What started as a college romance ended in murder and mystery.
1994 – Scott Peterson and Laci Rocha met in 1994 while they were both students at California Polytechnic State University. They married two years later. In 2002, Laci became pregnant. The two lived in Modesto, California and planned to raise their unborn son Conner there.
Laci Peterson missing
December 24, 2002 – Scott Peterson says he left his pregnant wife alone on Christmas Eve morning to go fishing about 90 miles away at the Berkeley marina. He says Laci planned to walk the couple’s dog, McKenzie, and mop the kitchen floor. When Scott arrived home hours later, he said he found McKenzie there alone, still on a leash, but no sign of Laci. That evening, Laci’s stepfather called the police to report her missing.
Looking for Laci
Family, friends and volunteers launched a massive search for Laci Peterson.
Scott Peterson was interviewed by police in the early hours of Christmas Day. Now-retired Modesto Police Detective Jon Buehler says Scott didn’t seem as interested as you might expect. “Often a victim who is left behind will fire tons of questions at us… And we didn’t get that from him,” Buehler told “48 Hours.”
Amber Frey
December 30, 2002 – Less than a week after Laci Peterson went missing, Modesto detectives rushed to investigate an intriguing lead: a Fresno massage therapist named Amber Frey revealed that she had been dating Scott Peterson for more than a month. She told police that Peterson lied to her and said he was single.
Secret recordings
Former Detective Buehler notes, “Her memory was fantastic. It was almost like it was a script from a Hallmark TV show or something.” Amber Frey remembered every detail of their romantic dates, down to what they wore. Hoping for clues that could lead them to the missing woman, detectives ask Frey to record phone conversations between her and Scott Peterson, and she agrees.
Affair revealed
January 24, 2003 – In an explosive press conference a month after Laci Peterson went missing, Amber Frey publicly reveals her affair with Scott Peterson. “I am deeply sorry for Laci’s family and the pain this has caused them,” she said. “And I also pray for her safe return.”
Before Frey went public, Peterson had told her in a recorded conversation that he was in Paris when in reality he was in Modesto while the search for Laci was still ongoing. Finally, Scott admitted to her, “I lied to you about traveling.” Those recorded conversations would later become part of a damning case against Peterson.
Bodies found
April 13 and 14, 2003 – Two bodies are found on the shores of San Francisco Bay. They are later identified as Laci Peterson and her unborn child. The two bodies were found about a mile apart.
Scott Peterson arrested
April 18, 2003 – Authorities caught up with Scott Peterson at a golf course in San Diego and arrested him. Inside the car, authorities found a stack of cash, his brother’s identification card and several cellphones. Days later, Peterson pleaded not guilty to two counts of capital murder.
Trial and error
June 1, 2004 – Scott Peterson’s trial begins in San Mateo County, California. Due to the enormous publicity, the trial was moved from Modesto to Redwood City, in San Mateo County. The decision was made because the judge decided it would be difficult for Peterson to get a fair trial too close to home, where emotions were running high.
High suspicions
August 10, 2004 – In what many consider a major turning point in the trial, Amber Frey took the stand for the first time to tell the jury about her relationship with Scott Peterson, a secretly married man, and all the lies he told her. Frey painted a picture of a dishonest man who could easily tell untruths, which damaged his credibility.
Jurors heard the lies themselves in the recorded phone calls Frey made.
Justice for Laci and Conner
November 12, 2004 – Scott Peterson was found guilty of first-degree murder for the death of his wife Laci and of first-degree murder for the death of his unborn son Conner. The crowd outside cheers.
Peterson judges
March 16, 2005 – Four months after his conviction, Scott Peterson is sentenced to death. At a press conference, Juror No. 7, Richelle Nice, said [pictured center] called Peterson a “jerk” and said, “San Quentin is your new home,” referring to the prison where he would serve his sentence. Nice was nicknamed “Strawberry Shortcake” during the trial because of her hair color.
Death sentence quashed
August 24, 2020 – After two appeals, Scott Peterson’s death sentence was overturned by the California Supreme Court after it decided the original judge had made an error when selecting jurors for the trial. The result of that mistake, Peterson’s supporters say, was that the jury was packed with pro-death penalty jurors. Peterson, seen here in 2018, will now get a new trial for the penalty phase only.
The court upheld his murder convictions.
Juror #7
October 14, 2020 – The California Supreme Court orders a lower court to reexamine Peterson’s murder convictions and decide whether he should get an entirely new trial. Scott Peterson’s supporters say it all comes down to the actions of the judge once nicknamed “Strawberry Shortcake”: Richelle Nice, pictured here in 2005.
During jury selection, potential jurors completed a questionnaire asking whether they had been involved in a lawsuit in the past and whether they had been victims of crime. Nice Check No. “It’s pretty clear … that she lied to us to our faces about her own situation,” Peterson’s current attorney Pat Harris told “48 Hours.” Nice has even been involved in two domestic disputes in the past. But prosecutors say that when Nice filled out the questionnaire, she wasn’t lying. She just didn’t think her past experiences were relevant to the questions and didn’t see herself as a victim. Now a lower court will consider whether Peterson will get a full new trial. Richelle Nice declined to speak to “48 Hours.”
New evidence?
March 7, 2021 – CBS News’ Jonathan Vigliotti interviewed Scott Peterson’s sister-in-law Janey Peterson in her “war room” with evidence she says proves his innocence. She claims witnesses saw Laci walking near the Peterson home after the time Scott said he was leaving to go fishing. If that’s true, Scott couldn’t have killed Laci.
Scott Peterson’s attorney explains, “There’s been a lot of criticism because we didn’t call a number of witnesses who saw Laci that day,” and that the thought process at the time was that “a number of witnesses who saw her didn’t have any major – memories or contra – were contradictory to each other.”
Retired Detective Jon Buehler says there are no witnesses who saw Laci alive that morning. He says there were other young women in the area who were pregnant and looked like Laci, and that “it would be very easy for someone to mistakenly mistake any of those three girls as Laci.” Yet Janey Peterson insists Scott is innocent.
A burglary
Perhaps even more important to a new defense case is what Janey Peterson thinks actually happened to Laci. She points to a burglary that she says occurred the same day Laci disappeared, across the street from the Peterson home. Scott Peterson’s supporters theorize that Laci confronted the burglars and it ended badly. But police quickly arrested the burglars – Steven Todd and Donald Pearce – pictured here in a 2003 Modesto Police Department press release.
Awaiting a decision
April 27, 2021 – Scott Peterson appeared in court remotely for a status hearing on a new death penalty trial.
December 8, 2021: Scott Peterson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the deaths of his wife and unborn child.
2024: The Los Angeles Innocence Project took on Peterson’s fight for a new trial. Since then, a California judge has granted his defense team access to previously undisclosed evidence, as well as permission to conduct additional DNA testing.
Peterson and his supporters claim the wrong man is in prison for the deaths of Laci and Conner. According to Detective Buehler, “Well, I guess it’s possible. But you know, there are still people who believe the Earth is flat too.”
