American Murder: Laci Peterson

This case riveted the American news in the late 1990's. A beautiful young pregnant woman goes missing on Christmas Eve and the most obvious suspect is her husband, Scott. I am very familiar with the story because I followed it closely at the time it happened. This documentary does not really offer anything new; however, it does a good job of summarizing all that happened in and around the disappearance, investigation, arrest, and trial. The documentary is filled with modern interviews with investigators and family. It is also filled with archival news footage. It is sad, but good. I know Peterson is still actively trying to overturn his conviction and claiming his indiscretions had nothing to do with her murder. This is three episodes but not too long.

Laci Peterson, an eight-month pregnant woman, was reported missing by her husband, Scott, and later found deceased alongside her fetus. This case became one of the most notorious murder cases in America, sparking a media frenzy and intense public interest. Nearly every American media network has produced a documentary on this case, the latest being Netflix's three-episode miniseries on it.

The series is excellently crafted, showcasing the entire case through genuine audio clips and video footage. It features interviews with individuals intimately connected to the case, including family members and friends of both Laci and Scott, lawyers, detectives, reporters, and jurors, as well as dated news segments and original documents.

This documentary adopts a unique approach by revealing the case's verdict at the start, then delving into the backstory and the events that led to it. I found that to be quite intriguing.

Despite its strengths, this documentary, like many others, attempts to shamelessly exploit people's emotions by focusing the camera on their faces for too long in hopes of capturing their distress and tears. Additionally, there were instances where the documentary seemed to show bias, which was something I did not appreciate.

Overall, this is an informative documentary and a MUST-WATCH for true crime buffs.

This is one of the better true crime docs I've seen, and I've seen a lot.

True crime is a tough genre, as there's sometimes too much emphasis on the procedural aspect while forgetting that this happened to a real person with a real family.

This series made me feel like I understood the person Laci was and why people loved her. The interviews from her friends and mother especially showed so much of her personality and heart when she no longer can. Knowing the person she was made me all the angrier when they examined the evidence towards her husband. How someone can snuff out a life like that and then go on as if nothing happened is something I will never understand.

I'm too young to have seen any of the media surrounding this when it happened, so I'm glad they put out this series to show another generation what happened ( And to prevent the husband from ever leaving prison. I know there are still people saying he is innocent which astounds me.)

Overall a good true crime docuseries that respects the victim and displays the facts while still showing other's opinions. Would recommend.

If you already know this case inside out, there is nothing new or noteworthy here, other than getting caught up with people you've come to care about like Laci's mom Sharon (what a fierce lady), Laci's friends, the detectives, the reporters and the bada$$ Amber Frey. This film doesn't cover too much of the trial, if you want to deep dive on the evidence presented in court and other details I recommend the podcast 'The Prosecutors' starting with Episode 51. It is a 6 part series on this horrific crime and one of the best deep dives on this case. This is a Skye Borgman production and the focus and title stay focused on Laci. The difficult part to watch (and hard to swallow) is the delusion of Scott's sister and sister-in-law. They are really disconnected from what happened to Laci and the obvious fact that their brother did it. When they start complaining about how they were treated walking out of court after the guilty verdict you just want to fast forward. But in true Skye Borgman fashion, she makes sure to give a voice to both sides. At least this documentary wasn't paid for by the Peterson family or the shameful innocence network in LA (not the original innocence Project) that skewed the facts in evidence on that documentary that came out a few years ago before his appeal. Thank god the courts denied it.

I watched the documentary and as I am studying social psychology, I was thinking about the extreme denial of the husband's family and realising that accepting the fact that he was capable of murdering his wife but most of all their innocent unborn grandson/nephew/half-brother was something they would never allow for because they probably feel that this means they failed themselves. Failed as parents (which is not always true because psychopaths can often come from loving families) or failed themselves because they don't want to think they didn't see through his lies and his act - even though this kind of people can get everyone fooled.

It's actually not new, I know a son whose father set fire to his mother and all his 6 children, including the son who managed to be saved by fire fighters as the only one. Nobody caught the father with the lighter in his hand but absolutely every part of his life and this day was a clear proof and the jury also didn't have any doubt. And yet, the son that the father tried to kill has been fighting the whole world for years to defend his father, still standing by the side of a toxic, narcissistic psychopath that wanted to kill him and it's so sad and unbelievable to watch.

As for this case, I can see that it gets as far as the family members actually posting comments here pretending to be different people knowing that the husband is innocent and I mean, it could look believable that a couple of the comments might be about that but it's just so disturbing to see that they are trying to convince everyone that half the people familiar with the case are thinking that the husband is innocent. That shows how much they are trying to convince themselves this is what others will think once they read what they have to say. But if you do some basic research, you will see that there have never been and still aren't any people (apart from the family) who are sure everything is just a lie and the husband was wrongly accused. Also, some of the comments are straight up lies, e.g. The famous Innocence Project fighting his case. The real Innocence Project does NOT believe the husband is innocent and it's easy to check online.

Anyway, I found it difficult to listen to the almost unbelievable level of denial shown by the family, so the comments here made it even more difficult and me feeling less sympathetic towards the family. I'm so sorry Laci had to meet him. And maybe you do need to look at yourself, family, some narcissists are actually brought up to be this way and will not get better with encouragement.