Scott Peterson has broken his silence from prison 21 years after his wife and unborn child were killed in a Christmas Eve tragedy, bolstering the theory that she was abducted by strangers who burglarized a neighboring home.
The father-to-be was convicted of killing his college girlfriend, Laci, who at the time was eight months pregnant with their first child, a boy they planned to name Conner. He has always maintained his innocence.
In a new Peacock documentary, Face to Face with Scott Peterson, the now 51-year-old has spoken publicly for the first time since his arrest in 2003, standing by his long-held belief that a group of burglars is responsible for his wife’s death.
“There was a robbery across the street from our house. There were a lot of people involved,” she told interviewer Shareen Anderson via video call.
“And I think Laci went there to see what was going on and that’s when they took her.”
Scott Peterson has broken his silence from prison 21 years after his wife and unborn child died in a tragedy on Christmas Eve.
In a new Peacock documentary, Face to Face with Scott Peterson, the 51-year-old has spoken publicly for the first time since his arrest in 2003, standing by his long-held belief that a group of burglars is responsible for his wife’s death.
Laci with her husband Scott, who killed her just weeks before welcoming their baby into the world. The couple met in 1994 at Cal Poly and dated for two years before moving in together.
Two men were arrested and pleaded guilty to the crime, but detectives in charge of the case ruled out any link to Laci, believing the duo burglarized the home two days after she disappeared on December 26.
Peterson, her family and a contingent of her supporters have long argued that police were too quick to rule out robbers’ involvement in Laci’s disappearance.
One witness, who police have consistently said lacked credibility because the details of his recollections varied, said he saw three men in the burglarized house who did not match the physical appearances of the two men later convicted of the crime, Steven Todd and Donald Pearce.
He also said he saw a pickup truck parked in the driveway. Police said they initially thought the truck was white, but later said it could have been brown or tan.
Peterson and his supporters argue that Van could hold the key to Laci’s death.
“Todd and Pearce, the two we know, burglarized the house across the street,” Peterson said.
“We don’t know who else was involved in that robbery. We know there were others.
“They had no desire to investigate the evidence that was before them. They simply chose to ignore it.”
Peterson is allowed to make 15-minute video calls from Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, where he is serving a life sentence, which forms the basis of the explosive new documentary.
He was questioned about parts of the investigation and the case against him, including his final voicemail to Laci, his affair with Amber Frey and the newly purchased boat he used to dump his wife’s body in the water after murdering her.
Peterson was fishing in San Francisco Bay when his wife disappeared 90 miles away on the morning of December 24, 2002.
Peterson called Laci at 2:15 p.m. the day she disappeared, leaving her a gushing voicemail telling her he would “see her soon” when she returned home from the marina.
Detectives have always theorized that it was staged to make things look normal.
But Peterson said: “That was a common thing between us, she called me ‘cute’, I called her ‘beautiful’. We loved each other, we enjoyed each other. We were great friends.
“Did they (the detectives) think that was too sweet a message for a married couple? They have very sad marriages if they think that. Frankly, I feel bad for them.”
Prosecutors said Peterson killed Laci (pictured together) to escape married life and fatherhood.
Asked why he purchased the new boat on Dec. 9, Peterson said it was for himself and his father-in-law Ron Grantski to use.
Specifically, she said it would be a way for her unborn child to bond with her family.
Speaking from prison, Peterson said: ‘I wanted him (Ron) to have a relationship with Conner.
‘And part of that would be fishing because Ron really liked it.
“It was something that brought us together as well.”
Conner is the name Peterson and Laci had planned for their son, whose full-term remains were found on the shore of the bay alongside Laci’s body weeks after she disappeared.
As the investigation continued, Peterson said he believed detectives had already found him guilty.
“They had that assumption,” he said. “They came to our house not to look for Laci but to look for evidence against me.”
“They searched the house, found absolutely no forensic evidence against me, no blood, no struggle, and yet they continued to focus on me.”
In the shocking documentary, Peterson refuted the theory that he killed Laci because he did not want to be a father or fit into the domestic role of a husband.
Peterson said in the video: “That’s very offensive, very disgusting. It’s not true at all.”
Speaking about his infidelity, Peterson admitted two decades later that he “regrets” his extramarital affair with Amber Frey and said that for him it was “just sex.”
Scott Peterson and Amber Frey, photographed together at a Christmas party on December 14, 2002
He said: ‘I definitely regret cheating on Laci. It was childish, low self-esteem, selfishness… travelling somewhere, being alone that night because I wasn’t home… someone makes you feel good because they want to have sex with you.
“That’s what it meant to me.”
But Peterson continued his affair with Amber, even though Laci had been dead for weeks.
He revealed that he kept the attraction with her because he believed that if she went to the police, he would look more guilty.
“By staying in touch with Amber I thought… it would ruin the search,” he said.
“The search for Laci will stop as soon as the police or the public find out I had sex with another woman. Knowing she was there was a ticking time bomb.”
Amber had been introduced to Scott by a friend, and their relationship was great from the start: the San Diego-born man would buy her flowers and talk about their future.