Twenty years after Scott Peterson was convicted of killing his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn baby, two new documentaries are bringing new details and interviews surrounding the case to light.
Along with the premieres of “American Murder: Laci Peterson” (Netflix) on Aug. 14 and “Face to Face with Scott Peterson” (Peaco*ck) on Aug. 20, another name is returning to the spotlight: Amber Frey. (Peaco*ck is owned by NBCUniversal, TODAY’s parent company.)
Frey was a central figure in Scott Peterson’s 2004 conviction and was considered by the prosecution one of the motivating factors behind Laci Peterson’s 2002 murder.
Not only was she romantically involved with Scott Peterson when Laci Peterson was killed, she ended up recording conversations with him and testifying in his trial.
Scott Peterson, now 51, was ultimately sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2004. The California Supreme Courtoverturned his death sentence in 2020.
He has always insisted on his innocence, and in “Face to Face” he speaks publicly, via prison phone, with the director extensively.
But what about Frey? What has her life been like since the trial ended 20 years ago? Here’s what we know.
More about Scott and Laci Peterson
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<a href="https://www.today.com/news/scott-peterson-now-rcna166193" target="_blank">Scott Peterson now: What happened after Laci Peterson murder conviction? </a>
Who is Amber Frey?
When she met Scott Peterson, Frey was a 27-year-old massage therapist and single mom living near Fresno, California.
How did Amber Frey and Scott Peterson meet?
The two became romantically involved shortly before the deaths of Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Connor, in December 2002.
According statements she made in a 2003 press conference, she met Scott Peterson on November 20, 2002. “Scott told me he was not married,” she said.
He told her about Laci Peterson on a phone call, which was played during the trial.
“I’ve lied to you. The girl I’m married to, her name is Laci. She disappeared just before Christmas. For the past two weeks, I’ve been in Modesto with her family and mine — searching for her,” he said.
Frey gave further context about how they met on the Netflix documentary, saying, “When I first met Scott Peterson ... I had just graduated from massage school and my really good friend at the time told me about this guy that she had met.”
“(My friend) said he was funny, easy to talk to, he was nice looking and he was looking to meet ‘the one.’ As a single mom, that was something I was open to and wanting in my life,” she continued.
How was Amber Frey involved in the Scott Peterson trial?
In December 2002, about a month after Frey and Scott Peterson met, his wife Laci Peterson disappeared. She was pregnant with their son, whom they had planned to name Conner. Both bodies were found the following April.
When Frey learned Scott Peterson was a person of interest in the case, she began recording their conversations, as TODAY reported in 2015.
Frey testified at Scott Peterson’s trial and the prosecution played recordings of their phone conversation. As her attorney Gloria Allred told Dateline in 2005, her testimony was “substantial” in landing the conviction.
What happened to Amber Frey amid the trial?
The Peterson trial became media sensation — and Frey was pulled in. When Modesto police revealed Scott Peterson had had a girlfriend, reporters zeroed in on Frey.
She chose to come forward in a press conference and recalled to the moment to Dateline.
“On the way down the stairs, I couldn’t catch my breath. I even asked for a bag to breathe into because I couldn’t catch my breath. It was scary,” she said.
After the press conference, she connected with Laci Peterson’s mother, Sharon Rocha, and her family.
“They were very thankful for (my) … coming to the (Modesto) police department and cooperating with them,” she said.
Amid public scrutiny, tabloids published nude photos of Frey, which “devastated” her, per her Dateline interview.
“Why are people doing this to me when I’m here helping Laci and her family,” she asked Dateline. “I’ve done nothing wrong but have helped and cooperated.”
When Scott Peterson spoke on TV about his love for his wife and dismissed his relationship with Frey, she realized “that he was just a piece of work,” she said. “There isn’t any truth that comes out of this man’s mouth.”
Where is Amber Frey now?
Frey has continued to reflect on her time in the public eye. In 2005, she published the book “Witness: For the Prosecution of Scott Peterson. Then, in 2015, she wrote a first-person account for TODAY in 2015 about her experiences since the trial.
“The years that followed have been filled with many of the same life events and struggles that all of us go through on a daily basis,” she wrote.
In her essay for TODAY, she wrote she was single mother with two children — then a teenage girl and a pre-teen boy who had “two different fathers.
She also shared updates on her personal life.
“I’ve dealt with my share of personal tragedy, losing my home during the real estate crisis. I ventured into opening my own business and had to pick up the pieces when it failed. I’ve experienced the joy of falling in love again and the heartache of divorce. I have seen loved ones go through their own trials and tribulations and held their hand as they traveled the difficult road and recovery,”
While the trial changed her life and her children’s, Frey has no regrets.
“I don’t regret anything. As crazy as it sounds as what came out and whatnot, I would do it all over again because it wasn’t about me. There was a missing woman carrying a child that if I had something that would help, without question (I would),” she said.
“Who I am today is a strong woman, a loving mother, a good friend. I am the person who travels half way around the world to help people in their most desperate time of need. I feel that I am the one who gains from this experience. I am the woman who testified in court to give testimony of my knowledge for a missing woman and her unborn child.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
