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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Myriam Page

Scott Peterson breaks silence in prison interview to reveal his story of pregnant wife Laci’s final hours

Peacock

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Scott Peterson has broken his silence for the first time since being convicted of murder to reveal his version of what happened during his pregnant wife Laci Peterson’s final hours.

In a jailhouse interview from Mule Creek State Prison in California, featured in Peacock’s upcoming documentary series Face to Face with Scott Peterson, the convicted killer yet again insisted he is innocent in the killings of his wife, 27, and their unborn son, Conner, and details what he remembers of the day she went missing.

Laci was eight months pregnant when she vanished on Christmas Eve 2002. The bodies of her and her unborn child washed up on a shore four months later.

Peterson reported her missing after he claimed he returned from a solo fishing trip and fond their Modesto, California, home empty and their dog loose in the backyard with its leash still attached.

In the new interview – his first public comments in two decades – Peterson said he remembers Laci’s “smile” from that day as he tries to “relish” what he claims were their last moments together.

“I would see Laci smile when she would do her hair on the morning of the 24th, and the way we would share a bowl for cereal because we were too lazy to do two bowls,” he said.

Peterson also spoke out for the first time about the affair he was having in the lead-up to Laci’s disappearance and murder.

“It’s horrible,” he said.

Scott Peterson on a call from prison, as seen in the trailer for ‘Face to Face with Scott Peterson’ (Peacock)

“I was a total a**hole to be having sex outside our marriage,” he added, according to People.

Peterson had been having an affair with 27-year-old massage therapist and mother-of-one Amber Frey prior to Laci’s death.

Frey came forward to police when she learned about Laci’s disappearance in the news – and realized that the missing woman’s husband was the man she thought was her boyfriend.

She told police Peterson claimed he was never married when they began dating, then changed his story to being a widower. Sometime after Laci went missing, he then told her his wife was alive and pregnant but had gone missing.

Frey has also spoken out for the first time in new Netflix documentary American Murder: Laci Peterson.

The series also includes clips of secretly-recorded, never-before-heard phone calls between her and Peterson.

Laci Peterson disappeared from the couple’s home in Modesto, California, on 24 December 2002 (Netflix)

“So what do you want to be together with me?” asks Frey in one of the recordings played in the docuseries.

“For the rest of our lives I think we could care for each other,” Peterson replies.

Peterson had claimed Laci had taken their dog for a walk when he went fishing – and that she never returned.

He quickly became a suspect and, after Laci and Conner’s bodies were discovered in April 2003, he was arrested near San Diego and charged with murder.

He had dyed his dark hair blonde and was carrying survival gear, viagra tablets and $15,000 in cash, according to authorities.

Amber Frey in 2004 leaving the San Mateo Superior County Courthouse during Scott Peterson’s trial (Getty Images)

Peterson was convicted in 2004 and initially sentenced to death but later resentenced to life in prison without parole.

Now, Peterson continues to claim his innocence, with his case recently taken up by the Los Angeles Innocence Project.

In his interview with Peacock, he also revealed his regret that he didn’t testify at his trial.

“If I have a chance to show people what the truth is, and if they are willing to accept it, it would be the biggest thing that I can accomplish right now – because I didn’t kill my family,” he said.

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