Laci Peterson

Case background and investigation

Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old substitute teacher who was roughly eight months pregnant with her first child, was reported missing from her home in Modesto, California, on the evening of December 24, 2002. Her husband, Scott Peterson, told police he had left that morning to go fishing at the Berkeley Marina on San Francisco Bay, some 90 miles away, and returned to find their home empty and their dog wandering the neighborhood with its leash attached. Laci's disappearance on Christmas Eve drew immediate national attention, and the couple's family, friends, and thousands of volunteers mounted an extensive search across Modesto and the surrounding region in the weeks that followed.

As the search continued, investigators grew suspicious of Scott Peterson, in part because his stated fishing location coincided with the area of the bay that became central to the case, and in part because he was found to have been having an extramarital affair with a woman named Amber Frey, who came forward publicly in January 2003. On April 13, 2003, the remains of a male fetus washed ashore on a tidal flat along San Francisco Bay, and the next day a woman's partial remains were found nearby along the Point Isabel shoreline in Richmond. DNA testing confirmed the bodies were those of Laci and the couple's unborn son, whom the family had named Conner. Scott Peterson was arrested on April 18, 2003, near La Jolla and was charged with two counts of murder.

Peterson's trial, moved to Redwood City in San Mateo County because of pretrial publicity, began in June 2004. Prosecutors presented a largely circumstantial case, arguing that Peterson had killed his wife and disposed of her body in the bay near where he claimed to have been fishing. On November 12, 2004, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the death of Laci and second-degree murder in the death of Conner. The same jury recommended death, and on March 16, 2005, Peterson was formally sentenced to death and later sent to San Quentin State Prison's death row.

In August 2020, the California Supreme Court overturned Peterson's death sentence, ruling that the trial court had improperly dismissed prospective jurors who expressed opposition to capital punishment during jury selection. The court left his underlying murder convictions intact. A separate review of claims that a juror had committed misconduct did not result in a new trial. In December 2020 the court declined to reconsider the conviction, and in 2021 Peterson was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was later transferred to Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California.

Beginning in early 2024, the Los Angeles Innocence Project took up Peterson's case and sought post-conviction discovery and new DNA testing, arguing on his behalf that physical evidence could point to another perpetrator. A judge granted limited relief, ordering new DNA testing on a piece of duct tape associated with the case while denying broader testing requests. The organization later pursued a habeas corpus petition alleging wrongful conviction based on what it characterized as false evidence. In an order issued in April 2026, a San Mateo County Superior Court judge denied that petition, finding the claims procedurally barred or without merit, and Peterson's attorneys said they would appeal to a higher court. The claims of innocence are advanced by Peterson's defense and have not been endorsed by the courts; as of 2026, his murder convictions stand and he remains incarcerated serving life without parole.