Laci Peterson’s Mom Reveals 1st Impression of Scott Peterson After Daughter Told Her About Him

Sharon Rocha, the mother of Laci Peterson, recently shared her initial impression of Scott Peterson, her daughter’s husband and convicted murderer, as she’s set to appear in the upcoming Netflix docuseries American Murder: Laci Peterson.

“I remember, before I met Scott, Laci was telling me all these things about him,” Sharon recalled in a trailer for the docuseries, released on Tuesday, August 6. “And I remember saying, as her mother, ‘I hope he’s not filling her with crap.'”

The matriarch has since changed her tune, telling producers, that she’s now “learned to go with her gut feeling.”

Laci was 27 years old when she disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002. At the time, she was eight months pregnant with the couple’s son, Connor. Initially, Scott assisted in the search for his missing wife, but he soon became the prime suspect after it was discovered he was having an affair with a woman named Amber Frey.

Four months after she went missing, Laci’s body was discovered in San Francisco Bay, with the body of the unborn baby found a mile away.

Scott was arrested four days later but maintained his innocence, claiming he was fishing when Laci went missing.

In 2004, following a high-profile trial, Scott was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death row in 2005.

Nearly two decades later, a significant development occurred in 2020 when Scott achieved two major legal victories. In August 2020, the California Supreme Court overturned his death penalty sentence, citing jury selection errors by the trial judge and granted him the opportunity for a new penalty phase trial. Two months later, the California Supreme Court directed a lower court to reexamine his case to determine whether his guilty verdict should be overturned.

In 2021, Scott’s death sentence was officially revoked during a hearing and he was resentenced to life in prison. He later sought a new trial but the request was denied by a San Mateo County Superior Court judge.

The Los Angeles Innocence Project — which provides free legal services to incarcerated people who may have been wrongfully convicted — took on Scott’s case in 2024 and claimed in legal filings that new evidence “supports Mr. Peterson’s long-standing claim of innocence.”

“They’re looking forward to their day in court,” a source exclusively told In Touch on February 1. “With the [Los Angeles] Innocence Project on their side, Scott and his lawyers believe they will triumph.”

People close to the case spoke out following the development, with a cousin of Laci’s saying the L.A.-based group was “barking up the wrong tree,” adding, “As far as we’re concerned, it’s a done deal: He killed Laci.”

The Netflix docuseries, which is set to premiere on the streaming service on August 14, features new interviews with those involved in the case — including Scott’s mistress.

“So what do you want to be together with me?” Amber can be heard asking in a recorded phone call with Scott in the docuseries trailer.

“For the rest of our lives I think we could care for each other,” Scott replied back.