Laci Peterson




Summary of Offense:

Either strangled or smothered his wife on or around Christmas Eve 2002 and dumped the body in the San Francisco Bay. Peterson claims he was fishing alone that day. The decision came almost two years to the date after the disappearance of Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old substitute teacher who married her college sweetheart and was soon to be the proud mother of a baby boy named Conner. The story set off a tabloid frenzy as suspicion began to swirl around Scott Peterson, who claimed to have been fishing by himself on Christmas Eve and was carrying on an affair with a massage therapist at the time. The remains of Laci and the fetus washed ashore about four months later, just a few miles from where Peterson claims to have gone fishing in San Francisco Bay.

Peterson was sentenced to death in San Mateo County on March 16, 2005.