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Laci Peterson Was Pregnant When She Disappeared — What Happened to Her Child?
Questions arose at trial over whether Laci Peterson's unborn child died with her in her uterus, or if she gave birth before her murder.
It’s been two decades since Scott Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner, in a murder investigation and trial that riveted and stunned Americans.
As attorneys with the Los Angeles Innocence Project fought in court in July 2024 to get evidence and reexamine the case, Scott Peterson continued to protest his innocence from the Mule Creek State Prison in California. Twenty years later, he will share his story on the three-part Peacock docuseries, Face to Face with Scott Peterson, streaming August 20.
The question of whether the baby was born alive or died in the womb was one of the biggest questions of the case, as Peterson’s defense attorneys “argued that Laci Peterson was abducted by someone who cut the baby out of her stomach, then dumped both bodies into the San Francisco Bay to frame Scott Peterson,” SF Gate reported. So just what happened to Laci Peterson and her son, Conner?
How did Laci Peterson die?
Scott Peterson told police that his wife, Laci, was alive when he left their home in Modesto, California on Dec. 24, 2002 to go fishing in Berkeley Marina, about 90 miles away. When he returned home, he claimed she was gone, and he reported her missing.
Laci was eight months pregnant at the time with their baby boy, who they planned to name Conner, according to NBC Bay Area.
Officers continued to search for Laci for three months, until March 2003, when police began investigating the missing person case as a homicide case. One month later, the bodies of Laci and her unborn son washed ashore, about a mile apart — and just a few miles from where Scott Peterson claimed he’d been fishing the day of their disappearance.
No official cause of death could be determined for Laci Peterson. Her corpse, when found, was in bad condition, according to SF Gate, and missing its head, arms, most of the legs, and all of the internal organs except the uterus. A forensic anthropologist at Peterson’s trial said her body appeared to have been submerged in the bay for three to six months.
Prosecutors argued Peterson murdered Laci, then dumped her body in the San Francisco Bay, using handmade concrete anchors to weigh her down.
How did Laci Peterson's unborn son, Conner, die?
Pathologist Dr. Brian Peterson testified during Scott Peterson’s trial that for at least a portion of time, unborn baby boy Conner was protected by the elements of the bay in his mother’s uterus, according to SF Gate, and his body was more intact than his mother’s when it washed ashore.
"It does tell us that the baby was in the womb for many months after Laci was in the water and Laci in fact protected the baby until the baby came out shortly before the bodies were found," forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden said on Good Morning America.
Dr. Peterson cited that Conner’s umbilical cord appeared to be torn, not cut or clamped, as it would be after birth, SF Gate reported. Her uterus had not returned to a more normal size as it does after giving birth. Meconium was also found in the baby’s bowels, which is developed in the uterus by fetuses, and is the first stool passed after birth.
"Truly, I believe that for whatever reason Laci met her demise, it was her death that caused the death of [the baby]," he said during the trial.
So how did Conner get separated from his mother? He was "expelled" by her decaying body after her death, Dr. Peterson testified, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Peterson’s defense attorneys argued that the baby was possibly strangled after he was born, because twine was found around his neck. But Dr. Peterson said there were no bruises or injuries on the baby’s neck, and he theorized the twine was just debris from the water that became tangled around the baby, SF Gate reported.
Forensic anthropologist Alison Galloway also testified at the trial, and estimated Conner’s age to be between 33 and 38 weeks based on bone measurements, but admitted the estimation wasn’t exact because of the state the body was in.
“I hate to say mushy, but that was sort of the way it was, and that doesn’t allow you to get an accurate measurement,” Galloway said, according to News on 6.
On Nov. 12, 2004, the jury found Scott Peterson guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Laci, and second-degree murder in the death of his baby son, Conner. He was sentenced to death in March 2005, before the California Supreme Court agreed with his appeal to move him off death row in Dec. 2021.
The three-part Peacock docuseries, Face to Face with Scott Peterson, begins streaming August 20. The series will also air on Oxygen on Monday, November 25 at 8/7c.
