Laci Peterson's Ex-Boyfriend Doubts Scott's Story

POSTED: 11:49 a.m. PDT August 4, 2003

UPDATED: 5:13 p.m. PDT August 5, 2003

ABERDEEN, Wash. -- Speaking from a Washington state correctional facility, the high school boyfriend of murdered Modesto schoolteacher Laci Peterson said he has doubts about her husband, Scott Peterson's contention that he told her he was having an affair. William 'Kent' Gain spoke with Fox News' Rita Cosby over the weekend. He said he dated Laci when they both attended high school in Modesto and for a while when they were in college. Currently, he is incarcerated in the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen, Wash., for shooting his girlfriend.

Gain told Cosby that it would be uncharacteristic of Laci to quietly accept the fact that her husband had been unfaithful. "You'd have to be an idiot to tell her something like that because she's pretty fiery and she's liable to give you a good piece of her mind," he said. "She definitely would not keep something like that from her family and friends...Considering the circumstances, they were going to have a baby and everything that was involved (with that), even if she decided to stay with him, it's not something she would keep to herself."

Laci Peterson disappeared from the couple's Modesto home on Christmas Eve, triggering weeks of highly publicized searches throughout California. Late in January, Amber Frey -- a Fresno massage therapist -- came forward and told a packed news conference that she had been having an affair with Scott Peterson ever since they were introduced to each other in a bar in November. She has claimed that Peterson never told her he was married and that she only became aware of it after television news broadcasts of the search for his then missing wife.

In an interview late in January with KTVU's Ted Rowlands among others, Peterson claimed he had told his wife about his extramarital affair and that she was okay with it. Laci also never mentioned the affair to any family members or friends. Gain said initially Modesto authorities were interested in him as a suspect. "Maybe a month (after Laci disappeared), my counselor told me investigators were asking about my whereabouts and how long I'd been here (in prison)," he said. "They wanted to make sure I wasn't a suspect." He said he would never forget Laci. "She was my first love," he said. "I can't say that I'm not (still) in love with her...It's just one of those things you just don't get over I guess."

Peterson, 30, currently is in the Stanislaus County Jail being held on capital murder charges for the deaths of Laci and the couple's unborn son. He could face the death penalty if convicted. He has pleaded innocent to two counts of murder. Scott has been held without bail since his arrest in April after the remains of Laci and their unborn son washed ashore in San Francisco Bay near where he said he was fishing on Christmas Eve when his pregnant wife disappeared from their home.