Adding to TV's true crime craze, A&E has unveiled The Murder Of Laci Peterson, a docuseries that retraces the grisly 2002 murder of expectant mother Laci Peterson. It's billed to tackle a number of big-picture issues about the case and the criminal justice system surrounding it, but it also raises a handful of smaller but still intriguing questions. For example, who lives in Laci Peterson's house now?
First, some context for those unfamiliar with the story. As reported by ABC, Laci, then 27, disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002. She was eight months pregnant at the time. Four months later, her body washed up on the shores of San Francisco Bay, about a mile away from where authorities discovered the body of her unborn baby the day before.
Laci's husband, Scott Peterson, told police he'd been fishing the day she went missing and plead not guilty in the trial that followed; In 2004, he was convicted of first-degree murder for Laci and second-degree murder for their unborn son and sentenced to death. In a newly released phone call featured in the A&E documentary, Peterson still claims he is innocent. He remains on death row today at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, California.
According to Fox News, prosecutors alleged that Peterson's motive was to escape married life and his impending fatherhood — accusations exacerbated by Amber Frey's claims that she'd had an affair with Peterson while he was still married. Per CNN, police believe Laci was killed in the Petersons' Modesto home.
As reported by People, the 1949 bungalow-style house was purchased by Gerry Roberts for $390,000 following Laci's murder — over double the $177,000 price the Petersons had first paid for it. By 2006, Roberts had been trying to sell the house for five months and was facing foreclosure when an unnamed married couple stepped in with interest. They later bought it for just under its $350,000 asking price. CNN reported in 2012 that the house was for sale again, listed at less than $200,000, though it's currently marked as "off the market" with an estimated value of $299,082 on real estate website Trulia. It's unclear if anyone lives there today. Perhaps The Murder of Laci Peterson will have some firmer answers about this and other details of the case.
