CHICAGO – Lawyers will begin today to pull together the disjointed story of Drew Peterson and his ill-fated wives to make a case for the ex-cop’s guilt or innocence, all the while navigating a bevy of legal issues – from how much hearsay evidence to admit and to just how to describe Peterson’s missing fourth wife.

The murder trial’s opening statements and first witnesses are scheduled for today, nearly a decade after the 58-year-old former cop’s third wife was found dead in a bathtub and five years after his young fourth wife vanished without a trace.

The case has drawn national attention amid speculation Peterson, now 58, used his law enforcement expertise in a bid to get away with the 2004 murder of Kathleen Savio, 40, and to make 23-year-old Stacy Peterson disappear in 2007.