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Speaker 2: Hi, everyone, welcome back to Facing Evil from Tenderfoot TV
Speaker 2: and iHeartRadio. We are your host. I'm a vet GENTI lay.
Speaker 3: And I'm Roschia Piccarero.
Speaker 4: And with us always is the amazing, the handsome, the
Speaker 4: talented Trevor Young.
Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: It sounds like you were his agent.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 4: I'm telling you, I am the best cheerleader ever. Trevor
Speaker 4: is the best, and I want everyone to know it
Speaker 4: that he is.
Speaker 1: I second that I appreciate it, all.
Speaker 3: Right, So I have to point out the elephant in
Speaker 3: the room.
Speaker 4: I sound a little bit like a phone sex operator
Speaker 4: right now because yeah, because I have a very sexy
Speaker 4: voice and raspy voice right now, because I have a
Speaker 4: sinus infection not COVID, and I did all kinds of
Speaker 4: things to be ready for you all today for Facing Evil.
Speaker 4: So that I didn't sound like a phone sex operator.
Speaker 4: But I still feel like I sound like a phone
Speaker 4: sex operator.
Speaker 2: So do I always sound like a phone sex operator?
Speaker 2: Because I mean sometimes I have a raspy voice pretty
Speaker 2: much all the time. So what are you saying, Rush?
Speaker 4: There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 4: I just wanted to tell everyone I sound a little
Speaker 4: different today. Trevor, why don't you go ahead and take
Speaker 4: us through today's case.
Speaker 2: As six members of Lacey's family took turns yelling at Scott,
Speaker 2: he showed no emotion aside from once shaking his head.
Speaker 3: No, did you you murder your wife?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 4: No, I just thought.
Speaker 1: Our families going to make it were stronger because of this,
Speaker 1: and Scott got what he deserved. We've said all along
Speaker 1: that Scott Peterson did not get a fair trial.
Speaker 6: Nearly two decades after being convicted of murdering his wife
Speaker 6: an unborn child, Scott Peterson participated in a hearing Wednesday.
Speaker 6: Currently serving life in prison, Peterson said.
Speaker 1: Little Lazy Peterson was a twenty seven year old woman
Speaker 1: from Modesto, California, who went missing on Christmas Eve of
Speaker 1: two thousand and two. Many suspected that her husband, Scott Peterson,
Speaker 1: was responsible for her disappearance. The story became a national
Speaker 1: news sensation as Scott tried desperately to make a case
Speaker 1: for his innocence. But then a few months later, Lazy's
Speaker 1: body was found in the San Francisco Bay and Scott
Speaker 1: Peterson was arrested. The trial was highly publicized as the
Speaker 1: entire country held its breath to see what or not
Speaker 1: Scott would be found guilty. The case was especially contentious
Speaker 1: for a few reasons. One, Lacey had been pregnant when
Speaker 1: she was killed. Two, Scott was in a secret relationship
Speaker 1: with another woman at the time of Lacey's disappearance. And
Speaker 1: three there had been no hard evidence against Scott, only
Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence. But despite all of that, Scott was convicted
Speaker 1: of first degree murder and then sentenced to death in
Speaker 1: two thousand and five. And So, could Scott have really
Speaker 1: killed Lacy Peterson? What were Scott Peterson's true intentions? And
Speaker 1: why did so many people, despite having no hard evidence,
Speaker 1: believe that Scott was guilty?
Speaker 2: You know what this is? I mean, this is such
Speaker 2: an important case and I can't even tell you how
Speaker 2: eager I am that we're finally talking about it. I
Speaker 2: remember how crazy, I mean, how all the news coverage
Speaker 2: was on this story. I mean, this case really took
Speaker 2: us all on a unbelievable wild ride.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It captured the nation for
Speaker 3: years and years.
Speaker 4: I mean, this happened almost twenty well yeah, it's twenty
Speaker 4: years ago now, yeah, right. But for me, it was
Speaker 4: about a few things. So one, obviously, we all wanted
Speaker 4: to see and make sure that Lacy got some sort
Speaker 4: of justice. It was horrific what happened to her, and
Speaker 4: of course to her unborn son, Connor.
Speaker 3: But at the time I wasn't quite sure how I
Speaker 3: felt about Scott.
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously we're going to get into it and
Speaker 4: talk about all the different factors and media and all that.
Speaker 4: But yes, we know Scott was a douche. But did
Speaker 4: he kill his wife an unborn child.
Speaker 2: That is the question, right. But in all honesty, I
Speaker 2: was kind of iffy for a while as well, you know,
Speaker 2: But I think that both of our minds were changed,
Speaker 2: right when like the media just like took over, right,
Speaker 2: and they kept showing all these things. So I think
Speaker 2: that we were all certain back then that he was guilty.
Speaker 4: Twenty years ago, yeah, for sure. Yeah, but we're a
Speaker 4: little different now.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but now, like you said, like it's been a
Speaker 2: long time, so I really feel like we can look
Speaker 2: at it with fresh minds, a different perspective, right, and
Speaker 2: see if it's actually true or not.
Speaker 4: I don't know, I don't know, you guys, all right, Well,
Speaker 4: well let's get into it. So, as usual, we want
Speaker 4: to talk about the people involved. And first up is
Speaker 4: Lacy Peterson. So, Trevor, what do we know about her?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So about Lacey. She was born Lacy Denise Roche
Speaker 1: on May fourth, nineteen seventy five in Modesto, California, and
Speaker 1: her family always said that she was incredibly bright and
Speaker 1: that she especially loved to work in the garden with plants,
Speaker 1: and that would actually become a lifelong obsession for her.
Speaker 1: And then after graduating from Downey High School in ninety three,
Speaker 1: Lacey went to college at cal Polytech, which is in
Speaker 1: San Luis Obispo, California, and that is where she met
Speaker 1: Scott Peterson in nineteen ninety four. He was working at
Speaker 1: a restaurant there in San Luis Obispo that Lacey and
Speaker 1: her friends went to all the time together and I
Speaker 1: guess he was probably a waiter there or something, and
Speaker 1: he was serving Lacey and they were drawn to each
Speaker 1: other immediately, one of the master the other's number, and
Speaker 1: they seemingly fell in love that quick.
Speaker 2: I thought it was so sweet that Lacey would call
Speaker 2: her mom and she would like gush about like how
Speaker 2: fantastic you know this guy Scott was and how in
Speaker 2: love they were. But to me, it, you know, it
Speaker 2: really seemed like this was the perfect beginning of what
Speaker 2: you would think would be a perfect love story.
Speaker 4: First of all, there's no such thing as perfect this
Speaker 4: we know, but needless to say, after dating for only
Speaker 4: a short while, Scott and Lacy moved in together, and
Speaker 4: in nineteen ninety seven, after being together for only two years,
Speaker 4: they got married and moved back to Lacey's hometown of Modesto.
Speaker 1: For the record, I think getting married any earlier than like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, four or five years is always risky.
Speaker 3: Well then you don't know.
Speaker 1: That's just my opinion.
Speaker 4: But Trevor, you're friends with many lesbians, myself included, and
Speaker 4: we get married real, real fast.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've heard that you hauling.
Speaker 2: That's funny.
Speaker 5: That is funny.
Speaker 3: You're true, that's true.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, but Gino and I. I don't mean
Speaker 2: to interrupt your Russia, but Gino and I dated for
Speaker 2: a year and a half and we were married, and
Speaker 2: we've been married for over sixteen years, So I think
Speaker 2: it just depends.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you'vet in Gino and myself and Vana are the
Speaker 4: exception to the role.
Speaker 3: I think everyone else right.
Speaker 1: And so by all accounts, the two started a pretty
Speaker 1: normal family life. They bought a house there in Modesto.
Speaker 1: Lacey got a job as a substitute teacher at a
Speaker 1: nearby school, and Scott got a job as a fertilizer salesman.
Speaker 1: So then Lacey went and reconnected with a bunch of
Speaker 1: her high school classmates. She was hosting dinner parties at
Speaker 1: the new house, and it seemed like they were having
Speaker 1: a really nice, simple, perfect little life going on. And
Speaker 1: then in June of two thousand and two, Lacey announced
Speaker 1: that she was in fact pregnant.
Speaker 4: All right, before we go any further, I do want
Speaker 4: to divulge some necessary behind the scenes information. So much
Speaker 4: of what I'm about to say was not common knowledge
Speaker 4: at the time and didn't actually come to light until
Speaker 4: after the crime. So this supposedly picture perfect family. We
Speaker 4: all know picture perfect doesn't really exist, but you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, it was not what it appeared to be.
Speaker 4: So right after Scott and Lacy got married in nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety seven, Scott actually started cheating on Lacey with another
Speaker 4: unidentified woman back in San Luis Obispo. And then it
Speaker 4: happened again with someone else when they moved back to Modesto.
Speaker 4: And that person that he started having the affair with
Speaker 4: will be a very important character in this story.
Speaker 3: A woman named Amberfry.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So apparently Scott met Amber Fry in November of
Speaker 1: two thousand and two while his wife was pretty well
Speaker 1: at this point into her third trimester of pregnancy, and
Speaker 1: Amber was just a twenty three year old single mother.
Speaker 1: She was a massage therapist, and Scott met her and
Speaker 1: then lied to her. He told her he was single,
Speaker 1: of course he did. Amber had no knowledge of his
Speaker 1: marriage to Lacey until just a month later, in December
Speaker 1: of two thousand and two, Scott decides to change his
Speaker 1: story to Amber, and then he tells her that he
Speaker 1: actually used to have a wife, but that he was
Speaker 1: recently widowed and that this would be his first Christmas
Speaker 1: without his dearest wife.
Speaker 2: That's just redonculous. First of all, right, I haven't heard
Speaker 2: that word, and I'm sorry, I know it just it
Speaker 2: matches this story. Like he he is a serial cheater, right,
Speaker 2: that's obvious, you know, and everything that was just said
Speaker 2: that you both said he is a serial cheater and
Speaker 2: a sociopath.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's like you have to think about it too, right,
Speaker 4: Like this is pre social media, since it's twenty years ago,
Speaker 4: so it's not like Amber could look up and see
Speaker 4: if Scott was married, you know, to somebody, like if
Speaker 4: she could look it up on social media or whatever.
Speaker 4: But then for him to actually say that he was
Speaker 4: widowed and that it was his first going to be
Speaker 4: his first holiday without his wife, you know, when she
Speaker 4: ends up going missing and eventually murdered.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, it's it's one.
Speaker 1: Of many fishy things he does that you know later
Speaker 1: point to his guilt in some way, And of course
Speaker 1: this is like one of the fishy things. Obviously this
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily an indicator of any specific guilt, but one
Speaker 1: of the things it does show us about Scott is
Speaker 1: that he is clearly a liar, like a pathological liar,
Speaker 1: and he will like do anything to like maintain his
Speaker 1: facade or to like keep the lie going right. Like
Speaker 1: the fact that he changed it was really weird, Like, yes,
Speaker 1: already had a lie. Maybe he got like found out
Speaker 1: or something, and he's like, oh, I can't you know,
Speaker 1: be truthful. I have to like make another lie.
Speaker 3: I can't go with that.
Speaker 1: So it always makes you wonder when you see him
Speaker 1: on TV later on, you know, as this case develops,
Speaker 1: is like, is this just another one of his lies
Speaker 1: that he's like too deep into and he doesn't want
Speaker 1: to back out of it at this point. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Just something to keep in mind as we keep going.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So there were a few more notable things
Speaker 2: that happen leading up to the eventual murder of Lacy Peterson. So, Trevor,
Speaker 2: what were those?
Speaker 1: Well, in December of two thousand and two, Scott suddenly
Speaker 1: developed an interest in saltwater fishing, so he spontaneously purchases
Speaker 1: a boat, a bunch of fishing gear, and goes and
Speaker 1: acquires a two day fishing license. So meanwhile, the week
Speaker 1: before Christmas, Lacey spent a three day weekend with her
Speaker 1: parents in Carmel, California, And that was actually the last
Speaker 1: time they would see Lacey. So now we're on December
Speaker 1: twenty third of two thousand and two, and Scott tells
Speaker 1: Lacey that he's going to be playing golf the next day,
Speaker 1: and then later that evening, Lacey spoke with her mother
Speaker 1: Sharon on the phone at about eight thirty pm. And
Speaker 1: then that was the last time that anybody would actually
Speaker 1: hear from or of Lacy Peterson. So we do need
Speaker 1: to take a quick break, but when we come back,
Speaker 1: we will talk about what happened to Lacey.
Speaker 4: So let's talk about the day that Lacey went missing,
Speaker 4: Christmas Eve of two thousand and two. So at nine
Speaker 4: thirty am, Scott says that he's leaving for a fishing
Speaker 4: trip instead of going golfing like he had told Lacey
Speaker 4: that he was going to do the previous day. Lacey
Speaker 4: tells him she's going to walk the dog, go to
Speaker 4: the grocery store, and bake some cookies. Then at ten am,
Speaker 4: witnesses claim to have seen Lacey walking in La Loma Park,
Speaker 4: which is just a block and a half away from
Speaker 4: their house.
Speaker 2: Then at ten thirty am, one of Lacey's neighbors finds
Speaker 2: their dog, Mackenzie, wandering outside of the Peterson home wearing
Speaker 2: a muddy leash. The neighbor says she returned the dog
Speaker 2: to their backyard, but another neighbor claims to have seen
Speaker 2: the dog walking around the neighborhood at ten forty five.
Speaker 2: There is also the mailman who came in the same
Speaker 2: time frame, and he says that he put the mail,
Speaker 2: you know, in the mailbox, and normally Mackenzie go crazy,
Speaker 2: but there was no sign of Mackenzie, no barking dog.
Speaker 1: It's kind of weird now there's all these differing accounts,
Speaker 1: you know, where the dog is. It's always kind of
Speaker 1: strange to me, like looking into this case because I'm
Speaker 1: not ever really sure who to believe in which witnesses
Speaker 1: are accurate, correct, I know, I know. But meanwhile, Scott
Speaker 1: arrives at the Berkeley Marina around eleven AM that day,
Speaker 1: and he obtains a launch ticket that verifies he was
Speaker 1: at the marina at that time, so he actually has
Speaker 1: an alibi saying that he was supposedly there. And then
Speaker 1: at two fifteen PM, Scott calls Lacey and leaves a
Speaker 1: message saying, hey, beautiful, it's two fifteen I'm leaving Berkeley.
Speaker 4: So again another time stamp right yep. But sometime later
Speaker 4: in that afternoon, Scott arrives back home to an empty house,
Speaker 4: so Lacey's nineteen ninety six land Rover still in the driveway,
Speaker 4: but she is absolutely nowhere to be found. Scott takes
Speaker 4: a shower and washes his clothes, alleging that he got
Speaker 4: wet while fishing yep.
Speaker 1: And then at five point fifteen pm, Scott calls Lacey's mother,
Speaker 1: asking her if she knows where Lazy is. He reportedly
Speaker 1: said Lacey's missing to her mother, and then at five
Speaker 1: forty seven pm, Lacey's stepfather is the one to call
Speaker 1: nine one one to report her missing.
Speaker 2: That always seems so odd to me too, Like, I
Speaker 2: why did the dad call nine one one? Why didn't
Speaker 2: her husband call nine one one? It does doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: But it's a good question, right.
Speaker 2: So sometime in the same evening, the police arrive at
Speaker 2: the Peterson home and they find Lacey's purse in the closet,
Speaker 2: which is strange. And there's also a phone book opened
Speaker 2: to an ad for a defense lawyer in the kitchen.
Speaker 2: And this is what's really odd is Scott appears to
Speaker 2: be oddly calm, throughout this search, like that stoic face
Speaker 2: that we all have, Like he's not even like showing
Speaker 2: any type of emotion or sadness or I don't know,
Speaker 2: it's just don't you guys think that's just really weird.
Speaker 3: I think that honestly.
Speaker 4: I think that's why from the get go, I think
Speaker 4: that's why everyone thought it might have been Scott, because
Speaker 4: he didn't react the way a husband who was missing
Speaker 4: his nine month pregnant wife should quote unquote I'm doing
Speaker 4: air quotes should you know? Like he was so stoic,
Speaker 4: and I think his family has kind of they've come
Speaker 4: out and they've like defended him and said, oh, that's
Speaker 4: just how he is.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, ah, I don't know, like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that you know again, you know, everybody reacts
Speaker 2: to different situations differently, but your wife is eight months
Speaker 2: pregnant and you're just not showing one ounce of like anything. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, like sad, mad, like nothing
Speaker 2: is he don't care.
Speaker 1: Two things to keep in mind though here, you know,
Speaker 1: the first, obviously is that you know, his demeanor isn't
Speaker 1: a direct indicator of any guilt, right, Like that doesn't
Speaker 1: actually prove anything true.
Speaker 2: This is true, this is true, this is true.
Speaker 1: And then the other thing to consider too is like,
Speaker 1: clearly he was not super invested in Lacy or their
Speaker 1: life together. We already know at this point that he's
Speaker 1: been cheating on her with multiple women over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. Again, not to say that that means
Speaker 1: he did anything. Maybe his demeanor is just like, oh, like,
Speaker 1: I haven't been in love with my wife for a
Speaker 1: long time. Maybe I didn't even really want this kid,
Speaker 1: you know. So maybe that's the reason he's like less,
Speaker 1: you know, upset by all this. I don't know, I'm
Speaker 1: just like throwing that out there. I think a couple I.
Speaker 2: Mean, I understand that, but it's you know, it's still
Speaker 2: I think all of us are just like, well, show
Speaker 2: some empathy of some guind But.
Speaker 4: I will say, like kind of piggybacking on what Trevor
Speaker 4: just said. So, like, Yvett and I watched tons and
Speaker 4: tons of different documentaries, you know, leading up to this,
Speaker 4: because you know, we've been working on facing Evil for
Speaker 4: quite some time, and this is one of the first
Speaker 4: cases we were considering doing. And I remember feeling differently
Speaker 4: about Scott after watching I can't I think this is
Speaker 4: the one on Hulu Vett please remind me. I can't remember.
Speaker 4: I believe so, yes, yes, but there were so many
Speaker 4: people that were like, yeah, Scott was guilty of something.
Speaker 4: He was guilty of cheating on his wife and that's
Speaker 4: what he was trying to hide. So you know where
Speaker 4: the public was like, dude, why aren't you you know more,
Speaker 4: you know, worried about your wife, like he was worried
Speaker 4: about his other stuff being found out, I think. But yeah,
Speaker 4: it's all very interesting and heartbreaking and mind boggling.
Speaker 2: That's the interesting thing about this case is like we've
Speaker 2: all flip flopped back and forth because you know, we
Speaker 2: expect him to react a certain way, but then on
Speaker 2: the other hand, like Chrebber just said, we can't say
Speaker 2: that he did it just because of the way that
Speaker 2: he's acting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, we'll probably get into that more when
Speaker 1: we get to his trial and verdict and all that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the two less things I wanted to point out before
Speaker 1: we move forward is just some of those things that
Speaker 1: you said they found when they were searching the house
Speaker 1: he vet. Yes, one of those was Lacey's purse. I
Speaker 1: guess the obvious conclusion we can draw there is that
Speaker 1: Lacy probably did not leave the house of her own
Speaker 1: free will.
Speaker 2: Right, you would take your purse right.
Speaker 1: And then the other thing was the phone book being
Speaker 1: open to a defense lawyer in the kitchen. What does
Speaker 1: that mean. There's a couple of ways to interpret it.
Speaker 1: I think the most obvious way to interpret it is
Speaker 1: that Scott felt like he needed a lawyer for something
Speaker 1: coming up soon. What that was, I don't know. It
Speaker 1: could have been a divorce, could have been he knows
Speaker 1: that Lacey's going to be gone soon and he needs
Speaker 1: to have his legal situation straightened out. They don't really know,
Speaker 1: but it's suspicious.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very suspicious. Suspicious all right.
Speaker 4: Well, on Christmas Day, since Lacey went missing the day before,
Speaker 4: on Christmas Eve, a large scale search begins in Modesto.
Speaker 4: So firefighters searched the area, along with helicopters, police on
Speaker 4: horseback and bikes, canine units, rafts. Basically, this amazing community
Speaker 4: of Modesto came together on Christmas to search for Lacey.
Speaker 4: And there were like something like nine hundred people away
Speaker 4: from their families looking for this pregnant, missing, beautiful human.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: And there's also a press conference that morning, and this
Speaker 4: is where all you know the media blitz starts, right So,
Speaker 4: Detective al Brotini says that it would be highly out
Speaker 4: of character for Lacey to disappear.
Speaker 3: Without notice, especially leaving without her purse.
Speaker 4: Hello, her family offers a twenty five thousand dollars ward
Speaker 4: for Lacy's safe return.
Speaker 1: So two days go by, and then on December twenty seventh,
Speaker 1: detectives finally search Scott's fertilizer warehouse and they bring with
Speaker 1: them a sniffing dogs, which leads investigators to a bathroom
Speaker 1: in the back of the storage space, and then it
Speaker 1: also takes them to Scott's aluminum boat which is stored there,
Speaker 1: and this is the same boat that he used on
Speaker 1: his fishing trip the day that Lacey went missing. The
Speaker 1: dog was not able to pinpoint any specific place on
Speaker 1: the boat and nothing was really found. But then on
Speaker 1: the twenty eighth investigators wide in the search and the
Speaker 1: reward vun grew to five hundred thousand dollars half a
Speaker 1: million dollars.
Speaker 2: That's a lot.
Speaker 1: So then there was a candlelight vigil on New Year's
Speaker 1: Eve at Eastla Looma Park with over one thousand people
Speaker 1: in attendance that entire community you were just talking about.
Speaker 1: And then over the next month, investigators kept expanding the search,
Speaker 1: but there was still no lazy.
Speaker 2: And jurying all of this. I mean, Scott desperately was
Speaker 2: fighting his case and he was saying that he absolutely
Speaker 2: had nothing to do with the disappearance of Lacey. But
Speaker 2: then Amber Frye comes forward. Can you guys remember Amber Frye.
Speaker 2: She's spoken at the press conference, and this is where
Speaker 2: she talked about her romantic relationship with Scott, and she
Speaker 2: talks about how Scott lied, I mean, it obviously lied
Speaker 2: to her that he wasn't married when they first met
Speaker 2: back in November.
Speaker 1: I also think it's important to note that fry at
Speaker 1: that press conference that we're describing, she revealed that she
Speaker 1: had been working with the police as early as December
Speaker 1: thirtieth of two thousand and two, which is just a
Speaker 1: couple of days after Lacey went missing. My understanding is
Speaker 1: that she saw the news coverage of Lacey and like
Speaker 1: Scott was a part of that, and she was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's that guy I have been dating, Like.
Speaker 3: That's my boyfriend.
Speaker 1: Rights, Yeah, It's like, what a horrible way to find out.
Speaker 4: I mean, can you imagine, I know, I know, I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, like now, you couldn't get away with that
Speaker 4: because it would be all over you.
Speaker 3: Know, social media.
Speaker 4: But it had to actually be on television or she
Speaker 4: might have had to like pick up the National.
Speaker 3: Inquirer, right.
Speaker 2: And I actually think that, like it was one of
Speaker 2: her friends that called and said, hey, isn't this the
Speaker 2: guy that you're dating? Isn't that your boyfriend?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 4: And then Scott, meanwhile, you know, goes on to have
Speaker 4: a very odd in my humble opinion interview with Diane
Speaker 4: Sawyer to defend himself, and we have a short clip
Speaker 4: of that here. I think everybody's sitting at home wants
Speaker 4: the answer to the same question, did you murder your wife?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 7: No, I just thought and I had absolutely nothing to
Speaker 7: do with her disappearance and use the word murder and yeah,
Speaker 7: I mean that is a possibility. It's not one we're
Speaker 7: ready to exp and. It creeps in my mind late
Speaker 7: at night.
Speaker 4: In the second part of that interview, Scott reveals which
Speaker 4: I think this to me is one of the I mean,
Speaker 4: there's many weird instances in this Diane Sawyer, Scott Peterson interview,
Speaker 4: but he pointed out to Diane Sawyer that he and
Speaker 4: Lacey had gotten a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 4: life insurance policy.
Speaker 3: Like, why is that important? Why did you talk about that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think Scott does a lot of very not
Speaker 1: smart pr moves for himself throughout this time. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe his lawyer was like, Hey, this
Speaker 1: information is going to come out anyways, you should get
Speaker 1: in front of it. Is the only reason I could
Speaker 1: think that he would ever say that, because it's just
Speaker 1: like such a stupid thing to reveal if nobody asked
Speaker 1: about it. I don't know that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Trevor, one hundred percent, that makes sense.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: So on February tenth, this is a very intriguing day.
Speaker 2: It's the day that Lacey's family says is her due date.
Speaker 2: Lacey's sister and some of Lacy's friends meet for a
Speaker 2: vigil at East Loloma Park.
Speaker 1: But that's not all that this day is. It is
Speaker 1: also Amber Fry's birthday, as it turns out, so there's
Speaker 1: this vigil going on for his missing wife and unborn child.
Speaker 1: It's also the birthday of his you know girlfriend that
Speaker 1: he was cheating on his wife with and Scott decides
Speaker 1: he would rather be with her, so instead of going
Speaker 1: to the vigil, he instead buys amber Fry all these
Speaker 1: gifts and leaves them for her. He calls her, he
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sort of attempt to go to this vigil,
Speaker 1: and again, you know, gives all his attention to amber Fry,
Speaker 1: which once again a very stupid thing to do right now,
Speaker 1: right if you're considered like public enemy number one, you know,
Speaker 1: the main suspect in this like, don't be doing sit
Speaker 1: like right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like hashtag douche. Well, eventually Lacey is.
Speaker 4: And I have to give a disclaimer and a warning
Speaker 4: now the details of the discovery of Lacey, and they're
Speaker 4: incredibly graphic, like I can't even say them. So skip
Speaker 4: ahead a few minutes if you are sensitive like me
Speaker 4: to hearing crime scene details. So Trevor, if you could
Speaker 4: take us through.
Speaker 3: It, please.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So let's talk about when they found Lacey. On
Speaker 1: April fifteenth, a couple walking their dog in Richmond's Point
Speaker 1: Isabelle Regional Shoreline Park along the coast of the San
Speaker 1: Francisco Bay discovered the body of a baby in the water,
Speaker 1: and the umbilical cord was still attached to the baby's corpse.
Speaker 1: The torso is still intact, but the rest of the
Speaker 1: body is essentially decomposed. The cord was torn as opposed
Speaker 1: to say cut or severed, as it would be during say,
Speaker 1: a birth procedure, so this is not a natural occurrence.
Speaker 1: The next day, one mile south of where they found
Speaker 1: the baby, someone else discovers the headless torso of a
Speaker 1: recently pregnant woman, and the body is clothed in a
Speaker 1: maternity bra and beige pants. The limbs of the body
Speaker 1: are missing also, and according to investigators, the remains are
Speaker 1: quote in an advanced state of decay and are barely
Speaker 1: recognizable as a human body.
Speaker 4: My stomach is a not just hearing you say that,
Speaker 4: and I know all these details, but yeah, it's heartbreaking
Speaker 4: to hear. One other interesting thing is that investigators do
Speaker 4: not immediately actually determine that it was Lacy. So both
Speaker 4: autopsies were inconclusive. As since we've been doing this, we know.
Speaker 4: I mean, I feel like a lot of these bodies
Speaker 4: are showing up in water, and a lot of those
Speaker 4: autopsies are always inconclusive when they're in water.
Speaker 3: But I guess.
Speaker 4: Of course, these bodies were severely decomposed, and they actually
Speaker 4: needed DNA to prove that it was actually Lacey, And
Speaker 4: of course, to no one's surprise, they did confirm that
Speaker 4: it was Lacy three days later, and it was also
Speaker 4: her infant son, whom she had planned to name Connor.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, as you can imagine, Scott Peterson was quickly
Speaker 1: arrested that very day. Police found him near a golf
Speaker 1: course in La Joya, which is just outside of San Diego.
Speaker 1: Investigators were a bit shocked to find that Scott had
Speaker 1: dyed his hair a completely different color. And when they
Speaker 1: searched his car, they discovered a bunch of strange things
Speaker 1: in it. Here's a little list. So they found about
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand dollars in cash, a bunch of like survival
Speaker 1: camping gear. They also found twelve viagritablets. Weirdly, they found
Speaker 1: several changes of clothes. They found four different cell phones,
Speaker 1: and then they found two driver licenses. One was his
Speaker 1: and then one was his brother.
Speaker 2: And also I just have to say, like, it's so
Speaker 2: odd to me that he had dress shirts, he had
Speaker 2: dress shoes. He also because I saw this in a
Speaker 2: report on television with Amber Fry. He had a map
Speaker 2: of her house, Like what were you trying to do?
Speaker 2: You were trying to escape or were you trying to
Speaker 2: go get her? Like what exactly was his plan? That's
Speaker 2: the thing, right, creepy. I remember reading that Scott's dad
Speaker 2: tried to explain it away by saying, Scott was so
Speaker 2: freaked out by the media attention that he was literally
Speaker 2: living like a nomad out of his car. Okay, which
Speaker 2: I can give you that I understand because the media
Speaker 2: was hounding you twenty four to seven. So I get
Speaker 2: that you dyed your hair, that you maybe were going,
Speaker 2: you know, south to see your family in San Diego.
Speaker 2: But all that other stuff like why why the viagra?
Speaker 2: You know, why why all these other things? You know, Russia.
Speaker 2: We can think about it from our perspective as well, right,
Speaker 2: just with our family story and our family, you know,
Speaker 2: being in the media and getting the attention.
Speaker 4: It's hard, Yeah, being related to an acute serial killer. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it can be a little daunting at times. But I
Speaker 4: think we're a little different than Scott in the sense
Speaker 4: that we've never held onto that because our mom never
Speaker 4: let us hold on to that ever, Like that didn't
Speaker 4: define who we were. But I can see how Scott
Speaker 4: would almost have a psychotic break, especially at that time,
Speaker 4: like you couldn't turn the TV on without seeing this story.
Speaker 4: And I think, actually that's kind of how it was too,
Speaker 4: when you know, the Black Dahlia case was happening, you know,
Speaker 4: with George, like he was on you know, the cover
Speaker 4: of every Los Angeles newspaper and all of those Like,
Speaker 4: well he wasn't, but the case was, you know.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and I guess looking at the Scott Peterson
Speaker 1: case and you know how he reacted to this, it
Speaker 1: kind of like reminded me a little bit of the
Speaker 1: Gabby Potito case. I know we've all heard a lot
Speaker 1: about that recently, but if you remember, her boyfriend Brian
Speaker 1: Laundry was the main suspect in her murder, and after
Speaker 1: he had become notorious, yeah, for probably having done this,
Speaker 1: he like just disappeared into the woods. He kind of
Speaker 1: did something similar to what Scott I think was maybe
Speaker 1: trying to do, which is like get all this out
Speaker 1: of town and go off the grid essentially.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's true, but it's like probably what.
Speaker 3: It looked like, right, Yeah, it didn't look good.
Speaker 1: And you know, obviously, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: we don't actually know. We don't know what Scott's intentions were.
Speaker 1: Maybe only he knows, maybe only his family knows. But
Speaker 1: the police, the investigators, they don't really buy whatever his
Speaker 1: story is, and they take that perspective the one I said,
Speaker 1: they thought that the contents of his car suggest he
Speaker 1: was actually planning on fleeing to Mexico, which of course
Speaker 1: is just a few miles away from San Diego.
Speaker 3: Where he was right next door.
Speaker 1: And so Scott was then charged with one count of
Speaker 1: first degree murder for lazy and then another count of
Speaker 1: second degree murder for Connor, the unborn son. So Scott
Speaker 1: then has a very crazy, wild trial that's very highly publicized,
Speaker 1: and we actually need to take another quick break. But
Speaker 1: when we come back, we're going to talk about what
Speaker 1: happened to him and if we actually think he did it.
Speaker 3: All right, so let's talk about Scott's trial.
Speaker 4: So, as we've talked about, this was highly publicized, is
Speaker 4: like an understatement because this was publicity on crack right, Yes,
Speaker 4: So on April twenty first, two thousand and three, of course,
Speaker 4: Scott Peterson pleaded not guilty to all counts, and the
Speaker 4: prosecution said they believed that Scott intentionally and deliberately killed
Speaker 4: Lacey on Christmas Eve, but they just don't have a
Speaker 4: theory on how. And I have to say too, like
Speaker 4: again about this publicity, like what I have ingrained in
Speaker 4: my brain. I have Nancy Grace's face. Who For those
Speaker 4: of you who don't know, which I'm sure you do
Speaker 4: because you all go to crime con you know who
Speaker 4: Nancy Grace is. But you know she was and I
Speaker 4: believe she still is an attorney. But she was on
Speaker 4: every station. She was on Larry King, she was you know,
Speaker 4: on CNN, MSNBC, all the shows, saying with her beautiful
Speaker 4: southern drawl that Scott Paterson, you know, was absolutely guilty.
Speaker 2: Like yeah, you know, and I'm so glad you brought
Speaker 2: that up Russia because you know, as we were doing
Speaker 2: the research for this case, like going back and looking
Speaker 2: at all of that stuff that she did, you know,
Speaker 2: Nancy Grace on CNN and all the other channels. I mean,
Speaker 2: it was like it was horrible. She went for him,
Speaker 2: like it felt like it was she went for coming
Speaker 2: from somewhere else, like she really hated him, and that
Speaker 2: created that trial by media.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think the result of all of this,
Speaker 1: like huge media attention is that, you know, it's so fiery,
Speaker 1: it's so intense, that they determined that Scott can't actually
Speaker 1: get a fair trial in that town.
Speaker 3: How could he?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So what they end up doing is having to
Speaker 1: move the trial to San Mateo County and then the
Speaker 1: official trial takes place a little bit later. It begins
Speaker 1: officially on June first, two thousand and four, in Redwood City.
Speaker 2: It just seems like the whole trial came down to
Speaker 2: what we've been talking about. Scott just seems suspicious, but
Speaker 2: the actual fact is there's no real evidence against him.
Speaker 2: I mean, other than all the other crazy ass stuff
Speaker 2: that he did, the things that they in his car,
Speaker 2: that's still not concrete evidence until Amber Fry takes the stand.
Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously Amber's what did Scott in. But Amber revealed
Speaker 4: that while working with the police, she recorded nearly every
Speaker 4: single phone call with Scott, and there were many. In total,
Speaker 4: there were two hundred and forty one calls and over
Speaker 4: twelve hours of audio that were actually submitted into evidence
Speaker 4: at the trial. And the picture that those you know,
Speaker 4: audio tapes paint is of a man who is not
Speaker 4: very upset by the disappearance of his wife and unborn child.
Speaker 1: I think we've known that in a very sort of
Speaker 1: indirect way, right, Like we've seen him on TV. We've
Speaker 1: heard the cops tell us about how he didn't seem
Speaker 1: very concerned during the research. But now we have these
Speaker 1: phone calls of him talking to Amber and like we
Speaker 1: actually have like real evidence, like coming from his.
Speaker 3: Voice, twelve hours of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, lots of it. And I think this is
Speaker 1: really the first time we drop a real picture of
Speaker 1: who Scott is when the cameras aren't rolling, right, He's
Speaker 1: safe when he thinks he's you know, at home talking
Speaker 1: to you know, his girlfriend or whatever. So yeah, no
Speaker 1: more facade, No more like TV persona that he's been
Speaker 1: trying to put on.
Speaker 3: That's right, That's right, Trevor.
Speaker 2: We got the real deal. I mean, and that was
Speaker 2: like this was the final nail in the coffin, because
Speaker 2: even if it didn't prove anything, like you just said,
Speaker 2: it just made himself look like he is freaking guilty.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And to be clear, like these calls didn't have
Speaker 1: anything incriminating necessarily, he didn't. He never said, like I
Speaker 1: killed my wife. I killed Lacey. But again, like you
Speaker 1: were saying, it just like made him look bad, right.
Speaker 4: Right, But anyway, the jury deliberated for over a week,
Speaker 4: and finally, on November twelfth, the verdict came in. Scott
Speaker 4: was found guilty on both counts, first agree murder for
Speaker 4: Lacy Peterson and second degree murder for Connor Peterson, and
Speaker 4: on December thirteenth, the jury unanimously voted for the penalty
Speaker 4: of death. Like, yes, he was a douche. Does he
Speaker 4: deserve to die?
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, he doesn't deserve to die because there's no
Speaker 2: concrete evidence. There's no smoking gun, right, we all just
Speaker 2: think he's an asshole.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel weird about this one. You know, at
Speaker 1: some point you have to separate your own like emotion
Speaker 1: from like the reality of the situation. And I feel
Speaker 1: like most of this case was emotion, to be perfectly honest. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think one of the biggest factors in that
Speaker 1: like emotional response was just the media, Like we've already
Speaker 1: been alluding to, So because all of this evidence was circumstantial,
Speaker 1: you know, I think probably the media did a lot
Speaker 1: of work to play up all of these things that
Speaker 1: made him seem more guilty than he actually was. It
Speaker 1: created this fiery response like you were describing coming from
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. Yeah, and that was like the same kind
Speaker 1: of energy that everybody had. Everybody on that Jerry, everybody
Speaker 1: watching at home. And to me, that's dangerous, Like that's
Speaker 1: a dangerous way to go about running your justice system.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Trial by media is a term you
Speaker 1: used earlier, and I think it's a very real thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is a thing.
Speaker 4: And I think Amber coming to the stand, I think
Speaker 4: pushed the media and all of America in a certain direction,
Speaker 4: and he was convicted by the media.
Speaker 1: I'll say Scott's lawyer even talked about this whole trial
Speaker 1: by media thing during the trial. He kept bringing up
Speaker 1: the point that just because Scott was a bad person
Speaker 1: didn't mean that he was actually guilty of murdering his wife,
Speaker 1: or that he would go so far to do that. Right,
Speaker 1: cheating does not equate to murder, was the point that
Speaker 1: the lawyer kept making in the trial. And I mean,
Speaker 1: I think to some degree, like, yeah, I agree with that,
Speaker 1: it is a bit of a jump, it's a bit
Speaker 1: of a reach. It's just a weird thing. I think
Speaker 1: the media has a ton of power and we should
Speaker 1: never underestimate it.
Speaker 2: Well as always, I mean, we like to bring the
Speaker 2: light to these dark cases. And so there was one
Speaker 2: positive development in Lacy Peterson's case. The deaths of Lacey
Speaker 2: and Connor Peterson led to the passage of the Unborn
Speaker 2: Victims of Violence Act, which is also known as the
Speaker 2: Lacy and Connor's Law. Trevor, let us know about this, please.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So the act says that under federal law, any
Speaker 1: person who causes death or injury to an unborn child
Speaker 1: while in the commission of a crime upon a pregnant
Speaker 1: woman will be charged with a separate offense. And what
Speaker 1: this means is that, like we saw with Scott Peterson,
Speaker 1: if someone harms or murders a pregnant woman, they will
Speaker 1: be charged twice, once for the mother and then once
Speaker 1: again for the baby.
Speaker 3: And I just want to do a little caveat that.
Speaker 4: I do wish that it's said pregnant person rather than
Speaker 4: pregnant women, but that is how the law is written.
Speaker 4: I did read one statistic that homicide is actually the
Speaker 4: leading cause of death for pregnant women, and I think
Speaker 4: it's absolutely great that we have a law like this
Speaker 4: in place to ensure justice not only for the pregnant person,
Speaker 4: but for the unborn child who never had a chance
Speaker 4: at life.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Also, on April first, two thousand and four, Lacy's
Speaker 2: parents they were in attendance at the White House when
Speaker 2: President George W. Bush signed the bill into law. So
Speaker 2: that was a huge day.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: So one last development in this story that we should
Speaker 4: probably mention, So as many people in California are aware,
Speaker 4: Governor Gavin Newsom has spent the last few years working
Speaker 4: to actually end the death penalty in California. So in
Speaker 4: twenty nineteen, knew someome successfully paused all death penalty sentences
Speaker 4: from being carried out via executive order. That means over
Speaker 4: seven hundred inmates on death row are for now safe
Speaker 4: from seeing their sentences carried out right.
Speaker 1: And the reason we're telling you this is that one
Speaker 1: of those people is, of course Scott Peterson. His lawyers
Speaker 1: have actually been appealing his death sentence for like the
Speaker 1: last ten years, since twenty twelve, I believe, and following
Speaker 1: Governor Knwsom's executive order, Peterson's appeal actually made it through
Speaker 1: to the California Supreme Court. So on August twenty fourth
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty. Just a couple of years ago, the
Speaker 1: court upheld his guilty conviction, but they overturned his death sentence.
Speaker 1: So the new ruling allows the prosecution to ask a
Speaker 1: new jury to reinstate Peterson's death sentence or allow him
Speaker 1: to be re sentenced to life in prison without the
Speaker 1: possibility of parole. So he's got options now that are
Speaker 1: not the death penalty, and that is where Scott Peterson's
Speaker 1: case stands as of today.
Speaker 4: That leads us to the last segment of the day,
Speaker 4: our Emua, and that's our final message of hope and healing.
Speaker 4: So today we want to dedicate our Emua to the
Speaker 4: Ohanna or the family of Lacey the rotas they were
Speaker 4: robbed of a beautiful, intelligent daughter as well as a grandson, Connor.
Speaker 2: It was obvious that their lives were torn apart, but
Speaker 2: we hope that they find that justice was served. But
Speaker 2: most importantly, we hope that they find peace in some
Speaker 2: type of closure and that future mothers like Lacy will
Speaker 2: get the justice that they also deserve and God willing,
Speaker 2: they never meet a similar fate, and.
Speaker 4: We want to do our best to preserve Lacey's memory
Speaker 4: We don't want to focus on how she died, but
Speaker 4: on how she lived, how she loved a garden, how
Speaker 4: she loved her home, her family, her friends. I think
Speaker 4: this is how we all can move onward and upward. Emua, Well,
Speaker 4: that's our show for today. We'd love to hear what
Speaker 4: you thought about today's discussion and if there's a case
Speaker 4: you'd like for us to cover. Find us on social
Speaker 4: media or email us at Facingevil Pod at tenderfoot dot tv.
Speaker 2: Until next time.
Speaker 5: Aloha.
Speaker 1: Facing Evil is a production of iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV.
Speaker 1: The show is hosted by Russia Pacuerero and Avet Gentile.
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick and Alex Williams our executive producers on behalf
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio, with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk, Donald
Speaker 1: albright In Payne Lindsay our executive producers on behalf of
Speaker 1: Tenderfoot TV, alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is Claudia Dafrico.
Speaker 1: Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find us on
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