Phone records also showed that Scott was planning to spend some time at his half sister’s house in Berkeley, California. Anne Bird called Scott early in the evening on January 22, to talk about Scott’s upcoming stay. She and her husband, Tim, were departing for Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on a pleasure trip, and offered Scott the use of their home while they were away.
“I’ll leave the key under the mat,” Anne said, then gave Scott the address. “The house is very distinctive; we just removed a shrub from the front yard.”
Investigators listening in on the call observed that Scott was giggling and sounded very upbeat while speaking to his sister. “I will leave Tim’s golf club for your protection,” Anne joked.
“Ha, ha, ha,” Scott replied.
“I just hope that … everything just somehow has some miracle ending.”
“Yeah, I know it will.”
“I mean everything so shitty has happened that something really good must be around the corner.”
“That’s what I’m figuring.”
Anne told Scott that she and Tim would be returning on February 2, and he was welcome to stay as long as he’d like. “Have you been sleeping okay?” she asked.
“I am up to about three hours right now, midnight to 3:00 A.M.,” Scott replied. “That’s better!”
“Murder She Wrote is on at 3:00 A.M.”
Scott laughed, “Ah, not a choice for me.”
“I know that is probably not good for you to watch her.” Anne told Scott that she would love to take her brother to Puerto Vallarta with them someday. “Hopefully, we will be going with Laci and your new little guy. I am really hopeful and feel strongly that she is being held somewhere.”
“Yeah, she’ll be back,” Scott said.
“Keep your chin up.”
The police used their wiretaps to keep tabs on Scott while they continued to search for Laci’s body. They found a tidal expert to review the Internet sites Scott had visited on his computer, which mapped an area near the Berkeley Marina. Grogan also ordered a sonar scan of portions of the San Francisco Bay. The detective believed there was a “very strong likelihood” that Laci’s body was in the bay. After a careful study of the computer sites, the expert advised Grogan that, depending on the amount of weight and the water current situation, it was possible that Laci’s body had been swept out of the bay, where it might never be retrieved.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
JANUARY 24, 2003
In late January, an unexpected turn of events abruptly changed both the tone and the focus of the investigation. Amber Frey was thrust into the spotlight when her name became public knowledge.
The identity of Scott Peterson’s girlfriend had been a mystery until a friend of Amber’s called into a radio show with the intention of defending her. Instead, the information she gave out—the fact that Amber was a massage therapist, and the location of the party she had attended with Scott on December 14—was all the press needed to identify the unknown woman.
By 10:30 that morning, reporters and photographers were surrounding the office building where Amber worked, trying to contact her. Panicked, she dialed Detective Buehler. By 12:30, the situation had escalated, and Amber placed a second call to headquarters. This time she suggested making a public statement that might appease them and make them go away. Buehler agreed that such a briefing, where she could address members of the press all at once, might be a good idea. With the help of the police, Amber prepared a statement for the press conference scheduled for 7:30 that evening.
In Amber’s brief remarks she admitted to a romantic affair with Scott Peterson, and stated that he had told her he was “unmarried.”
After the event, Amber was escorted into a rear training office, where several of Laci’s close friends were waiting for her. The police arranged for a meal to be brought in to headquarters so that the women could speak in private. One of them, Lori Ellsworth, had invited her to stay at her home that evening. It proved difficult for Amber to leave headquarters, since members of the press had staked out the exits. So the police had to escort her to Ellsworth’s home for the night.
The next morning, Amber met Sharon Rocha. During that meeting, Sharon would attempt to make sense of Scott’s affair, asking Amber to identify specific dates she had spent with her daughter’s husband. Sharon seemed anxious to understand these events, glancing at a calendar from time to time as if trying to recall Laci’s movements on those days.
Moments after the press conference, Craig Grogan made a series of phone calls. First he called Scott Peterson, alerting him that Amber had just gone before reporters. Scott had listened to the statement on the radio and simply expressed concern for her.
Grogan next dialed Scott’s mother. Jackie Peterson was angry, and berated the police for informing the media and the Rochas about Scott’s affair while deflecting any blame away from her son. She accused the department of embarrassing and humiliating Amber Frey.
“I think it’s very sad,” Jackie said during the call. “She’s only twenty-eight years old, and the whole world knows that she made a mistake a month ago… . You knew way beforehand this girl had nothing to do this … and you let her go through this, you let Sharon’s mother go through that, and then you hold a press conference to put her out there like a dog … doing it for a show. For what? For nothing. She had nothing to do with it. I was … I … I’m shocked if that’s police work. You should be looking at the people that take pregnant women that want babies that … criminals, parolees in your neighborhood, you should be looking at those kind of people.”
Once again Jackie was happy to disparage the police, yet she couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge her son’s wrongdoing, or place any responsibility with him. “I think from the very beginning you guys got some bug” about Scott, she told Grogan. “And I’m not saying you but your partner, he didn’t like Scott, he’s dead set Scott did it, and he’s gonna build a case against him. And that’s where the concentration’s gone. You don’t have a ton of people over there doing work.”
Jackie didn’t reveal that she’d already learned about the news conference from Scott, who had phoned her shortly after five o’clock. He told her he found it “bizarre” that the police department was playing a role in Amber’s statement to the press. Jackie Peterson had responded by telling her son that all of America was going to be “laughing their heads off, wondering what kind of city Modesto was.”
“It’s a witch hunt for an affair or a one-night stand,” Jackie stated. She then asked Scott to clarify which it was, an affair or a one-night stand.
Scott said he didn’t want to talk about it.
“Okay, I’ll have to watch it,” Jackie said, and warned her son not to have any more contact with Amber.
“Of course not,” Scott agreed.
Earlier, Jackie had instructed Scott to start “shredding” all of his paperwork before throwing it in the trash. Scott told her he’d never done it in the past, but agreed it was a good idea.
Later that day, Scott spoke to his father. He told Lee that he was upset about the media frenzy over his affair with Amber, but Lee advised him not to worry. “Everybody, I won’t say everybody, but two-thirds of the people in this country have affairs.”
Scott confided that he felt “dirty” for doing it, and told his dad it was “wrong.”
“A lot of people have them,” Lee sympathized.
“I did such a bad thing cheating on Laci,” Scott replied. “Having an affair is not that bad, believe me it isn’t, it was just the timing. It happens to more people than you can imagine.” Lee instructed his son to “stay the course” and advised him it was time to call his attorney and start a “media blitz.”
Jacobson was intrigued by this advice. “I, too, was waiting for Scott to come forward and accept responsibility for having an affair and to field questions relating to how this shouldn’t be viewed as a motive for foul play in her disappearance,” he recorded. “But such comments made by his mother and earlier comm
ents he himself made about the Modesto Police Department indicate to me that Scott Peterson may not have been raised to accept responsibility, but to deflect it on to others.”
Grogan recognized that while Scott was apologizing to all the right people, he was showing no remorse or guilt for his behavior. He was behaving in a textbook fashion—promiscuous, manipulative, impulsive, irresponsible—and now he was exhibiting the callous lack of conscience that is a shared trait among sociopaths. His father’s willingness to dismiss the affair must have bolstered his confidence.
The day after Amber’s announcement hit the airwaves, Detective Grogan sprang into action. Wanting a reaction from Scott, he dialed his cell number, wanting to leave a message that the police were continuing their search of the San Francisco Bay. When Scott answered the call, though, Grogan had to think on his feet.
“Um, I just wondered if you wanted to talk about Amber at all,” he asked Scott. “Now that all that stuff is out there?”
“No, I don’t see what there is, I mean you know, I’m … like I said, I’m glad she did it. Ah, I hope they leave her alone,” Scott replied.
“So, you have, you don’t want to make any kind of statement about that?”
“Oh, I don’t think there’s anything more to be said, I mean, well, you guys talked to her so you know about us and … that’s pretty much it.”
Later that afternoon, Scott called Grogan back to apologize for not coming clean to them about Amber Frey. But his momentary expression of regret for this lie wouldn’t stop him from lying again— this time in front of television cameras.
In the days ahead, the media reported that Scott Peterson had attended Super Bowl Sunday in San Diego on January 26. The Oakland Raiders were pitted against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Interestingly, the police had tracked Scott to the Berkeley Marina that very morning before he headed to the airport and boarded a plane for San Diego. Later Scott called his mother, telling her that Grogan had let him know that all the evidence leads to the San Francisco Bay, and that police intended to resume their search there.
Scott’s mother asked if Grogan was “crazy,” and wanted to know why he was calling her son. Scott replied that he believed the detective was looking to get a “reaction” out of him.
“I can’t imagine anyone being stupid enough to say they went fishing in the Berkeley Bay after having committed a crime there,” Jackie replied. “I mean, not even you, Scott.”
During the call, Scott told his mother that he wanted to talk with Good Morning America’s Diane Sawyer, and also to appear on 60 Minutes. He was ready to speak with select members of the press— on his terms. Jackie agreed that Scott should tell his side of the story, but she cautioned him to speak with his attorney first. She also said she wanted to travel to Modesto to be with him, so that he could show the media that he came from a good family.
The police grew concerned, however, when they overheard Scott’s father ask him about a trip to Mexico he was planning for the following weekend. Scott said would fly down, possibly from Fresno, and that he’d pass through San Diego some time during the week to drop off McKenzie. In recent days, the investigators had learned that he was looking to sell his house “as is,” had been cleaning out the warehouse, and intended to drop his dog off with friends or family. Now, with the news that he was planning a secret trip to Mexico, they worried that he was trying to flee the jurisdiction.
Scott’s passport had been confiscated, of course, but passports and travel documents were not required for a trip to Mexico. Fugitives from justice often cross the border and then flee to European countries where the United States does not have extradition treaties. Scott had plenty of friends and business associates overseas.
Another alarming thought was that Scott had not discussed the trip with anyone other than his parents. Was it a coincidence that Scott started planning the trip after Grogan told him that the investigation would now be focusing on the bay?
By now Scott had made at least five trips to the marina. Surveil-lance units had observed him sitting in his vehicle near the boat ramp, gazing out at the water.
“Scott may be curious as to where investigators are searching, what they may find, or what they might have found that they are not telling reporters,” Jacobson wrote.
As Scott prepared to brave the public eye, his forlorn lover went into seclusion. After the press conference, Amber Frey sequestered herself in an undisclosed location in Modesto. Journalists began calling her father, Ron Frey, and asking him to pass their interview re-quests along to his daughter.
Later, Ron Frey told Grogan that his daughter was being besieged with offers for interviews from media outlets including CNN, The O’Reilly Factor, and Larry King Live. Connie Chung had extended an offer to fly his daughter to New York, where she would “be treated special.” Some media groups were making monetary offers.
Amber was anxious, and unsure about how to proceed. On one hand, she was concerned about her finances, fearing that the hordes of journalists would prevent her from returning to work. And while she told her father she could certainly use the money, she didn’t want to make that a basis for her decision to appear in the media. She also wanted to protect the integrity of the police investigation and her daughter’s safety. In the end, Amber opted “not to get involved in any more media attention.”
Yet, with the affair now public knowledge, Scott Peterson suddenly became very available to the press. His first engagement would be with Good Morning America cohost Diane Sawyer.
Ironically, Scott’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law had appeared on the very same program with Charles Gibson the previous day— speaking out about Scott’s affair. During that interview, the women told Gibson that their view of Scott had changed since learning about Amber.
Gibson asked what Scott had told them about the affair.
“Absolutely nothing,” Sharon answered. “He was asked by one of our family members, about day three after Laci went missing, if he was having an affair. And he told us no at that time. And, since this has come forward, he’s denied it. And he finally did admit it to Brent, my son … ”
“Does this change your support of Scott?”
“It makes us, it gives a lot of doubt. There are other questions we have that if he wasn’t truthful about that, that makes us wonder if he’s been truthful about everything else.”
Sharon and Amy also brought their message to viewers of the CBS Early Show and Fox’s On the Record that day, unaware that Scott intended to appear before the cameras the following morning.
Dressed in slacks and a blazer, Scott sat one-on-one in the Los Angeles studio with Diane Sawyer. “As you know, he has said in the past that he was off fishing Christmas Eve, the day she disappeared,” Sawyer opened the piece by saying. “But now a girlfriend has gone public and his wife’s family has accused him of not telling all. I spent more than an hour and a half talking to him and his family about the police investigation and the girlfriend, and as you’ll see he was alternately composed and then, at times, in tears.
“But Peterson knows at this moment police have focused their investigation on him. And when he arrived for the interview, before any tears, he said he wanted to address the questions about the girl-friend and himself first.”
Sawyer’s first question to Scott was direct: “I think everybody sitting at home wants the answer to the same question: Did you murder your wife?”
“No, no ah, I did not,” Scott said. “And I had absolutely nothing to do with her disappearance. And you use the word murder, um, and right now everyone’s looking for a body and that’s the hardest thing because that is not a possible resolution for us. And you use the word murder and yeah, that is a, a possibility. Um, it’s not one we’re ready to accept and it creeps in my mind late at night and early in the morning and during the day all we can think about is the right resolution is to find her, well.”
“Did you ever hit her?” asked Sawyer. “Did you ever injure her?”
“No, no,
oh God no. Um, violence towards women is unapproachable. It is the most disgusting act, to me. I know that suspicion has turned [to] me, one, because I’m her hushand and that’s a natural thing, and, um, I, I answered your question because of suspicion it, it’s been turned to me of the inappropriate romantic, um, that I had with Amber Frey then.”
Sawyer asked Scott about the affair with Amber. “Why were you doing it?”
“I, I can’t answer that. I don’t know. That’s a, a, question you should have an answer to. Definitely, and I don’t know.”
“Were you in love with her?”
“No, I’d have to say that I respect her as, as I imagine everyone does after seeing her come out and do the press conference and [what an] amazing character she has,” Scott said.
“Was this the first time? Are there others out there?”
“No,” Scott replied. “Our romantic relationship and that is ah, it’s inappropriate and it was inappropriate and I owe a tremendous apology to, to everyone. Obviously, including Amber and her family and her friends and our families. Ah, it should have been, it should have been brought forth by me, immediately, the romantic relationship.”
“Had you told anyone? Did you tell police?”
“I told the police immediately.”
“When?”
“That was ah, the first night we were together with the police, I spent ah, with the police,” Scott said. It was another amazing example of Scott’s willingness to lie at a moment’s notice—even when he knew the lie would be exposed immediately. Did he truly believe he could con the world, or was it simply that he didn’t care about long-term consequences?
“You told them about her?”
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