Laci Denise Peterson was an American woman murdered by her husband, Scott Lee Peterson, while eight months pregnant with their first child.
Media circus is a colloquial metaphor, or idiom, describing a news event for which the level of media coverage—measured by such factors as the number of reporters at the scene and the amount of material broadcast or published—is perceived to be excessive or out of proportion to the event being covered. Coverage that is sensationalistic can add to the perception the event is the subject of a media circus. The term is meant to critique the coverage of the event by comparing it to the spectacle and pageantry of a circus. Usage of the term in this sense became common in the 1970s. It can also be called a media feeding frenzy or just media frenzy, especially when the media coverage itself is covered.
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 is a United States law that recognizes a "child in utero" as a legal victim, if they are injured or killed during the commission of any of over 60 listed federal crimes of violence. The law defines this term, “child in utero" as "a member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb."
Lori Kay Soares Hacking was a teacher who was murdered by her husband Mark Douglas Hacking in 2004 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was reported missing by her husband, and the search gained national attention before her husband confessed to the crime.
Kristin Denise Smart was a 19-year-old American woman murdered by Paul Flores at the end of her first year on the campus of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Dwight Equan Grant, better known by his stage name Beanie Sigel, is an American rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is best known for his association with Jay-Z and his label Roc-A-Fella Records, to which Grant signed in 1998 and became a flagship artist. His debut studio album, The Truth (2000) was met with critical and commercial success, peaking at number five on the Billboard 200. Along with his solo career, Grant was the de facto leader of the Philadelphia-based hip hop collective State Property, which he formed with Roc-A-Fella labelmates, and who debuted in 2002 with a namesake film in which Grant starred. The group released two well-received studio albums.
Missing white woman syndrome is a term used by some social scientists and media commentators to denote perceived disproportionate media coverage, especially on television, of missing-person cases toward white females as compared to males, or females of color. Supporters of the phenomenon posit that it encompasses supposed disproportionate media attention to females who are young, attractive, white, and upper middle class. Although the term was coined in the context of missing-person cases, it is sometimes used of coverage of other violent crimes. The phenomenon has been highlighted in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and other predominantly white countries, as well as South Africa.
The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story is a 2004 American made-for-television crime film based on the murder of Laci Peterson starring Dean Cain, Sarah Brown, Tracy Middendorf and Tom O'Brien.
On 21 April 2001, Hannah Williams, a 14-year-old English schoolgirl, was murdered after going missing during a shopping trip in Dartford, Kent. Williams's body was discovered on 15 March 2002 at a cement works in an industrial area of Northfleet.
The murder of Jessie Davis was committed on June 14, 2007, in Lake Township, Ohio, United States. Jessie Marie Davis, a 26-year-old woman who was near-term pregnant, was reported missing from her home. The disappearance and subsequent murder of Davis sparked national media attention.
Pregnancy-associated femicide is a form of gender-based violence involving the murder of a woman during the period of pregnancy and up to 1 year after childbirth.
Drew Walter Peterson is an American convicted murderer and former Bolingbrook, Illinois, police sergeant who was found guilty in 2012 of the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, a few months after their 2003 divorce. Peterson first received national publicity in 2007 when his fourth wife, Stacy Ann Cales Peterson, disappeared. Although the police and Stacy Ann's family suspect foul play, she has never been found.
Lance Corporal Maria Frances Lauterbach of Vandalia, Ohio, was a United States Marine who disappeared from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, on December 14, 2007. At the time of her disappearance, Lauterbach was eight months pregnant. Authorities found the remains of Lauterbach and her unborn child in the backyard of Corporal Cesar Armando Laurean, who was extradited from Mexico in 2009 and convicted of murder in 2010.
Victoria Elizabeth Marie"Tori"Stafford was a Canadian girl who was abducted, raped, and murdered by Michael Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic. Her body was found three months later in a wooded area in rural Ontario. The subsequent investigation and search were the subject of massive media coverage across Canada.
Fetal abduction refers to the rare crime of child abduction by kidnapping of an at term pregnant woman and extraction of her fetus through a crude cesarean section. Dr. Michael H. Stone and Dr. Gary Brucato have alternatively referred to this crime as "fetus-snatching" or "fetus abduction." Homicide expert Vernon J. Geberth has used the term "fetal kidnapping." In the small number of reported cases, a few pregnant victims and about half of their fetuses survived the assault and non-medically performed cesarean.
Anne Melani Bremner is an American attorney and television personality. She has been a television commentator on a number of high-profile cases, including in the murder of Meredith Kercher in Italy as legal counsel and as a spokesperson for the Friends of Amanda Knox.
Lauren Elizabeth Spierer is an American woman who disappeared on June 3, 2011, following an evening at Kilroy's Sports Bar in Bloomington, Indiana. At the time, Spierer was a 20-year-old student at Indiana University. Though her disappearance generated national press coverage, Spierer is presumed dead and her case remains unsolved.
The disappearance of Elodia Ghinescu was a heavily covered missing-person-become-murder case in Romania; according to several news sources, it was the most covered case of this kind in the history of mass media in the country.
William Maughan and Anna Varslavane are a couple who disappeared on 14 April 2015 from the Gormanstown area of County Meath in Ireland.
Fiona Pender is an Irish woman who disappeared from her home in Tullamore, County Offaly on 23 August 1996 at the age of 25. She was seven months pregnant at the time of her disappearance. Gardaí suspect she was murdered.
