American Murder: 5 disturbing details you need to know about Laci Peterson case

Netflix has just dropped American Murder: Laci Peterson, but it’s not the only deep dive into the case set for release this August. Peacock also has its own documentary on what’s one of the biggest true crime cases in US history. 

But it’s worlds apart from Netflix’s version, as demonstrated by the title: Face to Face with Scott Peterson. This is set to look at alternate theories while speaking directly with Scott from prison. 

This could be a controversial move, given the earlier reaction to the streaming service’s Casey Anthony doc, Where the Truth Lies, which faced an outcry that the creator later addressed and was accused of being one-sided. 

Netflix’s American Murder: Laci Peterson, on the other hand, delivers the facts of the case while speaking with various detectives, experts, and family members. Before we get into it, here’s a brief rundown of the case. Warning: some may find this content distressing. 

The murder of Laci Peterson

Laci Peterson, 27, was eight months pregnant when she went missing from her Modesto, California home on December 24, 2002. Her husband, Scott Peterson, claimed he was fishing at the time. 

Following a grueling search to find out what happened, the bodies of Laci and her unborn son, Conner, were discovered on the shores of San Francisco Bay in April 2003. The case created a media storm at the time, and to this day is widely discussed within the true crime community. 

Scott was arrested shortly after and charged with their murders due to the weight of evidence against him (which is explored below). In 2004, he was convicted of first-degree murder for Laci’s death and second-degree murder for Conner’s. 

Although he was sentenced to death, in 2020, this was overturned and he was given life in prison without parole in 2021. Since Laci’s disappearance, Scott has always maintained his innocence, and he’s currently seeking a retrial after his case was picked up by the LA Innocence Project (also explored below). 

Taking all of this into consideration, Netflix’s American Murder: Laci Peterson does a great job of laying out the facts with compelling storytelling. And it serves as a sobering reminder of why Scott ended up in prison in the first place. So, here are the five disturbing details to keep in mind amid the release of the two Peterson documentaries. 

Everything about the boat

Much of the key evidence related to the mysterious boat and Scott’s actions in the lead-up to Laci and Conner’s deaths. In the month of December 2002, he bought a boat out of the blue, purchased a fishing license, and searched San Francisco Bay tides on his computer.

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On Christmas Eve, the day Laci allegedly went missing, the authorities were shocked to discover Scott had been out to the Berkeley Marina for a spot of fishing, despite telling some people he’d gone golfing that day.

In the Netflix docu-series, Al Brocchini – Detective at Modesto PD who interrogated Scott after Laci went missing – explains, “He told me on Christmas Eve, ‘A lot of the reason I went was just to get that boat in the water.’

“From Modesto to the Berkeley Marina is about 90 miles. Just to get your boat in the water for the first time, you don’t drive by yourself all the way to Berkeley Marina.” 

The web of lies told to his wife and girlfriend 

Arguably the most damning evidence arrived thanks to Amber Frey, who appears in American Murder to give her side of the story. 

You see, as the investigation raged on, no one knew that Scott had been having an affair with Amber – even Amber herself. He withheld that he was married, and the pair embarked on a relationship, with Scott suggesting they had a future together. 

He told both Laci and Amber separately that he needed to travel for work so as not to raise suspicion. Scott’s defense team later used the argument that just because a man has an affair doesn’t mean he’s a murderer. 

But for the detectives, alarm bells were raised as Scott never disclosed this information to the police after Laci went missing, nor did he tell Amber.

In the new Netflix documentary, Amber explains that before finding out, she was told through a friend that Scott was married. When she confronted him, he broke down and said that his wife had died and it’d “be the first holidays without her.”

However, Amber later found out the truth via the news, leaving her understandably shocked. She called the police and spoke with Al Brocchini, who, along with fellow detective John Buehler, convinced her to pretend she knew nothing so they could record her calls with Scott. 

Although they didn’t get a confession, he continued bareface lying to Amber, even calling her from one of Laci’s vigils and telling Amber he was at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Eventually, the detectives decided to confront Scott, but instead of showing him a clear photo of him and Amber, they presented him a faxed black-and-white copy. Brocchini recalls that when they confronted him with the image, he replied, “You don’t think that’s me, do you?”

A few days later, he called Amber. Whether he knew he was being recorded or not isn’t confirmed, but he decided to confess that he’d been lying. He told her that he did, in fact, have a wife while they were dating and that Laci had disappeared just before Christmas. 

As well as providing key evidence for the case, Amber went on to testify at Scott’s murder trial. 

Scott’s “whew” of relief 

The same can be said for his reaction to the news. Of course, everyone deals with trauma in different ways, and it’s important not to let this form a bias no matter what the circumstances.

But the detectives on the case noted how it was hard to have Scott cooperate with their investigation at times. “I just found him to be charming and cordial and nice,” Buehler says. “But there was another side to him also. There was a side of him that was guarded and a cooperation side that was always limited.”

Brocchini, meanwhile, recalls asking Scott if they could conduct a more thorough search of their house, the cars, cellphones, and computers, just in case there was anything they missed or perhaps Laci may have had a stalker no one knew about. 

While Scott initially nodded, when they gave him a consent form, he reportedly asked, “Where’s the trust, Al?” Brocchini replied, “Scott, we’re here trying to help you find Laci.”

He also refused to take a polygraph test. Reporters and those close to Laci appear in the documentary, where they describe how Scott was unwilling to speak in the press, right up until he had no choice but to. 

Beyond these instances, a number of details about Scott’s behavior during the hunt for Laci raised suspicions. 

Around two weeks into the search, police turned their focus to the San Francisco Bay and had boats go out to various spots to try and find what they could. What Scott didn’t realize was that the detectives had placed a tracker on his truck. 

According to Brocchini, Scott would drive up to the Bay during the searches, stay for around two or three minutes, and then drive back home – which he did around five times, without telling anyone he was going there. 

They’d also tapped his phone, which provided a damning piece of evidence. During the Bay search, the teams picked up an object on sonar that they believed could be Laci’s body, but it was later discovered to be a large anchor. 

Sharon Rocha, Laci’s mom, gave Scott a call to let him know the news. Although he didn’t answer, the police got the audio of him listening to the message. When Sharon says, “It was a boat anchor. Of course, we knew it wasn’t Laci, but I just wanted you to know,” you can hear Scott whistling “whew” in relief. You can listen to this recording below:

As for Laci’s family, they initially believed he was innocent, which Brocchini says was difficult as they knew things they didn’t know yet. However, they publicly denounced him when the truth about Amber was revealed. 

Was Scott on the run?

Laci and Conner’s bodies were found washed ashore, not far from where Scott had gone fishing on Christmas Eve. Following this discovery, the detectives went to the judge and obtained an arrest warrant.

Thanks to their tracker, they were able to find his truck but he wasn’t driving it. However, they did find him by wiretap – and by this point he’d gone down to visit his family in San Diego. This was a concern for them, as he was only around an hour away from the Mexico border. 

On the day of his arrest, April 18, 2003, Scott was set to go golfing with his dad and brothers. But when he realized he was being followed, he told his family that he wouldn’t be attending. 

“We knew he knew he was being followed because we could hear him on the phone,” says Brocchini. “But he thought we were the media.” Finally, when he pulled up to the Torrey Pines Golf Course, agents were able to arrest Scott – and what they discovered was suspicious.

In the car, Scott had almost $15,000 in cash, at least four cell phones, several knives, gloves, Viagra, a shovel, some rope, binoculars, a scuba mask, a hatchet, a cooking grill, a number of credit cards, both his own and some of his family members’, and his brother’s ID. 

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The latter was particularly notable for detectives, as Scott had inexplicably grown a beard and dyed his hair the same blonde color as his brother’s. 

In the Netflix documentary, Scott’s sister claims the idea that he was on the run was “inaccurate,” but offers no further details to suggest otherwise. 

The LA Innocence Project isn’t the Innocence Project

Despite the majority of those who have followed this case believing that the guilty verdict is correct, Scott, now 51, has been fighting the case in a bid to obtain a retrial. 

This year, the news broke that it had been picked up by the Los Angeles Innocence Project, a non-profit that seeks to exonerate the wrongly convicted. In May, a judge approved DNA testing on a piece of duct tape found on Laci’s body. 

Since the case appears to be pretty open and shut, the fact that it’s being reexamined has come as a surprise. However, there’s an important distinction to make: the LA Innocence Project and the actual Innocence Project are two completely separate entities. 

So much so that the Innocence Project – a 501 nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted – shared a statement highlighting this distinction. 

It reads: “On January 18, 2024, the Los Angeles Innocence Project filed motions seeking DNA testing and post-conviction discovery on behalf of its client, Scott Peterson. 

“Any and all inquiries about Mr. Peterson’s case should be directed to the Los Angeles Innocence Project, a non-profit organization wholly independent of the Innocence Project.”

However, the LA Innocence Project continues to fight for Scott, putting forward the theory that Laci may have witnessed a nearby burglary and been kidnapped and killed. 

The lawyers suggest that the burglars, who later passed a polygraph test, left her body in the Bay as a way to frame Scott, as detailed by Reuters. The case is ongoing, and it’s currently unclear whether a retrial will go ahead. 

American Murder: Laci Peterson is streaming on Netflix now, while Face to Face with Scott Peterson lands on Peacock on August 20.

For more true crime, check out the top serial killer documentaries to watch right now, and read about what happened to Lou Pearlman, Melissa Witt, and Phil Spector.