The Scott Peterson Case

On Christmas Eve 2002, twenty-seven-year-old Laci Peterson disappeared from her home in Modesto, California. She was eight months pregnant. Her husband Scott Peterson, a fertilizer salesman, told police he had been fishing at San Francisco Bay that day. In April 2003, the decomposed remains of a full-term male fetus and a headless female torso washed ashore near the bay — within miles of where Scott had claimed to be fishing. The bodies were identified as Laci and her unborn son, whom she had intended to name Conner.

Scott Peterson became the immediate suspect. Investigation revealed he had been having an affair with massage therapist Amber Frey, whom he had told he was a widower. Frey cooperated with police, recorded her phone calls with Peterson, and testified at trial. Forensic evidence included small traces of hair in pliers on Scott's boat consistent with Laci's hair, and his suspicious behavior — including attempting to sell the family home and dyeing his hair — painted a picture of consciousness of guilt.

Peterson was convicted of first-degree murder of Laci and second-degree murder of Conner in November 2004. He was sentenced to death. In 2020, the California Supreme Court overturned his death sentence — not his conviction — finding that jurors who opposed the death penalty had been improperly excluded during jury selection. He was resentenced to life without parole in December 2021.

The Scott Peterson case was one of the most heavily covered criminal trials of the 2000s, airing live on cable news and generating obsessive public interest. The conviction of an unborn child's father for the fetus's death under California's fetal homicide law also prompted national debate about fetal personhood and whether such laws were appropriate. Peterson has continued to maintain his innocence from prison, and a small group of supporters continues to investigate alternative theories, though no credible new evidence has emerged.