The convicted murderer Scott Peterson claimed recently he remembers his final moments with his wife before her disappearance and murder—a slaying he still asserts he didn’t commit.
Peterson said in a rare jailhouse interview viewed by People that he watched Laci Peterson do her hair on the morning she vanished, on Christmas Eve in 20o2, and that he shared a bowl of cereal with her.
“I would see Laci smile when she would do her hair on the morning of the 24th, and the way we would share a bowl for cereal because we were too lazy to do two bowls,” he said. “Just those little things are still with me.”
That snippet reportedly came from an interview that’s part of a three-part docuseries premiering on Peacock on Aug. 20 that’s titled Face to Face with Scott Peterson.
A program card from a memorial service for Laci Peterson and her unborn son is photographed on May 4, 2003.
Reuters
Portions of that docuseries have leaked to the public in recent days, including quotes from Peterson where he again asserted he didn’t kill his wife and unborn child.
Peterson, now 49, is also quoted as saying that he wishes he would’ve testified during his 2004 trial, which had a national audience. That case saw the former fertilizer salesperson be sentenced to death by lethal injection—a sentence that was swapped to a lifetime behind bars without the possibility of parole in 2021.
“I regret not testifying,” he said of his trial, “but if I have a chance to show people what the truth is, and if they are willing to accept it, it would be the biggest thing that I can accomplish right now—because I didn’t kill my family.”
Prosecutors argued two decades ago that Peterson killed his wife because he wanted to be with his mistress, Amber Frey. They claimed he didn’t want to be a father and used Laci’s murder as a way of escaping marriage and financial responsibilities to her and their child.
Peterson called those claims “disgusting” in his jailhouse interview, People reported. He admitted that he’d cheated on his wife, but said it was spurned only by a single lonely night away from home.
“I certainly regret cheating on Laci, absolutely,” he said. “It was about a childish lack of self-esteem, selfish me traveling somewhere, lonely that night because I wasn’t at home. Someone makes you feel good because they want [to] have sex with you.”
Laci, 27, was eight months pregnant at the time of her murder. She and Peterson had planned to name their child Conner.
On the day of Laci’s disappearance, multiple neighbors spotted the couple’s golden retriever, McKenzie, out roaming the neighborhood alone—the first sign of trouble in the Peterson household.
Prosecutors said during Peterson’s trial that Laci was last heard from on Dec. 23 when she spoke to her mom on the phone and to her sister at a hair salon.
Peterson’s defense lawyers said he left their home in Modesto to go fishing about 90 miles away in San Francisco Bay on the morning of Dec. 24. They said he left around 9:30 a.m. and began driving back just after 2 p.m.—a claim defense attorneys said was backed up by him leaving a voicemail for Laci at that time saying, “Hey, Beautiful. It’s 2:15. I’m leaving Berkeley [Marina].”
Once Peterson made it home, defense attorneys said his wife was nowhere to be found. He claimed to have immediately alerted authorities.
Peterson wasn’t initially deemed a suspect and he appeared on local news broadcasts appealing for help in finding his spouse. He even had the support of Laci’s family, who’d described them as being the perfect couple.
Laci Peterson’s mom, Sharon Rocha, is comforted by her husband Ron Grantsk during a press conference.
Reuters
Things changed in April 2023, however, after the bodies of Laci and her child were found in San Francisco Bay—not far from where Peterson claimed to have been fishing on the day his spouse disappeared.
Peterson was arrested shortly after in Southern California—not far from the Mexican border—with questionable items in tow. That included him carrying $15,000 in cash, a baggie filled with Viagra tablets, camping gear, and four cell phones. Authorities claimed he was trying to flee the country.
