Netflix’s American Murder: Laci Peterson dives into the infamous true crime case once more, but there’s one detail in the investigation that’s left out – and it’s related to the boat.
For the uninitiated, Laci was reported missing on Christmas Eve, 2002, by her husband Scott Peterson. She was 27 at the time and eight months pregnant with their first child, Conner.
What followed was a media storm and a nationwide search, with detectives turning their focus to the number one suspect, Scott.
Numerous details came to the fore amid their investigation, including that Scott had secretly purchased a boat and a fishing license in the days leading up to Laci’s disappearance.
On the day she went missing, he’d taken the boat out around 90 miles from their California home.
A few months later, Laci and Conner’s remains were found washed ashore just a few miles from where Scott had been fishing that Christmas Eve. This led to his arrest and a guilty conviction for the murders.
While Netflix’s new docu-series explores the various details that led to his arrest, speaking directly with officers involved in the case as well as Scott and Laci’s family members, American Murder doesn’t cover the mysterious anchors discussed in the 2004 trial in huge detail.
According to the autopsy, it appeared Laci’s body had been weighted down to the sea floor before breaking apart and washing ashore. Detectives who searched Scott’s warehouse, which he kept for his job as a fertilizer salesman, discovered a homemade concrete weight.
They also testified to finding a cement residue on various items including a pair of shoes, his truck, and the wooden bed of a boat trailer, the latter of which was said to have five circular areas where there was less dust.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Scott had made five cement anchors and used four of them to weigh down Laci’s body.
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As for why this wasn’t discussed in American Murder in great detail, it could be because this was never verified – and no additional anchors were ever recovered.
The defense team argued that Scott had made just one weight as an anchor for his boat, using the rest of the bag of cement to fix his driveway.
Many conflicting accounts followed – prosecution witness Robert O’Neill, president of Micro-Chem Laboratories, testified that the cement from the driveway was different to that used for the anchor as it contained gravel-like rocks.
However, concrete expert Steven Gabler argued otherwise, with defense lawyer Mark Geragos suggesting the rocks had already been on the drive when Scott poured the cement on it, causing them to mix.
Despite the prosecution’s compelling argument, the mystery surrounding the anchors remains one of the many ambiguous details in this polarizing case.
Although he’s currently serving life in prison without parole for the murders, Scott has never admitted to the crimes. In fact, he’s currently fighting for a retrial, with the LA Innocence Project (which isn’t affiliated with the Innocence Project) picking up the case.
On the other end of the scale to Netflix’s docu-series, Peacock is releasing Face to Face with Scott Peterson later this month, which is set to explore alternative theories while speaking directly to Scott from prison.
Face to Face will be streaming on Peacock from August 20, while American Murder: Laci Peterson is on Netflix now. For more true crime, read about what happened to Lou Pearlman, Melissa Witt, and Phil Spector.