A late-term fetus washed up from the San Francisco Bay shortly after so did his mom, their discovery led to the arrest of the least likely person.
Laci Denise Rocha was born on May 4th 1975 to loving parents Sharon and Dennis Rocha. She was expected to be raised on the family's dairy farm just west of Escalon, California. Laci and her older brother would help out around the farm from young ages, enjoying the little jobs they did to help their parents. Laci especially enjoyed gardening with her mom.
While the kids were both under ten, Sharon and Dennis divorced with Sharon taking the kids and moving to Modesto. They would visit their dad and the farm every weekend. Sharon would remarry and have two children with a man called Ron Grantski, who would play a big role in raising Laci and her brother.
In junior high, Laci would find cheerleading. A sport that led to a supportive group of friends and a budding social life that followed her until she graduated high school. Soon after graduating from Thomas Downey High, Laci went on to attend California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) majoring in ornamental horticulture. Her passion for gardening as a child grew into a potentially successful career path.
Whilst still studying at Cal Poly, Laci would go to a restaurant at Morro Bay called Pacific Café. She went frequently because her friend was one of the workers. That friend had a co-worker that had caught Laci's eye, Scott Peterson. Laci was enamoured from first glance, handing over her phone number the first time she met him. She would even tell her mother that she had met the man she would marry one day.
The pair would date for the following couple of years before moving in together towards the end of the 1990s. During the relationship, Scott willingly stopped pursuing his dream of becoming a professional golfer in favour of a safer career in business. Laci continued her major in ornamental horticulture.
Years of the couple being seemingly happy and faithful would pass until Scott was in his senior year at Cal Poly. It was at this point that he would have two affairs with two different women, they remain unnamed for privacy. These affairs are the first that are known but Scott may have cheated before this. It's unclear if Laci knew of the affairs or not but the couple married on August 9th 1997 at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort in Avila Valley.
After Laci and Scott graduated from their respective courses at Cal Poly, they opened a sports bar called The Shack in San Luis Obispo. It was a fairly successful business, especially on the weekends. Despite the success, the Petersons sold The Shack when they decided to move back to Modesto to be near Laci's family. They moved in October 2000, purchasing a three-bedroom bungalow in an upscale neighbourhood near East La Loma Park. The Shack sold in April 2001.
Once the move to Modesto was settled, Laci began taking on part-time jobs as a substitute teacher and Scott started working at a fertilizer company, Tradecorp USA. According to Laci's mother and her younger sister, she was enthusiastic about being a "perfect" housewife and friends around the couple claimed they never saw them argue, they described the Petersons as happy. So, it came as no surprise to those closest to the couple when Laci became pregnant in May 2002, her due date set around February 10th. The baby was planned to be called Conner.
It seems that the pregnancy was going smoothly for Laci and the couple were living in the bliss of their next step in life. Of course, the perceived image isn't always what's happening behind closed doors.
In November 2002, Scott was introduced to Amber Frey by a friend. According to later public statements made by Amber, she claimed that Scott introduced himself as single, and the two started a romantic relationship soon after meeting. Meanwhile, Laci was at home seven months pregnant with Scott's child. Once again it's unclear if Laci knew about the affair but the relationship carried on as normal until the 24th of December when police received a call. Laci Peterson was missing.
A little over a week before the report, Scott's family went on a three-day weekend in Carmel, California with Laci and Scott. It was a Christmas celebration trip.
On December 23rd 2002, Laci and Scott went to Salon Salon, the place where Laci's sister Amy worked. Amy would cut Scott's hair every month. Whilst they were talking, Scott offered to pick up a fruit basket that Amy had ordered for her grandfather, it was his Christmas gift. Scott had only offered since he claimed the golf course he would be going to was nearby.
Amy wasn't the only person that Scott told he planned to go play golf on Christmas Eve.
That same day Margarita Nava cleaned the couple's home, later stating that Laci seemed tired after a day of shopping. It wasn't uncommon for her to be in that way as she came towards the end of her pregnancy.
The last person to speak to Laci was her mother over the phone at 8:30 pm on the 23rd.
Scott claimed that he had last seen Laci as he was leaving at 9:30 the following morning, she had a list of things she was planning to do. The list included watching a cooking show, mopping the floors, baking some cookies and taking their dog McKenzie out for a walk. He was leaving to go fishing at Berkeley Marina which was nearly the direct opposite of the golfing plan he had told people of the day prior.
A neighbour of the Peterson said that he saw McKenzie walking around the neighbourhood with a muddy leash at around 10:45. He was out with his own dog at the time and took McKenzie to the front yard of the Peterson's house, not thinking anything was out of place.
Another neighbour saw McKenzie out in the front yard alone and moved them to the back so that they would be safer. This was claimed to be at around 10:30.
The two stories have a muddled timeline that could be explained in a multitude of ways. The most likely is as simple as misremembering.
Scott returned from his fishing trip at some point that afternoon to an empty house. Yet, Laci's car was parked in the driveway and McKenzie was in the backyard. Scott claimed that his next action was to call Sharon, Laci's mom, but Sharon denied that call took place in her book. He then claimed to have taken a shower and washed his clothes as they got wet from the bay and rain. He then ate a pizza with a glass of milk.
It isn't entirely clear just how Laci was reported missing. Some reports say that Scott called around the family to find her before he reported her missing while others claim that Ron Grantski, Laci's stepfather, reported her missing after Sharon spoke to Scott and they couldn't find Laci. Either way, Laci was reported missing on the 24th of December.
Police arrived at the Peterson home, and quickly found Laci's purse and keys inside one of her bags in a closet.
Scott was also interviewed by police on the 24th. In his initial interview, Scott told the police that he went golfing but later changed it that he had gone fishing for sturgeon, saying he went 90 miles from home.
He also pointed out that he had left Laci a message at 2:15 pm stating "Hey, Beautiful. It's 2:15. I'm leaving Berkeley.".
One of the lead detectives on the case, Jon Buehler, found Scott suspicious of something. He stated that Scott's "calm, cool demeanour and his lack of questioning" were what threw him the most. Buehler further described Scott's behaviour as "a strange combination of polite and arrogant, disaffectedly distant and impatiently irritable".
Searches in the area began almost immediately after the report was made.
Sharon came out to help with searching, starting in the park where her daughter usually walked the family dog at. Whilst there, Sharon spotted Scott, he was only 20 to 30 feet away from her when she started calling out his name. Scott entirely ignored her.
Sharon saw Scott again at the Peterson home, he continued to act distant and turned away from her when she tried to hug him.
Another search effort was made on the day after Laci's disappearance by Modesto police and firefighters. The search included helicopters, horseback and bicycle units and water rescue on rafts. There was a total of thirty officers along with loved ones and volunteers out searching along Dry Creek on Christmas Day.
Police revealed early on in the investigation that they didn't believe that Laci would have willingly left, finding it completely out of character for her to leave without telling her family.
Over 1500 volunteers signed up to help out, not including Laci's loved ones. They joined in on searches, running the command centre set up at a nearby Red Lion Hotel where they recorded and circulated information. They put up fliers and posters and tied blue or yellow ribbons all over town to help raise awareness.
Amber Frey, Scott's mistress, came forward on December 30th 2002 after seeing Scott was a person of interest in the disappearance of his pregnant wife. She told the police all about her relationship with Scott. More importantly, she told them about what Scott had said on December 9th.
Amber reportedly began to suspect Scott was married and confronted him about her concerns. He would say that he was married and that the upcoming holidays would be the first without his late wife.
The police would later see this piece of information as a sign that Scott had been planning to kill Laci since the 9th.
There were no more leads in Laci's disappearance that would go anywhere. It wouldn't be until four months later when a couple walking their dog discovered the start of the end of the case.
The couple had found a decomposing body of a late-term male fetus on the marshy shore of the San Francisco Bay near Point Isabel Regional Shoreline.
Just a day later on April 14th, a body was found a mile away on a rocky shoreline of the San Francisco Bay. She was recently pregnant and dressed in a pair of beige pants and a maternity bra. She was decomposed to the point of being barely recognizable as a human. The remains were only a torso and partially intact legs.
April 18th 2003 it was confirmed that the remains found were Laci and Conner Peterson. Not much was able to be determined through the autopsies, too much decomposition and wildlife disturbance had taken place.
The same day that DNA confirmed it was Laci and Conner found that Scott Peterson was arrested near a La Jolla golf course. He had dyed his hair blond and his car was stuffed with belongings. Just to list a few things he had in the car - nearly $15k in cash, survival & camping gear, 12 Viagra tablets, 4 cell phones, and 2 driver's licenses (his and his brother's). To the police this made it seem like Scott had intentions of running.
April 21st 2003, Scott was charged with 2 felony counts of murder with premeditation and special circumstances. He pleaded not guilty.
It was on November 12th 2004 that Scott was officially convicted of the first-degree murder of Laci Peterson and the second-degree murder of Conner Peterson.
First-degree murder comprises all premeditated killings where someone dies during the commission of a robbery, carjacking, rape or other serious crime. If the crime involves lying in wait, torture, a destructive device, or other special circumstance then the sentencing options are either life in prison without parole or capital punishment.
Second-degree murder is a murder that does not involve premeditation and carries a conviction of 15 years to life.
He was sentenced to death with the judge describing the murders as "cruel, uncaring, heartless, and callous".
In November 2020, Scott's death sentence was overturned in favour of life in prison.
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