More than two decades after Laci Peterson disappeared while eight months pregnant on Christmas Eve 2002, Amber Frey remains one of the most closely watched figures connected to the case. Once an unsuspecting woman who believed she was dating an unmarried man, Frey ultimately became a key prosecution witness after discovering that Scott Peterson was actually married to Laci, whose disappearance had quickly become one of the most closely followed cases in the United States.

Frey’s connection to Peterson began only weeks before Laci disappeared. According to court records and Frey’s later accounts, the two met in November 2002 after being introduced through a mutual friend. Frey was a single mother working as a mᴀssage therapist and believed Peterson was also single. Their relationship developed quickly, and Peterson became involved in parts of her everyday life, including spending time with her young daughter. At the time, Frey had no reason to believe that the man she was dating was living another life with a pregnant wife.

That changed after Laci vanished on December 24, 2002. As national coverage intensified, Frey recognized Peterson in reports about the missing woman and realized that the man she knew as a potential romantic partner was connected directly to the disappearance. On December 30, she contacted police and told investigators about her relationship with Peterson. She also provided information and agreed to cooperate with authorities as they continued investigating Laci’s disappearance.

What followed would transform Frey from a private citizen into one of the most important witnesses in the case. Working with investigators, she secretly recorded numerous telephone conversations with Peterson. The recordings captured conversations between the two while the search for Laci and her unborn son continued. Prosecutors later used portions of those calls to demonstrate what they described as a pattern of deception.

One of the most widely remembered incidents occurred around New Year’s Eve. While Peterson was attending a candlelight vigil connected to the search for his missing wife, he told Frey that he was in Paris. The recording became particularly significant because it showed Peterson continuing to communicate with Frey while publicly presenting himself as a husband searching for Laci. The recordings did not, by themselves, establish how Laci disappeared, but prosecutors argued that they provided important evidence concerning Peterson’s behavior and credibility.

Frey eventually became a highly visible part of the investigation. Her idenтιтy was disclosed publicly, bringing enormous media attention to her personal life. She later testified for several days at Peterson’s 2004 trial, describing their relationship and the conversations she had recorded. The prosecution presented her testimony alongside a much larger body of forensic, physical and circumstantial evidence.

In November 2004, Peterson was convicted of murdering Laci and their unborn son, Conner. He was sentenced to death, although his death sentence was later overturned and replaced with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Peterson has continued to maintain that he did not kill his wife.

Frey’s role has remained a subject of public interest long after the trial ended. In 2005, she published Witness: For the Prosecution of Scott Peterson, describing her experience and the extraordinary circumstances that followed her discovery that Peterson had lied about his personal life. She has since largely kept her life away from the spotlight, raising her children and continuing her professional work.

A&E reported in July 2026 that Frey continues to live in California and work as a mᴀssage therapist. She has occasionally returned to the case through interviews and documentary projects, including Netflix’s American Murder: Laci Peterson, which revisited the investigation more than 20 years after Laci’s disappearance. Netflix said the three-part documentary features Frey discussing her relationship with Peterson and her decision to cooperate with investigators.

For Frey, the decision to speak with police remains something she has said she does not regret. In previous interviews, she explained that her priority was helping investigators after realizing that a pregnant woman was missing and that the man she had been seeing was connected to her. She has also said that she would be willing to testify again if she were ever required to do so.

Her involvement has taken on renewed relevance because Peterson’s legal case has continued long after his conviction. In April 2026, a San Mateo County judge rejected another attempt by Peterson’s legal team to introduce evidence they argued could support his claim that he did not kill Laci and Conner. The judge concluded that the proposed material largely repeated theories that had already been contested during the original proceedings.

Peterson has nevertheless continued to deny responsibility for Laci’s disappearance and deaths. His position was also featured in a 2024 documentary interview in which he acknowledged that his affair with Frey was wrong but rejected the prosecution’s explanation of the motive behind Laci’s death. His continued claims of innocence have ensured that the case remains a subject of legal and public debate more than 20 years after the original investigation.

For Frey, however, the story is no longer simply about the woman who became involved with Scott Peterson. She has described the experience as something that permanently changed her life, particularly because her name became inseparable from one of the most publicized criminal cases of the early 2000s. Despite years of attention, she has continued to focus on her children and her private life.

Laci Peterson’s disappearance remains at the center of the story. Laci was 27 when she disappeared from Modesto, California, on December 24, 2002. She was eight months pregnant with Conner, her first child with Scott. Her disappearance triggered a mᴀssive search, and the discovery of the bodies of Laci and her unborn son months later transformed the investigation into a murder case.

More than 20 years later, the case continues to generate documentaries, legal filings and renewed public interest. Amber Frey’s decision to cooperate with investigators remains one of the most recognizable chapters of that investigation, while Scott Peterson’s continuing legal challenges ensure that the case has not completely disappeared from the national conversation.

For Frey, the years since the trial have largely been about moving forward. But whenever the Laci Peterson case returns to the headlines, so does the story of the woman who unknowingly entered Peterson’s secret life, discovered the truth only after Laci disappeared, and then chose to help investigators uncover what she knew.