So Close, but Such a Bad Liar

This blog is totally serious and not meant to be funny. Sorry if that disappoints you.

When John works in Idaho Falls on the occasional Saturday, I like to go with him and just spend the day reading books in Barns and Noble. Now, I think it is dishonest to just sit and read books in a book store without paying. That's what a library is for. I justify it by saying everyone else does it and every time I do need a book, I always get it from Barns and Noble even if it cost more money.

I just finished a book there about the Scott Peterson trail. For those of you who are completely unaware, he was convicted of the murder of his wife Laci Peterson and his unborn son Connor Peterson who went missing December 24, 2002. Laci was 7 1/2 months pregnant with their first child. Scott says that on Christmas eve, he left at around 9:30 in the morning to go fishing for the day. When he got home, he noticed that the dog was still on her leash and the back door unlocked. He grabbed something to eat, showered, washed his clothes, then noticed that his wife wasn't home. They were going to go to dinner at Laci's parents' house and called to see if she was there. From there, they called the police and it became a nation wide missing persons case.

The picture above was one that was plastered all over the TV in hopes of finding Laci. I wish I could give more information about her and her family, but I think you get the idea enough for me to explain my confusing about the trial.

Her body and the body of her fetus was found four months later in the same marina that Scott Peterson went fishing the day that she disappeared. It was undetermined if the fetus was born alive or not, but it was believed that he was sheltered for a long period of time (in the mom's womb) before he was exposed to the elements. Laci's body was found headless, armless, and cut off at the legs below the knees but with the tibia and fibula exposed.

And now here comes the confusing part. It's at least confusing to me. I don't know how he got convicted of murder when I feel that all the evidence was circumstantial. Well, now that I read the book I understand a little bit why. The only forensic evidence that they had was a strand of what they believe to be a strand of Laci's hair that was found in a pair of pliers in Scott's boat. There was both a witness that said Laci was in Scott's workshop 1 or 2 days before she went missing and an expert that said that 1/9 women in the Modesto area could have been the owner of that hair found in the pliers.

Couldn't the defense use that as enough to put reasonable doubt into the mind of the jurors? Well, not until you know how big of a liar Scott Peterson really is.

He stuck to the same story about the events that happened that day. He only changed a few details here and there, but I think everyone is guilty of that. It was his relationship with his mistress Amber Frey that made everything just a little to freaky to make his wife's disappearance weird. 14 days before his wife went missing, Scott told Amber that he had "lost" his wife and that that Christmas would be the first without her. Wow, then she goes missing? Here's the disgusting part. While his wife was missing (assuming he didn't murder her), he called Amber constantly as if nothing was wrong and even talked to her New Years Eve during his missing wife's candlelight vigil! Who the heck would have the audacity to do something like that!

His reason for not spending the holidays with Amber was because he was in Europe. He would call Amber from Modesto and make up elaborate stories about how he was at the Eiffel Tower during New Years Eve, when in fact he was at the Candle light vigil for his wife.

There were other small things that he did to cause me to believe that he did it. Little things that are too closely related to her death than could just stand alone as coincidences. Oh, and when the caught him, he died his hair, grew a goatee, had $14,000+ in his car, tons of clothes, shoes, and stuff to camp with to last months. Hmm, that much to be driving around with on the day that they find your wife's body? A little iffy to me.

I could go on and on forever and ever about this case, but I think this might be getting too long already. My conclusion is, I think he did it, but just because of the phone calls that he made between Amber Frey and other lies that he told. But based on solely forensic evidence, well, there is none. Other than that, I think my conviction is just because of how I feel emotionally about him, the disgust for his lies, rather than if I really feel he did based on facts. That would have been a tough jury to be on.

Scott Peterson was convicted of first-degree murder of his wife and second-degree murder of his unborn son. He is now on death row set to die by lethal injection.