TV’s ‘Dateline’ shines light on Modesto’s most notorious double murder

Birgit Fladager – who rocketed to fame for prosecuting Modesto’s Scott Peterson and now is Stanislaus County district attorney – speaks about the Peterson case for the first time on national television in a new two-hour “Dateline NBC” airing at 9 p.m. Friday on KCRA Channel 3.

“(Peterson) doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He can be very smooth. But there’s something underneath the surface that is truly evil,” Fladager says on the show, which focuses on people who were important to the prosecution’s case against the fertilizer salesman.

The show also features rarely seen interrogation video of Peterson just after reporting that his pregnant wife, Laci, had gone missing while he was fishing on Christmas Eve 2002. In the video, he denied knowing where she was. Former Modesto Police Detective Al Brocchini says on the show that the interrogation raised suspicions: “(Peterson) has an answer. And he doesn’t elaborate, doesn’t get emotional.”

Other key players appear as well, including Laci’s mother, Sharon Rocha; Amber Frey, Scott Peterson’s paramour at the time; Gloria Allred, Frey’s attorney; Laci’s friends Stacey Boyers, Lori Ellsworth and Rene Tomlinson; and retired Modesto Police Detective Jon Buehler.

Scott Peterson was convicted of the murders of his wife and their unborn son and arrived in March 2005 on death row, where he awaits the outcome of appeals to the California Supreme Court.

Fladager also said, “The reason for the murder was he didn’t want to be married anymore and he didn't want to have a child … he wanted a different life. And Amber was just a symptom of that … he didn’t want what he had.”

“Laci and Conner were responsibilities and he didn't want that,” adds another prosecutor on Fladager’s team, Dave Harris, now assistant DA.

This story was originally published April 19, 2017 at 7:33 PM with the headline "TV’s ‘Dateline’ shines light on Modesto’s most notorious double murder."