A retired LAPD detective is calling for a new trial for Scott Peterson, arguing that Modesto police botched the investigation from the start by ignoring more than a dozen witnesses who claimed to have seen his pregnant wife alive after he had already left for a fishing trip. When the state puts a man behind bars for life, the least it owes him — and the public — is a process that follows its own rules.

Nearly 22 years after a jury convicted Peterson of murdering Laci Peterson and their unborn son, the Los Angeles Innocence Project says it has uncovered evidence that should shake that conviction. The findings are laid out in A&E's two-part docuseries, "Scott Peterson: The New Evidence."

Retired LAPD detective Ninette Toosbuy, who appears in the documentary, told Fox News Digital that Modesto police failed to follow basic missing-persons protocols from day one.

"When you initially have a missing person's case, there are certain protocols, certain things that must be done, and that is to follow up on every possible lead to determine when and where the missing person was last seen," Toosbuy said. "That wasn't done in this case."

The docuseries identifies 15 people who said they saw Laci walking her dog, McKenzie, on the morning of December 24, 2002 — after the time Peterson told investigators he had already left home for San Francisco Bay. If credible, those sightings would have excluded Peterson as a suspect, since he could not have been in two places at once.

"Why wasn't this absolutely exhausted?" Toosbuy said. "Why wasn't this followed all the way through? You've got witnesses, people in the neighborhood, who reached out to Modesto PD once they heard there was a missing person's investigation going on."

Toosbuy said standard practice is to interview every witness, assess their credibility, and physically take them back to the location where they saw the missing person. "That wasn't done," she said. "If you had witnesses who could confirm that they did see Laci at the park or in the neighborhood, and this would've been at the time after Scott already left for the marina, then that would've immediately excluded him as a suspect."

Prosecutors have long countered that the reported sightings were unreliable or inconsistent. Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, dismissed the new claims outright. "There is no new evidence," she told People magazine.

Both the New York Post and Fox News covered the story straight, presenting Toosbuy's claims alongside the prosecution's longstanding rebuttals and Rocha's rejection. Neither outlet dug into why Modesto PD apparently failed to follow up on neighborhood leads — or whether institutional tunnel vision once a suspect is identified is a broader problem in American policing.

Peterson was originally sentenced to death. That sentence was later overturned, and he is now serving life without parole. The question isn't whether Peterson is likable — it's whether the state followed its own procedures before stripping a man of his freedom forever. If investigators cut corners, the public deserves to know, and the courts owe Peterson a hearing on the merits.

The Modesto Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Fifteen witnesses. Zero follow-up interviews. One life sentence. The math doesn't add up — and the system that refuses to check it is the same one that holds all the cards.