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2026 JUNE UPDATE: Amber Frey FINALLY Revealed The Reasons Why Scott Peterson Killed His Family? — Transcript

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0:01Scott Peterson was a pathological
0:02[music] liar to me. Nothing he said
0:06was the truth. You [music] know, what
0:08can you believe that came out of his
0:09mouth?
0:11It's just all lies.
0:11>> He was standing in a crowd of people
0:13holding candles for his pregnant wife,
0:16hundreds of them, neighbors, strangers,
0:18her mother, her friends from college,
0:20people who had driven in from other
0:22towns because they had seen Laci's face
0:24on the news and could not sit at home.
0:26This was December 31st, 2002, 1 week
0:30after Laci Peterson vanished from her
0:32home in Modesto, California, 8 months
0:35pregnant, due in February, and at 4:20
0:38p.m., 10 minutes before that vigil
0:41officially started, Scott Peterson
0:43picked up his phone. He did not call the
0:45police. He did not call a search
0:47coordinator. He did not call a single
0:49member of Laci's family. Did not call
0:52his own family. Did not call the tip
0:54line that had been set up for
0:56information about his missing pregnant
0:58wife. He called Amber Frey, and he told
1:01her he was in Paris, near the Eiffel
1:03Tower, fireworks going off around him, a
1:05crowd so big he could barely hear her.
1:08>> Thank you.
1:10>> Can you hear me there?
1:11>> I can hear you.
1:12>> Can you hear
1:13>> I wish you could hear me.
1:15>> I'm on the uh I think I think I can hear
1:17you there.
1:18I'm
1:19near the Eiffel Tower. The music all
1:21around here is unreal.
1:23The crowd is huge.
1:25>> Friends named Pasquale and Francois at a
1:28bar, American pop songs playing. The
1:31celebration, he said, was unreal. The
1:34celebration was unreal because it did
1:36not exist. Scott Peterson was in
1:39Modesto, California, standing at his
1:42missing pregnant wife's vigil, with her
1:44mother nearby, with police officers
1:46nearby, with the community that was
1:48searching for a woman he already knew
1:50they would never find alive. And he was
1:53on the phone with the woman he was
1:54sleeping with, telling her about a trip
1:56to France that was not happening on a
1:58phone line that law enforcement was
2:00already recording. That is who
2:02investigators were dealing with. That is
2:04the man at the center of one of the most
2:06investigated murder cases in American
2:09history. Not a grieving husband making
2:11mistakes under pressure, not a confused
2:14person saying the wrong thing at the
2:15wrong time. A man running two complete
2:18realities at the same time, performing
2:20grief in one and performing romance in
2:22the other and not breaking a sweat in
2:25either. That phone call was played for
2:27the jury in August 2004. Every word of
2:30it, every lie of it. Amber Frey's
2:33attorney, Gloria Allred, confirmed the
2:36calls were lovey-dovey. Peterson called
2:39Frey sweetie, told her they could be
2:41wonderful together for the rest of their
2:43lives. And that was the man the
2:45prosecution said planned the murder of
2:47his wife and unborn son. 22 years later,
2:51in August 2024,
2:54Peterson sat for his first on-camera
2:57interview in two decades. A Peacock
2:59documentary called Face to Face with
3:01Scott Peterson, three episodes filmed
3:04inside Mule Creek State Prison. And when
3:07the interviewer asked him about the
3:08affair, about Amber, about all of it, he
3:11said this, "I certainly regret cheating
3:14on Lacy. It was about a childish lack of
3:16self-esteem. I was lonely and sought
3:19comfort in someone who made me feel good
3:21because they wanted to be with me."
3:22Childish. That is the word he chose.
3:25Sitting in a prison where he will die,
3:28convicted of two counts of murder,
3:30talking about the affair that the
3:31prosecution said was the reason Lacy had
3:33to die. Childish lack of self-esteem.
3:36And six days before that Peacock
3:39documentary aired, Amber Frey appeared
3:42on a different screen, Netflix. A
3:44documentary called American Murder: Lacy
3:47Peterson. Her first time speaking
3:49publicly about the case in years, and
3:51she said six words that close every
3:54argument Scott Peterson has ever made
3:57about his innocence. She said them
3:59calmly. She said them without flinching.
4:01She said them like someone who has been
4:03saying them to herself every day for 22
4:05years, and finally got the microphone
4:07again. And those six words are coming,
4:10but not yet. Because first, you need to
4:13understand the six documented layers of
4:15why prosecutors and investigators
4:17believe Scott Peterson killed his
4:19pregnant wife. What Amber revealed
4:22across two decades of testimony, her
4:24memoir, and her Netflix appearance. What
4:26investigative journalist Susan Hendricks
4:28said about one specific date, one Google
4:31search that she says screams
4:33premeditation. And what Nancy Grace said
4:35about the motive that no DNA test and no
4:38Innocence Project filing can touch. The
4:41gap between childish lack of self-esteem
4:43and what Peterson actually did in
4:45December 2002 is not a gap. It is a
4:48plan. What you are about to hear is a
4:50documented true crime case. Scott
4:53Peterson was convicted in November 2004
4:56of the first-degree murder of his wife,
4:58Laci Peterson, and the second-degree
5:00murder of their unborn son, Conner. He
5:03was initially sentenced to death. That
5:05sentence was overturned in 2020 by the
5:07California Supreme Court due to improper
5:10jury screening for death penalty bias.
5:13He was resentenced to life in prison
5:15without the possibility of parole in
5:17December 2021. Peterson maintains his
5:21innocence. His most recent habeas corpus
5:23petition was denied in April 2026. All
5:27facts presented in this video are
5:29sourced from confirmed court records,
5:31named documentary appearances, verified
5:34journalist statements, and publicly
5:36available legal filings. Laci Peterson
5:39was 27 years old, 8 months pregnant, due
5:42in 6 weeks. She and Scott had already
5:45picked the name for their son, Connor.
5:48The nursery was set up. The baby shower
5:50had already happened. This was not a
5:53woman whose life was in transition. This
5:55was a woman whose life was arriving. She
5:57was not someone who faded into the
5:59background of other people's stories.
6:01She was visible, present, organized,
6:04connected. Her friends, Lori Hinds,
6:07Stacey Boyers, Renee Tomlinson, all
6:09appeared in the 2024 Netflix
6:12documentary, and every single one of
6:14them described the same woman. A
6:17planner, a caller, someone who showed
6:19up, someone who reached out, someone
6:21whose absence would be noticed
6:23immediately, and it was. 10 days before
6:26she vanished, she was at a Christmas
6:28party. The photograph from that party
6:30became one of the most recognized images
6:32in the case. Lacy, smiling wide, visibly
6:36pregnant, surrounded by people. The kind
6:38of photograph that becomes evidence
6:40later, not because of what it shows, but
6:42because of what it proves about her
6:44state of mind, her engagement with her
6:46life, her proximity to the people around
6:49her. This was not a woman pulling away.
6:51This was not a woman in crisis. This was
6:54a woman 10 days from having her picture
6:56taken with her friends, and 6 weeks from
6:59meeting her son. Scott Peterson was a
7:01fertilizer salesman who worked out of a
7:03small warehouse in Modesto. He was
7:05described by the people who knew him as
7:08charming, cordial, likable, the kind of
7:11man who made a good first impression and
7:13kept making it. Detective G. Jon
7:15Bueller, who investigated the case for
7:17the Modesto Police Department, said in
7:19the 2024 Netflix documentary that he
7:22initially found Peterson to be charming
7:25and cooperative. But there was another
7:27side, a side that was guarded, a
7:29cooperation level that was always
7:32limited. There was a side of him that
7:34was guarded, and a cooperation side that
7:37was always limited, Bueller stated.
7:39Detective Al Brocchini, Bueller's
7:42partner on the case, recalled asking
7:44Scott if they could conduct a more
7:46thorough search of their home or the
7:47cars, the cell phones, the computers,
7:49just to cover every angle. Peterson
7:52initially nodded, but when they handed
7:54him a consent form, he asked, "Where's
7:56the trust, Al?" Brocchini told him they
7:58were trying to find Lassie. Peterson
8:00also declined to take a polygraph test.
8:03"Where's the trust?" His own wife's
8:05police search, they are asking to check
8:07his phone, his computer, his car, and
8:09his response is "Where's the trust?"
8:11Think about a man whose 8-month pregnant
8:14wife has not come home. Think about what
8:16you would say to the police. Think about
8:18what any husband would say. Check
8:19everything. Check my phone. Check my
8:21car. Check under the house. I do not
8:24care. Find her. Scott Peterson did not
8:26say that. Scott Peterson asked for
8:29trust, and then he declined a polygraph.
8:32That is the man the investigation built
8:34its case around. Charming in person,
8:36guarded underneath, cooperative until
8:39cooperation required transparency. And
8:41the break in the case, the moment the
8:43investigation went from a missing
8:45person's file to a murder investigation,
8:47did not come from a forensic lab, did
8:50not come from a DNA match, did not come
8:53from a surveillance camera catching
8:55something in the dark, it came from
8:57Fresno. On December 30th, 2002, 6 days
9:02after Lacy vanished, a woman named Amber
9:05Frey saw the news coverage. She saw
9:07Scott Peterson's face on television, the
9:10husband of the missing pregnant woman,
9:12and she recognized him because she had
9:15been dating him, because she had been
9:16sleeping with him, because he had told
9:19her he was single, because he had told
9:21her 3 weeks earlier that he had lost his
9:24wife. She picked up the phone. She
9:26called the Modesto Police Department,
9:28and she told Detective Al Brocchini
9:30everything. American Murder: Lacy
9:32Peterson, Netflix 2024. She did not
9:36hesitate. She did not lawyer up first.
9:38She did not wait. She was a single
9:40mother who had been lied to and who
9:42understood in that moment that the man
9:44she was seeing might have killed his
9:46wife. And the detectives asked her to do
9:49something extraordinary. They asked her
9:51to keep talking to Peterson, to pretend
9:53she did not know, to record every phone
9:56call, to let him keep lying because
9:58every lie he told on a recorded line was
10:01another brick in the prosecution's case.
10:04Amber said yes. She described the
10:06experience in her 2020 ABC interview,
10:10her stomach turning before every call.
10:12>> room and called the Modesto Police
10:14Department hotline that they had.
10:16[music] I was in shock.
10:18I mean, I literally was in shock.
10:21>> Her hands shaking, sweating, waiting for
10:23the phone to ring and then forcing
10:25herself to sound normal when it did. She
10:28did that for nearly 2 months. She
10:30recorded it all and those recordings
10:33became the backbone of the prosecution's
10:35case. On January 24th, 2003, 1 month
10:39after Laci disappeared, Amber Frey
10:42stepped in front of television cameras,
10:44flanked by her attorney Gloria Allred,
10:47and she told the country what she had
10:49done. She told them about Scott, about
10:52the lie.
10:52>> Peterson was a pathological liar [music]
10:54to me. Nothing he said
10:58was the truth. You [music] know, what
10:59can you believe that came out of his
11:00mouth?
11:02It was just a lie.
11:03>> About the relationship she believed was
11:05real and the wife she never knew
11:07existed. "Scott told me he was not
11:10married," Frey said in front of those
11:12cameras. "We did have a romantic
11:14relationship."
11:15>> me he was not married.
11:18We did have a romantic relationship.
11:21>> "I'm very sorry for Laci's family and
11:23the pain this has caused them."
11:25>> I am very sorry for Laci's family
11:29and the the pain that this has caused
11:32them.
11:35And I pray for her safe return as well.
11:38>> Laci's family, who at first had stood by
11:41Scott during the initial phase of the
11:43disappearance, watched that press
11:45conference and the case turned because
11:48now the investigation had an affair, a
11:50motive, recorded phone calls, and a
11:52timeline that pointed in one direction.
11:55That is the background. That is who
11:56Amber Frey is in this story, not a side
11:59character, not a scandal detail, the
12:01most important witness in the case, the
12:03woman who turned a missing person's
12:05investigation into a murder case, and
12:07the woman whose recorded phone calls
12:09would be played for a jury 8 months
12:11later in the most watched courtroom in
12:13the country. If you're watching this,
12:15take 1 second and hit that subscribe
12:17button. This is the kind of case where
12:19you need to be here for what comes next
12:23because what comes next is the six-layer
12:26motive picture that prosecutors
12:27assembled across two decades of
12:29courtroom testimony, documentary
12:31interviews, and the words of the people
12:33who were closest to both sides of this
12:35case, and it starts with a single date,
12:38December 9th, 2002, 15 days before Laci
12:42Peterson disappeared. Amber Frey was a
12:44single mother, 27 years old, a massage
12:48therapist in Fresno, California. She met
12:51Scott Peterson through a mutual friend,
12:53Shawn Sibley, in November 2002. Their
12:57first date was November 20th, 2002.
13:00Peterson told her he was single. He told
13:03her he was not married. He told her
13:04nothing about a wife, nothing about a
13:06house in Modesto, nothing about a
13:08nursery with the name Connor on the
13:10wall. What he did tell her, and this was
13:12confirmed in trial testimony, was that
13:15he was interested in something real,
13:17something lasting. He showed up with
13:19gifts. He made her dinner. He played
13:21with her daughter. He caressed her face
13:23with rose petals and soft kisses. He did
13:26not present himself as a man looking for
13:28something casual. He presented himself
13:30as a man looking for a partner for a
13:32life, for a future. And Amber, in her
13:352005 memoir Witness for the prosecution
13:38of Scott Peterson, described exactly
13:41what that felt like. She described
13:43herself as a single mother who thought
13:45she had hit the jackpot, a handsome,
13:47charming man who seemed to want what she
13:49wanted, who seemed to be available, who
13:51seemed to be telling the truth. That is
13:54the setup. Not a fling, not a late-night
13:56phone number. A relationship built on a
13:59lie so complete that the woman inside it
14:01was making plans for a future that could
14:04never exist unless the obstacle was
14:06removed, and the obstacle was Lacy, and
14:09the obstacle was Connor. Now, the first
14:12motive layer. On December 6th, 2002,
14:16something happened that set the entire
14:18timeline in motion. Shawn
14:20[clears throat] Sibley, the mutual
14:21friend who had introduced Amber to
14:22Scott, found out that Peterson was
14:24married. She confronted him directly.
14:26She told him to tell Amber the truth or
14:28she would do it herself. Peterson now
14:31had a problem. His double life was about
14:33to collapse. The woman he had been
14:35seeing thought he was single. The friend
14:37who introduced them had just found out
14:39he was lying, and his pregnant wife was
14:42due in 6 weeks. On December 7th and 8th,
14:45the day after the confrontation, court
14:48records show Peterson was on his
14:49computer searching for used boats,
14:52looking at sales listings. This was
14:54confirmed by Lidal Wall, a Stanislaus
14:57County Sheriff's Department investigator
14:59who examined five hard drives seized
15:01from Peterson's home and office. And
15:04then came December 9th. Scott Peterson
15:07called Amber Frey, and he told her
15:09something very specific. He told her he
15:11had lost his wife. He said this would be
15:13the first holidays without her. He did
15:16not say they separated. He did not say
15:18they divorced. He said he lost her, past
15:21tense, gone. 15 days before Lacy
15:24Peterson disappeared from her home in
15:26Modesto, California, her husband was
15:29already describing her as someone who
15:30was no longer alive. He was already
15:33living in a future where she did not
15:34exist, already constructing the
15:37narrative he would need when she was
15:39gone. The Netflix documentary in 2024
15:42addressed this timeline directly. The
15:45filmmakers pointed out what prosecutors
15:47had argued at trial, that the
15:49probability of a man coincidentally
15:51telling his girlfriend his wife was dead
15:53and then having that wife actually die 2
15:56weeks later is not explained by
15:58coincidence. It is not explained by a
16:00poor choice of words. It is not
16:02explained by a misunderstanding. It is
16:04explained by a man describing what he
16:06was about to do. And here is what makes
16:08December 9th the most critical date in
16:11the entire motive picture. It was not
16:13just the day he told Amber he had lost
16:15his wife. It was 1 day after something
16:18else, something Susan Hendricks
16:19identified as the clearest evidence of
16:22premeditation in the entire case,
16:24December 8th, 2002, the day before he
16:27called Amber Frey and said he had lost
16:30his wife, the same weekend he was
16:32looking at used boat listings, the same
16:34period his double life was starting to
16:37crack. Peterson sat at his computer and
16:40he searched for something that had
16:41nothing to do with fertilizer sales,
16:43nothing to do with Christmas shopping,
16:45nothing to do with a life of a man
16:47preparing to become a father in 6 weeks.
16:50He searched the title patterns of San
16:52Francisco Bay. Investigative journalist
16:54Susan Hendricks, author of Down the
16:56Hill, My Descent into the Double Murder
16:58in Delphi, and a regular contributor to,
17:01stated this on the record, "I remember
17:03on December 8th, which screams
17:05premeditation to me, he Googled the Bay
17:08tide for that time, San Francisco Bay,
17:12the body of water where, 4 months later,
17:14the badly decomposed remains of Lacy
17:16Peterson and her unborn son Conner
17:18washed ashore. Court testimony from
17:21investigator Liddell Wall confirmed the
17:23full scope of what Peterson searched,
17:26not just tide charts, fishing
17:27information for the bay, currents in San
17:30Francisco Bay, boat ramp locations in
17:32the area, multiple websites, multiple
17:34searches across December 7th and 8th.
17:37The Netflix documentary analyzed this
17:39search in detail. They presented two
17:42possible interpretations. The first, the
17:45defense interpretation, was that
17:46Peterson was planning a fishing trip and
17:49needed to check conditions. The problem
17:51with that theory is that he did not own
17:53a boat yet on December 8th. And when he
17:56later told police he went fishing on
17:58December 24th, he said the decision was
18:00spontaneous, made that morning. The
18:03second interpretation of the
18:05prosecution's case is that Peterson was
18:07researching where to dispose of a body,
18:10looking at the tides, looking at where
18:12the water moves and where it does not.
18:15Looking at how to access the bay without
18:17being seen. Now, hold those dates
18:19together. December 8th, he searched San
18:22Francisco Bay tidal patterns. December
18:259th, he told his girlfriend he had lost
18:28his wife. December 24th, his wife
18:30disappeared. April 13th and 14th, 2003,
18:34the remains of Conner and then Laci
18:37washed ashore in San Francisco Bay, less
18:40than 2 miles from the Berkeley Marina,
18:42the same marina where Peterson claimed
18:45he went fishing alone on Christmas Eve.
18:47That is a 16-day window. Search,
18:51declare, act, and then wait for the
18:53water to do what the tide charts said it
18:55would do. You tell me that is a
18:57coincidence. You tell me a man
18:59researches the tidal patterns of a
19:00specific body of water, tells his
19:02girlfriend his wife is dead the next
19:04day, purchases a boat he tells no one
19:07about, takes that boat to that same body
19:09of water on the day his wife vanishes,
19:11and then her body surfaces in that exact
19:14water. And all of that is explained by a
19:16childish lack of self-esteem. Susan
19:18Hendricks did not think so, and she said
19:21something else, something about the
19:22woman who made the phone call that
19:24cracked this case open. If it had not
19:27been for Amber Frey coming forward, I
19:29sometimes wonder if the case would ever
19:31have been cracked. Sometime in December
19:332002, the exact date was debated at
19:36trial, but the purchase occurred within
19:39the same critical cease window. Scott
19:42Peterson bought a 14-ft aluminum fishing
19:45boat. He told almost no one, not Lacy,
19:49not his family, not his in-laws, not his
19:52friends. He stored it in his work
19:54warehouse, the same building where he
19:56ran his fertilizer business. And on the
19:58morning of December 24th, 2002, and
20:01Christmas Eve, the day Lacy Peterson was
20:04last seen alive, court records show
20:07Peterson spent approximately 26 minutes
20:09on the computer inside that warehouse
20:11before he left. 26 minutes on the
20:14computer at the warehouse where the boat
20:17was stored on the morning prosecutors
20:19say he killed his wife. He then drove to
20:22the Berkeley Marina on San Francisco
20:24Bay. He told police he went fishing
20:26alone on Christmas Eve in December in
20:30cold weather with gear that prosecutors
20:32pointed out at trial was not suited for
20:35the type of fish he claimed to be
20:36catching, sturgeon and striped bass. He
20:39went to a body of water he had
20:40researched the tides for on December 8th
20:43in a boat his wife did not know about,
20:45alone on the day she vanished. When
20:48Detective John Buellor learned about the
20:50affair, learned about the secret boat,
20:52learned about the December 9th phone
20:54call, when the investigation began
20:56peeling back the surface of the charming
20:58cooperative husband, he said in the
21:01Netflix documentary the words that
21:03changed the direction of the case. Now,
21:05we found the other side of Scott
21:07Peterson that nobody knew about. Now, we
21:10have some actual solidified proof that
21:12there's something going on here.
21:14Something going on here. Three layers.
21:17The December 9th call, the December 8th
21:20Google search, the secret boat. Three
21:23moves, all within the same three-week
21:26window. All pointing in one direction,
21:28and Scott Peterson's explanation for all
21:31of it, given 22 years later from inside
21:33a prison where he will spend the rest of
21:35his life, was one word, childish. During
21:38the 2004 trial, prosecutors built a
21:40specific argument about Peterson's
21:42motive. They did not make it
21:44complicated. They did not build a
21:46psychological profile full of theories.
21:48They built it out of arithmetic. He had
21:51a wife. He had a baby arriving in 6
21:53weeks. He had a girlfriend who thought
21:55he was single. And the arrival of Connor
21:57would make the life he was building with
21:59Amber impossible to maintain. A baby
22:02does not stay hidden. A baby requires
22:04hospitals, birth certificates, family
22:06involvement. A baby makes the double
22:08life permanent, or it makes the double
22:11life collapse. Nancy Grace, former
22:13prosecutor, legal commentator, stated
22:16her analysis directly. He didn't want to
22:19be a dad, didn't want to pay child
22:21support, didn't want to pay spousal
22:22support. And this is the way he thought
22:24about getting out of it. That is not
22:27psychological speculation. That is the
22:29prosecution's core theory, stated
22:31plainly. A man who wanted out, who saw
22:35one path, and who took it. And the most
22:37painful confirmation of that motive came
22:39not from a prosecutor, or a detective,
22:41or a journalist. It came from Laci's own
22:43mother. When Peterson was resentenced in
22:45December 2021, Sharon Rocha addressed
22:48the court. She looked directly at
22:50Peterson.
22:50>> directly and forcefully to Scott
22:53Peterson. During court today, we heard
22:55her say things like, um, you need to
22:58tell the truth, take responsibility for
23:00the murder of Laci and Connor. She
23:01called him evil, self-centered, and said
23:04his act was unforgivable. She said,
23:05"You're a coward. You're afraid of being
23:07criticized, and that's why you didn't
23:08just divorce Laci. Instead, you planned
23:11her murder." She said that
23:13>> And she said, "You didn't want the
23:14responsibility of being a father. You're
23:16a coward." That is a mother in a
23:19courtroom speaking to the man convicted
23:21of killing her daughter and her
23:23grandson, naming the motive in the
23:25simplest possible terms. You did not
23:27want to be a father, so you made sure
23:29you would never have to be. And there is
23:31one more detail from the trial testimony
23:33that almost never gets discussed in
23:35these analyses. One detail that sits in
23:38the record and waits to be noticed. On
23:40December 23rd, 2002, the day before
23:44prosecutors believe Peterson murdered
23:46Laci, he told Amber Frey he wanted them
23:48to meet with a doctor to discuss having
23:51a vasectomy. December 23rd, the day
23:54before his pregnant wife vanished. He
23:57was talking to his girlfriend about
23:59permanent birth control. Think about
24:01that. Think about a man whose wife is
24:03due in 6 weeks, and who is telling the
24:06other woman in his life that he wants to
24:08make sure there are no more children,
24:11ever. That is not a man who expects to
24:14be a father in February. That is a man
24:16who has already decided. Amber Frey did
24:19not describe herself as a casual
24:21encounter, not at trial, not in her 2005
24:24memoir, not in her 2024
24:27Netflix appearance. She described a
24:29relationship that was moving toward
24:31something real. A man who was present,
24:34who invested time, who showed up
24:35consistently, who made gestures that
24:38signaled permanence, not someone looking
24:40for temporary. Comfort. In her memoir,
24:43Frey wrote about the weeks they were
24:45together, and how she began to see a
24:47future with Peterson, how she could
24:49picture marrying him, how the life he
24:52was presenting seemed like the life she
24:54had been hoping for, a partner, a
24:56stepfather for her daughter, a man who
24:58appeared to be choosing her. That is the
25:01tragedy inside the tragedy. Amber Frey
25:04was not a knowing participant in a
25:06crime. She was not a co-conspirator. She
25:09was not someone who understood what she
25:11was involved in. She was a single mother
25:13who met a man through a friend and
25:15believed him when he said he was
25:17available. She was his plan. And here is
25:20the part of this that does not get
25:22discussed enough. When Amber Frey
25:25finally learned the truth, when she saw
25:27Scott Peterson's face on television and
25:29realized the man she was dating was the
25:31husband of a missing pregnant woman,
25:33>> Amber Frey started cooperating with
25:35police as soon as she learned that the
25:36man of her dreams
25:38was really a married man whose wife had
25:41disappeared and he had been lying to her
25:44all along.
25:45>> She could have done anything. She could
25:47have hung up. She could have walked
25:49away. She could have protected herself
25:51and stayed quiet. She did the opposite.
25:54She called the police. Within hours, she
25:56agreed to record every phone call.
25:58>> her a tape recorder with some cassette
26:00tapes and a wire that can hook onto her
26:02phone and I told her, "Okay, if he ever
26:05calls, just push these two buttons and
26:09just talk normal."
26:11>> She sat through weeks of conversations
26:13with a man she now suspected of murder,
26:16knowing that every word she said had to
26:18sound natural, had to keep him talking,
26:21had to not tip him off. Amber Frey
26:23described what that felt like in her
26:252020 interview with Good Morning
26:27America. She said, "Seeing this woman,
26:30knowing she's missing, she's pregnant,
26:32being a mother, at that point, it wasn't
26:34about me. It wasn't about me." That is
26:36Amber Frey. That is the woman Scott
26:39Peterson chose as his cover story, his
26:42exit plan, his version of a future that
26:44required his wife to be dead. And the
26:47irony, the deep structural irony, is
26:50that the woman he used as his alibi for
26:52a new life is the same woman who handed
26:55the recordings to police, sat on the
26:57witness stand, and delivered the
26:59testimony that helped convict him. He
27:01picked the wrong woman. He lied to the
27:04wrong woman. And Amber Frey, the single
27:07mother from Fresno who thought she had
27:09met someone worth trusting, turned out
27:11to be the most important witness in the
27:13entire case. Peterson had built a second
27:15life, not an affair, a second life with
27:18a woman who believed he was single, who
27:20believed his wife was dead, who believed
27:22the future he described over dinners and
27:24phone calls and rose petals was a future
27:26he intended to build. And the only way
27:29to make that future real with a pregnant
27:31wife at home, a baby due in weeks, a
27:33family that knew him, a community that
27:36saw him at the Christmas party 10 days
27:38earlier, the only way to cross the
27:40bridge from the life he was pretending
27:41to live with Amber to the life he
27:43actually lived in Modesto, was to make
27:45the lie he told on December 9th come
27:47true. He told Amber he had lost his
27:49wife. Then he made sure he had. This is
27:52where the case shifts from motive to
27:54consciousness of guilt, and the evidence
27:56here is not circumstantial, it is
27:58documented, it is recorded, it was
28:00played for a jury. After Lacy
28:02disappeared on December 24th, Scott
28:05Peterson did not stop calling Amber
28:07Frey. He continued for nearly 2 months.
28:09He called her from the vigil, telling
28:11her he was in Paris. He called her on
28:13New Year's Day, telling her they could
28:15be wonderful together for the rest of
28:17their lives.
28:18>> Hello.
28:19>> Amber.
28:20>> Hello.
28:21>> Amber.
28:22>> I can hear
28:24>> Amber.
28:25>> I can hear
28:27>> Amber, can you hear me? It's me, Harris.
28:29>> I know. I can hear you.
28:31>> Amber, it's me, it's Harris. Can you
28:33hear
28:34>> In a later call, he described jogging on
28:36cobblestone streets in Belgium. Amber
28:38could hear a dog barking in the
28:40background. Prosecutors told the jury
28:42that was McKenzie, the Peterson's golden
28:45retriever, barking in the yard of the
28:47Modesto house where Lacey had last been
28:50seen alive. He was not in Belgium. He
28:53was in his dead wife's backyard lying on
28:56a recorded line. When those calls were
28:58played for the jury, when those 12
29:00people sat in a Redwood City courtroom
29:03and listened to a man telling his
29:04girlfriend about Paris and Belgium and
29:07the Eiffel Tower while his pregnant wife
29:09was missing and her family was holding
29:11candles and the police were searching
29:12the same water he had researched on his
29:15computer, the courtroom went silent. Two
29:17weeks of testimony, audiotape after
29:20audiotape, a man performing love in one
29:23ear and grief in the other and not
29:25missing a beat. But the calls were not
29:28the only behavior prosecutors flagged.
29:30He attempted to sell Lacey's car while
29:33she was still classified as a missing
29:34person. He attempted to sell their home
29:37with all the furniture while the
29:38community was still searching for her.
29:40His phone was tracked by investigators.
29:43His truck was tracked by GPS.
29:45And the data showed something that Buell
29:48described as one of the most telling
29:50details in the entire investigation.
29:53Peterson drove to the Berkeley Marina,
29:55the area where he had gone fishing on
29:57December 24th, the area on San Francisco
30:00Bay where he said he was alone that
30:02morning, and he watched the police
30:04search the water. He went back to the
30:06water, not to help, not to search, not
30:08to assist, to watch. That is not what an
30:11innocent man does. That is what a man
30:13does when he needs to know if they have
30:15found what he put there. When Lacey's
30:17and Connor's remains were found in April
30:192003, washed ashore near the Berkeley
30:22Marina, near the exact spot Peterson had
30:25told police he was fishing, Peterson was
30:28arrested in San Diego near the Mexican
30:30border. His hair was bleached. He had a
30:33packed car, cash, multiple cell phones,
30:36his brother's ID. It looked,
30:38investigators said, like a man preparing
30:41to run. And here is the detail Detective
30:43Buehler shared in the Netflix
30:45documentary that tells you everything
30:47about Peterson's consciousness of guilt.
30:50On the drive from San Diego back to
30:52Modesto, after Peterson had been told
30:54that the remains had been identified as
30:56Laci and Connor, the detective stopped
30:58for food. Peterson was asked what he
31:00wanted, and he was ready. He had his
31:02In-N-Out Burger order picked out. No
31:05hesitation, no grief, no shock, just an
31:08order. Buehler said in the documentary
31:10that the notification did not surprise
31:12Peterson, that only the person who put
31:14Laci in the bay would have already known
31:16what they were going to find, that the
31:18lack of surprise was the tell. To me,
31:21that was an enormous red flag on the
31:23fact that the notification didn't
31:24surprise him, that he already knew the
31:26results of this from 4 months earlier,
31:28and that he really didn't care. He was
31:30ready to eat. Six layers, all
31:33documented, all sourced. December 8th,
31:36he Googled San Francisco Bay tidal
31:38patterns. December 9th, he told Amber he
31:41had lost his wife. December 2002, he
31:44secretly purchased a boat and told no
31:46one. December 23rd, he discussed a
31:49vasectomy with Amber. December 24th,
31:52Laci vanished. Peterson claimed he went
31:55fishing alone at the Berkeley Marina.
31:57April 2003, Laci's body surfaced in San
32:00Francisco Bay near that same marina. And
32:03the man responsible for all of it, what
32:05the man convicted of all of it, sat in a
32:07prison interview room in August 2024 and
32:10told a camera crew that the affair was
32:13about a childish lack of self-esteem.
32:15That is the reveal, not a hidden
32:17document, not a sealed file. The reveal
32:20is the distance between Peterson's words
32:22and his actions. The reveal is the gap
32:24between what he said in 2024 and what
32:27the evidence says he did in 2002. When
32:30they asked him about the prosecution's
32:32argument that he killed Laci because he
32:34did not want to be a husband or a
32:36father. He said, "That is so offensive
32:39and so disgusting." Offensive?
32:41Disgusting? And then he offered his
32:43alternative explanation. The affair was
32:45about loneliness. He was traveling.
32:48Someone made him feel good. That is what
32:50he said. That is the explanation he
32:52chose to give after 22 years of
32:55imprisonment. He also claimed that after
32:57Laci disappeared, he kept calling Amber
33:00because he wanted to keep police focused
33:02on finding his wife. That by staying in
33:04contact with Amber, she would not come
33:07forward and complicate the search. That
33:09was his explanation. He called his
33:11girlfriend from a vigil, pretended to be
33:13at the Eiffel Tower, told her they could
33:15be wonderful together to protect the
33:17search for his missing wife. And Susan
33:19Hendricks did not let that explanation
33:22stand. On I See If I'm Wrong, when
33:24confronted with Peterson's
33:25characterization of the affair, when
33:27confronted with a convicted murderer
33:29calling a three-week premeditation
33:31window childish, Hendricks pointed to
33:34the one date that destroys it. December
33:378th, the Google search bay tide
33:39patterns, one day before he told Amber
33:42his wife was gone, 16 days before his
33:45wife actually vanished. "It screams
33:48premeditation," she said. She is right
33:51because you do not Google tide charts
33:53out of childish self-esteem. You do not
33:56secretly buy a boat because you are
33:57lonely on a business trip. You do not
34:00tell your girlfriend your wife is dead
34:02and then make it happen because of a
34:03lack of self-esteem. You do not research
34:06tide patterns and boat ramps and bay
34:08currents because someone made you feel
34:10good. That is not a gap between
34:12explanation and evidence. That is a plan
34:15narrated by the man who executed it and
34:18minimized by the man who wants you to
34:20forget. And here is what makes
34:22Peterson's 2024 interview so revealing.
34:26Not because of what he said, but because
34:28of what he left out. He did not mention
34:31the December 8th Google search. He did
34:33not explain why he searched Bay tides
34:36before he owned a boat. He did not
34:38address the December 9th phone call
34:40where he told Amber his wife was dead 15
34:43days before she actually disappeared. He
34:46did not explain the vasectomy
34:47conversation on December 23rd. He did
34:50not explain why he drove to the Berkeley
34:51Marina and watched police search the
34:53water where Lacy's body was later found.
34:56He did not address any of it. He said
34:58childish. He said self-esteem. He said
35:00lonely. And then he said the accusation
35:03that he killed Lacy because he did not
35:05want to be a father was so offensive and
35:07so disgusting. Offensive. Sharon Rocha,
35:10Lacy's mother, found it offensive, too.
35:13But not the accusation, the act. The man
35:16who killed her daughter and her grandson
35:18and then sat in a prison for 22 years
35:21and called the motive disgusting while
35:23offering no alternative explanation that
35:26accounts for a single one of the
35:27documented facts. Peterson also told the
35:30Peacock documentary that he kept calling
35:32Amber after Lacy disappeared because he
35:35was trying to keep her from going to
35:36police. He said, "Stay in contact with
35:39Amber, I thought, and she wouldn't get
35:41into the picture, complicate it, ruin
35:43the search." He was protecting the
35:45search by calling his girlfriend from a
35:47vigil and telling her he was in Paris.
35:50By calling her on New Year's Day and
35:51saying they would be wonderful together.
35:54By describing fireworks at the Eiffel
35:56Tower while his wife's family lit
35:58candles in a park. That is the
36:00protection he offered and the jury heard
36:03all of it. And the jury convicted him.
36:05Six [clears throat] days before
36:06Peterson's Peacock interview aired,
36:09Amber Frey appeared on a different
36:11screen, Netflix. American Murder: Lacy
36:15Peterson, released August 14th, 2024.
36:19Three episodes directed by Sky Borgman.
36:23Amber had not spoken publicly about the
36:25case in years. She had gone back to
36:27Fresno. She was raising her children,
36:29working as a massage therapist, living
36:32the quiet life she had built after the
36:34most public trial of her generation
36:36pulled her into the spotlight at 27
36:39years old, but she chose to come back
36:41for this documentary. She chose to sit
36:43in front of a camera again. And when
36:45they asked her about Peterson's ongoing
36:47claims of innocence, about the Innocence
36:50Project taking up his case, but at the
36:52safe in about the possibility that
36:54everything she testified to could be
36:56revisited, Amber Frey said this, "I
36:59would have been willing to testify
37:00again. The truth doesn't change over
37:03time. The truth doesn't change over
37:05time." Six words, but listen to what
37:07those words carry. She recorded the
37:10phone call. She sat in the courtroom.
37:12She heard Peterson describe Paris while
37:14his wife's family held candles outside.
37:17She heard him discuss a vasectomy the
37:19day before prosecutors say he killed
37:22Lacy. She heard every lie. She was in
37:25side every lie. And after 22 years, and
37:27after a Peacock documentary, after a
37:30habeas petition, after the Innocence
37:32Project, after every attempt Peterson
37:34has made to reframe what happened, she
37:37said the truth does not change. That is
37:40not emotion. That is not anger. That is
37:43not a woman who has been carrying a
37:45grudge for two decades. That is
37:48certainty. The kind of certainty you
37:50earn when you were inside the lie. When
37:52you heard his voice on the phone
37:54describing fireworks that did not exist.
37:57When you heard him say "sweetie" while
37:59his pregnant wife's mother was holding a
38:01candle outside. When you sat on a
38:03witness stand in Redwood City and
38:05watched 12 jurors' faces as they heard a
38:08man invent a trip to Paris that never
38:10happened. Amber Frey gave that testimony
38:13in August 2004. She walked into a packed
38:17courtroom in 2-in black stiletto heels
38:20at 9:28 in the morning. She spent 4
38:23hours on the stand on her first day. Her
38:25testimony stretched 2 weeks. She
38:27answered every question. She let the
38:29audio play. She sat there while the
38:32courtroom heard the voice of a man
38:34telling her how much he loved her while
38:36his wife was either missing or dead,
38:39depending on which reality Peterson was
38:41performing in at the time. And 20 years
38:43later, when they asked her if she would
38:45do it again, she did not hesitate. She
38:47did not qualify. She did not add context
38:50or caveats. She said the truth does not
38:53change over time. Peterson called it
38:55childish. Amber called it the truth. And
38:58the truth,
39:00the documented, recorded, testified
39:02under oath, played for a jury truth, is
39:06that Scott Peterson planned the murder
39:08of his wife and unborn son and used
39:11Amber Frey as the framework for the life
39:14he intended to live after they were
39:16gone. Scott Peterson continues to
39:18maintain his innocence. He has
39:20maintained it since April 2003. The Los
39:23Angeles Innocence Project took up his
39:25case in early 2024. They sought DNA
39:28testing on multiple items of evidence,
39:31including a piece of duct tape found on
39:33Lacy's remains and items from a
39:35burned-out van found near the Peterson
39:37home. A judge in May 2024 allowed
39:40testing on only one item, the duct tape.
39:43In August 2025, the LA Innocence Project
39:46filed a habeas corpus petition, their
39:49third, alleging that new evidence proved
39:51Peterson was wrongfully convicted and
39:54that jurors relied on unreliable
39:56scientific evidence.
39:58On April 28th, 2026, San Mateo County
40:01Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Hill
40:03denied that petition. The LA Innocence
40:06Project disagreed. Their deputy
40:09director, Hannah Brown, called the
40:11ruling a profound misunderstanding and
40:13misapplication of the law applied to
40:16habeas corpus petitions. They stated
40:18they intend to appeal to a higher court.
40:21One other matter remains pending. A
40:23separate habeas petition concerning a
40:26claim that juror seven committed
40:27misconduct by providing false answers on
40:30her juror questionnaire is currently
40:32before the California Supreme Court on
40:35appeal from a 2025 ruling. Stanislaus
40:38County District Attorney Jeff Rauguerro
40:41was direct after the ruling. No credible
40:43new evidence was presented. Peterson's
40:452004 conviction has been upheld through
40:48two decades of post-conviction
40:50litigation and again with this ruling in
40:522026. Lacey, Connor, and their family
40:56deserve the finality that justice
40:59promised them. And Detective Al
41:01Brocchini, who worked the original case,
41:04who knocked on Peterson's door, who
41:06asked for permission to search and was
41:08told where's the trust, was as direct as
41:11he has ever been. When asked about the
41:13Innocence Project's effort, he said, "I
41:16believe this is bulls. There's no
41:18reasonable doubt. He did it. Jury got it
41:20right."
41:22Amber Frey has not made new public
41:24statements in 2026. Her most recent
41:27confirmed public appearance was the
41:29August 2024 Netflix documentary American
41:33Murder Lacey Peterson. What this video
41:36presents is the most comprehensive
41:37assembly of everything Amber Frey has
41:40revealed across 22 years. Her 2004 trial
41:43testimony, her 2005 memoir, and her 2024
41:47Netflix documentary interview, combined
41:50with the investigative analysis of Susan
41:52Hendricks, Nancy Grace, and the
41:54detectives who built the original case.
41:56This is not a new 2026 statement from
41:59Frey. This is the full picture. And here
42:02is what that full picture shows. A man
42:05searched bay tide charts on December
42:078th, told his girlfriend he had lost his
42:10wife on December 9th, secretly purchased
42:13a boat, discussed a vasectomy on
42:15December 23rd, reported his wife missing
42:18on December 24th, claimed he was fishing
42:21alone at the Berkeley Marina, called his
42:24girlfriend from a candlelight vigil 10
42:26minutes before it started and told her
42:28he was at the Eiffel Tower, continued
42:31calling her for 2 months, sold Lacy's
42:33car, tried to sell their house, drove
42:36back to the Marina and watched police
42:38search the water, was arrested near the
42:40Mexican border with bleached hair, cash
42:42and multiple phones. And when they told
42:44him they found Lacy's body in the water
42:47he had researched near the Marina he had
42:49visited from the boat he had hidden, he
42:51ordered lunch. Peterson called the
42:53affair childish. Hendricks called the
42:56December 8th search premeditation. Nancy
42:59Grace called it a plan to avoid
43:01fatherhood. Sharon Rocha called it
43:03cowardice. And Amber Frey, the woman who
43:06was inside the lie from the beginning,
43:08who recorded every call, who sat on that
43:11witness stand, who testified against the
43:13man she once believed she would marry,
43:15she said the only thing that needed to
43:17be said, "The truth does not change over
43:20time. Not after 22 years, not after a
43:22prison interview, not after a Peacock
43:25documentary, not after a habeas
43:26petition, not after an Innocence Project
43:29filing, not after 116 pages from a judge
43:32saying the evidence is not new, not
43:35admissible, not material. The truth does
43:38not change. And that truth, assembled
43:41across trial testimony, a memoir, two
43:43documentaries and the analysis of every
43:46investigator and journalist who has
43:47spent years inside this case, tells you
43:50why Scott Peterson killed Lacy and
43:53Connor Peterson. Not because of childish
43:55self-esteem, because she was in the way.
43:58Because a baby was coming. Because the
44:00double life had an expiration date.
44:03Because Shawn Sibley found out on
44:04December 6th and the clock started.
44:07Because December 8th, he researched
44:09where the water goes. Because December
44:119th, he rehearsed the story he would
44:13need. Because December 23rd, he was
44:15already planning a life with no
44:17children. Because December 24th, he
44:19drove to the bay with a boat his wife
44:21did not know about. And because for 22
44:24years since, through every appeal, every
44:26petition, every documentary interview,
44:29every claim of innocence, he has never
44:31once offered an alternative explanation
44:33that accounts for any of it. Not the
44:35Google search. Not the December 9th
44:38call. Not the secret boat. Not the
44:40vasectomy. Not the Eiffel Tower lie. Not
44:43the drive to the marina to watch police
44:45search the water. None of it. He has
44:47called the motive offensive. He has
44:49called the affair childish. And he has
44:51asked you to trust him the same way he
44:53asked Detective Brochini where the trust
44:56was, while declining a polygraph, while
44:58hiding an affair, while his pregnant
45:00wife's nursery sat empty. Amber Frey did
45:03not ask for trust. She handed over the
45:06recordings. She sat on the stand. She
45:09told the truth. And she said the only
45:11thing that needed to be said, "The truth
45:14does not change over time." Scott
45:16Peterson was convicted in November 2004
45:19of the first-degree murder of Laci
45:21Peterson and the second-degree murder of
45:24their unborn son, Conner. He was
45:27initially sentenced to death. In August
45:292020, the California Supreme Court
45:32overturned his death sentence due to
45:34improper jury screening. In December
45:372021, he was resentenced to life in
45:40prison without the possibility of
45:42parole. In April 2026, his third habeas
45:46corpus petition was denied by San Mateo
45:48County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth
45:51Hill. The LA Innocence Project has
45:54stated they will appeal. A separate
45:56petition concerning juror seven
45:58misconduct is pending before for
46:00California Supreme Court. Peterson
46:02maintains his innocence. Amber Frey's
46:04statements are sourced from her August
46:062004 trial testimony in Redwood City,
46:09California. Her 2005 memoir Witness for
46:13the Prosecution of Scott Peterson, her
46:15December 2022 statement to Fox News
46:18Digital via attorney Gloria Allred, and
46:22the Netflix documentary American Murder:
46:24The Lacey Peterson released August 14th,
46:282024. Her most recent confirmed public
46:31appearance was in this Netflix
46:33documentary. She has not made new public
46:36statements in 2026. Scott Peterson's
46:39statements are sourced from Face to Face
46:41with Scott Peterson, the three-part
46:43documentary series released on Peacock
46:46on August 20th, 2024. Susan Hendricks'
46:49and Nancy Grace's statements are sourced
46:52from Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
46:54confirmed transcripts. John Buell and Al
46:57Brocchini's statements are sourced from
47:00both the Netflix and Peacock documentary
47:02series August 2024 and confirmed
47:05published reporting. Sharon Rocha's
47:07statement is sourced from the December
47:092021 resentencing hearing confirmed by
47:12NBC News. All legal statuses confirmed
47:16as of June 2026.

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