MODESTO, Calif. -- A civil lawsuit filed by the parents of slain Modesto schoolteacher Laci Peterson against her convicted killer – her husband Scott Peterson – has been dropped, court officials said Thursday.

A hearing in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Sharon and Dennis Rocha was scheduled for Thursday, but a Stanislaus County Superior Court official said the matter was dropped last week.

In his videotaped deposition for the civil trial, Peterson –- who is awaiting execution on San Quentin’s death row -- denied killing Laci Peterson, and asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination 195 times.

During the taping of that deposition, Scott Peterson also told the family’s attorneys that: "I love my wife… I love my son. I will always love them. I have always loved them. I should be able to hug them right now. I should be able to hold my son."

He also claimed in the deposition that he was the victim of a poorly handled police investigation.

Laci Peterson's parents first filed the lawsuit in 2004, seeking a multimillion-dollar judgment. That same year, a jury found Peterson guilty of murdering her and her fetus and dumping the body into San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002.

During the ensuing years, the family suffered a major setback when Judge Roger Beauchesne denied a request that Peterson’s death sentence conviction for the murders be allowed in the civil trial as fact.

Laci Peterson disappeared from the couple's Modesto home on December 24, 2002, setting off a highly publicized search throughout Northern California. The remains of Laci Peterson and her fetus were later recovered along the shore of the San Francisco Bay.

Scott Peterson was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury in Redwood City in the murders ending one of the most highly publicized trials in California history.