For the first time in over two decades, Scott Peterson is speaking in a new documentary aiming to prove his innocence in the murders of his wife Laci Peterson and their unborn son Conner.
In a new three-part documentary series “Face to Face with Scott Peterson,” airing on August 20 on Peacock, the 51-year-old Peterson, who is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, maintains his innocence from behind bars at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, as detailed in this week’s cover story of People.
Now, as the Los Angeles Innocence Project files an appeal against Scott’s 2004 conviction in California courts, “Face to Face” director Shareen Anderson, who interviewed Scott via video from prison, says the inmate is “hopeful and confident” that ongoing efforts to release him will succeed.
On May 29, a judge granted his attorneys’ request to DNA test duct tape attached to Laci Peterson’s body but denied the examination of 16 other pieces of evidence. Nonetheless, Scott remains patient.
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With a calm smile, he says, “People want the answer they believed in to remain the answer. We’re all slow to admit when we’re wrong.”
On December 24, 2002, just after 6 p.m., Scott called the Modesto Police Department to report his wife missing. Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant at the time.
By the time detectives arrived at the couple’s home, nearly three dozen friends, family members, and neighbors had gathered in the quiet suburban neighborhood to search for Laci Peterson.
Scott told police that he had left the house around 9:30 a.m. that day to take his new boat out to San Francisco Bay.
On December 30, 2002, the investigation took a dramatic turn when detectives discovered that Scott had been engaged in an extramarital affair with a massage therapist named Amber Frey from Fresno, California.
On April 18, after the bodies of Laci Peterson and Conner washed ashore about two miles from where Scott claimed to have been fishing, he was arrested in La Jolla, California. He had $15,000 in cash and dyed hair, which prosecutors believed indicated he was planning to flee to Mexico. However, Scott maintains that he was “never running from the police.”
Scott’s supporters believe that on the morning Laci Peterson went missing from Modesto, California, a house across the street from the Peterson home was burglarized. They claim Laci Peterson witnessed the crime, and members of a criminal network active in the neighborhood abducted and killed her.
Neighbors reported a van parked outside the house, and the next day, a burned-out van was found less than a mile from the couple’s home. Scott’s attorneys filed a motion to DNA test a mattress found in the back of the van, but the judge denied the request. According to this theory, the burglars disposed of Laci Peterson’s body in San Francisco Bay.
Prosecutors portrayed Scott during his 2004 murder trial as a man who regretted becoming a father soon and killed to escape his marriage.
Scott has since admitted that having an affair with Frey was a terrible mistake. “It’s awful,” he says. “I was a complete jerk for having an affair outside my marriage.” However, he insists that he withheld information from the police only to focus on finding Laci.
