[Republicus2001]

he also told the woman his wife was dead MONTHS before they found her body

[cyncooper]

Rough chronology of Peterson's lies about his marital status:

He meets Amber and represents himself as single.

Amber gets wind that he's married and confronts him in early December and he admits he was married but had "lost" his wife and this would be his first Christmas without her.

Sometime after Laci's disappearance (and Amber had contacted the tip phone number 12/30, so she realized by then) she confronts Scott with the fact that his wife hadn't been dead after all and he admits to that, but claims he didn't kill her and in fact she's alive in Modesto.