00:00Christmas Eve I got a call from Scott. Lacey's missing. Have you talked to her today?
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're delving into the chilling events of the disappearance
00:10and murder of Lacey Peterson. You take the bits and pieces and you
00:14put them all together, then it draws a picture.
00:19A fateful Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve of 2002, Sharon Rocha's life changed forever when
00:26she received a phone call from her son-in-law Scott Peterson asking where her daughter Lacey was.
00:30He said, well then she's missing. Missing? What do you mean missing?
00:36I mean, people don't use that term lightly. The pair had allegedly started the day tuning
00:42in to Martha Stewart together before going their separate ways. Scott embarked on a fishing trip,
00:46and Lacey prepared to run errands and walk their dog. It soon became apparent that she was missing,
00:51and the police were quickly called, with the situation being made more urgent by the fact
00:56that Lacey was eight months pregnant. Not only does pregnancy increase the risk of victimization,
01:03it is the number one cause of death for pregnant women.
01:07The life of Lacey Peterson. Lacey Peterson was born Lacey Rocha in 1975 in the town of Escalon
01:14in California's Central Valley, and eventually relocated to Modesto. She was described by
01:19friends and family as a very active kid and a fun-loving, joyful, and caring person.
01:23I would get notes home from the teachers. Occasionally she talked a little too much.
01:28That's where the jabber jaws came from. It's just a little nickname we had for her.
01:32As a child, she enjoyed gardening with her mother and working on her family's dairy farm,
01:36and later became involved with cheerleading in high school. She met Scott while studying
01:40horticulture at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The pair were
01:45married in 1997, when 22-year-old Lacey became a college graduate, and five years later,
01:51she was pregnant with their first child, who was to be named Connor.
01:54I was happy for her, but for some reason I just had in the back of my mind that
02:01something didn't feel quite right, because he didn't want to have kids at all. And then all
02:06of a sudden he did, and that concerned me. The initial search. Friends, family,
02:12and community members mobilized for a massive search effort in the hopes of finding Lacey,
02:16and the case quickly gathered significant media attention. Tips poured into helplines,
02:22candlelit vigils were held, and a $500,000 reward was eventually offered.
02:26Because of the media attention that exploded, there were over 11,000 tips that came into
02:33Modesto Police Department on this case from all over the country.
02:36Police interviewed witnesses who claimed to see a pregnant woman walking her dog,
02:40but there are various accounts on whether any were able to positively identify her as Lacey.
02:46A tip on a suspicious van in the neighborhood also fizzled out.
02:49One neighbor that saw it originally, she said it was white, then it became tan,
02:53then it became brown, as her statement continued. Totally ruins her credibility.
02:58The burglars. Days after Lacey's disappearance, the Medinas, who lived across the street from
03:04the Petersons and had been out of town for a bit, returned home to discover that they had
03:08been robbed. An investigation began immediately, with police strongly suspecting the burglary was
03:13related to Lacey's disappearance. And there was nothing very concrete about it.
03:19The Medinas were burglarized. Clearly. When is a big one. Originally it's the 24th. That's because
03:25a neighbor believes they saw a suspicious van outside the Medina house on the 24th.
03:31It didn't take long for two suspects to be identified. Donald Pierce and Stephen Todd,
03:36an undynamic duo of petty criminals known to operate in the area. The pair cooperated with
03:42police, and it was confirmed that they broke into the house on the morning of December 26th,
03:46but the two maintained that they had nothing to do with what happened to Lacey.
03:50They knew they were going to jail for the burglary. And there's a code amongst inmates
03:55that you don't hurt children and you don't hurt vulnerable women. So not only did they take a
04:01polygraph, they were almost begging for a polygraph just so they could have the results to show the
04:05other inmates that they had no part of this. While this timeline has since been disputed,
04:09police at the time did not find any evidence to the contrary, and the search for Lacey continued.
04:15Their alibi for the 24th, the day Lacey disappeared, they checked out. They were
04:20with family. They were checked out and clear. Scott Peterson's behavior. Throughout the initial
04:27investigations, police had aimed to clear Scott, statistically the number one suspect of any
04:32wrongdoing, but he didn't exactly make it easy for them. He had demonstrated a calm demeanor and
04:37lack of urgency on Christmas Eve, only calling his mother-in-law after feasting on pizza and milk,
04:42taking a shower and doing some laundry. He did go to the neighbors, and the first neighbor he
04:47told that he was golfing. When he came home, Lacey was gone. And when Lacey's parents,
04:55Sharon and Ron, get there, he mentions that he was fishing, and they were shocked.
05:00Many in his and Lacey's family hadn't even been aware that he had just purchased a fishing boat.
05:05He did cooperate with police, but was also cagey at times, and at one point, backtracked his
05:11willingness to take a polygraph. He was also uncharacteristically silent and avoiding the media,
05:17relying on friends and family to keep Lacey in the news.
05:20Hey girls, go do this. Renee, talk. I don't want to do this. You guys do it.
05:25We need to keep this about Lacey. Lacey's picture should be put out there. Her face should be
05:30on the news because that's who we're trying to find. Don't put pictures of us up.
05:34It's widely acknowledged that there is no perfect or correct way for someone whose loved one has
05:39been harmed to behave. In fact, none of Scott's actions individually proved he did anything amiss.
05:45But together, they formed a pattern of suspicious behavior that planted seeds of doubt in people's
05:50minds. But I just remember thinking at that moment, that was strange. And I thought, well,
05:54you know, he's worried, and that's why he's acting the way he was acting,
06:00instead of like a husband that's missing his wife.
06:03Amber Frye. The police naturally received thousands of tips in the days after Lacey
06:08disappeared, and many proved to be fruitless. But one stood out and would dramatically change
06:13the course of the investigation. We're wondering, can this really be
06:18happening? I mean, this is crazy. But she had specifics. This is real.
06:24A young woman from Fresno told police that Scott Peterson had been her boyfriend for several weeks.
06:29Amber Frye began to reveal the extent of Scott's deceptions. He had initially told her he was
06:34unmarried before, quote, coming clean and claiming he had, quote, lost his wife.
06:39I remember just comforting him, understanding this must be very hard.
06:44I didn't know, maybe she died in a car accident. Like, there was all these thoughts I wanted to
06:48ask, but at the same time, with his emotions, I thought, I don't want to pry.
06:52Frye would go on to record hours of phone conversations between her and Scott before
06:56coming forward publicly to admit their relationship. This was the final nail in
07:00the coffin of public opinion on Scott Peterson, with even Lacey's family no longer supporting him
07:05or his innocence. At that point, it solidified everything in our mind that
07:10Scott was responsible for what happened to Lacey.
07:13Investigations and arrest. Once his relationship with Amber became public knowledge, Scott must
07:19have realized he needed to do some damage control and finally began speaking with the media. His
07:24efforts backfired, however, after he gave a complete train wreck of an interview to Diane
07:28Sawyer that made him look even worse. The choice I made, and I obviously regret now,
07:34obviously regret now, you know, if I could just decide to stay home.
07:40Meanwhile, police were ramping up their investigations and had Scott under extensive
07:45digital and physical surveillance. They also searched his home, warehouse, and boat for
07:50forensic or trace evidence. Several anchors made out of concrete were found, which were
07:54theorized by prosecutors to have been used to weigh down Lacey's remains in the San Francisco
07:59Bay, but nothing was ever conclusively proved. In April of 2003, however, everyone's worst
08:05nightmare came to pass. I saw it on the news and I immediately called the detective and I said,
08:10is it her? And he says, I can't say. He said, but, and I said, okay.
08:17Two bodies that had washed up on the shores of the San Francisco Bay were confirmed to belong
08:22to Lacey and Connor. Police formally arrested Scott for their murder a few days later in San Diego.
08:28He had orange hair, he had an orange goatee. I walk up and he's out, tell me it wasn't my wife
08:34and baby, you know. I'm like, that's ridiculous. I mean, you know, come on Scott, you know better
08:39than that. Trial and appeals. Scott's trial began in June of 2004. With little forensic evidence
08:46available, the prosecution's case hinged on circumstantial evidence and witness testimony.
08:51One crucial witness was Amber Frye, who testified despite significant media scrutiny and vitriol.
08:57She held her head high when she did testify. I think she earned the respect of the jury.
09:02They saw the real Amber Frye, not the mistaken stereotypes.
09:08The defense presented an alternate theory that Lacey had been the victim of a kidnapping and
09:13emphasized the lack of forensic evidence. After five grueling months, Scott was found guilty and
09:18given the death penalty. In 2020, however, after Scott continuously maintained his innocence and
09:24filed various appeals, his death sentence was overturned and he was eventually re-sentenced
09:28to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Scott Peterson is still guilty. He will
09:35spend the rest of his life in prison. However, the question is now whether the prosecutor is
09:43going to go back and retry him on the death penalty phase of the case. The LA Innocence
09:49Project eventually joined his appeals team, and his sister-in-law Janie Peterson obtained a law
09:54degree so she could support the appeal efforts. Numerous issues have been heavily debated and
09:59disputed, including the makeup of the jury, disagreements on the investigation and forensic
10:03evidence, and the kidnapping victim theory. What's relevant is, show me what would lead me
10:10to conclude he was guilty. Lacey's legacy. Murder consistently ranks as one of the leading causes
10:17of death among pregnant women. The most likely person who will harm someone like her is her
10:24intimate partner. And the statistics that we keep on homicide bear this out. While Lacey's death was
10:34horrific and tragic, the widespread notoriety of her case has led many to escape potentially
10:39similarly harmful situations, and that should be honored. Her legacy lives on in all the women she
10:44has saved. You just realize when you're questioned about your best friend, like, how little you knew.
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