Scott Peterson is finally speaking out. But are viewers buying what he has to say?
The first part of Peacock‘s three-part Face To Face with Scott Peterson docuseries premiered on Tuesday, and in it we got to hear his side of the story for the first time in 20 years. The convicted murderer talks about how he learned his pregnant wife Laci Peterson was missing, his theory about what happened to her, and more. Obviously we’d recommend watching for yourself to decide if he sounds credible. But here’s a recap of what he said in the first installment…
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Of course most folks believe Scott learned of Laci’s disappearance when he murdered her and weighed down her body. But he says this is how it went down…
“When I got home, I started to call her friends and they hadn’t spoken to her. They didn’t know where she was and as the hours progressed it was like, ‘Oh my God, she’s out somewhere that we know of.’ So it was anxiety and panic.”
Well, anxiety for everyone else. As police noted, he didn’t seem as distraught as they expected. He says the reason he didn’t freak out at first is because he thought there was a normal explanation:
“I just thought Laci’s with her friends or she’s at her mom’s house, which would not be uncommon. Then when I found out Laci wasn’t at her mother’s house, I started to get concerned.”
Scott complains in the doc that the cops, particularly Modesto Police detective Al Brocchini, decided he murdered his wife immediately:
“When Brocchini took a walk around the house, I don’t think they knew I was near them. One of them said, ‘Oh yeah, we know what is going on here. It’s the husband.’ Then they realized I was there. Brocchini’s questions weren’t questions. They were accusations. He had made up his mind before he had even arrived at our home.”
Brocchini said he seemed “nonchalant.” He disagrees, saying he was panicking on the inside, even if it didn’t look it:
“I know there is this narrative that I wasn’t concerned. But there were so many times where I was on the edge and just trying to hang on. I was surprised to read that in their reports, and it is all falsely reported about my mood.”
He added:
“It’s so hard to explain what was going on. It was so out of any experience anyone could ever have to have. I was trying to keep it together, trying to get the search started, and trying to deal with the police. There was no time to fall apart — I couldn’t have that happen.”
Police found a phone message Scott had left for Laci after she had already been killed, telling her he’d see her later. Detectives on the case felt he did it specifically to cover his tracks, to make it look like he didn’t know something had happened to her yet. Their thinking? It sounded fake, like the affection was played up to sell a picture of a “good marriage.” They thought it sounded “gooey.” Scott finally responded to that characterization, saying:
“We loved one another, we enjoyed one another. We were great friends.”
He said those cops must have “really sad marriages” if they thought this affection was fake.
It must be noted, of course, he’s still talking about what a great marriage they had… but we know he was, at that time, having sex with another woman for several weeks.
We’ve already heard a lot of what Scott said about the affair with Amber Frey. He admitted in the doc he was “a total a**hole for having sex outside of my marriage”:
“I certainly regret cheating on Laci, absolutely. It was about childhood lack of self esteem, selfish — me traveling somewhere, being lonely at night because I wasn’t at home. And you know, someone makes you feel good because they want to have sex with you.”
Obviously the prosecution’s theory of the case was that Scott wanted to leave his marriage and child without the mess of a divorce or child support. And the affair was evidence of that. Scott still takes offense at that narrative:
“That’s so offensive, so disgusting. I just don’t get that argument and it’s just absolutely not true.”
He doesn’t see how someone would see a man regularly cheating on his wife as wanting out of the marriage? Hmm.
Related: Everything Amber Frey Revealed In Laci Peterson Netflix Doc
So if he really didn’t see how the affair would naturally lead to the assumption he killed his wife, why did he hide it? Oh, because he was worried if people knew, they’d assume he killed his wife.
HUH??
Yeah, he explains he thought everyone would decide he murdered her and therefore stop the search for his wife, who he still believed at the time was out there alive somewhere:
“During the so-called investigation, I really did everything I could to bring my family home, and that included keeping my cheating with Frey from people. I didn’t tell people because I wanted the search to continue.”
Feels contradictory to us, but OK. He also swears the cheating was just sex — we guess for him that makes it better as it looks less like he was going to kill his wife to go be with this new woman? He implies Amber has been lying about their affair, blowing it out of proportion:
“I guess I understand why she tried to turn it into a relationship after the fact, and made claims that it was something more. But it simply wasn’t. That’s a massive misconception, I think. I was absolutely wrong, but I embrace the truth on that — it’s a horrible truth.”
He then added:
“I’m sorry I’ve rambled on, but these are thoughts that haunt me, and it’s devastating. I feel such shame and guilt that me having had sex with Amber Frey caused all that — that they didn’t look for her alive.”
Scott says he and Amber weren’t in “a relationship.” But he continued talking to her after his wife’s disappearance. If it was just sex, why would he do that? His answer? Oh, he was trying to keep her quiet… you know, for Laci:
“I was searching for my family. I wanted the search to continue. By staying in contact with Amber, I thought, she wouldn’t get into the picture and complicate or ruin the search.”
Everyone saw Scott give interviews on TV — and his behavior was viewed at the time as… a little off, to say the least. Once again, people felt like he was lying. A lot. Like when he claimed Laci knew about the affair and was pretty chill about it. He told Diane Sawyer:
“No one knows our relationship but us.”
He now says the reason he didn’t come across as sincere was because he was so frazzled. Everyone thought he was a murderer. He got death threats. He got spat on in the street. Oh, and of course, he was upset about his missing pregnant wife.
“I wish I could say I was stronger but all that stuff did take a toll on me. I just remember how insane I was going with no sleep and worrying about Conner and Laci and what seemed like just an apathetic response from the police department.”
A couple days after Laci’s body was found, Scott was caught having driven over 400 miles south to San Diego. Police were keeping track of his movements, so they chose that moment to arrest him — to make sure he wasn’t escaping to Mexico. They found he had dyed his hair blonde and was carrying $15k in cash, camping gear, four cell phones, and two driver’s licenses, one of which belonged to his brother. It sure as heck looked like he was running to Mexico! How does he explain that?
Scott maintains he was just going golfing. He explained his family didn’t sit around when they were upset, they liked to get up and do things. Like camping and posing as one another at the border, we guess?
Moreover, Scott says the trip was NOT inspired by the fact his wife’s remains had been found. He claims he didn’t even think the corpse of the pregnant woman and unborn child were even his family. He said “it wasn’t like it was the only possibility.” Wow.
So if Scott didn’t murder his wife, what does he think happened? He’s a firm believer, as it turns out, in the only alternate theory of the crime we’ve ever seen presented. The burglary theory. He told the documentarians:
“You know, there was a burglary across the street from our home. There were a lot of people in that burglary. And I believe that Laci went over there to see what was going on. And that’s when she was taken.”
He believes a pregnant woman went full John McClane and decided to go check out a break-in at another nearby home? And that the burglars — instead of incapacitating her or just fleeing — abducted and brutally murdered a very pregnant woman, then weighed her body down in the Bay? That was tough to swallow the first time we heard it, and it’s tough now. But some buy it. Scott’s defenders at the Los Angeles Innocence Project brought up a burned out van discovered in the area, which contained a blood-stained mattress. They said they want to test it for Laci’s blood. We guess they figure it belonged to the burglars-turned-kidnappers/murderers.
Scott is clearly still pushing the idea the cops never found any evidence of this because they weren’t looking. He said:
“At the volunteer center, people were coming in and some wanted to go search while some came in with tips. I passed it on to the police because I wanted them to follow up and I thought they were following up on it. I found out later that they weren’t following up on anything.”
He also brought up witnesses the police didn’t look at (which they’ve said they discredited):
“I wasn’t the last one to see Laci that day. There are so many credible witnesses who saw her walking in our neighborhood. I recently learned that in one of the reports, a person came down to talk to the police and they were told, ‘No, you are wrong. You didn’t see her.’ They just dismissed him without looking into it. That’s devastating to learn that kind of stuff.”
What do YOU think of Scott’s version of events??
[Image via Peacock/YouTube.]