Killer Dads (28 page)

Harris: Did he tell you why he had lied about being married?

Frey: That it was painful for him.

Harris: Did you ask him or did he explain why it was painful for him to say he had been married?

Frey: [He said] he had lost his wife. I asked him, as far as the time frame is, had it been long. And he stated that this was the first holidays that he would be spending without her. I thanked him for sharing that with me, it being so painful for him, and understanding that it was hard for him to do so.

Harris: What did he say?

Frey: He said that I was amazing, and that he was intrigued by me and by my response. After he stated it was the first holidays without her, I asked if he was ready for a relationship with me.

Harris: What did he say?

Frey: He said absolutely.

Figure 13.6. A boat mobile and tiny life preserver decorate a nursery awaiting Baby Conner in the Petersons' Modesto home. Shortly after Laci's disappearance, Scott would begin to use the room for storage.
Presented in evidence at Scott Peterson's murder trial.

Laci Peterson disappeared the day of Christmas Eve 2002 on what was supposed to be the couple's last holiday time together before they became parents. They were going to dinner that night at Sharon Rocha's house, and Laci planned to have her mom and family at her home the following day. She had already set up candles, glasses, and Christmas crackers on their pine
dining-room table in preparation for the guests. She intended to cook that day, and hopefully have time to pick up some quick extra gifts for family members. She might walk the Petersons' golden retriever, McKenzie, in the nearby park or the neighborhood, but she was doing that less and less because of her discomfort and occasional dizziness from her advancing pregnancy. Scott had offered to pick up a large fruit basket for Laci's grandfather. When Scott was getting a haircut at a local salon from Laci's half sister, Amy, the previous day, she had mentioned the basket that she had ordered. He said he could swing by the fruit stand preparing the basket, which was close to the Del Rio Country Club, because he planned to play golf there before Christmas Eve dinner.

Exactly what happened that day remains a mystery. Scott told Amy and Grantski that he was going golfing that day, but instead drove almost 200 miles in his truck, telling police it was too cold to golf so he decided instead to drive from Modesto 90 miles to the Berkeley Marina to fish, using a new boat he kept at his company warehouse, that neither Laci nor his in-laws knew he owned, according to the prosecution. A surprised Amy received a late-afternoon call from the Vella fruit stand informing her that no one had come to collect the fruit.

Later that day, Sharon Rocha was about to get dressed for her Christmas Eve dinner, and she told Grantski to call Laci to tell her to bring whipping cream for apple pie that Sharon had made. No one picked up Laci's cell, so Grantski left a message. Shortly after, Sharon got a call from Scott.

 

Rocha: I remember looking at the clock on my stove in the kitchen and it was 5:15, and I remember thinking that I needed to get myself together because everybody was supposed to be there at 6 o'clock. So it was another minute or so when I walked down the hall to my bedroom. And then when I get into the bedroom the phone rang. He said, “Hi, Mom.” He said, “Is Laci there with you?” I said, “No.” And he said that her car is there in the driveway, and the dog was in the backyard with the leash on and Laci was missing. I remember telling him to call her friends to see if anybody had seen or talked to her that day. I just thought that maybe she was with one of her friends, but I remember hanging up the phone and walking back toward the door of the bedroom to walk down the hall. I was going to
tell Ron, and that's when I realized he said that she was “missing.” And I just, I just knew. I knew she was missing. He wouldn't have used the word “missing.” I remember changing my clothes that time. I was already dressing warmer because I felt I knew something was wrong, and I knew that I needed to go to the park because he said the dog has his leash on so my first thought is she would have been walking the dog.

 

Rocha told Grantski to call 911, and she communicated again with Scott, arranging to meet him in the park. Her friend, Sandy Rikart, came with her.

 

Rocha: Sandy and I drove down into the park. I got out of the car and I was running all around through that area and I was screaming her name, and I just kept yelling her name. The lights were on in the park in that area, the outer areas weren't lit, but I was running all through that area that I could. I was looking in, I remember looking in trash cans, and then Laci's neighbors came to the park. The police arrived, and I remember seeing Scott at one point. He was walking alone, closer to the river, looking toward the river to the left and he had McKenzie on a leash in his right hand. I kept calling out his name, and he never did turn to acknowledge that I was calling out to him. I was yelling his name. I was yelling out to let him know here we are. “We're over here.”

Distaso: And how would you say your demeanor was at that time?

Rocha: I was very upset. I was anxious. I was looking for Laci. Scott never did acknowledge that I was yelling his name.

Distaso: Did you ask him anything else down in the park?

Rocha: I'm thinking that's when I asked him, “Where do you think she is?”

Distaso: And did he say?

Rocha: No.

 

When they returned to the house, Rocha testified, she walked over to give Scott “a hug because I felt that, you know, we were all upset, and I knew his family wasn't here and we'd always been close so I wanted to console him—and myself, for that matter. And as I walked up to him I was never able to do that because he kept kind of angling, like, away from me so that
we never had eye contact. I wanted to ask him some questions,” she added. “And finally I did. I asked him what Laci was doing, or what her plans were for the day. And he told me that she had planned on going to the store, and then coming home to make gingerbread and walking the dog. I asked where he had been. He told me that he had been fishing.”

Figure 13.7. Laci and mom, Sharon Rocha, show off mother-daughter grins. Many considered the two women best friends.
Presented in evidence at Scott Peterson's murder trial.

As the days wound on, Rocha testified, she would try to schedule times to get together with Scott to discuss the situation, and he “would always cancel, and I felt that he was trying to avoid being alone with me. And, of course, that made me a little suspicious.” Soon after, she learned of Scott's affair with Amber Frey. She finally got Scott on the phone, and returned to the day her daughter vanished. A tape of the recorded conversation bares Sharon's frustration in trying to pin Scott down on details:

 

Rocha: How come you didn't notice when you walked in the door that she hadn't been baking or the lights were off or anything?

Peterson: 'Cause I was late and I was rushing
.

Rocha: I mean, surely, McKenzie came up to you when you walked in the back gate with his leash on.

Peterson: Yeah . . . I took it off of him and I didn't—it didn't even register.

Rocha: It didn't register that Laci wasn't in the house when you walked in—it was a dark house, didn't smell like she'd been cooking, everything was cleaned up and neat and tidy—and nothing even registered to you?

Peterson: No I, ah, grabbed a piece of pizza out of the fridge and jumped into the shower immediately and when I got out then I looked at the messages. I assumed she was over, you know, at your place.

Rocha: I mean we've never even had this conversation all this time.

Peterson: True. I know. And it wasn't until you asked about the McKenzie thing—he had his leash on.

Rocha: I didn't mention it—you told me he had his leash.

Peterson: Right, well you asked about McKenzie if he was in the yard.

Rocha: No you told me he was.

Peterson: Okay, I mean, either way.

 

The day Laci disappeared, Ron Grantski innocently pointed out Scott's alibi contradictions as he stood with police officers outside Laci and Scott's home, trying not to interfere, but staying close by so he could help if needed. When he spotted Scott on the Petersons' lawn, Grantski greeted him with small talk, trying to diffuse some of the tension of the situation. “We were standing out in the front under a tree, and I was talking with a couple officers and Scott came walking up. And I said, ‘Hi, Scott. How was your golf today?'” Grantski testified. “He said, ‘No, I didn't play golf, I went fishing. And I, being the smart behind I am, I said, ‘Well, what time did you go fishing?' He said, ‘Oh, about 9:30.' I said: ‘9:30? That's when I come home from fishing, that's not when I go.' And he turned around and walked away. I was just kidding, but I felt bad that I had said that,” he added, worried that he may have made Scott appear suspicious in front of the police.

But investigators were already suspicious of Scott, largely because of his mercurial golf and fishing alibis. And they were quickly concerned about Laci when they found her purse—cell phone, credit cards, and wallet inside—still hanging from a hook in her closet where she usually left it. They also noted
that Scott had already washed the clothes that he had worn that day. But Scott's first colossal blunder was not thinking through his fishing alibi carefully. He looked stunned, like a deer caught in headlights, when a police officer on the scene pressed him for a minor detail:
What
was he fishing
for
? He appeared to be completely stumped when Officer Matthew Spurlock posed the question—and marched out the house furious with himself and muttering under his breath.

 

Spurlock: I asked Mr. Peterson if, if he could tell me roughly what time he went fishing. He really didn't give me a responsive time. Just kind of shuffled off the question, didn't really answer.

Distaso: What happened next?

Spurlock: I asked Mr. Peterson what kind of fishing he was doing, what kind of fish he was fishing for today. And at that point there was a pause. He hesitated in answering me. He had this blank look on his face for a second or so, his eyes shifted a little bit and he kind of mumbled some stuff, but again blew off my question, didn't really give me an answer. I then asked Mr. Peterson if he could maybe describe what he was using as far as bait or lure, and again I got the same type of response: kind of the blank stare, shifting-of-the-eye kind of thing. And then something clicked, and he said, “I was using a silver lure,” and he gave me a hand gesture of about seven to eight inches in length.

Distaso: And did you, did you ask him anything else?

Spurlock: I did. He was wearing some clothing that was pretty light, and I knew it was cold outside. And I asked him if these were the clothes, which he was wearing when he went fishing, and he stated no, that he had changed. Assuming he changed, I thought, well, maybe he just put his clothes in the clothes hamper. So I asked him, “Did you place your clothes in the clothes hamper?” And he stated, “No, I washed them.”

Spurlock: I loosely followed him at a distance, went to the front door. As he was stepping out of the front door and onto that sidewalk area, I heard what sounded like a cuss word, and, if you want, I can say it in court.

Distaso: Go ahead
.

Spurlock: Sounded like the word “fuck,” and it came through what sounded like gritted teeth.

 

Police Officer Derrick Letsinger witnessed the same behavior. As Peterson was “leaving through the front door, I could see out, and Mr. Peterson threw his flashlight down on the ground,” Letsinger testified. “And then I heard something under his breath, like a curse word.”