Friend Testifies: Drew Peterson Told Wife 'Why Don't You Just Die?'

(CHICAGO) -- Drew Peterson once grabbed his wife around her neck and asked, "Why don't you just die?" according to a friend of Kathleen Savio who testified in Peterson's murder trial on Thursday.

Peterson, 58, is on trial for killing Savio, his third wife, and making it look like an accident. She was found dead in her bathtub in 2004 and the death was initially ruled an accidental drowning. After Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished from their home in 2007, police exhumed Savio's body and reexamined it for signs of murder, finally charging Peterson.

Thursday, Savio's friend Mary Parks testified about conversations the two women had regarding Peterson.

"Kathy told me that her husband, Drew Peterson, said he could kill her, make her disappear," Parks said on the stand, according to ABC News affiliate WLS.

Savio told Parks that her estranged husband told her, "Why don't you just die?"

"She unzipped the top, it opened and I saw marks on her neck," Parks said.

The testimony marked the second day hearsay statements were allowed into the court transcript, following a decision Wednesday by Judge Edward Burmila to allow Savio's friends to testify about Peterson's alleged threats.

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