Scott Peterson Had His In-N-Out Order Ready After Being Arrested In Wife’s Murder, Detective Says

Shortly after Scott Peterson was told that badly decomposed remains found in the San Francisco Bay had been identified as his wife and unborn son, he was “ready to eat” a hearty meal at In-N-Out Burger, a detective revealed in a new Netflix docuseries.

Retired Modesto police Detective Jon Buehler said in “American Murder: Laci Peterson,” which was released on Wednesday, that he was shocked at Peterson’s appetite during a pit stop on the drive from San Diego, where Peterson had been taken into custody in April 2003, to Modesto, where he was facing murder charges. Peterson was convicted in November 2004 in the death of his wife, Laci Peterson, who was 8½ months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002.

Though Scott Peterson was already considered a suspect in his wife’s death, DNA evidence had not yet confirmed that the remains that washed up on the shore of the San Francisco Bay on April 13 and 14, 2003, were those of Laci and the unborn child, whom she’d planned to name Conner. Detectives were in the car with Peterson when the call came in, retired Modesto police Detective Al Brocchini said in “American Murder.”

“I’ll have a Double-Double with cheese, fries, small vanilla shake would be great,” Buehler said Peterson told him when the detective said they were probably going to stop at the fast-food chain.

Buehler suggested that only Laci Peterson’s killer would have had so little reaction to the news of the remains’ identification.

“To me, that was an enormous red flag on the fact that the notification didn’t surprise him, that he already knew the results of this from four months earlier and that he really didn’t care. He was ready to eat,” Buehler said.

Peterson has always said he was innocent. He told detectives that he had been away testing out his new fishing boat in the San Francisco Bay, not far from where the bodies later washed up, when his 27-year-old wife went missing from their Modesto home on Christmas Eve in 2002. The case drew worldwide attention from the start and was extensively covered by the media.

A crowd was waiting at the Stanislaus County Jail in Modesto and surrounded the detectives’ car when they arrived with Peterson in the back seat — just hours after he had his In-N-Out meal.

The public’s fascination with the case hasn’t diminished over the years, but it has been amplified recently by documentaries and podcasts considering alternative theories and questioning his guilt. “American Murder: Laci Peterson” is one of two docuseries set to appear on streaming services this month; “Face to Face With Scott Peterson” premieres on Peacock on Aug. 20.

Peterson, currently serving a life sentence in a California state prison, returned to the courtroom this year after the Los Angeles Innocence Project took on his case and claimed in court documents that “newly discovered” evidence should exonerate him. A judge has allowed new DNA testing of one piece of evidence, but the majority of the LA Innocence Project’s claims have previously been discredited and rejected by the courts.