Laci Peterson: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Laci Peterson, born Laci Rocha (May 4, 1975), was last seen alive on December 24, 2002 and became the subject of one of the most discussed missing person cases in recent U.S. history.

Laci was born in and lived in Modesto, California. A substitute teacher, she was seven and a half months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve, 2002, an event which eventually led to her husband Scott Peterson being charged with her murder.

Laci attended California Polytechnic State University where she met Peterson in 1994 through a friend who was a waitress at the same restaurant he was a waiter. They married two years later, ran a successful restaurant in San Luis Obispo, California, but moved back to Modesto in 2000. In 2002, Laci discovered she was pregnant, expecting a boy. She and her husband decided to name the baby Conner.

Apart from her husband, the last person known to talk to her was her mother, by phone the day before she disappeared. Peterson said she planned to go shopping for dinner, then walk the dog through nearby East La Loma park. He 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 for work.

Later that day, neighbors found the family dog, Mackenzie, running loose in the neighborhood, wearing a collar and muddy leash. Peterson said Laci's 1996 Land Rover Discovery SE sport utility vehicle was in the driveway; and her purse was hanging in the bedroom closet, including her keys. Her cell phone was uncharged and found in her vehicle.

Police were called by 6 pm and an immediate search of East La Loma Park and surrounding areas was launched by police and neighbours. It 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. Laci's husband became a suspect, but her family came forward to support him.

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 burgled 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 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.

A US $25,000 reward was offered, which later increased to $500,000 as friends and family donated. Posters and ribbons and flyers 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 has maintained that he knows 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.

On January 15, Modesto detectives showed Laci's relatives recent photos of Peterson posing with another woman. One photo was dated just days before Laci disappeared. Police suspected Peterson was having an affair with the woman for some time. Another photo, according to the family, was dated during a time when they knew Laci believed Scott was on a business trip. Police also told the family that Peterson had taken out a $250,000 life insurance policy on Laci after he learned she was pregnant. It is unknown whether Laci was aware of the policy.

On January 17, Laci's family revealed that her stepfather asked Peterson two weeks earlier if he had a girlfriend, and he unequivocally answered no, but 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.

On April 13, the body of a newborn male child, his umbilical cord still attached, was found on the San Francisco Bay shore near Richmond, north of Berkeley. The next day, the decapitated 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.

On April 18, 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 dyed his hair blond and grown a beard, and the authorities cited this as further indication the might be planning to leave their jurisdiction.

On April 27, 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 be 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.

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

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.