It’s been 20 years since Scott Peterson was convicted of killing his wife, Laci, who was eight months pregnant with their son, who was to be named Connor, on or about Dec. 24, 2002.
What makes the case so disturbing is that it shed light on a growing issue that no one discusses. Twenty percent of pregnant women who die before given birth are the victims of murder. News has come in this week that law officers in Massachusetts have arrested a former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell on allegations he killed the 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore, who he had met when she was teenager. Farwell allegedly killed her in 2021 and staged it like it was a suicide. She was reportedly pregnant at the time of her death.
I was visiting my dad and stepmother when the trial of Scott Peterson was winding down and my stepmother commented she feared he would be acquitted. Scott had those GQ preppie boy looks. Would a jury of 12 people actually believe he killed his wife, especially if there wasn’t much evidence of a crime? It’s no surprise a TV movie released during the winter of 2004 had Dean Cain playing Scott. The former Superman actor turned conservative Christian crazy kinda resembled Scott.
And when the atrociously bad Gone Girl went from book to screen, it was Ben Affleck playing the protagonist who is loosely inspired by Scott. You could also see some of Scott in a resemblance with Affleck. The American public was having a hard time trying to picture clean-cut poster boys of the All-American man could be psychopaths. But then, you have Alex Kelly, Robert Chambers and Lyle and Eric Menendez. I’m almost certain Bret Easton Ellis used Kelly and Chambers as the inspiration for Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. And in an odd coincidence, Christian Bale played both Bateman and Walter Wade Jr. (a Chambers/Kelly hybrid) in the 2000 Shaft movie.
When people think of Laci, people see that Christmas party photo that was taken at a friend’s house days before her murder. Laci is smiling and looks happy with her hands together resting on her lap as she sits is a chair. But there’s a horrible story behind it. The reason she’s all by herself in that photo because it was later revealed that Scott was away with his girlfriend, Amber Frey.
There are two recent docuseries, both cut into three parts an hour long each, released on streaming services days apart that focus on this case. The better one is on Netflix and called American Murder: Laci Peterson. It presents a very objective and detailed recount of the case, trial and aftermath. I’ll admit it’s probably a good hour longer than it should be but as we hear from all sides, I think it’s necessary as people talk about Scott and Laci painting pictures of them. The focus brings some life to who Laci was.
One thing the Netflix documentary does have is an interview with Frey, who wants to set the record straight she wasn’t Scott’s mistress. She’s adamant that she didn’t know Scott was married when they met. A mistress is someone who knows a man is married and continues to see him. It was possibly Frey whose testimony sealed the deal. Why would Scott lie and say he was a widower?
She said she never knew Scott was married or he was connected to Laci until she was shown the news article. It was because the family of Peterson had connections with public relations/marketing that the story was able to be spread more during a time when social media didn’t really exist outside of chat rooms. Frey and Scott had only met about a month before Laci went missing.
Granted the circumstantial evidence points to Scott without much hard-core evidence. But the case asks a lot of questions. Why did Scott not want to sign an initial search warrant of his house if he believed Laci had been kidnapped? Why did Scott leave a pregnant wife alone on Christmas Eve to go fishing about a 100 miles away? Why was his fishing gear not opened and still left in the packaging? Why did he tell police it was a spur of the moment thing but he had already purchased a fishing license? Why did he tell people he wanted to surprise relatives with the recent purchase of a boat? Why did he wait so long after he got home to start making calls to see if Laci had left the house?
And the biggest questions is why did Scott seem to avoid all the on-camera publicity? Was he afraid of Frey seeing it and calling it in? It didn’t matter because she did call a tip-line saying Scott was her boyfriend. From there, Scott had a motive to kill Laci and continue to date Frey. For what it’s worth, I’ve always felt Frey was given a bum rap. She didn’t know Scott was married as much as him and Laci’s family didn’t know about her.
There also was a burglary case that occurred Dec. 24-26, 2002 at the Peterson’s neighbors who lived across the street. It’s been theorized that Laci was walking her dog when she observed the burglary and was kidnapped by Steven Todd and Donald Pearce, two petty thieves. Todd and Pearce were later arrested in connection with the burglary but they denied kidnapping Laci. I have to agree with them. Burglars wouldn’t break into a house on Christmas Eve during the mid-morning hours. This is the one time of a week day in which a lot of people would be at home as that day fell on a Tuesday.
However, the Peacock docuseries Face to Face with Scott Peterson drives this theory into the ground over and over. The burglars said they thought they had broke into the house on Dec. 27 but the homeowners were back by that day. Scott and his legal defense argue the Modesto Police Department fed Todd and Pearce the information that they had to do it on Dec. 26 when the homeowners were still away for the holidays.
However, the police say Todd and Pearce have substantiated reports they were nowhere near the house on Dec. 24. All items taken were recovered but there were no items connected to Laci. Thieves and burglars may not be the smartest people in the world. But they’re not crazy. Pearce died in 2019 and a title card says Todd refused to be interviewed for the series.
In the jail and prison system, acts of violence against women and especially child aren’t tolerated by inmates. Why would career criminals risk getting shanked in prison just to avoid breaking and entering charges? Also, neither Todd nor Pearce had access to boat. Why drive out to the San Francisco Bay area to dump a body? Scott puts himself in the Bay area on Christmas Eve the same day Laci went missing.
It’s a stretch. Earlier this year, the Innocence Project began to defend Scott which caused some controversy. I guess some people don’t know that one of their co-founders Barry Scheck represented O.J. Simpson and helped question the DNA evidence which was the key to that murder trial. The Peacock series touches on the case but it seems they stretching for a connection. By their arguments, anyone who was in Modesto in the mid-day time frame on Christmas Eve 2002 killed Laci
If Laci had been out walking and she did see some people burglarizing a home, I doubt she would’ve been forced into the van. She had a baby inside her. She would’ve screamed for help. Also, when he is interviewed by police, Scott is already referring to Laci in the past tense, when she is just supposed to be missing.
The “Face to Face” are really just video calls as we seem Scott flash that dopey smile of his as he continues to lie to everyone. A lot of Laci’s friends and family aren’t interviewed. This is more of a pro-Scott series. So, unless, you really, really think Scott is innocent, it’s just people saying the same things they said in the Netflix series by over and over.
I mean, I’m biased. I think he did it because the evidence is there. I was a crime reporter for 10 years. I know that if you have a dead person and you think the murderer is someone close to them, majority of times it’s correct. There’s nothing I’ve seen or heard in the last 20 years that would change my mind. The evidence points to him.
I would recommend you skip the Peacock series unless you just like true-crime so much you enjoy the good, the bad and the ugly.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 