"Right now, it's a missing person case. She didn't come home," stated Bolingbrook Police Lt Ken Teppel.
How many times in the news have we read those same words in the past year? Adults walk away from their lives and start new ones all the time but it seems that there are more wives and girlfriends going missing in the news lately.
There is the still missing wife of Craig Stebic and the tragic ending to Bobby Cutts Jr's girlfriend Jessie Davis and now it seems we can add the 23 year-old Stacy Ann Peterson. She is the fourth wife of Bolingbrook IL police Sgt Drew Peterson, 53 and was last heard from at 10 am Sunday, October 28 2007. Her family reported her missing the next day.
Drew Peterson's ex-wife was found dead three years ago in what police then had determined was an accidental drowning in the bathtub. Kathleen Savio's family had always thought there was something wrong for a seemily healthy 40 year old woman to have drowned in the tub and they are elated that prosecutors are going to reinvestigate her death now that Drew's present wife has gone missing.
It seems that Drew's relationship with his most recent ex-wife, Savio, had been a troubled one. He was said to have been her Romeo boyfriend when he met her in the early 1990's but by about 5 years into the marriage, she began receiving anonymous letters stating that Drew was cheating on her. A relative who didn't wish to be named stated that when Savio confronted him, he would beat her and she had even taken Savio to the hospital after one beating.
Savio stayed with Drew despite the beatings, partly because she had two children with him and because she had said she was deathly afraid of him. In 2002 though, she sought an order of protection against him in Will county court stating that he had threatened to kill her. That same year she claimed in a letter to prosecutors that he had held a knife to her throat. In 2003, Savio filed for divorce from Drew after learning that he was having an affair with a young woman. When she confronted Drew, he admitted that he had made the woman, the future Mrs Stacy Peterson, pregnant.
In March 2004, after the couple had divorced, Savio was found dead in the bathtub of her Bolingbrook home. Her death was ruled an accidental drowning even though the tub was empty when her body was discovered. The investigators had felt that the water had just managed to drain out over time.
Drew, a 29 year Bolingbrook police veteran, has not been named as a suspect in his wife's disappearance and he is said to be cooperating fully with the investigation. One source has stated though that his relationship with his present wife was strained as well. In much the manner of the last few cases, Stacy was supposed to meet a relative Sunday and never arrived. Her relatives were unable to reach the mother of two on the phone, became alarmed and reported her missing at 4 am Monday morning.
It seems that Drew, much like Bobby Cutts, had a not so pristine record at the police department as well. In 1985, Drew was fired after the village board of police and fire commissioners found that he had conducted a self-assigned unvestigation, failed to report a bribe immediately and committed official misconduct and disobedience. He was reinstated in 1986 after it was found that they lacked evidence and the criminal charges were also dropped.
Drew as well has taken time off now to care for his two young children and has refered questions to his lawyer, who was unavailable for comment. He is said to have bristled at the suggestion that she may be a victim of foul play by answering back that she is only missing.
I have to wonder how a husband doesn't really notice that anything is wrong with his wife being missing, when he has two small children to care for and why it was her family that reported her missing. In any case, Stacy, who is 5 foot 2 inches tall and approximately 100 pounds was last seen wearing a red jogging suit is still missing and her family as well as many others would love to know that she too hasn't met with an "accident."
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