People's Exhibit 68

This is an interview between Det. BROCCHINI and Scott PETERSON taking place 12-25-02 from 0001 to 0100. [With redacted polygraph portion added back in for completeness.]

BROCCHINI: Pretty much Scott, all we do, lets just go over what, what we already talked about so I can make some notes.

BROCCHINI: See if you remember something that you know maybe you don't know you remembered. So today just tell me about the morning?

PETERSON: Ah, okay. Ah I don't know what time we got up, probably ah Laci got up and went I assume, she said she had some cereal for breakfast.

PETERSON: Eats right when she wakes up, otherwise she gets sick, 'cause she's pregnant. Ah, I laid around in bed longer, I got up at I don't know, 8 o'clock probably or so. Ah, showered ah we were watchin' her favorite show, Martha STEWART. Watched a little bit of that.

PETERSON: I don't know, I don't know what they had on, some cooking deal, I don't know, cookies of some sort, they were talking about what to do with meringue.

BROCCHINI: Ah and I, I can't remember, your house, you had the, the converted garage area, is that your TV room, right?

PETERSON: It seemed too cold to go play golf at the club (chuckle) so um, ya know, Decided that ya know, might as well do that.

PETERSON: Ah, she was gonna finish cleanin up, like I said she was moppin’ the kitchen Floor, ah, take the dog for a walk and then she was going to the store to buy For Christmas morning breakfast tomorrow and that was gonna be an involved prep so that was prepping the breakfast and she was gonna make gingerbread cookies for tonight.

BROCCHINI: The entry of your front door, or the entry of your little into converted…

PETERSON: Well out in ah, well not the front door, but that backdoor that we came in.

PETERSON: Yeah, that room and the kitchen. Ah there was a lotta places she planned to go. She had me put the ah, the bucket by the front door for her.

PETERSON: Yeah, she’s, you know, 8 months pregnant, ah can’t pick it up for anything, so I filled it up for her, put it in ah, I think that’s the central place.

BROCCHINI: How did it, did you move it back after, or when you come home, or how did it get outside?

PETERSON: Um hum. (Affirmative) The dog and the cat ran in. Yeah she wasn’t about to lift anything heavy.

PETERSON: No, just like a long sleeve T-shirt kinda thing, but you know, didn’t say Anything on it or…

BROCCHINI: Did you notice what jack—her jacket was there, ‘cause if she went, like if she went walk—walkin’ at 10 o’clock or 9:30…

PETERSON: What type though? She could have had hers or mine or nothing, I don’t know.

BROCCHINI: How ‘bout shoes, does she have a certain kinda shoes that she walks in, or…

PETERSON: Ah the officers and I looked for them in their normal place, which is outside by the wet bar.

PETERSON: Ah they were not there, but we didn’t look further, so they could be get in the house. They weren’t where they’re normally left. You saw mine where those were. That’s where we normally keep’em.

PETERSON: It’s a woodworking tool to make tables. Ah, maybe you saw it on ah the trailer there, ‘bout yeah big.

PETERSON: I’d just got that so I assembled it, ah, checked my e-mail, ah sent one e-mail, then hooked the boat up and went.

PETERSON: To ah Eric VAN INNIS, my boss. The happy holidays e-mail. He left me ah message on my phone this morning.

PETERSON: Country code is 35, the number is 191-983-5253. That’s his mobile number.

BROCCHINI: Alright. Okay so you assembled this ah, what the thing, what was the thing you assembled called?

PETERSON: I guess not, I, I, I don’t know. I can’t remember when I picked it up.

PETERSON: I remember they said the boat was arriving the 26^th and I wasn’t happy about that, but other than that. It may have been when I got back in the office.

PETERSON: Ah, gosh, I don’t know, ah I you know, extrapolate what time I got the, you know, noon, is that right?

BROCCHINI: Shit I don’t know. Tuesday, time 12:54 on December 24^th, but expires oh okay, expires 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. Okay so you got there at 1:00.

BROCCHINI: Okay so if you got the, ‘bout 5 minutes to one, you got your boat in, how long you think you stayed in the water?

PETERSON: Ah felt like an hour and a half or so, but like I said, I didn’t have any lunch or anything, but see if I was getting home at 4:30, quarter to, I don’t know an hour an hour and a half I guess, probably be accurate.

BROCCHINI: So you just, when you got in your boat you took off did you go very far or…

PETERSON: Well I mean probably a couple miles, I went north ah, found a, like a little island kinda deal there.

PETERSON: Ah island ah had a buncha trash on it I remember a big sign that said no landing, looked like some broken piers around it. I just assumed it would be a decent, you know, shallow area.

PETERSON: Little bit. I mean a lot of, lot of the reason I went was just to get that boat in the water to see, you know.

PETERSON: (On the phone) Amy, what’s goin’ on Amy? Yeah. Oh I don’t know, where you at now? In front of my, our house Okay. Yeah ah, ah where you guys stay at your place obviously where Nate and Brent goin. Okay. Yeah ah, I don’t know. Thanks I appreciate that. Think you can call back in a little while? Thanks Amy. (Back to BROCCHINI) Sister-in-law.

BROCCHINI: Okay so you fish 90 minutes then what, you got back to your, go back to the marina.

PETERSON: Ah talked to a couple guys fishing, they asked me, you know, did you catch anything.

PETERSON: No, they didn’t either, ah, the guys workin’, fixing ah, main, main, maintenance guys got a good laugh from me tryin’ ta back down the trailer.

PETERSON: And then take 80, 80 north, right, to go to like goin’ to Sacramento or ah…

PETERSON: Stop for gas in ah I guess it’s Livermore. Livermore or Pleasanton. Which one’s near the Altamont.

PETERSON: Ah I think it was a Chevron Station, there’s a ah buses around there.

PETERSON: Ah debit. Ah I don’t know which way they count it, debit or credit when you stick it in there.

PETERSON: Right, right, it’s my, you know E-Bay, ATM, debit or credit card, combo, you Know.

BROCCHINI: So if we called, if you called her number and ah if they would tell you, Doesn’t it? Does it tell you what time the call comes in?

PETERSON: Ah I don’t know if it’s time stamped, try it out. Yesterday at 2:16.

BROCCHINI: Did you ah when you left, when you wearin’, what, what were you wearin’ when you left?

PETERSON: Ah but I had a, when I was in the warehouse ah, I had that green pullover on that was in my truck you saw. Ah when it started raining I had a camo jacket on in the boat and ah tan hat.

PETERSON: No. I look at…I guess I saw that fax. And I was late getting’ home so, I went straight home.

PETERSON: Not this afternoon, there was a couple people there this morning’. I don’t think there was anyone there this afternoon.

PETERSON: Just ah, called once from the marina, both phones, and then ah, later on, when was that second call.

BROCCHINI: No the second call wasn’t from you, it was from her dad or somebody.

BROCCHINI: Ah there was two there, but one was logged at like 5:30 in the afternoon, it was an old gruffy voice said Laci, everbody’s lookin’ for you. Didn’t say who it was.

PETERSON: Ah that must have been Ron, Ah, well I know I left two at home and I thought I left two on the mobile. Maybe I didn’t leave the second one on the mobile.

BROCCHINI: So you ah, the two at home though one was from when you left and one was some other time or…

PETERSON: One was when I left Berkeley and the other one was ah when I was drivin’ in Livermore, the traffic was pretty bad and I knew I wouldn’t be home by 4 so gave her a call.

PETERSON: Yeah I’ve had that box broken into a couple times. Well, not broken into, but I failed to lock it a few times and got the umbrellas, and I always back in.

PETERSON: Put them in this morning, my intent was to leave ‘em at the warehouse.

BROCCHINI: Okay then you got home, then what, how’d you go, what door did you go in?

PETERSON: Went in the what I would call a backdoor, which is that French door where my shoes were at.

PETERSON: Ah the dog and cat followed me so I dumped out that mop water, ‘cause the cat went over to it.

PETERSON: Ah you remember ah our front door? There’s a little light white piece, wood piece…

BROCCHINI: Okay so ah your dog and cat come not only though the odors and your cat goes over to this bucket?

PETERSON: Ah put my clothes in the washer. Took out those rags threw my clothes in there.

PETERSON: Yeah put it on the counter like it was, ahh, glass of milk, then jumped in the shower.

PETERSON: After I got out of the shower, put clothes on, that’s when I checked the messages.

PETERSON: Mine, there were three, two from me and one from Ron, her step-father, asking for whipped cream when we came over that’s when I said hey man, he’s calling me for whipped cream.

BROCCHINI: The one from ah, Ron, do you know if that’s was before yours or after yours?

PETERSON: …they never been married, but common law marriage, is that what it’s called, lived together for 15 years or whatever.

PETERSON: By common law marriage, I mean, she calls him Ron, if that’s what you asking.

BROCCHINI: So you guys were supposed to be there, you were supposed to go to dinner there tonight at 6:30, or last night at 6:30?

PETERSON: I called Sharon, ah, then I called couple of Laci’s ah closer friends, I think Stacy and Renee. Ah and then I was, I had the phone book out to call hospitals when I think Sharon called me back at the point and said that they would do that and call the police and for me to check the neighbors and go to the park.

PETERSON: I’m not sure of that sequence, I mean I may have checked the neighbors then come back and got the phone book.

PETERSON: Then Sharon had Ron callin’ the hospitals and then obviously the police.

PETERSON: Ah after I checked the neighbors, came back home, called Sharon one more time and she said ah we’re going’ to the park and we have the police go’in’ there also, so I went down.

PETERSON: Ah first neighbor I checked with was directly across the street, her name’s Amy, ah it’s her son that I was talking’ about the white truck.

PETERSON: Ah she said that our outside Christmas lights, the icicle ones, went on ah just before I got home. I didn’t notice that they were on, I got home, but then she mentioned it I looked across the street, they were on. Ah they get plugged into an outlet, I didn’t plug them in today. Ah, then ah, when we returned from the park couple hours later they were off. So I don’t know, they appeared to be still be plugged in, they must have overheated or something’.

BROCCHINI: So Amy said just before you came home the lights got turned on, she saw that?

PETERSON: Checked with her ah, went to the left no one was there, left a note on Karen’s and checked ah to the right of Amy’s and…

BROCCHINI: So Amy said just before you came home the lights got turned on, she saw that?

PETERSON: Checked with her ah, went to the left no one was there, left a note on Karen’s and checked ah to the right of Amy’s and…

BROCCHINI: These Christmas lights we—well you gotta plug ‘em yourself you said?

PETERSON: Yeah, there’s an outlet outside the storage shed area, maybe you noticed that area?

BROCCHINI: So in there there’s a plug and just plug it in and those light come on?

PETERSON: But I don’t see why they wouldn’t have been, but then maybe it got, you know, hit by a cat or summin’ like that, I don’t know, I didn’t check.

PETERSON: Ah Karen SERVAS, our, if you’re lookin’ at our house she’s immediately to the left, she’s the one that was tellin’ me about the dog come runnin’ up to her with a leash.

BROCCHINI: Okay. Was there anything out of, ah unusual, out of normal in your house?

PETERSON: The only unusual things ah were the leash and the door bein’ unlocked.

BROCCHINI: Okay well I’m, we’re in your room and we’re talkin’ about your closet. Look like a couple duffle bags down. Is that, that’s normal or…

BROCCHINI: Did you get somethin’ out of the duffle bag that was on the ground, a raincoat or summin’ today?

PETERSON: This morning. Think that was this morning. But the ah, leather brown one I just toss up there, the other one, I hardly ever use to it’s just…

PETERSON: Ah, probably a month. Took it to ah Lone Pine to shoot pheasants, took it with me.

PETERSON: …I don’t think I, I tried to shoot it once in Lone Pine but it didn’t go off., so it’s ah…

PETERSON: Yeah. I think I got it ah, well you know, it may be registered to me. Or it may be registered to my father actually I had gotten that, before I was 18. I don’t know. It’s a Llama and he is, he is a buyer on it.

PETERSON: I think so, probably have to check the date on when I went to Lone Pine.

BROCCHINI: Right. Well ah, you, you went up there ah, pheasant hunting? Obvioiusly you don’t use that to shoot pheasants.

BROCCHINI: The towels that were in the, in the washing machine, you don’t know how they were, if they were, what they were used on?

PETERSON: No I assumed, well I mean I assumed that Marigrita used ‘em Monday, but I don’t know what surfaces or anything like that.

BROCCHINI: Have you guys, you guys haven’t had any problems ah marriage problems?

BROCCHINI: But if you, times you’ve walked in the park you said that ah you have seen campers, bums or whatever.

PETERSON: Naw, I mean, like I said though I don’t think they’d come up to her and accosted her in anyway ah, you know, she has times said she’s felt uncomfortable and, thankful she has the dog, ah, we’ve called you know the police a couple times about people down there just to get ‘em to move on, you know and it’s ah not uncommon for Laci or myself ta, you know, wake one of these guys, or ladies up and tell him to get lost.

BROCCHINI: The dog, is it a, I mean she’s glad to have the dog, but the dog is, I got two dogs…

PETERSON: I mean, if I’m in the yard and a guy comes up to me the dog is fine.

PETERSON: Ah but it’s been in the past when someone approaches her in our yard at least hum, that’s very protective of her.

BROCCHINI: now are you, his ah just came up Guy so I don’t know what his number was.

PETERSON: No. I’m not sure if that was the mobile phone. They don’t answer the phone very well.

PETERSON: No. I got ah some weird message, it’s a, ah, business of some sort, so the number is wrong in our phone book.

PETERSON: Yeah Greg Reed owns the house ah, you look at our house to the right, that’s his grandmother’s house. He owns that, he came over and opened it up for the officers. He lives a bit away from us.

PETERSON: __________. That’s gotta be in here. I could tell ya if I had the phone book I could tell you.

BROCCHINI: That’s Oakland. So it’s even, no, that’s Livermore too. Pleasantan, Oakland.

PETERSON: I forget who it is. It’s one of the friends and it’s weird he that he had that number.

PETERSON: Yeah, that’s what I’m thinkin’. I ah, it’s not a number I called before.

PETERSON: I mean I remember seen’ it, wonderin’ who it was and sounded funny to me when we talked. I don’t know I talked to em but…

BROCCHINI: I’m curious, Maggie was there on ah, Maggie or Margurite, but she was there on Monday…

BROCCHINI: …and obviously she did a lotta work, because the house wasn’t filthy, why was your wife mopping on Tuesday Morning?

PETERSON: I don’t know. Got me, I mean she was pretty fastidious about it though.

PETERSON: With the dog and the cats and her ah you know, doing ah Christmas deal, that was pretty common.

BROCCHINI: When you were at Lone Pine you said you tried to fire that handgun once?

PETERSON: Yeah. But I ejected that round and the second one clicked also. I think I ejected it. Yeah I know I ejected it. The second one clicked.

BROCCHINI: Would you be ah willing to for me to take a gunshot residue on your hands?

PETERSON: Sure no problem. Will outboard exhaust show up as gunshot residue, or would it be different?

BROCCHINI: Well you showered after you said, so I’m not thinkin’ this is your routine, but no it wouldn’t.

BROCCHINI: So what you’re telling me Scott is there no, you have no idea where Laci is.

PETERSON: None.

BROCCHINI: Okay, I, I, I only have a couple of concerns. One is the cell phone call that you made, but if you listen to it, that call is made at 12:17.

PETERSON: Which one’s that?

BROCCHINI: The first on you made from ah Berkeley.

PETERSON: Was it?

BROCCHINI: Yeah. You said…

PETERSON: ______ from the boat.

BROCCHINI: No you said 2:17, but the time stamp on the call says 12:17. See then to me…

PETERSON: You saved right?

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BROCCHINI: I saved it.

PETERSON: Saved today at 12:17 AM.

BROCCHINI: Is that what that says.

PETERSON: Yeah

BROCCHINI: I don’t know, let me listen, cause I have…

PETERSON: Either…

BROCCHINI: You didn’t save…

PETERSON: First time…

BROCCHINI: Oh really…

PETERSON: Well, I save it, then you saved it, I had to, then you saved it.

BROCCHINI: okay.

PETERSON: Then it said yesterday at 12:17 you’d be right.

BROCCHINI: Right, right.

Pause

BROCCHINI: Yeah, you’re right, Okay, it’s says when I saved it.

PETERSON: Originally when I listened to it, it said received at 12:16

BROCCHINI: Or 2:16

PETERSON: Yeah

BROCCHINI: The only, just to eliminate you as a suspect, you'd be willing to take --

PETERSON: Yeah.

BROCCHINI: Would you be willing to take a polygraph?

PETERSON: Yeah . . . They're accurate, right?

BROCCHINI: Yeah, yeah, I mean I, it's not nothing that can be used against you, but yea, I believe they're accurate.

PETERSON: No, I'm certainy willing.

BROCCHINI: It wouldn't be now, it'd be, ya now, in a day or two.

PETERSON: Now . . .

BROCCHINI: It's just like the next step in this thing.

PETERSON: Sure.

BROCCHINI: Really what’s left is the flyers, the canvass tomorrow, the media coverage. What concerns me the most is the fact that your dog came home with the leash on. That bothers me.

PETERSON: No question.

BROCCHINI: Yeah, uhm…

PETERSON: What concerns me most is doing anything I can to further the progress.

BROCCHINI: I appreciate that, and I don’t, I don’t want you to hold it against me I mean sometimes I hate askin…

PETERSON: You gotta do it.

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BROCCHINI: But I do, I really do have to do it, and I mean understand I’m glad you have a strong support system.

PETERSON: Yeah.

BROCCHINI: Uhm, and I’ll give you my numbers, and my cards, but…There not a lot more we can do right now other than canvas.

PETERSON: Oh we can do a lot.

BROCCHINI: Okay, do you have any questions.

PETERSON: No, I mean I’ve asked you a couple times what to do, uhm, so I have the answers to that so.we’re gonna go do it.

BROCCHINI: And so yeah, there’s, ya know, all we can do now is make people aware of the problem, the situation, and hope that somebody saw something or knows something.

PETERSON: The only question I have what about resources available. You saw my mother-in-law tonight, uhm, anyway, you saw some of my wife’s friends, myself…

BROCCHINI: What do you mean like for?

PETERSON: Counseling and that kind of thing.

BROCCHINI: well yeah…

PETERSON: Can you give us the numbers or do I have to search…

BROCCHINI: No, no I can give you those numbers, uhm, I just don’t know, I mean your probably not going to get any answers today.

PETERSON: Yeah, no, no I mean but…

BROCCHINI: Yeah, it’s Christmas, I mean

PETERSON: Yeah, of course. And there no need to call if we find Laci in the next days.

BROCCHINI: Yeah, I agree, yeah, I’ll give you those numbers.

PETERSON: I will need them.

BROCCHINI: That’s my number, and my cell phone number and I’ll get you the number to the victim services. And now, where do you want to go?

PETERSON: Oh, tonight, physically, back to my home.

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BROCCHINI: Okay, give me one second and I’ll get you, hopefully they’re done over there.