Scott Peterson did not hold back while being interviewed for the first time two decades after he was convicted for the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson.
During Peacock’s Face to Face With Scott Peterson docuseries, which premiered on Tuesday, August 20, Scott, 51, was interviewed from prison by director Shareen Anderson about the high-profile case. Scott’s tell-all is the first time the convicted killer broke his silence in the 20 years since he was found guilty for his wife and unborn child’s deaths.
“If I have a chance to get the reality out there, I have a chance to show people what the truth is and if they are willing to accept it, maybe that takes a little hurt off my family,” Scott said about his motivation for speaking out. “That would be the biggest thing that I can accomplish right now.”
Scott urged those watching the three-part doc not to trust him but to “look at the evidence” instead. Face to Face With Scott Peterson subsequently laid out the timeline of Laci’s disappearance while questioning what details potentially weren’t examined properly by the Modesto Police Department at the time.
After Laci went missing in December 2002, Scott was arrested and charged the following year with two counts of murder. Laci, who was eight months pregnant at the time, was later found dead at age 27, and her husband became the prime suspect.
In November 2004, Scott was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Laci and the second-degree murder of their infant son. He was originally sentenced to death before that was overturned in 2020. One year later, Scott was re-sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Los Angeles Innocence Project announced in January 2024 that they were taking Scott’s case on due to evidence they felt wasn’t brought up the first time around. Scott’s attempt to overturn his murder conviction is heavily highlighted in Face to Face With Scott Peterson as the director questions whether he was at fault for Laci’s murder.
Scott’s rare comments about the murder trial came less than a week after Laci’s family participated in Netflix’s American Murder: Laci Peterson docuseries, which offered her family a platform.
Keep scrolling to find out what Scott shared about his marriage, his affair with Amber Frey and why he continues to maintain his innocence:
Feeling Like the Suspect From the Very Beginning
Scott started the docuseries out by walking viewers through the night that Laci went missing.
“When I got home, I started to call her friends and they hadn’t spoken to her. They didn’t know where she was and as the hours progressed it was like, ‘Oh my God, she’s out somewhere that we know of,'” he recalled. “So it was anxiety and panic.”
According to Scott, the police gave him the impression that they didn’t trust his side of the story that same night.
“When [former detective of Modesto PD Al] Brocchini took a walk around the house, I don’t think they knew I was near them. One of them said, ‘Oh yeah, we know what is going on here. It’s the husband.’ Then they realized I was there,” he claimed. “Brocchini’s questions weren’t questions. They were accusations. He had made up his mind before he had even arrived at our home.”
Brocchini, who was also interviewed for the docuseries, spoke about the inconsistencies that made him think Scott was hiding crucial details about Laci’s disappearance. The detective specifically cited Scott’s lack of concern in the first few hours when his wife couldn’t be located as something that led them to keep an eye on him.
“It’s so hard to explain what was going on. It was so out of any experience anyone could ever have to have,” Scott fired back about his composed demeanor while being questioned. “I was trying to keep it together, trying to get the search started and trying to deal with the police. There was no time to fall apart — I couldn’t have that happen.”
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Trying to Hold on to His Positive Memories With Laci
“The things that I relish [from the day Laci went missing] are things like seeing Laci’s smile when she was doing her hair on the morning of the 24th,” Scott noted. “The way we shared a bowl of her cereal because we were too lazy to get two bowls. Just those little things are still with me.”
In the first episode of the doc, Scott was asked about a voicemail he left for Laci before he returned home the day of her disappearance. Scott defended the loving message after authorities speculated that he was faking it because he knew it would be heard later in the investigation.
“That was common for us. She would call me cutie and I would call her beautiful. We loved one another, we enjoyed one another and we were great friends. They implied it was too sweet of a message for a married couple or something,” he said on screen. “They have really sad marriages if they think that. I feel bad for them.”
Scott maintained that he didn’t initially think anything was wrong when he came home and Laci was gone.
“I just thought Laci’s with her friends or she’s at her mom’s house, which would not be uncommon. Then when I found out Laci wasn’t at her mother’s house, I started to get concerned,” he explained. “I know there is this narrative that I wasn’t concerned. But there were so many times where I was on the edge and just trying to hang on. I was surprised to read that in their reports, and it is all falsely reported about my mood.”
Scott added: “They are saying that because I was unwilling for the first few weeks to go in front of a camera and give them the terrible emotions I was feeling.”
His Response to a Search Warrant
Two days after Laci was reported missing, the police got permission to search Scott’s home and warehouse. Scott wasn’t thrilled at the lack of trust from the authorities, which was considered a red flag by the police.
“It was so clear what was happening. They had this assumption — I think it is called confirmation bias where they look for evidence that supports their bias. And that’s what they did. Detective Brocchini specifically told the teams what he thought happened and what he wanted to find,” Scott claimed. “They came into our house not to look for Laci but to look for evidence against me. They did a search of our house, with absolutely no forensic evidence. There’s no blood or struggle. Nothing like that. Yet they continue to focus on me.”
The Modesto Police Department mentioned finding evidence at Scott’s warehouse of five homemade anchors — four of which weren’t recovered. Scott waved off the theory that he used four of them to weigh down Laci’s body when he allegedly dropped her body in the marina.
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How His Affair With Amber Frey Factored Into the Investigation
One month before Laci disappeared, Scott started secretly dating Frey after being introduced by mutual friends. Frey got in contact with the police when she saw coverage about Laci in the news, and their affair led investigators to a potential motive once Laci’s remains were found in 2003.
“That’s so offensive and so disgusting. I just don’t get that argument, and it’s absolutely not true. I certainly regret cheating on Laci,” Scott shared in Peacock’s special. “It is about [being] childish and lacking self esteem and selfishness. It was me traveling somewhere and being lonely because I wasn’t at home. Then someone makes you feel good because they want to have sex with you. That’s what it was to me.”
Scott defended his decision to remain in contact with Frey even after Laci went missing. According to Scott, he intentionally spoke with Amber so she wouldn’t go public with their relationship, which he thought would cause the police to stop searching for Laci.
“The search for Laci would stop as soon as the public and police know I was having sex with another woman,” he claimed. “It simply wasn’t [a relationship]. That’s a misconception and I was absolutely wrong. It is a horrible truth. There are thoughts that haunt me. It’s devastating. I feel such shame and guilt that me having sex with Amber Frey did all that. That they didn’t look for [Laci] alive.”
Bringing Missing Key Evidence to Light
“I wasn’t the last one to see Laci that day. There are so many credible witnesses who saw her walking in our neighborhood,” Scott noted. “I recently learned that in one of the reports, a person came down to talk to the police and they were told, ‘No, you are wrong. You didn’t see her.’ They just dismissed him without looking into it. That’s devastating to learn that kind of stuff.”
Face to Face With Scott Peterson featured interviews with several people from the neighborhood who all claimed they saw Laci walking her dog the morning she went missing. They were all surprised the police didn’t follow up with them since their testimonies meant Laci was still alive that morning and was headed away from the home she shared with Scott.
Dealing With the Public Backlash
“I had people spit on me at gas stations. I received death threats on the phone,” Scott recalled about being considered the prime suspect before his arrest. “I had someone in the front yard claiming they were a witch and burying things. I wish I could say I was stronger, but all that stuff did take a toll on me.”
Scott discussed being on “no sleep” as he was desperate to keep the search for Laci and their unborn child going. He was subsequently asked about the day Laci and his son’s remains were missing in the marina.
“There had been a report that a body had been found on the shore in the bay. We thought because there wasn’t an announcement, it wasn’t her,” he admitted. “It wasn’t a thought.”
During an interview with Anderson, Scott broke down the timeline of the police arresting him after they followed his car for hours.
“When my family was having rough times, we always did something. We’d go play golf or we would go fishing off of San Diego. That’s how we relate. That’s how we’ve always gotten together. We never talked about the rough times, we’d just go do things together. It may seem odd to other people, but we’re not guys who talk,” he explained. “That day, I was headed to Torrey Pines golf course to play golf with my brothers and my dad. We just wanted to get together that day and be together.”
Scott got on the road and thought he was being followed by reporters. As a result, he started to drive faster, thinking he was getting away from strangers and not the police.
“I was never running from the police. I was always in contact with them. I answered most of their calls, but there were times I was very frustrated and would not take their calls,” he said about the various rumors regarding his arrest. “The reason I dyed my hair is because I was getting death threats. I had my brother’s drivers license with me to get a discount to play golf. It is much cheaper for someone who lives in the county.”
The results that confirmed Laci was the body found on the shore were released shortly after Scott’s arrest. He didn’t have an overtly emotional response, which law enforcement also cited as an example of why they considered that he knew what happened to Laci.
“I didn’t think it was them. When they told me, I had just a terrible physical reaction, a really emotional physical reaction,” he told the director of the doc. “But I was in a car with two detectives. Really didn’t believe the police so much when they told me. Part of me said, ‘No, that’s not possible.'”
Having Regrets About the Trial
Scott didn’t testify during the 2004 trial, in which he was found guilty for the murder of Laci and his unborn son. Looking back now, Scott admitted he would have approached the legal situation differently since his future was on the line.
“I would not waive time on my trial. I look back at that now and I wonder if that was the right decision. I have the evidence in my innocence, and it was a nightmare being stuck in county jail. I just wanted to show it as soon as possible,” he detailed. “Now I look back at some of the things we’ve learned, some of the things we were still learning during trial. I wonder if I had been more prudent or patient, maybe things would have been different.”
Despite the evidence presented to the jury, Scott didn’t think he would be found guilty.
“I was totally expecting to go home that day. It was like this horrible physical reaction that I had. Everything just went kind of silent. I couldn’t feel anything,” he continued. “I couldn’t feel my feet on the floor. I couldn’t feel the chair I was sitting in. My vision was even a little blurry. And I just had this weird sensation that I was falling forward. I was staggered by it. I had no idea it was coming.”
What Scott Thinks Happened to Laci
Throughout Face to Face With Scott Peterson, multiple people that were interviewed pointed out how Scott and Laci’s neighbors were burglarized in the days she went missing. Two men were subsequently arrested but they only admitted to guilt related to the robbery and not Laci’s disappearance.
“You know, there was a burglary across the street from our home. There were a lot of people in that burglary,” Scott mentioned during the final part of the docuseries. “And I believe that Laci went over there to see what was going on. And that’s when she was taken.”
Scott and his family members remain convinced that Laci’s murder and the burglaries were connected.
“At the volunteer center, people were coming in and some wanted to go search while some came in with tips,” Scott claimed. ”I passed it on to the police because I wanted them to follow up and I thought they were following up on it. I found out later that they weren’t following up on anything.”
In addition to the burglary, Scott’s defense mentioned a burned van that was found near their neighborhood and a person who claimed they saw a pregnant woman being forced into a van. There was also a watch that could have belonged to Laci that ended up at a pawn shop and testimony from a correctional officer who alleged he heard phone conversations between prisoners that mentioned the robbers crossing paths with Laci.
“People wanted the answer they believed to continue to be the answer. We are all slow to admit we are wrong,” Scott said in the third part of the doc before claiming that even Laci’s body being found in the marina traced back to the police having it out for him. “Someone expressed it to me. The police just told everyone where you were. They just gave everyone a way to implicate you [by telling them where to dump Laci’s body].”
The detectives involved in the case shut down Scott’s theories by pointing out that the watch was never linked to Laci, the officer who gave a statement later allegedly recanted it and that they looked into every tip given to them.
Scott’s defense team tried to get DNA testing on a variety of objects but the judge denied everything except the tape found on Laci’s body.
Face to Face With Scott Peterson wrapped up with Scott reflecting on the memories he has of his time with Laci.
“Every moment is so real, so tactile, and still there, the smells and the light and the sound and when I said goodbye to Laci. And then my family was gone. I drove away expecting to come back that afternoon and have a wonderful Christmas together after we both had fun mornings,” he said. “And they were gone. And it’s still very, very present. But there are certainly times that I become a wreck. Excuse me, I’m trying not to be too emotional while I’m out here in the main room of the prison.”
Source Agencies
