Woman hurt by ties to Peterson
Frey's father says she thought romance 'was the real thing.'
Woman hurt by ties to Peterson
Frey's father says she thought romance 'was the real thing.'
By Louis Galvan
The Fresno Bee
(Published Sunday, January 26, 2003, 5:24 AM)
The father of a Fresno-area woman says his daughter's life has been turned upside down by her brief relationship with Scott Peterson.
"She really thought he was a truly fine person," Ron Frey, 50, said Saturday during an interview at his north Fresno home.
Amber Frey, 28, said Friday night in an emotional news conference in Modesto that when she and Peterson met Nov. 20, she was unaware he was married to Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old pregnant woman who has been missing for more than a month.
Said Ron Frey: "She had no clue in the world that he was married. She was proud to be with him."
He said his daughter never would have struck up a romantic relationship had she known Peterson has a wife.
"She's single, she met someone she liked, and she really thought he was the real thing," he said. "She never meant to hurt anyone."
Instead, he said, his daughter became a victim of someone she trusted and now feels "embarrassed and shattered."
"But I keep telling her that she didn't do anything wrong," Ron Frey said. "He not only fooled her, but he fooled the nation for a month."
Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve from her Modesto home. Suspicion now surrounds her 31-year-old husband, who reportedly took out a $250,000 life insurance policy on Laci. Modesto police have said Scott Peterson has not been eliminated as a suspect in his wife's disappearance.
Police also say Amber Frey is not a suspect in Laci's disappearance, which has attracted national attention.
Frey, who said he never met Scott Peterson, added he could not talk about how many times his daughter got together with Peterson after they were introduced by friends in November. But he acknowledged Peterson had met Amber Frey's 23-month-old daughter: "He even held [the child]."
He said his daughter was hurt when Peterson told her he wasn't going to be around for Christmas: "He told her was going to Paris. Nobody leaves his girlfriend alone on Christmas.
"He told her that because of his job, he had to travel all over the country and that it was not unusual for him to be gone from home for up to 30 days at time."
Ron Frey said it was not easy for his daughter to come forward and contact Modesto police about her relationship with Peterson.
He said he watched the Friday night news conference on television. "I'm very pleased at the way Modesto police handled the situation," he said. "It was very important for the public to know right away that my daughter is also a victim in this thing."
Amber Frey, who has a home in Madera Ranchos in Madera County, has been staying with friends for weeks. "Right now, she does not know what's going to happen," her father said.
And because of all the publicity surrounding the Peterson case, he said, his daughter doesn't know when or if she will return to her job as a massage therapist in Fresno. "Right now, she just wants everything to go away. How do you make this go away?"
Laci Peterson was due to deliver her baby on Feb. 10.
Amber Frey was born on Feb. 10, 1975.
The reporter can be reached at
lgalvan@fresnobee.com or at 441-6139.
Amber Frey was born on Feb. 10, 1975.
That's freaky, same birthdate...