I Was Pregnant: The Brutal Murder of Laci Peterson Comes to Stream

Twenty years ago, a horrific incident shocked the entire United States.

Scott Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife. Laci Peterson who was pregnant at the time of her death.

The man, now 51, returned to the media centre after Netflix recently published American Murder: Laci Peterson a docuseries directed by Skye Borgman that explores the young woman’s homicide through never-before-seen interviews with people close to the case and archival documents.

This is the second production of the streaming platform that bears the title American Murder. The first was the documentary series centered on the case of Chris Watts who murdered his pregnant wife and two young daughters in August 2018.

Christmas Eve 2002 could have been very special for Laci and Scott Peterson. She was 8 months pregnant with a boy named Connor, who was due early the following year.

For the same reason, this would be the last Christmas vacation between them alone as a couple. The next one would be spent with the new member of the family.

But that never happened.

Laci, 27, disappeared from her home in Modesto, California, this morning while she was about to walk her dog.

His mother Sharon Rocha became one of the last people to speak to him. The informal dialogue took place around 8:30 p.m. on December 23.

Scott told neighbors he was going to play golf, but he didn’t, prosecutors said. He actually drove to San Francisco Bay Area, about 60 miles from his home.

Scott would later tell local police that he was fishing on a boat he had recently purchased and when he returned home, his wife was gone. Even his family did not know he owned the boat.

After police were alerted to Laci’s strange disappearance, an intense and massive search was launched in Modesto, which later spread across the state of California and the country.

“I miss her every minute of every day,” Laci’s mother told the media, according to United International Press . “I miss the excitement in her voice when she tells me about the baby.”

Scott tried to cooperate in the search for his wife and in the information about what had happened on Christmas Eve. Despite these efforts, doubts began to creep in.

The story took a surprising turn in January 2003: Scott had begun a double life, a month before his wife and son on the way disappeared.

The fact was revealed when Amber Frey A 28-year-old masseuse went to police to say she She had been romantically involved with the subject and he had assured her from the start that he was not married.

“I’m so sorry to Laci’s family and the pain this has caused them. And I’m also praying for her safe return,” the woman said at a news conference.

Later, the missing young woman’s family came forward to explain that they had distanced themselves from Scott after losing trust in him. “Because there are so many questions that he hasn’t answered, I don’t support him anymore,” Laci’s brother said.

In April 2003, the remains of Laci and her unborn child were found at Point Isabel in Richmond, near where Scott was on his fishing boat.

According to medical examiner Dr. Brian Peterson, the woman’s body was in advanced decomposition and missing several parts, which he attributed to exposure to salt water and the presence of marine animals. He also said it was likely the baby’s body had been separated from its mother shortly before it was discovered.

After the remains were identified, investigators focused on finding Scott. At that time, Laci’s case was already being treated as a homicide investigation.

Scott was eventually arrested in nearby San Diego, nearly seven hours from his home in Modesto. He had bleached hair and $15,000 in cash, leading police to suggest he was planning to flee to Mexico, which he denied.

When he was indicted, Scott has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and I chose to hire the lawyer Marc Geragos who has defended figures such as Michael Jackson, Winona Ryder and Chris Brown.

The trial began in June 2003 in San Mateo County. There, prosecutors portrayed Scott as a “faithless” man who wanted to end his marriage to Laci and who actually did not want to be a father.

Family members of the victim testified that Scott did not seem very upset or concerned after his wife disappeared. In fact, his cousin Harvey Kemple said he saw “more of a reaction” from Scott when a chicken burned at a barbecue, compared to when Laci was missing.

Meanwhile, Scott insisted that while he made a mistake by being unfaithful to his wife, he did not kill her. His defense argued that Laci was murdered by a suspected robber.

Scott and his lawyers’ strategies to insist on his innocence were in vain. In November, the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder in Laci’s death and second-degree murder in the death of his son Connor.

A few months later, Judge Alfred Delucchi sentenced the man to death. . However, after his lawyers appealed, in 2020 the California Supreme Court overturned the sentence because the trial judge “committed a series of clear and significant errors in jury selection” that interfered with “Peterson’s right to an impartial jury at the sentencing phase,” it said. NBCNews .

In 2021, he was sentenced to life sentence without the possibility of parole. One of the most recent initiatives in this case came this year, when the nonprofit LA Innocence Project took on his case.

Nearly 22 years after her murder, Laci’s story is coming back to light in a new Netflix documentary series released August 14.

The production consists of three episodes featuring exclusive interviews with Laci’s friends and family, Scott’s close entourage, investigators, lawyers and journalists who were covering the events at the time.

However, Scott decided not to participate.

“I don’t think our show is missing anything, especially Scott,” he told the American media. TODAY . “Our main focus was Laci and we wanted to keep it that way.”

In any case, this is not the only streaming broadcast on the case. This August 20, it will premiere on the Peacock platform Face to Face with Scott Peterson which features Scott’s first interview in 20 years.