Scott Peterson, is he a killer?

This subject has bothered me for years. Decades. If you don’t know the story, Scott Peterson’s wife, Laci Peterson, went missing on December 24, 2002 in Modesto, California. From day one, Scott Peterson was a suspect in her disappearance. The suspect. The only suspect. The police didn’t look at anyone else.

Granted, Scott Peterson, a Central Valley fertilizer salesman, wasn’t a model husband. Yes, there was a girl involved. It looked pretty damning. The police arrested Scott Peterson a few weeks after his wife’s disappearance, and he sat in jail until his trial and ultimate conviction.

But, there is a problem. A huge problem. Let’s look at the timeline. Laci Peterson disappeared on December 24, 2002. Her body was ultimately discovered, floating in the San Francisco Bay, in April 2003, more than four months later. Her body was nearly intact - all the flesh was there, including that of her unborn son, who was found outside her body floating beside her.

According to the prosecution, Scott Peterson murdered Laci Peterson and disposed of her body by dumping her in the bay using a fishing boat on or about the time of her disappearance, December 24, 2002. Now, how could that be?

Again, how could that be? I’ve grown up around the ocean. I’ve researched the subject endlessly. The condition of her body suggests that she hadn’t been floating in the bay for more than a period of a few days. The first thing that happens is that decomposition occurs, and the internal gasses causes a body to float. Then as the skin decomposes, those gasses are released and the body sinks. That process occurs over a matter of days. Between decomposition and marine life, the flesh will be stripped to the bones within a week.

Laci Peterson had not been floating in the water for four months. That’s impossible, And Scott Peterson had been under 24/7 surveillance from day one, and was locked in jail for most of that four month period. Meaning. it’s impossible for him to have dumped her body in to the bay. Yes, the prosecution cites that they found blood evidence in the fishing boat. Forget for a second that in 2003 DNA evidence was more exclusionary than inclusionary, there are reasons for finding human blood in a fishing boat. Sharp knives, biting fish, barbed hooks, jagged aluminum edges, hell, my garage looks like a crime scene and that’s me cutting myself on the shelves.

Scott Peterson had no chance for getting a fair shake. He had already been convicted in the court of public opinion well before the trial. As far the the jurors were concerned, the trial was a formality. They couldn’t be bothered with small details of fact and science.

Was he responsible? At a bare minimum, as a juror, you are going have to explain to me how Laci Peterson’s body was able to float around in the bay for four months in such good condition. Granted, estimating the decomposition process isn’t an exact science, but we are talking about the difference between a week or two and several months. Those are well out of the logical extremes.

You ask me, Alex, what do you think happened? I don’t know. I don’t think we will ever know. But my best theory is that Laci Peterson was abducted by a serial killer (and at least one was known to have been operating in the North Bay during that time period) and either kept alive for some period of time, or killed and her body kept in cold storage and dumped in the bay later. We don’t know.

Yeah, I know people don’t like Scott Peterson. He’s a philanderer and a cheat. But, here’s the problem. That isn’t a capital offense, and there is a killer that is still out there.

Think about it. Disagree? Have an opinion? Tell me about it.