Here Are All The Facts You Probably Don’t Know About Laci Peterson’s Murder
Modesto, California. Christmas is a time of family and festivities, but something tragic was about to unfold during the holiday season back in 2002. 27-year-old Laci Peterson went missing from her upscale home in Modesto, California.
Her husband Scott reported her as a missing person on Christmas Eve, although she was last seen on December 23rd and she had spoken to her mom on the phone shortly before she vanished.
The hunt for Laci fueled nationwide interest. The media was all over what happened to her and where she could have gone.
Only several hours into the investigation, police thought everything around her disappearance was suspicious. They quickly turned their interest towards Laci’s husband, Scott.
Laci was 7 and a half months pregnant with Scott’s child. Her unborn son was going to be named Conner.
She was due to have him on February 10th, 2003, and Laci was absolutely thrilled to be a mom. Sadly, Laci would never get to hold Conner or experience the joy of his birth.
Here’s everything you probably don’t know about the Laci Peterson story and what happened to this beautiful mom-to-be.
Police photo from evidence; Laci and Scott hug in the photo above while smiling big and they truly look like a happily married couple
In April 2003, a couple walking their dog near the San Fransisco Bay discovered Conner’s small, lifeless body.
If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe.
Laci’s husband Scott Peterson became an immediate subject. Laci’s friends and family insisted he had nothing to do with her disappearance. They all maintained he was innocent. He would never do this to his own wife.
A successful fertilizer salesman, Scott brought home $5,000 a month back in the early 2000s. He was very well off, and Laci worked part-time as a teacher.
Laci’s Mom and baby sister said that she tried so hard to be the absolutely perfect housewife for Scott. She loved entertaining. She loved cooking.
She loved her husband. She loved that they were starting a family together and she was just overjoyed to be pregnant when she found out in 2002.
She had tried for over a year to have a baby, so this was big news to her. She had even already set up a nursery for her soon to arrive son.
Scott’s behavior in the days leading up to and days after Laci’s disappearance was strange, to say the least.
Scott left a bizarre voicemail telling his mistress, Amber Frey, his wife had died weeks before she actually had.
Scott met Amber through a friend of his while Laci was 7 months pregnant with Conner. 27-year-old Amber was a massage therapist who later told authorities that Scott said to her that he was a single widower, so she started up a romantic relationship with him.
She never imagined he had a wife, let alone a pregnant one back home. Amber really had no idea Scott had made her a mistress.
Upon learning about Laci’s disappearance through a news article, Amber immediately contacted authorities.
She had only been seeing Scott for a month at that point, but Amber became a key piece in solving the mystery. She allowed for 30 hours of phone conversations with Scott to be recorded by police.
Amber truly had no idea about Laci, and she later said this in a press conference:
“Scott told me he was not married. We had a romantic relationship. I’m very sorry for Laci’s family and the pain this has caused them.”
Many believe that Amber’s testimony in court helped to turn the jurors against Scott, who ultimately convicted him.
After the couple who was out for a walk with their dog discovered Conner, Laci’s body washed ashore shortly thereafter. She was found just miles away from where Conner was discovered.
When authorities discovered Conner, Laci’s son, they realized he was not nearly as decomposed as Laci. It is believed that Conner had come out of Laci’s decomposing uterus after her death.
DNA tests confirmed that the bodies were definitely Laci and Conner. Their bodies were so badly decomposed though that Laci’s cause of death could not be uncovered.
Police had no idea how she died. They couldn’t rely on evidence discovered on her body to help them crack the case and figure out who really murdered her.
Still, Scott’s suspicious behavior continued, even after his wife and son had been discovered dead. He even called his mistress during Laci’s vigil.
He lied to Amber and said he was phoning from Paris, where he was trying to celebrate the holidays. He actually called her from his dead wife’s own vigil.
During the vigil, Scott appeared to be almost joyful. He was photographed smiling and laughing which furthered people’s belief that he was guilty.
Scott refused to work with the police and would not take a polygraph test.
When the police finally arrested Scott on a golf course in La Jolla, California, they believed he was ready to run.
He told the police that he was just meeting his brother and dad for a game of golf, however, what they found told a very different story.
His Mercedes was discovered with over $10,000 worth of cash in it, camping gear, four cell phones, viagra, and his ID.
Scott also dyed his hair bright blonde and had started growing a beard.
Scott’s father claimed that he had been living out of his car to avoid media attention but authorities thought otherwise. They figured he was getting ready to head to Mexico.
He was charged with two counts of murder, and yet, he still maintained his innocence and claimed he was not guilty at all of killing Laci and Conner.
Police discovered that Scott had recently purchased a boat, and he purchased the boat using only cash. On the day of Laci’s disappearance, he had gone out fishing on that very boat.
Not only had Scott presumably killed his wife and unborn son, but it was done in such a violent manner.
What washed up on shore was only what remained of Laci. Her head and limbs were missing. Her organs had been removed and her son was found no longer in her uterus.
Police never could get to the bottom of exactly what Scott did to her and his son because he wouldn’t ever tell authorities. He said he was innocent even during his trial.
Next, what evidence though did the police have to go on?
California Department Of Corrections; Scott is pictured above in a mugshot
Throughout the entire trial, Scott did not appear to show any remorse or look like someone who had just lost his family. When he spoke, he appeared unconcerned. Certainly not upset or sad.
The prosecution suspected that Scott murdered Laci in cold blood so that he could get to her $250,000 life insurance policy.
The evidence that the police had was just one hair. It had been discovered in Scott’s pliers on his boat, and it was thought to be Laci’s hair.
The prosecution continued by saying that other evidence to suggest Scott was the one who did this was that he sold Laci’s Land Rover immediately after she disappeared.
Very strange for a husband to do that. He must not expect her to return. Scott also had wanted to sell the house he lived in with Laci.
Prosecutors went on to lay out that Scott apparently had mounting financial troubles. He had just started seeing Amber and wanted to live the single life. They thought this was enough motive for him to murder his wife.
Jurors later found Scott guilty in the murder of both Laci and Conner. Judge Alfred A. Delucchi, the judge on the case, said that the murder of Laci was just “cruel, uncaring, heartless, and callous.”
Members who sat on the jury during Scott’s trial later revealed to the media that although there wasn’t a concrete stack of evidence, the “hundreds of small ‘puzzle pieces’ of circumstantial evidence that were revealed during the trial, from the location of Laci’s body to the myriad lies her husband told after her disappearance” were enough to help them decide he was guilty of her murder and that of Conner’s as well.
Scott was sentenced to death, but last year, a court ordered that Scott should have a new trial for sentencing after it was determined that the original trial judge “made a series of clear and significant errors in jury selection that, under the long-standing United States Supreme Court precedent, undermined Peterson’s right to an impartial jury at the penalty phase.”
So, his death sentence was overturned, and he’s been basically sentence-free since then.
This Wednesday, a judge in California decided that Scott does need to be re-sentenced, and that will happen in November.
Scott is going to be sentenced to life in prison, but his attorneys are still fighting for him to get a brand new murder trial.
More About:True Crime
Read This Next
