( CNN ) -- Ten years ago , Sharon Rocha was expecting her pregnant daughter , Laci Peterson , at dinner on Christmas Eve . Instead , she received a call that Laci was missing . Teams of police and community members scoured the woods and fields near Modesto , California , that night , again on Christmas Day , and for weeks afterward , but there was no sign of her . Four months later , her body washed ashore 90 miles away in the San Francisco Bay . She was 27 . But it is Christmas , not springtime , that stirs a deep sadness in Laci Peterson 's mother . Every Christmas season brings a reminder that Laci 's life and her unborn son 's were taken during what should have been a time of joy and anticipation . `` It 's still hard to believe it happened , and that it 's been 10 years , '' Rocha said Thursday over the phone , speaking slowly , her voice cracking . As the bright lights go up in the neighborhood , and Christmas carols fill the air , she says , `` My mind wanders back . '' The words do not flow easily . Even now , Rocha finds it difficult to speak of her heartbreak without being overcome by tears . The parents of the 6- and 7-year-olds slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown , Connecticut , are just embarking on the painful journey that Rocha has been on for a decade . If anyone knows the pain of celebrating the holidays when they are indelibly connected to tragedy , it is Sharon Rocha . Does she have any advice for the parents of Newtown ? Not really . You just go on . You have no other choice . With a decade 's worth of hindsight , Rocha sees a pattern in her sadness . The holidays are particularly hard every year . `` It will probably be like this forever , '' she sighs . This year was one of the hard ones , perhaps the hardest . Her unease began months earlier . Her son Brent and his family also live in California , and Rocha has four grandchildren . They help fill the void left by the deaths of Laci and her unborn child , a boy who would have been born that February and named Conner . One of her grandsons is close to the age Conner would be . The grandkids help Rocha enjoy the holidays , `` to an extent , '' she says . `` If it were n't for the grandkids , though , I would n't have a Christmas . '' She thinks often of the grandson she never knew , wondering what Conner would have looked like , what his personality would have been like . Laci 's half-sister Amy ( they shared a father ) is a hairstylist and still cuts Rocha 's hair . Rocha may not be related to Amy by blood , but she feels closer to Laci when she 's with Amy , and has gotten to know her better over the years . Amy is expecting her first child , a son , in February . Is it an eerie coincidence , or perhaps just sisters in sync ? For years , Rocha would burst into tears when she used her blow dryer . Now she knows why : Amy was teaching Laci how to style her long , straight , glossy hair with a curling iron right before Laci vanished . The weeks after Laci disappeared were a blur as Rocha waited to hear from her daughter or find out what had happened to her . Rocha and others slowly grew suspicious of Laci 's husband , Scott Peterson . They came to believe from his odd behavior that he not only knew what happened to her , he killed her himself . By the time his wife 's body washed up , Scott seemed poised to flee the country . He was arrested in San Diego County . He had dyed his hair . Prosecutors posited this theory at his trial : Peterson , who was having an extramarital affair with a massage therapist , smothered or strangled Laci in the bedroom of their Modesto home on December 23 or 24 , 2002 . He then dumped her body in the San Francisco Bay during a Christmas Eve fishing trip . But there was little forensic evidence , and Peterson maintains his innocence to this day . The former fertilizer salesman , who was married to Laci for five years , was convicted of murdering Laci and Conner . He was sentenced to death , which appears to be years away . Hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse and cheered the jury 's decision . Rocha does n't follow the news about Peterson . But she knew something happened in his case last summer because of all the voice mail messages she received . Peterson 's attorneys had just filed his appeal and the media wanted her reaction . She read no further than the first page of the court filing , which asks for a new trial . Rocha sold the home she lived in when Laci disappeared , but she still lives in Modesto . Laci and Scott 's house on Modesto 's Covena Avenue is for sale again , listed at less than half the 2005 purchase price of $ 390,000 . Beth Karas is a correspondent for In Session , which is produced by HLN and airs on sister network TruTV . She covered the Scott Peterson trial .
Sharon Rocha went missing last summer . Husband Sharon Rocha was convicted of murdering her and their unborn son . Sharon Rocha 's mother , Scott Peterson , struggles with a deep sadness around the holidays .