Body of Crime | Murder in Modesto - BONUS: The Alternate Theories

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Crystal Garcia

Host

Jose Medina

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Body of Crime is a true crime podcast for crime lovers. Join hosts, Crystal, Joe, and Alicia as they present cases and dissect each body of crime. Rather your love is to hear true crime stories, research, debate, and / or even attempt to solve some of the world’s most intriguing cases, we have you covered. Get ready to put your detective hats on and take some notes – you never know which mysteries will get messier with each case!

Murder in Modesto – Bonus Episode – The Alternate Theories of Why Scott Peterson Could Be Innocent Afterall – (Bonus)
Season I – Fri, 13 October 2023

INTRODUCTION
Welcome fellow True Crime Enthusiast to today’s case file and Bonus Episode in the Murder in Modesto Series, The Alternate Theories & Why Scott Peterson Could Be Innocent Afterall. A special Friday the 13th release for our more hardcore listeners.

In the quaint Californian city of Modesto, where palm trees line the winding streets, Scott Lee Peterson and Laci Peterson prepared for their last and final holiday as a couple without a child. Laci was 7 and half months pregnant and their son, Conner, was due on February 10th, in time for Mother’s Day. On Christmas Eve, Laci, radiant as ever, almost eight months pregnant and on the cusp of motherhood, mysteriously vanished into thin air. Laci had been overjoyed in anticipation for her unborn son, Conner, to bless her perfect family. But as Christmas approached, something dark and sinister was playing out behind the scenes, shrouded in a cloak of darkness, hidden behind lies and half-truths, her husband Scott Peterson, was having an affair with a Fresno masseuse named Amber Frey.

Laci’s disappearance threw the small town of Modesto into the national spotlight, and immediately dampened the festive Christmas season, with family, friends and strangers all coming together to help find the missing young soon-to-be mother. The house on Covena Avenue, once brimming with holiday cheer, a Christmas tree, sitting in the living room with unopened presents underneath, turned into the epicenter of a mystery that would captivate and horrify a nation. With every tick of the clock, the heartbeat of hope grew fainter. As the search intensified, and detectives poured over what little evidence remained of Laci’s disappearance, Scott Peterson, her husband went from person of interest to main suspect.

But did the Modesto detectives rush to judgement? Did they zero in on Scott due to his inability to show any semblance of emotion for his missing bride and unborn son? As Scott began drowning in an ocean of lies, odd behavior and a mistress that began working with the police to ensnare the unsuspecting and often aloof Scott, he quickly became a prime suspect for the Modesto detectives investigating the disappearance. When the remains of Laci and Conner washed ashore at the very location Scott had used as an alibi, he was quickly apprehended and arrested. But what other sinister activities were happening in Modesto? Did the detectives fail to keep an open mind as they investigated? Is it possible that tunnel vision, and a dogged focus on Scott placed blinders on the detectives, not allowing them to see other potential threats in the small town of Modesto that could have abducted and murdered Laci?

THE PROSECUTIONS TAKE
We’ve discussed the Scott Peterson trial in detail! Scott was tried and quickly found guilty of 1st degree murder of Laci Peterson and 2nd Degree murder of Baby Conner. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection, but through appeals, he was able to reduce his sentence to Life in Prison without the possibility of parole. The prosecution had done a solid job of painting an image of Scott Peterson as an uphappy husband, who had decided to kill his wife, rather than to suffer through a divorce that both his family and friends would disapprove of. He had planned on a happier future with his mistress, Amber Frey, who was completely unaware of his marital status. Unfortunately, the ever-clever Scott told detectives that he had gone fishing on Christmas Eve at the Berkely Marina and when his wife and son turned up in the San Francisco Bay, no one thought it was a coincidence.

To the prosecution, Scott Peterson was not the bereaved husband but a mastermind, an orchestrator of deception. With every piece of evidence presented, they sought to depict a chilling narrative: that of a man eager to cast away the chains of impending fatherhood, craving the intoxicating allure of freedom and other romantic liaisons. The boat, the fishing trip on Christmas Eve, the peculiar purchase of concrete blocks – were these the tools and alibis of a premeditated plot?

The inconsistent stories, the clandestine affair; every revelation seemed to tighten the noose around Scott's fate.

Yet, as the story unraveled, one couldn't help but wonder: Was this narrative a true reflection of reality? Or were the threads of this tale woven so tightly that they concealed other truths, and other possibilities?

ALTERNATE THEORIES
When Geragos, the high-profile Los Angeles attorney who, took charge of Scott’s defense, made his opening remarks, he told the jury that he would prove Scott was “stone cold innocent”. He was determined to prove that Scott had been judged by the media and presumed guilty, but that evidence he would present, would prove that Scott was not responsible for Laci’s death.

The jury would wait for Geragos to make his move and follow through on his promise, but as the case wound down towards closing statements, the defense fell short of its promise and the jury was left holding its breath in anticipation. Today we look at those alternate theories and discuss whether they are viable and could have proven Scott innocent.

1. The Medina Burglary Theory (Joe):

Between December 24th, the day that Laci Peterson went missing, and December 26th, the day that the media began accumulating and camping around the front of the Scott’s Covena Avenue home, there was a burglary at Rudy and Susan Medina’s home. The Medina’s had left town for the holidays, leaving early on December 24th around 9am and arrived back home around 10pm on December 27th. Upon finding their home burglarized, they ran outside, where the police were helping maintain security of Scott’s media inundated home, and yelled, “We’ve been robbed,”.

The Medina Burglary Theory is the ultimate “What If” scenario and one that Scott Peterson himself has routinely referenced as a primary alternate theory to Laci’s disappearance. In this theory, Laci would have had to leave her home between 10:08am and 10:18am on the morning of December 24th, giving her a 10-minute window to be abducted. This is the validated time that we know Scott left his residence where his cell phone pinged the tower in his neighborhood and the time when Susan had seen McKenzie, the Peterson dog, and placed the dog in the backyard, with his leash still on. Keep in mind, Scott & Laci lived on a dead-end street, so Scott would have potentially passed the burglars as he went to work, and as they headed to the Medina home.

The burglars could not have been there when Scott left between 9:48am, the time that he recalled Martha Stewart referencing the Merengue Cookies on the show he stated he and Laci were watching, and 10:08am the time that his cell phone pinged in the neighborhood, as he drove away, because he would have seen the burglars.

This means that the burglars would have had to arrive at the Medina home after Scott left for his office at 10:08am, broken into the home, stolen lawn and tools from the shed in the backyard, stolen jewelry, and removed an 800lb safe with a dolly, placed the safe into the a “van”, been engaged by Laci, abducted Laci, and left the Medina residence by 10:18am, the time that Karen Servas was leaving and found McKenzie roaming in the street. Karen would have also seen the burglars if they had not left the residence by 10:18am when she found McKenzie.

In contradiction of the above timeline, Diane Jackson, an elderly neighbor called the police on December 27th, 2002, at 6:30pm, three days after she witnessed a light-colored van at the Medina residence, on December 24th, at 11:40am, with three dark-skinned males standing around, loading a safe. She claims she initially mistook them for landscapers, but after hearing about Laci and the burglary a few days later, it clicked that she had witnessed a crime. They three suspects stopped what they were doing when she passed by, seeing the rear door on the back of the light-colored van open. She would later say that the van could have been brown, she couldn’t recall anything further, aligning with another alternate theory, the Brown Van Theory. When asked if she could identify any of the men, she had seen that day, she said that she could not.

The police eventually caught two of the burglars that had broken into the Medina residence when someone snitched on Steven Todd, the main culprit, who erroneously said he had committed the burglary on December 27th. That was impossible since the Medina’s returned the night of December 26th. Todd then corrected himself and said the burglary occurred on the morning of December 26th. Todd stated that he had ridden his bicycle to the neighborhood around 3am looking for something to steal and had gotten into the backyard of the Medina residence by jumping their fence. He had stolen lawn equipment and power tools from their unlocked shed and left with those items.

He then returned and kicked in the French Doors in the back of the home and gained access to the home. He burglarized the home and used a dolly to move the 800lb safe to the porch of the house. He then left and got Glenn Pierce, his inept sidekick, who then returned to the residence in a white sedan and assisted Todd in moving the safe by placing it on the front seat of the car. They took the safe to a location where they used tools to crack the safe open and remove the contents.

Is it possible that Todd lied about the date of the burglary to remove suspicion from himself, and he encountered Laci on December 24th, between 10:08am and 10:18am, while trying to move the safe from the porch to the car?

No. The Medina’s were still home on December 24th until about 9:30am when they left. He definitely could have jumped the fence immediately after they left and came back to the house between the 10-minute window that Laci had to disappear, but Todd was a meth addict, and his version of events are highly probable and in alignment with his MO and his previous crimes. He had a lengthy record of burglarizing homes. No history of violence or murder.

Todd was quickly captured when someone snitched on him. Todd then snitched on his accomplice, Pierce. As a result, he got a reduced sentenced, instead of the 25 to life that he was facing as a three-strike felon. Pierce had an otherwise clean record and only spent 180 days in county jail. It is very likely that if they would have had anything to do with Laci, one of them would have spoken. Additionally, a few days later a woman connected to the pair returned all the stolen jewelry from the Medina burglary, throwing it through the police department entryway and running away.

Two weeks after Laci’s disappearance, a Police Corrections LT overheard a conversation between an inmate by the name of Ted J. who called his brother and told his brother that Laci had walked up on Todd committing the burglary, and that he had made some types of verbal threats to her. When detectives interviewed Ted, he denied knowing Todd or admitting that the conversation had occurred. Regardless, the conversation was hearsay and couldn’t be used in court as neither of the individuals were witnesses of the crime.

2. The Satanic Cult Theory (Crystal)

Another theory that was presented by the defense, and was brought to Geragos attention by Lee Peterson, was the theory of a Satanic Cult abducting Laci and sacrificing her and Baby Conner. In the book “Presumed Innocent,” author and investigative attorney, Matt Dalton, claims to have been investigating the satanic cult connection to Laci’s disappearance in early 2003. He refers to December 24th as a satanic holy day, known as the “High Grand Climax”, which calls for a sacrifice.

This theory was high speculative and there was never any evidence that connected any satanic activity to Laci’s disappearance. A 1992 FBI report that investigated over 12,000 allegations of illegal activity by satanic groups in the U.S. concluded that there was no evidence of satanic cults operating in the country. Similar large-scale studies by Great Britain and the Netherlands came to the same conclusion.

This was more fear monger and misdirection by the defense team than it was actually evidence-based conclusions. Dalton goes further attempting to connect a series of missing pregnant women with this satanic cult theory. These women included:

• Dena Raley McCluskey who disappeared from Modesto on 10/10/1999 at 36 years old, who we now know was murdered by her friend and roommate Russell Todd Jones. Her remains were recovered where he told police he had buried her.
• Michelle Chan who was 31 when she disappeared from Fremont, CA in October 1999. She has not been located and is still missing.
• Alice Sin, who was 21 years old at the time of her disappearance and pregnant with her boyfriend’s 2nd child, disappeared in January 2000 from Pinole, West Sacramento. Her body was later recovered riddled with bullets in the Nevada desert. Her boyfriend became the prime suspect when it was discovered that she had just gotten a $2M life insurance policy a month before her disappearance.
• Angelina Joy Evans was 26 years old, pregnant with her 6th child when she was last seen May 21, 2001 getting into a primered black pick-up truck. She was running with a rough crowd. Shortly after her disappearance, a baby was found abandoned shortly after her disappearance which some speculated was her baby, but she has never been found.
• Evelyn Hernandez, who as 24 years old when she went missing along with her 5-year-old son, and whose body was also found in the San Francisco bay with both legs, both arms and her head missing was the mistress of Herman Aguilera and was 9 months pregnant with his baby. His wife was aware of the mistress but not the pregnancy. He was never a prime suspect, and her killer was never found.
• Rebekah Rachel Miller went missing October 15th, 2002. She was homeless at the time of her disappearance. She was a drug addict and was last seen rummaging around in a dumpster in Modesto when she went missing. Her body has never been recovered.

As it turns out, it is highly unlikely that the disappearance of these women are in anyway related to each other, let alone, related to a satanic cult. The leading cause of death for pregnant women tends to be homicide, with 55% of those women being murdered while they are still pregnant. Death of pregnant women has increased 35% in 2022. More times than not, the perpetrator is the woman’s husband, boyfriend or lover.

3. The Brown Van Theory (Joe)

The Brown Van Theory has many intersecting parts as it becomes a factor on the night of December 23rd when self-proclaimed neighborhood watchman, Simon L. decides to patrol the neighborhood in his car and begins tailing what he deems to be suspicious vehicles. He first notes a brown van, being followed by two cars winding through the neighborhood. They appeared to be casing the neighborhood where Laci and Scott lived. As Simon followed the vehicles, they come to a stop, and he is forced to speed past them, as they try to engage him. For some reason he doesn’t get a license plate number.

The brown van is later brought up during a sexual assault counseling session between a victim advocate and a victim, who claims she was pulled into a brown van, by someone she knew, and sexually assaulted by four people. She claims that the group are satanic devil worshippers who have threatened to carry out a Christmas Eve murder, that she will read about it in the news.

The victim advocate reports this to Modesto Detectives. The detectives search, locate and impound the van, and it would turn out that the vehicle in question belonged to a family of four, husband and wife and their two adult children, all meth addicts, who lived out of their brown van.

The van would be processed for evidence by the police, and what appeared to be blood stains would be tested, with the blood coming back as animal blood. There would be no evidence of Laci or Conner in the van. There would be nothing connecting the family to Laci and no evidence that the van was the same vehicle that was seen on December 23rd by do-gooder Simon or by Diane Jackson on December 24th at 11:40am either. In the end, the brown van becomes a dead-end, with nothing placing it in the vicinity of the Peterson home around the time that Laci would have gone missing.

4. Multiple Sightings of Laci (Crystal)

One of Geragos’ claim was that Laci was seen by multiple eyewitnesses on the morning of December 24th. Geragos framed his entire defense on these witnesses, who were independent, trustworthy sources. Unfortunately, what he had not counted on, was the time hack of 9:48am to 10:08am that had Scott Peterson at home and barely leaving to head to his warehouse to pick up his boat. If you recall, he and Laci were watching Martha Stewart at 9:48am and his cell phone pinged in his neighborhood at 10:08am as he checked his voicemail messages from his boss, wishing him a Merry Christmas.

Homer and Helen Maldonado first thought they saw Laci at 9:50am – 10am near the corner of Miller and West Covina. This is half a mile away from the Peterson Home.

Tony Frietas then reported seeing Laci on La Loma Ave as he was completing a delivery to the Denny’s which was his normal route. He claimed to see Laci between 9am – 10am. This is 0.65 miles away from Laci’s home and in the opposite direction of where she normally walks. This is more likely closer to 10am than to 9am since it is close to Homer and Helen’s sighting of Laci.

Martha Aguilar sees her on La Loma Avenue between 9:45am and 10am. This is a mile away from Laci’s home. And half a mile away from where Homer and Helen saw her at the same time.

Vivian Mitchell sees Laci on La Sombra around 10:30am, which would align with the sightings and time of Homer and Helen.

Diana Campos sees Laci near Moose Park, 1.5 miles from home along the path of sightings. She would have been .5 miles away from home given a straight shot.

Based on the sightings, it is highly probable, whomever they saw was first sighted by Homer and Helen around 9:50am, and then by Tony Frietas around 10:00am. She was then seen by Martha Aguilar on La Loma around 10:15am, which was about 15 minutes past when she though she saw her, to make Vivian’s location at 10:30am. This means she was most likely at Moose Park, by 10:45am, and if it had been Laci, then she would have arrived back home around 11am.

The problem is that Laci was having difficulty with exercise and had been getting dizzy spells and was told by her doctor to avoid walking, and if she was going to walk, that she should walk in the afternoons to ensure she was properly hydrated. Also, this was not a normal route for Laci and was NOT in the direction of the park where she normally walked. It was in the complete opposite direction.

Finally, this would have been a very brisk walk for Laci, who the day prior was struggling to walk in Trader Joes where she had to be helped.

When you compare it to the timeline, we find that Karen Servas placed McKenzie in the backyard at 10:18 am, but witnesses see a pregnant lady at 10:30am and 10:45am still walking a golden Labrador retriever that could not have been McKenzie. Ultimately, Geragos could not bring any of these witnesses to testify because the timeline did not support their testimony.

THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA
One thing that was unique with this case was the amount of media coverage this case garnered. The nation was enthralled with the case from the beginning and reporters jumped at every morsel of potential news, all fighting to be the first to break something new. Unfortunately, this often resulted in erroneous information being presented, that often, painted Scott Peterson in a negative light.

Ironically, Scott was doing enough of his own damage, that the additional media attention almost instantly painted Scott as a villain. One thing was certain, the more Scott avoided the cameras, the more the demand for Scott grew, having an opposite effect, of what he most likely desired.

Is it possible that the jury was tainted by negative media attention? Although it is a possibility, it is highly unlikely that 12 jurors, individuals who had not known each other prior to being selected to be on the jury could have colluded to frame an innocent man for a crime he did not commit. With the evidence weighed, and the lack of a solid defense, it is reasonable to assume that the jury made their decision with good conscious and in the spirit of the law. After all, two jurors were removed for breaking the rules, one for talking about the case when he wasn’t supposed too, and the other for doing independent research. It is more likely that the jurors set a high bar for administering justice, especially since it was a capital case and none of the jurors wanted to send an innocent man to death. Many of the jurors today still suffer from some version of post-traumatic stress disorder related to the case.

CONCLUSION
There are till many people who believe Scott Peterson is an innocent man behind bars. Janey Peterson, Scott’s sister-in-law has built a legal career behind advocating for Scott’s innocence. It is unfathomable that someone you know can be guilty of such as horrific crime. It is a difficult thing to wrap your head around. Scott’s parents couldn’t fathom their child being a murderer. What parent can?

Unfortunately, without a mountain of physical evidence, many naysayers and those who support Scott choose to ignore mountain of circumstantial evidence and plant their flags on one or more of the alternate theories, we’ve discussed today. Some will say, it’s the bumbling burglars, who tripped and stumbled their way straight into jail who committed this heinous crime, having the ability to conduct a complex set up, framing Scott by depositing Laci’s remains in the San Francisco Bay before being arrested.

Others will say it was a devious and highly motivated satanic cult, focused on ritual killings, driving around in a brown van, abducting pregnant women throughout the bay area, and sacrificing them in the name of the devil, although no evidence of satanic ritualistic killings have been brought to light, even many years later.

Some pundits will claim that tons of witness saw Laci the morning she disappeared, long after Scott left on his fishing trip, ignoring the documented and verified timeline that stupefied Geragos’ defense and left him looking like an amateur in the court room as he went from claiming that he’d prove Scott was Stone Cold Innocent, to trying to play on the emotions of the jury and their dislike for Scott, who showed no emotions throughout the trial. He would shout, “Do you hate him?” The answer was a resounding, “Yes,” America did hate Scott Peterson. But it’s not why he was found guilty, or why he was sentenced to die by lethal injection.

Thank you for immersing yourself in this episode and going on this journey with is. As we part, remember that in the realm of true crime, the line between clarity and obscurity is ever shifting. Always moving. Keep your minds sharp, your hearts open, and let's reconvene soon to once again dance on the edges of the unfathomable. Until then, tread the path of mystery with both caution and wonder.