Laci Peterson

On Christmas Eve 2002, Laci Denise Peterson, a 27-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant with the couple's first child, disappeared from the home she shared with her husband Scott in Modesto, California. Scott told police he had been fishing alone in the San Francisco Bay that day and returned to find Laci gone. He said their dog was in the backyard with its leash on.

A massive search was launched, and the case quickly became national news. As the investigation progressed, disturbing revelations emerged: Scott had been having an affair with massage therapist Amber Frey, who came forward to police and agreed to record their phone conversations. Scott had told Frey he was a widower—before Laci disappeared. His behavior during the search struck many as oddly detached.

On April 13, 2003, the decomposed body of a full-term male fetus washed ashore in the San Francisco Bay near Point Isabel. The next day, a woman's torso was found nearby. DNA confirmed the remains were Laci and her son, whom the Petersons had planned to name Conner. The location was near where Scott had claimed to be fishing.

Scott Peterson was arrested on April 18, 2003, near a golf course in La Jolla, California with $15,000 in cash, his brother's driver's license, and a recently dyed goatee, suggesting he was attempting to flee. He was tried in Redwood City after a change of venue and convicted of first-degree murder for Laci and second-degree murder for Conner in November 2004. He was sentenced to death, but in 2020 the California Supreme Court overturned the death sentence due to juror issues. He was resentenced to life without parole.