Dateline NBC - Laci Peterson: A New Turn

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

The latest in the murder of Laci Peterson, including new details on the appeals of convicted killer Scott Peterson. Keith Morrison reports.

Tonight on Dateline. I miss her smile and her laughter. I miss everything about her. It's more difficult to speak in public about it now. It just takes over everything. It does. I was absolutely panicked. It's been 20 years since she vanished. The beaming young mom-to-be.

Please, please let her come home to us. Now, a new turn in the case of Lacey Peterson and her husband, Scott. Habeas petition in the matter of Scott Lee Peterson. He was Steve McQueen cool. We couldn't find anything wrong with this guy. I don't think there was a ward on his body. I don't think he ever had a traffic ticket. It still affects me emotionally.

Scott told me he was not married. We did have a romantic relationship. I was shaking uncontrollably. It changed everything you'd ever thought about. It did. Did Scott Peterson kill his wife? I do not believe he did. I mean, really.

Who else could have done it? I'm glad you asked that question. 20 years later, new developments in the haunting case of Lacey Peterson. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with Lacey Peterson, A New Turn. You may not recognize him, but that's Scott Peterson behind the mask. Back in court last summer.

Calling the habeas petition in the matter of Scott Lee Peterson versus the people of the state of California. This was a gift, in a way, an opportunity very few convicted murderers ever get. Here, in the very same courthouse where he was tried and sentenced, Peterson was getting a chance to prove to a judge that he deserved a new trial. It's been 20 years since we first heard about the mom-to-be with a radiant smile who disappeared on Christmas Eve, Lacey Peterson.

The case that transfixed the whole world, seemed like. Can I help you? My son-in-law called. He's been saying, well, my daughter's been missing since this morning. She's eight months pregnant. Lacey, if you're out there and can hear us and see us, we love you. And we're searching, we're looking. It hit something. Something in the air. The zeitgeist.

That name. That smile. That mystery. Impossible to put down. Whoever has her, please, please, please let her go. Bring her back to us. We love her so much. Whoever has her, please, please, please let her go. Bring her back to us. We love her so much. We want her back.

Please, let us have her back. And then there was him, the husband, the inscrutable Scott Peterson. I really don't care what people think of me as long as it continues to keep Lacey's picture, description, tip line in the media. Before our very eyes, he would morph from a faithful husband who loved his wife to an object of suspicion and outrage, such a circus the whole sad thing sometimes seemed to be.

Scott! Hey, why don't you come and talk to us and tell us the truth? But for all the noise, all the breathless coverage, the hours of TV, the acres of tabloid, there was a story never completely told until the prosecutors sat down with Dateline. What do you think of Scott Peterson, his personality? He's a very unusual person. He's clearly very... I think he's very, he's, I think he's very smart. I think he thinks he's very smart. The story the detectives saw firsthand. When somebody's in a

position like him and they didn't do it, usually they'll say, take blood, take a polygraph, I don't care. But Scott wouldn't do that. He'd only go to a point. He was just as cool as a moose. He was Steve McQueen cool. The story of what happened to her, too. The other woman whose name was also thrust into a cultural moment, Amber Fry. What does a saga like that do to a person's life? Well, I'd say, I mean, from day one, it completely changed my life. And the story told by a frustrated ex-journalist, convinced that the cops, the prosecutors, the public got it all wrong. Did Scott Peterson kill his wife? I don't believe that. I do not believe he did. And a video we found buried in the court archives.

So what you're telling me, Scott, is there's no... You have no idea where this is. Scott Peterson talking to a detective just hours after sounding the alarm. Lacey was missing. But before we get there, we'll begin here with Lacey Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, surrounded, fortified really, by Lacey's best friends, Stacey Boyers, Lori Ellsworth, and Renee Tomlinson. They seem to make you feel cheerful.

They do. They help a lot. I'm glad they're here. But it's tough still, huh? It is tough. Perhaps harder than ever to talk about it, she said, to talk about her long-dead daughter, whose case so captivated the country.

There are people growing up who probably either don't remember or never knew about Lacey Peterson. Tell me about Lacey. I moved to Modesto in the third grade, and I knew nobody. And she was one of the first people I met, Tell me about Lacey. I moved to Modesto in the third grade, and I knew nobody. And she was one of the first people I met, and there was no not meeting her. You get the idea. Big personality. It just makes you want to whistle.

She made everybody laugh and welcome, and just with a smile. She could smile, and you would know that that is the girl that you're going to be probably spending the rest of the night talking to, or laughing at, or listening to. Maybe not talking so much, but she was hard to get a word in edgewise. Talkative, smart, tenacious. You have this? I have yours. Is it working?

Yes, it's working. A person who went for what she wanted, the way she did for Scott Peterson. How did Lacey meet Scott? At a cafe where Scott worked. Or at least saw him there and, just like that, gave a waiter her phone number to pass on to Scott. She wasn't bashful. And Lacey's mother liked Scott, liked him a lot. Very charming, very polite, perfect gentleman.

Bringing roses, that sort of thing? Yes. He'd had a dozen roses for Lacey and then a dozen roses for me. So, of course, I was impressed. The courtship was like that, old-fashioned in what seemed a good way. He actually asked our permission to marry Lacey, and we gave him our permission. There was a big wedding in the summer of 97,

and by the turn of the millennium, Scott was a fertilizer salesman in Modesto, Lacey a substitute teacher. His job took him on the road a lot. But they were happy. Did the three of you get to know the two of them together much before? I thought he was a great guy. We thought they were great.

She was always happy. It was almost a joke of, gosh, does he have a brother? Though Lacey struggled to get pregnant, after nearly five years of marriage, that came too. The day after my baby shower that she threw for me,

she took a pregnancy test and called everybody. Yep. Very early. Very early the next morning. Soon enough, the Petersons learned they were having a boy. They readied the nursery and decided to name him Connor. Lacey was nearly eight months pregnant by Christmas, the last Christmas before little Connor was due.

You were supposed to have a Christmas Eve dinner, is that right? Yes, I was. She was having Christmas Day and I was having Christmas Eve dinner and that was when he called. It was close to 6.15 he called and asked if Lacey was with me and I said no she's not here. Well, she's not here. She's missing. And that was the beginning. Christmas Eve, 2002. Lacey Peterson, with her bright smile, was nowhere to be found. When we come back, the missing mom-to-be is about to become national news. There's a $500,000 reward. I thought somebody kidnapped her. I was absolutely panicked. The first clues, her dog dragging its leash, her neighbors robbed, her husband asking for help. Did he seem frantic or worried?

A little bit. What was it about this woman, this man, this case that so quickly gripped the nation? Was it her smile? Was it because it happened Christmas Eve? Subject for some PhD.D. thesis now. But at the beginning, it was like a thousand other such cases. A stomach-flipping phone call. She's missing. I've had a child missing for ten minutes,

and the sense of, oh my God, something may have happened here, is so powerful, it just takes over everything. It does. It does. It absolutely does. Lacey Peterson's mother, Sharon, remembers telling her son-in-law, Scott, check with the neighbors, call Lacey's friends. And he did. You all? Yeah, we all got a call. He asked me if I'd seen her that day. Have you seen Lacey at all today?

And he called back. I said, no, I haven't. He's like, she's missing. Did he seem frantic or worried? A little bit. Worried enough to ask for their help. So did you all go over to their place? Sharon Roach's longtime boyfriend, Ron Gransky, called the cops. Can I help you?

My son-in-law called. He was saying, well, my daughter's in this and this morning. She's eight months pregnant. Golfing on a cold Christmas Eve? Odd, but okay. Meanwhile, Sharon followed up on something Scott told her. That he came home to find the dog out in the yard wearing a leash. I went directly to the park.

Because of that leash on the dog? Yes. We had walked together in the park before. I was absolutely panicked. I was running around. I was looking in trash cans. I was screaming her name. I was running around. I was looking in trash cans. I was screaming her name. No sign of her anywhere.

Lacey's friends spent the early hours of Christmas morning making missing posters. The next morning I walked in, was it Christmas Day, we had flyers and tape and everything. We're going to start passing these out to the family and volunteers. It's awesome. Just another way to get her picture out there. We hit the ground running. We just get up the next day. I know I didn't sleep for days. Yeah, that's where I'm going to be.

Pretty soon, the whole town of Modesto seemed to be looking for Lacey Peterson. Please have prayers. Anyone out there, help bring her home. Bring her home alive. Of course, the police were searching too, full out. How long did the search go on in here anyway? Well, all night and then all the next day. Al Brocchini, the first detective on the case, watched as searchers scoured the area. They were everywhere here, right?

Oh yeah, they did a grid search, meaning they would have been in eye contact and walked this whole area. Ruchini and his partner John Buehler had a feeling from the start. Lacey Peterson missing wasn't going to end well. Because she didn't lead an at-risk lifestyle. She didn't hang around at the bars and she wasn't out two-timing him or doing anything like that. I mean, she was a girl that was just ecstatic from everything that I learned about her of being a mother. So she wasn't someone who would just walk away. And yet, in the anxiety, hope. An idea formed in

the minds of those who loved Lacey that somehow this might turn out all right. We know we're going to find Lacey. We know we're going to bring her home alive and safe. We were going to find her. Like, I thought somebody kidnapped her. That's what I thought, just for the baby or something. Here's Lori, Renee, and Stacy, along with another friend, in January 2003. You know, there's a $500,000 reward for her

and, you know, the baby's safe return. Just take that, you know, take the money and give us Lacey back. So in those first days, an exhausted Sharon Rocha, her ex-husband, Lacey's father, Dennis Besider, went on TV and pleaded with a kidnapper. We'd just like to send a message out there that whoever has her, please, please, please let her go. Bring her back to us. We love her so much. Early on, there were clues the cops uncovered that made kidnapping seem plausible. Remember the couple's dog with the leash attached?

Scott found it in the backyard. A neighbor said she saw the Petersons' dog wandering the street earlier that day, so maybe Lacey was kidnapped while walking the dog. And just about the time Lacey disappeared, there was a burglary right across the street. So, did she witness a crime? Did burglars take her? The police wanted to know. A reward for information for the identity of the person responsible for the burglary.

Then two men were caught. Didn't take long. And soon enough, one of them showed up in a TV interview. I went and picked up the safe and took it to my house, and that's all that I had to do with it. I had nothing to do with that lady's disappearance. And police agreed, no connection to Lacey. So they kept digging. We were also looking at and researching up all

the sex registrants and the parolees, people with histories of violent crime, abductions, kidnappings, sexual assaults. A lot of them hung out at the park. We had some. We were clearing those guys. We were interviewing them and we were verifying their alibis. What the police were not saying was that homicide detectives had other suspicions. Of course, they talked to Lacey's husband, Scott. We're certainly going to look at Scott first. He's the closest to Lacey, and that's where you start when you're working a case like this. That was behind the scenes.

In front of the camera, the official police statements were more circumspect. Let's focus on the fact that we would still like to find Lacey alive, but we have to understand what the other possibilities are. The other possibilities are that she could be, you know, a victim of foul play. Those closest to Lacey, who at first were having trouble grappling with the whole idea of foul play, certainly couldn't fathom that Scott had anything to do with Lacey's disappearance. Back then, early 2003, even Sharon Rocha told us, impossible. People who know Scott and Lacey have no doubt whatsoever

that he has nothing to do with her disappearance. It's a powerful thing, true belief. But when it comes crashing down, my, my, my. Coming up, Scott Peterson down at the station. A rare look at his interrogation. When did you realize you were going to go fishing? That was a morning decision. Was there something fishy about his story?

He didn't even know what he was fishing for. He didn't know what bait he was using. When Dateline continues. Didn't take long for the Lacey Peterson story to go wide. That face was smiling out of magazines and television screens nationwide. The more leads we get, the more she's out there somewhere. Friends and family desperate to get the story out, talked to anyone, everyone. But they noticed one person seemed to stay in the background. Scott, grieving in private.

His parents told us back in 2003. He's brave, but he's just devastated. He just would not be a good spokesperson. But there was one camera Scott couldn't shy away from. At the police station. Here's Scott with Detective Brocchini just hours after he reported Lacey missing in this rarely seen video. You can watch Scott hear his words. Does he seem like a worried, frantic husband? You'll see. Just tell me about the warning. Um, okay.

I don't know what time we got up. Probably, Lacey got up and went and assumed that she had some cereal for breakfast. Was he okay with talking to you? Was there any hesitation? No, he agreed. He was okay with it. Didn't ask for an attorney or anything like that? No, didn't ask for an attorney.

And then she's going to the store to buy for Christmas morning breakfast tomorrow. And that was going to be an involved prep. So that was her. She was prepping for breakfast. She's going to make gingerbread cookies for tonight. As Bruckini sat there, he was struck by how impassive Scott was, even as he revealed he didn't go golfing. When did you realize you were going to go fishing?

That was a morning decision. I was going to play golf at the club or go fishing. It seemed too cold to go play golf at the club or go fishing. Okay. It seemed too cold to go play golf at the club. He said he drove to his warehouse office a few miles away. And you went over to your shop? Right. What did you do over there?

I assembled my mortiser. Mortiser is a woodworking tool to make tables. Yeah. Yeah, I just got that, so I assembled it. Checked my email. Sent one email. Then took the boat up and went. Then, said Scott, he drove to the Berkeley Marina,

about 90 miles away, parked his car, and put his boat in the water. When you got in your boat and you took off, did you go very far? Well, I mean, probably a mile. I went north, found a little island kind of deal there. Island had a bunch of trash on it. I remember a big sign that said no landing. It looked like some broken piers around it,

and I just assumed it would be a decent, you know, shallow area. Do you troll a little bit? I mean, a lot of the reason I went was just to get that boat in the water. Details that sounded plausible enough, except to Detective Brocchini. He drew a short straw when he got a fisherman to talk to. Me and the officers, they were fishermen too. His fishing pole is like one you'd use in a stream, and his lures are jigs that you would use in the delta.

He didn't even know what he was fishing for. He didn't know what bait he was using. And he didn't have any gear that was really meant to be fishing in the bay. Bukini also wondered, why had Scott bought a fishing license days before? He didn't know he was going to fish that day. There's a receipt dated December 20th. That's when he bought his fishing license. But then he said it was a last minute

decision. He said it was just that day, that last minute decision. So that didn't quite jibe. It doesn't. That doesn't jibe. The detective was, to say the least, skeptical of Scott's fishing story. Why would you go 90 miles? If all you're doing is you want to try out your new boat, right? And you live in Modesto. I could tell you 20 places within 25 miles of here, you could put that boat in the water and try it out. But Scott said he had proof, a parking receipt from the marina. Yeah, here's my receipt, just to prove I was there, you know. So, I mean, I've fished at Berkeley Marina lots of times, and I've probably got four or five of

them on my dashboard right now, but I don't know what made him decide that, okay, I'm done fishing, I'll take it off my dashboard now, and I'll put it in my pocket in case I need it for later. I don't know, but that's just, he was ready, prepared. Scott said the fish weren't biting that Christmas Eve afternoon, so he headed back to Modesto and got home around 4 30 where he found the dog with the leash attached and unlocked back door but no lacy. I grabbed some pizza from the fridge, took the box out, put it on the counter like it was, A glass of milk. And he kept in the shower. He was calm, as he spoke to Burkini.

Calm, matter-of-fact, helpful. Were you calling for Lacey? Oh, yeah, of course. But she wasn't home? No. As soon as she said her mom's. Okay, so then you called over her mom's? That's right.

Had they heard from her? No. Not all day. He answers your questions, but he doesn't do any more than that, right? Is that fair to say? He has an answer. Uh-huh. And he doesn't elaborate, doesn't get emotional.

Which the investigators thought, at the time, wasn't necessarily a good thing. He told me, oh, that's concerning. I get home and her car's there and the dog's running around a leash and, you know, the door's unlocked and her purse is here and that's really concerning me, but let me take all my clothes off and wash them and let me, you know, eat some pizza and take a shower before I even try to figure out what's going on here. That's concerning. That was concerning to me. And then the detective asked the question

that soon everyone would be asking. So what you're telling me, Scott, is there's no, you have no idea where this is. Most people in that situation, they're going to have a lot of questions for you. Are you guys doing this? I've heard of this. Why don't you do this? We got that from Sharon. We got that from Ron. We got that from Lacey's friends. Everybody had an interest in trying to get us to go faster. Everybody, that is. But Scott. Now why, they wondered, would that be? Coming up.

Pretty beautiful. I just left a message at home. When I listened to that, I thought that he was leaving this recording for us to hear. Scott, under scrutiny. I was afraid to say it out loud. Could he be involved with her disappearance? their disappearance. A week after Lacey Peterson disappeared, they had a vigil. Everyone coming together and praying just helps you feel like you're doing something. Candles and prayers and tears. And though much of Modesto was here in body or spirit,

not a single person understood, not yet, not for a while, why this gathering would become a defining moment. Especially, perhaps, Scott Peterson. Because though it looked as if he might have shed a tear or two, he seemed to be avoiding Lacey's family and friends. What about the vigil? He wasn't... He wasn't on the stage. No, he wasn't on the stage.

No, he was on the phone. Sharon wouldn't know for a long time the truth about Scott's phone call that night. But it was that night after the vigil that, privately, Sharon first allowed her mind to go to that very dark place. I remember it was New Year's Eve when I started going back and forth, but just to myself. I wouldn't say it out loud. I was afraid to say it out loud, but I started just kind of thinking, could he be involved with her disappearance? Sharon was a frantic mess, and she looked at him, and he just seemed so detached somehow. Never once did he say, oh, my God, where is Lacey? Where could she be?

I hope she's okay. I hope, you know, she's not harmed. Never, ever, ever. You were feeling that panic. Even as you talk about it, you can see a little bit of it left. Yes. He did not seem to have that sense? He did not have it. And I actually made out a list of did he or didn't he. I had a

list and there was a lot more on the did than didn't. And that's what really scared me. It scared her. She didn't want to believe it, didn't want to go there, so she didn't. Put that thought out of her mind. But the detectives were trained to go there. They turned over everything Scott said and did and didn't do and wondered why. There was a slickness somehow, a fake feeling from the very beginning, like the voicemail he left Lacey while he drove home from the Berkeley Marina. Hey, beautiful. I just left a message at home. When I listened to that, I thought, nah, this doesn't sound right. Been married five years, she's pregnant, and he's talking to her like they're on their third date.

I live in Berkeley. I'll see you in a bit, sweetie. Love you. Bye. The tone to it that he was leaving this recording for us to hear so that he would appear to us as this devoted husband and not somebody that was involved in foul play. Of course, it could also be that he was just a romantic guy. We couldn't rule that out at all. And there was this. Under the circumstances, the very day Lacey disappeared,

why was he almost obsessively fastidious when they searched his pickup truck? He was worried about the wrong things. I'm searching his truck and I open the door and it bangs into the Land Rover. He was right up there. He goes, Al, he has a glove. I'll hold this or I'll move my truck. But, you know, I actually I wrote it in my police report because I'm like, that's weird. These weren't hard facts of evidence, of course, just a rising damp of suspicion. Things like, when does Scott get a boat? The detective said that he had taken his boat out. And I said, what boat?

Scott doesn't have a boat. Until it turned out he did have a boat. Scott had told Brocchini that Lacey knew about the boat. How could it be that Sharon had no idea that Scott had recently bought a used 14 foot game fisher? The light didn't just go on my head and say, oh, he killed her. No, it didn't. I treated him like a husband and the husband of a missing person. But I had suspicions. I asked him to take me to the boat, show me the boat.

Very late that first night, the detective and Scott went to Scott's warehouse, where he worked and kept his boat. You came here that night, right? Christmas Eve night, yeah. What did he tell you when you came here? Did you want to look inside and you had your flashlight out and stuff? He said there's no electricity. No lights, which was a lie.

So I just said, open the door and I'll put my headlights in there. To the detectives, it all smelled bad. So they did the things detectives do. They got a wiretap on Scott's phone, hid a GPS under his car, and they watched him constantly. Sometimes, they noticed, he watched them, too. I was surveilling him, and I'm in an unmarked car. I'm parked three blocks away in a high school parking lot full of cars, and I'm watching this place with binoculars.

And all of a sudden, I look in my side view mirror, and Scott. So I got out of the car and he says, hey Al. It was just odd. And yet he seemed such a Boy Scout. He had no secret criminal past. No history of being abusive. You guys had any problems? Marriage problems?

It was good. So they stewed in their suspicion. aware they really had nothing on him. We couldn't find anything wrong with this guy. I don't think there was a ward on his body. I don't think he ever had a traffic ticket. I mean, he really was the guy you want to marry your sister. We were waiting for that one thing that showed that he wasn't this perfect guy. In one remarkable moment, they get

that and more. Because of her. Coming up. He was single and looking for the one. Enter Amber. It was going really good. Did you start to think about, wait a minute, I could

actually make a life with this man? You know, I did. When Dateline Continues. October 2002. Months before Lacey Peterson disappeared. And a hundred miles away in Fresno, California, something happened that would make all the difference in the case. A young woman named Amber Fry got a phone call from a friend about a guy.

I was doing really well in getting my career started in massage therapy and single mother and was told about this great guy that my friend wanted me to meet. He sounded perfect. She had said he had a good sense of humor, good looking, had a career. He was single and looking for the one, like soulmate. He was serious about this. Yeah. His name, Scott Peterson. It was late November when they met in person and it was electric. I mean, we just had a really great first date, like really good. Sometimes you meet somebody, it's very easy to talk to them.

You feel as if there's no wall between the two of you. Right. It was like that? Yeah. He wooed her fast with strawberries and champagne. It was early, bright, and exciting. Absolutely. He was eager to bond with Amber's little girl.

He was really sweet with her. She was excited. We had planned a picnic and a little hike. She held both of our hands as we walked and was comfortable with them. It must have been very sweet at the time. It was. And it's not always you find a man who is comfortable with the idea that you have a child or children. Right.

He bought them both gifts. He brought groceries to their house. He made dinner. He was considerate, caring, even at voicemail. Hey, sweetheart. Gotcha. I'm driving to the camp here to do my weekly five-minute workout. See how you're doing. I'll try to get you to call mom. Bye.

It was going really good. I was really excited. He was always complimenting, you know, like, you leave the best messages. And, you know, looking forward to seeing you. All so perfect. What Scott never mentioned, of course, was that he was married. His wife was Lacey, and he and Lacey were readying a nursery for their firstborn who was on his way. Now Amber knew nothing of that.

And yet something wasn't sitting right with her, she thought. Why, when he called her, was there so often the sound of running water in the background, as if he was masking the sound of their conversation? It was just odd. Like, why are you talking to me in the shower? Yeah, he kind of blew it off. Like, it wasn't a big deal.

But then, early December... He had called me one day saying he really needed to talk to me. And I could hear in his voice he was worried or concerned or something was going on. Scott was contrite. Said he had a confession to make. He apologized because he wasn't honest with me. That I'd asked if he had ever been married and that, in fact, he had lost his wife. And this would be the first holidays without her. That's the expression he used, I lost my wife. Yes.

And he was crying and just, you know, like very emotional. It was a tender moment, said Amber. And she felt compassion for him. I thought maybe she died of, you know, cancer or in an accident. I mean, because his words were obviously, you know, something recent or more recent. Did you ask? I didn't ask. I didn't want to pry because he was so emotional. With that secret of his chest, Scott gave her a new cell phone number where she could reach him when he took a long-planned trip to Europe over Christmas.

That is... If you still want to talk to me after, you know... After I've told you this. Right. And so I was like, yes, of course. Did you start to think about, wait a minute, I could actually make a life with this man? You know, I did. And yet even here, December 14th, as they got ready for a Christmas party with Amber's friends, the little beast of doubt was worming its way into her mind. I was starting to feel that women's intuition, something just wasn't right. Really? Yes. Well, he was in Europe, he told her.

She should write to him at a post office box in Modesto. But he had told her he lived in Sacramento. So why Modesto? Why these odd questions she couldn't answer? She had a cop friend. She called him. Could he check up on Scott Peterson from Sacramento? A few days later, her friend called back.

He said that he found an article and that he was going to print it and bring it to me. I said, okay. That was December 29th. Scott had left for Europe two days earlier, or so he said. And then Amber read the article. I was in disbelief of what I'm reading because it sounds like him. Fertilizer salesman, Modesto. I don't think there was a full picture of him, but his truck was in this article. So were these words pregnant and missing? I need this confirmed.

I don't want to believe what I just read. Kind of turning your world upside down. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And that's when Amber called the Modesto police. I reached a dispatcher and I said, I've been dating this person. I just want to know if this is the same person. Sure. And she just kept saying, okay, okay.

And like, okay, it is? Or okay, what? I gave his birth date. I gave his full name. And then she says, okay. And I said, okay, yes. She goes, yes. Yes, Amber Scott Peterson and the Scott Peterson with the missing wife were one and the same.

And I just remember crying. Like, I don't know for how long I was shaking, like the adrenaline and just, I was in shock. Amber Fry, who thought maybe she'd met the one, was in the middle of something terrible. Coming up. Amber. We wanted to start recording calls. Hushed conversations. Hidden recordings. Amber goesed conversations, hidden recordings.

Amber goes undercover. I was shaking uncontrollably. I was so just nervous and scared. In all fairness to the Modesto Police Department, scrambling to manage that flood of tips about Lacey Peterson, Amber's phone call was a barely discernible ripple. Did they call you back right away? No. So the next day she called again,

and looking over the dispatcher's shoulder at just the right moment was detective brockini i just happened to be standing behind um one of them and bev was typing and i could see the name amber fry and then she's saying scott peterson's my boyfriend you're seeing all this i'm seeing this so i said bev are you talking to her yeah i said can let me talk to her and before long the two detectives were in Fresno listening in person to Amber's story of Scott's amorous courtship. It was almost like a scriptwriter was writing this, very talented with the romance he was. I basically just told him our whole relationship that we had been having and what our conversation was currently at the moment. And that he was over in Europe somewhere.

Right. And they, you know, I think they too were just a little like in disbelief, shaking their head. No, he's definitely a Modesto. Scott had been lying the whole time, elaborately. He'd even called Amber from a payphone at the airport to say goodbye when he supposedly left for Europe so she'd see the caller ID. But if Amber hadn't known where Scott really was, she sure knew a lot. And she had a mental recall that was punctuated with wine corks and all sorts of memorabilia. That she had saved. That she'd saved from their romance. So then the detectives asked, could she help them in their investigation? Well, we wanted to start recording calls.

Amber agreed. So they went right out and bought a portable recorder. And what do you know? As soon as I plug in her little recorder and I'm showing her, pushing the red button, the black button, the phone rings. He called. Oh boy. And their expression, they were just like, wow, I can't believe he's calling you right now. Hey, I'll be in Paris tomorrow. I'm outside of Normandy right now. And I'll tell you tomorrow is better.

I was shaking uncontrollably. My fingers were like just sweaty, palmy mess. Yeah. And I was fumbling because I was so just nervous and scared. And so it began. For the next eight days, Scott Peterson pretended he was traveling in Europe. Amber Fry pretending she was still his girlfriend. The cops, they kept looking, bringing scent dogs to Berkeley, divers to the bay.

Lacey's friends held that vigil and prayed. All the while, Amber secretly recorded her conversations with Scott, inwardly trembling. I was shaking and trying to catch my breath and calm down. There was just too much nerves there. And I would pace back and forth. One of those calls, of course she didn't know it at the time, was going to be notorious.

New Year's Eve. That was the big one. Yeah. Amber, if you can hear me, it's New Year's. I know. I can hear you. Amber. I wish you could hear me.

I'm by near the Eiffel Tower. New Year's celebration is unreal. The crowd is huge. In fact, the crowd was huge. It just wasn't in Paris. It was in Modesto. And they weren't celebrating. Scott called Amber from the vigil for Lacey, the one where he made himself scarce while Sharon and Lacey's friends pleaded for help.

And Scott called Amber, inventing fine details of his trip, like jogging on the cobblestones of Europe. I think I should just run on the street because these cobblestones are slippery. He worked out the time difference for his phone calls. He could have been at nine at six o'clock by now. And he kept on wooing her, unaware of who was listening. Can I tell you how wonderful you are?

That's pretty easy to do. How thoughtful you are. Amazing. You know, I always call you when I tell you you're special. And it's just not a big enough word for it. Oh, very interesting. But what were you hoping for from those recorded conversations that you didn't get? Well, of course, ideally, I was hoping that he would say, no, I murdered my wife, I dumped her in the bay, and let's run off to Europe.

But that wasn't going to happen. So detectives went right at him. They asked Scott to come down to the police department again. And without telling him where they got it, they showed him a fax of a photo of himself with Amber Fry at the Christmas party. And of course he lies when he's confronted. Prosecutor Birgit Flattiger. He sees the picture of himself with Amber and he says, that's not me.

Was it clearly him? It was. If Scott suspected the detectives had somehow found out about Amber, he didn't let on. And he kept calling her, and she kept recording. But he started testing her with questions. Did you see the news on Paris? No, I didn't actually. There was a bomb that exploded.

And I was like, what bombing? There was another time he had asked if I had seen the article on the monarch butterflies that are in Pismo. And I said, no. I gathered right away he was asking because these were, in fact, something that was in the paper, possibly, if I was looking at the news.

To find out, in other words, possibly, if I was looking at the news. To find out, in other words, if she knew about Lacey. And then on January 6th, 13 days after Lacey disappeared, Scott told Amber himself. You haven't been watching the news, obviously. No. I have not been traveling during the last couple weeks. I've lied to you that I've been traveling. Okay.

The girl I married to, her name is Lacey. Mm-hmm. She disappeared just before Christmas. Mm-hmm. She disappeared just before Christmas. Mm-hmm. For the past two weeks, I've been in Modesto with her family and mine, searching for her. Okay. She just disappeared, and no one knows.

Scott had no idea, of course, that Amber happened to be in the police station when he offered that big admission. Or that Amber's responding question was a huge deal to both her and the cops. You came to me earlier in December and told me that you had lost your wife. What was that about? She's alive. What? She's alive. Where? She's alive? Where? In the desk. And you came and told me this elaborate lie about her missing and this tragedy and that this will be the first holidays without her? Sweetie, I never said. Amber. Yes? God, I don't want to fight with you.

You know that I never said tragedy or missing. Oh, yes, you said you've lost your wife. No. You said obviously without me saying much. I said that I've lost my wife. Yes, you did. I did, and yes. How did you lose her then, before she was lost?

Explain that. There are different kinds of loss, Amber. Different kinds of loss? Now what did that mean? Coming up. We did have a romantic relationship. Revealing the truth to the world. Amber Fry's Firestorm.

Almost like exploding your own bomb. I had a panic attack. I couldn't breathe. When Dateline continues. It was a world of pain that January of 2003. Sharon Rocha was still gripping onto a slipping remnant of hope that her Lacey was still alive, was barely hanging on. The day soon after that New Year's Eve vigil, when Scott walked into the house. And I asked him, how are you doing? And he said, you know, I'm doing okay.

And I just remember, it was almost like I was just pulling back from him, thinking, you're doing okay? What do you mean you're doing okay? Sharon definitely wasn't doing okay. While the cops, moving forward incrementally, needed more. Police looking for Lacey Peterson in Modesto, California, want to verify her husband's alibi. Modesto PD put out a bulletin. Had anyone seen this truck, this boat, on Christmas Eve?

They expanded their ground search to the foothills, the reservoirs, even mine shafts. And by mid-January, police decided they needed to tell Sharon about Scott's affair. We say, hey, we've got some information we've got to let you know about on this, and the best thing we can do is just give it to you. They showed her the photo at Amber's Christmas party, the one Scott said wasn't him. I literally thought I was going to throw up. I stood up real fast because I wanted to get out of there. I wanted to get away from them. I didn't want to hear what they were saying.

What mother would? I just remember my stomach just turning. And I'm just saying, just crying. He didn't have to kill her. That changed everything you'd ever thought about? It did. Detective Buehler had told Sharon about Amber because rumors were in the air. The media was sniffing about and getting close.

You get to the office, the reporter was right there. Oh, boy. Yeah. January 24th. Local news showed up at Amber's workplace. National tabloids were not far behind. Did you talk to them? No. I refused to talk to anybody.

Trapped in her office, she called Detective Buehler. That's when the Modesto PD decided that if Amber's story was going to break anyway, they'd break it on their terms. We believed at the time it was probably best to get her up there, almost like exploding your own bomb. Buehler sent two colleagues to Fetcher with a statement all prepared. We were speeding back in a sense getting there and you know having this statement written out you know trying to read a few times so it's not too foreign. As they drove to Modesto, headquarters gathered the media. Big news are coming. As they drove to Modesto, headquarters gathered the

media. Big news is coming. We are waiting for Modesto police to come out any moment and speak on developments in the Lacey-Peterson investigation. And this is the moment when Amber Frye bursts like a deer in headlights onto the public stage. Okay, first of all, I met Scott Peterson November 20th, 2002. I was introduced to him. I was told he was unmarried. Scott told me he was not married. We did have a romantic relationship. I had a panic attack. I couldn't breathe. I literally could not catch my breath. When I discovered he was involved in the disappearance, the Lacey Peterson disappearance case, I immediately contacted the Modesto Police Department. She spoke for just over a minute. I am very sorry for Lacey's family

and the pain that this has caused them. And I pray for her safe return as well. And now everyone knew. And Scott knew everyone knew. So did he stop calling Amber Fry? No. Listen to this. I'm going to say how brave you are. I'm really glad that you did that.

It wasn't a matter of choice. What's that? It really wasn't a matter of choice. I'm really glad that you did that. What's that? Scott called to congratulate her, to thank her. Very strange. The police were thanking Amber, too. Now they had new clues. Like the day Scott told Amber he lost his wife. It was the very same day he bought the boat. Coincidence?

No, thought the police. Had to be evidence of premeditation. The very existence of Amber Fry changed everything and revealed that many little beasts of doubt had been churning about in the minds of even Scott's diehard supporters. After Amber came forward, that's when they started to open up about the things that they had been kind of hiding and holding back. People remembered things, like how Scott once told someone he was hoping for infertility That he seemed uncomfortable holding babies That he didn't want to touch Lacey's pregnant stomach

That he complained he was having a midlife crisis at age 30 Now when people thought about his story that Lacey walked her dog They remembered she'd been too tired to do that And they remembered too the peculiar way he acted the night Lacey disappeared. We were standing in the driveway. I asked if he had called his parents. He said no. I was trying to have a conversation with him, and he continued to just turn away from me. He would never look me in the eye. I had to keep following him around, trying to have visual contact with him.

Because Scott Peterson had something to hide. Coming up... I had a romantic relationship that was inappropriate. Scott Peterson goes public, but in private, strange behavior. He said, I think we should get the house up on the market. Suspicious clues. It looked like five of these little coffee can anchors had been made. Since Christmas Eve, our one and only focus is to find Lacey and to bring her home to us.

I love my daughter so much. I miss her every minute of every day. On the same day that Amber Fry told the world about her relationship with Scott Peterson... Scott told me he was not married. Lacey's mother stood before the cameras, too. It was exactly a month since Lacey disappeared. I miss sharing our thoughts and our lives together. I miss her smile and her laughter and her sense of humor.

And I miss everything about her. Sharon, who kept trying to keep Hope alive, found it slipping away. Someone has taken all of this away from me and everyone else who loves her. Any thoughts that Scott had nothing to do with it, gone too. Even though Sharon would not mention him by name. I know that someone knows where Lacey is and I'm pleading with you, please, please let her come home to us. Unbeknownst to them, Scott was thinking about going public too.

And he discussed it with, who else? Amber. I am going to speak to the press this coming week. During this coming week. Do you have a date? Well, I'm debating on when it should be done because Tuesday is the State of the Union address. Okay. So that will take up, you know, a lot of time. Well, okay, that's, you know. And I want maximum coverage. He got it, all right.

A sudden whirl of interviews. A few days after his affair with Amber was revealed, Scott talked about it on NBC's Bay Area station. Obviously, yes, I had a romantic relationship that was inappropriate and unfair to a lot of people. In an appearance on CBS's KOVR, Scott claimed Lacey knew. I told Lacey about the relationship. She knew about it, and it's important between us. Then he went on ABC to assure the whole country he was innocent.

Did you murder your wife? No, no. I just thought, and I had absolutely nothing to do with her disappearance. And now many of the people who knew Scott had loved Scott, no longer believed a word he said. For the police, who'd never believed him, Amber Fry was just one part of an intricate and entirely circumstantial case against Scott. It relied on the smallest of details,

like this outtake from his interview with KOVR. I'm glad that Amber came forward. Let me turn that off. Yeah, what is that? That's my phone, unfortunately. Okay. Well, it seems strange. His phone's ringing, and he's not stopping the interview to go and answer it.

Now, this could be the call that's bringing Lacey back to him. It could be the ransom call. It could be us calling him and saying, hey, we've got some good news for you that we found her. He went over there and just shut the phone off and resumed the interview without checking to see what it was. Not at all. One more strand. Strands of evidence that tried to weave into a rope with which to hang Scott. Another strand?

Scott's sudden desire to sell his and Lacey's home just weeks after she went missing. He said, I think we should get the house up on the market. And my mom said, this isn't the time to be discussing this, Scott. But he did sell Lacey's car, another strand. And then there was the cement dust at Scott's warehouse. A lot of people use concrete anchors for small, little boats. And it looked like five of these little coffee can anchors had been made there on that trailer. But only this one anchor was found.

It's clear there was more than one. Now, where are those? Nobody knows. Were the other four used to weigh down Lacey's body? And though Scott said going fishing was a last-minute decision, there were sea charts and maps of the Berkeley Marina on his computer from early December.

And Scott told police he spent time at his warehouse office on the day Lacey disappeared. And they couldn't help but notice how secluded the place was. This is very isolated back here, and especially on a Christmas Eve. If you wanted to get away with something, it's a place you could do it. Yeah. Like move a body into a boat, thought the detective. We have a window here in the front that notes that the screen is ajar. So police gathered the strands, spun the rope.

And everything that happened, happened with a lot of people watching. Where does Scott Peterson stand in all of this? He's not been eliminated from the investigation, nor has he been identified as a suspect. Not identified as a suspect. Not officially. Yet clearly the only person of interest

for the cops and the media. What you got in the bags there? Evidence. Evidence? And Sharon kept grappling with the depressing truth that she just didn't want to believe. I felt that I should have felt her leave this earth. I brought her into this world I should have felt when she left, so that I would have known whether she was gone or not.

So at that time, I still had hoped that she was coming home. It's a strange and powerful thing, though, isn't it? It is. You give birth to a person, you bring them up, and you feed them, and you care for them. And we were very, very, very close. Yes. And Scott, he soon faded from public view,

didn't stay much in Modesto, and Amber finally told him to stop calling her. I think right now, for me, Scott, and really everything that has happened in the last 50 plus days for myself and the family and you and everything that's going in right now, I think it'd be best if you and I didn't talk anymore until there's resolution in this. Yeah, I agree with that. Good. Good. And everyone just waited until the sea finally revealed what everybody had been waiting for.

Coming up. I felt something that day. I just knew. A devastating discovery and a ride into danger. This was completely off the charts. Nobody's ever reacted this way. When Dateline continues. April 13, 2003. It was a cool day in Northern California. Sharon Rocha was hiding from the world.

It was one of those days I just buried myself in the couch with a blanket over my head. She had so locked herself away that day that friends had to come to her house to tell her there was news. They're knocking on my back door on the slider in the backyard. It had been nearly four months since Lacey disappeared, yet somehow Sharon felt more bad news was coming. Early that morning when the tides were low, the body of a baby had been found on the shoreline north of Berkeley. The next day, another body, a torso, badly decomposed, was found nearby. The Contra Costa County coroner has arrived at the scene and has now recovered the remains of the victim. We're at this time letting people know that we believe the gender of the victim

is female. But even without positive identification, everyone knew. Even Sharon, who, despite everything, kept trying to hold on to a shred of hope that she'd wake from a nightmare. From Scott, there was not a peep. The fact that he didn't pick up the phone and call anybody to find out if that was his wife and his baby left no doubt in my mind. Her daughter was dead. Her grandson would never be born. Detective John Buehler had known that for a while. And now he was nearly ready to arrest Scott. Just not quite. We were going to wait to serve the

warrant until after the DNA results were released to confirm the bodies were Lacey and Connor. By that April, Scott Peterson was living in San Diego near his parents. So, tick, tick, tick, detectives waited for lab results. Police kept an eye on Scott. They had the surveillance going on him for quite some time before that. Then, April 18, 2003, 7 a.m., the lab results were still pending when Scott Peterson decided to play cat and mouse with whomever was after him. He's a pretty good driver. At least he was. He knew we were behind him. Scott's a pretty good driver. At least he was. He knew we

were behind him. Scott started driving erratically, very fast. We were trying to keep this rolling surveillance on him. We had a helicopter for part of the time. He stopped and started. He'd cross over three lanes of traffic and taken an exit ramp. And of course, we couldn't do that. We'd end up missing him. Driving evasively at times, giving one cop the finger. How long did he lead you on this, Mary Chase? Oh gosh, this was, it seemed like it might have been a couple hours or so, maybe longer. Scott, with police trailing, traveled 160 miles that morning until law enforcement decided it was just too dangerous. We have to arrest him. They put the lights on him, and he pulled off into the entrance to Torrey Pines Golf Course. And they made contact with him as we pulled up, came out of the car,

put the handcuffs on him. No hysterics, no profanity. Typical, you know, Scott in all his controlled, you know, demeanor. What they found in the car with Scott was fascinating. Camping gear, four cell phones, his sister's credit card, his brother's driver's license, and cash. Almost $15,000 in cash. He also looked different, way different, by intent, clearly. When you arrested him, did he express anything that would suggest he understood? That was it. He was going away. I went to search his car. He said, John, can you tell me if those bodies were my wife and son? And I just told him, Scott, you already know the answer to that.

As they drove north to Modesto with their prisoner in the back seat, Buehler got confirmation that the DNA was in. The bodies were Connor and Lacey, they told Scott. Now, he's wearing sunglasses at the time. I look and he doesn't make hardly any reaction whatsoever. Later, when they stopped at a roadside burger place to get something to eat, given the news he'd just received,

Buehler assumed Scott wouldn't have much of an appetite. He was wrong. And he goes, I'll have a double-double with cheese, a small fry, and a vanilla shake. Like we were coming back from fishing. Cold? That's what Bueller thought. I've run into people that have had grief before many, many times. And this was completely off the charts.

Nobody's ever reacted this way in my presence when it came to something like that. When they got back to Modesto, Scott was booked into jail. It seemed like the end of the road for Scott Peterson. But the circus wasn't leaving. It was just moving up the road a bit. Coming up. I'm innocent. He can be very smooth, but there's something underneath the surface. Prosecutors speak out in an in-depth interview. He wanted a different life.

20 years later, they share their story. Is that correct, Mr. Peterson? You're pleading not guilty of two charges of murder plus denying the special allegations? Absolutely. That's correct, Your Honor. I'm innocent. As the case against Scott Peterson slowly made its way from arrest to trial, what really happened to Lacey Peterson became a kind of televised courtroom theater. The defense

is asking that the jury be sequestered for up to five months. The jury's going to hear a lot of theories and they simply must latch on to the one that is most reasonable. Jurors who are death qualified are more likely to vote for conviction. The cast included legal celebrities like defense attorney Mark Garagos, who signed on to defend Scott Peterson. Scott looks forward to finding out who did this to his wife and to his child, Connor. And women's advocate. Thank you for coming today. I'm attorney Gloria Allred.

To my right is Amber Fry. Gloria Allred, who erected a protective wall around the story's wild card, Amber Fry. Amber was not going to be doing any interviews during the course of the case, even though so many people wanted to interview her. Wasn't she offered immense amounts of money to do covers and things like that? There were many offers to Amber if she would only provide an interview. But she needed to protect her testimony for the actual case. But altogether missing in the legal cacophony were the prosecutors,

Birgit Flattiger and Dave Harris. This, all these years later, was their first and only in-depth television interview about the Peterson case. During the trial, they often had to bite their tongues. Your radio would go off in the morning, the radio alarm, and the little news blurb that you would hear on the radio station, whatever, would reference the case. They could say whatever they wanted, right? And it wasn't always necessarily true. In court, Garagos wanted to change a venue, though just 90 miles or so from Modesto, did anyone not know about the Peterson case? How is Scott feeling about the move? He just wants the trial to take place so that people will be able to see what really took place.

Scott's mom assured reporters her son was innocent. But she couldn't have been very happy when everyone decapped at the new courthouse and saw this billboard a local radio station bought right across the street. Man or monster. What did you think when you saw that? Well, that was when we were about to start jury selection. First day of jury selection. So I think we were worried we were going to have another change of venue.

But here it stayed. June 1, 2004, a year and a half after Lacey Peterson vanished, her husband Scott went on trial for her murder. And right off the bat, the prosecution told the jury about Scott and Amber. He winced as they showed these photos of the two of them from the night of the party, the same photos that helped him get caught. And then they showed the jury this picture of Lacey.

Same night, different party. She went alone. The reason for the murder was he didn't want to be married anymore. He didn't want to be married anymore. He didn't want to have a child. He wanted a different life. And Amber was just a symptom of that. He didn't want what he had. And he wanted to be rid of what he had.

He did. One way or another. Lacey and Connor were responsibilities, and he didn't want that. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. He can be very smooth, but there's something underneath the surface that is truly evil. So, said the prosecutors, Scott strangled or suffocated Lacey on Christmas Eve early in the morning or possibly the night before. And then after that, after he had done that... Drag her from the bedroom out to the carport,

pickup truck backed into the carport, take her out the side door, wrapped up, most likely, load her into the bed of the truck, drive over to the warehouse, move her to the boat, cover the boat. Then, after sending an email

and putting together a woodworking tool, law enforcement believed, he headed to the bay. But evidence of murder? That was all circumstantial. They had no incriminating DNA, minimal forensics, just all those little strands. And in fact, it didn't always go well for the prosecution, as Garagos worked to keep them off balance. We would try and present witnesses in a chronological order in a way that made sense to our theory of the case,

and they were very good at disrupting that and saying, we're not ready for that witness. Just trying to throw a monkey wrench into your smooth telling of the story. Yeah. If it happened once, maybe it was just coincidence. If it happened every single week, at some point in time, it's a plan. It got worse for the prosecution. Garagos, who believed the Modesto PD had it out for his client, tried to make it look like Al Brocchini had hidden evidence. He asked him on the stand, did you delete information from a police report about Lacey visiting Scott's warehouse December 23rd.

The answer was, I did. And then, okay, we're done for the day. And it's like, you know, can I answer? And that was a very good point for him to make because it would create the impression that, in fact, Lacey did know about the boat, as Scott said she did. And it lent credibility to the rest of the story as a result. Well, maybe, maybe not. But he could have got the whole story. Of course, the whole story wasn't what the defense attorney wanted, that the information was in another cop's report, that nothing had been hidden.

But what did the jury think? What was your sense of how well that prosecution was going? I was a bit concerned. I felt that their burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt had not yet been met. But the big change, the sea change, was the day she walked in. Walking in the courtroom, you could hear body shifting towards the door. A lot of pressure. As Scott watched, Amber Fry told the jury everything from strawberries and champagne on their first date to his tearful confession of losing his wife weeks before she went missing.

How did you lose her then, before she was lost? Explain that. There are different kinds of loss, Amber. And all those phone calls were played for the jury. The jury could hear his words, of course, not his words under oath, but his words on the phone call to Amber and how he lied and lied and lied and even lied about lying. Mark Aragos did what he could. He went after Amber repeatedly, questioned her about how much she had to drink on her dates with Scott and about how often she and Scott had sex and how soon.

Did the defense rattle you? No. He tried. Amber didn't buckle, and the prosecution hit its stride. An expert told the jury the baby died between December 23rd and December 25th. Another expert told the jury that Lacey's decomposition was consistent with three to six months in the water. And a search dog handler testified her dog picked up Lacey's scent in the Berkeley Marina. And said the prosecutors, it was obvious Scott Peterson knew Lacey and Connor were gone for good. He'd even turned Connor's nursery into a storage room.

Put office furniture and pillows and a locking device from a car in there. Scott wasn't expecting Connor to ever come home. Coming up... Did the lion cheat? yes he was a cheater, a liar, but a killer? I mean really who else could have done it? I'm glad you asked that question

when Dateline continues Four months into the trial, the defense got its chance to disprove the prosecution theory. We wanted to talk to attorney Mark Garriglis about the trial. He didn't respond to our request. We wanted to talk to Scott Peterson, but he wasn't interested. Turned us down, said his family, because he didn't like my coverage of the case back in 2003. Scott's frantic story, simple yet utterly baffling, was this.

His family still insists he's an innocent man, and we wanted to hear that from them. They turned us down, too, and suggested we talk to a retired journalist named Richard Cole, who shares their point of view, and said the prosecution theory of the case makes no sense. Because it was so ridiculous. Scott Peterson kills his 160-pound wife,

puts her body in the back of his truck. He then drives it to his office to pick up the boat. And then what does he do with the dead body of his wife in a parking lot? He goes back into the office, spends an hour on the internet, sending Christmas email to his boss. And then he said, oh, well, I guess I better get rid of the body now. Cole believes that media coverage biased against the defendant somehow seeped inside the courtroom. This gigantic tsunami of media coverage, much of it false, much of it totally distorted, concentrating on things that had nothing to do with the evidence.

And that basically, I think, consumed that little fact trial inside the courthouse. The most damaging witness against Scott, he said, didn't see anything really related to a murder, but nonetheless forever tainted Scott in the eyes of the public and the jury. Once you started looking at that case through an Amber lens, everything he did was wrong. because he's a lying cheat yes he was the affair with amber said cole made everything scott did look sinister but it didn't prove he killed lacy scott peterson was behaving pretty oddly his behavior does look odd he backed in himself into a horrible position sure he's thinking if anyone ever finds out about this woman, not only will it look bad for me,

but that will become what this story is about. And he was exactly right. So he very foolishly and not very well tried to keep her at bay with lies, thinking Lacey will be home next week. And that would explain why Scott hid from TV cameras. Not guilt about Lacey. Guilt about Amber.

In Cole's mind, Scott acted like a man who'd expected his wife to come home. So that, said Cole, is why Scott didn't want a ding on the car door when the cops were searching his truck. So Lacey's car, though. He did sell the car because, you know, he was not rich. The Peterson family isn't rich. And Scott hemmed and hawed about what he was fishing for, said Cole, because the whole point of the trip was not so much to catch something as it was to test the boat before

giving it to Lacey's stepdad, Ron Gransky, as a Christmas present. The boat was basically a kind of a gift, and that's why it was kept a secret from the Granskys, because it was a Christmas thing. All innocent, said Cole. But why did Scott tell Amber before Lacey vanished, I lost my wife? Amber confronts Scott about having a wife, and says, I lost her and this will be my first

Christmas without her. Yeah. Scott had had that line used on him by a woman who was married and he asked her if she was married and she said, I lost my husband. And Scott decided that he liked that. And that was a really good line. In other words, Scott was a cad, not a killer. So said Cole, anyway. But then how to explain the strange similarities between Scott's fishing story and the circumstances of the murder? But you know, he went fishing in the bay. Yeah.

They found the bodies in the bay. Yes. I mean, really. Who else could have done it? I'm glad you asked that question. Let's remember the scene. She disappears. Within a few days, Scott's I went fishing in Berkeley story is all over the media. So the real bad guys, maybe local sex offenders, or the two men arrested for the burglary across the

street took their victim to the bay and framed Scott that way. That's Cole's theory anyway. Made more sense, he said, than the case against Scott. So what really happened on that cold December morning? Twelve people would decide. Members of the jury, you have heard all the evidence and the arguments of the attorneys. And now it is my duty to instruct you on the law that applies to this case. After five months of trial, the jury went off to deliberate. One day, two, a week they stayed out. And nobody knew what were they thinking? Coming up, a legacy.

She's in heaven and she's in our hearts. A life in the jury's hands. I just burst into tears. Everything just comes gushing out. And now, 20 years later, a new turn in the case. Nearly two years after Lacey disappeared, after nine days of deliberation, the jury in the Scott Peterson trial finally announced they had a verdict. So it's pretty exciting and terrifying. As the crowds gathered out front, the reporters got into position and everyone flooded back into the courtroom. What is it like for your level of

anxiety? I felt like I was going to explode. Your verdict is being read right now in a California courtroom in the double murder case against Scott Peterson. There is no camera in the courtroom, but an audio, live audio feed is being provided. We, the jury and the above entitled cause, find the defendant, Scott Lee Peterson, guilty of the crime of murder of Lacey Denise Peterson. Finally, the words Sharon and all those who loved Lacey had been waiting for, guilty of Lacey's murder and... Guilty of the crime of murder of baby Connor Peterson.

Outside the courthouse, crowds cheered. Inside? I remember I just burst into tears. Everything just comes gushing out. It's just two years of anxiety, of waiting. A month later, the jury decided Scott's fate. We, the jury in the above entitled cause, fix the penalty at death. For 15 years, Scott Peterson sat on San Quentin's death row.

He filed the usual appeals, but was pretty well written off. A condemned man. Until 2020, when something completely unexpected happened. The California Supreme Court affirmed one of his appeals and changed his sentence to life. And then those same justices took another step. They ordered the original court to evaluate another of Peterson's claims that one of the trial jurors, a woman named Rochelle Nice, known at the time as Strawberry Shortcake for her hair,

lied to get on the case because she had it out for Scott Peterson. San Quentin's your new home. The Constitution guarantees the right to an impartial jury. So if Peterson's attorneys could prove Nice was biased before she sat on that jury, Scott Peterson's conviction for killing his wife and unborn child would be overturned. And so there were hearings through 2022. Nice was questioned about her responses on a questionnaire given out to potential jurors.

In particular, why she neglected to mention an incident of domestic abuse. She also failed to mention she'd filed for a restraining order against a woman she said threatened her while she was pregnant. Nice testified she hadn't for a restraining order against a woman she said threatened her while she was pregnant. Nice testified she hadn't remembered the restraining order, and as for the abuse, she was the one who started the fight.

In fact, her boyfriend back then never hit her, even though he pleaded no contest to one charge of battery. Peterson's appeals attorney told the judge the original defense would have booted Nice from the jury pool if he'd known her true story. He would never have permitted this juror. The prosecution countered that Nice wasn't biased.

She was just sloppy. Being wrong does not necessarily make it false or make her a liar. It just might be that she's really bad at filling out forms. Then, just before Christmas 2022, the judge issued her decision. Peterson's request for a new trial was denied. She wrote, Nice's responses were not motivated by pre-existing or improper bias against Petitioner, but instead were the result of a combination of good faith misunderstanding of the questions

and sloppiness in answering. Scott Peterson's family said, it's not over, he'll try again. And really, none of it will ever be over for those who were drawn into this case. Lacey's mother, her friends, their lives never really returned to normal. How could they?

But they've adapted like humans do. Stacy, Lori, and Renee now have their own children. And those children who never met Lacey know her, in a way. She's a part of our lives. I mean, she is a part of our lives still, so that means our children need to know about that part of our lives. She's special and she had a baby.

So the cemetery isn't a place of sadness for them, usually. I love it because my boys get to hear about her and they always bring cars out for Connor or I think they brought a baseball out this time. It's a place where they can celebrate a life, someone they loved. She's in heaven, and she's in our hearts. They're Lacey. They're beautiful. Oh, how pretty.

That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.