Convicted wife killer Scott Peterson lays out details of what he and his new lawyers think happened on the day Laci Peterson disappeared in a three-part streaming series on NBC’s Peacock.
As CrimeOnline has reported, a jury unanimously found Peterson guilty of murdering his wife and their unborn son and sentenced him to death. The death penalty was later overturned, and he was resentenced to life without parole.
Laci vanished on Christmas Eve 2002, a month before she was due to give birth. Prosecutors said Peterson strangled or suffocated her before wrapping her in a tarp, fastening her to anchors, and dropping her in the San Francisco Bay.
Peterson claimed he was fishing in Berkeley, not far from where her body was ultimately found, when his pregnant wife vanished.
Earlier this year, the LA Innocence Project — not connected in any way to the national Innocence Project — took on Peterson’s case and presented several motions to have evidence retested or get him a new trial. But the court tossed all those motion except one: a piece of duct tape found on Laci’s body will be retested.
Several of the items in those motions form the basis for Peterson’s version of what happened the day his wife vanished, according to E! Online. He tells the cameras in this attempt to convince the public that he’s innocent that a burglary near his home on December 24, 2002, drew Laci’s attention, so the 8-months pregnant woman went over to check it out.
“There was a burglary across the street from our home,” Scott says in “Face to Face with Scott Peterson. “And I believe that Laci went over there to see what was going on, and that’s when she was taken.”
Modesto Police say the burglary took place the day after Christmas, not the day before, although the producers of the series dredged up “witnesses” who said they saw a suspicious van in the neighborhood on December 24 and even one witness who reported seeing a pregnant woman forced into the van on that day.
None of this was brought up in Peterson’s original trial, however, which Peterson blames in the Peacock series on the unwillingness of police to look at evidence that didn’t support their conclusion that he was the suspect. He does not explain why his own attorneys didn’t bring it up in trial, and Modesto police say they investigated all leads and did not withhold any information.
According to E! Online, Peterson spends a significant portions of the three part series making himself look like a loving husband who regrets cheating on his wife and lying about the affair to police.
He also had ready explanations for the day he was arrested, with dyed hair, a goatee, and a pocket full of cash, near the Mexican border: His brother had just bought his truck, he changed his appearance because people were mean to him on the streets, and he had family in San Diego.
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[Featured image: FILE – In this April 21, 2003, file photo, Sarah Kellison stands in front of a memorial in honor of Laci Peterson outside the house Laci shared with her husband Scott Peterson in Modesto, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)]
