Nearly two decades after Scott Peterson was locked away for the murder of his pregnant wife, the convicted killer is back in the spotlight with a new theory that he hopes could possibly clear his name.
Peterson, 49, has given his first on-camera interview on Peacock’s new documentary “Face to Face with Scott Peterson” since being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the death of his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn son, Connor.
Peterson, who is adamant that he didn’t kill his family, said that a “burglary” in their Modesto, Calif. neighborhood led to his eight-month pregnant wife’s disappearance, E! News reported.
“There was a burglary across the street from our home,” Peterson claims during a video interview inside the Mule Creek State Prison. “And I believe that Laci went over there to see what was going on, and that’s when she was taken.”
Laci vanished on Christmas Eve 2002 and her body washed up in the San Francisco Bay months later in April. Her unborn child’s body was then found not far from hers, only days later.
Peterson is pointing his finger at investigators he claims didn’t turn over evidence to his defense that possibly could have cleared him of his wife’s murder during the murder trial, according to the outlet.
“There are so many instances where there was evidence that didn’t fit the detectives’ theory that they ignored,” Peterson alleged during the series. “People want the answer they believed in to be the answer.”
In the crime doc series, journalists and legal experts share that witnesses reported to police that a suspicious van was in the area of the burgled home on Dec. 24, 2002.
Another witness allegedly claimed they saw a pregnant woman being forced into a van, according to E! News.
However, two former Modesto Police detectives, Jon Buehler and Al Brocchini, are discrediting Peterson’s claims, saying there is no new evidence that would absolve the convicted killer of the murders.
Peterson shares that he regrets not testifying at his trial and is now speaking up for his family.
“If I have a chance to get the reality out there, if I have the chance to show people what the truth is and if they’re willing to accept it, maybe that takes a little bit of hurt off my family,” Peterson said. “And that would be the biggest thing that I can accomplish right now.”
His sister-in-law, Janey Peterson, also strongly claims in the opening of the scene that she “believes her brother-in-law Scott has been wrongfully convicted of that murder.”
The Los Angeles Innocence Project took on Peterson’s case in January, arguing that new evidence would show he did not commit the murders.
The series also explores a possible motive that was established when it was revealed that Peterson was having an extramarital affair with Amber Frey.
Peterson himself admits the affair was “horrible” and that he “was a total a–hole to be having sex outside our marriage” in “Face-to-Face.”
“Scott lied about cheating and that was upsetting,” Janey Peterson said. “But he wasn’t charged with infidelity. He was charged with murder.”
The convicted killer is seeking to appeal to the public to call out the “so-called investigation” that put him in prison.
During the five-month trial, prosecutors characterized him as a man who regretted becoming a father and killed his wife to get out of his marriage while not having to pay child support.
He was sentenced to death by lethal injection, but California’s Supreme Court overruled the sentencing in 2020.
