Nearly two decades after Scott Peterson’s conviction for killing his pregnant wife, his sister-in-law claims that she has uncovered evidence to exonerate him for the slaying.
Janey Peterson said that she believes authorities disregarded leads in the murder of Peterson’s wife, Laci, including a burglary across the street from the couple’s home in Modesto, California, news station CBS13 reported.
“There is no series of circumstances that fits the evidence where he could possibly have done it,” she told the news outlet.
Janey said that over the years, she’s created a “war room” of evidence to prove her brother-in-law’s innocence in the case.
“The justice system has failed here, and a lot of aspects have failed,” she said.
“And it started with the Modesto Police Department. And it started with the fact that they didn’t follow up on evidence that showed Laci was alive the morning of December 24.”
Janey said that officers also didn’t look into whether her killing was linked to the burglary that occurred across from their home.
She said it’s possible that Laci witnessed the break-in, approached the suspects and was kidnapped by them.
“There was an anonymous tip that came in that named five people being involved in the burglary, but only two of those people were arrested and questioned,” Janey said.
She added, “A Lt. Aponte who worked at Norco Prison in California called the Modesto police in January and said they had an inmate at their prison who was overheard discussing exactly that, that Laci had confronted the burglars at the Medina home.”
Police, however, have said the break-in occurred two days before Laci was murdered, while prosecutors claimed Janey’s timeline doesn’t make sense, CBS13 reported.
Laci disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002 while eight months pregnant with their unborn son, Connor.
Prosecutors have claimed that her husband murdered them in their home, then dumped them from his fishing boat into San Francisco Bay.
The bombshell claims from his sister-in-law come as Scott returned to court this week to overturn his murder convictions and death sentence.