Murder of Laci Peterson
highly publicized criminal case in the United States
On December 24, 2002, 27‑year‑old Laci Denise Peterson disappeared from her home in Modesto, California, while eight months pregnant with her first child. Her disappearance prompted a large‑scale search and drew national media attention. In April 2003, the remains of Peterson and her unborn son, whom she and her husband had planned to name Conner, were found along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. Her husband, Scott Lee Peterson, was arrested shortly afterward and charged with two counts of murder. In 2004, he was convicted of the first degree murder of Laci and the second degree murder of Conner. Scott Peterson's death sentence was overturned in 2020, and in 2021 Peterson was re‑sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Early life and marriage
Laci Peterson
Laci Peterson was born Laci Denise Rocha on May 4, 1975. She was the younger of two children born to Sharon (née Anderson) and Dennis Robert Rocha, with a brother named Brent (born 1971). Her parents had met in high school and owned a dairy farm west of Escalon, California.
Laci worked on the dairy farm from a young age and also enjoyed gardening with her mother.
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