Scott Peterson suspects burglars killed his wife Laci in first prison interrogation since arrest 20 years ago

In his first on-camera interview since being convicted of murdering his wife twenty years ago, Scott Peterson maintains his innocence – and shares his theory about what really happened to his pregnant wife.

“Why do I want to speak? I regret not testifying,” Peterson said in Peacock's new three-part series Face to face with Scott Peterson“I have the chance to show people the truth, and if they are willing to accept it, that would be the greatest thing I can achieve at the moment – because I did not kill my family.”

Laci, 27, was eight months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002. Peterson reported her missing after he reportedly returned alone from a fishing trip and found her Modesto home empty. Laci's body washed up on the shore near Peterson's fishing spot four months later, along with the body of her unborn child, Conner.

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Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson in a still from the documentary series “American Murder: Laci Peterson”. (Courtesy of Netflix)

After he was arrested at the Mexican border with bleached hair and his brother's passport, prosecutors presented a mountain of evidence against him. A police sniffer dog unit picked up Laci's scent at a Berkeley boat ramp where Peterson said he was fishing and found the woman's hair caught in the teeth of a pair of needle-nose pliers on Peterson's boat.

Peterson, who was convicted of Laci's murder in 2004, made headlines again after the Los Angeles Innocence Project announced it would accept his latest appeal for a retrial.

“There was a break-in across the street from our house,” Peterson told the filmmakers via video call from Mule Creek State Prison. “And I think Laci went there to see what was going on and that's when she was kidnapped.”

Around the time Laci disappeared, a burglary occurred near the Peterson family home. However, one of the convicted burglars testified that the burglary occurred on December 26, 2002, and not on December 24, when Laci disappeared.

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Scott Peterson listens to Stanislaus County Assistant District Attorney Dave Harris during a hearing at San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. Peterson appeared in San Mateo Superior Court for the first time since he was sentenced to death there more than 17 years ago for the murders of his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner. (Andy Alfaro/The Modesto Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) (Andy Alfaro/The Modesto Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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Journalists and legal experts interviewed for the documentary series said witnesses told police they saw a suspicious van in the area of ​​Peterson's Modesto home on Dec. 24 – one witness even claimed he saw a pregnant woman being forcibly dragged into a van.

The burglary was not mentioned in Peterson's trial in 2004, and the convicted man cites this as evidence that the police did not present any evidence during the investigation that could have potentially exonerated him.

“There are so many cases where there was evidence that didn't fit the detectives' theory and they ignored it,” Peterson insisted.

Peterson even claims that the detectives assigned to the case assumed he was guilty during their first tour of his house.

“When [Modesto Detective Al Brocchini] “When I did an initial walk-through of the house with the other officers, I don't think they knew I was near them when they said, 'We know what's going on here – it was the husband,'” Peterson claimed during his jailhouse interrogation. “Then he realized I was there and turned around.”

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Scott Peterson and Amber Frey at a Christmas party on December 14, 2002, before Laci Peterson's murder and before Frey knew Scott Peterson was married. (Supreme Court of California, San Mateo County)

But Brocchini and former Modesto police officer Jon Buhler told the filmmakers that they withheld any evidence or did not follow up on leads in the case.

“He was kind of casual – there was nothing urgent about him,” Brocchini said of his first meeting with Peterson. “That struck me as suspicious.”

Peterson, who had numerous extramarital affairs, quickly became the prime suspect in his wife's disappearance.

Brocchini said a voicemail Peterson left his wife at 2:15 p.m. on Dec. 24, 2022, telling her he loved her and would see her “shortly” was just to cover his tracks, hours after he killed Laci and abandoned her in San Francisco Bay. “For me, it was really meant to be heard,” Brocchini said, saying the voicemail was “sticky.”

But Peterson said intimate messages were typical in his relationship with Laci, and said police officers who expressed doubts about the intent of the voicemail must have had “really sad marriages.”

“We loved each other, we enjoyed each other,” he said in his prison interview. “We were good friends.”

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Prosecutors said police recovered Laci Peterson's hair from between the teeth of these needle-nose pliers, which they found on the boat of her husband and convicted murderer Scott Peterson. (Supreme Court of California, San Mateo County)

“Every moment remains so tangible,” Peterson said of his final memories with his wife. “I'm still there, and the smells and the light, the sound of saying goodbye to Laci. And then my family was gone.”

Amber Frey, Peterson's lover, went to the police when she learned of Laci's disappearance. Peterson, the man she thought was her boyfriend, had previously told her he had never been married, but then changed his story and said he was a widower.

Laci was missing her head and three limbs. A forensic pathologist determined that she had not been dismembered, but her body likely fell apart due to sea conditions after anchoring.

Prosecutors argued that the homemade concrete anchor Peterson used on his boat could easily be replicated, and they suspected he had made more of them in an attempt to keep his wife's body on the ocean floor.

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Prosecutors said these photos of smiling Scott Peterson were taken during a vigil for Laci Peterson on New Year's Eve 2002. Jurors concluded at the end of his 2004 trial that he killed her a few days later. She was eight months pregnant with their son, Conner. (Supreme Court of California, San Mateo County)

After Laci's disappearance, Peterson allegedly told Frey that his wife was alive and pregnant but had disappeared. Frey began recording her phone conversations with the suspected killer to help police.

Last week, these recorded conversations aired for the first time in a new Netflix documentary. American Murder: Laci Peterson.

“So what, do you want to be with me?” Frey asked Peterson in one of the recordings.

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“I think we could take care of each other for the rest of our lives,” Peterson replied.

In May of this year, Peterson's defense team requested DNA testing of a blood-stained mattress found in the back of a burned-out van near Peterson's Modesto home a day after Laci disappeared. In the past, the LA Innocence Project said, only a sample of the mattress was tested. Now they want to have the entire mattress tested because advances in DNA technology could find DNA evidence that would support their client's claim.

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But in May, a judge ruled that a piece of duct tape found on Laci's body could be re-examined along with a dozen other pieces of evidence. It is unclear whether the mattress will be among the items examined.

Lara Yeretsian, one of Peterson's lawyers from his first trial, remains hopeful that her client will be released.

“This is not the end,” she said in the documentary series. “It is just the beginning, and at least we have won a victory.”