Barbara Walters' July Interview With Petersons

July 9, 2004 -- -- A year and a half ago Lee and Jackie Peterson were eagerly awaiting the birth of their grandson. Today, they say, there is no joy in their lives.

Their son Scott is on trial, accused of the savage murder of his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, a baby they planned to name Conner.

Lee and Jackie Peterson tell 20/20's Barbara Walters they are convinced of their son's innocence. But as the case unfolds in a Redwood City, Calif., courthouse, the Petersons must reconcile two versions of their son: one, a wrongly accused husband who grieves for his murdered wife and unborn son, and the other, an adulterer turned cold-blooded monster.

Lee Peterson said the trial has "consumed us totally, so that there's no joy in any of our lives, since Laci went missing."

To a world audience transfixed by the Peterson case the sordid facts have become all too familiar. On Christmas Eve of 2002, 27-year-old Laci Peterson, eight months pregnant, mysteriously disappeared. Then a massage therapist named Amber Frey revealed that she had been having an affair with Scott — a fact he did not tell the police.

Four months after Laci disappeared, the decomposed bodies of the young woman and her baby washed ashore in the San Francisco Bay, near where Scott Peterson says he was fishing the day his wife vanished. Within the week, Scott was arrested and charged with two counts of murder.

During the trial, which is expected to last at least six months, prosecutors are painting an ugly portrait of a man they say plotted and carried out a brutal slaying. But the Petersons say their son is an affectionate, sweet and even-tempered man who was excited to become a father.