Night Before Christmas: December 24th to December 31st

Night Before Christmas fixates on a single week in the Scott Peterson case canon – December 24th to December 31st, 2002. It delves deep, beyond the shallow demeanor of the infamous defendant, further and wider than the media narrative, far outside the demonstrable facts fielded at trial. “Fifteen years later, we have the most powerful tool at our disposal: hindsight. We can see where things were going, how they were evolving, where there was adaptation, and we can see the finish line. With the archives at our disposal, we’re able to filter through it, mine it, and analyze it. We’re able to go deeper than ever before. We can walk with the scuttling crabs of San Francisco Bay. We can hear the nearby crunching and scouring of seawater against the eastern edge of Brooks Island. We can approach Laci where she’d been lying for a week…” In Night Before Christmas, investigative photojournalist Nick van der Leek applies his psychological scalpel to the murkiest of questions: What was the murder weapon, and why? What compounds and equipment were used, and why? How was Laci’s body prepared for burial in the Bay?Read more