pregnant. reporter: golfing on a cold christmas eve? odd but, okay. meanwhile, sharon followed up on something scott told her, that he came home to find the dog out in the yard wearing a leash. i went directly to the park. because of that leash on the dog yes. we had walked together in the park before. i was absolutely panicked. i was running around. i was looking in trash cans. i was screaming her name. reporter: no sign of her anywhere. laci s friends spent the early hours of christmas morning making missing posters. the next morning i walked in, was it christmas day? we had fliers and tape and everything. we re gonna start passing these out to the family and volunteers that have been here every day since day one. we hit the ground running. we just get up the next day and i know i didn t sleep for days. this is to oakdale, yeah, that s where i m going to be. reporter: pretty soon the whole town of modesto seemed to be looking for laci peterson. please
like al brocchini had hidden evidence. he asked him on the stand. did you delete information from a police report about laci visiting scott s warehouse december 23rd? the answer was, i did. and then, okay, we re done for the day. and it s like, you know, can i answer? and that was a very good point for him to make, because it would create the impression that, in fact, laci did know about the boat as scott said she did, and it lent credibility to the rest of his story as a result. well, maybe, maybe not. but he could have got the whole story. reporter: of course, the whole story wasn t what the defense attorney wanted, that the information was in another cop s report. that nothing had been hidden. but what did the jury think?
we would still like to find laci alive, but we have to understand what the other possibilities are. the other possibilities are that she could be, you know, a victim of foul play. reporter: those closest to laci, who at first were having trouble grappling with the whole idea of foul play, certainly couldn t fathom that scott had anything to do with laci s disappearance. back then, early 2003, even sharon rocha told us, impossible. the people who know scott and laci have no doubt whatsoever that he has nothing to do with her disappearance. reporter: it s a powerful thing, true belief. but when it comes crashing down, my, my, my. coming up, scott peterson, down at the station. a rare look at his interrogation. when did you realize you were going to go fishing? that was a morning decision.
yeah, he has an answer. and he doesn t elaborate, doesn t get emotional. reporter: which the investigators thought at the time wasn t necessarily a good thing. he told me, oh, that s concerning. i get home and her car is there and the dog s running around on a leash. and you know, the door s unlocked. and her purse is here. and that s really concerning me. but let me take all my clothes off and wash them and let me, you know, let me eat some pizza and take a shower before i even try to figure out what s goin on here. that s concerning. that was concerning to me. reporter: and then the detective asked the question that soon everyone would be asking. what you re telling me, scott, is there s no you have no idea where laci is? i do not. most people in that situation, they re gonna have a lot of questions for you. well, are you guys doing this? i ve heard of this. why don t you do this?