Was Laci Peterson's Baby Cut Out of Her Body Was Laci Peterson's Autopsy Photo
[This story offset aired on May 1. It was updated on Dec 18.]
In a California court this week, at that place was a hearing in a sensational murder example that most think ended nearly 20 years ago.
In 2004, Scott Peterson was bedevilled and afterward sentenced to expiry for killing his significant wife Laci and dumping her body in the San Francisco Bay. But now there'south a new twist in the case.
In 2020, California'south highest courtroom overturned Peterson's death sentence. In Dec 2021, he was re-sentenced to life in prison without parole. Peterson's supporters want him to be retried on all charges, saying they accept new evidence that could exonerate him.
"Scott did not become a fair trial," Peterson's sister-in-law, Janey Peterson, tells CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti.
Janey Peterson maintains police did not look difficult plenty at others or consider a connection to Laci'south death and a burglary that happened across the street from the Peterson'due south home. "The wrong person'southward in prison," she says.
Authorities are not commenting, but Jon Buehler, one of the original detectives on the case, disagrees.
"There'south naught that'south come out that's made me change my view that Scott got a off-white trial and that Scott is the ane who killed Laci," he tells Vigliotti.
"Xx years later, this case nonetheless holds a lot of involvement," says Jack Leonard, senior editor of investigations at the Los Angeles Times. "Generally because information technology remains an enduring mystery.
CHRISTMAS EVE 2002
The infamous San Quentin prison is the last stop for men on death row in California, and where our story begins. Because that's where Scott Peterson remains behind bars.
For years, the Peterson murder mystery captivated America.
SHARON ROCHA | LACI PETERSON'Due south Mother [at press conference]: Laci and her unborn child did not deserve to die.
Peterson was ultimately convicted of murdering his meaning wife Laci and their unborn child Conner. He was sentenced to death.
Just Scott Peterson's death judgement has since been thrown out and several questions still remain. Some people believe he is innocent – that he was railroaded, even framed. Others say at that place is no question he is guilty.
Information technology was just on the other side of the same bay well-nigh 20 years agone, the bodies of Laci Peterson and her unborn child washed up on shore.
On Christmas Eve 2002, Laci Peterson was first reported missing by her family.
GRETCHEN CARLSON [CBS News report]: Police force in Modesto, California, have a mystery on their easily. A woman who is 8 months pregnant has been missing since Tuesday when she left abode to take her dog for a walk.
It happened in the city of Modesto, in California's Central Valley. Scott and Laci Peterson lived hither on a quiet residential street.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Christmas Day morning, about 9 o'clock, I get a call … I was a police force detective at Modesto Police Department.
Detective Jon Buehler worked the case from the beginning.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Laci was as about every bit pure a victim as you can get.
She was about eight months meaning when she disappeared.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: We went over to the Peterson house, which is when I first met Scott.
And the detective remembers noticing something odd about Scott'due south beliefs.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: He was a petty bit – he simply didn't seem interested.
Before the dominicus rose on Christmas Twenty-four hours, police force interviewed Peterson:
POLICE: You have no thought where Laci is?
SCOTT PETERSON: I do not.
POLICE: Y'all guys didn't have any problems? Union problems?
SCOTT PETERSON: No.
POLICE: Everything'south good?
SCOTT PETERSON: Mm-hmm.
Scott told police that Christmas Eve day he left Laci alone and went off a fishing trip. He said when he got home Laci wasn't in that location – only their dog McKenzie.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: McKenzie's at that place in the front yard area, the street area with a ternion on that'south kind of muddy. And he'south thinking that this is kind of foreign. Why would that exist? His theory was that she had gone down into the park and had been walking the dog and something happened down there, abduction or something like that.
Police immediately started a search.
NEWS Written report: Officers returned in force this morn combing the park and creek banking company on pes and on horseback. Relatives, friends, and neighbors joined in distributing fliers and searching the park.
But Buehler saw no sense of urgency from Scott Peterson:
POLICE: You have whatever questions?
SCOTT PETERSON: No, I mean I've asked you lot a couple times what to do, um, so I take the answers to that.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Oftentimes, a victim who'southward left backside is firing tons of questions at us. … And we didn't get whatsoever of that from him.
The response from everyone else close to Laci was very different.
SUSAN CAUDILLO | SCOTT PETERSON'S SISTER: We're searching we're looking and we're going to observe you.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Everybody was going crazy. Everybody was impatient.
SHARON ROCHA: Whoever has her, delight, please, please, let her go. Bring her back to us…"
DENNIS ROCHA | LACI PETERSON'S Father [sobbing]: Please … permit us have her back.
Family, friends – the whole community mobilized immediately to join the search for Laci.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Sharon Rocha, Laci's mom, her stepdad, Ron Grantski, her friends … her brother Brent, her sis Amy. They merely saw this whole globe coming down. They were ever struggling to agree back tears.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: But when it came to Scott, he ever would hold back a piffling chip. He wouldn't show yous all of his cards.
LOCAL NEWS REPORT: Officers began a search of the couple's home tardily last night …
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Nosotros knew we had to focus on him from the start … considering that'due south the way yous piece of work a homicide.
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [at printing conference]: Nobody's been ruled out. That's what we're trying to do right now.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Because by and large, there'due south going to be somebody with motive and by and large, the motive is going to be somebody close.
On the morning of Laci'south disappearance Scott told police he drove to a boat launch about 90 miles away from his home. He said he wanted to take his brand-new boat out on the water to go line-fishing for sturgeon, but he never caught a unmarried fish. As he drove home, he called Laci and left a message on her phone:
SCOTT PETERSON [voicemail]: Hey, beautiful. I merely left a message at dwelling house two:fifteen. I'k leaving Berkeley. I won't be able to go to Vella Farms to get the basket for Papa. I was hoping you would get this bulletin and get on out there. I'll see you in a bit, sweetie. Dear you. Goodbye.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: information technology seemed similar a very scripted message. … It just it seemed phony to me.
Skeptical detectives also wondered why Scott would have gone line-fishing in the first place. It was Christmas Eve and his wife was eight months pregnant. Peterson told investigators he had originally planned to golf game that day only decided to go line-fishing because of the dank weather condition.
SCOTT PETERSON [police interview]: It seemed as well cold to go play golf at the social club, so ...
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: You got a guy who … said it was besides cold to golf, just it ain't too cold to go angling. Are you kidding me?
Mean solar day after day, the search widened, and the story spread.
DENNIS ROCHA : Whoever has Laci. The advantage is 500 chiliad. Take the money, bring my girl dorsum safe … and take the money and go become away free.
Jack Leonard: First of all, you had an attractive looking couple. Why would – a significant woman of a sudden disappear when she'south got plans to be with her family? And it was Christmas Eve, so there's nothing else going on in the news. So, this attracted attention, first of all, from local news, and then national, and so it went global.
But hopes for finding Laci Peterson live were fading.
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [at press conference]: Nosotros nonetheless don't have any pregnant lead into finding Laci Peterson …
SHARON ROCHA: Delight don't surrender on us.
JACKIE PETERSON | SCOTT'S Mother: Please ship Laci back to us.
And constabulary connected to play close attending to Scott Peterson.
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [to reporter]: Our discoveries during the investigation have resuscitated the revisiting of the Peterson residence with a second search warrant.
They also asked him to take a polygraph. He refused.
Ret. Jon Buehler: Scott told us that he wouldn't accept the polygraph … And so that arched our eyebrows a little fleck that he wouldn't have this thing.
GLORIA GOMEZ |NEWS Written report]: Recently authorities released photos of Peterson's pickup and boat, hoping someone could back upwardly his story.
Both Scott and Laci's family stood with him.
LEE PETERSON | SCOTT'S FATHER: At that place is no way in god's light-green earth that he is, you know, fifty-fifty remotely involved in this thing.
SHARON ROCHA: We experience Scott has nothing to do with information technology.
LEE PETERSON: Nosotros're looking for Laci, and we're gonna find her.
And then information technology looked like there was a intermission in the case.
Police PRESS Briefing: We're received a tip yesterday …
Detectives discovered there had been a burglary just across the street from the Peterson home. 1 witness told police she believed that burglary happened the same morn Laci disappeared.
Police speedily put that clue to rest.
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [at press conference]: We're confident that we have the people in custody for the burglary and they are not connected with the missing of Laci Peterson.
And then, about a calendar month after Laci went missing …
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [at press briefing]: She is prepared to give a statement.
This case took a dramatic turn.
Ret. Jon Buehler: The start big break we got in the case was of course Amber coming forwards.
AMBER FREY [at printing conference]: Nosotros did have a romantic human relationship.
THE OTHER WOMAN
SCOTT PETERSON [phone recording]: I wanted to call you.
AMBER FREY: Cheers.
Amber Frey had no idea her young man Scott Peterson was married with a pregnant wife. In 2005 she told "Inside Edition" all about their love thing.
AMBER FREY ["Within Edition"]: He was looking for someone to exist with, someone to spend the rest of his life with. … You know, I was at a indicate in my life that I was ready to meet someone, as well.
Bister was 27 years one-time when she met Peterson. It was Nov 2002 – a month before Laci went missing. Amber says Scott told her he was a widower. They dined on strawberries and champagne and she was beginning to fall for him.
Bister FREY ["Inside Edition"]: It was real for me. And information technology felt real for him, too.
But after a friend saw the Peterson story in the news, he told Amber. And Amber called the police.
Detective Buehler and his partner raced downwards to Bister'southward dwelling house.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Her recall was fantastic. It was nearly like information technology was a script from a Hallmark Idiot box show or something. She could remember restaurants they went to and what they ate. … She could retrieve what Scott was wearing. She would remember what she was wearing.
And Bister had pictures.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler:You know, Scott's in a tux and Ambers in that reddish dress they're getting ready for the Christmas political party.
That Christmas party was just a week-and-a-half before Laci would go missing. The detectives were stunned.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler:We had a guy who looked like the guy you want to marry your younger sis. … But at present we constitute that in that location was that chink in the armor.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler:It doesn't mean that he killed Laci. Simply what it meant to us is at that place was another side to him that had not been exposed before.
Investigators saw an opportunity. Maybe Bister could assist them find out what happened to Laci.
AMBER FREY ["Inside Edition"]: They asked how I felt about record-recording conversation with Scott … And I said "yes."
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler:She had an investment, an emotional and a budding romantic investment in this guy … I retrieve she saw it crumbling in front end of her.
The recordings would go part of a damning case against Scott, but first, Amber addressed the questions about her relationship.
Bister FREY [at press conference]: Scott told me he was not married.
AMBER FREY [at press briefing]: I am very sorry for Laci'south family and the pain that this has acquired them.
Laci's family turned on him.
BRENT ROCHA | LACI'S Blood brother [addressing reporters]: I would like Scott to know that I trusted him. However, Scott has not been forthcoming with data regarding my sister's disappearance and I am just left to question what else he may be hiding.
The story sparked a media frenzy.
Jack Leonard: Information technology was huge. Information technology was wild. And it made the case even bigger. … You lot really had the rise of the 24-hour cablevision news. … You had Larry King on there interviewing legal experts, including Nancy Grace.
Jack Leonard: Virtually from the get-go, she was zeroing in on Scott.
NANCY GRACE ["Larry King Live"]: Why did he leave his wife alone, eight months pregnant, on Christmas Eve?
Scott Peterson gave an interview to ABC's Diane Sawyer while Laci was still missing. When asked about the union, he appeared to refer to Laci in the past tense:
SCOTT PETERSON: We took care of each other very well. She was astonishing – is amazing.
NANCY GRACE ["Larry King Alive"]: Ever heard the phase a slip of the tongue?
And at that place was another interview Scott gave with and then-CBS reporter Gloria Gomez:
GLORIA GOMEZ: Why would yous go out Laci … lone to become fishing on Christmas Eve?
SCOTT PETERSON: OK.
Scott explains that as a couple they had different interests:
SCOTT PETERSON: Nosotros have separate pursuits. … and being, y'all know, seven-and-a-half months pregnant she's non going to want to go out in a boat.
But critics of Scott say the almost surprising moment may exist what happened when Scott'due south phone began to band during the interview. Laci was missing and Scott doesn't pick up the phone.
SCOTT PETERSON: Want me to plough that off?
GLORIA GOMEZ: Yep, what is that?
SCOTT PETERSON: That'southward my phone, unfortunately. I idea it was off. [Scott gets up] … Yeah, it's kind of going crazy isn't it.
Gloria Gomez: He didn't hesitate to plough it off and some would say that why, if yous're a concerned married man, if your wife is missing, you lot know, you would take that cell phone clinging to y'all and every call would be an urgent call.
And so, more than three months later on Laci disappeared, in San Francisco Bay the bodies of Laci and Conner washed up simply a few miles away from where Scott Peterson said he was fishing.
With the discovery of the bodies, detectives decided to motility rapidly.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Our concern was mayhap he's going to head for the border.
Authorities finally caught up with Scott at a San Diego golf course. He told them he was supposed to play a round with his father. He also had about $15,000 in greenbacks and his hair was dyed blond.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: He had his brother'due south driver's license … in the car with him, two or 3 prison cell phones. And and then, you know, not the normal stuff you take if you're going down to the local Winn-Dixie to become groceries.
POLICE Press Briefing: Scott Peterson has been arrested. He is in the custody of Modesto Police Department detectives.
Just over a year after in Redwood City, California, Scott Peterson went on trial. The trial had been moved about 90 miles from Modesto because of the huge corporeality of publicity.
Peterson had a loftier-priced Hollywood dream squad of attorneys led by Marc Geragos, famous for defending celebrities like Michael Jackson.
MARC GERAGOS [at trial]: This is a upper-case letter instance. I'm worried about my client's life.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What did the country say they believed happened?
Michael Cardoza: Which part of the trial? [laughs] They changed their story a couple times.
Attorney Michael Cardoza also worked on Scott Peterson's case. And though he was not office of the court room defence force team he says the prosecutors' theory of what Scott did to Laci was disruptive.
Michael Cardoza: First, information technology was he killed her the night before, put her in the rug, put her in the truck, took her to the warehouse. Took her to – Berkeley and dumped her in the bay. Then afterwards information technology was, "Yeah, I judge we really don't know when she was killed, where she was killed. But we do know he did it." Well, come on, guys. Brand upwardly your heed.
But the example against Scott would get a lot clearer when prosecutors started playing recordings – the ones Bister Frey managed to secretly make.
AMBER FREY [phone recording]: Hullo.
SCOTT PETERSON: Babe?
Amber FREY: Yep.
SCOTT PETERSON: Hey.
AMBER FREY: Oh, my goodness.
THE DAMNING Phone CALLS
SCOTT PETERSON [phone recording]: Bister are your in that location?
AMBER FREY: I'thousand hither.
SCOTT PETERSON: Amber.
Bister FREY: I wish you could hear me. … Happy New year.
Just about everyone who was inside the courthouse at the time agrees it was the tape- recorded telephone calls between Amber Frey and Scott Peterson that really grabbed the jury:
SCOTT PETERSON [phone recording]: … I'm near the Eiffel Belfry, the New Years' celebration is unreal.
That's Scott Peterson – i week after Laci went missing – on the phone with Amber Frey pretending he'due south calling from Paris when authorities say he was really in Modesto while the search for Laci was yet going on.
Michael Cardoza: Amber Frey. Merely. That'south what turned that trial … It was the pretext phone calls that Amber Frey made to Scott Peterson.
Jonathan Vigliotti: They were pretty damning.
Michael Cardoza: There's no question. … That'south what changed this trial.
As jurors listened, Amber confronts Peterson about Laci:
Amber FREY [phone recording]: I deserve to understand an explanation of why you told me y'all lost your wife, and this was the first holidays you lot'd spend without her? That was December 9th – you told me this and how all- of-a sudden your married woman's missing? Are you kidding me? …
SCOTT PETERSON: I never cheated on you – I never did.
AMBER FREY: You're married. How do yous figure you never cheated on me? Explicate that one to me.
Afterwards the jury heard those calls with Amber, attorney Cardoza says everything changed.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Then, you're saying the emotion, the loftier emotion here drowned out the facts that were introduced by the defence?
Michael Cardoza: That emotion was so loud, they could hear naught else.
And so, with crowds gathered outside and no cameras immune in court, on Nov 12, 2004, a verdict: We the jury, in the above entitled cause, observe the defendant, Scott Lee Peterson, guilty of the criminal offence of murder of Laci Denise Peterson.
Michael Cardoza: When the guilty verdict came back, you could hear the crowd outside – when you were in the courtroom – auspicious. Cheering. Yous don't call up the jurors heard that? What kind of effect did that have on the side by side phase of the trial, the death.
Four months later on, sentenced to decease, the applause was even louder.
Just inside the courtroom, it seemed to Laci's family unit that Scott inappreciably responded.
Harvey Kemple | Laci's Uncle: Information technology was just similar always, no emotion. No nix. The man is a definite psychopath. He is getting exactly what he deserves.
After sentencing, some of the jurors lashed out at Peterson:
RICHELLE NICE |JUROR [to reporters]: He is a jerk and I have i comment for Scott: Y'all look somebody in the face when they're talking to yous.
MIKE BELMESSIERI |JUROR [to reporters]: Well, Scott came in with a great big smile on his face up, laughing. It was just some other day in paradise for Scott, another day that he had to go through emotions. Only – he's on his way home, Scott figures. Well, estimate what, Scotty…
RICHELLE NICE: …San Quentin'due south your new domicile.
MIKE BELMESSIERI: …And it's illegal to kill your married woman and child in California.
Michael Cardoza: Juror number seven – Miss Overnice. … Listen to what she says. … You've but sentenced a man to death and you're that bold in your statements? You'd call back you'd be a fiddling introspective about that because in that location's nothing worse, nothing more ultimate, nothing more concluding than taking someone's life.
Michael Cardoza: Scott Peterson, I have no opinion on whether he'south guilty or non guilty. But I do know Scott did not get a fair trial. He admittedly did non.
Scott Peterson's attorneys filed appeals and nearly sixteen years subsequently his conviction, a decision.
Last summer, as Scott sabbatum behind confined in San Quentin, the California Supreme Court threw out his death sentence.
Pat Harris: … The Supreme Court said, "He is going to get a new trial on the death penalty phase."
Pat Harris was office of Scott'southward defense force team in the original trial and he continues to correspond him.
Pat Harris: They determined that the estimate had made a mistake in how the jurors were selected based on the death penalty part of the trial.
The effect of that mistake, Scott supporters say, was that the jury was stacked against him with pro death penalty jurors.
Peterson's team is likewise arguing that it's not just his death judgement that was all wrong. They say Scott deserves a completely new trial to determine guilt. The reason: that juror number 7 – Richelle Squeamish.
Pat Harris: According to one of the jurors who was interviewed, he said that … she walked into the jury room and said, "What are we waitin' for? Let's get rid of this guy."
Squeamish declined "48 Hours"' request for an interview. Harris maintains that Nice was biased from the commencement and when they were picking the original jury Squeamish was non forthcoming most her ain history.
Pat Harris: It'south pretty clear … that she lied to the states straight to our face up about her own situation.
Prospective jurors filled out a questionnaire request if they had in the by been in a lawsuit and if they had been crime victims. And Dainty checked "no".
Pat Harris: And we've come up to acquire that in fact … at that place were problems in her own – circle of people. And at that place were restraining orders.
In fact, Nice was involved in 2 domestic disputes in the by. Only prosecutors say when Prissy filled out that questionnaire she didn't prevarication, she only didn't think her past experiences were relevant to the questions and didn't see herself as a victim. Now a lower court volition consider if Peterson volition become a complete retrial. And his defenders are ready.
Janey Peterson: Every piece of information nosotros discover out about this day farther confirms that Scott is innocent.
Scott'due south sis-in-law Janey Peterson says at that place are witnesses who claim they saw Laci very much alive after Scott had already left for his fishing trip that day.
Jonathan Vigliotti: And you think this is plenty to prove his innocence?
Janey Peterson: Absolutely.
Support FOR SCOTT
Jonathan Vigliotti: Where are we right now?
Janey Peterson: This is our family unit business organisation … we have a dorsum office here that we've dedicated to the instance files –
Jonathan Vigliotti: Oh, wow.
Janey Peterson – for Scott'southward case.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, this is really the war room, hither?
Janey Peterson: Yeah. Yeah.
And Scott's sis-in-law Janey Peterson has been at war for almost 20 years now. Fifty-fifty though Scott has only been granted a new trial on the death penalty, Janey is gearing upwardly to prove his innocence.
Pat Harris: Janey is the center and soul of the – the instance.
Janey Peterson: I'm not talking about emotions. I'grand talking near prove. Everything on this board is a fact. … there'southward no scenario of guilt for Scott.
Much of the case for Scott, she says, comes down to the timeline – what happened the morning Laci disappeared.
Janey Peterson: If Scott Peterson is guilty, what time did he commit this crime? … He'due south on death row for the murder of his wife and child. And no one has ever said what time he did this criminal offense, how he did this crime, or the series of events of how he carried out this law-breaking that fits the evidence.
Janey Peterson [pointing to evidence board]: Basically, the day starts on the left side…
Co-ordinate to Scott, that morning he and Laci had breakfast and watched Martha Stewart.
Law: You remember what part you saw?
SCOTT PETERSON: … cookies of some sort – they were talking nigh what to do with meringues.
Scott told police Laci told him she was going to clean the business firm and then walk their canis familiaris, McKenzie. He told them that he left the house effectually 9:30 a.m. He said he went to a nearby warehouse where he had an function and sent an email from his estimator, before setting off with his boat to the Berkeley Marina.
The prosecution argued that Scott had killed Laci old before he left the house that morning time.
Janey Peterson: The country asserts that – Scott murdered Laci and that he loaded her body in his pickup, collection information technology to his warehouse.
But if Laci was seen alive subsequently Scott left the house, Janey says the prosecution's case falls apart.
Janey Peterson: In that location'southward an abundance of testify that shows that Laci was alive when he left for the day.
Jonathan Vigliotti [pointing at evidence board]: What does this show here?
Janey Peterson: The pinkish squares are all the people in the neighborhood who reported seeing Laci or McKenzie that morning.
Janey says most of these witnesses reported the sightings between nine:45 and 10:xxx in the morn – after Scott said he left the house. She says then much depends on these witnesses, but the defense never called them to defend Scott at his trial.
Jonathan Vigliotti: If so many people saw Laci, claim to have seen Laci subsequently that signal … Why didn't the defence bring them to the stand up then that nosotros could hear from their mouth what they saw?
Janey Peterson: I think there were – multiple factors that played into it. … you had people who, as time went by, thought that maybe what they saw wasn't relevant to the instance.
Pat Harris: There's been a lot of criticism considering we didn't call some witnesses who saw Laci that day.
Scott Peterson's attorney Pat Harris.
Pat Harris: The original thought procedure at the time was … a number of the witnesses who saw her didn't take neat – memories or had contra – were contradicting each other.
Police Detective Jon Buehler says none of the witnesses were actually certain if they did in fact meet Laci.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: At that place were three girls in the neighborhood, two of which were pregnant at the fourth dimension … and two of them having dogs walking in the neighborhood … Then, it would be real easy for somebody to mistakenly see 1 of those three girls as being Laci.
Still, Janey Peterson says there is a witness who helps prove Laci was alive subsequently Scott left that morn. It was the mailman.
Janey Peterson: What the mailman said is that, when I went by the Peterson house the morning of December 24th, I went by in that location between x:30 and ten:50. … the gate was open, and McKenzie was not on the property.
Janey says that's considering Laci was out walking McKenzie. If McKenzie had been home, she argues, he would have barked at the mailman – because he always did.
Janey Peterson: … this dog, in detail, barked at that mailman every unmarried twenty-four hours, whether he was behind the gate or in the house.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, what you are saying is during this time, Laci had McKenzie and they were –
Janey Peterson: On a walk.
And according to Janey, if Laci was out walking her canis familiaris, then Scott – who was in his function sending an email – could non have killed her. But when it came time to testify, the mailman didn't have a clear recollection and said "nothing out of the ordinary" happened that day.
Maybe more than importantly to a new defense force case though, is what Janey believes really happened to Laci. Instead of Scott killing his significant wife, she says it'south more likely it was those burglars who robbed the firm just beyond the street.
Janey Peterson: There's also many unanswered questions nearly that burglary to fix information technology bated.
The twenty-four hour period Laci disappeared, December 24, the homeowners left to keep a trip around 10:30 in the morning. Scott Peterson and his team believe that Laci actually confronted the burglars and something bad happened. To prove it, they point to what they call the "Aponte tip."
Janey Peterson [pointing at evidence lath]: This is the Aponte tip ... that was the call that was overheard by Lieutenant Aponte at Norco Prison house.
Lieutenant Xavier Aponte was a corrections officer. He called in a tip about a phone recording he had heard about a month after Laci disappeared.
Janey Peterson: And he said he had an inmate who was on the phone with his brother in Modesto discussing the fact that Laci had encountered the burglars across the street from her house.
Janey Peterson: When nosotros heard this, we all thought, "Wow, possibly – maybe this'll give united states some answers equally to what happened to Laci."
But remember, police dismissed the break-in early on:
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [at press briefing]: We exercise not believe at this time that there'south any connexion with the missing of Laci.
Here's why:
Pat Harris: The police figured out who did information technology. … They asked the culprits, "Well, when did you exercise this?" And the ii gentlemen that were arrested said, "Oh, it was – December 26th, the day after Christmas."
Not on Dec 24, when Laci went missing, but two days subsequently. Peterson'southward defence force isn't ownership it.
Pat Harris: On December 26th, there was a line of media … reporters standing outside the Peterson home upwardly and down that street. There is no mode in hell yous could rifle a house with all those people standing out there.
Simply constabulary say the burglars bankrupt in through a back door on the 26th, out of sight of the street and any reporters who may take been there.
As for the tip about an inmate phone call from prison house, prosecutors say the telephone telephone call is just hearsay. Still, Peterson's chaser says if Scott gets a risk at a new trial, that break-in volition be front and centre. And so will their theory of the crime: that Scott Peterson was actually framed for his wife's murder.
Janey Peterson: What better fashion to become out of trouble than go put the body where the husband was?
WAS SCOTT PETERSON FRAMED?
In a 2017 A&E documentary, Scott Peterson spoke most the moment he heard the word "guilty."
SCOTT PETERSON [phone recording]: I was staggered past it. I had no idea information technology was coming.
SCOTT PETERSON [phone recording]: … and I just had this weird sensation that I was falling forrad.
Those thoughts seem starkly unlike from court reports that describe Peterson equally "emotionless."
JUROR [at press conference]: Scott had no emotion on his face up, Scott was being Scott.
And according to his lawyer, that lack of outward emotion injure Scott from day one.
Pat Harris: I retrieve the biggest problem I accept is … what I call the "he didn't human action right" evidence. There is no such thing every bit how to act. At that place'due south no playbook on how to human action when your wife has been murdered. … No matter what you lot do, when you've built the narrative in your mind that he'southward guilty, whatsoever Scott did was gonna be interpreted through the lens of he'due south guilty …
Pat Harris: It was a terrible investigation from the starting time minute.
Harris says authorities had tunnel vision. He claims they never looked at other possibilities, or fifty-fifty the logic of their own theories.
Pat Harris: Nosotros did an experiment which nosotros filmed.
The defense team loaded weights into a boat.
Pat Harris: We took the exact weight – Nosotros had the boat, similar … We recreated it, did a video. And certain enough, when the body was dumped over, the gunkhole flipped. Nosotros had a video of this. The guess refused to allow it in.
Just the Supreme Court said that the judge was correct not to let it in. They said the defence force had used a different boat, a unlike motor, in unlike atmospheric condition, and one of their own employees who stepped on the side of the boat to let in water and allow the gunkhole to swamp. They even pointed out that the original judge offered the defense a chance to redo the experiment with the original boat and someone who was not a defense employee. But the defense declined. Still, Janey says if given a chance, the defense volition present other exonerating bear witness.
Janey Peterson: Nosotros have an ongoing investigation that we don't discuss publicly. Simply I guarantee yous that Scott volition never be convicted of uppercase murder again in a courtroom of constabulary.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Some of the well-nigh damning evidence is where Laci and her unborn child were found. They done up very shut to an surface area where Scott Peterson was fishing. Are you maxim that's merely coincidence?
Janey Peterson: I'm not saying it's a coincidence. I'm – I would argue information technology was on purpose.
Jonathan Vigliotti: On purpose?
Janey Peterson: On purpose.
They claim that Peterson was really framed for the murder, and the real killer or killers held on to Laci's body, somewhen dumping information technology into the San Francisco Bay.
Janey Peterson: Her trunk wasn't taken to the bay December 24th. The bay wasn't sealed off as a crime scene. …In that location are multiple points of admission directly to the water, 24 hours a twenty-four hours. I recall they took Laci, had Laci, realized the national attention that this case was getting, realized they were in trouble. What better mode to go outta trouble than go put the body where the husband was?
Jonathan Vigliotti: Who is they in this scenario?
Janey Peterson: Well I – I tin can't go past the burglary.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: The two burglars that were involved in that both told consistent stories that were backed upwards by other contained witnesses.
Detective Jon Buehler, one of the original investigators, says burglars had zilch to practice with Laci's murder. And the idea that Laci was kidnapped in wide daylight in that neighborhood only doesn't make sense.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Well, how come nobody saw Laci get abducted? … nobody saw an abduction in broad daylight where a girl had a domestic dog, and the canis familiaris would exist barking, and a girl would be screaming. Tell me how that is going to happen considering I don't see it.
As for the idea that Scott was framed …
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: What is the likelihood that somebody is going to abduct Laci, and so all all of a sudden, the media has intense scrutiny and attention to information technology. And then they're going to have her 90 miles to San Francisco Bay, and they're going to put her in the exact same area that Scott said he was fishing in? All the while we're doing searches up there, all the while that the media is camped out over there, that you've got cops and deputies and other agencies over there looking into this.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: You want to try and brand that stretch with me that somebody is going to drive from Modesto to Berkeley to take a torso out at that place in the midst of that? Well, I guess possible. But y'all know, in that location's still people that believe the earth is flat, too.
The District Chaser is not commenting on the defense's theories, but at Peterson'southward trial, contrary to what the defence argued, prosecutors laid out their relatively clear theory of the crime: that Laci had been murdered in the abode either the night before or the morning she disappeared. And they focused on all the falsehoods Peterson had told.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: We knew that he was able to lie fairly easily.
Everything from the big lies he told to Amber Frey …
SCOTT PETERSON [phone recording]: It'southward pretty awesome, fireworks there at the Eiffel Tower.
SCOTT PETERSON [telephone recording]: I accept – I've lied to you lot that I've been traveling.
… to the little lies prosecutors say he told about the morning Laci vanished. Remember he said he left home around 9:30 a.m.:
POLICE INTERVIEW: OK, so then most 9:30 y'all left?
SCOTT PETERSON: Mm-hmm [affirms].
But that Martha Stewart segment on meringues he talked about watching with Laci?
SCOTT PETERSON: We were watching her favorite show, "Martha Stewart."
That didn't come up on until ix:48 a.m.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Yous have to dismiss then much circumstantial evidence in this case to believe that Scott didn't do this.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: In a circumstantial bear witness case becomes like a big rope. It'south got strand subsequently stranded later on strand. And when yous get so many strands weaved together on this big rope, this rope is very, very potent.
Buehler remains as confident as he always was in Peterson's guilt. Just Scott'due south defenders are just every bit confident.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, are yous proverb he's innocent?
Pat Harris: Yeah.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Or – you are.
Pat Harris: Yeah.
Pat Harris: Oh, he's innocent. … I would bet my life on it.
Both sides wait to see if the court will allow Peterson'due south team a run a risk to fight not just the capital punishment, but for his innocence likewise.
Until then, nosotros're left with an almost unspeakable tragedy – the murder of 27-year-old Laci and her unborn baby, Conner … and you have to wonder what's going through Scott Peterson's mind equally he sits in prison house but a few short miles beyond the bay from where their bodies washed aground.
On Dec 8, 2021 Scott Peterson was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the deaths of his married woman and unborn child.
Produced by Chuck Stevenson. Michelle Fanucci is the development producer along with Ryan Smith. Emily Wichick is the field producer. Lauren Turner Dunn is the acquaintance producer. Richard Barber is the producer-editor. Phil Tangel is the editor. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
Jonathan Vigliotti
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/scott-peterson-convicted-killer-new-trial-48-hours/
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