Face to Face with Scott Peterson

* *

Hey, Shareen.

Hi, Scott. How are you?

- I should tell you this in advance.

I'm looking at the clock here. It's 1:18.

It's supposed to be a 1:30 lockup,

so we may only get 12 minutes.

OK.

- I'm not sure what they'll do.

- I have a few questions for you today.

After the world basically heard your phone calls

with Amber Frey,

they came to the conclusion that you killed Laci.

How does that make you feel?

- Why didn't you tell the police right away

about Amber Frey?

* *

- Police in Modesto, California, continue searching

for 27-year-old Laci Peterson.

- As the investigation into the disappearance

of Laci Peterson continues,

police are tracking her husband's movements

outside the Modesto, California, area.

- Even as the focus of the search

appears to be shifting towards Scott,

Modesto Police have still not named him as a suspect.

* *

I'm Mike Gudgell.

I've been involved in the Peterson case

for almost two decades now.

In 2002, I was working for ABC News

as an editorial producer.

When I first arrived, a couple of days after Christmas Day,

it was quite a crowd of media surrounding the house--

police checkpoints, satellite trucks.

It was what I call a complete media feeding frenzy.

By then, we really hadn't established sources

with the police,

but we were hearing they were focused on Scott.

We heard that the Petersons

had hired a private investigator.

We understood he was talking to witnesses

who saw Laci alive after Scott left.

That might be different than what

we're hearing from the police.

- A beautiful young lady, very pregnant.

Walking across the street.

- Walking, like, towards the park.

- The fact is, within a 30, 40-minute time,

there were five or six witnesses who saw Laci.

So we knew that the police narrative wasn't solid.

And then we heard that there had been a burglary next door.

- We had a burglary that was reported to have occurred

directly across the street from the residence in question here.

- We're outside the home of Scott and Laci Peterson's home

in Modesto, 523 Covena.

We want to show you directly across the street.

That's 516, known as the Medina home,

that had a burglary happen right around the time frame

of Laci Peterson's disappearance.

- The Medinas left December 24th at about 10:30 AM.

They returned home December 26th

at about 4:30 in the afternoon.

During the time frame while they were gone

is when Laci was reported missing.

- When the news of the burglary came out,

we assumed immediately that it would be

a big break in the case.

- Really kind of went, oh, OK, we're getting somewhere now.

This could be the best lead that we've had.

- The police were now not only trying to figure out

what happened to Laci,

but they were trying to solve the Medina burglary,

thinking that this burglary

potentially had something to do with what happened to Laci.

- The issue around the burglary is when did it happen?

On the 24th, the day Laci went missing,

a neighbor of Scott and Laci was driving home.

- I was coming home from the hand therapist

and drove by Laci's house.

And I thought, "Oh, who are those people

on the Medinas' front lawn?"

And they were right next to a van.

One door was a little open.

They turned around and looked at me,

and I felt hostility.

But I didn't think anything of it.

I thought, "Well, I don't need to be

"looking at them or waving or anything.

I'll just go on home."

- When she heard about this burglary

and then the news of Laci's disappearance,

she came forward and thought, "Oh, maybe this is important."

- Diane Jackson described the three men as dark skinned

but not African American.

- A thousand dollars for someone

that leads us to the persons responsible for the burglary.

They had put out a reward.

On the reward flyer, they used the information

that they'd gotten from Diane Jackson.

You're looking for a van.

You're looking for three men.

- They put a senior detective from the Major Crimes Unit

on it, got an informant almost immediately.

- They've actually made two arrests in that today.

- Modesto Police arrested two suspects,

Steven Todd and Donald Pearce.

- Their cooperation level was off the charts.

They both polygraphed.

They wanted the polygraphs released to the media

because they wanted the people in the jail to know

that they were not involved in this case.

Steven Todd and Glen Pearce,

neither one of them is dark skinned, not African American.

But also, neither one of them

has ever been associated with a van.

They said that they used a car

and a bike to commit the burglaries.

- The informant told police that up to five people

were involved, and they didn't look into

any of the others.

- Well, I'd like to see who these additional people are

and where they came up with the idea

that additional people were involved

in the burglary itself.

I don't see anything that would suggest that.

Diane Jackson claimed that she saw a van

across the street from the Peterson house on the 24th.

She couldn't even really confirm

what the color of the van was.

And when you have that kind of discrepancy,

when it comes to even the description of the vehicle,

it calls into question the reliability of that witness.

- At this point, there is no connection.

There's no leads to indicate that they were involved

in the missing of Laci.

We solved that burglary.

Found out that it, in fact, occurred on the 26th.

- Steven Todd says that the burglary was on the 26th,

but that's according to the burglar.

He changed it.

He picked, "Oh, it happened on December 27th.

Oh, no, it was the 26th."

So it wasn't very reliable, that's for sure.

- I thought, "Well, that's quite interesting,"

because on the 26th,

there was a lot of activity on Scott and Laci's street,

and how could burglars get in and out

without anybody seeing them?

I thought it was highly improbable

that that was the truth.

- They solved that burglary really quickly.

But there's a distinction that needs to be made

between solving the burglary

and saying it didn't have anything to do

with Laci's disappearance.

I find that pretty unbelievable.

That would be an incredible coincidence.

One of the lead investigators, Jon Buehler, often told me,

there are no coincidences in murder investigations.

- Todd and Pearce, the two that we know

burgled the house across the street.

We don't know who else was in that burglary.

We know there were others.

There was just no desire to pursue

what the evidence was telling them.

I mean, it was the evidence that they just decided

to ignore and go with theory.

- Today marking the one-month anniversary

of Laci Peterson's disappearance.

Police right now expected any moment now

to walk up to the podium and give us the very latest

on their investigation.

The press conference of--

of all press conferences

was when they marched out Amber Frey.

- I am very sorry for Laci's family

and the--the pain that this has caused them.

Amber changed everything.

She became the focus.

- Wow, what a development that is.

- The missing woman's apparently perfect marriage

may not have been so perfect.

that he'd been having an affair.

And we felt that if he had not been truthful about that,

that possibly there's other things

he needs to talk to us about.

- Support for Scott Peterson has wavered

since police told Laci's family.

- I would like Scott to know that I trusted him

and stood by him in the initial phases

of my sister's disappearance.

However, Scott has not been forthcoming with information

regarding my sister's disappearance,

and I'm only left to question what else he may be hiding.

Scott had been declining

interview requests consistently.

- Now, when Amber Frey is out there,

nobody's looking for Laci.

Everybody thinks he's guilty.