Laci Peterson

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Laci Peterson

Laci Peterson, born Laci Denise Rocha (May 4, 1975 – ca. 25 December 2002), was last seen alive on December 23, 2002 and became the subject of one of the most discussed missing person cases in recent U.S. history. Her husband Scott Peterson was eventually convicted of her murder.

Contents

1 Early life and education
2 Disappearance
3 Trial of Scott Peterson
4 References
5 External links

Early life and education

Laci Peterson's parents, Dennis and Sharon Rocha, met each other while Sharon Rocha was in freshman year in high school. The two formed a serious relationship soon after meeting, and married shortly after Sharon Rocha graduated from High School. Subsequently, they moved into new three-bedroom house located on Dennis Rocha's 365-acre ranch. Sharon Rocha attended Modesto Junior College for a short while until she decided to become a full-time mother. In 1971, Dennis and Sharon Rocha gave birth to their first child, Brent Rocha. Nearly four years after Brent Rocha's birth, they gave birth to Laci on May 4th, 1975.

A year after Laci's birth, Dennis and Sharon Rocha divorced, an option she would later tell Scott Peterson he could have gone with as well. In Sharon Rocha's opinion, they split because she believed they married too young. Some have inaccurately reported that Dennis Rocha made the decision to leave Sharon Rocha, a claim she adamantly denies, instead saying she was the one to leave and move out. At one point, they tried to reconcile and better their relationship, but it turned out to be a futile attempt.

Sharon Rocha moved to San Jose in 1977, but moved back to Modesto feeling San Jose was much too large of a city for her. When she moved back, she was introduced to Ron Grantski by her cousin Gwen Kemple. A year and half later, Grantski and Rocha moved into a three-bedroom home with Brent Rocha and Laci Peterson. They never married.

In 1989, Laci Rocha began attending Thomas Downey High School. In 10th grade, at the age of 15, she met her first boyfriend, who attended a school on the other side of town. Their relationship lasted a short period of time, ended by Laci's boyfriend. By Spring of her sophomore year, Laci was already dating a new boyfriend, Kent Gain. According to Sharon Rocha, Gain exhibited signs of anger management issues, but Laci would not relent insisting on dating him. The relationship lasted through High School and into college.

Having completed High School, Laci was accepted into the top college of her choice: California Polytechnic State University. Kent Gain at first planned on going to Cuesta Junior College, but decided to instead go to the same college as his girlfriend. Sharon Rocha feared Gain would affect her daughter's ambitious attitude toward school, but this did not strain the relationship between Gain and Laci. In fact, the two lived together in Laci's new home in Morro Bay, a small town north of Cal Poly.

At Cal Poly, Laci Rocha majored in ornamental horticulture because of her desire to one day open a specialty plant shop. In addition to her busy class schedule, she became an honorary sorority member, joined several clubs, and managed the on-campus plant shop. While still in her freshman year, Laci Rocha announced the split between her and Kent Gain concluding they were not suited for each other. A few weeks later, Gain moved out. Years later, in 1999, Gain formed a relationship with another woman, and on one day, had a argument with her. The argument led to Gain shooting the woman in the back with a .44 caliber pistol, who managed to survive the attack. Nearly a year later, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for first-degree assault with a gun. According to some, Gain was still proclaiming to be in love with his former girlfriend, Laci Rocha.

While still at Cal Poly, Laci Rocha met a waiter named Scott Peterson, her future husband, for the first time at a small restaurant in Morro Bay named Pacific Cafe. The two formed a relationship, which blossomed into marriage. In December of 1996, they were already engaged, although they had no plans to get married until they graduated from college, something of utmost importance to Sharon Rocha. Although, their plan originally was to get married after Laci's graduation in December of 1997, they moved the wedding date to August 9th, 1996.

After their honeymoon in Tahiti, Laci Peterson became a marketing representative in Richmond, California for a wine distributor. At this time, Scott Peterson was still in school at Cal Poly, who expected to graduate in June, 1997. Later, through investigation of Scott Peterson's past, investigators revealed that Peterson was having an affair with a sophomore at Cal Poly named Janet Ilse. Though Laci Peterson never talked to her mother Sharon Rocha about the affair, it turned out she knew of the affair between Ilse and Peterson.

After Scott Peterson graduated from Cal Poly in June, he and his wife formed an agreement where he was supposed to join her in the Bay Area, and find work there. Peterson, for a short period of time, tried to find work there, but decided against all jobs. Instead, he opted for staying in San Luis Obispo, a city he enjoyed living in. For this reason, Laci Peterson moved back to San Luis Obispo, and found a job as a banquet coordinator at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort, despite her disappointment with doing this.

In the spring of 1999, Laci and Scott Peterson created a well known restaurant that attracted students named The Shack, which they started through the money Scott Peterson made by selling his parents' Morro Bay packing business. Scott Peterson was responsible for cooking and the business aspects, while Laci Peterson worked more in the front lines waiting tables and acting as the hostess. The Shack, an immediate hit, became too much to handle for the Petersons, who sold it in early 2000.

In June of 2000, the Petersons moved to Modesto, California. Scott Peterson found a job selling sprinkler systems to farmers and ranchers. A year later, he moved onto selling fertilizer. Laci Peterson found a job that marketed wine, and also worked in a grocery store stocking shelves. With their combined income, the two bought a house near Laci Peterson's junior High School. Soon after moving into the house, she began entertaining the thought of having a child. She expressed doubts about that becoming true, which Sharon Rocha thought was due to her daughter testing positive for precancerous cells on her uterus. The cells were successfully removed, and Laci Peterson was told she was healthy. It turned out this was not why she was doubtful, but instead Scott Peterson was showing a lack of interest in having children. Laci Peterson told her mother that he was not ready to have children, and was not sure if he would even want to become a father. This came as a surprise to both Sharon Rocha and her daughter, because, according to Rocha, Scott Peterson knew very well his wife wanted to have children before they married.

In November, Laci Peterson left her marketing job, and became a substitute teacher at local schools, including her old junior High School. On Thanksgiving, Peterson told her mother her husband decided to have children, despite his previous thoughts. Laci Peterson stopped using birth control the next month who was very excited about having a baby. She did not get pregnant as soon as she was hoping, and she wondered if either she or Scott Peterson was having infertility problems. To see if either of them was not able to have a child, Scott Peterson was tested. Later, Laci Peterson's sister in law, Rose Rocha, told detectives in the midst of Laci Peterson's murder investigation that Scott Peterson was hoping for infertility. The tests proved Scott Peterson was perfectly healthy. Laci Peterson then conceived a baby naturally, and kept a diary of her pregnancy. They decided to name the baby Conner after considering Connor, Conner, and Logan.

Disappearance

Apart from her husband, the last person known to speak to her was her mother on the phone on December 23rd, 2002. Although Scott Peterson says Laci was alive the morning of the 24th, no one can verify that claim. Peterson said she planned to go shopping, then walk the dog through nearby East La Loma park. Her husband claimed he had gone to the marina at Berkeley that morning to go fishing. A neighbor claimed she saw him loading something wrapped in a large blue tarpaulin into his truck that morning, which he claimed to be eight-foot umbrellas. He claimed he was taking them to his warehouse for storage. He also told police he forgot to unload them when he reached the warehouse, and also upon returning to the warehouse after his fishing trip. He brought them back home.

Later that day, a neighbor found the family dog, McKenzie, running loose in the neighborhood, wearing a collar and muddy leash. Scott Peterson said Laci's 1996 Land Rover Discovery SE sport utility vehicle was in the driveway; and her purse and cell phone was hanging in the bedroom closet, including her keys. Peterson also said he washed his clothes immediately upon his return home, ate some cold pizza, and took a shower. It was then that he wondered where his wife was.

Police were called by 6 p.m. and an immediate search of East La Loma Park and surrounding areas was launched by police and neighbors. It included foot searchers, all-terrain vehicles, patrol cars, sport utility vehicles, helicopters with search lights and heat sensors, water rescue units, search dogs and horseback teams. Law enforcement agencies from several counties became involved, searching both forests and waterways. Police suspected foul play, doubting Laci would vanish on Christmas Eve without contacting anybody. "That is completely out of character for her," said detective Al Brocchini at a press conference. Speculation into the whereabouts eventually led to the theory that Scott Peterson was somehow involved.

Peterson produced a receipt from the marina for December 24 (though no time is printed on it), and witnesses said they saw Laci in the park with her dog at 10 am that day. Police investigated many leads, unearthing numerous dead ends. On January 4, 2003, they used sonar to scan the marina more than once, at one point telling the press they found something that might be a body. Next day, after the weather cleared, it turned out to be an old anchor. Police believed they may have had a lead when it was thought the house across the street from the Petersons' had been burglarized about the time Laci disappeared. They wondered whether she had seen the burglars who then panicked and kidnapped her so she could not identify them, but eliminated that possibility when it was established the burglary happened later.

Police began to focus more on Scott Peterson. They published photographs of his truck and boat and asked the public to help them corroborate his story. Scott and Laci's house was searched. Her SUV, his truck and boat, and their computers were seized, and police investigated his background. During the police enquiries into Peterson, the police discovered that Scott went to California Polytechnic State University at the same time that a girl called Kristin Smart disappeared there in 1996. However the investigation into that was soon dropped when it could not even be conclusively established that Kristin and Scott had ever met each other.

A US $25,000 reward was offered, which later increased to $500,000 as friends and family donated. Posters and ribbons and fliers circulated, and the website LaciPeterson.com was set up by the husband of one of her friends. Other friends and family set up a command center at a nearby hotel to record developments and circulate information.

Peterson stormed out of a press conference when reporters asked about the police suspecting him, and eventually refused to talk to the media. Laci's brother, Brent Rocha, defended Scott, saying that he was too emotionally wrought to make public statements about his wife, adding that that did not mean he was involved in her disappearance. "No way," Rocha said. "Absolutely not." Peterson maintained that he knew nothing about Laci's disappearance. Volunteers said that he had shown up every morning at the volunteer command center and seemed to work tirelessly for her safe return. It was later revealed that during his wife's candlelight vigil on December 31, 2002, Scott secretly called a woman named Amber Frey. He had been on several dates with Frey and had told her he was unmarried. He told Frey he was in Paris for New Year's Eve, and did not appear upset during the phone call.

On January 15, 2003, Modesto detectives showed Laci's relatives recent photos of Peterson posing with Frey. One photo was dated just days before Laci disappeared. Police suspected Peterson had been having an affair with Frey for some time. Another photo, according to the family, was dated during a time when they knew Laci had believed Scott was on a business trip.

On January 17, 2003, Laci's family revealed that her stepfather asked Peterson two weeks earlier if he had a girlfriend and he unequivocally answered no, and the family eventually dropped their support for him. Peterson sold the Land Rover three weeks later, but the automobile dealer to whom he sold it gave it back to her family for one dollar.

On April 13, 2003, the decomposed body of a late term male fetus, his umbilical cord still attached, was found on the San Francisco Bay shore near Richmond, north of Berkeley. The next day a decapitated, armless, legless (all suspected to be due to heavy decomposition) body of a recently-pregnant woman was recovered one mile away from where the baby's body was found. DNA tests verified they were the bodies of Laci Peterson and her son, Conner.

Trial of Scott Peterson

On April 18, 2003, Scott Peterson was arrested near the home of his parents in La Jolla. Stanislaus County officials said they had arrested him because of La Jolla's proximity to Mexico, and they were fearful he might flee to avoid prosecution. In addition, he had bleached his hair blond and grown a goatee, and the authorities cited this as further indication that he might flee their jurisdiction. At the time of his arrest, Peterson was driving a car he had bought falsely using his mothers name, was carrying $15,000 in cash, had four cell phones, camping equipment, Viagra and his brother's driver's license. He later claimed his hair was blonde due to a dip in a friend's swimming pool.

On April 27, 2003, UPI reported that authorities had originally detected the bodies of Laci and Conner Peterson at the bottom of the bay by sonar, weeks before they washed ashore, but they were dislodged and missing again before they could be retrieved.

On May 4, 2003, which was to have been her 28th birthday, Laci's family and friends held a memorial ceremony. The Peterson family did not attend and Scott was barred from appearing. During the service, Laci's brother Brent spoke, along with other family and friends. Scott's name was not mentioned during the memorial service, and he was cropped out of the photos shown.

In January 2004 the trial judge moved Peterson's murder trial about 90 miles to Redwood City San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area because of hostility toward Peterson in Modesto.

On November 12, 2004, Scott Peterson was found guilty of murder in the first degree with special circumstances of Laci Peterson, murder in the second degree of their unborn son Conner Peterson. The jury returned a sentence of death on December 13, 2004.

On March 16, 2005, Judge Alfred A. Delucchi formally sentenced Scott Peterson to death, calling the murder of his wife "cruel, uncaring, heartless and callous." The prescribed method of execution was lethal injection. He also denied the defense's request for a new trial (which was based on evidence of juror misconduct and media influence) and ordered Peterson to pay $10,000 towards his wife's funeral.

On March 17, 2005, Scott Peterson arrived at San Quentin State Prison in the early morning hours. The infamous prison of San Quentin overlooks the bay where Laci's body was discarded and houses the men's death row, and is about 20 miles north of San Francisco. Peterson will reside there as 1 of 644 other inmates currently awaiting lethal injection in California.

The death of Laci and her son led to the United States Congress passing the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which is now widely known as Laci and Conner's Law. In 2006, Laci's mother, Sharon, wrote [[For Laci : A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Justice]] a biography and memoir about the life and death of her daughter.

References

Rocha, Sharon (2006). For Laci. Crown Publishing Group.

External links

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