was leaving the marina.
- [Al] Home phone?
- Told her where I was.
Home and the mobile.
[Al] And so I listened to it.
[Scott] Hey, beautiful.
I just left a message at home.
Uh, 2:15. I'm leaving Berkeley.
I won't be able to get to Vella Farms
to get that basket for Papa.
I was hoping you would get this message
and go on out there.
I'll see you in a bit, sweetie.
Love you. Bye.
[phone clicks]
[automated voice] End of message.
[tense music playing]
[Al] He gets back to his, uh, shop,
unhooks his boat,
and then he comes home.
The gate was shut.
He opened the gate, and there's his dog
running around in the yard,
dragging a leash.
The only unusual things, um, were
the leash and the door being unlocked.
Later, he found out his neighbor,
Karen Servas,
had found McKenzie running around
in the street with the leash.
So she put him back in the yard
and shut the gate.
Were you calling for Laci or
Oh yeah. Of course.
- [Al] But she wasn't home?
- No.
I assumed she was at her mom's.
[Al] Then he went to the washing machine,
takes his own clothes off,
and runs a load of just his clothes.
Then he goes and eats a piece of pizza,
drinks some milk,
takes a quick shower,
then he calls Sharon
and says Laci's missing.
[Scott] I called Sharon, um,
and then I called
a couple of Laci's, uh, closer friends.
That was
I had the phone book out to call hospitals
when I think
Sharon called me back at that point
and said that they would do that,
call the police,
and for me to, uh, check the neighbors
and go to the park.
He did go to the neighbors,
and the first neighbor he told
that he was golfing.
When he came home, Laci was gone.
And when Laci's parents,
Sharon and Ron, get there,
he mentions that he was fishing,
and they were shocked.
"Scott, you said you were going golfing."
So that was kind of odd
that, uh, he can't remember
if he's fishing or if he's golfing.
Then they're like, "You have a boat?"
Nobody knew he had a boat.
It's a red flag for sure.
And you guys, you guys haven't had
any problems, uh, marriage problems?
No.
- [Al] Everything's good?
- Mm-hmm.
- [Al] And you've been married four years?
- Four or five.
You got me thinking.
I guess it's five. We got married in '97.
[Al] During the interview, I told Scott
it would really be helpful
if he took a polygraph.
Just to eliminate you as a suspect,
would you be willing
to take a polygraph test?
They're accurate, right?
Yeah. I mean, it's nothing
that can be used against you,
but yeah, I believe they're accurate.
No, I'm certainly willing.
And I said, "Okay, I'll set it up
for tomorrow, Christmas Day,"
and Scott's like, "Yeah."
I interviewed Scott about an hour.
He was leaned back in the chair,
hands in his pockets, calm.
And that's just
another little red flag to me.
So what you're telling me, Scott,
is there's no
you'd have no idea where Laci is?
I do not.
[suspenseful music playing]
[woman] Our family found out
that Laci was missing Christmas morning.
Scott had tried to call our home
Christmas Eve night.
A lot of family had gathered at our house
for dinner after church,
and the the call didn't go through.
So Christmas morning,
he got ahold of his parents.
This is Christmas morning now,
about ten o'clock.
- And I get this call.
- [phone rings]
[Susan] And I'm trying
not to, like, freak out myself.
You know, like, what do you do?
I've got two kids, and I'm, you know,
in front of the Christmas tree, and
and I just try to say,
"Okay, they've got it."
"They're gonna be up there.
They'll find her."
[Janey] My husband,
Scott's older brother, Joe,
called Scott to see what was going on,
and he heard Scott's voice,
and he just said, "I'm coming, brother."
He didn't even pack a bag.
[Susan] My dad heard
the panic in his voice,
and my parents just said,
"We're on our way."
[clears throat]
Everybody just dropped everything.
It was like [sniffs]
They knew that he was just beside himself
and he needed our help.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Susan] Scott was the baby of the family.
He's a rule follower.
He just was a really easy kid.
He had a lot of friends.
He did very well academically.
And he decided to continue
his education in at Cal Poly.
[soft music playing]
[woman] I met Laci
at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
We were both freshmen
in the OH Department,
which stands for Ornamental Horticulture.
We were both young, little
You know, maybe five feet
if we were lucky,
and like probably everyone,
we just gravitated towards Laci
'cause she just
kind of lit up the classroom.
When Laci first met Scott,
she was very excited.
She was very giddy. I do remember that.
[distant seagulls crying]
[Sharon] She'd gone
to the restaurant where he worked.
That's where she first saw him.
And then she made a point
of going back a few more times.
And she'd written her name
and phone number on a napkin
that he threw in the trash
[laughs]without realizing
she had done that.
[Heather] I remember thinking,
"I don't know about this guy."
When Scott first meets someone,
he has to be very showy.
You know, flowers all the time, dinners,
taking her places.
I think, very early in their relationship,
he took her to Mexico.
Just constant showering of love
and affection and gifts and
I think the term today
would be "love bombing,"
which I don't think was a term
we used back then.
I don't think we knew
that's what it was called,
but he definitely did that to her,
and it worked.
[Sharon] She was in love. No doubt.
She was excited to be with him,
and he seemed to feel
feel the same way about her.
As long as she was happy,
that was the important thing.
[gentle music playing]
[Janey] Scott called.
He had met a girl, and they were
gonna come down to San Diego.
They pulled up in a convertible,
just college age, lit up, you know,
sun kissed with the roof down,
and Scott's just beaming,
and he's with Laci, who's adorable.
I remember telling
my sister-in-law, Susan,
just how bubbly she was
and how smitten Scott was.
[Heather] Laci did touch
on the Peterson dynamic a few times,
and always mentioned
that it it became a lot
because Lee had three children
from his previous marriage,
and Jackie had one that she brought in.
And then, obviously,
Lee and Jackie had Scott together.
I don't know, I always felt
like Scott was the golden child
'cause he was the only one between them,
and he could do no wrong
between anybody and
I think she would get a little overwhelmed
when everybody got together,
but I do know that they truly welcomed her
as their daughter.
They they just
I I saw it with my own eyes
how much they doted on her.
[Susan] Scott had
maybe a girlfriend or two,
but nobody that really stuck out to me.
Not like Laci.
I just said,
"This this could be the one,"
and and, uh, I think
he kinda knew that right away.
[soft music playing]
[Heather] Laci had definitely talked
about wanting to be married.
I think she maybe expected
it was coming at some point,
but it was almost like
it was just so spur of the moment.
I mean, they got engaged
in her living room, for crying out loud.
I don't know what he said to her,
but it was just, like, authentic.
Unlike something grand
and, like, all these other things
that Scott would normally do,
it was just pure.
Like, it was just the two of them
in their moment.
When they got married,
they were both still in school.
The wedding day was picture perfect.
It was just like they were
the perfect couple and
she was just the most beautiful bride.
[tense music playing]
[man] The original call
came in on Christmas Eve.
So, when I came down and started talking
to Al on Christmas Day,
there was an interest level
on this case that we rarely see.
You have to throw into it
the emotional attachment
that people would have for the situation
with Laci being pregnant.
And then you throw in
the attractiveness of Laci and Scott,
and then the holiday season
on top of that,
and then you've got something that,
you know, people just cling to.
KTVU Channel 2 reporter Ted Rowlands
joins us now live from Modesto
with the story. Ted?
The friends and family of this woman
have been out searching
and putting up flyers
for the last day and a half.
They're expected to be out here
I was working for a local station
in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In our newsroom, someone had this flyer,
a missing person down in Modesto,
which is an area
we wouldn't normally cover,
but because there was nothing going on
on December 26th,
we headed down to see
about this missing pregnant woman,
Laci Peterson.
[reporter 1] Laci, who was
eight months pregnant,
vanished on Christmas Eve
while walking her dog.
The dog returned home. Laci did not.
In Modesto, Gloria Gomez,
Channel 5 Eyewitness News.
I was working for KOVR,
which was a CBS affiliate in Sacramento.
Sadly, crime was a big issue in the area,
especially in the Stockton-Modesto area.
So, as a young reporter,
I was thrust into the crime-scene beat
right off the get-go.
I knew this was a big story.
It's a mystery,
filling family and friends with worry.
[reporter 2] Dry Creek Park
is at the end of their street
in Modesto's La Loma district,
a popular spot
for jogging and dog-walking.
Police are certain she was there.
The theory at the time was she was out
walking her dog, McKenzie, in a park.
And and this park
is adjacent to their street
on Covena Avenue in Modesto.
[reporter 2] Relatives, friends,
and neighbors joined in,
distributing flyers
and searching the park.
[woman] It's terrible
that something like this happened,
and we wanna do what we can to help.
[Ted] You could tell
there was something about this.
This wasn't just, "Let's go do
something nice for the community."
These were people
that wanted to find out where Laci was,
people that didn't know who Laci was,
but they really felt
for this young pregnant woman.
Everybody could relate to Laci.
[soft music playing]
[Sharon] The very first time I saw Laci,
she looked like my grandmother.
She was always smiling and laughing,
and I would go in in the mornings
to take her out of her crib,
and she'd always have
a big grin on her face.
She was a good baby.
Dennis and I split up
when Laci was just over a year old,
and then she was two and a half
when I met Ron.
And he he loved Laci.
She was outgoing.
She was not bashful at all.
I don't know where she got that attribute
because I was always quieter,
and her brother was quieter.
I would get notes home from the teachers.
Occasionally, she talked too much.
[chuckles] That's where
the "Jabber Jaws" came from.
It was a little nickname we had for her
because her jaws were always going.
[chuckles]
She had a lot of friends.
They were always laughing and giggling.
They were girls. [chuckles]
You have to introduce yourself.
Hey, here's me, Laci.
["You Got It"
by New Kids On The Block playing]
[Lori] I met Laci in the seventh grade.
She's very outgoing,
and she had a bright smile.
She's hard not to like.
["You Got It" continues playing]
[Lori] We had a lot of fun
practicing cheer routines and commercials.
Take two!
Try our new Doritos, Cool Ranch.
[Stacey] Cut, cut, cut!
[Lori] Laci had a presence.
She brought us all together.
- [Sharon] Well
- [indistinct chatter]
Am I going the wrong way?
I'm going the wrong way.
[Sharon] You're always doing that shit.
What are we gonna do with you?
[Lori] It was a small town.
Everybody knew everybody.
Oh girl ♪
Oh yeah, boys.
[chuckles]
She had boyfriends,
but she had friends who were boys too.
I mean, they were always
in groups and everywhere,
either our house or someone else's house
and all the time.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
[Stacey] Laci and I used to go
to Roller King all the time.
We used to have sleepovers all the time.
It was instant friendship.
She was just a person that,
if you were gonna know her,
you were gonna be her friend.
You'd be there. You wanted to be there.
The right stuff ♪
- [music stops abruptly]
- [echoing drumbeat]
[tense music playing]
[Heather] The morning of the 26th,
we came home
to a message on the answering machine
from Laci's friend Rene.
- [machine beeps]
- And she just said that Laci's missing.
"We can't find her."
Called my parents and said,
"We need to go to Modesto, like, now."
[reporter 1] Volunteers have set up
a search center.
A $125,000 reward is being offered.
[Al] Laci's friends and family,
they had a conference room set up
at the Red Lion Hotel,
where, you know,
they were handing out flyers.
It was very professionally coordinated.
[reporter 2] Stacey Jensen
and her two kids stopped by
to write a check and get a ribbon.
[Janey] People were making ribbons,
a blue ribbon and a yellow ribbon,
and giving those out.
I remember looking at 'em
and thinking that the ribbons
weren't lined up,
and and Laci would be cropping ribbon,
so I would sit there with scissors
cropping the ribbons
'cause I thought Laci
Laci would be cropping these ribbons.
And Scott walked by, and I said
I said,
"I just don't know what else to do."
It's such a strange reality
to realize
that you're literally putting up
a missing person's poster
for your best friend.
We walked streets
and put up posters for miles and miles.
And Scott was right there with us,
but he would joke.
And he would laugh.
And part of you, at the time,
welcomes the distraction.
Like, you get to the point
where your your body is ill
because you're so so distraught.
[Kristen] It just became dismal each day,
and the search grid
became wider and wider.
You become more desperate
and more desperate.
But it was surreal.
Like, this is unbelievable.
[reporter] At a press conference
Thursday afternoon,
family pleaded for the public's help.
[Susan] Laci, if you're out there
and can hear us and see us,
we love you,
and we're searching, we're looking,
and we're going to find you.
Before the press conference that day,
we weren't getting much information.
But my thought was trust in police.
We're gonna get to the bottom
of what had happened and where Laci was.
[reporter 1] Chief, do you have
any evidence yet? Anything?
We don't have any evidence at this time.
[reporter 2] I don't know
if you can tell me.
The husband was fishing
with somebody at that time?
We're not gonna go into great detail
about what information
we have at this time.
Um, so we we won't go into that.
That's part of the ongoing investigation.
And and we'll continue
every aspect of the investigation.
It came out
that Scott went fishing on Christmas Eve.
And this was a room full of reporters.
They started peppering our chief of police
about Scott fishing.
[reporter 3] Chief,
was Scott fishing by himself,
or was he with someone in Berkeley?
We're not gonna we're not gonna
discuss that at this point.
[reporter 4] Do you think
viewers would find it odd
that you you can't explain
what the the husband was doing fishing?
Well, let me just let me yeah.
Let me kinda just put that all to rest.
It would be wrong for me to speculate.
[reporter 5] Okay, I don't understand
what you're talking about "speculating."
You mean whether he was
actually fishing or not?
Um, we're just Uh, yes,
it would be wrong for me to speculate.
And Scott got up and left.
[Gloria] My first impressions
of Scott Peterson,
he was very distant, very reserved.
I thought that was kind of odd
that Scott wasn't engaging the media
to try to get the word out
about his missing wife.
So I thought, "Well, everybody
handles stress, uh, differently,"
so everybody kinda gave him his room.
We figured that, eventually,
he would talk to us
and try to, like, explain what he knew,
so we can get the word out there.
[Ted] Early on, we rang the doorbell,
and Scott answers the door.
And he wants nothing to do with us.
He gave us a flyer,
and he said, "No cameras, no cameras."
Told my photographer,
"Put the camera down."
He wanted nothing to do with the media,
which is the best way to get the word out.
Everyone else was doing interviews.
Everybody else wanted constant coverage.
Not Scott.
[indistinct conversation]
[Stacey] He really wasn't on the news.
That was us.
"Hey, girls, go do this. Rene, talk."
"I don't wanna do this. You guys do it.
We need to keep this about Laci."
"Laci's picture should be put out there."
"Her face should be on the news
because that's who we're trying to find."
- "Don't put pictures of us out there."
- He shouldn't be any part of that.
Whether it was Laci's friends
or Laci's family,
all of them were anxious, panicked.
They had a sense of urgency,
and Scott didn't exhibit any of that.
And then, when it comes to asking
for complete cooperation from him,
he dodges that.
For example, Christmas Day,
Scott had talked to his father,
and his father had advised him
against taking the polygraph.
So he refused the polygraph,
even though he said the evening before
that he would take it.
[Sharon] Every time I tried
to talk to him, he was busy.
Had to go here, do that, or whatever.
I remember being at the volunteer center,
and he was there,
and I walked up behind him.
I just took his arm,
and I said, "We need to talk,"
and I took him into one of the rooms.
And that was really
the first time we talked,
when we really had a conversation.
And I asked him to tell me
what happened Christmas Eve morning.
And he he didn't have
a lot to say about that.
[muted conversation]
When I asked him about the boat, I said,
"Why didn't you mention that before?"
And he said,
"Oh, I was keeping it a surprise for Ron."
I said, "Why were you
thinking you would surprise Ron?"
"It's not his boat. It's your boat."
No answer to that either.
I said, "Why don't you take
a polygraph test?"
"And then everybody will know you're okay,
you know, that you didn't do this."
He said, "Well, I'm too upset
to take that."
And that was it.
I mean, I loved Scott
as, uh, my son-in-law, you know?
He was part of our family.
I certainly didn't wanna think
that he'd had anything to do with
her disappearance.
But I just I just remember thinking
at that moment that was strange.
I thought, "Well, he's worried, and that's
why he's acting the way he was acting,
instead of like a husband
that's missing his wife."
[soft music playing]
[Sharon] After she'd got married,
they had rented a house in Morro Bay,
which is just a few miles north
of San Luis.
But I think she kind of missed her friends
and just a different atmosphere.
So she was ready to come back to Modesto,
and Scott was willing to come with her.
[indistinct chatter]
[Lori] When Laci came home from Cal Poly
and she and Scott moved back here,
we really all started
doing everything together.
- You're blinding me with your light!
- [Lori] Oh yeah.
[laughs]
Ladybug with her headlights on.
[Lori] I felt at at the time
that they were a good couple.
[indistinct chatter]
[Stacey] You thought
what Laci told you of Scott
'cause you didn't really hear
a lot from Scott.
It was always what Laci told you of him.
[indistinct background conversation]
[Stacey] But she was very happy,
and that was huge,
and that made us happy.
[Greg] They were neighbors
of my grandmother,
and only a few blocks away
from where we lived,
so, quickly, we had a lot to talk about.
They were just a cute couple.
They would have pool parties.
They'd invite us over for The Sopranos.
They acted like newlyweds
when we met them,
even though they'd been married
over four years?
About four years.
And I know Laci
I mean, she was made to be a mom.
She almost had
that innate kind of aura about her.
[indistinct chatter]
[Sharon] She'd ask me questions
about what was it like to be pregnant,
and she was curious, you know,
about all those things,
and I remember after her housewarming,
she called me.
And she was crying at that time
because she wanted to get pregnant,
and he didn't.
He didn't want to,
uh, have a child.
Then it was probably
about six months later or so
when she called and said
that they were trying.
And I asked her about that. I said,
"Well, you said he didn't want to."
And she said, "Oh, he's changed his mind.
He said, you know, he wants to now."
[soft music playing]
[Rene] That summer, we had talked a lot
about her trying to get pregnant,
and she was having difficulty.
I believe June 8th was my baby shower
that she threw for us.
The next morning,
we all got a, uh, phone call very early
that she was pregnant.
She was just so excited.
[Susan] They were ready
to start this chapter in their life.
It seemed the perfect timing.
We had a baby shower for her,
and it was a wonderful time
to celebrate her,
and she loved being pregnant.
[cheerful music playing]
[female voice] "July 16th, 2002."
"Today, Scott and I had
our first sonogram."
"The baby looked like a peanut,
so small
with a strong heartbeat and active."
"My true feelings
would be excitement and relief."
"I can't wait for the changes to come."
"October 27th."
"Scott felt the baby move
for the first time."
"I felt relieved
because I didn't wanna be the only one
experiencing such a beautiful moment."
"Scott didn't show
a whole lot of excitement,
but I know he really was."
[Sharon] I was happy for her.
But for some reason,
I just had in the back of my mind
that something didn't feel quite right,
because he didn't want to have kids
at all, and then, all of a sudden, he did,
and that that concerned me.
[Susan] The night of the 26th,
we were at Scott and Laci's house,
and we had a tray of frozen lasagna.
Turned the oven on,
and I saw Detective Brocchini
kinda walk through the door.
[suspenseful music playing]
I knocked on the door,
and Scott said, "Come in,"
and he was at his table
reading the newspaper.
So me and my partner, Jon Buehler,
are like, "Yeah, hey, Scott,
we really would like to come back
and do a more thorough search
of the house,
maybe the cars,
your computers, your cell phones."
"Maybe she had a stalker online
you didn't know about."
"Maybe there's some hair or some blood
or some fingerprints in here
that aren't yours or hers."
And he's giving me the nod.
[Jon] Throughout all of my contacts
with Scott,
I just found him to be, you know,
charming and cordial and and nice.
But there was another side to him also.
There was a side of him that was guarded
and a cooperation side
that was always limited.
[Al] So we give him a consent form.
"You just sign here, and you're giving us
permission to do all of that."
And he picks it up and reads it,
and then he's like,
"You don't expect me
to sign this without a lawyer?"
We already had a search warrant
to do the house
'cause we suspected he was gonna say no.
And he's like, "Where's the trust, Al?"
You know? To me. I'm like, "Scott,
we're here trying to help you find Laci."
It's, uh, 12/26 of, uh, '02.
It's now 1956 hours.
- [barking]
- [Al] Hey. Shh.
[dog continues barking]
Scott left, and we spent
the next two days in the house
going over it thoroughly.
Yeah.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jon] One of the things
that we did on that search
was we contacted the Department of Justice
up in Sacramento.
I was the Special Agent Supervisor,
uh, of the Violent Crime Profiling Unit.
Our job was to help condense
and narrow the focus of an investigation,
providing behavioral assistance
to do a wide variety of things.
[Al] Going west through the house.
[Sharon Hagan] Surveying the home,
there was just very little indication
that anything unusual had happened.
[Al] Bathroom.
[Sharon Hagan]
A very comfortable lifestyle.
They loved their home.
They enjoyed good food and good wine,
and that they were close with family.
After I visited the home,
we went to the warehouse.
[door creaks]
And immediately, our attention
was drawn to the boat trailer.
[Al] Scott told me on Christmas Eve
it was a that-morning decision
to go fishing,
but what we find when we do these searches
is, okay, he buys
his fishing license on the 20th.
He buys his boat on 9th December.
Nobody knows he owns it.
He searches the bay tides on 12/8.
He's not searching for a fishing report
or what bait to use.
He's searching the bay tides.
And he told me on Christmas Eve
A lot of the reason I went
was just to get that boat in the water.
[Al] From Modesto to the Berkeley Marina
is about 90 miles.
Just to get your boat in the water
for the first time,
you don't drive by yourself
all the way to Berkeley Marina.
[suspenseful music continues playing]
[Jon] Al was working on clearing Scott,
and that was his focus.
Craig was what was called
the case officer.
Craig's role in this
was to put the whole case together.
[Craig] One of the things that the guys
were talking to me about
out there at the shop,
you told us
that you had a homemade anchor.
[Scott] Yes.
[Craig] And it looks like
that you made that
right there at the shop.
[Scott] Mm-hmm.
[Craig] And did you make just one?
[Scott] Yeah.
[Craig] Okay.
[Al] During the search of the boat,
you can see the one anchor.
It's homemade, little bucket anchor,
has a little piece of rebar on top,
and there's no rope in the boat.
You're gonna make an anchor,
and you're not gonna have a rope
to tie it and throw it overboard?
And then, where he made the anchor,
you could see there was
more than one anchor made.
Right where the numbers are,
the roundness here
And see how this bucket would be?
And then also found in the boat
was a pair of needle-nose pliers
with a big, long black hair
wrapped around it.
So now we're seeing things
that aren't lining up.
[reporter] A warehouse that was searched
tonight, police removing the boat
that he is said to have used
on that fishing trip on Christmas Eve day,
the same day, as you know,
that Laci disappeared.
And tonight, we've also learned
that a neighbor was burglarized
sometime after Laci is said
to have been last seen.
I remember hearing that somebody
has broken into the neighbor's home.
[Janey] The Medinas come home
on December 26th at 4:30 p.m.
There was a large police presence.
People were canvassing the neighborhood,
looking for Laci.
When they get into their home,
they realize the door has been kicked in.
They walk right back out,
and they tell all the police
that are in their front yard
that they'd been robbed.
This was too much
of a coincidence to ignore.
[reporter] The neighbors,
who asked that we not identify them,
left town about 10:30 a.m.
Tuesday morning.
That's around one hour
after Scott Peterson
last reported seeing his wife.
They returned from that trip
just yesterday.
[woman] I don't know
what to think anymore.
This is just too much that had happened
in almost the same time.
[Susan] I thought, "Maybe
we're getting somewhere now."
"Maybe we've got our first real clue,
a possibility of what could've happened."
- [distant siren wailing]
- [police radio chatter]
[helicopter whirring]
[Jon] As the burglary detectives
started working on this,
the concern was the possibility
that it could be related
to Laci's disappearance.
[Al] So it's being investigated.
We have detectives go out.
Maybe these burglars have something to do
Maybe they saw something.
You know, maybe they saw Laci. May
We don't know,
but we want to find these burglars.
[Greg] We all had theories.
Every one of us
were thinking different things.
I was really trying to believe
that that circumstance with the burglary
and the van that crossed the street
had something to do with it.
It was too coincidental.
I mean, we were trying to do every theory
I think possible to exonerate Scott.
We were coming up
with all kinds of things.
The last you think
is Scott did something to her.
Never crossed our minds.
Has anyone talked to Laci's husband?
- How's he holding up?
- He appears to be holding up pretty well.
He is assisting in the volunteer effort
inside, helping to coordinate things.
He has, uh, elected
not to talk to the media,
but his, uh his family and hers
are very supportive of him.
Scott's just as worried as we are.
He is sick at heart
about what has happened to Laci.
Scott is is Mr. Wonderful. He's
Um, he's he's the most gentle,
wonderful person you'd ever wanna meet.
[soft music playing]
[phones ringing]
[Jon] Because of the media attention
that exploded,
there were over 11,000 tips
that came in to Modesto Police Department
on this case from all over the country.
[phones continue ringing]
[Al] We had a team.
All they did was follow up those leads.
[woman] Modesto Police Department
Investigations Hotline. This is Bev.
Next to my desk was one
of our senior clerks, Beverly Valdivia,
and she was taking calls,
and so she was on her headset,
but she's typing in to her monitor
this call.
[indistinct background conversation]
[Jon] And Brocchini, luckily,
was walking past,
and he's glancing
at the the screen there,
and he sees this message coming up.
She's typing, and I'm reading it.
I'm like, "Bev, is that lady
on the phone right now?"
And she said, "Yeah."
I said, "Let me talk to her."
And then she identifies herself.
It's a woman named Amber Frey.
[woman] I was called a mistress.
But that was
so absolutely far from what I was.
[phone line crackling]
[woman] So what do you wanna be
together with me?
[crackling continues]
[phone clicks]
[Scott] I could care for you
in any and every way.
For the rest of our lives,
I think we could care for each other.
[mysterious music playing]