Scott Peterson reveals what he thinks happened to Laci Peterson in 1st interview in 21 years

Warning: This post contains spoilers for “Face to Face With Scott Peterson.”

In his first interview in more than 20 years, convicted murderer Scott Peterson is breaking his silence on the deaths of his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn son, Conner Peterson.

Scott Peterson, 51, has spent the past 20 years in prison, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murders of his wife and unborn son. He has maintained his innocence in the crime since his wife disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002.

“Face to Face With Scott Peterson,” a three-episode docuseries premiering on Peacock on Aug. 20, features the first set of interviews with Scott Peterson since he was arrested and charged with murder in 2003.

Director Shareen Anderson spoke with him over the course of 15-minute increments via video from Mule Creek State Prison.

“If I have a chance to get the reality out there, I have a chance to show people what the truth is, and if they’re willing to accept it, maybe that takes a little bit of hurt off my family, and that would be the biggest thing that I can accomplish right now,” he said in the first episode of the series.

“Don’t trust me — look at the evidence,” he added.

Scott Peterson still denies any involvement in killing his family. Keep reading for other key moments from the docuseries. (Peacock is part of TODAY’s parent company, NBCUniversal.)

On the day Laci Peterson disappeared

On the morning of Dec. 24, 2002, Scott Peterson told investigators he spent the morning watching TV with his wife in their Modesto, California, home, before heading to the Berkeley Marina to go fishing.

When he returned, there was no sign of his wife. But this didn’t immediately shock him, he said in the series.

“I didn’t have any concerns when I got home, as I just thought alright, Laci’s with her friends, or she’s at her mom’s house, which would not be uncommon. I really wasn’t thinking — I was jumping in the shower, put on some clothes,” he said. “And then when I called over there, and found out Laci was not at her mother’s house, yeah, I started to get concerned.”

“I started to call her friends, and they hadn’t spoken to her. They didn’t know where (she) was. And then as the hours progressed, it’s like, ‘Oh my God,’” he said. “It was anxiety, panic.”

Scott Peterson also addressed one of the first searches of their home by detectives, in which he alleged there was already bias against him as a suspect in the crime.

“When (Detective Al) Brocchini took a first walk through the house with the other officers, I don’t think they knew that I was near them,” he recalled. “When one of them said, ‘Oh yeah, we know what’s going on here. It’s the husband.’ And then he realized I was there, and kind of turned around.”

Scott Peterson narrowed in on Al Brocchini, one of the Modesto Police Department detectives on the case, multiple times throughout the series, accusing him of not looking for his wife, but looking for evidence that would be used against him.

“Detective Brocchini specifically told the teams what he thought happened and what he wanted to find, and they came into our house not to look for Laci, but to look for evidence against me,” he said. “I can speak to his search of our house — absolutely no forensic evidence in the house. There’s no blood, there’s no struggle, there’s no nothing like that, and yet, they continued to focus on me.”

“It was so clear what was happening,” he added. “They had this assumption, I think it’s called confirmation bias, where they only look at evidence which supports their their bias, and that’s what they did.”

Brocchini responded to Peterson’s allegations in a statement to the docuseries: “We never intentionally withheld evidence. We never hid evidence. All tips were investigated.”

Scott Peterson said he was getting “more and more worried” as he didn’t know where his wife was, and described his first interview with police.

“Just trying to keep it together, trying to get the search started, trying to deal with the police,” he recalled. “There’s no time to fall apart — I couldn’t let that happen.”

On his affair with Amber Frey

A few weeks after Laci Peterson’s disappearance, Amber Frey, a massage therapist from Fresno, California, came forward and said she had been dating Scott Peterson — and that she had no idea he had a wife or was expecting a child until news reports emerged about Laci Peterson's disappearance.

Anderson asked Scott Peterson about the prosecution arguing in his trial that he killed his wife because he didn’t want to be married and he didn’t want to become a father.

“That’s so offensive, so disgusting,” he responded. “I just don’t get that argument and it’s just absolutely not true.”

“I certainly regret cheating on Laci, absolutely,” he added. “It was about childhood lack of self esteem, selfish — me traveling somewhere, being lonely at night because I wasn’t at home. And you know, someone makes you feel good because they want to have sex with you.”

When asked how his phone calls with Frey played into the public’s perception of him, he said it made him feel “horrible.”

“I’m a total a--hole for having sex outside of my marriage,” he said.

Anderson then asked why he didn’t tell investigators immediately about Frey.

“During the so-called investigation, I really did everything I could to bring my family home, and that included keeping my cheating with Frey from people. I didn’t tell people because I wanted the search to continue,” he said.

“I guess I understand why she tried to turn it into a relationship after the fact, and made claims that it was something more,” he continued. “But it simply wasn’t. That’s a massive misconception, I think. I was absolutely wrong, but I embrace the truth on that — it’s a horrible truth.”

"I’m sorry I’ve rambled on, but these are thoughts that haunt me, and it’s devastating. I feel such shame and guilt that me having had sex with Amber Frey caused all that — that they didn’t look for her alive," he continued.

Anderson also asked Scott Peterson why he continued to talk to Frey after his wife disappeared.

“I was searching for my family. I wanted the search to continue. By staying in contact with Amber, I thought, she wouldn’t get into the picture and complicate or ruin the search,” he said.

Scott Peterson recalled getting spit on at a gas station and receiving death threats during the search for his wife.

“I wish I could say I was stronger, but all that stuff did take a toll on me,” he said. “I just remember how insane I was going, going to sleep and worrying about Conner and Laci and what seemed like, just an apathetic response from the police department at that point.”

On the discovery of Laci and Conner's bodies, and his arrest

The bodies of Laci and Conner Peterson were discovered months after their disappearance, when they washed ashore in the San Francisco Bay in April 2003.

Scott Peterson said he didn’t believe the bodies were theirs at first.

“It wasn’t a thought,” he said. “It wasn’t unheard of. There’s been other bodies in the bay before ... so it wasn’t like it was the only possibility.”

Scott Peterson then addressed why he went to play golf with his family in the days after the bodies washed ashore.

“When my family was having rough times, we always did something,” he said. “We’d go play golf, or we’d go out fishing. That’s how we relate, that’s how we always gotten together. We never talked about the rough times, we’d just go do things together.”

“That day, I was headed to Torrey Pines Golf Course, playing golf with my brothers and my dad,” he continued. “We just wanted to get together that day and be together.”

He described getting on the road to head down to San Diego, and realizing that people were following him. He assumed they were tabloid reporters, he said, but he later found out it was police.

Authorities arrested Scott Peterson near the golf course on April 18, 2003, because they were worried he would flee to Mexico, according to The Los Angeles Times.

“I want to be clear, I was never running from the police. I was always in contact with them,” he said. “I’d answer most of their calls. There were times when I was very frustrated, and I would not take their calls.”

He addressed that he had dyed his hair because of the harassment he was getting from the public, and that he was found with his brother’s driver’s license to get a discount at the golf course.

“I guess I was going to scan the golf course a little bit,” he said.

“Once I was arrested, I thought that the police would soon come to the realization they had made a mistake,” he added.

On the trial and the verdict

Scott Peterson said he regretted not testifying in his trial, and was speaking out to try to get the truth out about the case.

In the series, Scott Peterson and his family members contended that there were other leads that investigators did not fully investigate, including a burglary at a house next door around the time Laci Peterson went missing.

His case was taken up by the Los Angeles Innocence Project earlier this year, and his attorneys have argued in court and in legal documents that new materials should be presented to help prove his case.

“There were so many instances where there was evidence that didn’t fit the detectives’ theory,” Scott Peterson said in the series. “They just assumed she was dead.”

The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on the Petersons' allegations, the docuseries said.

So far, a judge ruled in May that only one piece of evidence — a piece of duct tape found on Laci Peterson’s pants — should undergo new DNA testing, according to NBC News.

Scott Peterson also reflected on his choice to not waive time on his trial in the series.

“Gosh, I look back on that now, and I wonder if that was the right decision,” he said. “We had the evidence of my innocence, and it was a nightmare being stuck in county jail.”

He reiterated that he would not let his attorney waive the time.

“I look back on some of the things we’ve learned, some of the things we were still learning during trial, and I kind of wonder, ‘Gosh, if I had been more prudent or patient or whatever, maybe things would have been different,’” he said.

After a five-month trial, jurors convicted Scott Peterson in the murders of Laci and Conner Peterson on Nov. 12, 2004. He described how he felt when the verdict was read.

“It was just like, this horrible, physical reaction. Everything just went kind of silent. I couldn’t feel anything, I couldn’t feel my feet on the floor. I couldn’t feel the chair I was sitting in,” he said.

“My vision was even a little blurry,” he continued. “I just got this weird sensation that I was falling forward. I was staggered by it. I had no idea it was coming.”

In the third episode of the series, Anderson asked if he remembered what life was like 20 years ago.

“Every moment is so real, is so tactile, and still there. The smells and the lighting, the sound of when I said goodbye to Laci, and then my family was gone,” he said. “I drove away expecting to come back that afternoon and have a wonderful Christmas together after we both had fun mornings, and nope, they were gone.”

“It’s still very, very present. But there are certainly times that I become a wreck,” he said, wiping away tears. “Excuse me, you know, trying not to be too emotional while I’m out here in the day room of the prison.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com