Star witness describes Peterson romance

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Amber Frey, the massage therapist who has admitted an affair with Scott Peterson, described to a rapt courtroom Tuesday how she fell for the clean-cut fertilizer salesman who showered her with roses and planned a life together as hundreds of volunteers searched for his missing wife.

Prosecutors allege that Frey, their star witness, so bedazzled Peterson that he decided to kill his pregnant wife, Laci, at least in part to be with her. He never wore a wedding ring, he indicated they would share “many more corks … many more bottles” together, and he told her on Dec. 9 that he had “lost his wife,” Frey testified.

“He was easygoing,” she said. “He was easy to talk to.”

In court, there was little eye contact between the two. Asked to point out Peterson for the jury, Frey leveled an index finger in his direction, then quickly looked away.

Frey, who admitted she had “trust issues” with men, nonetheless described being immediately impressed with the sensitivity and intelligence of Peterson after a friend set them up on a date in late November 2002. On their first date, Frey said, he brought champagne and strawberries, got them a private room in a Japanese restaurant, then danced for hours before taking her back to his hotel, where they slept together. Frey said she later confessed to feeling guilty about moving so fast romantically, but Peterson assured her she had nothing to be ashamed of.

All the while, Peterson was claiming he had never been married, Frey said. Peterson altered that midway through their whirlwind romance after a friend of Frey’s told her she had heard he was married. He explained that away by saying his wife had died and it hurt too much to talk about it, so he claimed to be single, Frey testified.

Prophetically, he said the Christmas season of 2002 would be his first holidays without his wife. Almost exactly one month after their first date, on Dec. 24, he would report Laci Peterson missing. In April, the remains of Laci and her fetus washed up on the shores of San Francisco Bay. Scott Peterson was arrested and charged with two counts of murder after Frey went to the police and began recording his phone calls to her.

While denigrating Peterson’s character – pictures were shown of him and Frey snuggling at a Christmas party on the same day Laci Peterson attended her own party alone – one thing Frey’s testimony didn’t do, at least during the first of what are expected to be several days on the witness stand, was provide any firsthand evidence that Peterson was a killer. Although she recorded hundreds of phone calls with him, on none of them, apparently does he betray any incriminating information.