JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — The murder trial of former suburban Chicago police sergeant Drew Peterson began Tuesday with dueling explanations of his third wife’s death, clashes over evidence and a teary witness describing how she screamed when she discovered her friend’s body.

Prosecutors gave jurors an account that could have come from a 1940s pulp novel, in which a man does whatever he must — including murder — to keep his ex-wife’s hands off his money.