Walter Martineck said on NBC's "Today" Friday and in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that on the day the rectangular container was moved, his friend Thomas Morphey told him he thought Stacy Peterson's body was inside it because the container was warm.

"He was real frantic. I could tell he'd been drinking a little," said Martineck, who said he has known Morphey for 19 years. "He put his hands on my shoulders and says, 'You can't tell no one. I know she was in there.'"

Martineck also said Morphey, who is Peterson's stepbrother, tried to give him the money that Peterson paid him, but said he refused it and did not know how much it totaled.

Martineck's account follows reports confirmed by Bolingbrook police that Morphey tried to commit suicide Oct. 29, the day after Stacy Peterson disappeared. He did so because "he was just afraid of his family's life," Martineck told NBC.

Peterson has been named a suspect in the disappearance of Stacy Peterson, his fourth wife, by the Illinois State Police, which has said it is investigating the case as a possible homicide. Authorities are also investigating the death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, and have said they believe her drowning death was a murder staged to look like an accident. Peterson has not been named a suspect in Savio's death.

Peterson has denied any involvement in his wife's disappearance and has said he believes she ran off with another man and is alive. He also has said he and Morphey never moved any container. Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, has said Morphey has a history of mental problems.