I personally cannot understand why it took them THIS long? This cops entire history is so shady..unfortunately I believe she is dead but maybe now the family can get some closure
BOLINGBROOK | Stacy a 'potential homicide'; 3rd wife murdered?
November 10, 2007
BY DAN ROZEK AND STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporters
Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson has cast himself as a misunderstood man whose young, pretty wife simply left him -- possibly for another man.
On Friday, Peterson officially became a suspect in Stacy Peterson's disappearance, in a case that's now labeled a "potential homicide," authorities said Friday.
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Stacy Peterson, 23, of Bolingbrook, Ill., and her husband, Drew Peterson, 53, a police officer with the Bolingbrook Police Department. Stacy was reported missing on Oct. 29.
(AP/Family of Stacy Peterson)
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"Right now, Drew Peterson has gone from a person of interest to clearly being a suspect," State Police Capt. Carl Dobrich said during a news conference that marked a dramatic shift in two cases involving the suburban cop.
The announcement came hours after a Will County judge ordered the body of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, exhumed so investigators can re-examine her mysterious 2004 bathtub death, which prosecutors said now appears to be a murder, not an accident.
Savio was found dead March 1, 2004, in the bathtub of her Bolingbrook home. Her death initially was labeled an accident, but after Stacy Peterson's Oct. 28 disappearance, authorities reviewed Savio's death.
"There are strong indications it was a homicide," Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said, contending that Savio's body needs to be exhumed for more detailed forensic testing that could help determine whether the accident was staged.
Also Friday, the Sun-Times learned from a source close to the Bolingbrook Police Department that an internal investigation of that agency is under way to determine whether there was a "cover-up" or any other kind of mishandling of the Savio case.
Authorities stopped short Friday of calling Drew Peterson a suspect in Savio's death, which happened months after Peterson had divorced her and married Stacy Peterson, his fourth wife.
Hearing that Drew Peterson is now considered a suspect in Stacy Peterson's disappearance, her relatives wrestled with conflicting emotions -- both joy and dread.
"This is the first step in the direction we need to go," said family spokeswoman Pam Bosco. "Those words only mean we most likely won't see Stacy again. That's the saddest part of this."
But the change in the nature of the case reinforces their knowledge that Stacy wouldn't have vanished voluntarily.
"We always felt she did not run off as he'd been saying. She loved her family too much," Bosco said.
The 23-year-old Stacy disappeared two weeks ago. Worried family members -- not Drew Peterson -- reported her missing at 4 a.m. on Oct. 29, launching a search that has found no trace of her.
The decision to name Peterson, 53, a suspect in his wife's disappearance indicates investigators have evidence that Stacy Peterson is likely dead, sources said.
Summoned Wednesday before a Will County grand jury, Peterson answered virtually none of the questions put to him, sources said. Two sons from Drew Peterson's third marriage have been questioned but provided little information to investigators, sources said.
Peterson hasn't provided any information to investigators since a search of his home Nov. 1, Dobrich said. Police searched the home a second time earlier this week.
Authorities would say little about what led them to view Peterson as a suspect in his wife's disappearance, though cell phone records are believed to be a key part of their case, including records of the purported last call made from Stacy to her husband Oct. 28.
Peterson also has been vague about where he went and what he did that day, a source said.
"His timeline doesn't make sense," a law enforcement source said.
Officials were more forthcoming about Savio's death, saying a review of the evidence indicated she couldn't have accidentally fallen and drowned in her bathtub.
In a court petition seeking to exhume her body, Glasgow wrote that a gash on the back of her head "did not render her unconscious, which would have been necessary for her to accidentally drown."
Late Friday, Bolingbrook police suspended Drew Peterson without pay and announced an internal review that could result in him being fired, though he is due to retire next month. Bolingbrook Police Chief Ray McGury said the suspension is not related to Peterson being a labeled a suspect but was based on an unrelated internal investigation.
Peterson couldn't be reached Friday. His attorneys declined late Friday to comment on the case.