| December 24, 2002 |
| Scott Peterson tells police in Modesto, California, that his wife, Laci, who is eight months pregnant, has not been seen since mid-morning. Peterson tells police he had gone fishing in San Francisco Bay, and that Laci had stayed home to shop for dinner and to walk their dog in East La Loma Park, commonly called Dry Creek Park. Scott Peterson and family members begin searching the park. Hundreds of volunteers would later join the search. |
| January 4, 2003 |
| Authorities use cadaver-sniffing dogs to search Berkeley Marina, where Scott Peterson says he went fishing the day his wife disappeared. |
| January 20, 2003 |
| Authorities reveal that the Peterson home was broken into between January 16 and 19. Modesto police Detective Doug Ridenour says the "bizarre" break-in was not connected to Laci Peterson's disappearance and that nothing significant was taken. |
| January 29, 2003 |
| Scott Peterson tells reporters that he cut his hand and bled inside his truck the day his wife disappeared. |
| January 31, 2003 |
| Police review hours of surveillance videotape from a grocery store in Longview, Washington, and then discount a clerk's claim that she might have seen Laci Peterson on December 24. |
| February 18, 2003 |
| Modesto police conduct "a follow-up search" at the Peterson home, the second search since December 26, two days after Laci Peterson was last reported seen. |
| April 18, 2003 |
| Scott Peterson is arrested in connection with Laci's murder. Prosecutors announce the arrest after confirming the two bodies that washed ashore along San Francisco Bay April 13 and 14 are those of Laci Peterson and her baby. |
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| December 31, 2002 |
| Laci Peterson's disappearance is the result of foul play, Modesto police spokesman Detective Doug Ridenour says at a news conference. "She did not walk away voluntarily," he says, and adds that no one, including Scott Peterson, has been ruled out as a potential suspect. |
| January 17, 2003 |
| Sources reveal that police have shown Laci Peterson's family pictures that link Scott Peterson with another woman. The family is told that Scott Peterson took out a $250,000 life insurance policy on his wife. |
| January 24, 2003 |
| Amber Frey reveals at a news conference that she was the woman photographed with Scott Peterson. Frey says she did not know Peterson was married when they began their affair, and police say she has been eliminated as a suspect in Laci Peterson's disappearance. |
| January 30, 2003 |
| Modesto police ask Scott Peterson to cooperate with investigators. |
| February 10, 2003 |
| Laci Peterson's due date arrives. The Petersons had decided to name the boy Connor. |
| April 14, 2003 |
| The remains of a woman and baby boy that washed ashore at Point Isabel Regional Park, in Richmond, California, are discovered. Officials investigating the case of Laci Peterson are waiting for DNA test results to determine whether the bodies are those of Peterson and her son. The bodies were found about two miles from where Laci's husband Scott told police he went fishing on the day she disappeared and about 80 miles northwest of their home in Modesto. |
| April 21, 2003 |
| Prosecutors file two capital murder charges against Scott Peterson for the deaths of his wife Laci and their unborn son. "I am not guilty," Peterson said during the brief arraignment in the Stanislaus County, California, Superior courtroom. |
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