48 Hours - ENCORE: Scott Peterson: Case in Question

Episode Date: January 16, 2022

He was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife. The “other woman” recorded his calls for the prosecution. With his death sentence now overturned there’s a renewed push to clear him. "48 Hours" contributor Jonathan Vigliotti reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. This was a perfect true crime case. It had mystery, murder, sex, media obsession. I'm Jack Leonard. I'm Senior Editor of Investigations at the Los Angeles Times. Sex, media obsession. Scott, how do you feel about all these cameras pointed at you? I'm Jack Leonard. I'm Senior Editor of Investigations at the Los Angeles Times.

Police in Modesto, California have very few leads in the search for Lacey Peterson, a 27-year-old pregnant woman who vanished without a trace on Christmas Eve. Whoever has her, please, please, please let her go. Bring her back. It's one of the most sensational murder cases in years. Scott Peterson, accused, convicted, and sentenced to death for killing his pregnant wife and dumping her body in the San Francisco Bay. But now, there's a new twist. California's highest court overturned the death penalty for Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his wife.

The verdict did not clear up anything. There's no smoking gun in this case. This man murdered Lacey Peterson. The prosecution couldn't tell you when it happened. They couldn't tell you where it happened. They couldn't tell you how it happened. And they couldn't tell you why it happened. Scott,'t tell you how it happened. And they couldn't tell you why it happened. Scott, if you could send a message to your wife now.

This was such a famous case. Everyone was talking about it. Christmas Eve, 2002. You have a beautiful young woman, Lacey Peterson. She's eight months pregnant. Suddenly, she vanishes. We're searching, we're looking, and we're going to find you. Her family is distraught, but as the reporters show up,

they say that her husband, Scott Peterson, is not showing that kind of emotion. People wonder, what is he hiding? While investigators are focusing on Lacey's husband, they're not calling him a suspect. It turned out Scott Peterson was hiding something. He had a girlfriend. Scott told me he was not married. Amber Fry. We did have a romantic relationship. And suddenly you had Scott Peterson declared as the most hated man in America.

Nobody believes you. Nobody I've run into believes any part of your story. It was a circus there. It was a full-on media feeding frenzy. Guess what, Scotty? San Quentin's your new home. This case spawned made-for-TV movies and a blockbuster movie, Gone Girl. Twenty years later, this case still holds a lot of interest, mostly because it remains an enduring mystery. Scott did not get a fair trial.

I just don't believe a person can commit a murder and transport a body 90 miles and not leave some trace of evidence. You think this is enough to prove his innocence? Absolutely. My name is Janie Peterson. I am Scott and Lacey Peterson's sister-in-law. These are the people that the police never made a follow-up visit with them. We're doing what we're doing to get to the truth.

Everything on this board is a fact. There's nothing that's come out that's made me change my view that Scott got a fair trial and that Scott is the one who killed Lacey. The wrong person's in prison, and that's what this is about. Well, I guess possible, but, you know, there's still people that believe the Earth is flat, too. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own.

She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marcia Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for

the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. That's the infamous San Quentin Prison,

the last stop for men on death row here in California, and where our story begins, because that's where Scott Peterson remains behind bars. Nobody believes you. Nobody I've run into believes any part of your story. For years, I've heard about the Peterson story, a murder mystery that captivated America. Lacey and her unborn child did not deserve to die. Peterson was ultimately convicted of murdering his pregnant wife Lacey and their unborn child Connor. He was sentenced to death.

Guilty of the crime of murder. But Scott Peterson's death sentence has since been thrown out, and several questions still remain. Some people believe he is innocent, that he was railroaded, even framed. Others say there is no question he is guilty. It was just on the other side of the same bay, nearly 20 years ago, the bodies of Lacey Peterson and her unborn child Connor washed up on shore. Christmas Eve 2002. Lacey Peterson was first reported missing by her family.

Police in Modesto, California have a mystery on their hands. A woman who is eight months pregnant has been missing since Tuesday when she left home to take her dog for a walk. It happened in the city of Modesto in California's Central Valley. Scott and Lacey Peterson lived here on a quiet residential street. Christmas Day morning about nine o'clock I get a call. I was a police detective at Modesto Police Department. Detective John Buehler worked the case from the beginning. Lacey was about as pure a victim as you can get.

She was about eight months pregnant when she disappeared. We went over to the Peterson house, which is when I first met Scott. And the detective remembers noticing something odd about Scott's behavior. He was a little bit, he just didn't seem interested. Before the sun rose on Christmas Day, police interviewed Peterson. You have no idea where this is. You guys have any problems, marriage problems? Everything's good?

Scott told police that Christmas Eve day, he left Lacey alone and went off on a fishing trip. He said when he got home, Lacey wasn't there. Only their dog, Mackenzie. And Mackenzie's there in the front yard area, the street area, with a leash on that's kind of muddy. And he's thinking that this is kind of strange why would that be his theory was that she had gone down into the park and had been walking the dog and something happened down there abduction or something like that police immediately started a search officers returned in force this morning combing the park and creek bank on foot and on horseback relatives friends and neighbors joined in distributing flyers and searching the park and creek bank on foot and on horseback. Relatives, friends, and neighbors joined in, distributing flyers and searching the park. Do you have any questions? But Buehler saw no sense

of urgency from Scott Peterson. No, I mean, I've asked you a couple times what to do, so I have the answers to that. Oftentimes, a victim who's left behind is firing tons of questions at us, and we didn't get any of that from him. The response from everyone else close to Lacey was very different. We're searching, we're looking, and we're going to find you. Everybody was going crazy. Everybody was impatient. Whoever has her, please, please, please let her go. Bring her back. Please, let us have her back. I don't have a lot of salary back.

Family, friends, the whole community mobilized immediately to join the search for Lacey. We are asking that you look for women's clothing. Sharon Rocha, Lacey's mom, her stepdad, Ron Gransky, her friends, her brother Brent, her sister Amy. They just saw this whole world coming down. They were always struggling to hold back tears, but when it came to Scott, he always would hold back a little bit. He wouldn't show you all of his cards. Officers began a search of the couple's home late last night. We knew we had to focus on him from the start because that's the way you work a homicide. Nobody's been rolled out. That's what we're trying to do right now.

Because generally there's going to be somebody with motive and generally the motive is going to be somebody close. On the morning of Lacey's disappearance, Scott told police he drove to this boat launch about 90 miles away from his home. He said he wanted to take his brand new boat out on the water to go fishing for sturgeon, but he never caught a single fish.

As he drove home, he called Lacey and left a message on her phone. Okay, beautiful, I just left a message at home. 2-15, I live in Berkeley, I won't be able to get to the Vela Farms to get that basket for Papa. I was hoping you would get this message and go on out there. I'll see you in a bit. We love you. Bye. It seemed like a very scripted message. It just, it seemed phony to me.

Skeptical detectives also wondered why Scott would have gone fishing in the first place. It was Christmas Eve and his wife was eight months pregnant. Peterson told investigators he had originally planned to golf that day, but decided to go fishing because of the chilly weather. It's getting too cold to go skate golf at the club, so. You got a guy who changes his alibi from golf to fishing because he said it was too cold to golf, but it ain't too cold to go fishing? Are you kidding me? Day after day, the search widened mind if I give this to you?...the search widened.

That's for the Lacey Peterson. Whoever has Lacey, the reward is $500,000. Take the money, bring my daughter back safe, and take the money and go and get away free. And the story spread. First of all, you had an attractive-looking couple, and why would a pregnant woman suddenly disappear when she's got plans to be with her family?

And it was Christmas Eve, so there's nothing else going on in the news. So this attracted attention, first of all, from local news and then national, and then it went global. But hopes for finding Lacey Peterson alive were fading. We still don't have any significant lead into finding Lacey Peterson. Please don't give up on us. But please send Lacey back to us. And police continue to pay close attention to Scott Peterson. Discoveries during the investigation have necessitated the revisiting of the Peterson residence with a second search warrant. They also asked him to take a polygraph. He refused. Scott told us that he wouldn't take the polygraph,

and so that arched our eyebrows a little bit that he wouldn't take this thing. Recently, investigators released photos of Peterson's pickup and boat, hoping someone could back up his story. Scott, a quick comment? Both Scott and Lacey's family stood with him. I mean, Scott, there's no way in God's green earth that he's, you know, even remotely involved in this thing. We feel Scott has nothing to do with it. We're looking for Lacey and we're going to find her.

Then it looked like there was a break in the case. We received a tip yesterday. Detectives discovered there had been a burglary right here, just across the street from the Peterson home. One witness told police she believed that burglary happened the same morning Lacey disappeared. But police quickly put that clue to rest. We're confident that we have the people in custody for the burglary and they are not connected with the missing of Lacey Peterson. Then, about a month after Lacey went missing, She is prepared to give a statement.

this case took a dramatic turn. The first big break we got in the case was, of course, Amber coming forward. We did have a romantic relationship. So I'm here to call you. Thank you. He was looking for someone to be with, someone to spend the rest of his life with. Amber Fry had no idea her boyfriend, Scott Peterson, was married with a pregnant wife. She told Inside Edition all about their love affair. You know, I was at a point in my life that I was ready to meet someone too.

Amber was 27 years old when she met Peterson. It was November 2002, a month before Lacey went missing. Amber says Scott told her he was a widower. They dined on strawberries and champagne and she was beginning to fall for him. It was real for me and it felt real for him too. A woman who is eight months pregnant has been missing since Tuesday. But after a friend saw the Peterson story in the news, he told Amber and Amber called the police. Detective Buehler and his partner raced down to Amber's home. Her recall was fantastic. It was almost like it was a script from a Hallmark TV show or something. She could remember restaurants they went to, what they ate. She could remember what Scott was wearing. She would remember what she was wearing. And Amber had pictures. You know, the Scots in a tux.

Amber's in that red dress or getting ready for the Christmas party. That Christmas party was just a week and a half before Lacey would go missing. The detectives were stunned. We had a guy who looked like the guy you want to marry your younger sister. But now we found that there was that shink in the armor. It doesn't mean that he killed Lacey, but what it meant to us is there was another side to him that had not been exposed before. Investigators saw an opportunity. Maybe Amber could help them find out what happened to Lacey.

They asked how I felt about tape recording conversation with Scott, and I said yes. She had an investment, an emotional and a budding romantic investment in this guy, and I think she saw it crumbling in front of her. The recordings would become part of a damning case against Scott. But first, Amber addressed the questions about her relationship. Scott told me he was not married. I am very sorry for Lacey's family and the pain that this has caused them.

Hey Scott, do you have anything to say? Lacey's family turned on him. I would like Scott to know that I trusted him. However, Scott has not been forthcoming with information regarding my sister's disappearance. And I'm only left to question what else he may be hiding. It was huge. It was wild. And it made the case even bigger. You really had the rise of the 24-hour cable news. You had Larry King on there interviewing legal experts, including Nancy Grace. Almost from the beginning, she was zeroing in on Scott. Why did he leave his wife alone,

eight months pregnant on Christmas Eve? Scott gave an interview to ABC's Diane Sawyer while Lacey was still missing. When asked about the marriage, he appeared to refer to Lacey in the past tense. We took care of each other very well. She was amazing. He is amazing. You ever heard the phrase, a slip of the tongue? And there was another interview Scott gave with then-CBS reporter Gloria Gomez. Why would you leave Lacey alone to go fishing on Christmas Eve? Okay.

Scott explains that as a couple, they had different interests. We have separate pursuits, and being, you know, seven and a half months pregnant, she's not going to want to go out in a boat. But critics of Scott say the most surprising moment may be what happened when Scott's phone began to ring during the interview. Lacey was missing, and Scott doesn't pick up the phone. He told me to turn that off. Yeah, what is that?

That's my phone, unfortunately. I thought it was off. Yeah, it's kind of going crazy, isn't it? He didn't hesitate to turn it off, and some would say that if you're a concerned husband, if your wife is missing, you know, you have that cell phone clinging to you and every call would be an urgent call. And then more than three months after Lacey Peterson disappeared here in San Francisco Bay, over here, the bodies of Lacey and Connor washed up, only a few miles away from where Scott Peterson said he was fishing. With the discovery of the bodies, detectives decided to move quickly.

Our concern was maybe he's going to head for the border. Authorities finally caught up with Scott at a San Diego golf course. He told them he was supposed to play around with his father. He also had about $15,000 in cash and his hair was dyed blonde. He had his brother's driver's license in it, in the car with him, like two or three cell phones. And so, you know, not the normal stuff you have if you're going down to the local Winn-Dixie to get groceries. Scott Peterson has been arrested, that he is in the custody of Modesto Police Department detectives. Just over a year later, here in Redwood City, California, Scott Peterson went on trial. The trial had been moved about 90 miles from Modesto because of the huge amount of publicity.

This is a capital case. I'm worried about my client's life. Peterson had a high-priced Hollywood dream team of attorneys led by Mark Garagos, famous for defending celebrities like Michael Jackson. It's a beautiful day in Redwood City. What did the state say they believed happened? Which part of the trial? They changed their story a couple times. Attorney Michael Cardoza also worked on Scott Peterson's case.

And though he was not part of the courtroom defense team, he says the prosecutor's theory of what Scott did to Lacey was confusing. First it was he killed her the night before. Put her in a rug, put her in a rug, put her in the truck, took her to the warehouse, took her to Berkeley and dumped her in the bay. Then later it was, yeah, I guess we really don't know when she was killed, where she was killed, but we do know he did it. Come on, guys, make up your mind. But the case against Scott would get a lot clearer when prosecutors started playing those recordings, the ones Amber Frye managed to secretly make. Hello?

Baby? Yes. Hey. Oh my goodness. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind

the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls

from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I'm here. I wish you could hear me. Just about everyone who was inside this courthouse at the time agrees. It was the tape-recorded phone calls between Amber Fry and Scott Peterson that really grabbed the jury. Take a listen to

this. That's Scott Peterson, one week after Lacey went missing, on the phone with Amber, pretending he's calling from Paris, when authorities say he was really in Modesto while the search for Lacey was still going on. Do you know anything about the disappearance of Lacey Peterson? Amber Fry, simply. That's what turned that trial. It was the pretext phone calls that Amber Fry made to Scott Peterson. They were pretty damning. They're no question. That's what changed this trial.

They were pretty damning. There's no question. That's what changed this trial. As jurors listen, Amber confronts Peterson about Lacey. I deserve to understand an explanation of why you told me you'd lost your wife and this was the first holidays you'd spend without her. That was December 9th you told me this, and now all of a sudden your wife's missing? Are you kidding me? I never cheated on you. I never did. After the jury heard those calls with Amber, Attorney Cardoza says everything changed.

So you're saying the emotion, the high emotion here, drowned out the facts that were introduced by the defense? That emotion was so loud they could hear nothing else. And then, with crowds gathered outside and no cameras allowed in court, on November 12, 2004, a verdict. We, the jury and the above entitled cause, find the defendant, Scott Lee Peterson, guilty of the crime of murder of Lacey Denise Peterson.

When the guilty verdict came back, you could hear the crowd outside when you were in the courtroom cheering, cheering. You don't think the jurors heard that? What kind of effect did that have on the next phase of the trial, the death? Four months later.

We, the jury in the above and total cause, fix the penalty at death. Sentenced to death, the applause was even louder. Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Christmas comes early. But inside the courtroom, it seemed to Lacey's family that Scott hardly responded. Just like always, yeah, no emotion, no nothing.

The man is a definite psychopath. He is getting exactly what he deserves. I've got plenty. There's more coming up. After the sentencing, some of the jurors lashed out at Peterson. He is a jerk, and I have one comment for Scott. You look somebody in the face when they're talking to you. Well, Scott came in with a great big smile on his face, laughing. It was just another day in paradise for Scott.

He's on his way home, Scott figures. Well, guess what, Scotty? San Quentin's your new home. And it's illegal to kill your wife and child in California. Juror number seven, Ms. Neese. Listen to what she says. San Quentin's your new home. You've just sentenced a man to death, and you're that bold in your statements? You'd think you'd be a little introspective about that, because there's nothing worse, nothing more ultimate, nothing more final than taking someone's life. Scott Peterson, I have no opinion on whether he's guilty or not guilty, but I do know Scott did not get a fair trial. He absolutely did not.

I do know Scott did not get a fair trial. He absolutely did not. Scott's attorneys filed appeals, and nearly 16 years after his conviction, a decision. As Scott Peterson sat behind bars here at San Quentin, the California Supreme Court threw out his death sentence. The Supreme Court said he is going to get a new trial on the death penalty phase. Pat Harris was part of Scott's defense team in the original trial and he continues to represent him. They determined that the judge had made a mistake

in how the jurors were selected based on the death penalty part of the trial. The result of that mistake, Scott's supporters say, was that the jury was stacked against him with pro-death penalty jurors. Scott's team is also arguing that it's not just his death sentence that was all wrong. They say Scott deserves a completely new trial to determine guilt, and the reason?

That juror, number seven, Richelle Nice. According to one of the jurors who was interviewed he said that she walked in the jury room and said what are we waiting for let's get rid of this guy. Nice declined our request for an interview. Harris maintains that Nice was biased from the beginning and when they were picking the original jury, Nice was not forthcoming about her own history. It's pretty clear that she lied to us straight to our face about her own situation. Prospective jurors filled out a questionnaire asking if they had in the past been in a lawsuit and if they had been crime victims and Nice checked no. And we've come to learn that, in fact, there were issues in her own circle of people, and there were straining orders.

In fact, Nice was involved in two domestic disputes in the past. But prosecutors say when Nice filled out that questionnaire, she didn't lie. She just didn't think her past experiences were relevant to the question. And she didn't see herself as a victim. Now a lower court will consider if Peterson will get a complete retrial. And his defenders are ready. Every piece of information we find out about this day further confirms that Scott is innocent. about this day further confirms that Scott is innocent.

Scott's sister-in-law, Janie Peterson, says there are witnesses who claim they saw Lacey very much alive after Scott had already left for his fishing trip that day. And you think this is enough to prove his innocence? Absolutely. Where are we right now? This is our family business and we have a back office here that we've dedicated to the case files for Scott's case. So this is really the war room here.

Yeah, yeah. And Scott's sister-in-law, Janie Peterson, has been at war for almost 20 years now. Even though Scott has only been granted a new trial on the death penalty, Janie is gearing up to prove his innocence. Janie is the heart and soul of the case. I'm not talking about emotions. I'm talking about evidence. Everything on this board is a fact. There's no scenario of guilt for Scott. Much of the case for Scott, she says, comes down to the timeline. What happened the morning Lacey disappeared? If Scott Peterson is guilty, what time did he commit this crime? He's on death row for the

murder of his wife and child, and no one has ever said what time he did this crime, how he did this crime, or the series of events of how he carried out this crime that fits the evidence. Basically, the day starts on the left side. According to Scott, that morning, he and Lacey had breakfast and watched Martha Stewart. Do you remember what the car he saw? Okay, he's a sub-star. They're talking about what to do with meringue. Ooh, you want to make little meringues? That would be nice. Scott told police Lacey was going to clean the house and then walk their dog,

Mackenzie. He told them that he left the house around 9 30 a.m. He said he went to a nearby warehouse where he had an office and sent an email from his computer before setting off with his boat to the Berkeley Marina. The prosecution argued that Scott had killed Lacey sometime before he left the house that morning. The state asserts that Scott murdered Lacey and that he loaded her body in his pickup, drove it to his warehouse. But if Lacey was seen alive after Scott left the house, Janie says the prosecution's case falls apart. There's an abundance of evidence that shows that Lacey was alive when he left for the day. What does this show here? The pink squares are all the people in the neighborhood who reported seeing Lacey or McKenzie that morning.

Janie says most of these witnesses reported the sightings between 9.45 and 10.30 in the morning after Scott said he'd left the house. She says so much depends on these witnesses, but the defense never called them to defend Scott at his trial. But if so many people saw Lacey, claimed to have seen Lacey after that point, why didn't the defense bring them to the stand so that we could hear from their mouth what they saw? I think there were multiple factors that played into it. You had people who, as time went by, thought that maybe what they saw wasn't relevant to the case. There's been a lot of criticism because we didn't call some witnesses who saw Lacey that day.

Scott Peterson's attorney, Pat Harris. The original thought process at the time was a number of the witnesses who saw her didn't have great memories or had conquered or contradicting each other police detective John Buehler says none of the witnesses were actually sure if they did in fact see Lacey now there are three girls in the neighborhood, two of them which were pregnant at the time, and two of them having dogs walking the neighborhood.

So it would be real easy for somebody to mistakenly see one of those three girls as being Lacey. Still, Janie Peterson says there is a witness who helps prove Lacey was alive after Scott left that morning. It was the mailman. And what the mailman said is that when I went by the Peterson house the morning of December 24th, I went by there between 1030 and 1050, and the gate was open, and Mackenzie was not on the property. Janie says that's because Lacey was out walking Mackenzie. If Mackenzie had been home, she argues, he would have barked at the mailman because he always did.

And this dog in particular barked at that mailman every single day, whether he was behind the gate or in the house. So what you are saying is during this time, Lacey had Mackenzie and they were on a walk. Lacey had Mackenzie, and they were on a walk. And according to Janie, if Lacey was out walking her dog, then Scott, who was in his office sending an email, could not have killed her. But when it came time to testify, the mailman didn't have a clear recollection and said nothing out of the ordinary happened that day. Maybe more importantly to a new defense case, though, is what Janie believes actually happened to Lacey. Instead of Scott killing his pregnant wife, she says it's more

likely it was those burglars who robbed the house just across the street. There's too many unanswered questions about that burglary to set it aside. The day Lacey disappeared, December 24th, the homeowners left to go on a trip around 1030 in the morning. Scott and his team believe that Lacey actually confronted the burglars and something bad happened. And to prove it, they point to what they call the Aponte tip. This is the Aponte tip. That was the call that was overheard by Lieutenant Aponte at Norco Prison. Lieutenant Xavier Aponte was a corrections officer. He called in a tip about a phone recording he had heard about a month after Lacey disappeared. And he said he had an inmate who was on the phone with his brother in Modesto discussing the fact that Lacey had encountered the burglars across the street from her house.

When we heard this, we all thought, wow, maybe this will give us some answers as to what happened to Lacey. But remember, police dismissed the burglary early on. We do not believe that at this time that there's any connection with the missing of Lacey. And here's why. The police figured out who did it. They asked the culprits, well, when did you do this? And the two gentlemen that were arrested said, oh, it was December 26th, the day after Christmas. Not on December 24th, when Lacey went missing. But two days later, Peterson's defense isn't buying it. On December 26th, there was a line of media reporters standing outside the Peterson home up and down that street.

There is no way in hell you could burglarize a house with all those people standing out there. But police say the burglars broke in through a back door on the 26th, out of sight of the street, and any reporters who may have been there. As for the tip about an inmate phone call from prison, prosecutors say the phone call is just hearsay. Still, Peterson's attorney says if Scott gets a chance at a new trial, that burglary will be front and center. And so will their theory of the crime, that Scott Peterson was actually framed for his wife's murder. What better way to get out of trouble than go put the body where the husband was? What do you make of the burglary theory? For a look inside the case, go to 48hours.com. I was staggered by it. I had no idea it was coming.

In a 2017 A&E documentary, Scott Peterson spoke about the moment he heard the word guilty. And I just had this weird sensation that I was falling forward. Those thoughts seem starkly different from courtroom reports that describe Peterson as emotionless. Scott looked pretty calm and everything. Maybe he didn't do it, but why is he smiling? I don't feel he had any remorse whatsoever. That's what proved his guilt more than anything. Scott had no emotion on his face. Scott was being Scott. And according to his lawyer, that lack of outward emotion hurt Scott from day one. I think the biggest problem I have is what I call the he didn't act right evidence.

There is no such thing as how to act. There's no playbook on how to act when your wife has The biggest problem I have is what I call the he didn't act right evidence. There is no such thing as how to act. There's no playbook on how to act when your wife has been murdered. No matter what you do, when you've built the narrative in your mind that he's guilty, whatever Scott did was going to be interpreted through the lens of he's guilty. It was a terrible investigation from the first minute. Harris says authorities had tunnel vision. He claims they never looked at other possibilities or even the logic of their own theories.

Take this video, for example. We did an experiment, which we filmed. The defense team loaded weights into a boat. We took the exact weight. We had a boat similar. We recreated it in a boat. We took the exact weight. We had a boat similar. We recreated it in a video. And sure enough, when the body was dumped over, the boat flipped. We had a video of this. The judge refused to let it in. But the Supreme Court said the judge was correct not to let it in. They said the defense had used a different boat, a different motor, in different weather,

and one of their own employees who stepped on the side of the boat to let in water and allow the boat to swamp. They even pointed out that the original judge offered the defense a chance to redo the experiment with the original boat and someone who was not a defense employee, but the defense declined. someone who was not a defense employee, but the defense declined. Still, Janie says if given a chance, the defense will present other exonerating evidence. We have an ongoing investigation that we don't discuss publicly, but I guarantee you that Scott will never be convicted of capital murder again in a court of law. Some of the most damning evidence is where Lacey and her unborn child were found. They washed up very close to an area where Scott Peterson was fishing. Are you saying that's just coincidence?

I'm not saying it's a coincidence. I would argue it was on purpose. On purpose? On purpose. They claim that Peterson was actually framed for the murder, and the real killer, or killers, held on to Lacey's body, eventually dumping it into the San Francisco Bay. Her body wasn't taken to the bay December 24th. The bay wasn't sealed off as a crime scene. There were multiple points of access directly to the water, 24 hours a day. directly to the water 24 hours a day.

I think they took Lacey, had Lacey, realized the national attention that this case was getting, realized they were in trouble. What better way to get out of trouble than go put the body where the husband was? Who is they in this scenario? Well, I can't get past the burglary. The two burglars that were involved in that both told consistent

stories that were backed up by other independent witnesses. Detective John Buehler, one of the original investigators, says burglars had nothing to do with Lacey's murder and the idea that Lacey was kidnapped in broad daylight in that neighborhood just doesn't make sense. Well, how come nobody saw Lacey get abducted? Nobody saw an abduction in broad daylight where a girl had a dog and the dog would be barking and the girl would be screaming? Tell me how that is going to happen because I don't see it. As for the idea that Scott was framed, what is the likelihood that somebody is going to abduct Lacey and then all of a sudden the media has intense scrutiny and attention to it

and then they're going to take her 90 miles to San Francisco Bay and they're going to put her in the exact same area that Scott said he was fishing in. All the while we're doing searches up there, all the while that the media is camped out over there, that you've got cops and deputies and other agencies over there looking into this. You want to try and make that stretch with me that somebody is going to drive from Modesto to Berkeley to take a body out there in the midst of that? Well, I guess possible, but you know, there's still people that believe the earth is flat too. The district attorney is not commenting on the defense's theories, but at Peterson's trial, contrary to what the defense argued, prosecutors laid out their relatively clear theory of the crime, that Lacey had been murdered in the home either the night before or the morning she disappeared.

And they focused on all the falsehoods Peterson had told. We knew that he was able to lie fairly easily. Everything from the big lies he told to Amber Frye. To the little lies prosecutors say he told about the morning Lacey vanished. Remember, he said he left home around 9.30. But that Martha Stewart segment on meringues he talked about watching with Lacey? That didn't come on until 9.48. Ooh, you want to make little meringues?

Oh, that would be nice. You have to dismiss so much circumstantial evidence in this case to believe that Scott didn't do this. And a circumstantial evidence case becomes like a big rope. It's got strand after strand after strand, and when you get so many strands weaved together on this big rope, this rope is very, very strong. Buehler remains as confident as he ever was in Scott's guilt, but Scott's defenders are just as confident. So are you saying he's innocent? Yes. You are? Yes. You're saying he's innocent? Yes. You are? Yes. You're saying he's innocent? Oh, he's innocent. I would bet my life on it.

Both sides wait to see if the court will allow Peterson's team a chance not just to fight the death penalty, but for his innocence as well. Until then, we're left with an almost unspeakable tragedy, the murder of 27-year-old Lacey and her unborn baby, Connor. And you have to wonder, what's going through Scott Peterson's mind as he sits in prison just a few short miles across the bay from where their bodies washed ashore. A young woman disappears after a Snapchat rendezvous. I try to keep my hopes high, but after six months, it's a little hard for that. The murder that created a law. Nikki's story has allowed us to take a giant leap forward.

And started a movement. A new 48 hours, next on CBS. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.