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Scott Peterson and Laci Rocha met in 1995 while they were both attending California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo. Originally from the San Diego area, he was an agribusiness student, while she, a Modesto native who grew up on a dairy farm, was a rising star in the agriculture department, majoring in ornamental horticulture. She competed nationally against other horticulture schools on both the flower judging and the landscape teams. And she was a member of Pi Alpha Xi, the horticulture honor society. By 1995, she was working in Cal Poly's plant shop, eventually becoming its manager. Her professors and friends describe her as lively, active... no wallflower. Scott had been a golfer in high school -- good enough to get a partial scholarship to Arizona State University (ASU). In fact, among his high school teammates was future PGA star Phil Mickelson. Though Scott attended ASU for a while, starting in 1990, he eventually ended-up at Cal Poly. His professors remember him as smart, outgoing and easy to talk to. And he has remained an avid golfer. And a fisherman... another of his passions. In 1995, Scott was working as a waiter at a restaurant in San Luis Obispo called the Pacific Cafe Diner. Laci's neighbor worked there, too. So, Laci ended up there from time to time, sometimes having brief conversations with Scott over the counter as she ordered coffee. One day, Laci wrote her phone number on a piece of paper, handing it to her neighbor to give to Scott. Thinking his friend was playing a mean trick on him, Scott crumpled the paper and threw it in the garbage. After being convinced it was no joke, he retrieved the number from the trash and soon called her.
And so their relationship began, she pixie-faced and beautiful, with a million dollar smile and one-in-a-million dimples; and he tall, athletic and handsome. They were, as they say, a "perfect couple." "The moment he was with Laci, they just beamed at each other," Scott's mother, Jacqueline Peterson said."No one else ever made my son smile like that." Two years later, in 1997, they were married. And following graduation that same year they opened what would later become a popular burger joint in San Luis Obispo called "The Shack," located on Foothill Boulevard, near the Cal Poly campus. Students came for hamburgers and sandwiches. The restaurant, a converted bakery, featured barrels of peanuts and numerous televisions showing sports. It remains today -- and is just as popular. Eventually, in 2000, the couple sold the business and came to Modesto, a rapidly-growing city of 186,000 in the heart of central valley farm country. They wanted to start a family and be closer to her parents. They moved in to an unassuming, modest, little house in Modesto's La Loma neighborhood, only a block or so from a footpath leading into a nearby park where Laci would later walk McKenzie every day. She would become a substitute teacher. And he would become a salesman for Tradecorp, a Spanish specialty fertilizer company. While Scott traveled a lot for his work, neighbors said they often saw the couple gardening together, hosting pool parties and grilling on the backyard barbecue that he had built. ''The young lady was so very happy,'' says Merville Ikerd, 79, who lives two doors down from the Petersons. ''And he was very friendly. He had a garden in his backyard, and every once in a while, I'd find some vegetables sitting on the front porch. And I think he did that with most of the neighbors.'' "I never heard them argue or look upset," said Terra Venable, who lives across the street. "They're what you would classify as a totally normal family. " Family and friends said the couple were excited about the anticipated arrival of the baby. While Laci decorated the nursery in a nautical theme, Scott built a table for it. Rene Tomlinson, a friend of Laci's since high school, said she last talked to her a few days before Christmas. She was heading out to buy fabric for the nursery, and there was no indication anything was wrong. Tomlinson said it was not unusual for Scott to go fishing alone, and his parents said he fished often from the time he was a child. "The boat was new, so he was anxious to go," said his mother, Jacqueline. "He had an agreeable wife, so he got to do what he wanted." Another relative said Scott had not fished before at the Berkeley Marina, but had wanted to go after reading an article about sturgeon. So when he went there to fish on Christmas eve, alone, it all made sense to everyone around him. No one in his or her family thought there was one thing strange about it. By all accounts, the Christmas holiday season was one of Laci Peterson's favorite times of the year. She enjoyed creating special desserts and had even taken cooking classes in France. Her skills had earned her the nickname of "cake lady" from several of those closest to her. Family and friends waited in anticipation to see what she would whip up for holiday gatherings. On December 23, 2002, at around 7:30 PM PST, Laci's half-sister, Amy, cut Scott's hair at her Modesto salon. Laci was with him. And on January 27, 2003, Amy confirmed that a video surveillance camera got Scott and Laci on tape there. Though police will not confirm it, it is believed that the visit to Amy's salon shown on that video is the last verifiable time that Laci was seen by anyone other than Scott. About an hour later, Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, said she talked to her daughter at around 8:30 PM PST on December 23rd -- the night before she was reported missing. Police believe that that is the last voice contact Laci had with anyone other than Scott before her disappearance. "She said they would be over for Christmas Eve," Sharon said, "and (they) were looking forward to it." Sharon, would later recall that there was something odd about that call. Laci never mentioned during the call anything about Scott's plans to go fishing in Berkeley on Christmas Eve morning. "We talked at 8:30 the night before," Sharon said. "If there was going to be an issue as far what time he would be home that (Christmas Eve) night, I felt she would have said he was going to Berkeley fishing." Two years after moving back to Modesto to start both a new life and a new family, and just two nights before Christmas, Laci Peterson would speak to her mother on the phone for what neither of them knew would be the last time. And then Laci would disappear. Just like that. So began one of the most talked about and publicized missing person cases in U.S. history. And the Central Valley city of Modesto braced for yet another international media event.
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