On December 24, 2002, 27‑year‑old Laci Denise Peterson disappeared from her home in Modesto, California, while eight months pregnant with her first child. Her disappearance prompted a large‑scale search and drew national media attention. In April 2003, the remains of Peterson and her unborn son, whom she and her husband had planned to name Conner, were found along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. Her husband, Scott Lee Peterson, was arrested shortly afterward and charged with two counts of murder. In 2004, he was convicted of the first degree murder of Laci and the second degree murder of Conner. Scott Peterson's death sentence was overturned in 2020, and in 2021 Peterson was re‑sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Early life and marriage
Laci Peterson
Laci Peterson was born Laci Denise Rocha on May 4, 1975. She was the younger of two children born to Sharon (née Anderson) and Dennis Robert Rocha, with a brother named Brent (born 1971). Her parents had met in high school and owned a dairy farm west of Escalon, California.
Laci worked on the dairy farm from a young age and also enjoyed gardening with her mother. Laci's parents divorced in 1977 when she and her brother were young. Subsequently, their mother moved with the children to Modesto; Laci visited her father at the dairy farm on weekends.
Laci's mother developed a long-term relationship with Ron Grantski, although they never married; Grantski would help raise the children from the time Laci was two years old, effectively becoming her step-father. Laci was a cheerleader in junior high and high school. After graduating from Thomas Downey High School, she attended California Polytechnic State University, majoring in ornamental horticulture.
Scott Peterson
Scott Lee Peterson was born on October 24, 1972, in San Diego, California, to Lee Arthur Peterson, who owned a crate-packaging company, and Jacqueline "Jackie" Helen Latham, who owned a boutique in La Jolla called The Put On. Lee and Jackie had six children from previous relationships. Scott was their only child together. As a child, Scott shared a bedroom with his half-brother John in the family's two-bedroom apartment in La Jolla. He began playing golf at an early age, and, by age 14, he could beat his father at the game. For a time, Scott had dreams of becoming a professional golfer, and he was teammates with future-pro Phil Mickelson at the University of San Diego High School. By the end of high school, he was one of the top junior golfers in San Diego.
In 1990, Scott enrolled at Arizona State University (where Mickelson had also enrolled) on a partial golf scholarship. Scott's father, Lee, later testified that Scott was discouraged by the considerable competition that Mickelson and an unnamed future pro presented. According to Chip Couch, the father of another young golfer, Chris Couch, Scott was taken off the golf team after Chip discovered that Scott had taken Chris out drinking while Chris was visiting Arizona State for a recruiting trip. Chip complained to the Arizona State golf coach, who subsequently kicked Scott off the team. Scott transferred to Cuesta College and then to California Polytechnic State University. Initially planning to major in international business, Scott ultimately graduated with a degree in agricultural business in 1998. Professors who taught Scott described him as a model student. His agribusiness professor, Jim Ahern, commented, "I wouldn't mind having a class full of Scott Petersons."
Relationship
While at Cal Poly, Scott worked at Pacific Café, a restaurant in Morro Bay. Laci would occasionally visit the restaurant to see a friend who also worked there. In mid-1994, Laci sent Scott her phone number; she also told her mother that she had met the man that she would marry. Scott later called Laci, and they began dating. As the relationship grew more serious, Scott put aside his dreams of professional golf in order to focus on a business career.
The couple dated for two years and eventually moved in together. In 1997, after Laci graduated, they married at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort. While Scott finished his senior year, Laci took a job in nearby Prunedale. Prosecutors later stated that, around this time, Scott engaged in his first extramarital affair, though they did not reveal the details of the relationship. Scott graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural business in June 1998, and the Petersons opened a sports bar in San Luis Obispo called The Shack. The Petersons decided to put The Shack up for sale when they moved to Laci's hometown of Modesto, California, to start a family; they completed the sale in April 2001.
In October 2000, the Petersons purchased a three-bedroom, two-bath bungalow for $177,000 on Covena Avenue in an upscale neighborhood near East La Loma Park. Laci took a part-time job as a substitute teacher, and Scott got a job with Tradecorp U.S.A., a newly founded subsidiary of a European fertilizer company, for which he earned a salary of $5,000 a month before taxes.
Laci's family, including her mother and younger sister, related that she devoted much of her energy towards being the perfect housewife, and that she enjoyed cooking, entertaining and watching Martha Stewart. In 2002, Laci discovered she was pregnant; her due date was February 10, 2003. The couple had planned to name their son Conner. In November 2002, Scott was introduced by a friend to Amber Frey, a Fresno massage therapist, and the two began a romantic relationship.
Laci's disappearance
On December 23, 2002, at 5:45 p.m., Laci and Scott went to Salon Salon, the workplace of Laci's sister Amy Rocha. Amy cut Scott's hair, as she did each month. Scott offered to pick up a fruit basket that Amy had ordered because he would be playing golf the next day at a course near the retailer. Prosecutors say Scott also told other people he would play golf on Christmas Eve. Laci's mother, Sharon, spoke with Laci on the telephone around 8:30 that evening. The last three people known to have spoken to Laci before she disappeared were Amy, Sharon, and Scott.
Scott later told police that he last saw his wife at about 9:30 a.m. on December 24, when he left to go fishing at the Berkeley Marina. He said Laci was watching a Martha Stewart TV show about meringue and preparing to mop the floor, bake cookies, and walk the family dog to a nearby park. Karen Servas, a neighbor of the Petersons, said that she found the Petersons' dog, a Golden Retriever named McKenzie, alone outside the home and returned him to the Petersons' back yard at around 10:30 a.m. She later testified that she had found the dog at 10:18. Another neighbor, Mike Chiavetta, said he saw McKenzie at about 10:45 a.m., as he played catch with his own dog. The Modesto Bee reported that an unnamed female neighbor found the dog with a muddy leash, wandering in the neighborhood. That neighbor put the dog in the Petersons' yard, not observing that anything was out of place. At 2:15 p.m., Scott left a message for Laci, stating, "Hey, Beautiful. It's 2:15. I'm leaving Berkeley."
Scott said when he returned home that afternoon, Laci's car was in the driveway and the house was empty. He also said that he found McKenzie in their back yard, and that he relayed this to Laci's mother, Sharon. She later denied his account in her book. Scott showered and washed his clothes. A neighbor of Scott's later said that Scott had knocked on his door, asking if he had seen Laci. The neighbor and his wife both testified overhearing Scott saying that he had been golfing that day and had tried to call Laci. A relative of Laci's would also later testify that, when friends and family began gathering at the Peterson home that night, Scott said he had earlier gone to play golf.
Scott called his mother-in-law, Sharon, to ask if Laci was with her; Sharon subsequently said that call was when she learned Laci was missing. Scott and Laci's stepfather both reported Laci missing. The police received the report of her disappearance shortly before 6 p.m. At the time of her disappearance, Laci was seven-and-a-half months pregnant, with a due date of February 10, 2003. The story attracted nationwide media interest.
Search and investigation
Modesto Police detectives Allen Brocchini and Jon Buehler responded to the missing person call, and became the lead investigators for the case. Upon their arrival at the Peterson home, the detectives interviewed Scott and performed a cursory search of the home. Scott told detectives he had been fishing for sturgeon at the Berkeley Marina, approximately 90 miles from the couple's Modesto home. The detectives found Laci's keys, wallet, sunglasses, and purse in a closet, and began organizing a search of the area.
The following day, over 900 of Laci's family, friends, and neighbors searched the neighborhood and posted missing-person flyers. At a press conference, detective Al Brocchini said police did not believe Laci left without contacting her family: "That is completely out of character for her." Over thirty Modesto police and firefighters on foot, horseback, bicycles, and watercraft used canine units and searchlight-equipped helicopters to search Dry Creek and the surrounding area. Laci's disappearance and the extensive search efforts attracted nationwide media interest.
A $25,000 reward—later increased to $250,000 and, finally, to $500,000—was offered for information leading to Laci's safe return. Posters, blue and yellow ribbons, and flyers were circulated. The original, basic version of the LaciPeterson.com website was launched by the husband of one of Laci's friends. Family, friends, and volunteers set up a command center at the Red Lion Hotel to take phone calls, record developments, and circulate information. Over 1500 volunteers distributed information, worked at the command center, searched for Laci, and held candlelight vigils with Scott for Laci.
Almost immediately, Modesto Police detectives Allen Brocchini and Jon Buehler suspected foul play. As they continued the investigation, Brocchini and Buehler became increasingly suspicious of Scott. Buehler told ABC News in 2017, "I suspected Scott when I first met him. Didn't mean he did it, but I was a little bit thrown off by his calm, cool demeanor and his lack of questioning ... he wasn't, 'Will you call me back? Can I have one of your cards? What are you guys doing now?'" Buehler further described Scott's behavior as, "a strange combination of polite and arrogant, disaffectedly distant and impatiently irritable. He just didn't seem like a man who was crushed or even greatly disturbed by his wife's disappearance and possible death." The Rocha family defended Scott, describing him and Laci as the ideal couple.
Discovery of affair
The nationwide media coverage produced several tips and possible sightings, one of which was from a woman who identified herself as Scott's girlfriend. On December 30, 2002, Amber Frey informed detectives she had met Scott on November 20, and he said he was single. Additionally, Frey told detectives Scott said on December 9, he was a widower and this Christmas would be his first without his wife. Based on the dates and information Frey provided, detectives now believed Scott began planning to kill Laci two weeks before Laci's disappearance. Hoping Scott would confess or reveal information about his involvement in Laci's disappearance, detectives gave Frey a device with which to record her conversations with Scott.
On January 15, 2003, detectives informed Laci's immediate family of Scott's affair with Amber. Upon learning of Scott's involvement with Amber Frey, Sharon Rocha told detectives she believed Scott killed Laci. On January 24, Sharon, Ron, and Laci's brother Brent held a press conference in which Brent said Scott had, in a phone call on January 16, told Brent he was having an affair with a woman in Fresno. Brent also said that he and his family have withdrawn their support of Scott due to his lack of communication and cooperation. Later the same day, Amber Frey held a press conference and explained her role in the investigation.
Discovery of bodies
On April 13, 2003, two people walking their dog found the body of a male fetus on a tidal flat of the San Francisco Bay shore near Marina Bay in Richmond. The following day, a jogger spotted a human torso in the riprap along the shoreline of Point Isabel Regional Park, approximately one mile from where the body of the fetus was found. On April 18, 2003, DNA tests verified the bodies were Laci and her unborn son, Conner.