Peterson Responds to Mother-in-Law's Book

The convicted murderer says he applauds Sharon Rocha's donating money to Laci's memory

For the second time since he was locked up in San Quentin Prison last March, convicted murderer Scott Peterson has released a personal statement to the Website for the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty, this time responding to the just-published For Laci, penned by his former mother-in-law, Sharon Rocha – and, in fact, commending the book’s author.

Written by Peterson on Dec. 26, 2005, but not posted until Tuesday, the message states: “If a rumor I heard is correct, my Mother-in-Law, Laci’s Mother, deserves applause. The rumor is that all the profits from her forthcoming book will be given to an educational charity … I hope this rumor is true.”

Peterson, saying that “Laci and I enjoyed supporting education,” goes on to write, “Some people have done things to profit off of my wife and son having been taken from me and murdered. The profits from this possibly going to charity would counter this disgusting trend. If the rumor is true, what a wonderful act. Profit from tragedy is repulsive. – Scott”

Peterson was convicted of murdering Laci and their unborn son, Conner, and then dumping the remains into San Francisco Bay.

In a recent interview with PEOPLE, Rocha says the intent of her book was “for people to get to know” her daughter. “My biggest fear and the reason I kept saying, ‘No, no, no,’ was because I don’t want anyone to think that I would do this to profit from Laci’s death. That’s the last thing I want to do.”

With proceeds from her author’s advance, Rocha set up “The Laci and Conner Search and Rescue Fund,” as part of the Carole Carrington/Sund Memorial Reward Foundation to fund law enforcement and other nonprofit search and rescue organizations to help find missing people.

Rocha says that when Modesto Police Department Detective Craig Grogan told her that the dog handlers who were looking for Laci’s remains had to stop because “they were pretty much out of money, and that the people with the dog were pretty much working off of donations, then it occurred to me this is what I could do.”

As for Peterson, Rocha says she no longer follows media reports of her former son-in-law. “My personal feelings are that once I heard the guilty verdict, I was finished. I didn’t care about the penalty phase. It did not matter to me whether it was life or death because even if it’s life in prison he will die in prison,” she says.