Episode 17: Scott Peterson

Sarah leads this episode on Scott Peterson.

I'm sure you all know this one! We take a deep dive and follow up with the new 2024 Documentary on Peacock.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Hey, true crime divas and dudes. We have a doozy for you today, and one we are sure you already know.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

But if you're anything like us, you love hearing about it all over again because it's so fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

In a train wreck kind of way. Today we are covering the 2017 Netflix documentary, An American Murder, Lacey Peterson. And later on, we are also going to mention face-to-face with Scott Peterson, which is a 2024 Peacock documentary. So, first, the original story of what happened as told on an American murder, Lacey Peterson. This happened in Modesto, California. And in the intro, the first thing that stuck out to me was the fact that we hear that murder is the number one cause of death in pregnant women. Wow. Isn't that crazy? Of all the things that can go wrong when you're pregnant medically, and murder's stolen among the colours.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

That's a heart-wrenching statistic.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

So Sharon Rocha is Lacey's mom, and she's the first interviewee we see. And she says, 20 years ago, Christmas Eve was supposed to be at her house and Christmas morning at Lacey's house. But on Christmas Eve, Scott Peterson, Lacey's husband, got back from a fishing trip to find Lacey not home. So he calls Sharon to see if Lacey was there, and she says, no. And then he said, Well, then she's missing. Which Sharon thought was kind of a hasty, odd conclusion to jump right to. Right. See sh she suggested that he called her friends and he told them the same. Lacey's missing. Have you seen her today? And they all said, What do you mean missing? Yeah. Calls back Sharon to tell her no one has seen Lacey. And then she gets upset and calls the police, reporting Lacey missing. Her parents, Nascar. They tell the police that she went to take the dog for a walk in the park, and the dog returned, but she didn't. Lacey was eight months pregnant, so they were instantly panicked. They went to look in the park, knowing that it can be muddy and slippery to make sure that she didn't fall. And they ask a few people in the park, but no one saw her. Friends start knocking on neighbors' doors, they get a picture from a recent Christmas party printed to use for missing posters. And they decide to get the media involved ASAP because this woman is pregnant and time is of the essence. So by the evening, the place was chaos. Police cars, helicopters, friends, family, neighbors, everyone's looking for Lacey on Christmas Eve. And Detective Al Burkini, he's called in and they specifically said to him, hey, it's Christmas Eve. We don't know what's going on, but you don't have kids. So can you cover this one? And he leaves his family to dedicate his time to this. And I'm saying that because this dude was he was solid. I agree. Absolutely solid. So he's called in and he starts to interview Scott. They search the house for evidence of a possible abduction or struggle, and he notes that Lacey's purse is still in the house. He asks Scott if Lacey has a boyfriend. Of which Scott says, not that I'm aware of. Very nonchalantly, I don't know. Right. The detectives search the cars and they find tarps in Scott's truck. And Scott volunteers this information that he went fishing in the bay and instantly provides a parking ticket stub. And he also has a receipt for lures and a fishing license that he bought on December 20th. Note that.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Almost like he knew he was gonna need proof for it.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Yeah, talk about setting up your alibi. After searching the cars, they asked Scott to take them to his shop where his boat is kept. They explained to Scott that their first job is to eliminate him as a suspect. Which we hear in everything. I mean, that's totally legit.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

It's always the husband or the boyfriend.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Right, that they look at first. They take him back to the police station for a videotaped interview. He says when they got up, they watched Martha Stewart, their Lacey's favorite show, and Lacey was gonna go shopping and then walk the dog. His plan was to go golfing, but due to the weather, went fishing instead. Because That makes sense. Right? I can't golf in the rain, but I can fish in the rain. Okay. He took his boat to Berkeley Marina and then called Lacey and left her a message when he was on his way home. He drops off the boat and comes home. And they do make a big deal of how this particular voicemail that he left her was particularly sickly and didn't sound genuine. But I I really didn't want to harp on about that like they did in the documentary, because I mean they're they're fairly recently married, they're having a baby, they are at the beginning of starting a family together. And they s and they said when he first started romancing her how he was like dozens of roses and so on. So I I don't like to say too much about whether or not that was too sickly or whatever, because I don't think that's something anybody else can ever really know, my opinion.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

When you're saying sickly, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 5:30

It's just very much like love you, boom, miss you, and they're saying like really sickly sweet. Sickly sweet, yes. So the neighbor had found the dog wandering around the yard with the leash, and she knew the dog shouldn't be, so she put it back in the yard after she saw it running in the street. Scott had assumed Lacey was at her mom's, so he went ahead and washed his clothes and took a shower before calling Sharon to find out where Lacey was.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

No shade to this neighbor because obviously they were just trying to do the right thing, and I appreciate that, but that would have set off a red flag for me if somebody's dog was running around with the leash on, I would have immediately taken action and called somebody or done something after I put the dog away.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

I think I probably would have knocked at the door to say, Hey, do you realize your dog was out? Right. Apparently she just put the dog in the yard. He says that after he called Sharon, he called her friends and he called hospitals. And when he goes to the neighbors to ask if they have seen Lacey, he tells them he's been golfing all day. But at this point we know he wasn't, he went fishing. So he'd already changed his mind on that, apparently. Lacey's parents turn up and he tells them he went fishing in his boat. They didn't even know he had a boat. He had only recently purchased it. And this makes the police wonder why does the story flip-flop between his in-laws knowing or not knowing about him having a boat and whether or not he was golfing or fishing. So they ask him about the state of his marriage and they ask him to take a polygraph, which he agrees to. And during the interview, they notice that Scott's very laid back, very calm, considering his eight-month pregnant wife is missing on Christmas Eve. Very chill.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

You'd be out of your mind in that scenario.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

So then they go to Scott's sister-in-law, Janie. She is married to Scott's brother. Um, she says when they got the call, she could tell by his voice how panicked he was, and they rushed straight to help him. They talk about how Lacey and Scott met in college, how he romanced Lacey with trips and gifts and flowers and affection. That's what I was talking about. Yeah, the love bombing. She fell for him big time and she seemed very happy. Scott's family absolutely loved Lacey. They could see that Scott was infatuated. They say that she was his first serious girlfriend, and no one was really surprised when they got engaged. They got married while they were both still in college. So back to the police and the missing person search. The media were invested. This was a good-looking couple, a pregnant woman on Christmas Eve, whose dog returned home without his owner. And this was a sweet little like golden retrita too. Very sort of American family twee, as we would say. Twee. Look that one up. I will. Blue and yellow ribbons are given out to searchers and helpers. And Scott was there with all the searches. But he seemed to be cracking jokes and keeping it lighthearted. They widen the range area a bit more every day, and the family takes to giving pleas on TV for help finding Lacey. And when I say the family, I mean Lacey's parents. Not Scott. Although Scott's scene actions seemed unusual. Everybody's giving him space. They say we all deal with stress differently. He refused to talk to reporters, and he seemed to have no sense of urgency. And then he refused to take the paragraph that he said he would take, saying that his father advised him not to.

unknown 9:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

How old are you? Lacey's mom takes him aside and she's like, You need to tell me what happened. You need to tell me about this boat. And he says, Oh, it was a surprise for Ron, Lacey's dad.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

What?

SPEAKER_00 9:41

And he goes on to say how fishing with his dad was so great growing up, and he wants Connor, their unborn baby boy, to have this relationship with Lacey's father and to go out and go fishing. So apparently this boat that Lacey and her parents didn't know about was bought for her dad.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Why would Scott not buy the boat for Connor and himself to make those nice memories?

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Take grandpa too. Very odd, right? Or was he gonna give it to him on Christmas or something? He doesn't say like when he planned to give it to him. And he keeps saying that he was taking it for a test run to make sure it was good. So this this gift I've bought for you, I'm just gonna use it before I give it to you. Keep your gift. Anyhow, Lacey's mom said it really didn't make any sense to anyone because it was Scott's boat, why he kept saying it was a gift to somebody else. So anyway, she asks him why he won't take the polygraph, and he claims that he's just too upset to take it, so it wouldn't be accurate. As far as Lacey's friends go, they didn't really know Scott. They'd only knew what Lacey had told them and how happy she was. So they really didn't have much to say about his character. She was excited to be pregnant, and they read from Lacey's diary about the pregnancy and how excited she was. Sharon was excited, but concerned about Scott's reluctance to have kids at first.

unknown 11:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

So Lacey had confided in her that he had been reluctant at first and come around eventually. The detectives are concerned about Scott's reluctance to help with some things. So they ask him to sign permission for them to do further searching. And Scott says, You don't expect me to sign this without a lawyer, do you? Where's the trust? Is what he said to Burkini. Where's the trust? Which they find as bizarre because they're trying to find help his pregnant wife.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Why like, yeah, like why are you being combative when they're just trying to find your pregnant wife?

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Right. You don't expect me to sign this without a lawyer present. This thing that's gonna help you find my eight-month pregnant wife. Yeah. Right. Weird. So Scott has to move to a hotel while officers go through the house thoroughly. But they find nothing in the house until they move to the boathouse. They note that the fishing license was bought on the 20th, but he says he went fishing last minute on the 24th. He was gonna play golf and change to fishing last minute. Yep, he'd already purchased this fishing license and some lures. During the search of the boat, they noticed that he had been making his own anchors. More than one, and with no rope. They also found a pair of needle nose pliers with a long, dark hair wrapped around it. For those of you that don't know, Lacey had dark hair. Not really long, but sort of shorter length. Now we hear of a burglary of a nearby house that happened recently. Is this a coincidence? Could it be related to Lacey's disappearance? It was literally across the street from the Peterson's home, and the neighbors were away from 10.30 a.m. on the 24th until 4.30 p.m. on the 26th. Everyone, including Lace's mom, is sticking up from Scott, saying there is no way he can be involved. And then the call comes in from Amber Fry, a lady claiming to be Scott's girlfriend. What you're saying? Police take over the call and tell Amber, do not tell Scott that you called in. We are coming to you right away to talk to you in person. They knew this was a biggie.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Right? So Scott met Amber through a friend. She was attracted to him. He showed interest in Amber and her daughter. She had a young daughter. They got on well, and he told her he had never been married or had any children. He went with her to a holiday party. He turned up with three dozen roses to pick her up.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

We're love bombing. This is a pattern.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

And she believed that he could be the one. But then a guy who worked for Scott ran into one of Amber's best friends and he introduced Scott to her and mentioned that he was married. And this friend said to Scott, You better tell Amber or I will. So he goes to Amber's house and he says, Hey, I have to confess to you, I lied about being married. He's very upset and he tells her that he lost his wife and that this would be his first holidays without her. Wow. Now Amber just didn't want to push for more information because she was like, This poor guy, I don't want to upset him. That's obviously the reason he hasn't told me. She was very understanding. However, a couple of weeks later, someone brings to her attention a newspaper article about Lacey. And that's when Amber called the Modesto Police Department, and she told them that December 9th was the day he told her he had lost his wife. The day that he bought the boat and Lacey was still home safe. So he said to her, My wife went missing on December 9th.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Not looking good for you, Scott. Not looking very good at all.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

The police asked Amber to play along and record their conversations. He had told her that he would be in Paris for New Year's, and he called her on New Year's Eve to say, Happy New Year. And he tells her, Oh, I'm near the Eiffel Tower, but she knows he's lying. He was actually at a candlelight vigil for Lacey. And I think that fact to me was the lowest of the low.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

It was the most cringe, like disgusting thing that I have ever heard.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Yeah. I mean, what does that tell you about his character? Amber was super impressive the way she was able to play along and not call him out on his absolute fucking bullshit because I would have lost my damn shit.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

I I am very impressed by the way that she handled that to help get him caught in a few more lies. The police have put a tap on Scott's phone to see what bullshit he was telling other people. However, they didn't stop looking for the burglars. So they're still following all avenues. And they arrest two men for the robbery. And these men are so keen to clear their names on the Lacey case. For a start, they say we did the robbery on the 26th, not the 24th. But then on the other hand, would they really do that when there were police crawling all over Lacey's house? And this is one thing that I've I've gone back and forth on, because Scott's sister says there's absolutely no way you would rob a house on the 26th if somebody went missing on the 24th and there's police all over the house across the street on the 24th. I get that that tracks, but on the other hand, if you know that the police are focused on the house across the street, I'm not a burglar. I don't know. Maybe that's the best time to strike.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Kind of like when I'm speeding down the highway and all the cops have this guy pulled over, and then I speed up a little bit more because they're not worried about me.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Right. Somebody's already created a distraction for you. Right. So I thought that was interesting. But the the two men that did the robbery, they're like, we did not break in on the 24th, we broke in on the 26th. They volunteer for a polygraph because they want their names cleared on the Lacey case. They're like, yeah, you got us. We're burglars. We are not kidnappers, we are not murderers, whatever we need to do to clear our name. And again, I get that. They turn over stolen goods, none of which are from the Peterson's house. And they also both had an alibi for the 24th because they were with their families for Christmas. Scott's family do not believe it happened on the 26th, and they believe it is still related to Lacey's disappearance. So the media start to pick up on the facts that Scott is under suspicion. But both his family and Lace's family tell the media there's no way he had anything to do with it. However, Lacey's mom does start to have doubts shortly after, and a gut feeling that maybe Scott was involved. She's just not ready to admit this to the public yet, but she was starting to feel queasy about that. So police print a grainy photo. And it the original wasn't grainy. There is a picture of Scott and Amber Frey at a Christmas party together that's not grainy. But what they do is they print a grainy copy to show him to see what he says. So it's not blatantly obviously him. And he says, You don't think that's me, do you? Very cool, calm and collected, not at all shaken. Mm-hmm. But they know it's him. But they're, you know, just keep it under wraps while they catch him. A few days later, he calls Amber and he confesses that he's not been traveling the last couple of weeks, and he tells her that the missing pregnant girl on the TV news stories is his wife, Lacey. And Amber says, But you told me your wife went missing on December 9th. So how did you lose her before she was lost? Right. That was I love that sentence. How did you lose her before she was lost? Right. Right. Good question, Amber. Then she proceeds to grill him about all of his lies. The police now believe that Lacey is not coming home. And based on the fact that he told Amber that she went missing on the 9th, the day he bought the boat, they think that it is likely that she is in the bay. They have search boats all over the bay, a tracker on Scott's truck, which shows he goes to the bay daily to watch what's going on. He's watching the searches. He's seeing what they what they may or may not have found.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

This man has guilty written all over him.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Like he couldn't act more guilty if he tried. So eventually a sonar spots something in the water, but it turns out to be just an anchor. And what was chilling about that was they've got Scott's phone tapped. And when he gets the call, hey, we found something, and then he hears, oh, it was just an anchor, you can hear him sigh relief.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

Mm-hmm. Biggest sigh of relief, just most obvious.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

So at this point, Lacey's now been missing 15 days. Police have not released any information about the affair with Amber Fry. They're trying to keep it under wraps to get as much information as they can. But unfortunately, it gets leaked to the National Enquirer. Good old National Inquirer. Talked about them before, haven't we? So the police had to tell Lacey's parents before it went to print. They just didn't want them to find out that way. They asked Lacey's parents to come to the police station and they let them know about Amber. And Lacey's mom's immediate reaction is why did he have to kill her?

SPEAKER_02 20:56

So tragic.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Lacey's brother calls Scott and says, Now I see these pictures, tell me why I should believe anything you say. We have been standing up for you, and now we don't know what to believe. And the family makes a statement to the media asking Scott, please just come out with the truth. Don't you remember Casey Anthony's parents saying that to Casey too?

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Scott's family are mad. They're mad at him having the affair. But they say it doesn't mean he did it. They're also in denial and they refuse to even call it an affair. It was just sex, which is not the story Amber was giving.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

I'm sorry. What no matter what it was, whether it was emotional, sexual, whatever, it's all an affair.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

It's all an affair, 100%. I think what they were trying to say is if somebody's just having a fling with somebody else, that's not motive to murder your wife. But if they're actually emotionally involved with somebody else, they're trying to play it down so it doesn't look like a motive.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Well, it's not working.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

The volunteer center gets shut down because people are starting to feel betrayed. Once they've heard about Amber Fry, they're like, We're done. We're done. We weren't trying to help you, and you're a liar. So the press start to try and question Amber, and the police decide it's best just to have her make a press statement. She says, I met Scott Peterson in November 2002, and he told me he was not married. She is visibly shaking, trying not to cry. She apologizes to Lace's family and gives prayers for Lace's safe return. And Lacey's friends thank her for her bravery and for coming forward with the truth. But Scott continues to call Amber even after the press conference, praising her for her strength at the conference. Amber tells Scott, I no longer want to speak to you, until there is some kind of resolution. Lacey's family publicly announced that they are no longer supporting Scott. And Lacey's mom asks to meet Amber and go back over which day she was with Scott so that she can look at Scott's calendar and start creating a line of the deception and lies.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

I'm sorry, but this is the biggest, most glaring, most stupid fucking thing that I have ever heard in my life. Oh yeah, my eight-month pregnant wife knows that I'm fucking this other woman and she's totally cool with it.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

And she didn't say a word to her family or friends or anything. She just kept it to herself.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

And it wasn't in her diary, which she put everything in.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

So he actually went on Diane Sawyer to talk about this. He he suddenly decides that he's going to do a bunch of press. Now that Amber's done her press, instead of staying away from the press, he does all these interviews. And it's on Diane Sawyer that he says, Yeah, Lacey knew about this. She wasn't angry about it. Diane Sawyer doesn't fall for any of this crap. And he says, You don't know our relationship. He realizes the interview looks bad and invites the media into his home for more interviews. But he makes bizarre requests like, take your shoes off before entering the door, because that's what you're worried about when your pregnant wife is missing, whether or not somebody's muddy feet are coming in your house. He's sitting there being interviewed with missing badges on, like the buttons that they made, claiming Lacey knew about Amber. And Scott later claims that all the interviews were edited to make him look bad.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

No, you're doing that all on your own, Scott.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Most of the reporters came away from their interviews convinced Scott was guilty. So on day 55, a second search warrant is served on the Peterson House. They want to see what Scott has changed. Scott had already sold Lacey's vehicle and changed the nursery into a storage room and was looking to sell the house.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

You guys, I'm grinding my teeth over here. I'm so mad at this man. I'm so disgusted.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Remember, we haven't found a body yet. Right. We don't know if she's coming back or not. Right. I mean, it's unlikely after 55 days. But you if that was your pregnant wife and your unborn child, you would hold on to the last single thread of hope that you were going to see them again until you absolutely knew 100% for sure that you weren't, unless you're already near, of course. Right. He seemed to have no emotional attachment to any of Lace's things or the baby's things. He was acting like they were not going to return. And the police now believe they have enough evidence to arrest Scott. But the prosecutor warns them that without a body, they don't have a chance. On April 14th, 2003, the bodies of Lisa and Connor are found in the bay. Near Brooks Island, where Scott specifically said he had been fishing. And the body has red duct tape on it. And when I say body, there were no limbs and there was no head. A torso. The police tell us their theory that Scott murdered Lacey at home, left the dog outside running around on a leash, took the body out on the boat, and dropped her overboard using homemade concrete anchors. The bodies now mean that they do have enough evidence to arrest Scott on the suspicion of murder. That day, Scott was staying with relatives in San Diego planning to play golf, you know. Cause why not? He notices he's being followed, but he thinks it's the media, so he tries to lose them. But it's the police, so they were able to keep track of him by his phone signal, which they were also listening to. They pull him over as he gets to the golf course, and he tells them, Tell me that wasn't my wife and baby. But the police say, Come on, Scott, you know better than that. And they arrest him. In his car, they find knives, a shovel, rope, five cell phones, credit cards belonging to him and his family, his brother's ID, ten thousand dollars in cash, a cooking grill, and Viagra.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

And he had dyed his hair blonde, right? He had tried to disguise himself.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

I think I do have that a little bit further. He was 30 miles from the Mexican border. They drive him back to Modesto, and on the way they get the call that the bodies are confirmed to be that of Lacey and Connor. And Scott Scott doesn't react at all. He's hungry. Yes, if they can go get some fast food. A crowd is gathered outside Modesto Police Department waiting for them to pull up with Scott. So Scott hires Mark Garagos, a high-profile attorney to defend him. He says he's gonna prove that Scott is innocent. And Befry decides she also needs a lawyer. She hires Gloria Allred, who takes her own pro bono. The case is moved to a different county to try and find jurors who have not been following the story. And the defense do a great job of making the police investigation look bad. A time of death cannot be determined, and it seems to be going in Scott's favor until they bring in the witness, Amber Fry. Amber makes it clear she did not know he was married. She was not a mistress. They play taped conversations between Amber and Scott, much to Amber's shock. Like she was not expecting her private conversations to be. Right. The jurors are being interviewed, and they say that they don't believe that it's the affair itself was a big deal. But the specific conversations he had with Amber are the lies about not being married, about being in Paris, carrying on the charade after Lacey went missing. And this is how the prosecution are showing it to be premeditative and obviously the motive. The jury takes just two days, a total of eight hours, to come back with a verdict. Scott's family are convinced Scott will be coming home, and Lacey's parents are scared that he actually will. But he is found guilty of two counts of murder, one for Lacey and one for Connor.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Round of applause for that jury.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Lacey's family breathe a sigh of relief, but Scott's family are in disbelief. 18 days later, the jury will also determine if he gets the death penalty. And Sharon gives a victim statement, and they give him the death penalty. However, due to the fact that some of the original jurors were not properly screened for bias against the death penalty, the death penalty sentence was overturned in 2020 by the California Supreme Court, and he was re-sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Good.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

That does bring us to the end of that first documentary. But face to face with Scott Peterson on Peacock was released in 2024. And just like we did with the Casey Anthony case, a lot of the facts in this documentary are repeated. So, in the interest of time, I'm not going to go back over anything that we've already mentioned. But it starts with Janie Peterson, Scott's sister-in-law that's married to his older brother. She's on the documentary saying that she still believes he is innocent. I'm curious why his brother is not on the documentary backing her up. Why is it the sister-in-law without her husband?

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Just noticed. Probably he's not a dumbass. And he can put two and two together.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

So Scott has not spoken on camera since his conviction, and this will be the first time. And there's also a documentary maker, Shereen Anderson, who is permitted 15-minute video visits with Scott to ask him all of the unanswered questions. So the first thing we hear from him is that he regrets not testifying. So as he didn't get to tell his side of the story to the jury, he wants to tell it now. We do hear from the defense team that putting on the stand would have been a death sentence due to him being so hated and already convicted in the public eye. But here are the answers he gives Sheree. He says the police have made up their minds before they even got to his house. He did not tell them about Amber up front because he figured it would stop them looking for the real killer. He says Amber was not a serious relationship, just a sexual partner. I would say that you don't go to a Christmas party and take pictures together of somebody that you are just fucking.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

Rather than going with your pregnant wife to her Christmas party. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

He says that he dyed his hair in Gruagoti to disguise himself because reporters were stalking him. He says he wasn't running to Mexico. He says the cash was from selling his car to his brother, but he gives no reasons for the phones. He just says his he had his brother's driver's license to use his golf membership to save some money. And I've put laugh my fucking ass off.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

How many thousands of dollars in cash did he have?

SPEAKER_00 32:52

10,000.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

But you need to use your brother's golf membership to save what, 50 bucks? Like, give me a fucking break.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

And then he says he did not have an emotional reaction when he heard the bodies had been identified. Because the police noted no physical reaction doesn't mean he didn't have an emotional reaction. So that's the highlights I have of the answers that he gives Shireen when she asks him the many questions that we all want to know. Now, the LA Innocence Project have taken up his case. And on March 12th, 2024, he got a hearing on the grounds that there is new evidence or evidence that was not allowed to be shown in the original trial. And I love this quote from Nancy Grace. I never thought I would put these two things in the same sentence. Scott Peterson, innocent project.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

I love Nancy Grace.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

I know. They are going for the idea that Lacey was killed by the burglars, saying a van was found nearby with a mattress on it with bloodstains. Note. Those bloodstains have never been DNA tested. Why? What would the motive be? They're saying that she saw them while walking the dog and tried to stop them from the burglary. I would think that that is most unlikely. You are eight and a half months pregnant. You see a robbery taking place. Do you one try to stop them by yourself? Two, call the police. It's not exactly a mensa question.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

I mean, I'm a woman, non-pregnant, and I would never, ever, on any day of the week, go and try to intervene. I'm going the opposite direction and I'm calling the cops.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

Exactly. And who attacks a woman walking a large dog? My small dog would take your hand off, or at the very least, bark enough to make a scene.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Yeah. You're not gonna go after a clearly eight-month pregnant woman walking a large dog. Makes no sense.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

Maternal instinct makes you protect your unborn child over everything else. So I'm not buying any of this, even if the state of the burglary was the 24th. So why was Scott's theory that someone had broken into the house and kidnapped her? Like why? Where's the motive there? So we have Scott and others in his new defense team saying they're not looking at anyone else because it was easiest to pin it on the husband. They are saying that Scott was loved by everyone before all of this happened. How many times do we hear that? Mm-hmm. Here are my facts against Scott. He washed his clothes as soon as he got home from fishing, but not his jacket. His rain jacket. He had bought a fishing license for December 23rd and 24th, yet says he was supposed to be playing golf and the fishing was a last-minute decision on the 24th. He told neighbors he had been golfing. The new lures that he had purchased were still in the package. He made five concrete anchors, but only one was in the boat. His lack of emotion and willingness to talk to the press during the search. When they performed the search warrant on the Peterson's house, they find Scott and Lacey's fingerprints inside the house, but no one else, and no forced entry, and no sign of a home invasion. He would not take a polygraph and resisted the search warrants. He drove the boat all the way out to the bay when there are many options closer, and it's Christmas Eve, and your eight wife is eight months pregnant at home. Like why drive that far? Selling her car, like he knows she's not coming back. Putting the house up for sale, treating the nursery like a storage room, the pliers with the hair wrapped around it, long dark hair. The neighbors who were robbed didn't leave home until 10.30 a.m. on the 24th, and the dog was found wandering at 1018 a.m. So the timeline doesn't fit with the burglary. He stays 10 miles from the Mexican border. Yes, he has family there, but why have a car loaded with cash knives, cell phones, brother's ID? Oh, and don't forget the Viagra. And the affair and the lies with Amber. Obviously, the biggest one, this gives him a motive. No one else had a motive. Here's what the Innocence Project are saying are facts in Scott's favor. No one else was looked at. Um, wait a minute. I thought they investigated and did polygraphs on the burglars, and they also checked everyone on the sex registry and the criminals in the area. So that's a lie. Yeah. The bloody mattress found in the van, looks like the van from the burglary. But they have the suspects who told them they didn't use a van and gave them the truck and the bike that they used, and they did DNA test those. They have witnesses who saw Lacey walking the dog, but the police did not interview them further about it. These sightings were at 10.45, even though the neighbor had proof that she found the dog wandering out and about before 1018 a.m. Because she went to the store directly after putting the dog back in the yard and her receipt was timestamped 1018. The police say this is why they dismissed the callers. The time did not track and they had hundreds of false sightings. And so, therefore, the statements weren't allowed as evidence in the trial. But this is what the Innocence Project is saying was overlooked.

SPEAKER_02 38:19

Yeah, and those people may have seen a pregnant woman that looked like Lacey. That is entirely plausible. All of the evidence against him, however, is not.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

Um, also the Innocence Project is saying that the robbery at the neighbor's house was on the 24th, not the 26th. Uh, Scott says he thinks Lacey saw the burglary going on there and went to see what was going on. We've already talked about how I can't. No. A non-pregnant woman isn't gonna go do that. A heavily pregnant woman is certainly not gonna do that. They are saying the burglars took Lacey, and once they realized Scott had been fishing in the bay, they put the body there to frame him. I'm sorry. You're saying the evidence they have against him is purely circumstantial, yet your excuses aren't even that. They're speculation.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

Wait, who put the body there to frame him?

SPEAKER_00 39:10

He's saying that whoever kidnapped Lacey or abducted her or whatever, they abducted her, they were gonna going to have a ransom or something, but think they got in too deep. And then once they realized that he had been fishing in the bay and that the police were looking at him, that if they dumped the body in the bay, he would get the blame for the murder, not then.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

That makes no sense because obviously there's gonna be a police presence there now. You're not gonna go there now and dump a body to fra Like Wow.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

Like I say, they're dismissing every all the facts as circumstantial, but this is speculation.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

They're missing logic, is what they're missing.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

And police are saying if you were gonna take the trouble to dump a body to frame Scott, you probably wouldn't bother weighing it down. Right. They say an unidentified brown van was seen across the street the day of her disappearance. The burglars claim they used a car and a bike, they don't own a van. Similar van is then found burned as if to cover up a crime, and this van had the bloodstain mattress in it. They take the time to use luminol to verify that the stain is blood, but do not take the time to DNA test it. The police did go out and look at it and take samples for testing, but the police report says no blood was detective. It could mean that there was blood, but not human blood, because luminol would still show up for non-human blood, but they may have not tested it because there was no human blood. That's kind of a again up in the air. Um, this is part of the further evidence that the new defense wants to be considered. They also mention a 14 karat gold croton watch, similar to one that Lacey had inherited, was pawned on the 31st. They say that the police investigated it and covered it up. The police says there was never any proof that the watch was Lacey's. They do admit there is no proof that the burglars did the crime, but there is enough evidence that someone else could have done it.

SPEAKER_02 41:09

That's nothing. Like you can go to any pawn shop. I could go to the pawn shop around the corner here in my town and be like, oh wow, I used to have a watch that looks exactly like this, and some crack had fucking pawned it. Like, you could do that. Yeah. No. No.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

It seems to me that they were intent on showing evidence that was apparently ignored by the police, though the police say they looked into everything and just didn't include anything that was not relevant. They don't seem to have all the answers for all the circumstantial evidence that were in favors of Scott's guilt. So the NLA Innocent Project asked for DNA testing to be done on the mattress, the ban, and so on. And the judge, however, only grants permission for one item to be tested out at the 15, and that is the duct tape that was on the body, which had been in the bay. And there was one thing I obviously didn't add to the notes, it's a little gruesome, but they found a torso with no limbs. Right. And he made five anchors but only used one for the boat. And that just gave me the vision in my head that if you tie an anchor to each limb and weigh it down, as the body decomposes, those limbs are probably still anchored to the bottom. That tied up for me, the f the four anchors and her the body not coming up with limbs.

SPEAKER_02 42:26

Right, of course. Yeah, but the torso did, and so did little Connor.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

Yeah. So that is the end of my notes. Do you want to save it for the after show?

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Yeah, I have a few things for the after show. Uh, but I just want to say on this one that he did it. He's a scumbag. And knowing that the LA Innocence Project has taken up his case, like I have absolutely no respect for them. They obviously have no integrity. And that is so beyond fucked up.

SPEAKER_00 43:00

And another thing that I noticed is when they're interviewing him in prison and he's talking about how he's innocent, he has this constant smug smirk on his face. Always. But we talked about um remember Barton McNeil, who was in prison for his own three-year-old's death? Right. That guy was pleading his innocence and all the reasons why, you know, they should have looked into this, that, and the other, and they would have seen it wasn't me. That guy wasn't smirking. He was serious as mud, and like that's how you would be if you were trying to convince people of your innocence, not looking like the cat that built cream.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

Yeah. Uh so one of the things about Scott that I went over in the documentary is like he was part of a blended family, and he was the only child that belonged to both the husband and the wife in this blended family. All the other kids were from like one pre. previous relationship or another. And apparently they spoiled Scott Rotten as a result of that. And I just wonder, is that the reason that this is who he turned out to be? I mean I'm not saying that's the only factor, but it could be one of them. Don't spoil your your kids, people. Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

Well I think we do need to save the rest for the after show because there's so much to unpack and this is already a very long episode. Um I'm sure a bunch of you as you are true crime addicts like us are fascinated by this story. So give us some feedback and if you have a membership join us in the after show. And don't forget to join our Facebook page. Yes. So we do giveaways on our Facebook page and if you're not on it you're missing out. We have merch bundles and freebies to give away look for Deadly Divas a true crime podcast on Facebook. Follow us share the page and just be there. Be cool be with us. Yes we appreciate you and next week you are going to get to hear all about Corey Richens.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

And this is a very recent case you guys I think Corey was just found oop nope not giving you a spoiler. Uh oh this is a very recent case about the woman that allegedly murdered her husband and wrote a children's book to deal with the grief of losing a parent. So crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

Yeah very until then be divas. But not deadly bye bye