This true crime series will stay with you for a long time

There are sometimes documentaries that you can't let go of immediately. ‘American Murder’: Laci Peterson is one of them. The three-part series dives into the case of American Laci Peterson who was murdered 22 years ago. A bizarre story that makes you realize that you sometimes don't know people as well as you think.

Laci was eight months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002. It wasn't until more than a year later that her body, and that of her son, were found. The perpetrator: Laci's husband Scott. Although it is revealed in the first minute that he is the perpetrator, I watched the series with a sense of disbelief. A man who murders his pregnant wife and makes it look like a disappearance, how can such a thing happen?

It is Scott who reports his wife missing. He is the last person to have seen her and thus immediately a suspect. He seems to cooperate well and to be open and honest. But the more the police try to exclude him as a suspect, the more evidence points to him. Step by step, you are taken through how the officers ultimately identified Scott as the perpetrator and how he managed to keep his actions hidden for so long. Besides police interrogations, news clips, and hidden audio recordings, the documentary largely consists of conversations. Detectives, journalists, and the family and friends of both Laci and Scott speak out. They talk about the course of the investigation, the impact of the murder, but also about the characters of the couple and the relationship they had. The combination of factual information and personal stories makes this documentary particularly impactful.

Director Skye Borgman had a clear goal: to make people think. Murder is the number one cause of death for pregnant women. A statistic that is unknown to many. With this documentary, Borgman wanted not only to tell Laci's story but also to draw attention to all women who are in the same situation or are at risk of being in one. She hopes to make people more alert to the signs of domestic violence to prevent the Peterson case from ever happening again.

‘American Murder’: Laci Peterson’ is available to watch on Netflix.

Image: Netflix