Laci Peterson

About Laci Peterson

Laci Peterson, born Laci Denise Rocha (May 4, 1975– c. December 2002), was the subject of a highly discussed and highly publicized missing-person case after she went missing while seven and a half months pregnant with her first child. Laci was last seen alive on December 23, 2002. Her husband, Scott Peterson, is currently on death row at San Quentin Prison, convicted of murder in the first degree for Laci, and in the second degree for their unborn son.

Laci Denise Rocha was born in Modesto, California. Her parents, Dennis Robert Rocha and Sharon Ruth Anderson, met in high school and married shortly after graduation. Their first child, Brent Joseph Rocha, was born in 1971. Laci was the couple's second child, born in 1975. Her parents separated after Laci's first birthday. Dennis later remarried and had another daughter, Amy. Laci grew up on her family's dairy farm in Escalon, CA, and she was a cheerleader in junior high and high school. After graduating from Thomas Downey High School, Laci attended California Polytechnic State University. At Cal Poly, she majored in ornamental horticulture. She hoped someday to open a specialty plant shop. She lived with boyfriend Kent Gain, but the couple later broke up. While at Cal Poly, Laci met Scott Peterson at a small restaurant in Morro Bay called Pacific Café. Laci gave a friend her phone number on it to give to Scott, who eventually called her. On their first date, Scott took Laci fishing. She got seasick, but Laci confided in her mother Sharon that she had met the man she was going to marry. In December 1996, Scott and Laci became engaged, and they married on August 9, 1997, a few months before Laci's graduation. For the first two years or so of their marriage, they delayed trying to have children, but Laci began to express interests in starting a family. In December 2000, they decided to try for a pregnancy. It took longer than expected, and on the verge of scheduling fertility tests, Laci and Scott Peterson conceived naturally in May 2002. It was later reported that Scott said, when asked how he felt about the pregnancy, that he had "hoped for infertility." Sharon Rocha stated in her book that she did not think Laci knew about this. Laci's excitement of becoming a mother was evident in the entries she wrote in a diary throughout her pregnancy. The baby was due on February 10, 2003, and the couple planned to name their son Conner Latham Peterson. [10][11][12]

Apart from her husband, the last people known to have spoken to Laci before her disappearance were her half-sister, Amy Rocha, who cut Scott's hair and showed Laci how to style her hair on the evening of December 23, 2002 at Salon Salon. That same evening, Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, talked to her on the telephone shortly thereafter, around 8:30 pm. Shortly after 10:00 am the following morning, a neighbor found the family dog, a golden retriever named McKenzie, running loose in the neighborhood, wearing a collar and a muddy leash. The neighbor then returned McKenzie to the yard. Laci's 1996 Land Rover Discovery SE sport utility vehicle was in the driveway, and her Louis Vuitton purse, containing her keys and cell phone, was hanging in the bedroom closet.