Scott Peterson is currently doing time at the San Quentin prison after being convicted of killing his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn child. He was convicted in a court of law in one of the country’s most publicized murder investigations in U.S. history with only a handful of actual evidence that ultimately led to his imprisonment.
Laci, who was 8 months pregnant at the time, vanished on Christmas Eve of 2002. From the beginning of the investigation into her disappearance, Scott was pegged as a suspect.
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During Scott’s trial, the prosecution was criticized for having limited forensic evidence to support the charge that he killed his wife. However, the jury was convinced that he was guilty after learning several key details.
Keep scrolling to learn the evidence from the Scott Peterson murder trial.
The Tracker Dogs
The prosecution heavily relied upon the scent-sniffing dogs that were trained to pick up Laci’s scent.
One of the dogs’ handlers testified that the K-9 tracker caught her scent in the Berkley Marina, which is the same location that Scott claimed to be fishing on the day of his wife’s disappearance.
The handler says that the dog reacted to the scent at the marina only four days after Laci vanished. In April of 2003, the bodies of Laci and her unborn son were discovered north of the marina.
Despite the indication that Laci was on the boat before her death, Scott’s legal team called the dog’s evidence unreliable and compared it to “voodoo” and “nonsense,” according to InTouch Weekly.
Even though the dog evidence played heavily in the murder trial, there is sufficient proof that suggests that the dogs weren’t actually very reliable. Learn why the dog scent evidence could reasonably be discredited here.
Laci’s Hair on the Boat
One of the points of contention from the trial was that the prosecution failed to produce a significant amount of forensic evidence.
There was not much physical evidence left behind, but the investigators did manage to find a single hair, believed to be Laci’s, on a pair of pliers kept on Scott’s boat.
The theory laid forth by the state was that Scott killed Laci and transported her body on the boat. They argued that Laci, while alive, had never seen Scott’s boat.
Therefore, the only reason that one of her hairs would have been on the vessel is that her body was there after she was murdered.
The Planter Pots at the Marina
FBI agent Robert Chachon worked on the case and explained that there were planter pots found by divers in the marina. The planter pots matched the broken pots discovered in a storage unit registered in Scott’s name.
The theory presented by the state claimed Scott attempted to use the planter pots in order to weigh down Laci’s body in the marina.
When her remains were discovered, Laci’s head and parts of her limbs were missing. There was plastic tape wrapped around the neck of her child, the full autopsy revealed, according to ABC News.
The autopsy revealed that the cause of Laci’s death was undetermined. There was no evidence of man-made wounds even though her head and part of her limbs were missing.
Scott’s Affair with Amber Frey
Arguably the biggest revelation during the investigation was that Scott was having an affair with a woman named Amber Frey.
Frey was a 27-year-old massage therapist and a single mother at the time the case broke out and she went on to be a primary witness for the prosecution during Scott’s trial. The jurors learned after listening to Frey’s wiretapped phone conversations that Scott lied about being married to Laci.
Not long after Laci disappeared, Frey learned that Scott was a suspect in the investigation. She immediately called the police and agreed to record her phone calls with Scott.
On January 24, 2003, Frey revealed to the public that she was romantically involved with Scott.
“Scott told me he was not married,” Frey said. “We did have a romantic relationship. I’m very sorry for Laci’s family and the pain this has caused them.”
The news of the affair made the investigation take a drastic turn that had many believing that Scott was guilty.
The transcripts of the phone calls have been released. Read Frey’s phone conversations with Scott during the investigation here.
Scott Still Says He’s Innocent
Despite the court ruling and public perception, Scott maintains that he is innocent.
He spoke out from his prison cell earlier this year during a recorded phone call. Scott opened up about the shock and disbelief he experienced after hearing the guilty verdict.
“When they told me, I had just a terrible physical reaction,” Scott said. “I mean it was a really emotional, physical reaction. I couldn’t feel my feet on the floor. I couldn’t feel the chair I was sitting in.”
“My vision was even a little blurry. And I just had this weird sensation that I was falling forward — and forward and down and there was going to be no end to this falling forward and down, like there was no floor to land on. I, I was staggered by it. I had no idea it was coming,” he continued.
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