On Christmas Eve 2002, an eight-months-pregnant Laci Peterson was reported missing from the Modesto, CA, home she shared with her husband, Scott.
Her disappearance -- and her family's desperate search for her -- drew national media attention to the couple's quaint community, which was left shattered when the bodies of Laci and her unborn child were discovered washed up on the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay four months later.
Suspicion quickly turned to Peterson, who, after a lengthy and highly publicized trial, was ultimately convicted of murdering his wife and son.
Now, 22 years later, Netflix has today released a three-part documentary series titled "American Murder: Laci Peterson." It features interviews with detectives, jurors, and attorneys involved in the infamous trial and Peterson's eventual murder conviction.
"Laci was telling me all these things about Scott. And I remember saying, as her mother, 'I hope he's not filling her with crap,'" she says in the trailer.
Laci and Scott purchased their three-bedroom, 1,770-square-foot family residence in Modesto in 2000 for $177,000.
It sold a few years after the murders in 2005 for $390,000, with part of the proceeds going to the Rocha family. The buyer in 2005 eventually declared bankruptcy and lost the home to foreclosure in 2007. The house was sold that year by the lender for $280,000 -- a precipitous 28% drop in two years.
In 2013, the residence sold again at an even steeper discount, for just $180,000. The dramatic decline suggests there was still a stigma surrounding the house, even a decade after Laci's disappearance.
However, the home resurfaced on the market a few years ago, and its past didn't prove to be an issue. At the height of the housing boom, the home was listed in March 2022 for $459,888. As further proof of the frothy market, the place sold the following month for $510,000.
When the house was up for sale, there was no mention of its past in the listing details. In California, a seller must disclose a death on a property if it occurred within the past three years -- and they must disclose any known death that ever occurred in the home if a buyer asks. But because there was never any proof that Laci was murdered in the home, the seller wouldn't have to disclose.
Listing details from 2022 paint the home as having a remodeled kitchen worthy of a "chef's dream" and a place to enjoy "fun in the sun" by the backyard pool. The marketing worked, because the home sold for 11% over asking in just three weeks.
Scott Peterson initially claimed to have returned home after a Christmas Day fishing trip only to find his 27-year-old wife missing and their dog running around, dragging its leash in the backyard.
Prosecutors later said Scott told a neighbor he was going to play golf but instead drove nearly an hour and a half away to the Berkeley Marina for a fishing trip in a boat his family didn't even know he owned.
Laci's disappearance attracted nationwide attention as a massive search unfolded. Four months later, the remains of Laci and her unborn son, who the couple planned to name Connor, were discovered in San Francisco Bay. Their son was found first, with Laci's body washing up along Brooks Island later.
When police found Scott near San Diego and arrested the then-30-year-old on murder charges, his appearance was markedly different. He was discovered with $15,000 in cash and had dyed his hair blonde.
After the investigation, Scott admitted to having an affair with massage therapist Amber Frey at the time of Laci and Connor's deaths. During the five-month criminal trial, Frey testified that Scott told her he was not married. Today, Frey reportedly lives in the Fresno, CA, area and works in the wellness industry.
Despite pleading not guilty, Scott was convicted on both counts of murder in 2004.
He was initially sentenced to death in 2005 but was later resentenced to life in prison without parole when his death sentence was overturned in 2020.
Peterson maintains his innocence and, in 2022, he filed an appeal against his conviction due to a juror, Richelle Nice -- dubbed the Strawberry Shortcake juror -- who failed to disclose on a questionnaire that she had recently filed a restraining order against someone who threatened her while she was pregnant.
Although that appeal was denied, Peterson, 51, has enlisted the help of the L.A. Innocence Project. The nonprofit organization it trying to retry his case based on new evidence. This includes DNA evidence, as well as asking a judge to perform DNA testing on material from a burned-out van found after a burglary near the Peterson's house.
The post Inside the California Home Where Scott Peterson Lived With Pregnant Wife Laci -- Before Murdering Her in Cold Blood appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.
