When I was in high school, reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn thrilled me. It taught me not to trust an unreliable narrator and threw me into a whirlwind of emotions about how the media sensationalizes tragedy, to the detriment of those it pretends to serve.
The inspiration behind Gone Girl, according to Flynn, was the disappearance of Laci Peterson in late 2002 in California. In a highly publicized murder case, she disappeared while eight months pregnant, and was last seen alive on December 24, 2002. Her husband, Scott Peterson, would be convicted of first-degree murder for her death and second-degree murder for the death of the unborn son.
Currently, he is on death row, which is on moratorium because California has a moratorium for all its prisoners on death row — California has not executed a prisoner since 2006.
Scott Peterson and Laci Denise Rocha first met when Laci was in college at California Polytechnic State University in 1994. They would meet through a mutual friend who worked in Scott’s restaurant, Pacific Cafe, and Laci would make the first move and give Scott her phone number right after meeting him. She would later call her mother saying that she…
