Face to Face with Scott Peterson (2024) s01e01 Episode Script
Where is Laci Peterson?
[soft dramatic music]
♪
Scott and Laci's wedding
was quite the event.
Laci looked absolutely gorgeous.
It really was a beautiful day.
Very much in love.
[dramatic music]
An intense search is underway
for a missing Modesto woman
who is eight months pregnant.
Her husband had seen
her before he went
on a fishing trip.
Did you murder your wife?
I had absolutely nothing to do
with Laci's disappearance.
Nothing adds up
because he's a man
with something to hide.
Police in Modesto, California
issued an arrest warrant
for Scott Peterson.
He faces capital murder charges
in the deaths of
his pregnant wife
and unborn child.
We, the jury, find
the defendant,
Scott Lee Peterson, guilty
of the crime of murder.
I believe my
brother-in-law, Scott,
has been wrongfully
convicted of that murder.
He's been in prison
since April of 2003.
Scott has not spoken on
camera about the case
in those 21 years.
Until today.
Why I want to speak.
I regret not testifying.
I have a chance to show
people what the truth is,
and if they're
willing to accept it,
it would be the biggest thing
that I can accomplish right now.
Because I didn't kill my family.
♪
Speed.
Rowlands, take
one. Soft sticks.
I think the public was so
interested in this case
initially because of Laci.
This was a beautiful,
pregnant, missing woman.
How did she just fall off
the face of the Earth?
And then Scott Peterson became
the most hated
man on the planet.
His behavior, the
things that he did
and said and lied
about, but the deeper
you get into this case, the
more questions you have.
Because on the
surface, oh, he did it.
But how? How did he do it?
And how did he not leave behind
any sort of a trail of evidence?
And if you didn't think
Scott Peterson did it,
well, who else did it?
It's the reason that
people to this day
are talking about this case
and why some people think
that he didn't do it.
I never dreamed I would
put these four words
in the same sentence.
Scott Peterson,
Innocence Project.
20 years ago, Scott
Peterson was convicted
of murdering his wife, Laci.
Serving life without parole
after his death conviction
was overturned in 2020.
An organization that
works to exonerate people
wrongfully convicted of
crimes is now reviewing
the Scott Peterson murder case.
The LA Innocence Project
is taking up the effort
to set Peterson free.
I was floored.
It was very, very surprising.
I would say borderline shocking.
The LA Innocence
Project is no joke.
Over the years, Peterson
has made many attempts
to get his case retried.
None of them have
been successful.
The new motion revolves
around a theory
that Laci Peterson was
killed by burglars.
There was a van
found close to Laci
and Scott's house
that has a mattress
in it that has blood stains.
They're trying to get
that mattress tested.
This van is of high interest.
Could we have gotten it wrong?
Today, convicted
killer Scott Peterson
will attend a court
hearing via Zoom
that could allow him
to get a new trial.
[indistinct chatter]
Good morning.
We are on the record
in the matter of
People versus
Scott Lee Peterson,
case number SC055500A.
Mr. Peterson is
present via Zoom.
Mr. Peterson, can you both
see and hear the proceedings?
Yes, I can. Thank
you, Your Honor.
And do we have your
consent to appear
via Zoom this morning?
Absolutely, Your
Honor. Thank you.
All right. Thank you.
Counsel would like to
state their appearances,
starting with counsel
for Mr. Peterson.
Mr. Peterson has
two objectives.
One is to get the discovery
and the DNA testing
that we're requesting as
soon as we possibly can.
Scott Peterson was
back in court today,
seeking a new trial.
His new attorney argued
for the release of evidence
she says should have
been made available
at the time of the trial.
They've raised some things
that really have people
all across the country saying,
"Boy, I'm second
guessing this now."
My feeling on that is,
where was this claim
when we were in trial?
If there was something missing,
I see them bringing it
up and rubbing our face
in it in the original trial.
To me, it seems like it's
kind of a wild goose chase.
I had nothing to do with
Laci's disappearance.
There was no conviction
behind what he had to say.
It's hard to figure
out sociopaths.
Controlling, and
that they are
have lack of emotions,
lack of sympathy.
And Scott Peterson
shows all of that.
Oh, it's polarizing.
You bring up Scott Peterson
to a Scott Peterson hater and
[growls]
We, the jury,
find the defendant,
Scott Lee Peterson,
guilty of the crime of murder.
[all cheering]
I'm just glad he's guilty,
because he is guilty.
After calling him cruel,
uncaring, and heartless.
Scott got what he deserved.
A lot of people are invested
in believing Scott was guilty,
but if you really
get into the details,
it gets much more complicated.
My name is Shareen Anderson,
and I am a documentary filmmaker
and an investigative journalist.
In 2013, I started
researching this case.
My initial thought was that
he was probably guilty.
I mean, he was convicted,
sentenced to death.
He deserved to be behind bars.
And it was only when
I started looking
at the evidence and the facts
that I started to question.
You can interpret a lot of the
evidence in a variety of ways.
It is a circumstantial
evidence case.
You can take one
piece of evidence
and it could be a sign
of guilt or the opposite.
And I wanted to dig deeper
and possibly make a
documentary about it,
so I reached out
to Scott Peterson.
I didn't hear back from
him, but I did hear from
someone in his family.
Are you excited about
all the new developments
for the case?
I think we have more hope
than we've had in a long time.
[soft dramatic music]
My name is Janey Peterson.
I'm Scott and Laci
Peterson's sister-in-law.
Scott Peterson is my
husband's younger brother.
For this case,
being 20 years old,
there are a lot
of things going on
that are very encouraging.
And I think, in the coming year,
we're going to have a lot of
answers as to what happened.
I think I first met
Shareen Anderson in 2013.
She was interested in
doing a documentary.
I was kind of impressed with
her knowledge of the case.
She really was digging in.
We hadn't done any
interviews in years,
and Scott has not
spoken on camera
with the media about his
case since before his arrest.
♪
Scott Peterson can now have
video visits up to 15 minutes.
I had a lot of things that I
wanted to talk to him about.
Just hearing it
in his own words,
whether it be about the evidence
or the lies that he told.
I wanted to see how
far he was going to go
in terms of answering questions.
This case is still a mystery.
And whether you think
he's innocent or guilty,
there's still a lot of
unanswered questions.
[tense music]
♪
OK, here we go.
Hey there, Shareen.
- Hey, how are you?
- I'm all right.
How are you doing today?
- I'm good.
So you were convicted
of a horrible crime,
the murder of your pregnant
wife and unborn son.
Why should anyone want to
hear your side of the story?
Why should anyone care about
what you have to
say 20 years later?
If I have a chance to get
the reality out there,
I have a chance to show
people what the truth is,
and if they're
willing to accept it,
maybe that takes a little
bit of hurt off my family.
And that would be
the biggest thing
that I can accomplish right now.
Don't trust me, but
look at the evidence.
♪
[clock ticking]
[haunting music]
♪
- How can I help you?
- Yeah, um
Laci's always been a
happy, outgoing person.
She and her husband are
very, very happy together.
We talked about
8:30 Monday night.
She had called to let me know
that they were going to be
over Christmas Eve for dinner.
And we said we would see
each other tomorrow evening.
He called me.
He thought she might
be at my house.
And when I answered the phone,
he said, "Mom, is Laci there?"
And I told him no.
♪
When I got home, I
started calling friends,
and they hadn't spoken to her.
They didn't know where it was.
And then as the
hours progressed,
it's like, oh, my God,
she's not somewhere
that we know of. So it
was anxiety and panic.
Scott said that Laci
went to walk the dog
and she hadn't come back,
and my husband
I could only hear
his end of the conversation,
but I just remember him saying,
"I'm coming, brother."
And he hung up the phone and
walked out the front door
and got in his car.
[phone ringing]
It's Christmas Eve.
I'm at my cabin with my family.
[phone ringing]
When the phone rings
up here on a holiday,
it's not good news.
A sergeant said, "Do
you mind driving down
"to the city of Modesto
for this missing person?
"It's a pregnant lady.
We got a gut feeling
something ain't right."
Hey, she's eight
months pregnant.
We need to find her.
It was like 9:00 at night.
It's 90 miles, so it takes an
hour and a half to get there.
[crickets chirping]
I said, lock the house up.
Don't let anybody go in
it until I get there.
And when I get there,
introduce me to Scott Peterson.
[soft dramatic music]
When I drove up to the house,
the first thing I noticed
was there had to have been
30 people in the driveway.
You had neighbors,
friends, and family
canvassing the neighborhood,
looking for Laci.
There was an underlying
panic. Where is she?
They were knocking on
doors, yelling her name.
They had a helicopter up.
They had dog teams and officers
walking in the park
looking for her.
♪
Scott was there.
I told him who I was and
what I was there for,
and I was, you
know, there to help,
and he was kind of
just nonchalant.
He didn't have any urgency
about him that I noticed.
To me, that was suspicious.
He was just calm. He was
you know, he was
pleasant. He was polite.
He didn't have the near panic
that everybody else
we met after that had.
I asked Scott to
take me in the house.
I wanted to know if there
was any sign of struggle
or a break-in.
Scott never made any
claims that there was
a home intrusion, that
there was somebody
had broken into the house
and abducted her by force.
For me, it was
pretty much immediate
that there was foul play
here, for the simple reason
that Laci didn't lead
an at-risk lifestyle.
When you have somebody like
that that goes missing,
the first place you
look and the first place
you have to clear
out is the person
closest to the victim,
and that was her husband.
[tense music]
In the driveway, I saw
in the back of his truck,
he had four or five
big outside umbrellas,
and they were all
wrapped in a blue tarp.
He said, "Well, I was
going to store them
for the you know, for
the winter at my shop."
We've got patio umbrellas
that he said he was going to
take over to the warehouse,
but ended up back at his house.
I noticed the washing machine
had all these rags on it,
and I thought that was odd.
What Scott told me
was he went fishing.
Said, "It started to rain
when I was out there fishing,
and so I was wet, so I
wanted to wash my clothes."
He went right to the washer,
took these rags out, and
took his clothes off,
and put them in the washer.
When I searched his
truck after he told me
his clothes were all
wet from fishing,
his jacket in the truck
was not wet at all.
To me, he's just making
excuses for evidence
that we're finding or seeing.
It didn't make sense,
anything he was telling me.
From day one, the
police investigators
made it abundantly clear
that they had one suspect.
You know, they went with
the top hit statistically.
It's likely to be the husband.
And it was the person
they had in front of them.
You don't commit a violent crime
without getting
your hands dirty,
and yet there are
no defensive wounds.
There's no murder weapon.
There are no witnesses
of any crime,
and there's no crime scene.
They have nothing.
♪
There was something about
him from the beginning,
and I think investigators
thought that.
Scott Peterson was an oddball,
and he had this
beautiful missing woman.
What happened to her?
♪
Christmas Eve, did you feel that
they were already
looking at you?
Definitely Detective
Brocchini was.
When Brocchini took a first
walk through the house
with the other
officers, I don't think
they knew that I was near them
when one of them, you
know, said, "Oh, yeah,
"we know what's going on here.
It's the husband."
And then he realized I was there
and kind of turned around.
♪
I took Scott back to my office.
[light switch clicks]
I actually videotaped the
husband of a missing person.
♪
Brocchini's questions
were not questions.
They were accusations.
He had made up his mind before
he even arrived at our home.
I told Scott, I have
to eliminate you
as being involved in her
disappearance or anything.
And I said, "And
I know eventually
"you're not going to
like me very much because
that's just the
way this happens."
♪
And it turned out he
didn't like me very much.
Oh, he's right there.
And this is Laci. Can
you tell she's pregnant?
Look at that stomach.
It's really sticking out.
- Aw, that's mean.
- That's not mean.
That's being nice
because it's not.
[soft dramatic music]
One of the most
confounding things
about the behavior
with Scott Peterson
is how much friends and
family all loved him.
He and Laci Peterson were
sort of this perfect couple
who everyone said had
a great relationship.
OK, I was hoping
both of you guys
would wave to the camera now.
Both you guys wave
to the camera now.
- [chuckles]
- Whoo-hoo, hi.
- Chasing after him.
- I think I finally
In the early stages
of the investigation,
we really couldn't find
anything wrong with him.
If you're a father,
he's the kind of guy
that you want to
marry your daughter.
Scott and Laci met at college
at San Luis Obispo.
As I understand it,
they had kind of
a casual meeting at this party.
What was your first
impression of Scott?
I was very impressed.
He'd had a dozen roses for Laci
and then a dozen roses for me.
So, of course, I was impressed.
I thought he was a great guy.
It was almost a joke of,
gosh, does he have a brother?
They went everywhere together.
He did everything for her.
He's always been a gentleman.
I've never heard him raise
his voice or anything.
Scott wanted us to meet Laci.
They actually cooked
dinner for us.
I remember him introducing Laci
as, "Meet the future
Mrs. Peterson."
And I just went, "Oh.
Nice to meet you."
[chuckles]
♪
The things that I relish
are, you know, I
can see Laci's smile
when she was doing her hair
in the morning of the 24th.
You know, the way we
shared a bowl for cereal
because we were lazy to
do two bowls of cereal.
[chuckles]
Just those little things
are still with me.
[soft dramatic music]
♪
♪
It's hard to explain
what was going on.
It's just so out
of any experience
that anyone should
ever have to have.
He is leaned back.
I mean, he is more
comfortable in that chair
than I'm comfortable
talking right now.
I'm just trying to
keep it together,
trying to get the
search started,
trying to deal with the police.
There was no time to fall apart.
I couldn't let that happen.
I noticed that a couple times,
he was talking about
Laci in the past tense.
I didn't say nothing to him.
I was just keeping track.
Want to make little meringues?
Oh, that would be nice.
This is going to be our glue.
The phone records
show him leaving
his house after 10:00.
He bought that boat
on December 9th.
He told me that this was
going to be his maiden voyage.
He's telling me it was
a that morning decision,
but he's got a fishing license
dated for the 23rd and 24th.
Then he left and went
to the Berkeley Marina.
He told me, here's the tag
where I paid the boat ramp.
In Modesto, we are
surrounded by reservoirs.
He could have drove 10 miles
to put his boat in the water,
but to drive 90 miles to
put his boat in the water
in the Bay, that's crazy.
The great thing about
cell phone records
is it can show movement,
and in Scott's case,
the movements that
he claimed to us
were substantiated by
the cell phone evidence.
And so when it came to
him leaving the house,
going over to his
warehouse, loading the boat,
driving up to Berkeley,
launching the boat,
his story matched
up with the evidence
from the cell phone records.
He is describing where he is.
Later in the afternoon,
he called Laci,
left her a message.
This message he leaves Laci
is like they're newlyweds.
I mean, it's gooey and
it's, "I love you, honey,"
and, "I can't wait to
come home and see you."
To me, it was really
meant for me to hear it.
Oh yeah, that was
common with us.
I mean, you know, she
would call me cutie.
I would call her
beautiful. Absolutely.
We loved one another.
We enjoyed one another.
We were great friends.
And they opined that
it was too sweet
of a message for a married
couple or something.
I bet they have really sad
marriages if they think that.
Frankly, I feel bad for them.
One of the questions I have is,
why did you want to get Ron
a boat as a Christmas gift?
I really loved the
idea of grandparents,
and I wanted him to have a
relationship with Connor.
And part of that
would be fishing
because, you know,
Ron really enjoyed it,
and I knew he'd be
going all the time.
It'd be something to kind of
bring us together as well.
♪
You know, I didn't
have any concerns
when I got home
because I just thought,
"All right, Laci's
with her friends,
or she's at her mom's
house, helping her cook,"
which would not be uncommon.
So I really wasn't thinking.
I was jump in the shower,
put on some clothes.
And then when I called
over there and found out
Laci was not at
her mother's house,
then yeah, I started
to get concerned.
He's telling me
how concerned he is
about Laci being gone,
but what does he do
when he gets home?
First thing he does is go
and dump the mop bucket.
Then he goes and takes all his
clothes off and washes them.
Then he went and ate some pizza.
Then he went and
drank some milk.
He took a shower.
He listened to his voicemails
on his phone, got dressed,
and he's really concerned about
all these concerning things.
And then he finally
calls Laci's mom.
Yeah, yeah.
He said, you know,
it sure would be nice
to get some grief
counselors for the family.
And I'm thinking
BS, because he knew.
Those were all red flags to me.
He's really concerned,
but what does he do?
Nothing concerning.
Yeah, I know there's
this narrative
that I wasn't
concerned or something.
But there were so many
times when I was on the edge
and just trying to hang on.
I was surprised to read
that in their reports
and totally reported
falsely about my mood.
[static buzzing]
[soft dramatic music]
During normal part
of an investigation,
one of the things you do
is they call it a canvass.
You go to neighbors' houses
and you interview them.
We knocked on a lot of doors.
We followed up on
tips of other people.
Karen Servas, she was
a next-door neighbor
to Scott and Laci,
lived immediately
to the south of their house.
On December 24, Karen Servas
spotted Mackenzie, their dog,
running around with his
leash on outside the gate.
Christmas morning, I
went and interviewed her
for probably an hour or more,
and she knew the dog
shouldn't be unattended,
so she put it in the fence in
the back area of the house,
and then she left.
She went to a retail
store in downtown Modesto
and made a purchase.
Well, she still had the receipt,
and the receipt
was time stamped.
Through that receipt, we were
able to backtrack drive time
and narrow it down to
when she found the dog
at about 10:18 in the morning.
With Scott claiming that
Laci was there at the house
when he left, whatever
happened to Laci
happened before
10:18 in the morning.
When you found
the dog, I believe
the leash was still attached.
Correct. It was.
Meaning that most likely
Laci had gone by that point.
Yeah, that would
probably be the case.
Because of Karen Servas,
10:18 is that magic number.
Anything after
10:18 didn't matter
in terms of the investigation.
They drew the conclusion
that the dog in the street
meant Laci was already dead.
[tense music]
She was a great witness and
provided information for us
that took us to a place where
we could eliminate other people
from having abducted her.
The only one person that would
not cooperate all the way
and help us exclude
himself was Scott.
[somber music]
♪
These are items from the
actual volunteer center.
Buttons.
It's kind of surreal we still
have some of this stuff.
By Christmas morning,
the police had issued
a press release that
Laci was missing.
My stepmother had actually
worked in public relations.
And she said, "Well,
I can send out a wire,
to news agencies." And
she distributed that.
And that's one of the reasons
that this case was covered
by national news so quickly.
Police in Modesto,
California are still looking
for a missing pregnant woman.
Her name is Laci Peterson.
- Laci Peterson.
- Laci Peterson.
Laci Peterson.
Laci Peterson is
eight months pregnant.
And she has disappeared
without a trace.
This was a media firestorm.
Within days, the national media
had taken this story
and ran with it.
And instead of maybe two or
three other reporters outside
of Scott's house, it
became the entire street
was filled with satellite trucks
and members of the media
from across the country.
There was a universal like, yes,
let's cover this again tomorrow.
Let's go down, back
down to Modesto.
From talking to the family
and friends of the family,
this is completely out
of character for her.
- No concrete leads.
- No trace.
Desperate for a
break in the case.
Where is she?
And it's really
overwhelming to realize
how many places
there are to look.
[indistinct radio chatter]
Search teams on horseback,
in helicopters, in boats.
We're looking just to make sure
that we cover all areas.
Still, nothing has turned up.
Whatever way you can help us,
we appreciate it.
Somebody has Laci, and we hope
that person is watching and
will bring her back to us.
Checking the backyards
and checking the alleys,
checking the garages.
We don't know her personally,
but we had to do something.
Somebody knows where
she is, and she's OK
and she can come home safe.
♪
She's considered a
high-risk missing person
under suspicious circumstances.
The Modesto Police Department,
it's not what they said.
It's what they didn't say.
Nobody's been ruled out.
The criminal investigators
were very quick
to try to take control
of the media interest
in this case and the narrative.
Is Scott Peterson a
suspect or is he not?
They're not calling
him a suspect,
yet they're not
ruling anyone out.
They clung to their theory
that it's the husband
right out of the gate.
Police are focusing on the
husband to some degree,
but they say he isn't a suspect.
Her husband was the last
person to see her alive,
so that's where the
investigation has to start.
It almost became
what should have been
looking for Laci became
looking for Scott.
People were calling me
up. Where is he today?
What is he doing today?
Of course, I am.
He is not in any
way, shape, or form
involved in her disappearance.
It's just not a possibility.
No motive, no family history.
They were doing awesome.
Looking very forward
to having their baby.
You know, so many people
pointed out your behavior.
He acted weird or he didn't cry.
They're saying it
because I was unwilling
for the first few weeks
to go in front of a camera
and give them the
terrible emotions
I was feeling.
♪
Of course, with the
media attention to this,
we were also getting
tips, some credible
that had to be looked into,
some completely off the wall.
♪
The tip lines were
up to about 850,
and none of them have
panned through yet.
Police in Washington
State are investigating
a possible sighting of
missing California woman
Laci Peterson.
The 27-year-old
expectant mother may have
been shopping at a local
sporting goods store
on Christmas Eve.
But as everything started
to be cleared out,
there was no parolee
that did this
because we accounted
for where they were.
There was no sex registrant
that had done this
because we were able to
account for their whereabouts
and alibi them out.
It started to narrow
the focus on Scott
because we still weren't
able to clear him yet.
Most of our family
did not really
have any indication how much
the police were leaning on him.
Scott's consensus was
it doesn't matter.
I didn't do anything.
When the dust settles,
I'm going to be fine.
♪
We wanted to go look
deeper into the house,
because if there
was an abduction,
we want to find out.
We knocked on the door,
and we're like, "Hey,
"Scott, maybe she was
abducted from your house.
"Maybe she had a boyfriend
you didn't know about.
"We would really like to
get into her computer,
maybe search the cars,
search the shop."
And then we just
hand him this form.
Just sign right here and
we can do all of that.
And he picks it
up, and he's like,
"You don't expect me to
sign this without a lawyer?"
And I'm like, "Scott,
we got a search warrant.
"You got to get out. We're
going to do it anyway."
He just denied us
the ability to try
and do more things
that would clear him
if he didn't have
anything to do with this.
Scott looks at
the search warrant
and he says to Al, "Al,
where's the trust?"
It just seemed like
a misplaced concern
when he should have
been concerned more
about where she is and is
she going to come back.
[dog barking]
For the record, as well,
it is 12/26 of '02.
It's now 19:56 hour.
Scott did not deny
the police access
to his home, his
vehicles, or his warehouse
the night that
Laci went missing.
And then they showed
up two days later
with a search warrant.
I called in some
other detectives.
We wanted to look
deeper into the house.
Of course we're going to
find his fingerprints,
Laci's fingerprints.
Scott's fibers, his clothes,
everything around in the house,
you know, that belonged to
him showed that he was there.
But it also shows
that nobody else was.
There was no forced
entry into the house,
no stranger intrusion,
no evidence of
a bloody crime scene cleanup.
But at the foot of the bed,
there was a spot
of blood that later
was determined to be from Scott.
Maybe it was related
to Scott harming Laci.
Maybe it wasn't.
There was nothing
conclusive that showed
that anything violent
in there happened.
I mean, I guess the best
thing that you could say
about the house search
was it eliminated
somebody else coming into
that house and abducting Laci.
[dramatic music]
I think it's called
confirmation bias,
where they only look at evidence
which supports their bias.
[tense music]
♪
After that, we drove
over to the warehouse.
♪
Near the boat was
a flatbed trailer
that was used for hauling
bags of fertilizer
and agricultural products.
And it was on that
flatbed trailer
that the cement powder
rings and residue was found
consistent with somebody making
several different
concrete anchors.
There was one anchor
that was in the boat.
Looks like he made five anchors,
but we only found one.
Where are the other ones?
There are reports
that there is evidence
that I made five weights.
I'd definitely dispute that
because there's no
evidence of that because
the only reason I made
one was to go fishing.
♪
There was a needle nose pliers
that was found in the
bottom of the aluminum boat,
and it had a hair that
was wrapped up in it.
Laci could not be excluded
as a donor of that hair.
Maybe the hair came off
of Scott's clothing,
but the fact that it was
entwined in the pliers
suggests that it wasn't.
If you're going to wire tie
four homemade concrete anchors
onto four limbs and you're going
to submerge somebody,
you might be using
a needle nosed pliers to do it.
In addition to that,
there was concrete residue
along the inside
edge of the boat
that would be there if
somebody was rolling
a weighted body
with homemade concrete
anchors out of the boat
and into the water.
There were so many pieces
of circumstantial evidence
that painted the picture.
At this stage of
the investigation,
we didn't have anything
that helped with a motive,
but then we got some pretty
important information,
and that kind of broke a
different leg of the case over.
[phone ringing]
I'm just in the detectives bay,
and we had two gals
answer the tip phones.
So I'm standing
behind one of them,
and she's typing,
"Scott Peterson
is my boyfriend."
So I said, "Let
me talk to her."
And she says, "My
name is Amber Frey,
and I'm dating
Scott Peterson."
♪
That's just wow.
That really surprised me.
There was no indications
there were trouble
in the marriage or
anything like that,
and we had no indication
that there was
another side to Scott.
♪
[soft dramatic music]
♪
Amber said that she was dating
a guy named Scott
Peterson, and she learned
that he was involved
in this case
and she had information for us.
It was the October
before Laci went missing.
A friend of hers had
been at this convention
down in Anaheim,
and Scott had been there
representing himself
that he was single.
He had written on his
name tag "horny bastard,"
obviously trying to
find some new conquest.
He's charming and he's gracious
and he's polite and he's funny.
One thing led to
another, and she said,
"Well, I have a friend
named Amber Frey.
"She lives in Fresno.
Maybe you guys would
be a good fit."
And in November, Scott
gets a hold of Amber,
and he meets her down in Fresno,
and they just start
this whirlwind romance.
♪
I asked her, "Does he know
you're calling me?" "No."
I said, "Do not tell
him you're calling me."
So we get in the car
and we drive to Fresno.
Sat down with her.
She tells me he calls every day.
So I go in the RadioShack
right next door.
I said, "I'm going to buy
you a cassette recorder,
and I'm going to show
you how to use it."
And it ain't even five
seconds I plug it in.
[phone ringing]
And there her phone
ringing. It's him.
Now things were
starting to take shape.
Now we were seeing a
completely different side
of Scott Peterson that
he, up until that point,
had successfully kept hidden.
We taped something like 29 hours
and 15 minutes of wiretap.
He constantly lied to her
about, "I'm in Europe,
I'm in Paris, I'm in Alaska."
We continued to
monitor the phone calls
that she was having with Scott
until it got to the point
where it really didn't look
like we were getting much more.
So we thought we'd turn up
the heat a little bit on that
and have her be
a little bit more
confrontational on her calls.
Scott had told her in
December that same day
that he bought the boat that
he had actually lost his wife
and this was going to be his
first Christmas without her.
He's lying about things he
doesn't need to lie about.
That's how pathological he is.
♪
With Amber coming forward,
I felt we had a motive.
He just didn't want to be
part of this domestic life.
He didn't want to be a father.
Didn't want to
pay child support.
And he just wanted out of
it to just start enjoying
life in a different direction.
Scott met Amber
on November 20th.
On December 9th,
he buys the boat.
Then we find out that
he's searching the tides
for San Francisco Bay.
From an investigator's
standpoint,
Scott Peterson looking up
tides in the San Francisco Bay
means where should I dump my
dead wife after I kill her.
He buys his fishing
license beforehand.
He buys his boat beforehand.
It's starting to look
premeditated to me.
Then you start
thinking in terms of,
"Well, how do you
actually kill her?
The physical evidence and
the circumstantial evidence
indicated that Scott likely
killed her that morning.
Wrapped her, dragged
her through the house,
loaded her in the
truck, covered her with
the patio umbrellas,
drove to the warehouse,
drove up to Berkeley Marina,
dumped her in the water.
She was weighted with the
homemade concrete anchors.
Made the staged call
to Laci's cell phone.
Hey, beautiful.
I just left you a
message at home.
Came back, washed his clothes,
ate some pizza, drink some milk,
took a shower, called Sharon.
Where's Laci? She's missing.
And so this is
kind of the theory
that we put together as far
as what actually happened.
You're trying to find logic
in Scott killing his wife.
Well, the only logic I
can see is twisted logic.
The fact that he didn't
want to be a dad,
didn't want to
pay child support,
didn't want to pay spousal.
And this is the way he thought
about getting out of it.
[tense music]
They said that you killed Lacey
because you didn't
want to be married
and you didn't want
to be a father.
That's so offensive.
It's so disgusting.
I just don't get that argument.
It's just absolutely not true.
I certainly regret
cheating on Laci.
Absolutely.
It was about childish
lack of self-esteem,
selfish me traveling somewhere,
being lonely that night
because I wasn't at home,
and, you know, someone makes you
feel good because they
want to have sex with you.
That's what that was to me.
Why did you keep
talking to Amber Frey
after Laci disappeared?
I was searching for my family.
I wanted the search to continue.
Stay in contact with
Amber, I thought,
and she wouldn't get
into the picture,
complicate it, ruin
the search for Laci.
His number one goal is
don't let Amber Frey
come out of the woodwork,
because once she's out,
they'll just think that
he had something to do
with Laci's disappearance.
It would focus the
attention on him.
The search for Laci is
going to stop as soon as
the police officers or
the public know that
I was having sex
with another woman.
The knowledge of
her was a time bomb.
And that fear that he had
absolutely came to fruition.
"The National Enquirer"
somehow got a copy of a photo
of Scott and Amber together.
When I found out that
Scott was having an affair,
it was very disappointing.
I was shocked. I was mad.
I think there was a huge
shift in public perception
when my brother-in-law's
adultery was revealed.
As soon as Amber
Frey did come out,
it changed dramatically.
It went from where's
Laci, this is a mystery,
to Scott.
For Laci Peterson's family,
there is fear, anger,
and now disappointment.
A real rift seems
to have developed
between her family and
her husband's family
or her family demanding answers.
He's not acting like a husband
who's missing his wife.
He's not working
with the family
our family, at least.
Investigators add Scott has
been less than cooperative.
We'd love for him to
cooperate to that end,
to try to eliminate him
from the investigation.
You know, we were
starting to have a concern
when Scott's infidelity
became public
because it felt like nobody's
looking for her alive anymore,
and that just wasn't an
acceptable resolution.
We felt like it was
getting to the point
where the police were
focused solely on Scott.
[tense music]
There was a point where
our family did hire
an investigator
named Gary Ermoian.
Right across the
street to our left
at 523 Covina is Laci
and Scott's home.
I'm Gary Ermoian.
I'm a private investigator,
and I've worked here
in Modesto, California for
about the last 40 years.
♪
Scott and his family hired me
to begin the investigation
regarding Laci.
Modesto Police
Department was starting
to focus on Scott as a suspect
with regards to her
being a missing person.
We, of course, wanted to
treat the case at that point
as a missing person
case and do everything
that we could to try
to make a determination
what happened to
this young woman.
Scott Peterson had left home
sometime shortly after
10:00 a.m. that morning.
And the evidence shows
that Karen Servas
was putting that dog in
the Petersons' backyard
and closing the gate
around 10:18 a.m.
Because of that,
the police believe
he murdered his wife on
the morning of the 24th,
sometime before 10:18 a.m.
If anyone is seeing Laci
alive in the neighborhood
after that point in
time, Scott is innocent.
♪
Almost everybody I found
that had information
I found by canvassing
neighborhoods.
I talked to several individuals
who recall seeing
Laci walking her dog
after 10:00 in the morning.
In 2002, December 24,
it was in the morning.
We went around, delivered gifts
to friends and relatives.
After we left our house
delivering presents,
getting gas, I noticed
a beautiful young lady,
very pregnant.
She was struggling with the dog,
a golden retriever.
And I asked my
wife, "Did you see
that pregnant lady?"
I said, "I hope
she doesn't fall."
And we just went on
about our business.
♪
Another sighting that we
had was from Frank Aguilar,
who was driving
down La Loma Avenue.
It was Christmas
Eve that morning
between 10:00 and 11:00.
She was walking, like,
towards the park.
Her dog's like a golden
brownish retriever.
The house on the left, which is
on the corner of Buena
Vista and La Sombra,
is the home of Vivian Mitchell.
I was standing right here
and washing some dishes
when I could see her
walking across the street.
The dog was a beautiful
golden retriever.
The next sighting is
right here by the park.
Diana Campos had
just came to work.
She saw a woman walking
a golden retriever dog.
She was certain that it was
about 10:45 in the morning
when she came down here to smoke
because she was
going onto shift.
♪
We started to put
together a pattern
based upon the observations
of these individuals
and the time periods
that they remember.
After all, she was someone
who would stand out.
Not only was she a
beautiful young woman,
but she was pregnant,
and she had a large
golden retriever dog
walking alongside her.
And it was pretty obvious to me
I could put together a
path that she had taken.
♪
Oh, the police
never came out here.
♪
People complain that
they didn't feel
as though investigators
were taking them seriously
or even responding
to their tips.
I talked to a sergeant,
told him what I saw
and who I saw. Laci Peterson.
But no one called or came
over and talked to us at all.
The next morning,
my neighbor says,
"Hey, did you hear about
that lady was missing?"
I told him, I said "Yes,
and I bet you I know
what color clothes she had on."
Who was last seen
wearing black pants
and a white pullover shirt.
She had black pants
on and a white blouse.
She was wearing a white
shirt and black pants.
I don't believe that Modesto
Police were following
the same leads as I was.
The police, I believe, were
already focused on Scott.
♪
So I wasn't the last one
to see Laci that day.
There are so many
credible witnesses
who saw her walking
in our neighborhood.
I've recently learned
that one of the reports,
the person came down,
talked to the police
at their command center,
and the police told him,
"No, you're wrong.
You did not see her."
Just dismissed him without
even looking into it.
It's devastating to
learn that kind of stuff.
[indistinct chatter]
A status conference is underway
for Peterson right now.
His new attorney argued
for the release of evidence
she says should have
been made available
at the time of the trial.
We spent a lot of time
trying to suss out
what, frankly, are very
alarming deficiencies
in the discovery
that was provided
to the defense at
the time of trial.
Mr. Peterson has
been waiting 20 years
to find some of
these police reports
that should have been provided.
Our family is very relieved
that the Los Angeles
Innocence Project came on board
to help find all
the things that were
ignored by the Modesto
Police Department
and not followed up on.
To have an innocence
organization
take his case, finding
out that they would
also be filing a
discovery motion,
and that we might
have more answers.
Thank you all. OK.
We'll be in recess.
Thank you.
I think the police
decided very early on
that Scott was guilty,
and I think if the
Modesto Police Department
properly investigated
Laci's disappearance
and followed the evidence,
we would not be here.
Scott is innocent.
I'm not afraid of the truth.
I just hope people
start listening.
The missing woman's
apparently perfect marriage
may not have been so perfect.
Why didn't you tell the police
right away about Amber Frey?
I'm only left to question
what else he may be hiding.
He looked like a
narcissistic, lying killer.
I had people spit on
me at gas stations.
I've received death
threats on the phone.
The female adult
body was discovered
late this morning by a woman
walking the shoreline
at Point Isabel.
After months of suspicion,
her husband, Scott,
is tonight in police custody.
I have no doubt
that Scott did this.
We investigated everything.
There's so much
evidence in this case
that the police did not
initially follow up on.
A week after Laci goes missing,
a Croton watch is pawned.
There had been a
burglary next door.
There's blood on a mattress
in a van that was burned.
I believe this is bullshit.
Why would you not want the
jury to know everything?
The information we were
given in that courtroom
only leads to the
decision we came up with.
The dramatic verdict,
guilty of murder.
As the dust settled,
everyone started
to realize this
doesn't feel like
it was a powerful,
compelling case.
And that's where organizations
like The Innocence
Project comes along.
The LA Innocence Project
says new evidence now
supports Mr. Peterson's
long-standing
claim of innocence.
There are so many
instances where
there was evidence that didn't
fit the detectives' theory.
They just assumed she was dead.
But what if they
talked to these people
and they found out where she was
and they learned
information from them
which could have
brought her home?
♪
♪
Scott and Laci's wedding
was quite the event.
Laci looked absolutely gorgeous.
It really was a beautiful day.
Very much in love.
[dramatic music]
An intense search is underway
for a missing Modesto woman
who is eight months pregnant.
Her husband had seen
her before he went
on a fishing trip.
Did you murder your wife?
I had absolutely nothing to do
with Laci's disappearance.
Nothing adds up
because he's a man
with something to hide.
Police in Modesto, California
issued an arrest warrant
for Scott Peterson.
He faces capital murder charges
in the deaths of
his pregnant wife
and unborn child.
We, the jury, find
the defendant,
Scott Lee Peterson, guilty
of the crime of murder.
I believe my
brother-in-law, Scott,
has been wrongfully
convicted of that murder.
He's been in prison
since April of 2003.
Scott has not spoken on
camera about the case
in those 21 years.
Until today.
Why I want to speak.
I regret not testifying.
I have a chance to show
people what the truth is,
and if they're
willing to accept it,
it would be the biggest thing
that I can accomplish right now.
Because I didn't kill my family.
♪
Speed.
Rowlands, take
one. Soft sticks.
I think the public was so
interested in this case
initially because of Laci.
This was a beautiful,
pregnant, missing woman.
How did she just fall off
the face of the Earth?
And then Scott Peterson became
the most hated
man on the planet.
His behavior, the
things that he did
and said and lied
about, but the deeper
you get into this case, the
more questions you have.
Because on the
surface, oh, he did it.
But how? How did he do it?
And how did he not leave behind
any sort of a trail of evidence?
And if you didn't think
Scott Peterson did it,
well, who else did it?
It's the reason that
people to this day
are talking about this case
and why some people think
that he didn't do it.
I never dreamed I would
put these four words
in the same sentence.
Scott Peterson,
Innocence Project.
20 years ago, Scott
Peterson was convicted
of murdering his wife, Laci.
Serving life without parole
after his death conviction
was overturned in 2020.
An organization that
works to exonerate people
wrongfully convicted of
crimes is now reviewing
the Scott Peterson murder case.
The LA Innocence Project
is taking up the effort
to set Peterson free.
I was floored.
It was very, very surprising.
I would say borderline shocking.
The LA Innocence
Project is no joke.
Over the years, Peterson
has made many attempts
to get his case retried.
None of them have
been successful.
The new motion revolves
around a theory
that Laci Peterson was
killed by burglars.
There was a van
found close to Laci
and Scott's house
that has a mattress
in it that has blood stains.
They're trying to get
that mattress tested.
This van is of high interest.
Could we have gotten it wrong?
Today, convicted
killer Scott Peterson
will attend a court
hearing via Zoom
that could allow him
to get a new trial.
[indistinct chatter]
Good morning.
We are on the record
in the matter of
People versus
Scott Lee Peterson,
case number SC055500A.
Mr. Peterson is
present via Zoom.
Mr. Peterson, can you both
see and hear the proceedings?
Yes, I can. Thank
you, Your Honor.
And do we have your
consent to appear
via Zoom this morning?
Absolutely, Your
Honor. Thank you.
All right. Thank you.
Counsel would like to
state their appearances,
starting with counsel
for Mr. Peterson.
Mr. Peterson has
two objectives.
One is to get the discovery
and the DNA testing
that we're requesting as
soon as we possibly can.
Scott Peterson was
back in court today,
seeking a new trial.
His new attorney argued
for the release of evidence
she says should have
been made available
at the time of the trial.
They've raised some things
that really have people
all across the country saying,
"Boy, I'm second
guessing this now."
My feeling on that is,
where was this claim
when we were in trial?
If there was something missing,
I see them bringing it
up and rubbing our face
in it in the original trial.
To me, it seems like it's
kind of a wild goose chase.
I had nothing to do with
Laci's disappearance.
There was no conviction
behind what he had to say.
It's hard to figure
out sociopaths.
Controlling, and
that they are
have lack of emotions,
lack of sympathy.
And Scott Peterson
shows all of that.
Oh, it's polarizing.
You bring up Scott Peterson
to a Scott Peterson hater and
[growls]
We, the jury,
find the defendant,
Scott Lee Peterson,
guilty of the crime of murder.
[all cheering]
I'm just glad he's guilty,
because he is guilty.
After calling him cruel,
uncaring, and heartless.
Scott got what he deserved.
A lot of people are invested
in believing Scott was guilty,
but if you really
get into the details,
it gets much more complicated.
My name is Shareen Anderson,
and I am a documentary filmmaker
and an investigative journalist.
In 2013, I started
researching this case.
My initial thought was that
he was probably guilty.
I mean, he was convicted,
sentenced to death.
He deserved to be behind bars.
And it was only when
I started looking
at the evidence and the facts
that I started to question.
You can interpret a lot of the
evidence in a variety of ways.
It is a circumstantial
evidence case.
You can take one
piece of evidence
and it could be a sign
of guilt or the opposite.
And I wanted to dig deeper
and possibly make a
documentary about it,
so I reached out
to Scott Peterson.
I didn't hear back from
him, but I did hear from
someone in his family.
Are you excited about
all the new developments
for the case?
I think we have more hope
than we've had in a long time.
[soft dramatic music]
My name is Janey Peterson.
I'm Scott and Laci
Peterson's sister-in-law.
Scott Peterson is my
husband's younger brother.
For this case,
being 20 years old,
there are a lot
of things going on
that are very encouraging.
And I think, in the coming year,
we're going to have a lot of
answers as to what happened.
I think I first met
Shareen Anderson in 2013.
She was interested in
doing a documentary.
I was kind of impressed with
her knowledge of the case.
She really was digging in.
We hadn't done any
interviews in years,
and Scott has not
spoken on camera
with the media about his
case since before his arrest.
♪
Scott Peterson can now have
video visits up to 15 minutes.
I had a lot of things that I
wanted to talk to him about.
Just hearing it
in his own words,
whether it be about the evidence
or the lies that he told.
I wanted to see how
far he was going to go
in terms of answering questions.
This case is still a mystery.
And whether you think
he's innocent or guilty,
there's still a lot of
unanswered questions.
[tense music]
♪
OK, here we go.
Hey there, Shareen.
- Hey, how are you?
- I'm all right.
How are you doing today?
- I'm good.
So you were convicted
of a horrible crime,
the murder of your pregnant
wife and unborn son.
Why should anyone want to
hear your side of the story?
Why should anyone care about
what you have to
say 20 years later?
If I have a chance to get
the reality out there,
I have a chance to show
people what the truth is,
and if they're
willing to accept it,
maybe that takes a little
bit of hurt off my family.
And that would be
the biggest thing
that I can accomplish right now.
Don't trust me, but
look at the evidence.
♪
[clock ticking]
[haunting music]
♪
- How can I help you?
- Yeah, um
Laci's always been a
happy, outgoing person.
She and her husband are
very, very happy together.
We talked about
8:30 Monday night.
She had called to let me know
that they were going to be
over Christmas Eve for dinner.
And we said we would see
each other tomorrow evening.
He called me.
He thought she might
be at my house.
And when I answered the phone,
he said, "Mom, is Laci there?"
And I told him no.
♪
When I got home, I
started calling friends,
and they hadn't spoken to her.
They didn't know where it was.
And then as the
hours progressed,
it's like, oh, my God,
she's not somewhere
that we know of. So it
was anxiety and panic.
Scott said that Laci
went to walk the dog
and she hadn't come back,
and my husband
I could only hear
his end of the conversation,
but I just remember him saying,
"I'm coming, brother."
And he hung up the phone and
walked out the front door
and got in his car.
[phone ringing]
It's Christmas Eve.
I'm at my cabin with my family.
[phone ringing]
When the phone rings
up here on a holiday,
it's not good news.
A sergeant said, "Do
you mind driving down
"to the city of Modesto
for this missing person?
"It's a pregnant lady.
We got a gut feeling
something ain't right."
Hey, she's eight
months pregnant.
We need to find her.
It was like 9:00 at night.
It's 90 miles, so it takes an
hour and a half to get there.
[crickets chirping]
I said, lock the house up.
Don't let anybody go in
it until I get there.
And when I get there,
introduce me to Scott Peterson.
[soft dramatic music]
When I drove up to the house,
the first thing I noticed
was there had to have been
30 people in the driveway.
You had neighbors,
friends, and family
canvassing the neighborhood,
looking for Laci.
There was an underlying
panic. Where is she?
They were knocking on
doors, yelling her name.
They had a helicopter up.
They had dog teams and officers
walking in the park
looking for her.
♪
Scott was there.
I told him who I was and
what I was there for,
and I was, you
know, there to help,
and he was kind of
just nonchalant.
He didn't have any urgency
about him that I noticed.
To me, that was suspicious.
He was just calm. He was
you know, he was
pleasant. He was polite.
He didn't have the near panic
that everybody else
we met after that had.
I asked Scott to
take me in the house.
I wanted to know if there
was any sign of struggle
or a break-in.
Scott never made any
claims that there was
a home intrusion, that
there was somebody
had broken into the house
and abducted her by force.
For me, it was
pretty much immediate
that there was foul play
here, for the simple reason
that Laci didn't lead
an at-risk lifestyle.
When you have somebody like
that that goes missing,
the first place you
look and the first place
you have to clear
out is the person
closest to the victim,
and that was her husband.
[tense music]
In the driveway, I saw
in the back of his truck,
he had four or five
big outside umbrellas,
and they were all
wrapped in a blue tarp.
He said, "Well, I was
going to store them
for the you know, for
the winter at my shop."
We've got patio umbrellas
that he said he was going to
take over to the warehouse,
but ended up back at his house.
I noticed the washing machine
had all these rags on it,
and I thought that was odd.
What Scott told me
was he went fishing.
Said, "It started to rain
when I was out there fishing,
and so I was wet, so I
wanted to wash my clothes."
He went right to the washer,
took these rags out, and
took his clothes off,
and put them in the washer.
When I searched his
truck after he told me
his clothes were all
wet from fishing,
his jacket in the truck
was not wet at all.
To me, he's just making
excuses for evidence
that we're finding or seeing.
It didn't make sense,
anything he was telling me.
From day one, the
police investigators
made it abundantly clear
that they had one suspect.
You know, they went with
the top hit statistically.
It's likely to be the husband.
And it was the person
they had in front of them.
You don't commit a violent crime
without getting
your hands dirty,
and yet there are
no defensive wounds.
There's no murder weapon.
There are no witnesses
of any crime,
and there's no crime scene.
They have nothing.
♪
There was something about
him from the beginning,
and I think investigators
thought that.
Scott Peterson was an oddball,
and he had this
beautiful missing woman.
What happened to her?
♪
Christmas Eve, did you feel that
they were already
looking at you?
Definitely Detective
Brocchini was.
When Brocchini took a first
walk through the house
with the other
officers, I don't think
they knew that I was near them
when one of them, you
know, said, "Oh, yeah,
"we know what's going on here.
It's the husband."
And then he realized I was there
and kind of turned around.
♪
I took Scott back to my office.
[light switch clicks]
I actually videotaped the
husband of a missing person.
♪
Brocchini's questions
were not questions.
They were accusations.
He had made up his mind before
he even arrived at our home.
I told Scott, I have
to eliminate you
as being involved in her
disappearance or anything.
And I said, "And
I know eventually
"you're not going to
like me very much because
that's just the
way this happens."
♪
And it turned out he
didn't like me very much.
Oh, he's right there.
And this is Laci. Can
you tell she's pregnant?
Look at that stomach.
It's really sticking out.
- Aw, that's mean.
- That's not mean.
That's being nice
because it's not.
[soft dramatic music]
One of the most
confounding things
about the behavior
with Scott Peterson
is how much friends and
family all loved him.
He and Laci Peterson were
sort of this perfect couple
who everyone said had
a great relationship.
OK, I was hoping
both of you guys
would wave to the camera now.
Both you guys wave
to the camera now.
- [chuckles]
- Whoo-hoo, hi.
- Chasing after him.
- I think I finally
In the early stages
of the investigation,
we really couldn't find
anything wrong with him.
If you're a father,
he's the kind of guy
that you want to
marry your daughter.
Scott and Laci met at college
at San Luis Obispo.
As I understand it,
they had kind of
a casual meeting at this party.
What was your first
impression of Scott?
I was very impressed.
He'd had a dozen roses for Laci
and then a dozen roses for me.
So, of course, I was impressed.
I thought he was a great guy.
It was almost a joke of,
gosh, does he have a brother?
They went everywhere together.
He did everything for her.
He's always been a gentleman.
I've never heard him raise
his voice or anything.
Scott wanted us to meet Laci.
They actually cooked
dinner for us.
I remember him introducing Laci
as, "Meet the future
Mrs. Peterson."
And I just went, "Oh.
Nice to meet you."
[chuckles]
♪
The things that I relish
are, you know, I
can see Laci's smile
when she was doing her hair
in the morning of the 24th.
You know, the way we
shared a bowl for cereal
because we were lazy to
do two bowls of cereal.
[chuckles]
Just those little things
are still with me.
[soft dramatic music]
♪
♪
It's hard to explain
what was going on.
It's just so out
of any experience
that anyone should
ever have to have.
He is leaned back.
I mean, he is more
comfortable in that chair
than I'm comfortable
talking right now.
I'm just trying to
keep it together,
trying to get the
search started,
trying to deal with the police.
There was no time to fall apart.
I couldn't let that happen.
I noticed that a couple times,
he was talking about
Laci in the past tense.
I didn't say nothing to him.
I was just keeping track.
Want to make little meringues?
Oh, that would be nice.
This is going to be our glue.
The phone records
show him leaving
his house after 10:00.
He bought that boat
on December 9th.
He told me that this was
going to be his maiden voyage.
He's telling me it was
a that morning decision,
but he's got a fishing license
dated for the 23rd and 24th.
Then he left and went
to the Berkeley Marina.
He told me, here's the tag
where I paid the boat ramp.
In Modesto, we are
surrounded by reservoirs.
He could have drove 10 miles
to put his boat in the water,
but to drive 90 miles to
put his boat in the water
in the Bay, that's crazy.
The great thing about
cell phone records
is it can show movement,
and in Scott's case,
the movements that
he claimed to us
were substantiated by
the cell phone evidence.
And so when it came to
him leaving the house,
going over to his
warehouse, loading the boat,
driving up to Berkeley,
launching the boat,
his story matched
up with the evidence
from the cell phone records.
He is describing where he is.
Later in the afternoon,
he called Laci,
left her a message.
This message he leaves Laci
is like they're newlyweds.
I mean, it's gooey and
it's, "I love you, honey,"
and, "I can't wait to
come home and see you."
To me, it was really
meant for me to hear it.
Oh yeah, that was
common with us.
I mean, you know, she
would call me cutie.
I would call her
beautiful. Absolutely.
We loved one another.
We enjoyed one another.
We were great friends.
And they opined that
it was too sweet
of a message for a married
couple or something.
I bet they have really sad
marriages if they think that.
Frankly, I feel bad for them.
One of the questions I have is,
why did you want to get Ron
a boat as a Christmas gift?
I really loved the
idea of grandparents,
and I wanted him to have a
relationship with Connor.
And part of that
would be fishing
because, you know,
Ron really enjoyed it,
and I knew he'd be
going all the time.
It'd be something to kind of
bring us together as well.
♪
You know, I didn't
have any concerns
when I got home
because I just thought,
"All right, Laci's
with her friends,
or she's at her mom's
house, helping her cook,"
which would not be uncommon.
So I really wasn't thinking.
I was jump in the shower,
put on some clothes.
And then when I called
over there and found out
Laci was not at
her mother's house,
then yeah, I started
to get concerned.
He's telling me
how concerned he is
about Laci being gone,
but what does he do
when he gets home?
First thing he does is go
and dump the mop bucket.
Then he goes and takes all his
clothes off and washes them.
Then he went and ate some pizza.
Then he went and
drank some milk.
He took a shower.
He listened to his voicemails
on his phone, got dressed,
and he's really concerned about
all these concerning things.
And then he finally
calls Laci's mom.
Yeah, yeah.
He said, you know,
it sure would be nice
to get some grief
counselors for the family.
And I'm thinking
BS, because he knew.
Those were all red flags to me.
He's really concerned,
but what does he do?
Nothing concerning.
Yeah, I know there's
this narrative
that I wasn't
concerned or something.
But there were so many
times when I was on the edge
and just trying to hang on.
I was surprised to read
that in their reports
and totally reported
falsely about my mood.
[static buzzing]
[soft dramatic music]
During normal part
of an investigation,
one of the things you do
is they call it a canvass.
You go to neighbors' houses
and you interview them.
We knocked on a lot of doors.
We followed up on
tips of other people.
Karen Servas, she was
a next-door neighbor
to Scott and Laci,
lived immediately
to the south of their house.
On December 24, Karen Servas
spotted Mackenzie, their dog,
running around with his
leash on outside the gate.
Christmas morning, I
went and interviewed her
for probably an hour or more,
and she knew the dog
shouldn't be unattended,
so she put it in the fence in
the back area of the house,
and then she left.
She went to a retail
store in downtown Modesto
and made a purchase.
Well, she still had the receipt,
and the receipt
was time stamped.
Through that receipt, we were
able to backtrack drive time
and narrow it down to
when she found the dog
at about 10:18 in the morning.
With Scott claiming that
Laci was there at the house
when he left, whatever
happened to Laci
happened before
10:18 in the morning.
When you found
the dog, I believe
the leash was still attached.
Correct. It was.
Meaning that most likely
Laci had gone by that point.
Yeah, that would
probably be the case.
Because of Karen Servas,
10:18 is that magic number.
Anything after
10:18 didn't matter
in terms of the investigation.
They drew the conclusion
that the dog in the street
meant Laci was already dead.
[tense music]
She was a great witness and
provided information for us
that took us to a place where
we could eliminate other people
from having abducted her.
The only one person that would
not cooperate all the way
and help us exclude
himself was Scott.
[somber music]
♪
These are items from the
actual volunteer center.
Buttons.
It's kind of surreal we still
have some of this stuff.
By Christmas morning,
the police had issued
a press release that
Laci was missing.
My stepmother had actually
worked in public relations.
And she said, "Well,
I can send out a wire,
to news agencies." And
she distributed that.
And that's one of the reasons
that this case was covered
by national news so quickly.
Police in Modesto,
California are still looking
for a missing pregnant woman.
Her name is Laci Peterson.
- Laci Peterson.
- Laci Peterson.
Laci Peterson.
Laci Peterson is
eight months pregnant.
And she has disappeared
without a trace.
This was a media firestorm.
Within days, the national media
had taken this story
and ran with it.
And instead of maybe two or
three other reporters outside
of Scott's house, it
became the entire street
was filled with satellite trucks
and members of the media
from across the country.
There was a universal like, yes,
let's cover this again tomorrow.
Let's go down, back
down to Modesto.
From talking to the family
and friends of the family,
this is completely out
of character for her.
- No concrete leads.
- No trace.
Desperate for a
break in the case.
Where is she?
And it's really
overwhelming to realize
how many places
there are to look.
[indistinct radio chatter]
Search teams on horseback,
in helicopters, in boats.
We're looking just to make sure
that we cover all areas.
Still, nothing has turned up.
Whatever way you can help us,
we appreciate it.
Somebody has Laci, and we hope
that person is watching and
will bring her back to us.
Checking the backyards
and checking the alleys,
checking the garages.
We don't know her personally,
but we had to do something.
Somebody knows where
she is, and she's OK
and she can come home safe.
♪
She's considered a
high-risk missing person
under suspicious circumstances.
The Modesto Police Department,
it's not what they said.
It's what they didn't say.
Nobody's been ruled out.
The criminal investigators
were very quick
to try to take control
of the media interest
in this case and the narrative.
Is Scott Peterson a
suspect or is he not?
They're not calling
him a suspect,
yet they're not
ruling anyone out.
They clung to their theory
that it's the husband
right out of the gate.
Police are focusing on the
husband to some degree,
but they say he isn't a suspect.
Her husband was the last
person to see her alive,
so that's where the
investigation has to start.
It almost became
what should have been
looking for Laci became
looking for Scott.
People were calling me
up. Where is he today?
What is he doing today?
Of course, I am.
He is not in any
way, shape, or form
involved in her disappearance.
It's just not a possibility.
No motive, no family history.
They were doing awesome.
Looking very forward
to having their baby.
You know, so many people
pointed out your behavior.
He acted weird or he didn't cry.
They're saying it
because I was unwilling
for the first few weeks
to go in front of a camera
and give them the
terrible emotions
I was feeling.
♪
Of course, with the
media attention to this,
we were also getting
tips, some credible
that had to be looked into,
some completely off the wall.
♪
The tip lines were
up to about 850,
and none of them have
panned through yet.
Police in Washington
State are investigating
a possible sighting of
missing California woman
Laci Peterson.
The 27-year-old
expectant mother may have
been shopping at a local
sporting goods store
on Christmas Eve.
But as everything started
to be cleared out,
there was no parolee
that did this
because we accounted
for where they were.
There was no sex registrant
that had done this
because we were able to
account for their whereabouts
and alibi them out.
It started to narrow
the focus on Scott
because we still weren't
able to clear him yet.
Most of our family
did not really
have any indication how much
the police were leaning on him.
Scott's consensus was
it doesn't matter.
I didn't do anything.
When the dust settles,
I'm going to be fine.
♪
We wanted to go look
deeper into the house,
because if there
was an abduction,
we want to find out.
We knocked on the door,
and we're like, "Hey,
"Scott, maybe she was
abducted from your house.
"Maybe she had a boyfriend
you didn't know about.
"We would really like to
get into her computer,
maybe search the cars,
search the shop."
And then we just
hand him this form.
Just sign right here and
we can do all of that.
And he picks it
up, and he's like,
"You don't expect me to
sign this without a lawyer?"
And I'm like, "Scott,
we got a search warrant.
"You got to get out. We're
going to do it anyway."
He just denied us
the ability to try
and do more things
that would clear him
if he didn't have
anything to do with this.
Scott looks at
the search warrant
and he says to Al, "Al,
where's the trust?"
It just seemed like
a misplaced concern
when he should have
been concerned more
about where she is and is
she going to come back.
[dog barking]
For the record, as well,
it is 12/26 of '02.
It's now 19:56 hour.
Scott did not deny
the police access
to his home, his
vehicles, or his warehouse
the night that
Laci went missing.
And then they showed
up two days later
with a search warrant.
I called in some
other detectives.
We wanted to look
deeper into the house.
Of course we're going to
find his fingerprints,
Laci's fingerprints.
Scott's fibers, his clothes,
everything around in the house,
you know, that belonged to
him showed that he was there.
But it also shows
that nobody else was.
There was no forced
entry into the house,
no stranger intrusion,
no evidence of
a bloody crime scene cleanup.
But at the foot of the bed,
there was a spot
of blood that later
was determined to be from Scott.
Maybe it was related
to Scott harming Laci.
Maybe it wasn't.
There was nothing
conclusive that showed
that anything violent
in there happened.
I mean, I guess the best
thing that you could say
about the house search
was it eliminated
somebody else coming into
that house and abducting Laci.
[dramatic music]
I think it's called
confirmation bias,
where they only look at evidence
which supports their bias.
[tense music]
♪
After that, we drove
over to the warehouse.
♪
Near the boat was
a flatbed trailer
that was used for hauling
bags of fertilizer
and agricultural products.
And it was on that
flatbed trailer
that the cement powder
rings and residue was found
consistent with somebody making
several different
concrete anchors.
There was one anchor
that was in the boat.
Looks like he made five anchors,
but we only found one.
Where are the other ones?
There are reports
that there is evidence
that I made five weights.
I'd definitely dispute that
because there's no
evidence of that because
the only reason I made
one was to go fishing.
♪
There was a needle nose pliers
that was found in the
bottom of the aluminum boat,
and it had a hair that
was wrapped up in it.
Laci could not be excluded
as a donor of that hair.
Maybe the hair came off
of Scott's clothing,
but the fact that it was
entwined in the pliers
suggests that it wasn't.
If you're going to wire tie
four homemade concrete anchors
onto four limbs and you're going
to submerge somebody,
you might be using
a needle nosed pliers to do it.
In addition to that,
there was concrete residue
along the inside
edge of the boat
that would be there if
somebody was rolling
a weighted body
with homemade concrete
anchors out of the boat
and into the water.
There were so many pieces
of circumstantial evidence
that painted the picture.
At this stage of
the investigation,
we didn't have anything
that helped with a motive,
but then we got some pretty
important information,
and that kind of broke a
different leg of the case over.
[phone ringing]
I'm just in the detectives bay,
and we had two gals
answer the tip phones.
So I'm standing
behind one of them,
and she's typing,
"Scott Peterson
is my boyfriend."
So I said, "Let
me talk to her."
And she says, "My
name is Amber Frey,
and I'm dating
Scott Peterson."
♪
That's just wow.
That really surprised me.
There was no indications
there were trouble
in the marriage or
anything like that,
and we had no indication
that there was
another side to Scott.
♪
[soft dramatic music]
♪
Amber said that she was dating
a guy named Scott
Peterson, and she learned
that he was involved
in this case
and she had information for us.
It was the October
before Laci went missing.
A friend of hers had
been at this convention
down in Anaheim,
and Scott had been there
representing himself
that he was single.
He had written on his
name tag "horny bastard,"
obviously trying to
find some new conquest.
He's charming and he's gracious
and he's polite and he's funny.
One thing led to
another, and she said,
"Well, I have a friend
named Amber Frey.
"She lives in Fresno.
Maybe you guys would
be a good fit."
And in November, Scott
gets a hold of Amber,
and he meets her down in Fresno,
and they just start
this whirlwind romance.
♪
I asked her, "Does he know
you're calling me?" "No."
I said, "Do not tell
him you're calling me."
So we get in the car
and we drive to Fresno.
Sat down with her.
She tells me he calls every day.
So I go in the RadioShack
right next door.
I said, "I'm going to buy
you a cassette recorder,
and I'm going to show
you how to use it."
And it ain't even five
seconds I plug it in.
[phone ringing]
And there her phone
ringing. It's him.
Now things were
starting to take shape.
Now we were seeing a
completely different side
of Scott Peterson that
he, up until that point,
had successfully kept hidden.
We taped something like 29 hours
and 15 minutes of wiretap.
He constantly lied to her
about, "I'm in Europe,
I'm in Paris, I'm in Alaska."
We continued to
monitor the phone calls
that she was having with Scott
until it got to the point
where it really didn't look
like we were getting much more.
So we thought we'd turn up
the heat a little bit on that
and have her be
a little bit more
confrontational on her calls.
Scott had told her in
December that same day
that he bought the boat that
he had actually lost his wife
and this was going to be his
first Christmas without her.
He's lying about things he
doesn't need to lie about.
That's how pathological he is.
♪
With Amber coming forward,
I felt we had a motive.
He just didn't want to be
part of this domestic life.
He didn't want to be a father.
Didn't want to
pay child support.
And he just wanted out of
it to just start enjoying
life in a different direction.
Scott met Amber
on November 20th.
On December 9th,
he buys the boat.
Then we find out that
he's searching the tides
for San Francisco Bay.
From an investigator's
standpoint,
Scott Peterson looking up
tides in the San Francisco Bay
means where should I dump my
dead wife after I kill her.
He buys his fishing
license beforehand.
He buys his boat beforehand.
It's starting to look
premeditated to me.
Then you start
thinking in terms of,
"Well, how do you
actually kill her?
The physical evidence and
the circumstantial evidence
indicated that Scott likely
killed her that morning.
Wrapped her, dragged
her through the house,
loaded her in the
truck, covered her with
the patio umbrellas,
drove to the warehouse,
drove up to Berkeley Marina,
dumped her in the water.
She was weighted with the
homemade concrete anchors.
Made the staged call
to Laci's cell phone.
Hey, beautiful.
I just left you a
message at home.
Came back, washed his clothes,
ate some pizza, drink some milk,
took a shower, called Sharon.
Where's Laci? She's missing.
And so this is
kind of the theory
that we put together as far
as what actually happened.
You're trying to find logic
in Scott killing his wife.
Well, the only logic I
can see is twisted logic.
The fact that he didn't
want to be a dad,
didn't want to
pay child support,
didn't want to pay spousal.
And this is the way he thought
about getting out of it.
[tense music]
They said that you killed Lacey
because you didn't
want to be married
and you didn't want
to be a father.
That's so offensive.
It's so disgusting.
I just don't get that argument.
It's just absolutely not true.
I certainly regret
cheating on Laci.
Absolutely.
It was about childish
lack of self-esteem,
selfish me traveling somewhere,
being lonely that night
because I wasn't at home,
and, you know, someone makes you
feel good because they
want to have sex with you.
That's what that was to me.
Why did you keep
talking to Amber Frey
after Laci disappeared?
I was searching for my family.
I wanted the search to continue.
Stay in contact with
Amber, I thought,
and she wouldn't get
into the picture,
complicate it, ruin
the search for Laci.
His number one goal is
don't let Amber Frey
come out of the woodwork,
because once she's out,
they'll just think that
he had something to do
with Laci's disappearance.
It would focus the
attention on him.
The search for Laci is
going to stop as soon as
the police officers or
the public know that
I was having sex
with another woman.
The knowledge of
her was a time bomb.
And that fear that he had
absolutely came to fruition.
"The National Enquirer"
somehow got a copy of a photo
of Scott and Amber together.
When I found out that
Scott was having an affair,
it was very disappointing.
I was shocked. I was mad.
I think there was a huge
shift in public perception
when my brother-in-law's
adultery was revealed.
As soon as Amber
Frey did come out,
it changed dramatically.
It went from where's
Laci, this is a mystery,
to Scott.
For Laci Peterson's family,
there is fear, anger,
and now disappointment.
A real rift seems
to have developed
between her family and
her husband's family
or her family demanding answers.
He's not acting like a husband
who's missing his wife.
He's not working
with the family
our family, at least.
Investigators add Scott has
been less than cooperative.
We'd love for him to
cooperate to that end,
to try to eliminate him
from the investigation.
You know, we were
starting to have a concern
when Scott's infidelity
became public
because it felt like nobody's
looking for her alive anymore,
and that just wasn't an
acceptable resolution.
We felt like it was
getting to the point
where the police were
focused solely on Scott.
[tense music]
There was a point where
our family did hire
an investigator
named Gary Ermoian.
Right across the
street to our left
at 523 Covina is Laci
and Scott's home.
I'm Gary Ermoian.
I'm a private investigator,
and I've worked here
in Modesto, California for
about the last 40 years.
♪
Scott and his family hired me
to begin the investigation
regarding Laci.
Modesto Police
Department was starting
to focus on Scott as a suspect
with regards to her
being a missing person.
We, of course, wanted to
treat the case at that point
as a missing person
case and do everything
that we could to try
to make a determination
what happened to
this young woman.
Scott Peterson had left home
sometime shortly after
10:00 a.m. that morning.
And the evidence shows
that Karen Servas
was putting that dog in
the Petersons' backyard
and closing the gate
around 10:18 a.m.
Because of that,
the police believe
he murdered his wife on
the morning of the 24th,
sometime before 10:18 a.m.
If anyone is seeing Laci
alive in the neighborhood
after that point in
time, Scott is innocent.
♪
Almost everybody I found
that had information
I found by canvassing
neighborhoods.
I talked to several individuals
who recall seeing
Laci walking her dog
after 10:00 in the morning.
In 2002, December 24,
it was in the morning.
We went around, delivered gifts
to friends and relatives.
After we left our house
delivering presents,
getting gas, I noticed
a beautiful young lady,
very pregnant.
She was struggling with the dog,
a golden retriever.
And I asked my
wife, "Did you see
that pregnant lady?"
I said, "I hope
she doesn't fall."
And we just went on
about our business.
♪
Another sighting that we
had was from Frank Aguilar,
who was driving
down La Loma Avenue.
It was Christmas
Eve that morning
between 10:00 and 11:00.
She was walking, like,
towards the park.
Her dog's like a golden
brownish retriever.
The house on the left, which is
on the corner of Buena
Vista and La Sombra,
is the home of Vivian Mitchell.
I was standing right here
and washing some dishes
when I could see her
walking across the street.
The dog was a beautiful
golden retriever.
The next sighting is
right here by the park.
Diana Campos had
just came to work.
She saw a woman walking
a golden retriever dog.
She was certain that it was
about 10:45 in the morning
when she came down here to smoke
because she was
going onto shift.
♪
We started to put
together a pattern
based upon the observations
of these individuals
and the time periods
that they remember.
After all, she was someone
who would stand out.
Not only was she a
beautiful young woman,
but she was pregnant,
and she had a large
golden retriever dog
walking alongside her.
And it was pretty obvious to me
I could put together a
path that she had taken.
♪
Oh, the police
never came out here.
♪
People complain that
they didn't feel
as though investigators
were taking them seriously
or even responding
to their tips.
I talked to a sergeant,
told him what I saw
and who I saw. Laci Peterson.
But no one called or came
over and talked to us at all.
The next morning,
my neighbor says,
"Hey, did you hear about
that lady was missing?"
I told him, I said "Yes,
and I bet you I know
what color clothes she had on."
Who was last seen
wearing black pants
and a white pullover shirt.
She had black pants
on and a white blouse.
She was wearing a white
shirt and black pants.
I don't believe that Modesto
Police were following
the same leads as I was.
The police, I believe, were
already focused on Scott.
♪
So I wasn't the last one
to see Laci that day.
There are so many
credible witnesses
who saw her walking
in our neighborhood.
I've recently learned
that one of the reports,
the person came down,
talked to the police
at their command center,
and the police told him,
"No, you're wrong.
You did not see her."
Just dismissed him without
even looking into it.
It's devastating to
learn that kind of stuff.
[indistinct chatter]
A status conference is underway
for Peterson right now.
His new attorney argued
for the release of evidence
she says should have
been made available
at the time of the trial.
We spent a lot of time
trying to suss out
what, frankly, are very
alarming deficiencies
in the discovery
that was provided
to the defense at
the time of trial.
Mr. Peterson has
been waiting 20 years
to find some of
these police reports
that should have been provided.
Our family is very relieved
that the Los Angeles
Innocence Project came on board
to help find all
the things that were
ignored by the Modesto
Police Department
and not followed up on.
To have an innocence
organization
take his case, finding
out that they would
also be filing a
discovery motion,
and that we might
have more answers.
Thank you all. OK.
We'll be in recess.
Thank you.
I think the police
decided very early on
that Scott was guilty,
and I think if the
Modesto Police Department
properly investigated
Laci's disappearance
and followed the evidence,
we would not be here.
Scott is innocent.
I'm not afraid of the truth.
I just hope people
start listening.
The missing woman's
apparently perfect marriage
may not have been so perfect.
Why didn't you tell the police
right away about Amber Frey?
I'm only left to question
what else he may be hiding.
He looked like a
narcissistic, lying killer.
I had people spit on
me at gas stations.
I've received death
threats on the phone.
The female adult
body was discovered
late this morning by a woman
walking the shoreline
at Point Isabel.
After months of suspicion,
her husband, Scott,
is tonight in police custody.
I have no doubt
that Scott did this.
We investigated everything.
There's so much
evidence in this case
that the police did not
initially follow up on.
A week after Laci goes missing,
a Croton watch is pawned.
There had been a
burglary next door.
There's blood on a mattress
in a van that was burned.
I believe this is bullshit.
Why would you not want the
jury to know everything?
The information we were
given in that courtroom
only leads to the
decision we came up with.
The dramatic verdict,
guilty of murder.
As the dust settled,
everyone started
to realize this
doesn't feel like
it was a powerful,
compelling case.
And that's where organizations
like The Innocence
Project comes along.
The LA Innocence Project
says new evidence now
supports Mr. Peterson's
long-standing
claim of innocence.
There are so many
instances where
there was evidence that didn't
fit the detectives' theory.
They just assumed she was dead.
But what if they
talked to these people
and they found out where she was
and they learned
information from them
which could have
brought her home?
♪