The Megyn Kelly Show - "The Double Life of Scott Peterson": The FULL MK Confidential Series

Episode Date: September 13, 2026

Megyn Kelly brings you the full five episode "MK Confidential" series, "The Double Life of Scott Peterson" And tune in to a new edition of "MK Confidential" next week on the Megyn Kelly podcast feeds and YouTube channel.  Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShowFind out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to The Megan Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM Channel 111 every weekday at New East. Hey, everyone, I'm Megan Kelly. Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show in today's Sunday mega episode. Today, every episode of our MK Confidential series on Scott Peterson and his double life. We will dig into all the theories around his murder of his wife Lacey and their unborn son, Connor. And we'll have it out, a friendly having it out, with our pal, Mark Garigos, Scott's criminal defense attorney at the time, and now he's working over at MK True Crime as one of our many brilliant attorneys analyzing true crime of the day in addition to his daily practice.

Enjoy and tune in every night next week for the conclusion of this inaugural run of our MK Confidential Series. It will resume, but this is just the beginning. So thank you all for such a great response to it. You're the reason it will continue. And we will be back next week with more. See tomorrow. New Year's Eve 2002. In California's Central Valley, a 27-year-old massage therapist named Amber Frye is at a party with her friends when her phone rings.

She has been dating the man on the other end of the line. Happy New Year's. Happy New Year. I want to call you. Thank you. I'm here. I wish you could hear me. I'm like near the Eiffel Tower or meet yourself.

They're unreal. The crowd, it's huge. They met on a blind date six weeks ago, at a bar in Fresno. He told her he was single. He told her he lived alone, in a big house in Sacramento, built in the 1940s. He told her he is a fertilizer salesman and that his job takes him all over the world from Boston to Cairo to Paris. He said he really wishes he could have pets, but because of his frequent travels, it wouldn't

be fair to them. He has met her two-year-old daughter and picked the little girl up from preschool. He has taken the two of them out to choose a Christmas tree. Amber Fry saved the cork from a bottle of wine they drink together. She wrote their names on it and the date. Amber, you're there. I can't hear you right now, but I'll call you on your New Year's. Okay, I'll hear from you then.

Amber, Amber, miss you, I see soon. He is not near the Eiffel Tower. He is standing in the grass of East Laloma. Park in Modesto, California, three blocks from his own front door. More than a thousand people are standing there with him in the dark, holding candles and photographs of a woman who has been missing for a week. They are singing, they are praying, some of them are crying. The woman is eight months pregnant with his first child, a boy they have already named Connor. Her name is Lacey Peterson, and she is his wife. And as he tells her of

of the crowd in Paris, Amber Frye already knows he's speaking lies. The day before, she told the Modesto Police Department everything she knows. Right now, in her hand, there is a tape recorder two of their detectives gave her. She is recording every word. I'm Megan Kelly, and this is M.K. Confidential. Scott Peterson meets Amber Fry on a blind date. On October 23, 2002, Sean Sibley meets Scott, then 30, at a pest control convention in Anaheim, and thinks he would be just perfect for her best friend. Sean thinks he's funny and good-looking, and Scott tells her he's single and looking for his life partner. The best friend is Amber Fry, a 27-year-old single mother with a two-year-old daughter named Ayanna. She lives in Madera, California near Fresno and is looking and praying

for a life partner of her own. Amber asks Sean if he's cute and nice. Her best friend says very to both. On November 20th, 2002, Amber arrives early at the Elephant Bar in Fresno for her date with Scott Peterson. A few minutes past seven, he walks into the bar, wearing a well-cut suit. He is just over six feet tall, clearly fit, and he lights up when he sees her waiting. She had hoped it was him. He kisses her lightly on the cheek and says, am I late? I'm sorry, I'm late. He's four minutes late. The elephant bar is the meeting spot before they head to dinner. Scott asks her if they can first run to his hotel so he can check in, shower, and change out of the suit he's been wearing all day. Amber agrees and follows him up to his

room. Before jumping in the shower, Scott pulls a bottle of champagne out of a duffel bag, opens it and pours a glass for each of them. He returns smartly dressed and, as if he had forgotten something, grabs a box of strawberries out of the same duffel bag. He drops one into each glass of champagne. Clearly, Amber thinks this is a man who plans ahead. They leave the hotel and go to a private room at the Japanese restaurant, Edoja, where Scott tells her all about his life. Amber is taken with him and hopes they will see each other more, and they do. Scott meets Amber's little girl, Ayanna, who likes him right away. He and Amber pick her up from school together.

He even takes them to pick out a Christmas tree. Amber saves the cork from a bottle of wine they share and wishes she had grabbed it from that first bottle of champagne. She writes their names and the date on the wine cork, December 2, 2002, thinking this is the first of many. On December 6th, Sean Sibley finds out that Scott Peterson is married. She calls Scott and confronts him. He denies it saying it must be a different Scott Peterson.

Only when Sean searches county records online and finds Scott is married to Lacey Peterson, does his story change. He is quiet for a long moment. Then he starts crying. Scott, she says, are you still there? What's going on? I'm sorry, he says. I'm sorry I lied to you. It's just I lost my wife. It's been very hard for me. I haven't fully dealt with it yet. Oh my God, Sean says. I'm so sorry, Scott. I had no idea. He begs her not to tell

Amber. I really care for Amber, he says, and I don't want to screw this up. Let me tell her myself. I want to tell her in person. Sean agrees. At this point, Lacey Peterson is very much alive and living in Modesto, with their son. She is nine weeks away from her due date. Two days later, on December 8th, Scott Peterson starts shopping for a boat, something he keeps a secret. He calls about a lightly used fishing boat from an online classified ad in the Modesto B and talks the seller down to $1,400. The next day, he pays cash for the 14-foot aluminum boat and its trailer, hooks it to his pickup, and toes it away. After his boat purchase, he visits a sport fishing website to find out what fish

are currently in season. And then Scott drives south to Amber Fry's house near Fresno to keep the promise he made to Sean Sibley and tell Amber his story about losing his wife. Later, with a tape recorder running, Amber Fry tells Modesto detectives about that conversation. Scott arrives at Amber's house Madeira in a sharp blue suit with a rotary pin on the lapel. He is clearly agitated and says he needs to speak with her. He pulls two chairs around so they face each other and sits. Amber remembers hearing his stomach churn and that Scott was having trouble swallowing. He looked upset, almost scared. We're holding hands at the table like, I'm listening, you know, what is it? And he said that he had lied about being married. And at this point, he's crying and having a hard time talking and said he had lost

his wife and it'd be the first holidays without her. She remembers comforting him, understanding how hard it must have been. I didn't know maybe she died in a car accident. Like, there was all these thoughts I wanted to ask, but at the same time with his emotions, I thought, I don't want to pry. He'll share with what he feels comfortable with. Scott goes on to say, when I meet new people, I act like my marriage never even happened. Amber believes him. As he stammers, she interrupts. Geez, Scott, for a moment there, I thought you were going to tell me you were married. No, he says, no, no. So she asks, are you ready for a relationship with me? He responds immediately. God, yes. On December 13th, Amber learns from Sean that Scott only told her about his supposed

dead wife after Sean discovered he was married. The next evening, December 14th, before they leave for a party, Amber confronts Scott. Can I trust you with my heart? She asks him. You already know the answer to that, Scott says. No, I don't, she says. That's why I'm asking. She asks him again, and again, he gives her the same answer. The party is a formal fundraiser at the World Sports Cafe in Fresno. She is in a red strapless gown. and looks stunning. He is in a tuxedo he rented that week. Before they go, she asks him how she should introduce him. There's going to be a lot of people I know at this fundraiser, Amber says. Are you seeing anyone else? I'm not seeing anyone else, he tells her. You're the only one I call sweetheart. I'm

completely monogamous. So would I be safe to call you my boyfriend? She asks. I think that would be totally appropriate, don't you? Amber smiles. Yes. Amber says they have a lovely time. All night, she introduces him as her boyfriend, and someone takes their picture. December 24, 2002, Lacey Peterson's stepfather, Ron Gransky, reports her missing to police. It is one of the few days Scott does not call Amber Fry. He's told her that he will be traveling to Maine, then Boston, then to Paris by way of New York, until the end of January. until the end of January, he gives her a post office box in Modesto to stay in touch. But Scott is still in Modesto, and Amber has no idea. He calls Amber twice on Christmas Day, and she hears a woman's voice in the background.

Scott says it's his mother. Amber wants to believe him, but has her doubts. Scott's behavior was starting to change little things, like giving her a time he would call her, which he'd never done before. On December 28th, Amber's curiosity turns into action. She asks a friend, Denise Lane, to help her look up Scott Peterson on the internet. This was before the concept of Googling someone was second nature to America. There are several Scott Peterson's in Sacramento, as it turns out, but nothing that seems to match. Frustrated, she calls Richard Byrd, a friend and officer with the Fresno police.

She leaves a vague voice message asking him to return her call. The next day, Amber writes a prayer on a little slip of paper and drops it into the request box at her church. She asks God to open her eyes and ears so she can see what she needs to see and hear what she needs to hear. After church, she goes to see her police officer friend Richard Byrd. She trusts him and paints the picture of life with Scott. Whenever he calls me sweetie, she says, I just melt. You know why he calls you sweetie? It's because he doesn't want to get your name wrong.

He doesn't want to confuse you with all of his other sweeties. Bird promises to look into Scott and soon. He says he'll make some calls and knows around. That night, Bird calls. He has found a story about a Scott Peterson in Modesto, whose wife is missing. I'm not sure it's your Scott Peterson, he says. Keep looking, Amber tells him.

If you find out anything for sure, call me. I don't care how late it is. Later that night, at 1.40 in the morning, bird calls again. This time, his voice has changed. Amber, he says, you're not going to like this. It sounds like the same Scott Peterson from Modesto. His wife is pregnant. She's missing. And there has been a huge search underway for her since the week before. At 143 a.m., Amber calls the Modesto Police Department. She tells police she may have information about Scott Peterson, but she first wants to make sure it's the right man. She asks them to confirm Scott's date of birth, and they do.

Amber can hardly breathe. She tells the dispatcher everything. She has been dating this man. He is supposed to be on his way to Europe. Instead, she found out he is in Modesto, and that his pregnant wife is missing. She gives the dispatcher her name and number hangs up and walks back out to her friends, sobbing.

It's him, she says. The next morning, December 30th, Amber sees footage of Lacey's family on TV. One of her friends shows her the website about Lacey's disappearance. At 11 a.m. that morning, six days after Lacey Peterson was reported missing, detectives Al Brokini and John Bueller arrive at Amber's home. Amber and her friend Sean Sibley, who started it all, are waiting out front. Inside, Amber tells the detectives that 24 hours ago she had asked God to open her eyes and ears. We get down to Amber's house, and her interview lasted more than an hour.

It verified my suspicions earlier that he wasn't the person that he purported to be, especially on that Christmas Eve interview. You guys didn't have any problems of various problems. Al mentioned to her, you were somebody that we were praying for. We were hoping to God that somebody like you would come forward, so it would help us with this case. Bueller starts a tape recorder, and Amber walks them through her relationship with Scott. She has brought photographs, gifts, and things he left behind.

her interview lasts more than an hour. Over lunch, Amber asks what she can do to help find Lacey. You're doing it, says Bueller. Amber presses. She later writes that she felt Lacey Peterson was counting on her to bring her and her baby home. The detective gives Amber a long look. How would you feel about taping your calls?

Bueller asks her. Amber agrees to play along with Scott, as if she knows nothing about Lacey. and to record every conversation for the police. Bueller described the next steps for him and Brokini when he spoke to me in 2021. And so we retrieved a recorder out of my trunk along with like 10 tapes and some batteries.

And then we went to Radio Shack, which was nearby, and Brock bought the connecting unit that would go to her phone and the recorder itself showed her how to use it. And he's showing her how to use it. The phone rings. And Brock, he goes, gosh, that's Scott's number right there. Amber puts in the earpiece from Radio Shack.

Her hands shake so badly that she misses the first call from Scott. Bueller tells her, relax, and that while she knows the call is being recorded, Scott has no idea. Amber then packs a bag and leaves her house to stay with friends. She does not want to be there alone with her daughter. Hours later, her cell phone rings again. It's Scott. Amber clears the room and tries not to panic. She reminds herself that Scott is in Europe, and she has to sound like she believes it.

She starts the tape. Her palms are damp with sweat. Hello? Amber, hey, are you there? I can barely hear you. The line is full of static, but she hears him say he's catching a plane out of Normandy and will be in Paris for New Year's. She knows this isn't true. I miss you, he says. If you can hear me, bye. Scott is not in Europe. He makes that call from his own Modesto neighborhood. The moment Amber hangs up, she calls Bueller. Her hands are shaking so badly, she drops the phone. I spoke to him, she says, and I got it on tape. The next night is New Year's Eve.

At East Leloma Park, Lacey's family is holding a candlelight vigil. They call Scott up to speak from the stage, and he declines, saying he'll watch from the crowd with his friends. As the candles burn around him, with people praying for his wife, Scott steps away and calls Amber. Over the next seven weeks, Amber secretly records more than 140 calls with Scott. She does her best to keep him talking. So what do you want to be together with me? Oh, I mean, obviously, my... You know, my thoughts.

I think, you know, it would be wonderful because to care for you. to our lives. Then Scott returns home from Europe. On January 6th, Bueller brings Amber to Modesto and puts her in a motel under an alias. At the station, she joins Bueller, a criminal profiler on loan from the Department of Justice named Sharon Hagen and Detective Craig Grogan. Lacey Peterson has been missing for two weeks. On the next call, they want Amber to coax some information out of Scott to push him to talk about his wife. Instead, he's got a bombshell for her. I don't want to do this out of the phone. I want to tell you this. I'm going to tell you this.

What are you talking about? It's the worst thing. Sorry, I'm... I'll just tell you. Okay. You haven't been watching the news, obviously. No. I have not been traveling in the last couple weeks.

My, I've lied to her that I've been traveling. Okay. The girl I'm married to, and her is Lacey. Mm-hmm. She disappeared just before Christmas. Mm-hmm. For the past two weeks, I've been a Modesto with her family in mine, searching for her. The conversation goes on for a while.

Huler Hagen and Grogan write questions for Amber to ask Scott, did you have a gun? Did you shoot her? Where's her body? And they listen and silently cheer her on. I said that I lost my wife. Yes, you did. I did. And yes. How did you lose her then before she was lost? Explain that. They're a different kinds of loss, Amber. Then explain your loss. I can't you now. Eventually, the conversation fizzles and drops out. While they wait, Hagen, the profiler, tells Amber what she's hearing. He lies even when he doesn't have to lie.

He's lying about little things. Every time he says the phrase, my God, he's lying. He's even lying about lying. Scott calls back, and the conversation goes in circles. When it finally ends, the officers commend Amber for her performance, but they are no closer to finding Lacey. Amber Frye starts reading everything. She pages through old issues of the Modesto B, the local newspaper. She visits the website set up for Lacey Peterson every day, sometimes multiple times a day,

and reads the outpouring of support from around the country for Lacey and her family. And through that reading, she finds Lacey Peterson's due date. It's February 10th, Amber's birthday. At this point, Bueller is telling her she has done a. enough. Every time Scott calls, Amber feels herself coming unglued. Bueller talks her down, but he's becoming worried about her. He suggests stopping the recordings and the ruse. But we haven't found Lacey, she says. I want to keep trying. On January 16th, Amber Fry's private life evaporates. The National Inquirer publishes photos of her and Scott Peterson together. Having gotten word of the

story about to break the day before, Modesto Police break the news to late. Lacey's family, who had been supporting Scott up until this point. Eight days later, exactly one month after Lacey Peterson went missing, Amber's name is broadcast out on the radio, and reporters are at her door within the hour. Police decide her best move is to make a statement and ask the world to leave her alone. As Amber heads to the press conference, Scott calls again. She does not answer. She enters a room packed with reporters,

standing shoulder to shoulder and speaks into a bank of microphones. 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. When I discovered he was involved in the Lacey Peterson disappearance case, I immediately contacted the Modesto Police Department.

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. Thank you. Lacey's family also addresses the press on January 24th. Lacey's brother, Brent Rocha, says Scott has admitted to the affair exposed by the National Enquirer and that the family is no longer supporting him. While Amber's statement is being broadcast, Lacey's mom, Sharon Rocha, calls the precinct hoping to catch her. She thanks Amber for stepping forward and says she would like to meet her.

The next day, a friend of Lacey's drives Amber Fry to Sharon's home. Sharon says she's hoping to fill in some gaps as far as what happened between Amber and Scott. She asks a few questions about dates and timing and occasionally glances at a calendar on her desk. Meanwhile, Scott Peterson continues calling Amber. The day after her press conference, he calls to tell her how proud of her he is. I was so proud of you when you did that. It was amazing, just an amazing character. I pulled over and threw up when he cried.

I was listening to the radio. It was so hard to do. But it was just so amazing. Your strength. February 10th, Amber Fry's birthday. Amber receives several calls from Scott this day. That afternoon, he tells her to drive to Valley Children's Hospital in Fresno and look at a lavender bush beneath a particular street lamp.

Hidden in the bush is a paper bag from Trader Joe's. Inside is a small silver box decorated with a moon and sun, a silver and amber necklace, a Nora Jones CD called come away with me, and a packet of wildflower seeds. There is a note in his handwriting, quote, these seeds as your life are soon to bloom. In the parking lot, Amber Fry sits with all of it in her lap and cries. There is another candlelight vigil that night in East Laloma Park,

96 miles north. It is for Connor Peterson, Scott and Lacey's son, who was due to be born this very day. A little more than a week later on February 18th, police returned to the Peterson House with a warrant.

They pack up several bags of evidence and they impound Scott's pickup truck. Amber Frye is ready to be done with Scott Peterson. Detective Bueller agrees. She resolves to tell Scott the next time he calls, it doesn't take long.

I think right now for me, Scott, I think It'd be best if you and I didn't talk anymore until there's resolution in this. Oh, yeah. I agree with that. Good. Good.

I hope to talk to the future. Okay, Scott. Goodbye, Scott. Goodbye, Scott. Amber sets down the phone and waits to feel relieved, but she doesn't. Amber later writes that she felt talking to him was keeping the line open to finding Lacey. now to protect herself and her daughter, that connection needs to be severed. She returns the recorder and the tapes to Bueller.

Scott keeps calling and emailing Amber, but the messages become less frequent and eventually stop altogether. Two months later, on April 13, 2003, a couple discovers the body of a baby along the north shore of the San Francisco Bay near Richmond. It's tiny, but it is unmistakable. the full-term body of a very small baby boy. The next day, a woman out on a walk reports finding a female body to police. It's a gruesome and bizarre discovery. The body is missing its head, its hands, and its legs below the knees. It is badly decomposed, clothed only in a bra and motherhood brand maternity pants,

but little of them remains. The press beat the police to the scene. Here's one Sacramento television station breaking the news. Just this afternoon, a badly decomposed body was found near Point, Isabel, and Richmond, and last night, the body of a male fetus was found just a few miles away. Gloria Gomez joins us live from the scene with more on this developing story. Gloria? Paul, this could be a major break in the Lacey Peterson case.

The woman washes up on the rocks directly east of Brooks Island, a nature preserve on the east side of the bay. That is near the area where Scott Peterson told. police, he had taken his fishing boat on Christmas Eve. The baby had come ashore about a mile away the day before. With no head to compare dental records, no hands to compare fingerprints, and no feet to check for an ankle tattoo. It is suspected but not certain that this is Lacey Peterson and her baby Connor. Authorities must wait for DNA to confirm their identities. Amber Frye here is about the washed up bodies in the bay and sobs. Then she writes a one-line email to Scott. Were those the

bodies of Lacey and Connor? He does not reply. I'm Megan Kelly. Next time on M.K. Confidential. Christmas Eve 2002 through two sets of eyes. First, the husband whose wife vanishes without a trace. Then the police who search for her and soon question his. Every word. At 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, 2002, four Modesto police officers pull up outside a single-story ranch house at 523 Covina Avenue. The front windows face the street, but heavy drapes cover them, blocking the view in or out. A 27-year-old woman has been missing from this house since that morning. She is eight months pregnant. Her husband says he went fishing, 90 miles away, and that he came home in the afternoon to find her gone. Officer Matt Spurlock leads the way up the brick walkway.

Behind him, Sergeant Byron Durefeld is on the phone to the supervisor, who runs a detective unit called Crimes Against Persons. I'm requesting the assistance of a cap detective, sir, Durefeld says. Spurlock tries the front door. It opens. Most of the lights inside are on. There's a Christmas tree in the corner of the dining area. the officer's inventory the presence underneath it. In the nursery, new baby clothes are stacked in a white crib. Miniature sailboats hang from the ceiling. One of the officers stops in front of a life preserver on the wall.

It reads, welcome aboard. In the living room, a tan and white throw rug is bunched up on the floor against the patio door. Officer John Evers steps around it and leaves it where it lies. They work through the rest of the house room by room. Closet doors open. A shower curtain slides back. On the kitchen wall, there's a chalkboard where Lacey has written,

Merry Christmas in a youthful script. On the counter, leftover pizza sits in an open box with a container of ranch dressing next to it. And beside that, a telephone book, open. The police see a full-page ad with a photograph of a young man being handcuffed by a uniformed officer, and underneath it the words, criminal defense, former deputy district attorney. The lawyer lists his specialties. One of them is murder. Scott Peterson will later

give an explanation for that. Sitting in an interview room at the Modesto Police Department, he says he had the phone book out to call hospitals. There are two accounts of that day, the day Lacey Peterson disappeared. First, the way Scott Peterson tells it that night to a detective with a notebook. Then the same day, again, the way investigators will say, it really happened. I'm Megan Kelly, and this is M.K. Confidential. Lacey Peterson has been missing for a few hours. There is no body, nor even police must consider, necessarily, any crime. Still, the officers don't leave that house before securing it. And out at the curb, Sergeant Duerfeld calls his supervisor back with a list of

six things that do not sit right. It has been less than an hour since police were called, and the supervisor wants a murder investigator at that house immediately. The detective who catches the case is Al Brokini, 17 years on the job. He'd planned a quiet Christmas with his family, up in the Sierra Nevada foothills. After getting the call, he drives back down Route 108 toward Modesto and the house on Covina Avenue with the police scanner going on his dashboard. Burkini opens an investigation that night. He'll be with Scott Peterson on and off until 1.30 in the morning. Their taped interview begins at midnight.

Let's just go over what we already talked about so I can make some notes. Just tell me about the morning. Here's how Scott describes that morning. Lacey is up first, and she has cereal. If she doesn't eat as soon as she's out of bed, she gets sick because of the pregnancy. Scott stays in bed a while longer, gets up around eight and showers. They watch television in the converted garage. Her favorite show is on, Martha Stewart.

Scott doesn't watch the whole thing. He remembers cookies of some sort. He remembers they talked about what to do with meringue. She tells him her plan for the day, finish cleaning the house, mop the kitchen floor, take the dog for a walk, then the store for Christmas morning breakfast supplies, and for the gingerbread cookies she's making for the food. the Christmas Eve dinner at her parents' place that night. He was going to go play golf at the club, but it seems pretty cold outside, so he decides to go

fishing instead. That was a morning decision. It was either, oh, the morning, so play golf at the club or go fishing. Okay. It seemed too cold to go play golf at the club, so, you know, just decided to, you know, 9.30 or whatever than that. Before he leaves, Lacey asks him for help with the mop bucket. He had me put the bucket by the front door for her.

He wants pregnant, I can't take it up or anything, so I filled it up for her. He tells Burkini what she's wearing when he leaves. Black pants, a white long-sleeved top, plain, nothing written on it. No shoes. Her white tennis shoes, the ones she wears to walk the dog, are not in their usual place by the wet bar. He says he looked. Scott leaves around 9.30 in his pickup and drives to the warehouse he rents on Emerald Avenue.

I assembled my mortiser. It's a woodworking tool to make tables. I maybe saw it on the trailer there. Yeah, yeah. I just got that, so I assembled it. Check my email. Sent one email. the boat up? The email goes to his boss.

Then he hooks up the 14-foot aluminum boat he bought two weeks earlier, which is stored at the warehouse, and tows it 90 miles to the Berkeley Marina. He feeds $5 into the automated parking machine and takes the timed receipt. It reads 1254 in the afternoon. Scott's in the water by about 1 o'clock. He goes north a couple of miles to a small island

with a no landing sign on it. It's called Brooks Island. He fishes for about 90 minutes, catches nothing. He tells Brookini that a lot of the reason he went was just to get the boat in the water and see how it ran. Back in the truck, he calls Lacey

as he's leaving the marina and leaves a message on her voicemail. Hey, beautiful. I just left a message at home. 2.15. I live in Brooklyn. I'll see him a bit. We love you.

Bye. He stops for gas in Livermore. on the freeway back toward Modesto. He hits traffic and calls the house again to say he will not be home by four. He stops at the warehouse to drop off the boat and gets home at 4.45. Scott comes around back. Their dog, McKenzie, is in the yard, and Scott is surprised to see he still has his leash on.

Scott takes it off of him and puts the leash on the picnic table, then goes in through the French doors. The dog and their gray and white Siamese cat follow him inside. The cat goes over to the mop bucket, still sitting there full, and looks like it's going to drink from it. So Scott carries the bucket out the side door, dumps it, and leaves it outside. He puts his clothes in the washing machine, his jeans, his blue t-shirt, a green polo. To make room, he pulls out a stack of stained white towels their housekeeper had left in there and piles them on top of the machine.

He eats one piece of the cold pizza, then showers, dresses and checks the answering machine. There are three messages. Two of them are his own from the road. The third is from Lacey's stepfather, Ron Gransky, asking them to bring over whipped cream. This is supposed to be a celebratory evening. They're due at Lacey's mom's house for dinner at six o'clock. At 5.15 by his own account, Scott Peterson looks at his watch. Sharon Rocha is looking at a clock, too. She is Lacey's mother. She has a ham in the oven,

and she has just put a casserole dish of scalloped potatoes on the top rack. She's told everyone to come at six. The clock by her stove reads 5.15. She finishes up in the kitchen and goes into the bedroom to change. Two minutes later, her phone rings. Hi, Mom, Scott says. Is Lacey there? No, she says.

She wonders why he's asking. In Sharon's account of it, Scott pauses. He says, hmm, then he says the sentence that will change her life. When I got home,

Lacey's car was in the driveway and McKenzie was in the backyard with his leash on and Lacey's missing. 22 years later, Sharon Rocha described that call to Netflix producers. Scott called me to find out

if Lacey was at my house. And I said no. And he said, well, then she's missing. Missing, what do you mean? Missing. I mean, people don't use that term lightly. So I told them to call her friends and find out if anybody has seen her. It's the word that stops her, missing.

Sharon says later that it was a strange choice of words. Lacey's not the kind of person who goes missing. She's practical and organized and nearly eight months pregnant, and they're coming for dinner in 45 minutes. Sharon asks Scott what time he got home. 445, he says. It's now 517. Scott's been home for more than 30 minutes before calling his mother-in-law to ask if she

has heard from his wife. Within the hour, Lacey's stepdad, Ron Gransky, is on the phone with the Modesto Police Department. My fellow was called. Even saying, morning. 9.30. My daughter, is in 60-morning morning. She eight months pregnant. She took her dog for a while from a heart.

The dog came home with just the leaf shock. And the dog came back without your daughter? Right. Okay, what is your address, sir? Two weeks later, Sharon Rocha opens that oven. The casserole dish of scalloped potatoes is still sitting on the top rack. She looks at them for a long time. Something else happens that evening before any detective arrives.

At 5.30, Scott Peterson knocks on the door of a neighbor across the street, Amy Crigbaum, to ask whether she, has seen Lacey. Crigbaum asks him where he's been all day. Scott tells her he was golfing. Down at East Leloma Park, at the end of their street, Ron Gransky is helping search for Lacey. Officer Spurlock finds him standing at the footbridge and asks whether he knows where Scott has been. I believe he went golfing this morning, Gransky says. Are you sure? Yes, he answers. Later that night, on Scott's front lawn with two officers standing. there, Gransky asks his son-in-law directly. Were you able to get in a game of golf this morning?

Scott hesitates. Then he says he did not play golf. It was too cold, that he went fishing instead. Gransky is a fisherman himself. 9.30 or 10 o'clock in the morning is way too late for fishing, he says. You should have gone earlier. What were you fishing for? Scott doesn't reply. Burkini asks Scott why the truck is backed in. Scott answers immediately. He always does that, he says, because the toolbox in the bed has been broken into a couple of times. That morning, he had loaded a set of patio umbrellas, wrapped in a blue tarp, into the back of the truck to store at the warehouse. He forgot and drove to Berkeley and back with them still in there.

Burkini asks whether Scott owns any handguns. Scott says yes. A llama 22 in the glove box of his truck. where it's been since a pheasant hunt about a month ago. Burkini pops open the glove box, the gun is there, and he takes it. Burkini asks whether there was anything unusual in the house. Two things, Scott says, the leash and the back door unlocked. Near the end of the interview,

Brookini asks to test Scott Peterson's hands for gunshot residue. Scott hesitates. Then he asks, will boat motor exhaust register positive? Burkini doesn't answer that question, but asks one of his own. Would you be willing to take a polygraph? Sure, Scott says. The detective asks a second time. Scott says he's certainly willing.

And then Burkini tells Scott what's bothering him an hour into the tape. What concerns me the most is the fact that your dog came home with a leash on. That bothers me. I mean, I have a question. Yeah. What concerns me most is doing anything I can to further progress. I appreciate that. Burkini asks him where he wants to go.

Physically, Scott says, back to my home. The polygraph is scheduled for the next afternoon, Christmas Day, with an agent from the California Department of Justice coming by to assist. At one o'clock, as detectives are waiting for him, they get a phone call. Scott has changed his mind. He says his father, Lee, told him taking a polygraph was not a good idea. Scott Peterson will never take a police polygraph. Now the same day again.

Not the day Scott Peterson describes. This time, the way police and prosecutors come to believe it really happened. Let's start with what was on TV. Martha Stewart is on that morning, Lacey's favorite show, and Scott remembers Martha talking about what to do with meringue. Detectives will pull that broadcast later. The segment about meringue aired at 9.48 that morning. Scott tells Burkini he left the house around 9.30.

But the meringue is Scott's own detail. Nobody put it to him. He offers it. And it airs 18 minutes after the time he says he was already gone, which puts him still in that house until at least 9.50. Next door, neighbor Karen's service backs out of her driveway and finds their dog McKenzie loose in the street. Dragging a leash so dirty, Karen goes back inside her house to wash her hands after she's handled it. I left the leash on the dog and abruptly just left and shut the gate and went on with my day.

And I really didn't think much more of that until that evening. The next day, when police take Karen's service's statement, they ask her to pin down a time when she found the dog. Using a receipt from an errand she ran just afterward, she works it back to no later than 1018. That leaves 28 minutes from the time Scott would have heard meringue before leaving the house, and the time McKenzie was found outside, barking and alone, with no Lacey. 28 minutes for Lacey to finish mopping, load the dishwasher, make the bed, curl her hair, lace up her sneakers, clip a leash on McKenzie, and head to the park and become a victim. police come to believe that Lacey Peterson never left her house alive.

They cannot say exactly when she is killed. They cannot say exactly how. Neither can the prosecutor who takes the case to trial. Here is Rick Dostaso two years later in his closing argument. Quote, the defendant strangled Lacey Peterson on the night of December 23rd or the morning of December 24th. I don't know. I don't have to prove that to you. Strangling and smothering is not going to leave.

a lot of evidence, unquote. There is almost no physical evidence in that house. Investigators have a phrase for a killing like that. I believe that this was what I call a soft kill, that he either suffocated her or he strangled her, and there would be two reasons that he would choose to do that. One is that it's very quiet. Secondly, it doesn't make a mess. Investigators focus on the bedroom.

The night Burkini walked through the house, he saw a white comforter in Lacey and Scott's bedroom, pulled up over the pillows as though someone had tidied the bed in a hurry. At the foot of the bed, there was an indentation running across as though a body had been laid out there. Bracini does not write it down, but he clocks it. Two days later, on December 26th, detectives come back with a warrant. A crime scene officer photographs the bed. Then they strip the bed and take the comfort. cover with them.

Beside the indentation on that cover are two small spots. The spots are blood. Forensics will later confirm the blood is Scott Peterson's. Detectives come to believe Lacey Peterson was killed on that bed. One theory they take seriously is that she reached up and scratched him as he was strangling her to death. Then Scott has to move her. Investigators believe he wrapped her in a tarp inside the house.

and dragged her out through the back door, wadding up the throw rug as he went. Police also suspect Scott mopped the floor and deliberately let McKenzie loose with his leash still attached, setting up the possibility that someone took Lacey. Here is the prosecutor, Dastasso, again. Quote, he wrapped her in a blue tarp and backed his truck up to the gate. He carries Lacey out, puts her in the back of the truck. Who's going to suspect him? Everyone thinks he's the perfect husband.

husband." And that is what the umbrellas are for. Detective Craig Grogan, the lead investigator, will testify that the patio umbrellas Scott loaded that morning were approximately the same height as Lacey Peterson. And that wrapped in a tarp in the bed of a truck, they would not only hide Lacey's body, but would explain what anyone saw him loading. Scott drives to the warehouse on Emerald Avenue. In his version, he spends one hour assembling a woodworking tool and sending one email.

In the police version, this is the hour Lacey Peterson's body goes from the truck into the boat that no one knows Scott had. Bracini is inside the warehouse the same night, working by flashlight and the high beams of his own car. On the floor of the boat is a chunk of concrete with a steel loop set into one end. Scott tells him it's a homemade anchor and that the loop is there to tie the rope to. But there is no rope attached to it. There is also concrete dust inside the boat, not on the rim, but down on the ridges that run up the sides and across the bottom of the boat. The detective can think of no reason for that to be there. Two days later, on December 26th, detectives come back with a search warrant covering Scott's house, his warehouse, his vehicles, and his boat.

Burkini looks at the flatbed trailer more closely. On the trailer is a plastic water pitcher, the kind you might keep in a refrigerator. It's about a third full of murky water with gray residue ringing the inside. Burkini stands close and studies it. There's a mallet lying next to the pitcher. And in the dried concrete on the trailer are four circular impressions, each one the size of the bottom of that water pitcher. Burkini works out what he's looking at. Ready mix concrete and water, poured into the pitcher, let it set, knock it out with the mallet, stand it on the trailer to cure.

Four rings, at least four anchors. They have found one on the floor of the boat that leaves at least three unaccounted for. In the bed of Scott's pickup, Bracchini finds a small tool coated in dry cement. He assumes this was used to mix the concrete. Detective Grogan asks Scott how many anchors he made. Did you make just one? Yeah. Scott says he made it days earlier,

mixed in a small white painter's bucket, not in the pitcher. Detective see the pitcher, but never locate the bucket. The police theory is that concrete weights took Lacey Peterson's body down and that the cement on those ridges inside the boat crumbled off of the weights as she went over the side. Beneath the boat's bench seat, detectives find a pair of yellow needle-nosed pliers.

There is a single strand of black human hair clamped in the pliers. Lacey Peterson has black hair. A Modesto detective bags the hair, seals it, and marks it to be sent for DNA testing. There is no root attached to the hair, though, so the analysis does not give a conclusive match. However, it says the DNA is consistent with a hair. from Lacey's hair brush and a sample from Lacey's mother Sharon. The hair does not belong to Scott Peterson. At 10.06 that morning, the morning Lacey disappeared.

Scott Peterson makes a phone call. It is the last call he makes for about four hours. No calls on the drive, not at the marina, not on the water. Police note this as a change from his normal behavior. He tows the boat from his warehouse, about 90 miles. to the Berkeley Marina. Detectives believe Lacey Peterson is in that boat. At 1254 in the afternoon, he arrives at the marina, feeds $5 into the automated parking machine, and takes the timed receipt, and keeps it. That night, standing in his own driveway, he hands it to a police officer

who has not asked him for it. At the marina, Scott puts the boat in the water and goes a couple of miles north toward Brooks Island. That is where police believe Lacey Peterson's body is discarded into San Francisco Bay. He went out to Brooks Island and he dumped her weighted body into the water hoping that it would never ever come up. Four months later, on April 13th and then the 14th, the decomposing bodies of a full-term baby boy and a woman wash ashore directly east of that island. The rest of the day is the day you already know. Scott calls Lacey twice from the road and leaves excessively loving messages she will never pick up. He drops the boat at the warehouse, and he is home at 4.45.

The dog is in the yard with a leash on, and he takes it off. He dumps the mop bucket out the side door. He puts his clothes in the washing machine, eats a piece of cold pizza, showers, dresses, and plays back the messages on the answering machine. Then he waits. At 5.15, he looks at his watch and picks up the phone. Hi, Mom, Scott says. Is Lacey there?

In the first version, that is a husband finding out his wife is missing. In the police version, he knows very well what has happened to her. In the weeks following Christmas, police keep a close eye on Scott Peterson. They impound his truck and get a court order to put a tracking device on Lacey's land. rover. When he rents another pickup, they track that too. Scott goes back to the Berkeley Marina three times after December 24th, and he does not take the boat with him. Surveillance units watch him sit in his vehicle near the boat ramp, just looking out at the water. When he learns police are bringing in dogs, Scott brings the boat's cover home from the warehouse and puts it

in a shed behind the house. Then he sets a gasoline power. leaf blower down on top of the cover. The leafblower leaks. Police note that Scott Peterson is not otherwise careless with his equipment. Burkini interviews neighbor Karen's service again. Afterward, he writes up a list and he gives it a heading, Scott Peterson false statements. One, that police took his handgun from inside his house. Two, that he volunteered for a polygraph, and officers told him not to take it. He told his parents and service this at least four times. Scott tells Lacey's mom, Sharon, that he's deliberately avoiding the press,

so the coverage stays on Lacey, and that if he senses interest starting to fade, he'll give an interview himself just to bring it back. He calls a realtor about their house on Covina Avenue and talks about selling it or renting it out. There's no way if Lacey comes back that we're going to stay there, he says. On January 11, 2003, Sharon leaves Scott a voicemail meant to bring him relief. A sonar scan of San Francisco Bay has turned up something on the bottom.

It's been identified and it's a boat anchor. It is not her daughter. The wiretap on Scott's phone is running while he listens to the message. As his mother-in-law's message plays, Scott Peterson lets out a low, quick whistle. Hi, Scott. This is mom. It's about quarter to one. Just wanted you know, I just got a call from Ron Cloward. He's at Marina, and it was a boat anchor. Of course, we knew it wasn't Lacey, but I just wanted to know. I'm going to call your house in case you don't get this message first. Bye. Scott Peterson has a cut on his knuckle. The cut is not the problem. The problem is Scott's explanations for it keep changing. When Detective Grogan asks him what cut him, Scott says he doesn't know. Probably the door, he offers, or something.

Grogan asks whether it was just a scuff on the knuckle, and Scott says, yeah, left hand, index finger. Five weeks later, Scott's on television, holding up his hand for a Sacramento reporter named Gloria Gomez. She has just asked him whether it would surprise him if police found blood in his vehicles. Take a look at my hand. And you can see, you know, cuts here on my knuckles. numerous scars. I work on farms. I work with machinery. I know I cut my knuckle that day, reaching in the toolbox of my truck and then into the pocket on the door. I cut out my knuckle and there's blood stain on the door. What happened to he doesn't know?

Sometime after Christmas, Scott complains to Lacey's mom Sharon about brookini, including that the detective had checked his hands for cuts a few times. Then he makes a point of showing Sharon his hands. Sharon glances at them quickly and writes down later what she saw. Not one finger, but a line running across the knuckles of all four fingers, a cut or a slice that has almost healed. She says nothing. One Christmas Eve, two different versions. In Scott Peterson's accounting, a man goes fishing, comes home to a quiet and empty house, tosses in a load of laundry, cleans up, eats a slice of leftover pizza, then calls his mother-in-law. To the police, that man has killed his wife and unborn child, dumped their bodies in the cold sea, and is trying to cover up

his crime. The Modesto Police Department will spend the next two years trying to prove it. But there's a problem. There are witnesses whose accounts do not fit the police timeline, a van that doesn't belong on that street. Three men in a yard. And people who say they saw a pregnant woman walking a golden retriever that morning after the point Scott Peterson had left. After the time police had concluded, Lacey Peterson was already dead. I'm Megan Kelly. That's next time on MK Confidential. There is a van parked outside 516 Covina Avenue that does not look like it belongs there. late in the morning of December 24, 2002, a woman named Diane Jackson is driving home from her hand therapist appointment. Her husband is coming home at noon for lunch, and she is thinking about

whether she has enough time to make his food. She turns on to Covina Avenue, and as she passes the house at 516, she sees three men standing in the front yard. Two of them are at the back of a van parked at the curb. The third is up near the house. All three of them stop with they are doing and turn and look at her as she goes by. She pulls into her own driveway and looks at her watch, 1140 a.m., 20 minutes to make his food, she can do this. Her first thought about the three men she tells police later is that they are landscapers. Then she changes her mind as she tells A&E. I drove by at, I think it was some time after 11 in the morning.

and saw this van and two or three people out there. And I noticed it only because they noticed me. And I thought, oh, they're not yard workers. I mean, yard workers, you'll turn it up their heads and look at you when they're doing your yard work. The van is parked outside 516 Covina, directly across the street at 523 is Scott and Lacey Peterson's home. At this time, 1140 in the morning on Christmas Eve, no one has reported anyone missing.

Diane Jackson does not know she is a witness to anything. She goes inside and makes her husband's lunch. On the Friday after Christmas, Diane hears that the neighbors at 516 were burglarized while they were away. She telephones the Modesto Police Department and tells them what she saw. A detective takes her statement that evening. Three men, an older van, parked on the street, doors that opened at the rear. She first thought it was white, she says, and now she thinks it might have been darker,

maybe tan or brown. Three weeks later, on January 17, 2003, the Modesto Police Department asks Diane Jackson to come down to the station, and there they hypnotize her. I'm Megan Kelly, and this is M.K. Confidential. Diane Jackson is not the only person on that street who reports a vehicle that does not belong there. Around 920 on Christmas Eve morning, a city building inspector leaving 516 Covina has to drive around a van to get out. He remembers a white Ford, two doors at the back, paint chipping down to gray primer, and a crude wooden roof rack. Minutes later, a woman who often walks that street sees it too, though she's never seen this van before.

An unusually long white utility van, no windows along the rear sides, parked in front of the same house, 516. She tells police one other thing. Between about 920 and 940 a.m., she saw Scott Peterson standing in the bed of his pickup truck in his own driveway. At least five people reported a strange van in that neighborhood around the time Lacey disappeared. Several of the sightings are on Covina at the same hour Scott is loading his truck, but Scott never mentions seeing a van. Five reports with similar descriptions, but nothing definitive. Matt Dalton spent 13 years as a prosecutor, most of it with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. In January 2003, he quits and goes to work for defense attorney Mark Garagos.

When Garagos takes Scott Peterson's case, Dalton moves to Modesto and Beardusto and begins investigating Lacey's disappearance for the defense. Garagos rents Dalton an office above the J Street Cafe, a block from the jail. No phone, no fax, no copier, no bed. Dalton sleeps on the floor until something runs across his chest in the dark. After that, he sleeps in a tent indoors. He reads more than 30,000 pages of police reports. It appears there was a van that did not belong, possibly connected to a robbery,

in Lacey's neighborhood when she went missing. But can this be linked to Lacey's disappearance? Dalton goes and finds the witnesses, knocking on door after door, making call after call. Six people have told the Modesto Police Department that they saw a very pregnant woman walking a golden retriever on the morning of December 24th. Dalton interviews all six.

None of the six witnesses ever testifies. Garagos tells the jury in his opening statement that he will call them, but he doesn't. Dalton says he still does not know why. What the jury hears about these witnesses comes mostly through police officers being questioned by the defense. And even then, the judge tells jurors they can consider those reports only to understand what police did with them, not as proof that the sightings themselves actually happened. Homer Maldonado and his wife Helen stopped for gas at a mini-mart on Miller Avenue, near the corner of Kavana, between about 9.50 and 10 o'clock a.m. on Christmas Eve.

Pulling out, they drive west, away from the Peterson's neighborhood and toward town. A few houses past Kovina, they pass a young woman. She is, in his words, very pregnant. She is walking a golden retriever and having trouble controlling it. The dog is up on its back legs, front paws on her as if it were jumping on her. I hope she doesn't fall, Helen says. Later, Maldonato sees Lacey Peterson's photograph and he is certain it was her. He doesn't know the family, but he finds her brother Brent's number and calls him. On January 1st, he also telephones the Modesto

Police Department. No one calls him back, so he drives down to the command post and reports it in person and is told that a detective will speak with him. Maldonado says no one ever does. He is the only one of the six with a receipt supporting where he says he was and when. Vivian Mitchell is at her kitchen window on Lassambra Avenue at about 10.30 a.m. Christmas Eve morning when she sees a pregnant woman walking a golden retriever. She's in her late 70s, and she has seen the woman. and the dog in the neighborhood before.

She watches them for about four minutes, she thinks. And she says to her husband, Bill, there's that lady with the pretty dog. Dalton wants her account preserved under oath before trial. It never happens. Vivian dies before the trial begins. Diana Campos is a janitor at the county hospital. On the morning of December 24, she is outside

on a cigarette break at a spot above Moose Park. She sees a pregnant woman walking a golden retriever with two men following behind her. And the dog will not stop barking. Then one of the men in a beanie shouts, Shut the fucking dog up. Diana finishes her cigarette and goes back to work. Two days later, she sees a flyer of Lacey. Diana looks at it and thinks, hey, I know that girl.

She reports it to security at the hospital where she works. And a Modesto detective comes. and takes her statement. She tells him she is real good with faces. A few minutes later, she softens it. She's pretty sure. At about the same time, down at the parking lot at Moose Park, a driving instructor named Liora Garcia is out with a student driver. She hasn't seen anyone walking a dog, but she tells police about a vehicle pulled to the side of the road with a long woman's coat hanging out, caught in the door. And then the vehicle, and then the vehicle, speeds off. Leora got part of the license plate number. Texas plates in a rainbow frame.

She does not say it was a van, or if she did, it does not make it into the report. Years later, when Dalton calls Leora Garcia at home, she remembers it, well, a white van, now, she says, with a wooden rack on top. She tells Dalton that she had a terrible feeling watching it drive away. He writes, quote, something about the van frightened her. Russell Graybell has been a mailman for 10 years. For about the last year, his regular route has included Covina Avenue. On December 24th, he delivers the Peterson's mail between 10.35 a.m. and 1050 a.m. And he can fix that time window because the post office requires him to scan his time as he goes.

He tells the police two things, that the side gate is wide open and that McKenzie, the dog, the dog, does not bark at him. That dog, he says, barks at him every single day from wherever the dog is in the house. But this day, nothing. Graybill does not see McKenzie anywhere. It strikes him as strange. If Lacey is walking McKenzie off property past 1035 a.m., then she is alive after Scott leaves the house for the marina. But Karen Service says, the mailman is wrong. She says, she personally put the dog back in the Peterson's yard at 1018, closing the gate behind her. The jury never hears about the allegedly open gate or the dog that did not bark. What the mailman Graybill tells police is written down by hand and then it gets lost in the mass of paperwork.

Thousands of pages are being scanned into the case file. The scanner skips about 10 of them, and those 10 go to the defense in a separate stack that never makes it onto the index of evidence. Peterson's appeal lawyers find them years later going through boxes one page at a time. On the afternoon of December 26th, officers are outside of 523 Kavina, setting up wooden barricades for crowd control. When a woman runs out of the house across the street at 516, screaming that she has been robbed. Susan Medina and her husband have just driven back from Los Angeles. They find their French doors have been kicked in. The safe from their master bedroom is gone,

and the dolly from their tool shop out back is sitting on the front porch. The police officer assigned to the Medina burglary writes a supplemental report, explaining why he did not go door-to-door investigating the burglary. Due to the priority, given to five 23 Covina, he writes, I did not contact neighbors in regards to this incident. On January 2nd, police arrest Stephen Todd and Donald Pierce for the Medina burglary. The men live at the same address in Modesto's Airport District, the low-income neighborhood that borders the Peterson's. An officer sits Stephen down to talk about the burglary. Before he can even start, Stephen says he had nothing to do with, quote, the woman.

The officer asks him what woman he's talking about. The missing woman with the baby, says Stephen. The officer's report shows what happens next. He asks Stephen again to tell him about the burglary. There is no record of him asking about the missing woman again. Strangely, exactly when the Medina burglary took place becomes a point of contention. Diane Jackson saw three men in a van outside. of that house at 1140 a.m. on the morning of December 24th.

Here's what she told ABC back in 2021. I was coming down Calvina towards the park, going past Lacey on one side, and Medina's on the other. And I just looked over and there were three guys on Medina's property and a van out front. And the only reason it caught my eye is that they turned around looked at. me sort of made me think, feel a little bit uncomfortable. The Medina's came home on the evening of December 26th, and by that point, found it had been broken into. But the accounts do not line up neatly. The burglar Stephen tells police he went over the fence at 3 a.m. the morning of December 27th. That's clearly incorrect since the Medina's

came home and found they'd been burglarized on December 26th. Co-burglar Donald's account put Stephen there on December 26th, saying Stephen came to him for help moving the safe. And when I interviewed Detective John Bueller in 2021, he gave me still another version of the department's timeline. So he broke into the house on the 25th, and he took a bit of property on the 25th, but there was a safe and some tools and other things that he couldn't take on his bike. So he returns home, and he's living in a shed behind his friend Don, who's living with his mother, and he tells Don, hey, there's a safe over there. We need to go back over and get that.

So they returned on the 26th. And the reason we know that they were there on the 26th is they said they saw the media down the street when they were in the house. And it was a big hoopla. And they couldn't figure out what it was because they didn't know. The Modesto Police Department settles on December 26th as the date of the burglary and announces it has nothing to do with Lacey Peterson's disappearance. Ted Rowlands covered the disappearance for KTVU in San Francisco.

reporting live from Covina Avenue. Ted tells A&E the police timeline does not fit what he saw. The problem with that is, I was standing outside that house at 5 in the morning on December 26th. And I would have gone and interviewed the burglars if they were out there because there was nobody outside the front of that house. My head was on a swivel that morning, and there was absolutely no way a burglary took place on December 26.

during those early morning hours. Stephen had three prior convictions for residential burglary. Dalton, Garagos's investigator and a former prosecutor, argues this guy should have faced 25 years to life. He got eight years. Donald got 180 days. Both men pleaded guilty to breaking into the Medina house at night on December 27th, a day after the homeowners had discovered the crime.

That is three days after Lacey Peterson disappeared, and it is a version of events that puts them nowhere near Covina Avenue on Christmas Eve. Two weeks or so after Lacey Peterson disappears, a lieutenant with the California Department of Corrections named Xavier Aponte hears about an inmate at his prison who has allegedly been talking about Lacey. The inmate is Sean Tenbrook. His brother Adam Tenbrook knows burglar Stephen Todd. Lieutenant Aponte calls the Modesto Police tip line twice. He says it takes at least a week before a detective calls him back. Aponte tells a detective that he listened to a recorded call between the Tenbrook brothers. On it, the lieutenant claims, Adam Tenbrook said he had heard that Lacey walked up while Stephen Todd was burglarizing the house

and that Stephen threatened Lacey. This is the only alleged account that places Lacey with the burglars across the street. A Modesto detective interviews Sean Tenbrook, who denies everything. Lieutenant Aponte says Sean Tenbrick then telephoned his mother, asking her to tell Adam to keep his mouth shut

because, quote, you don't know who you're dealing with. Lieutenant Aponte says he taped that call, but he was never called as a woman. witness, and when investigators went looking for that tape years later, it did not materialize. ABC reported this summer that Lieutenant Aponte walked back his story entirely, saying he doesn't really know what he heard. Modesto Police and the prosecution dispute all of this account. They say there are no reports showing anyone from the department was ever in contact with Lieutenant Aponte.

In May of 2003, more than a year before the Scott Peterson trial, the videotaped police interviews with burglars Stephen and Donald are marked for destruction. Prosecutors say the burglary was solved. Both men had confessed and the evidence was destroyed as part of routine procedure. Scott Peterson's defense says that in a capital case, evidence potentially connected to an alternate theory should have been preserved. Lacey Peterson was a member of the neighborhood watch group. People who knew her said that if there was somebody untoward in that neighborhood, she would have let them have it.

But for any of that to matter, she has to have walked up on the burglary while it was in progress, and no eyewitness can put her there. On Christmas Day, the morning after Lacey Peterson vanishes, a van is found burning in an alleyway, a mile and a half from her front door. A Modesto Fire Investigator works the scene, rules it arson,

and hands the case to the Modesto Police Department. In the back is a mattress. A Modesto Police Evidence Technician tests material from that mattress and finds faint evidence of possible blood. His report carries a heading, missing person investigation. Under that, he writes

Lacey Peterson's case file, number. The potential blood sample goes to the State Department of Justice Lab, which finds no blood on the mattress. The fire investigation is closed as a separate case entirely. Scott Peterson's defense says it did not learn the van existed until after the trial. No court has found that this van had anything to do with Lacey Peterson, and no one has established that it was the same van, multiple witnesses reported seeing near the Peterson House. As for the Medina burglary, police reject the idea that it had anything to do with Lacey's disappearance, warning, don't put too much stock in vague witness accounts like the one from the lady rushing home to make her husband a sandwich.

Here's Detective John Buehler to me in 2021. Well, it's, you know, it's pretty rare that a guy doing a property crime is going to turn into an abductor of a pregnant girl with its walking a dog. I mean, if everybody, you know, if Diane Jackson sees a van at 1140 in the morning with three guys in it, but she can't even tell us if it's white, tan, or black, it kind of calls into question her, you know, viability as a witness. Bueller says both burglars asked to take a polygraph examination because they knew they were going to jail and didn't want other inmates thinking they had killed a pregnant woman. woman and her baby. Bueller also points to other pregnant women in Lacey's neighborhood, three of them,

in fact. He interviewed two himself, and one of them looked a lot like Lacey Peterson. She was due in January, and she walked a mid-sized dog. She, too, was reportedly placed under hypnosis by the police department in an effort to help her remember her exact activities on the days in question. None of these people that came forward and claimed they saw Lacey there actually knew her. They never had a barbecue with her. They'd never been to her house. So it's easy to misplace or misidentify somebody, especially with the coverage going on. Bueller doesn't believe Lacey Peterson was out walking that morning at all.

On a trip to Disneyland in November, she had spent part of the day in a wheelchair. Her yoga instructor and her doctor had both told her not to walk at the end of the pregnancy. Her own mother did not believe she had gone walking. And to think this girl that couldn't even move a mop bucket, according to Scott, would go down an uneven grade down to a park with a dog tugging at her when she's unstable on her feet and exhausted from everybody's account. Makes it sound to me like she didn't do that walk. As for that mailman, police interviewed Russell Graybill three days after Lacey disappeared.

He cannot remember anything unusual about that morning when he's not. sits with the police, even as he specifically remembers the Peterson's gate being open and Mackenzie the dog not barking. Diane Jackson gives her statement within days, and then a second one on January 16th, explaining exactly why she was so sure of the time she saw that van, 1140 the morning of Christmas Eve. She can't remember the color. The next day, January 17th, they hypnotize her. Police hypnosis is meant to draw out details a witness cannot otherwise recall. With Diane, investigators want more detail about the men and the van. The defense will later want the same. Diane could make a great defense witness. There's just one problem. In California, hypnosis doesn't just probe a witness's

memory. It can effectively end her usefulness as a witness. The rule goes back to a 1982 California Supreme Court ruling, People v. Shirley. Once a witness is hypnotized, it can become too difficult to assess the reliability of her memories. In addition, police here used an unqualified hypnotist.

So Diane's statement about the men and the van and the time can be admitted, but she will not be taking the stand as a witness. No other details. A reality Garagos later raises in frustration, accusing the prosecution of intentionally disqualifying her from telling all of her story about the burglary across the street happening in the morning Lacey disappeared.

Jackson says the experience ruined her life. Her friends in Modesto treated her as though she had been trying to get Scott Peterson off, she says, when she was only trying to tell the truth. More than 20 years later, she still cannot say what was done to her. Here's what she tells legal analyst Chris Pixley for A&E. I do remember being hepatized, but I don't remember not being conscious of it. So I don't know. Therefore, was I really hypnotized on consciousness of the whole thing?

I don't know. Even if the Medina's were burglarized on the morning Lacey Peterson went missing, there is not a single witness on the record who can testify the burglars had any interaction with Lacey. By spring, the Scott Peterson case is ever. everywhere in Modesto. Lacey Peterson's face is on posters and shop windows and on the dashboards of cars. And then Scott Peterson changes. He grows a goatee and a mustache and lightens his hair. On April 12th, he answers a classified ad for a 1984 Mercedes-Benz and pays $3,600 in cash. He has the DMV paperwork with him. The seller looks at it and sees the name Jacqueline Peterson. That's Scott's

mother as the buyer. The seller asks about it. Scott insists the paperwork is right and that Jacqueline is his own name. It was kind of a boy name sue type name, he says. That's what my parents stuck me with. He adds that he goes by Jack. On April 18th at 1135 in the morning, police arrest Scott Peterson near the Torrey Pines golf course in La Jolla. Detective Al Brokini arrives as Scott is being handcuffed. He later describes the moment to Netflix. He had orange hair. He had an orange goatee. I walk up and he's out. Tell me it wasn't my wife and baby. I'm like, that's ridiculous. I mean, you know, come on, Scott. You know better than that. Police search his newly purchased Mercedes. They find just under $15,000 in cash, Mexican currency as well. His brother's

driver's license, which the arresting detective notes now looks like Scott with his hair lightened. There's camping and survival gear. Weapons. Four cell phones. Torrey Pines is close to the Peterson family home in San Diego, where Scott said he was visiting. It's also about 30 miles from the Mexican border. Police interviewed the manager of the Torrey Pines Golf Club where Scott says he was headed. The manager checks the book. Scott Peterson did not have a tea time. His father Lee did. Lee was down for 8 o'clock that morning for a foursome. The state says Scott was running for the border. His family says he was going to play golf with his dad.

But Scott Peterson's golf days are now over. I'm Megan Kelly. Next time on MK Confidential. The trial of Scott Peterson. And my conversation with attorney Mark Garagos, does he still think his client is stone cold, innocent? If you turn on CNN at 9 o'clock at night in the month of April 2003, you get one thing, Scott Peterson. Larry King is running a Peterson segment almost every night.

One lawyer, and seemingly only one lawyer at that table, keeps taking a most unpopular position. Condem him as a narcissist. No. condemn him his character flaws, but that does not make him a murderer. Mark, you are. Because he might be guilty of adultery. Mark. Mark.

Why do you make him a good? That is Mark Garagos. Some nights, he hits Scott Peterson, but most he defends him. He does not represent Scott Peterson, not yet. On April 18th, police arrest Scott Peterson. That evening, the state's attorney general announces that the bodies that washed ashore in San Francisco Bay are Lacey Peterson and her son, Connor. That night, Garagos tells Larry King that their bodies washing ashore within two miles of

Scott's fishing trip alibi is, quote, devastating. Even still, Garagos criticizes how the case against Scott Peterson is being framed. And at no point does he say Peterson is guilty. 23 years after defending him in court, Mark Garagos spoke with us about his former client. Mark is now the co-host of the show In the Well on our MK True Crime podcast channel. Does he think Scott Peterson is a killer? You know whether somebody is good for it. He's not good for it. I said it then. I've said it consistently with much blowback since, in the 20-some on years since. The guy I met does not have the capability, the wherewithal, the ability to do it. When Garagos was making those rounds on cable news, he had not yet met Scott Peterson. He later

says of those appearances, quote, maybe I was one of the media pundits who jumped on a bunch of misleading information and convicted the guy. That's not how Lee and John. Jackie Peterson saw it. In San Diego, Scott's parents are watching Garigos on TV almost every night. They had retained lawyer Kirk McAllister to represent their son after Lacey went missing. Once Scott is arrested, McAllister tells them that a case of this size is going to get expensive, very fast. They should just let the public defenders take it. In 2017, Lee Peterson tells A&E why they did not take that advice. We contacted Mark Garagos because he was on a Larry King show just about every night, and he was defending Scott.

I finally said, well, what's it going to cost Mark? He said, a million bucks. And I said, wow, you know. They cannot afford him. They hire him anyway. I'm Megan Kelly, and this is M.K. Confidential. We began our conversation with Mark Garagos, where his relationship, with the Peterson family started. On television, talking about Scott, weeks before Mark had met the man he was arguing about. So before you actually got hired as counsel for Scott Peterson, what did you think of the case, Mark?

You know, famously, in fact, because of my smart act, Alec tendency, I had said on a show, I think it was Larry King, who was back on CNN when CNN actually had more than four viewers. I said something to the effect of there are guys in state prison on a lot less evidence than where, than what was facing Scott. And what I meant by that was the sheer coincidence, so to speak, of Blacey and Connor washing up at exactly the location. It wasn't really exactly, but in the, basically the bay for all intents and purposes, was enough to get him convicted.

And sure enough, at the end of the day, fast forward, I don't want to step over everything else. A couple of the jurors said they never would have convicted but for that fact. So you, before the Peterson's called you, were you looking at this saying he did it? I was commenting virtually nightly. I mean, people have to remember, we're almost in a return from 20 to 25 years.

20 to 25 years ago, every summer there was always a trial of the century. There was always some, what I used to call the axis of evil of true crime, which was cable shows at night, the morning shows, and then back then it was People magazine. And if you got into that kind of axis, you were done for it. It was awful because before you even walked into a courtroom, you were done. That media machine would soon come for Garagos. Garagos. By Friday, May 2, 2003, Garagos had now signed on as Scott Peterson's lawyer and walks out of the Stanislaus County Courthouse to face the cameras. Reporters immediately ask about what looks like a change of heart. Garagos waves it off, saying, I think I succumbed to the media buzz. Mark's telling starts with Scott's mother.

Jackie Peterson, Scott's mom, reached out to me and said she wanted to see me and I think came in initially at least just to try to correct the record, so to speak, and make sure that I understood that she believed fervently that he was innocent. I met with her and we had a long talk and I was so taken with her.

She asked me to go meet with him. I met with him. I was convinced of his innocence after meeting him. In Modesto, I went to the Modesto So, or Stanislaus County Jail. And that I took the case. I will tell you, virtually everybody, virtually everybody, including lawyers in my office,

lawyers who ended up working on the case, told me, do not take this. I was coming off of basically a seven-year streak of not losing a case. I had won back-to-back, Susan McDougal on both coasts, not guilty against kind of all odds. I had had an incredible streak, and everybody said, look, if you win the case, you're a pariah, a la Johnny Cochran. You know, Johnny, people forget. After OJ, Johnny didn't want to do another criminal case again. He was kind of verboten.

Johnny used to sit at jury selection. He would rent himself out to mass tort lawyers and to PI lawyers because jurors would raise their hand and say, I can't be fair because John. Johnny Cochran is the lawyer. I think he was that much hated. Here's what Pat Harris, a colleague of Marks, tells him. Pat retold it to A&E in 2017. Mark, you are a very popular attorney.

That's all going to end, because Scott Peterson is the most hated man in America. And if you take this case, you're going to be the second most hated man in America. One voice, however, calls Mark with a very different perspective. My father, who was my mentor, partner and hero, he has said to me, look, if you're not going to take this case because of the absolute blowback you're going to get, and he knew there would be blowback, then you should be selling oranges on the side of the freeway. What are you doing? If you're more concerned about your reputation, then you shouldn't be doing this. And that scene outside of the Stanasloss County Sheriff Station, when they had

arrested Scott brought him in, and people were surrounding the sheriff's station with placards asking that he'd be hung and man or monster and all that stuff, that kind of roiled me to the point where I said, okay, I'm going to jump in. Garagos takes the case with Scott's reputation already in tatters. Scott has just wrapped an ill-advised interview spree, which includes a train wreck sit-down with Diane Sawyer. Do you really expect people to believe

that an eight-and-a-half-month pregnant woman learns her husband has had an affair and is saintly and... casual about it, accommodating, makes a peace with it? Well, yeah, you don't know. No one knows our relationship but us. And that's at peace with it. Not happy about it.

In the wake of exchanges like that, what convinced Garagos that Scott was actually innocent? I had kind of the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 reps, 10,000 hours. I talk about this with Corolla all the time, too. You get a sense, you know. You have, I mean, you're not infallible when it comes to that, but you know. Nothing in his background shows that he could have done it. You have to understand, it's the only time that I can think of in any case, and I've tried hundreds of cases, I stopped counting at 300, that I've ever called a nun onto the stand as a character witness.

And even she talked about she had grown up or watched him grow up and said he had no violence in his background. He had no indication whatsoever that he could ever hurt anybody. In fact, it was quite the contrary. He was the most docile kind of laid-back kid. Garagos maintains it's not the evidence against Scott that has convinced most people he's guilty, but something else. I do know why this thing has fascination, in my humble opinion.

I, and I've talked to you about this before, and don't take this, don't be insulted, because you fall into the category, and I love you dearly. But I would be sitting at the gym before court each morning. And inevitably, I would get approached by, and it was almost always a white professional woman. And they would ask me questions. And I would say, no, if there was TV in the court, you would understand that didn't happen. And then I would explain it. And then the same question. And it would happen over and over and over again.

And inevitably, across the board, every single one of them said to me, I don't care what the evidence was. I had an ex-boyfriend. And if he was cheating on me with that hussy or whatever name they would call Amber Fry, he would have done the same thing and I can see it. And so there is this kind of just gutteral reaction where you can't get past that. It is just the picture of Lacey sitting in the chair at the Christmas party, pregnant, beautiful, resplendent, and then place side by side with the picture of him with his arm around the masseuse therapist from Fresno, California, who fits the archetype of many a wife. And you can't get past that for a certain demographic or a certain constituency.

There is also the matter of Scott Peterson standing in a Modesto Park on New Year's Eve at a vigil for his missing wife, three blocks from his own home telling his lover, Amber Fry, that he is in Paris, celebrating New Year's with a huge French crowd. I'm going to take a wild guess that Megan Kelly has a real problem with that. 100%. He looks like a sociopath. And I do wonder, as you talk about, you get a sense sitting across from somebody, do you think you'd know if you were across from a sociopath? I think, I don't know that this is something I want on my tombstone. I don't think anybody has handled as many murder cases as I have. And that, and if I were to tack on, I mean, you know, my first 13 years of my life, my father was a homicide prosecutor in the LADA's office.

That's all I watched. I used to follow him around to court and watch him do murder cases. I watched him while waiting for bar results. He had three murder cases pending, and I watched all three trials while waiting for them back to back to back. I've handled, I can't tell you how many murder cases. I don't know that it's a skill set that anybody wants to brag about, but I will tell you, I know who is capable of this.

I know who's got it in them. And I can also tell you just from working with somebody what triggered it. I had at one point, in fact, it's how I got Susan McDougal's case. I had at one point four women on what we called Murderers Row in the old Sybilbrand jail. Sybil brand jail was this notorious women's prison jail, not a prison in L.A. And those I've never had before since four women charged with murder. But I will tell you, all four of them I knew had committed the act. All four had killed another human being in various ways.

But all four were ultimately not convicted of murder because there was a backstory to it. And I knew that. And I did not have to reinvent the facts, so to speak. Scott, I never had that. Despite Mark's gut feelings on Peterson, the jury that decided the case did look at the evidence. Well, the jurors, two of the jurors who sat on the case gave an interview to Netflix for their most recent special,

and they were pointing to not the affair. Both of those guys said the affair did not move us. We understood that men cheat. It was, they said, the tapes, Amber's tapes of Scott and what he was saying to her while people were searching for Lacey. Obviously he was trying to keep this woman on the line and they, I think, couldn't get past how cold he was about the fact that his wife was, quote, missing during those tapes. Jurors, Mike Belmessieri and Mark Baratlis described the impact of those recorded phone calls to Netflix. in 2024.

A lot of people believe that the affair was a big deal. No, I didn't see it as a big deal, and I don't think anybody on a jury did either. What we did see as a big deal is what he said and what he did. It was damning. It was absolutely damning. And not only the phone calls, but the lies. Yes, the charade. Garagos says his co-counsel, Pat Harris, understood the danger of those tapes immediately.

And in trying to explain Scott's behavior, they kept coming back to another disappearance that had consumed Modesto, California, only a few years earlier, and one familiar to MK confidential fans. Pat Harris, who I tried that case with, who had been my partner for many years. In fact, I met Pat, fun story. Pat was Susan McDougal's fiancé when I first met Susan McDougal during Whitewater. And Pat came in to try to fire me because Susan had hired me and he ended up becoming my partner, law firm partner,

for 15 years and he ended up dumping Susan. When Pat first heard those tapes because he was deep into the case in the prep of it and he called me up and he said, we're never getting past these tapes. And I said, why? And he says, even though I know why he did it, there's no way we can capture that

or present that to the jury. And I explained to him what I was going to try to do, and we were not, I think, entirely successful. Two or three years before Lacey went missing, in Modesto, there was a congressman. His name was Gary Condett. Gary Condett was a client of mine. And so I was very familiar with that case. Gary was admitted to having an affair with Chandra Levy. Chandra Levy was from the Modesto area.

Chandra Levy went missing and Gary Condit, as soon as they discovered the affair and Gary had disclosed it to the investigators, that was it. They were off to the races. The investigators didn't care about any other lead. It were focused like a laser on Gary. And because the prosecutors were so fixated on Gary, they lost all kinds of opportunities. I tell you that story because Scott was well aware of that. He understood completely living in Modesto. Gary Condit was a beloved congressman.

Everybody there understood that Gary's career was torched because of admitting the fair with Chandra. Scott knew the minute that Amber surfaced, Modesto, who had already, all you have to do is take a look at that first or second interview in the Modesto. Police Department or Stairnshaus County, where they're already suspicious of him. They're already in his face. He knew that if amber surfaced he was done, they'd stop looking for Lacey and it was over with. Unfortunately, the jurors, I'm sure, had an enormous amount of problems with when the vigil,

he's sitting at the vigil that he's talking about the rooftops of Paris. But the jury never heard that explanation. Scott Peterson would never take the stand. In San Mateo County, the bias against Scott Peterson shows up before the trial even begins. Nearly every prospective juror has already heard about the case. And almost 45% say they believe Scott Peterson is guilty. We went through 1,600 jury questionnaires. And people, I used to say, people who were illiterate were writing Githi, G-I-T-Y, you know.

And the Buddhists up there, because we were... in San Mateo, it has a large community there, would say, you know, I'm against the death penalty conceptually, but for Scott Peterson, I'll make an exception. I mean, it was the wildest thing I've ever seen. There was a billboard truck circling the courthouse during the jury selection, as jurors are coming into the courthouse, and it's got a giant poster of Scott in his orange jumpsuit and it's you had people vote man or monster and it was a uh like i said it reminded me in some ways of the jim crow south or at least of what i always used to imagine you know i grew up reading to kill a mockingbird and it had that kind of a feel to it at least from my standpoint during death

penalty questioning prospective jurors are brought in one at a time so that one person's answer do not influence the rest of the pool. Garagos is looking for what lawyers sometimes call a stealth juror, someone trying to get onto the jury with a verdict already in mind. He gets at least two prospective jurors excused. One had reportedly bragged during a bus trip to Reno that the fertilizer salesman was going to get what was coming to him. The second is more striking.

She tells Garagos and prosecutor Rick Destaso that she can put aside her feelings about Scott and be fair. Geregos believes her. So does distaso. There was one woman who came in, and I remember talking to distaso. She said something to the effect. You know, Mr. Geregous, yeah, I didn't think I could be fair, but then I talked to my dad, and my dad said, what if it was your brother? And I thought, you know what, intellectually, I'm going to put aside the animus I have towards Scott, your client, and I think I can be fair. And I remember she left, and I turned to De Stasso, and I said, we should order her back. She's good. And the saucer said, I thought the same thing. And I went back to the hotel

afterwards. And back then, there were things called fax machines. And somebody had faxed me a chat that she was in or some kind of a conversation. And it basically said, I really pulled one over on that dumb shit defense lawyer. I'm going to get on this jury and I'm going to fry his client. And we brought her back. And I confronted her. And I confronted her. she had also had a restraining order in the same courthouse, and he had never found it. So she was excused. After that, once the jury is chosen, Garagos asks the judge to sequester them, to keep the jurors and alternates together and away from the coverage for the duration of the trial.

Quote, Judge Duluki again, when I would complain bitterly about the atmosphere around it, he would say, what do you want me to do? Put the jurors in a time capsule or put them in a spaceship and have me. circle the earth. And I said, no, what I want you to do is sequester this jury because the community is, you know, in an outrage over this case. The judge says no. For the next five months, the jurors go home each and every night into the same media environment Garagos has been warning about since jury selection. The trial begins June 1st, 2004, in courtroom 2M in Redwood City, California. The Peterson and Rocha families,

set on opposite sides of the room. Reporters fill the seats between them. Outside, members of the public begin lining up before dawn for a lottery system that will decide who gets inside the courtroom that day. Prosecutor Rick Destaso goes first. His opening takes the full day. Among the things he tells the jury is that Scott lied about watching Martha Stewart on TV with Lacey on Christmas Eve morning.

Scott had told police they were watching a segment about meringue. Dastaso says the episode airing December 24th never mentioned Moraine. The next morning belongs to Mark Garagos. He does not try to make Scott Peterson likable. He calls his client a CAD and describes some of his behavior as boorish. Then he turns to the physical evidence. Investigators have taken more than a hundred bags of evidence from the Peterson home and Scott's warehouse and sent it for testing. Garragos picks up the Department of Justice Lab reports and,

gives the jury his summary of it. Zip, nada, not a thing. No physical evidence, he argues, connects Scott Peterson to Lacey's murder. Geregos then goes further. He makes promises about what the defense will prove. He will call witnesses, he says, who saw Lacey Peterson alive and walking her dog after Scott had already left the house. He says an expert will show that Baby Connor lived beyond Christmas Eve. And he tells the jury that Scott Peterson is not just not guilty, that he is, quote, stone cold, innocent.

Then Garagos goes after one of the prosecution's opening day claims. He plays the Martha Stewart tape from Christmas Eve. So what are we going to do with all the egg white story? Ooh, you want to make little marangs? Oh, that would be nice. Garagos plays the tape a second time, saying, quote, just in case the modesty.

P.D. couldn't hear it. People laugh. On the second day of the trial, one of the prosecution's opening claims that Scott killed Lacey on the evening of December 23rd and spent the next morning moving her body takes a massive hit. Garagos gets the state's computer expert to confirm that at 8.40 a.m. on Christmas Eve, someone logged on to the Peterson's home computer using Lacey's password, Sunflower, and searched for a sunflower. umbrella stand and women's clothing. If that was Lacey, then she was alive the morning of the 24th, and the timeline Dostaso had given the jury in his opening could not be right. The prosecution adjusts its timeline. Garagos remembers the moment this way. Rick Dastaso started this trial

with the theory that the killing had taken place on the 23rd, not on the day before, I mean on the day before, not on the day she went missing. By the time, we got to closing, they abandoned that. They agreed, and he argued in closing, it doesn't matter, because I think we had definitively proved it. The cross-examination of the forensic expert showed that she had logged in to her computer on the morning of the 24th. Their whole search warrant affidavit that said Martha Stewart had not been on the 24th, but on the 23rd, When Scott told her, that was debunked. We showed that Martha Stewart was on the 24th.

We showed that she had that Lacey, somebody had used Lacey's password, somebody had accessed some sunflower related, which she had a tattoo of on the morning of the 24th. The dog was out with the muddy leash. Garagos says it was Lacey who logged in. The evidence establishes only that someone using her password did. By closing, however, the prosecution is no longer committed to December 23rd as the night Lacey was killed.

Telling the jury, quote, it's very simple. The defendant strangled or smothered Lacey Peterson the night of December 23rd or in the morning while she was getting dressed on the 24th. I can't tell you when he did it. I can't tell you if he did it at night. I can't tell you if he did it in the morning. I'm not going to try to convince you of something that I cannot prove. I don't have to prove that to you. I only have to prove that he did it.

On the 13th day of testimony, the state calls Detective Al Brokini. He will spend much of the next week on the stand. While he is testifying, the jury loses one of its members. A courthouse camera catches juror number five, Justin Falconer speaking with Lacey's brother near the security checkpoint. Judge DeLuki looks into it and decides the conversation was harmless. But After the incident draws media attention, Falconer admits that he discussed the coverage with his girlfriend, despite the judge's orders to stay away from the news and not discuss the case. Two days later, DeLukee removes him from the jury.

Falconer walks out of the courthouse and directly into the arms of reporters. They ask him the question everyone once answered. After what he has heard so far, does he think Scott Peterson is guilty? Well, the prosecution hasn't given me any reason to believe that he is. All the prosecution witnesses have pretty much been just as good a witness for the defense as they were for the prosecution, if not in some cases better, for the defense. And I haven't heard any testimony whatsoever that would leave me to believe that he was guilty. Asked how he would vote if he had to decide the case that day. Falconer says, not guilty.

So far, Garagos isn't doing too badly. Garagos, meanwhile, has been fighting over discovery almost from the day he took over the Peterson case, arguing that prosecutors are consistent. turning over evidence late or only after repeated requests. And he is convincing the judge. I will tell you that I think in real time, not now, but in real time, I knew the facts better than anybody. I knew the discovery better than anybody. It's one of the reasons during that trial, we had not one, not two, three separate

recesses. And the late great Al Daluke, who was the judge, had excoriated the process. prosecution for their discovery compliance, for not turning over discovery, for not following up on exculpatory leads. And I was belly aching about that every single day making motions for mistrials the whole bit. Journalist Catherine Cryer covered the trial from inside the courtroom and writes that Judge DeLukee took to chastising prosecutors in open court about discovery issues. But while Garagos may be scoring points, there are facts that will prove insurmountable for him. Let me ask you the things that convince me. He did it. The tapes with Amber are bad for sure.

Correct. I accept that there is an explanation for them. There is a version of him doing that stuff with Amber that doesn't have Scott as a murderer. However, the fact that he bought that boat after the affair began, he did. did not tell anybody that he bought that boat. He went out fishing on Christmas Eve. Oh, he went out fishing on Christmas Eve. I feel like I'm in the gym right now. He places himself at the scene.

Wait, I didn't interrupt you. He places himself at the scene where the bodies wash up. And on top of that, Lacey's body washes up without her head, her arms, or the lower legs. and he clearly, the killer, clearly weighted the body down in an effort to keep it at the bottom of the sea. And sure enough, they found what looked like the molds for four concrete anchors. His boat had some concrete remnants on the inside of it. And it matched the little pitcher that the detectives found on that boat perfectly. And yet those anchors were never found.

And to me, that is absolutely devastating for Scott Peterson. Okay. So like I said, I feel like I'm in the gym. Number one, what was your first point? That was the one where you... He bought this boat after the affair began and didn't tell anybody. Which she didn't know about, right. During the trial, they put on the lead detective Al Brokini.

Guess what? And mind you, I had spent one week doing mitochondrial in California at the time. It shows you how long ago this was. Mitochondrial DNA was not admissible in California. in order to have the prosecution be able to introduce mitochondrial DNA, which is DNA that is linked to the maternal lineage. And they had a hair, and they wanted to show that the hair was in the boat. So, aha, Lacey was in the boat.

Lacey didn't know about the boat. Your kind of aha moment. Well, guess what happened during the cross-examination of Al-Brockini? I had, they didn't realize, Al-Brockini had whited out a paragraph in his report. I had him produce the original report. What he had whited out was Albro-Kinney himself had interviewed a witness at the warehouse who saw Lacey in the boat. Actually saw her in the boat. He had whited it out.

So I spent a week contesting mitochondrial DNA so that we could get admitted when all along Modesto PD knew that she was in the boat. They had a witness who was at the warehouse. Stop there because what Mark just said leaves out an important part of what happened. The witness is a woman named Peggy O'Donnell, who runs a business a few doors down from Scott in the same warehouse complex. Peggy tells police that Lacey had come by the warehouse complex and asked to use her bathroom a few days before she disappeared. This happens on either December 20th or December 23rd, Peggy isn't sure which date.

If true, that places Lacey at the warehouse complex, not in Scott's boat. But Garagos is right about one important part of this. Burkini had removed witness information about Peggy O'Donnell from his report. One sentence has been removed. It is about O'Donnell's claim that Lacey visited the warehouse complex on either December 20th or December 23rd and asked to use O'Donnell's bathroom. On cross-examination, Garagos produces a page of Brookini's notes, which include a line that reads, "'Lacey used restroom on 1223, Peggy,' end quote.

Garagos then asks the detective, can you tell me how that particular piece of information got excised out of your police report? I excised it, Roakini answers. You did it? Yes, I did. The reaction in the courtroom is immediate. Garagos asks the judge whether they might stop for the weekend and let that exchange sit with the jury for three days. But Brickini has an explanation, and after the weekend, the jury hears it.

Prosecutors ask him about the missing sentence, and Burkini says the information had not disappeared from the case, that another detective named Dennis Holmes included Peggy's account in his report from that day, and that unlike Brueckini, Holmes had interviewed Burmese. Peggy O'Donnell directly. In 2024, Borkini explained his reasoning to Netflix and conceded the optics in court. What happened was on this one day, after I dictated, turn it in, now we all sit down together and I tell all the detectives what I heard. And Detective Dennis Holmes, he said, whoa, I interviewed Peggy.

So he could testify to what Peggy said. Mine was through the grapevine. And so I deleted that sentence because it was in his report. Could look wrong to the jury. It could look wrong to the, you know, roaches. Brickini's explanation does not end the argument. Garagos still sees the missing sentence as part of a larger pattern. Evidence he says was mishandled, minimized, or disclosed too late.

But when I pressed him on what that evidence actually proved, the argument quickly moved back to the boat. He whited it out because another detainee. detective put it in his report and had interviewed this person. How we found it. And he whited it out. So it wouldn't be wouldn't get to the defense. But it was in the public record because another cop put it in his report. That's how we found it. That's how we found it. He had hoped. Yes. So how is it nefarious for Brookini to have taken it out when he understood?

His report was hearsay, but he had the actual cop who had interviewed the woman. Because he was doing it in an affidavit. He was doing it in the affidavit to be presented to the judge. And he had whited it out. The other thing is there's no proof that Lacey was ever in that boat. And Scott also said he told investigators he was taking that boat out. Allegedly half the reason was so he could just see how it went. So we're to believe that Lacey went to the warehouse. She just sat in the boat.

She just sat there. They didn't go out in it. This is a test run. By the way. It's funny you say that. I'm glad you do. She got in the boat and she did exactly what the jurors did. Do you know what the jurors did during deliberation?

We had the boat. It was in the courthouse. The jurors went down. They wanted to see the boat, day three or day four of deliberation. They actually got in the boat and started doing what Lacey did to see about his buoyancy. I turned to Duluki and I said, okay, do you remember when I did a demonstration? I actually, and it's somewhere somebody put it in the internet because it was an exhibit. I put this poor kid who worked for me in the boat.

I gave him a dummy that weighed approximately what Lacey did. and I tried to have him reenact what actually happened. He sunk every time. Unfortunately for Rafi, who was the guy in the boat, he didn't swim and I had to save him each time. But that judge would not allow that into evidence. That was one of the first things the jurors wanted to do was get in and test the buoyancy of the boat.

Number two, before you go off on. Where's your witness who said she saw Lacey get in the boat? Does she testify? No, she did not testify. They admitted that they were wrong during the trial. The witness, that came into evidence. That's what I'm saying. Did you call the witness?

No, why didn't you call the witness to testify to that? He admitted that, yes, she had been in the boat and he had whited it out. I didn't need it at that point. I thought. No, no, no. If you had a witness who saw Lacey Peterson get into that boat and you felt good about that witness, you Mark Garagos would have called her to testify at trial. You know it.

I know it. And the American people know it. Let me tell you what happened in this case. This case started in opening statements with them saying Scott had killed Lacey on the 23rd. We are dodging. Where was your witness? Why didn't you call the magical witness who could place Lacey in the boat? Because they admitted afterwards, they abandoned that the same way they abandoned that she was killed on the 23rd.

We would knock down every single theory and it came down to. Really? Why didn't you call all the witnesses who saw Lacey walking her dog after 10.30 that morning? For the exact same reason. The case started that she... So much magical evidence that would have gotten your client off that just you just decided not to call in front of the jury because somehow it had been admitted. It had all been admitted and the jury was just too dumb to understand it. No. I don't think the jury was dumb. I really don't. I don't think it was a dumb jury. I think that the jurors did what the community wanted, which was to convict.

Because at the end of the day, there wasn't a coherent theory. I would give you another example. How about Scott's four little anchors? Okay, they never found the anchors. The most search. I know. It's because they're at the bottom of the sea holding down Lacey's arms and her head. Okay.

Now, when you say bottom of the sea, you're conveying to people that somehow this is a very deep area. You realize that the bay that was searched, that on low tide, they found they not only had sonar subs, they not only had all kinds of searches out there, they found snapple bottles, they found boots, they found tires, they found everything in the world. They did not find anchors. They did not find Lacey. They did not find Connor. The reason for that is because they weren't there.

And yet we know they were in there. No, it was after. Oh, because the real killer dump. the bodies. Is that your theory? No. My theory is that wherever they were, they were washed up into that area by the storm. The jury never sees Garagos's boat demonstration. Instead, prosecutors call a commercial fisherman and ask whether a 153-pound fish weighted with four 10-pound weights could be pushed over the side of a 14-foot aluminum boat without capsizing it. Without hesitation, his answer is yes.

Juror John Guinoso later called the fisherman the star witness of the trial. Then Garagos catches Bracchini in another error. Bracini tells the jury about a tip from Miguel Espadilla, one of Scott's former college classmates. Miguel had said that years earlier in 1995, Scott had talked hypothetically about how someone might dispose of a body, cover the head. head, weight the body down, and put it in salt water, where the water and marine life would eventually destroy the evidence. From the witness stand, Burkini adds another detail. He says

Scott had talked about wrapping the head in duct tape. That matters because there was duct tape on Lacey Peterson's remains when she came ashore. Garagos goes back to the original tip report. Espadilla never mentions duct tape. Burkini acknowledges that he he supplied that detail, the duct tape from memory, and that he got it wrong. He has not reviewed the original police report on the tip in months, so the alleged conversation about the duct tape did not happen. But Scott, fantasizing about disposing of a body at sea, did, or so the jury hears. Garagos moves to have the case dismissed, and Judge Deluky denies the motion. But what about the hair? Police reports log a single-hand.

hair collected as evidence from the nose of those pliers in the boat. But by the time the envelope was examined, two hairs turned up inside. Garagos grills the detective over the exact number of hairs found at Scott's warehouse in the boat. Prosecutors claim the single hair broken half in the envelope. But Garagos says that theory is made up and that it was made up after the defense began asking tough questions. One hair went in, Brookini says, and two hairs came out. And two hairs came out. Is this a magic envelope? asks Garagos. FBI analyst Constance Fisher testifies about the hair during the trial. Fisher estimates that one in 112 people in Modesto share the same profile as the hair

found in Scott Peterson's boat, less than 1%. The defense calls Dr. William Shields, who challenges that figure. Shields says the DNA could be as common as one in nine people in Modesto and points out size of the FBI database and the error rate for mitochondrial DNA testing. Both experts agree that the DNA proves the hair from the pliers is not from Scott Peterson, but that it could be from Lacey. The trial moves on into August. On August 10th, 2004, Amber Fry walks into courtroom 2M. Years later, she described that moment to A&E. I remember the doors opened. You could hear a pin drop. It was so quiet.

You could hear everybody's body shifting as I'm walking in. But the most important evidence Amber brings into the courtroom is not what she says from the witness stand. It is what Scott said to her on those secret tapes. Scott Peterson never testifies. But for days, the jury hears his voice through Amber's undercover recordings following along on printed transcripts as the calls are played in court.

Defense co-counsel Pat Harris had seen this problem coming while reviewing discovery. He later tells A&E that he believed those tapes alone could sink the entire defense. Then we got the actual tapes. I started listening to tapes. And after I'd finished, I went into Mark's office and I said, we're screwed. Because when you hear them, it's a whole different thing. Because Scott is on the phone with Amber and you hear giggling and you hear sort of the tones of voice, and it changes the whole dynamic.

Take New Year's Eve, for example. Three blocks from Scott and Lacey's home, roughly 1,000 people gather for a candlelight vigil for Lacey. Tears are shed for the missing mother and child. And Scott is on the phone with Amber. For juror number one, Greg Baratless, those calls would be a turning point. Years later, he explained why to A&E.

When I started to think that Scott was guilty, was when Amber Fry came, to hear the tapes, he saw that it wasn't hard for him to lie. He was trying to have both a wife disappeared, and he's trying to find her, supposedly, and at the same time, he's still trying to lead Amber Fry on. Seven court days later, on August 23rd, Garagos begins his cross-examination of Amber Fry.

Go ahead, Mr. Garagos, Judge Deluky tells him. No questions, Your Honor. The courtroom gasps. What? Deluky says. Just kidding, Garagos says. Trying to lighten it up a little. There is laughter in the courtroom.

Outside afterward, Sharon Rocha tells reporters she sees nothing funny about the murder of her daughter Lacey. The defense begins its case on October 18th. 20 weeks into the trial. Garagos builds his argument, and on the 21st, he produces one of the witnesses he promised the jury, an expert who he says will prove that baby Connor was alive on Christmas Eve and beyond. Dr. Charles March, a fertility specialist, dates Connor's death to December 29th. That would mean Connor and Lacey were alive five days after Christmas Eve, which would blow apart the prosecution's timeline. Then prosecutor

Dave Harris gets up. Dr. March's date depended on an assumption. He had assumed Lacey took a pregnancy test on June 9, 2002, because she had not announced her pregnancy at a friend's baby shower the day before

that. His reasoning out loud on the stand is that women talk. Of course, sometimes they don't talk about things like their own pregnancy at another woman's baby shower where one's friend is supposed to be the center of attention. He concedes he has done no testing himself

and that the state's expert, Dr. Gregory DeVore, is better qualified to read the ultrasound. Dr. DeVore estimated that Connor died on either December 23rd or 24th, with a few days' margin of error on either side. He mapped the measurements from Lacey's first and second trimester ultrasounds forward and then compared them to Connor's size when he was found. Garagos attacked his methodology on cross, but for prosecutors, DeVore's testimony is enormously important.

The state had already called forensic anthropologist Dr. Allison Galloway. Based on measurements of Conner's remains, she could only put his age at somewhere between 33 and 38 weeks in the womb, too broad to pinpoint a particular date of death. DeVore gives them a calculation that points directly at the day Lacey disappeared. And the jury listens. Divorce testimony would later be described as one of the most persuasive pieces of scientific evidence in the state's case. That leaves Garagos's promise about the eyewitnesses. Garagos's own investigator, Matt Dalton, found six people who said they saw Lacey walking that morning,

and later than the time Scott allegedly left with her body in his truck. Garagos promised them to the jury in his opening statement. He calls none of them. Matt Dalton, the investigator who found those witnesses and interviewed every one of them, still says he does not know why Garagos never called them. The defense calls a total of 14 witnesses. Five of them are police officers, and through them, Garrigos does elicit testimony repeating what the uncalled eyewitnesses claimed they had seen.

The judge tells the jury to only consider the officer's actions in response to, those reports, however, not the actual sightings themselves. In other words, these testimonials were hearsay, as told by the officers, and could not be considered for the truth of what the eyewitnesses actually said. For that, you would need to call the witnesses, but Garagos did not. Three of the defense witnesses are subject matter experts, one in cement, one in finance, and one in dog tracking. Garagos also calls Scott Peterson's parents to the stand. When police arrested Scott 30 miles north of the border, they found nearly $15,000 in cash in his car. His mother, Jackie Peterson, tells the jury the money came from her.

Ten days before the arrest, she had been arranging to buy Scott's truck to give to his brother, she says, and in the process, she accidentally withdrew $10,000 from an account belonging to Scott. She gave him extra cash to make up for the mistake. Journalist Catherine Cryer, watching from the courtroom, wrote that the explanation sounded illogical, bordering on the absurd. Lee Peterson had been called by the prosecution earlier in the trial, told the jury, Scott's the fisherman, he says, I'm more the golfer.

Under Garagos's questioning, Lee Peterson confirmed Scott was staying in San Diego the week he was arrested, not far from a golf course where his father had an 8 a.m. tea time. Eight days into its case, on October 26, 2004, the defense rests. I asked Mark for his best proof that Scott Peterson is innocent. Not reasonable doubt, but stone-cold innocent, like he told the jury. There's no time of death. There's no place of death.

There's no manner of death. You say, obviously the body was held under, and it's a, you know, you gave a kind of a synopsis of what the prosecution was. Take any single one of those. The body was held underwater. That's not what the pathologist testified. The prosecution witness was that the body was not underwater, that the condition of the body and I was at the autopsy, and without getting grotesque, I will tell you that there is no way that body was underwater and no, scientists, no prosecution witness, ever said that that body was held underwater.

It could not have been held underwater because of the condition that the body was in. So that debunks that. In terms of going fishing on that day, up until the cross-examination of Ron Gransky, who was married to Sharon, up until trial itself, it was never disclosed that guess where Ron Kransky was on the day before Christmas at the exact same time Scott was fishing. He too was fishing. So us by coastal elites may not go fishing on Christmas Eve, but if you're in the central...

And so was Scott. Scott wanted to be. Scott was there. He's saying, he wanted to be. Started that desire on the day he murdered his wife. Really wanted to get out there. We'll get to whether the body was underwater in one minute. But first, a response to Garagos's

theory of the case. You and I both know that burglars who get spotted by a neighborhood pregnant lady are not known for let's abduct the pregnant lady, let's kill the pregnant lady, let's hold the body and wait and then we'll dump it in the bay when we find out that the husband took the boat out. They leave. If they're going to do anything to the eyewitness, they're going to hurt her and move on. Like the notion that these guys came to rob, got spotted by the pregnant lady, captured the pregnant lady, held the pregnant lady, did something with a pregnant lady, then killed the pregnant lady, then held the bodies, then made sure the bodies would wash up, as opposed to the guy who was married to the pregnant lady, who is the most likely

to kill her on the face of the earth. That is when a woman is most vulnerable to domestic violence when she's pregnant with a baby, who's having an affair, who's already told the affair partner that his wife has been lost, that he's lost his wife, who's bought a boat without telegraphing it to the family, who goes out, tells a neighbor he was golfing, tells him. other people he was fishing, produces the receipt that he actually was at the bay where the bodies would ultimately wind up, and magically has four anchors that he produced that we can't find, and this body has been held down underwater by something heavy. The two scenarios, it's so clear if you're not representing Scott Peterson. The forensic pathologist who examined

Lacey's body did testify that it had been in the water for, quote, months. His name is Dr. Brian Peterson, no relation to the defendant. Dr. Peterson also testifies that there were no tool marks on Lacey's joints. Dr. Galloway, the forensic anthropologist, examined Lacey's body as well. She offers a more specific timeline in court, three to six months in the water. Galloway found barnacles on one of Lacey's exposed bones. Galloway testifies that decomposition alone could explain how Lacey's limbs separated from her body. she found no evidence to the contrary.

According to Catherine Cryer, the medical examiner, who performed Lacey's sealed autopsy, suggests the limbs were either cut with surgical precision or they were weighted down and pulled apart by the currents of the bay. Prosecutor Dave Harris asks pathologist Dr. Peterson about the weights directly on the stand. Dr. Peterson says either natural decomposition or weights on the limbs could explain how Lacey's body came apart.

Her remains were consistent with both explanations. Finally, Dr. Peterson confirms that Lacey's body showed no evidence of a vaginal birth. There was a rip in her abdominal wall big enough that Conner's body could have passed through. This can happen when a mother dies as gases build up and eventually burst through her body in what is known as a coffin birth. No cause of death for Lacey Peterson is ever firmly established. Despite the Garagos charm and lovable swagger about this case, he does have one big regret, and I asked him about it.

Okay, let me ask you this. At this point in time, because there is still a contingent trying to find a way to get Scott Peterson a new trial, if he got one and you were to handle it, what would you do differently? Well, number one, the biggest mistake I made is it wasn't televised. If it had been televised, that we wouldn't have the urban legends of what the case involved. The people who weren't in the courtroom would tell you that this case fell apart during the entire time. What didn't fall apart was the hatred, the animus, and this idea that, he was a bad, bad man that needed to be punished.

That did not fade away. But if you had seen the evidence in real time, and there was over 100 witnesses, and when the kind of cherry-picking of what the urban legends are, were debunked in real-time by what actually happened in the courtroom. So the first thing I would suggest to whoever retry this case is, You have to have a camera in the courtroom. Judge DeLuke had barred cameras from the courtroom.

So for five months, anyone who wanted to see the trial Garagos believed he was winning had to be in the room. The only way in was as a juror, an alternate, a reporter, or one of the lucky few who won a public seat in the morning lottery. On November 1st and 2nd, 2004, both sides give their closing arguments. On the third, a jury of 12 people goes behind a closed door to decide Scott Peterson's fate, and the drama in that jury room will become yet another twist in this case. I'm Megan Kelly, and this is M.K. Confidential.

The jury in the Scott Peterson case has been deliberating for four days, and they want to see the boat. On Monday, November 8, 2004, a bailiff knocks on the deliberation room door and leads to the and leads 12 jurors down a passageway into an underground garage beneath the Redwood City courthouse. Scott's 14-foot aluminum fishing boat, which was introduced as evidence, has been stored down there for the length of the trial. Judge Alfred Deluky comes too in a suit instead of his robes. Scott Peterson walks down in his suit, unshackled. Juror number one asks the judge for permission to come aboard the boat. DeLukey says yes, but reminds the juror, the boat is on a trailer and not on a cruise in San Francisco Bay.

The foreman climbs in behind juror number one, and the two of them start shifting their weight from side to side, seeing how much it would take to tip it. Scott's attorney Mark Garagos objects that they're running an out-of-court experiment, and Judge Dulucie puts a stop to it. Garagos moves for a mistrial, which the judge denies. juror number one is Greg Baratless, an engineer for the power company who coaches youth football on weekends. Five months of testimony have told him Scott Peterson is a man who puts coasters under everything. He is meticulous with his equipment. What Greg notices sitting in the boat is a pair of pliers going rusty and standing water in the boat. Greg thinks this does not fit.

It's as if the boat was never. going to be a long-term hobby, but only purchased for one purpose. Four days later, 12 jurors convict Scott Peterson of two murders. But they are not the same 12 people who went down to that underground garage. Two of the jurors standing around that boat leave the case, including the foreman who climbed in behind Baratlis. The two alternate jurors who replaced them never see the boat. Their arrival forces the jury to wipe away its work and start to live. liberations over, twice in two days. Within hours of the second restart, they take their first vote, and it is unanimous. Guilty. I'm Megan Kelly, and this is M.K. Confidential. On November 1st,

2004, prosecutor Rick Destaso stands up to deliver to the jury his closing argument. He starts with the part of the case the prosecution cannot answer. He cannot tell the jury exactly how Lacey Peterson died. He cannot tell them exactly when. But he says they do know where Scott Peterson was on Christmas Eve and where Lacey and Connor were found four months later. De Stasso puts an aerial photograph of San Francisco Bay in front of the jury and starts pointing. Quote, the defendant went fishing right here off of Brooks Island, or he said he went fishing. That's where he took his boat that day. Four months later, Lacey Peterson washed ashore right here at Point Isabel, near Brooks Island. Connor Peterson washed ashore right here at the Richmond shoreline in that marshy area.

The only man, he continued, or only person that we know without any doubt that was in the exact location where Lacey and Connor's bodies washed ashore at the exact time that they went missing is sitting right there. The connection was devastating. Garagos predicted it would be, early on before he was even hired. Jurors writing about the verdict later cited it as absolutely critical to their decision. Scott was there and so were the bodies. Dostaso tells the jury that strangling or smothering can leave very little physical evidence behind.

But the state does not have to prove the precise manner of death to prove that Lacey was murdered and that Scott killed her. Distaso tells them The affair with Amber Fry is not the motive. The motive, he says, is what was about to change Scott Peterson's life, his son.

Distoso continues, the reason that he killed Lacey Peterson was Connor Peterson was on the way. Then Distoso puts another photograph on the screen. It's Lacey. Seven months pregnant, smiling, beautiful, beautiful, radiant, sitting by herself on a wicker chair in a red pantsuit at a Christmas party.

That photograph was taken the same night, her husband and father of her baby, was 96 miles away at another Christmas party with his girlfriend, Amber Fry. Lacey had no idea what was coming, Dastaso says. The next day, Garagos begins his closing remarks by her. having Scott faced the jury and then asking, do you all hate him? Because apparently that's what the sum total of what we heard yesterday was. He continues, we heard four hours of this guy's the biggest jerk that ever walked the face of the earth. This guy's the biggest liar who ever walked the face of the earth. You should hate him. You should hate him. You should hate him. You should hate him. Garagos tells the jury that the Modesto police settled on Scott within an hour of pulling up to his

house and then went looking for evidence to fit. He says he's not asking anybody to make his client husband of the year. At one point, Garagos calls his own client a 14-carat gold asshole for cheating on his wife. But being a terrible husband, Garagos argues, is not proof of murder. He says the state still cannot tell you, the jury. Exactly how Lacey was killed, when she was killed, or even where, which he says undercuts their entire case. On November 3rd, the lawyers are finished. The case goes to the jury. Twelve people walk into the deliberation room and close the door.

Two will leave and be replaced before the verdict. The first is Francis Gorman, juror number seven, an auditor for the local gas and electric company who lives in Foster City. During the five-month trial, Judge DeLukee had repeatedly warned the jurors not to investigate the case on their own. Gorman did anyway. She went home, got on her computer, and looked up something she had heard about in court. Frances explained what happened. I did check something that I had a knee-jerk reaction about, and it confirmed my thinking about whether something that I heard was correct or not. Another juror reports Gorman to the court.

She is called into the judge's chambers, comes back out, and then it is called in again. The second time, she does not return to the jury room. A bailiff comes for her notebooks. Downstairs, the alternates have been sitting, waiting for five months with laptops and stacks of DVDs, knowing they may never be called. Alternate number two is a single mother of four from Palo Alto. Her hair is dyed such a vivid red that reporters have been called. calling her strawberry shortcake, she has not spent a single minute in the deliberation room. Judge DeLuki brings her upstairs and makes her the new juror number seven. Her name is Rochelle Nice.

Press write-ups about her at the time speculate that she will be friendly to the defense, based on her smiling at Garagos and sitting on the edge of her seat during his questioning. They could not be more wrong. Years later, juror number one, Baratless, described the moment Rochelle joined the jury to A&E. Rochelle came in the room and Rochelle was just like pissing vinegar. She comes in and she's like, hey, he killed the little man. He's guilty. Let's just get this done with.

And I was like, whoa, time out. We kind of started a process here of discussing this. Her arrival means the other 11 jurors have to throw out four days of deliberations. and begin again. So they erase the whiteboard and they pull all their notes off the walls. The next morning, the foreman, Gregory Jackson, is gone too. Mark Garagos told us what happened. DeLuki told me that on day seven of deliberations because the foreman of that jury came into the chambers and said he didn't feel like he could go on in deliberations. He felt threatened. He felt, he felt like the verdict he wanted to render would not fit the community's expectation.

That's on the record. And instead of the judge, this is one of the angriest I've ever gotten with a superior court judge, instead of bringing in the juror who was threatening the foreperson, who was both a doctor and a lawyer, which is why I wanted the guy. I wanted somebody who was both analytical and smart. wanted smart people. And instead of doing that, the judge removed the foreperson, removed it from the deliberations. After seven days, there was a verdict within eight hours.

What the jurors actually told Judge Duluki was placed under seal. However, Jackson's statements to the judge were later unsealed in court records. The transcript reveals that he told the judge he had lost his ability to remain fair and impartial, quote, my individual ability to do that has been compromised to a degree that I would never know personally whether or not I was giving the community's verdict, the popular verdict, or the expected verdict. He told the judge, as Garagos said, that hostile remarks made to him by other jurors made him feel unsafe. Alternate juror number three is brought in to replace the foreman. His name is Dennis Lear, a retired United Airlines mechanic. For the second time in two,

days the jury wipes away its work and starts over. Friday, November 12, 2004. A few hours into the new deliberations, the jurors choose a new foreman, Steve Cardosi, a firefighter, and then he asks whether they are ready to vote to see where they are. He passes out blank pieces of paper. Three questions, Cardosi says. Did Scott Peterson kill Lacey? What degree of murder for Lacey? What degree for Connor. The papers come back. All three votes are unanimous. Around 11 that morning, word goes out throughout the courthouse. There's a verdict, and it will be read after lunch. The trial has been running Monday through Thursday, with Fridays off, and the lawyers are not expecting a verdict that morning. Mark Garagos is in another courtroom in Southern California.

Scott's father, Lee Peterson, has gone home to San Diego, which is far too. So it is Pat Harris, Garagos's coal council, who will sit beside Scott when the verdict is red. Outside, the plaza begins to fill. San Mateo County deputies stretch a single strand of yellow tape across the courthouse steps. A police helicopter circles overhead. When Garagos says this case was decided in the court of public opinion, long before the verdict came in, this is the moment to which he points. When Scott was found guilty, that, courthouse was ringed by over 1,500 people. And there was a front page photo of a woman holding an infant child

saying the headline on whatever it was, San Mateo News, this is better than the birth of my son when he was convicted with the giant guilty. So it was an enormous prejudgment rate that we just could not get over. Before the verdict is read, Greg Baratless takes a moment, steps out side and looks across the courthouse plaza. He estimates it's more than a thousand people there. Inside, Scott Peterson takes his seat at the defense table. He has lost so much weight since the trial began that his suit hangs loosely on him. At one o'clock California time, the clerk stands to read the verdict. We, the jury and above entitled cause find a defendant, Scott Lee Peterson, guilty of the crime of murder of Lacey Dide-Ease Peterson. We, the jury.

and above entitled cause find the defendant Scott Lee Peterson guilty of the crime of murder of baby common Peterson. Sharon Rocha begins to sob. Her son Brent puts an arm around her. Scott Peterson does not move. Two jurors would later say they watched his face as the verdict was read, waiting for some reaction. They see nothing.

They see a man with no emotion. Outside, the plaza erupts. When the hearing is over, the Peterson family leaves through a side entrance, and they are booed by throngs of people gathered outside. Sharon Rocha leaves through the main entrance. Once in the car with Ron Gransky, she looks back through the window at the people in the crowd and smiles. The jurors are taken to a room at street level where they can see what is happening outside. At first, juror Dennis Lear thinks the noise is anger.

Then he realizes people are celebrating. I really thought that was sick, he says later, though he spares no contempt for Scott Peterson. Quote, he got what he deserved. On November 30th, the same jury returns to decide whether Scott Peterson will spend the rest of his life in prison or die by lethal injection. Prosecutor Dave Harris calls Sharon Rocha to the witness stand. He puts a photograph on the screen. It was taken on Mother's Day, 2002, at the Peterson House on. Covina Avenue. It's Sharon, her mother, and Lacey all together and smiling. Harris asks Sharon

about the Mother's Day that has just passed. How was it? Sharon tells the jury she spent much of it on the floor crying that Lacey should have been there. Lacey should have been celebrating her first Mother's Day. Then Sharon turns toward the man she once called her son-in-law, who once called her mom. She wanted to be a mother, she tells him. Scott does not look up. A moment later, Sharon rises from the witness chair. Divorce is always an option, not murder. She would later say those words were not planned.

She did not even realize she was shouting until people told her afterward. Then Sharon tells the jury about going to the funeral home and saying goodbye to her daughter and grandson. Garth Stapley, who covered the trial for the Modesto B, later reacted to Sharon's testimony for A&E's The Murder of Lacey Peterson. Well, Sharon Roach's testimony in court made a big impression on all of us. I don't know how you could sit there and, you know, observe this woman sobbing and then screaming at Scott and not be affected. Every juror is crying.

So are many of the reporters in the room. On December 9th, Mark Garago stands up and tries to save his client's life. He tells the jury he has barely been sleeping and that when he does, he has nightmares about the case. He says he feels like he has let Scott down and admits he never even prepared for the possibility of a penalty phase. Then he simply begs the jury to spare Scott Peterson's life. After eight hours and 23 minutes of sentencing deliberations spread across three days, the jurors returned to the courtroom with their decision. Once again, the clerk reads it out loud.

People of State of California versus Scott Peterson. We, the jury in the above entitled cause, fix the penalty at death. Scott does not cry. His family sits silently behind him. Across the courtroom, Sharon Rocha weeps. Journalist and former judge, Catherine Cryer, is watching from the press seats. As the courtroom begins to empty, she sees Lacey's stepfather Ron Gransky turn towards Scott's father Lee Peterson and mouth two words. I'm sorry.

Lee looks back at him and mouths two words of his own. Fuck you. Outside the courthouse, the jurors face the cameras. One of the reporters asks them to describe some of Scott's reactions. Juror number seven responds. He is a jerk and I have one comment for Scott. You look somebody in the face when they're talking to you. And Rochelle Neese is not finished.

Juror number four, Mike Belmissieri, joins her at the microphones. Dan Quinn's your new home. And it's illegal to kill your wife and child in California. But the mistake that would eventually take Scott Peterson off of death row had been made months earlier. In the spring of 2004, during jury selection, a woman known only as prospective juror 4841 came to the San Mateo County Courthouse and filled out a questionnaire. Question 109 asked about her views on the death penalty. She checked strongly oppose. A few weeks later, Question 115 asked a different follow-up question, whether those beliefs were so strong that she could never vote for death, regardless of the question.

the evidence or the judge's instructions. To that, she answered no. In other words, she was telling the court that she opposed the death penalty personally, but that she could still follow the law and impose it in a case where the evidence called for it. That answer should have led to more questions in court, but it didn't. Judge DeLuki excused her without asking a single follow-up question. And the judge did essentially the same thing with more than a dozen other prospective jurors. 16 years later, Judge DeLukey's handling of those prospective jurors would wind up sparing Scott Peterson's life. On August 24, 2020, the California Supreme Court leaves both murder convictions intact but overturns the death sentence. The court says DeLukey improperly dismissed prospective jurors who opposed the death penalty personally

without first asking whether they could set those beliefs aside on behalf of the court. DeLuque was required by law to do so. Here's Garagos on the error. You can't bounce people just because they say they can't follow the death penalty or they're against the death penalty. You have to ask them, can you follow the law? And he didn't do that second thing. Supreme Court unanimously reversed. And actually chided the prosecution for sitting idly by as I was screaming about it.

Peterson's lawyers then tried to go further. If the jury was selected improperly, they argue, then the murder convictions should fall right alongside the death sentence. They lose that argument, which they appeal all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2022 declines to hear the case. At the same time, Peterson's appellate team makes a separate attack on his conviction. This one is not about what happened during the trial itself. His lawyers present 19 different claims involving things the jury never heard about, including alleged new information and questions about the jurors themselves. In October 2020, the California Supreme Court rejects 18 of the 19 grounds for appeal. The 19th concerns one of the

12 people who voted to convict Scott Peterson, Rochelle Nice, and results in Scott Peterson getting a trial court hearing to see if he was unfairly prejudiced by this juror. We asked Garagos about Rochelle, whom he remembered well. He compared her to the prospective juror who said she, quote, pulled one over on that dumb shit defense lawyer.

That woman was excused. This woman, strawberry shortcake, is that woman on steroids. She got past it. She was an alternate. Once again, nobody knew that she. She had a restraining order and had been pregnant. And to just show you the kind of, you want to psychosis is the word of the week, as you know,

she was writing letters to Scott like a pen pal after the conviction. And if you, if you're special, you should play some of the video of her after the conviction. It was wild to watch her reaction after the conviction. She was like a crazed person who was celebrating in kind of a medieval fashion. It was wild. At the courthouse after the death verdict, Rochelle says she will, quote, forever feel a connection with Lacey and with both families. Six months after voting to send Scott Peterson to death row, Roe,

Rochelle Nice begins writing to him at San Quentin. She is struggling with the aftermath of the trial. Her therapist suggests she writes Scott a letter and tell him what the case has done to her. At first, Rochelle plans to send the letter without giving Scott a return address, but she sends it anyway, never expecting him to answer. Scott Peterson writes back. Rochelle asks him point blank, what happened that night, Scott? What pushed you to the limit?

where you felt like you had to kill someone who not only loved you so much, but was carrying a part of you inside of her. Scott tells her he did not kill Lacey or Connor. He says the Modesto police mishandled the investigation, and he begins asking niece questions of his own, what it was like to be a juror and why she convicted him. In December 2005, a year after she voted to send Scott Peterson to death row, Roe, Roe has a mental breakdown in a school parking lot,

while picking up one of her children. Rochelle writes about what happened later. Quote, I couldn't get out of my truck. All I knew is that I was done with my life. It was over. She is hospitalized in a locked psychiatric unit. From there, she writes to Scott again.

I never knew how much this trial had an impact on me. Plus, I never had a great life. All the pressure just hit me. I think it has been the time of year, our verdict, Lacey, and Connor. In total, she writes 17 letters to Scott Peterson. Years later, a lawyer asks Rochelle on the witness stand, how long the correspondence continued. She gives a short answer. I don't know. Too long. Then a reporter for People magazine learns about the jailhouse letters. And once Scott Peterson's

lawyers obtained them, they go back to the questionnaire Rochelle Neese filled out on March 9, 2004, before she was ever seated as a juror for Scott's murder trial. It asked whether she had ever been involved in a lawsuit, whether she had ever been a party or a witness in a court case, and whether she or anyone close to her had ever been the victim of a crime. Niece answered no to all three. This was not true. Four years earlier on November 27, 2000, Rochelle Neese had gone to the San Mateo County Courthouse and asked a judge for an order of protection from her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend. She wrote that the woman had kicked in Rochelle's front door. She also wrote that she feared for her unborn child. At the time, Rochelle was four and a half months pregnant. A judge granted the

restraining order. Four years later, she is sitting on a jury deciding whether Scott Peterson has murdered his pregnant wife and their unborn son. Niece later explained her thinking to A&E. When I was filling out this questionnaire, that case of mine never came into my thoughts because it was a dropped case. It never went anywhere. And it was nothing. So I never thought about that case. In 2002, Rochelle returns to a Redwood City courtroom for the court ordered hearing on her juror questionnaire. For five days under a grant of immunity, she answers questions about the form she felled out 18 years earlier. She cries on the stand, and her lawyer tells the court she regrets ever writing the letters to Scott. On December 20th, the judge rules that some of Nisa's answers on the questionnaire were false, but finds that Rochelle had misunderstood the questions, not that she lied out of bias against Scott Peterson. Peterson's request for a new trial is denied.

Prosecutors could have impaneled a new jury to retry the penalty phase of the trial if they wanted to seek the death penalty again. They chose not to do so, explaining that, quote, Lacey's family has decided the process is simply too painful to endure once again. In December of 2021, Scott is resentenced to life without parole. The following year, he has transferred off of death row to Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California. He still maintains he did not kill Lacey or Connor. And now there is yet another. possible path to a new trial for Scott, allegedly new evidence. In 2024, the Los Angeles Innocence Project takes Scott's case and asks the court for two things. The first is more testing.

Scott's legal team wants to retest material from the mattress found inside the van that was discovered burning in a Modesto alley the morning after Lacey disappeared. The state lab tested material from that mattress at the time and found no blood. In 2019, a private lab examined some of the fabric and reported trace amounts of what might be male DNA, undermining unsupported claims that the mattress might be stained with Lacey Peterson's blood. The judge grants part of this request and denies part of it too.

She does not allow the defense to retest the mattress. Finding this van, which was orange, by the way, has no link to this crime. She does permit the defense access to certain reports about the van, like the 911 call, reporting the van fire, and any fingerprints recovered, because a convicted felon has the right to review materials they would have been entitled to see at the time of their trial. She also allows some new DNA testing on a bit of duct tape found on Lacey's clothing. The defense is hoping for DNA that will match that of the burglars, arguing that touch DNA analysis has advanced considerably since 2004.

Because the tape was found on Lacey's pants and appears to be in testable condition, the judge will allow another bite at this apple. The Innocence Project also wants the court to consider 14 different arguments, mostly involving evidence they say prosecutors destroyed or never gave to the defense. In April of this year,

a San Mateo County judge rejects all of those arguments and declines to hold a hearing on any of them. The Innocence Project says it will appeal that ruling, along with the judge's earlier refusal, to grant Scott a new trial over juror number seven, aka Rochelle Neese and her juror questionnaire. Though he's not Scott Peterson's appellate lawyer, Mark Garragos fully supports a new trial.

There's just too much here, and the idea at this point that there was such willful kind of suppression of evidence, I always say the same thing. If you're beyond what you referenced as the prosecutorial duty, if you truly believed in your conviction as a prosecutor, which also is your duty, you have to have an abiding conviction of that,

which mirrors the jury. Why are you fighting so hard against, you know, just putting these things to rest? Makes no sense to me. Scott Peterson has been in custody since April of 2003. More than 20 years later, both of his murder convictions still stand. Sharon Rocha has devoted much of the past 20 years to helping crime victims.

She wrote a book about her daughter, For Lacey, which became a bestseller. Her view of the case has never changed. This past July, she told People magazine, he is guilty, and that's it. Scott's mom, Jackie Peterson, died of cancer in 2013. His dad Lee died in 2024. Both went to their graves, maintaining. that their son was innocent. Amber Fry wrote a book called Witness for the Prosecution of Scott Peterson, then largely withdrew from public life. She still lives in the Fresno area and is the mother of two children now,

Ayanna born in 2001 and Justin born in 2004. She married a police officer, Robert Hernandez in 2006. He had nothing to do with his case before divorcing him two years later. After the court ruling this spring, she said she was relieved she would not have to testify again, although she would if she had to. She told NBC a decade after the verdict that Scott made no attempts to contact her since his conviction. Lacey and Connor were buried on August 29, 2003. At the funeral home weeks earlier, an employee named Ronnie showed Sharon albums of flowers, then photographs of caskets. When Ronnie began explaining the pillows inside of them, Sharon remembers thinking,

Lacey doesn't need a pillow. She chose a white casket with gold trim. On August 21st, Lacey and Connor were returned to Modesto, and Connor was placed in the casket with his mother. There was still the house on Covina Avenue, and upstairs the room that had been prepared for a new baby. Lee Peterson described one piece of it to A&E in 2017. As Scott had said, we're having a nautical theme in the baby's room.

We bought a big, you know, the old round life preservers. She was just so excited. I got extra hugs for that. The nursery had been finished before Lacey disappeared. Everything was there, waiting for a baby who would never come home. After Lacey and Connor died, Sharon asked for the chance to go back into that room. She wanted to sit in Lacey's rocking chair. In the nursery, Lacey had prepared for her son and feel close to her only daughter.

The crib was empty, the room, silent. And on the wall, the life preserver, Lacey had been so excited to receive. Welcome aboard. I'm Megan Kelly, and this is M.K. Confidential.