Who killed Peter Zeihen and why? – Oxygen’s “Snapped”

Who killed Peter Zeihen and why? – Oxygen’s “Snapped”

The murder of Peter Zeihen serves as evidence that family disputes can become contentious. The 40-year-old electrical contractor Peter Zeihen was brutally murdered by his in-laws, as revealed in a new episode of Oxygen’s Snapped that follows the murder investigation.

The custody issue led to the conflict since Zeihen’s in-laws opposed him having any custody of his daughter, whom he adored. Zeihen’s in-laws tried to kill him when the debate got heated.

In the midst of his contentious divorce in 1991, Zeihen was murdered by his mother-in-law JoAnn Peterson.

 

Why was Peter Zeihen killed? Who was he?

Peter Zeihen was born in 1951 and raised in Chewelah, a tiny community in Washington state, which is north of Spokane. He came from a modest family. His mother served on the city council, and his father owned his own farm. Zeihen met Orinne Goldberg, 30, at a marathon in Spokane when he was 35 years old.

After one year of dating, the couple moved in together. Orinne became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter four months later. After that, the couple was hitched in 1988.

Soon later, Orinne left Zeihen and their daughter behind as their marriage started to fall apart. 60 miles away in Newport, Washington, she moved in with her parents. Zeihen’s marriage did not get any better because he had to travel to Newport on the weekends to visit his daughter.

They eventually decided to divorce. Now that this would grant Zeihen some custody of his daughter, his in-laws, notably his mother-in-law JoAnn Peterson, did not take well to this. That her granddaughter would have to visit her father, who lived an hour away, was something she found intolerable.

Zeihen was murdered in order to end the inconvenience. He was parked in his car outside his girlfriend’s Spokane Valley apartment when he was shot in the head in 1991 with a 12-gauge shotgun. He was clearly defending himself against an attack because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.

Who was Peter Zeihen’s murderer?
The police found Peter Zeihen’s in-laws guilty of killing him. Three of his in-laws were discovered to be connected to the crime. While Zeihen’s father-in-law drove the getaway car and served as the murderer’s main helper, his brother-in-law had provided the weapon. The matriarch of the family, his mother-in-law, had fatally shot him.

Theil Goldberg, Zeihen’s brother-in-law, entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder. Regarding the crime, he spoke with the authorities. The murderous scheme was also revealed to the authorities by a female family acquaintance of the family.

Both Morris “Mel” Goldberg, the wife’s father-in-law, and JoAnn Peterson, the person who used the firearm and fired the shot, were accused of first-degree murder. According to rumors, JoAnn wanted Zeihen to stare into her eyes before she killed him.

Family conspiracies, murder-for-hire scams, and perhaps an arson attack soon came to light. They were all involved in the Goldberg family’s scheme to keep Zeihen away from his daughter. For the murder of their son-in-law, Mel and JoAnn received sentences of 26 and 25 years in prison, respectively.

For more more regarding the Zeihen case, watch Snapped on Oxygen.