Newspaper Articles

[Lorie Taylor]

www.chicagosuburbannews.com/bolingbrook/homepage/x1819882057

Quiet neighborhood center of media attention

By Dan Petrella, [e-mail]
Bolingbrook Reporter
Thu Nov 01, 2007, 06:10 PM CDT

Trick-or-treaters in one Bolingbrook neighborhood had to navigate their way around satellite trucks and TV cameras Wednesday as they knocked on doors in search of Halloween candy.

Reporters and camera crews from local and national news stations camped out all day in front of the home of 53-year-old Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson, whose wife, Stacy Peterson, 23, has been missing since Sunday. Illinois State Police are investigating her disappearance.

Fox News Channels On the Record with Greta Van Susteren broadcast live at 9 p.m. Wednesday across the street from Petersons home.

Bolingbrook police circulated a flier Wednesday afternoon informing neighbors of the medias presence.

Jim Lepper has lived in the neighborhood for seven years, and his daughter went to high school with Stacy Peterson, though they didnt know each other well. He wasnt bothered by the press, although he said it was unusual in the nice, quiet neighborhood.

Its a young neighborhood. There are a lot of kids who are going to be trick-or-treating, Lepper said. Hopefully it wont disrupt them. As long as the kids arent nervous, Im OK with it.

Some trick-or-treaters avoided the cul-de-sac where Petersons home is located, but others knocked on the door, where someone was answering and passing out candy.

Sharon Knobbe said she first saw the trucks and TV crews Wednesday morning, before she had heard about Stacy Petersons disappearance.

It made me a little uneasy, because you dont know why all these news stations are out here and its so close to (Pioneer Elementary School), she said.

Knobbe and her husband, B.J., still took the kids out trick-or-treating.

If they were a little older and went by themselves, we might trail behind, but its fine, B.J. Knobbe said.

[Lorie Taylor]

www.suntimes.com/news/metro/630821,CST-NWS-drew01web.article

His side: Sgt. Drew Peterson

November 1, 2007
BY DAN ROZEK AND STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporters

Drew Peterson believes his missing wife left voluntarily -- even taking extra clothes with her -- and isn't a victim of foul play, the Bolingbrook police sergeant said Wednesday, breaking his silence on the puzzling disappearance of Stacy Peterson.

"I believe she's not missing. She's where she wants to be," he said. "I have no reason to suspect foul play."

His 23-year-old wife has been seeing a psychiatrist, taking Effexor, a prescription anti-depressant medication and struggling with "mood issues" since the cancer death last year of her sister, Peterson said during a brief interview in the couple's Bolingbrook home.

"Ever since then, Stacy has been different," the 53-year-old Peterson said. "There's been mood issues. She's been under the care of a psychiatrist."

That carried over into their last conversation, he said. She left their home Sunday morning to help a relative paint, then called him at their home at about 9 p.m. Sunday.

"She seemed snotty," Peterson said, describing the call as "unusual" though he wouldn't disclose details of what was said.

That call at 9 p.m. Sunday was his last communication with his wife -- and even then he said he didn't know where she was calling from.

"I don't know where she was when she called," he said.

Her relatives reported her missing about 4 a.m. Monday and there have been no signs of her since then.

Subhed
Illinois State Police said Wednesday they have used tracking dogs and an airplane equipped with a heat-sensing device to search for the 5-foot-2-inch tall, 100-pound woman, but have not located her.

Peterson, a 29-year veteran of the Bolingbrook Police Department, said he doesn't know why his wife of four years would leave him and their two children, ages 2 and 4, behind. She also adopted his children from a previous marriage, he said.

"I find that very unusual," he said of her absence. "She's a very good mom. For the last year or so, she's been very short-tempered, snapping on everyone, but still a good mom."

Stacy, who also took classes at Joliet Junior College, hadn't talked of suicide, Peterson said.

He said he thought their marriage was solid.

"I believed our marriage was good, but maybe she didn't," he said.

He believes the publicity surrounding her disappearance may prompt her to return, but added cryptically," there's other things involved."

Now taking leave from his job -- which he was set to retire from on Dec. 16 -- Peterson said he talked "for a while" on Monday night to state police investigators searching for his wife.

He said he found her purse, cell phone and even some clothing gone after she left their two-story brick home on Sunday.

Subhed
During the brief session with several reporters, Peterson banned any cameras, saying: "I would like to have my anonymity."

He sat at a desk in a first-floor study, with pictures of the couple's two kids -- Lacy, 2, and Anthony, 4 -- behind him on a bookcase.

Other pictures of the children and a photo of Peterson with his wife, sat nearby in the study.

Two sons from a prior marriage, now ages 12 and 15, also live in the house.

Peterson ripped media reports that Will County authorities are reviewing the 2004 death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who drowned in a tub in her Bolingbrook home shortly after the couple had divorced.

A state police investigation concluded the death was accidental, but Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said Tuesday he wants to take another look at the case.

"She just had an accident," he said. "Yes, it was an unusual accident."

That announcement, he said, has created public suspicion that he was somehow involved in her death -- something he adamantly denied.

"It bothers me. I've led an honorable life and people are looking at me sideways," he said. "It hurts. I just have to live through it."

He also complained that publicity surrounding his wife's disappearance had disrupted the family, even keeping his children from going Trick-or-Treating on Halloween.

"My klds can't even go Trick-or-Treat. I hate it," he said. "I'm a prisoner here."

He declined to answer a number of different questions, citing the ongoing investigation and family privacy.

"I'm not going to say anything that would jeopardize my family," he said.

[Lorie Taylor]

www.suntimes.com/news/metro/630822,CST-NWS-stacy01web.article

Their side: Stacy Peterson's family

November 1, 2007
BY DAN ROZEK AND STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporters

Stacy Peterson's family said Wednesday that the 23-year-old missing mother of two would never have abandoned her young children, ages 2 and 4.

"She's very sweet and caring," said Peterson's aunt, Candace Aikin, 48, of El Monte, Calif. "She's a very good mother to her children."

Peterson's uncle, Gary Cales, 68, of Hemet, Calif., agreed: "I know damn well she wouldn't go without them kids. I just know that for sure. That's the kind of mother she is. She loved those children."

Aikin said she is very close to her niece, and talks to her once a week by phone or e-mail. She said Stacy Peterson met her future husband about six years ago while she was working at a hotel in Bolingbrook.

Drew Peterson later got Stacy, then 17, a job at the Bolingbrook Police Department, Aikin said.

Aikin said Stacy Peterson grew up in Downers Grove and in Florida and Louisiana. Stacy's parents divorced when she was a little girl, Aikin said. Stacy lived with her father after the divorce, Aikin said, adding Stacy's mother had a history of vanishing without telling relatives where she was going.

"And then she would come back into our lives when she felt like calling."

Aikin said her family had concerns about Drew Peterson's character early on because he told Stacy when he began dating her that he had never been married.

In fact, Peterson had been married three times before.

When Aikin first met Drew Peterson, "He seemed like a nice guy. He was always very nice to me."

But in recent months, it became clear that Stacy Peterson was miserable in her 4-year-old marriage, Aikin said.

Stacy confided to her aunt that her cop husband wanted to control her every move. Drew Peterson often asked his wife if she had a boyfriend, Aikin said.

"She was very stressed in her relationship with Drew," Aikin said. "She was on anti-depressants, and she couldn't even sleep at night. When I saw her this last time [in October], she was having a very hard time coping with her life. She just looked lost and confused."

Stacy Peterson told her aunt she wanted to divorce her husband, but didn't want to lose her children.

Aikin said she last spoke to her niece on Oct. 21.

"She sounded kind of frantic, like she wanted Drew out," Aikin said. "She was trying to kick him out. She said she would get back with me but she never did."

[Lorie Taylor]

www.suntimes.com/news/metro/632386,CST-NWS-bside02.article

Family: Missing woman doesn't have mom's history of vanishing

November 2, 2007
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter/[e-mail]

Nine years ago, Christie Cales --clutching a Bible -- left her Blue Island home, saying she was going to church.

Cales' family never saw the mother of six again.

Cales -- whose daughter Stacy A. Peterson has been missing since Sunday -- had a history of vanishing for weeks on end, after a life scarred by the loss of two young children.

Peterson's family is adamant, as they wait for news about the 23-year-old Bolingbrook woman's whereabouts, that she isn't like her mother.

"I just can't say this emphatically enough: Stacy was the most excellent mother in the world," said her aunt, Suzan Robison, 60, of North Aurora. "She would never have walked off and left her children."

This week, Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson said his wife, like her mother, has a habit of taking off for a few hours to "vent." Peterson said he doesn't suspect foul play in the disappearance of his wife, missing since Sunday.

When Stacy's mother left for good, it came after Cales experienced crippling personal loss. Cales lost one little girl in a Downers Grove house fire in 1982 and then another child to SIDS in 1987, said Candace Aikin, another of Stacy Peterson's aunts.

"The first baby dying was just too much," Aikin said. "The second baby dying was way too much."

Relatives filed a missing person report, but it never resulted in any solid leads, Robison said.

Stacy Peterson has had other stresses. Another sister, Tina Cales, died of cancer last year at age 29, and Peterson felt trapped in an abusive marriage, her family told the Sun-Times this week.

Peterson had been depressed by her sister's death, but the grief did not seem insurmountable, family said.

And though the young Peterson cared for four children -- including two sons from her husband's previous marriage -- she never regretted the loss of personal freedom, her family said.

"She never felt any kind of bitterness for [her stepsons] being there," Robison said. "She was happy to take care of them."

[Lorie Taylor]

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-peterson_webnov02,0,655602.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Family: Woman feared for life
Missing Bolingbrook wife wanted divorce, her aunt says

By Matthew Walberg, Erika Slife and Hal Dardick | Tribune staff reporters
10:52 PM CDT, November 1, 2007

Two days before she disappeared, the wife of a Bolingbrook police sergeant told her husband she wanted a divorce, the missing woman's aunt said Thursday.

A day later, on Saturday, Stacy Peterson told her sister she feared for her life, said Suzan Robison, Stacy's paternal aunt.

Sgt. Drew Peterson, Stacy's husband, "was a very jealous, very controlling person," Robison said. "He followed her. He tracked her with GPS on her cell phone, called her constantly."

Robison gave the account of her niece's troubled marriage Thursday as police executed search warrants at the couple's home on Pheasant Chase Court in Bolingbrook and searched a pond at a general aviation airport blocks from the house.

Peterson, 53, told the Tribune on Wednesday that his wife Stacy, 23, called him Sunday night to say she was leaving. He said he believed she left for another man, an account Stacy's family members dismissed as highly unlikely.

Peterson said he never abused his wife and that he believed their marriage was good.

Asked outside his neighbor's house Thursday about whether he was nervous, Peterson told the Tribune, "Why should I be nervous? I did nothing wrong."

As police stepped up their probe of Stacy Peterson's disappearance, Will County State's Atty. James Glasgow scoured files related to the 2004 death of Peterson's previous wife, which other authorities ruled accidental.

"There were two items that we wanted to recover," Illinois State Police Capt. Ken Kaupas said, referring to Thursday's search. He declined to say what those were.

Family member Kerry Simmons said Stacy kept in the home a journal that contained notes about fights she had with her husband. "She documented everything," Simmons said.

Charles Pelkie, Glasgow's spokesman, said the warrants also gave police the authority to search a 2005 GMC sport-utility vehicle and a 2002 Pontiac coupe at Peterson's home.

No charges have been filed against Peterson, who went next door during the search and was not taken into custody.

Crime scene technicians searched the home with cadaver dogs, while at least one police helicopter flew overhead. Halloween decorations outside were deflated. Neighbors, including children, stood and watched.

Richard Mims, Peterson's longtime friend who was helping him watch his children, ages 2 and 4, said police in Peterson's home were looking at a computer.

Peterson later told the Tribune the police took the computer and his guns.

Mims said he "firmly believed there's no foul play here. I believe that in my heart."

Meanwhile, at least five police divers entered a pond at Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport, where a manager said police earlier this week tried unsuccessfully to review previous images from a Web cam. Federal Aviation Administration records indicate Drew Peterson is licensed to fly a plane, but manager Joe DePaulo said there were no records that Peterson had used the airport.

Peterson said Stacy left their home Sunday and called him at 9 p.m. to say she was leaving.

Her relatives said she never showed up Sunday to help them paint a house. After she did not answer her cell phone, the relatives reported her missing.

Police said her phone hasn't been used since 9 p.m. Sunday. .

"She would not go one day, much less four days, without calling her sister and her father and her Aunt Candace in California," Robison said. "There's no way she would walk out of her house without those kids. . . . If she was going to leave, she would have taken the kids and been on the phone with one of us."

Simmons said the couple were in marriage counseling, and she asked Stacy about it during a phone call last week.

"She said she didn't want to talk on the phone because she was afraid he was listening and watching everything she was doing," Simmons said. "She was stressed. She wanted out of her marriage."

In addition to the toddlers, Drew Peterson's two sons, ages 13 and 14, lived with the couple.

Peterson found Kathleen Savio, the mother of his sons, dead in the bathtub on March 1, 2004.

At the time they were officially divorced, but the court had yet to approve a division of assets. When Savio died, her sons, under Peterson's guardianship, received $1 million from a life-insurance payment, according to court records.

Peterson later received the proceeds from other life insurance policies, the profits from the sale of a bar they owned in Montgomery and profits on the sale of their home, all valued at more than $600,000, the records state.

Robison, 60, of North Aurora said that when she learned about the previous wife's death, she became scared for her niece.

She said her family is offering $20,000 for information leading to Stacy Peterson's whereabouts.

Family members also organized a 10 a.m. Saturday search of the DuPage River Greenway between Illinois Highway 53 and Weber Road.

Robison is trying to remain positive she will see her niece again. "I'm trying my best to," she said. "I'm kind of numb. I'm praying she's OK."

[Lorie Taylor]

www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/632162,4_1_JO02_MISSING_S1.article

POLICE SEIZE EVIDENCE FROM PETERSON HOME
MISSING MOM INVESTIGATION HEATS UP AS STATE AUTHORITIES AND CADAVER DOGS COMB BOLINGBROOK SERGEANT'S HOUSE

November 1, 2007
By JOE HOSEY Staff Writer

BOLINGBROOK -- Drew Peterson was a day late for Halloween, but it did not stop him from donning a bizarre disguise and popping out of a neighbor's house for a few moments.

Peterson, the police sergeant whose wife vanished nearly a week ago, spent most of Thursday holed up in his next-door neighbor's house with his children and sister-in-law while state police executed a search warrant at his house.

The cops towed two of Peterson's vehicles -- a 2005 GMC sport utility vehicle and a 2002 Pontiac Coupe -- and removed property, including personal computers and wireless telephones, from his home.

They also set cadaver dogs to sniffing around the interior of the house, the yard, an above-ground swimming pool and a camper.

Police let the air out of the inflatable Halloween decorations in Peterson's front yard and searched those as well.

State police are investigating the disappearance of Peterson's wife, Stacy Peterson. The 23-year-old Peterson last was seen Sunday morning. She apparently was heading to meet the boyfriend of her sister Cassandra to help him paint a house.

Though family members say Cassandra expressed suspicions about the 53-year-old Peterson, she reportedly cloistered herself with him in the home of his next-door neighbor during the search. Some of Peterson's six children were with them. An official said Peterson was taken to District 5 state police headquarters in Romeoville before he returned to the neighbor's house.

A brief appearance outside
At one point, Peterson emerged from the house wearing an American flag bandanna over his face, dark sunglasses, and an NYPD baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. He walked down his neighbor's driveway and stood at the edge of the sidewalk.

Asked what was transpiring in the house, Peterson said, "I don't know."

When the assembled media caught sight of him, Peterson said, "Oh, I got to run away," and did just that.

Divers search nearby pond
About the time Peterson made his appearance, Naperville police divers were searching a retention pond between his Pheasant Chase Court home and Clow International Airport.

Former Los Angeles Police Det. Mark Fuhrman ventured into the house and met with Peterson. Fuhrman caught national attention during O.J. Simpson's murder trial. He is in Bolingbrook with Fox News Network.

"I shook his hand," Fuhrman said. "He was shaking."

More voices of concern
A woman who is related to Stacy Peterson through marriage voiced her distrust of Drew Peterson.

"This is what I've been waiting to see happen," said the woman, Kerry Simmons. "She would never leave this house without an excuse."

Simmons' husband, Matthew Simmons, said he hoped the police would provide the justice and closure the family desperately seeks, but expressed his reservations about the law investigating one of its own.

"The only thing we worry about is, once a cop, always a cop," he said. "It's just like this: Do your job. That's all we're asking."

Sister of third wife speaks
Anna Marie Doman, the sister of Peterson's previous wife, Kathleen Savio, also entered the house of his next-door neighbor and said she spoke to her former brother-in-law.

Savio, Peterson's third wife, died under mysterious circumstances in March 2004 soon after they divorced.

Her body was discovered after Peterson attempted to return their two sons from a weekend visitation. No one answered the locked door and Peterson, who lived down the street from Savio with his new wife Stacy, sought help from a neighbor. The neighbor called a locksmith, and once entry was gained, went inside to find Savio's body in a waterless bathtub.

The ensuing investigation revealed Savio drowned. The water in the bathtub may have drained out over time, investigators speculated.

A coroner's jury ruled the death accidental. The state police investigation yielded no criminal charges.

"Nobody looked at my sister's case close enough," Doman said. "I never got a call back (from police). It was like they couldn't be bothered."

That appears to have changed, as Glasgow is revisiting the case of Peterson's third wife's demise, Pelkie said.

Doman wants investigators to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Peterson's fourth wife as well, and to determine whether her former brother-in-law had a hand in it.

"If he did it, fine. If he didn't do it, fine," she said. "I just want them to find out the truth."

[Lorie Taylor]

www.amw.com/missing_persons/case.cfm?id=50297

Stacy Ann Peterson

Woman Vanishes
Stacy Peterson, the 23-year-old wife of longtime Bolingbrook, Ill. police officer Sgt. Drew Peterson, vanished on Sunday, October 28, 2007.Cops say that Stacy left the house in a jogging suit and was supposed to be headed to a relative's home. She never made it.

Sgt. Peterson says he received a phone call from Stacy on Sunday at 9 pm. But, no one else heard from her after a Sunday morning phone call with relatives. Now, Stacy's family has asked the Illinois State Police to look into her disappearance since her husband is a cop with the local police.

ISP Digs Up Old Death
State investigators are trying to track down the missing woman and in the process are looking in to Sgt. Peterson's past. That includes the mysterious death of his third and previous wife, Kathleen Savio.

Kathleen's death in March 2004 was ruled an accidental drowning after she was found in the waterless tub of the home she shared with Sgt. Peterson. At the time of her death, Kathleen and Sgt. Peterson were divorcing.

Drew Peterson is 53-years-old. Stacy is his fourth wife. Sgt. Peterson has served on the Bolingbrook Police force for 29 years.

[Lorie Taylor]

www.suntimes.com/news/632400,CST-NWS-boling02.article

'She wouldn't leave like this'
THE SEARCH FOR STACY PETERSON | As police look for 23-year-old, her relatives question why house, cars weren't checked sooner; husband watches scene in sunglasses, bandanna

November 2, 2007
BY DAN ROZEK AND STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporters

With Fox News' Greta Van Susteren and O.J.-witness-turned TV analyst Mark Fuhrman making it a live national news event, Illinois State Police investigators searched Stacy Peterson's Bolingbrook home Thursday, then towed two cars as they looked for evidence that might help solve her disappearance.

During the hours-long search, Peterson's husband, Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson, took refuge at a neighbor's house with the couple's two young children, including their 2-year-old daughter, who was carried sobbing from the house.

Adding to the bizarre nature of the scene, the 53-year-old Drew Peterson later stepped outside -- wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses and an American flag bandanna over his face -- to briefly watch the searchers, but he quickly returned inside when reporters approached.

"I don't know," he said when asked what police might be trying to find. "I gotta run."

His 23-year-old wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared on Sunday after leaving to help her sister paint an apartment. Her relatives reported her missing early Monday morning after they couldn't contact her.

The search, which began about 2:30 p.m., was carried live by some TV channels, including the Fox News Network, with Van Susteren offering live commentary, aided by Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles detective who became a household name during O.J. Simpson's first trial.

At times, as many as three news helicopters hovered overhead as investigators used two cadaver-sniffing dogs to search the inside of the two-story home and prowl through the fenced backyard, which contains a pool and parked camper.

Police seized home computers and cell phones during the search, State Police said.

Later, a police dive team aided by cadaver dogs searched a nearby pond next to Clow Airport, a small public airstrip.

Police would say little else about the searches, but said investigators found no signs that Stacy Peterson had been the victim of foul play.

"It's still a missing person investigation," said Trooper Mark Dorencz, a State Police spokesman.

One of Stacy's relatives questioned why police waited until Thursday to conduct the search.

"We've said for days: 'Why aren't they checking the house and the cars?' " said Stacy's aunt, Suzan Robison of North Aurora. "This is extremely stressful."

An airport official said investigators have visited the single-strip Clow Airport several times since Stacy's disappearance, checking Web cams that display -- but don't record -- images of the parking lot and the airfield.

Drew Peterson, though, on Thursday denied media reports that he had told police he found Stacy's car at the airport after he last spoke with her Sunday night.

Peterson, who has been married three times previously, has said in interviews that he believes his wife left on her own and hasn't been harmed, though he said he doesn't know where she is.

Several of Stacy Peterson's relatives waiting outside her home during the search disputed that, saying she would never leave her children, ages 2 and 4.

"She wouldn't leave like this at all. She would never leave her kids," said her step-sister, Kerry Simmons. "It's not like her at all."

[Lorie Taylor]

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,307556,00.html

Divers Search Pond Near Home of Suburban Chicago Cop in Missing Wife Probe

November 02, 2007

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. Divers were searching a retention pond Friday near the the home of a missing mother of two married to a Chicago police sergeant.

Police executed a search warrant Thursday and seized two vehicles from the Bolingbrook, Ill., home of Drew and Stacy Peterson in what is still being described as a missing persons case.

Stacy Peterson, 23, was reported missing Monday after her family grew concerned when they could not reach her. Drew Peterson, her husband, said he last spoke to her Sunday night.

"I believe she's with someone else, but I believe she's safe," Drew Peterson said. He said she told him she was leaving, taking some clothes and money from a safe in the couple's home.

Authorities reopened the investigation into the death of Drew Peterson's third wife after Stacy his fourth wife disappeared.

In 2004, Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, 40, was found dead in a bathtub, and a coroner ruled the death accidental. Prosecutors are reviewing the case.

Drew Peterson said he would never harm his wife but Stacy Petersons family and friends disagree.

I wanted to believe that she hopped a plane, said Sherrie Mills, friend of Stacy Peterson. But then when I found out the kids were still at home, no. I fear for the worst.

Authorities seized several items during the search of the house, including two rifles. Peterson told FOX News he is not a hunter, but has a gun collection.

"He's saying she took off which is not her," Peterson's sister Cassandra Cales told FOX News. "She wouldn't leave those kids. That's what she told me Friday. I wanted to get her out of there she said she was fearing for her life she said she wasn't going to leave those kids."

"No criminal charges have been filed and no one has been taken into custody," said Will County state's attorney's office spokesman Charles Pelkie.

Authorities said they have found no indication of foul play and the case remained a missing person investigation.

Peterson, a 29-year police veteran and Bolingbrook police sergeant, said his wife has suffered from what he called "mood issues" since her sister's death from colon cancer last year.

"Ever since then, Stacy has been different," Peterson said Wednesday. "... She's been under the care of a psychiatrist" and is taking antidepressant medication.

Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow has started pulling and reading through old files from the Savio case, including police and coroner's reports, Pelkie has said.

Savio obtained an order of protection against Drew Peterson in 2002, alleging a pattern of physical abuse and threats, according to court records.

"In light of recent developments, he's reviewing this with an open and fresh mind ... to determine if further action will be warranted," Pelkie said, adding that Glasgow wasn't in office when Savio died and so hadn't been familiar with her case.

Peterson denied he had anything to do with his ex-wife's death or Stacy Peterson's disappearance.

"It bothers me," he said. "I've led an honorable life, and people are looking at me sideways. It hurts."

The couple celebrated their four-year wedding anniversary last month, Drew Peterson said. Hours before his wife called him Sunday night she had left their home to help another sister and that sister's boyfriend paint their home, he said.

She did not show up, prompting the family to try unsuccessfully to reach her on her cell phone, police said.

Peterson said he thought the couple had a good marriage, "but maybe she didn't," he said.

Stacy Peterson's family agreed she was depressed, but said it was because she believed her husband watched everything she did. They said she had asked for a divorce.

"She just wanted people to know she was unhappy, and she didn't like how she was being treated," said her aunt, Candace Aikin, 48, of El Monte, Calif. "In case she disappeared if something bad happened to her."

Aikin said she talked to her niece every week and knows she did not have a boyfriend.

"She had a husband who was following her 24/7," she said.

Family members also said they didn't think Stacy Peterson would leave without her kids Lacy, 2, and Anthony, 4.

"I know damn well she wouldn't go without them kids," said her uncle, Gary Cales, 68, of Hemet, Calif.

[Lorie Taylor]

cbs2chicago.com/local/stacy.peterson.search.2.481618.html

Nov 3, 2007 8:06 am

Massive Search Underway For Cop's Missing Wife
Stacy Peterson's Family Believes She May Have Been Killed

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. (CBS) ― Family and friends of a missing woman from Bolingbrook are launching a massive search effort this weekend.

As CBS 2's Rafael Romo reports, Stacy Peterson, 23, has now been missing for six days. Her husband, Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson, was the last one to see her this past Sunday.

Two searches for Stacy Peterson were planned for Saturday. Neighbors were conducting the first search at the Petersons' house. That search was already getting underway at 8 a.m.

Later Saturday morning, neighbors planned to search the DuPage River Greenway.

On Friday night, a friend of Drew Peterson's spoke on his behalf. Ric Mims has been the sergeant's friend for years, and he says the 53-year-old veteran cop would have been incapable of harming his wife.

"I know in my heart there's no foul play. I want to say that one more time, I know in my heart there's no foul play," Mims said. "I stand by my friend."

But Stacy's family is not so certain.

"Something happened to her," said her sister, Cassandra Cales.

Stacy's family fears that she might have been the victim of foul play. They plan to look around Bolingbrook for her on Saturday.

Cales told CBS 2 West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli on Friday that her sister had been in fear for her life and had said so before disappearing. Cales said Stacy Peterson had been expected to help her paint last Sunday, but never showed up.

Later, Cales said, she called Drew Peterson, and she said what followed was a mysterious conversation.

"And I hear a bunch of noise and shuffling, and car ignition keys, you know, like he's starting a car, and he's like, 'I went out running around looking for your sister. She left me,'" Cales said.

Cales has said she did not believe her sister would leave without her children.

On Friday afternoon, investigators searched a manhole near the Peterson Home on Bolingbrook's Pheasant Run Court, looking for clues. Police divers also searched a retention pond near the home.

The two-day search of the retention ponds ended with no result. Authorities continue to investigate numerous tips from the public.

But in spite of the family's worst fears, police continue to investigate the disappearance only as a missing persons case.

"I'm just hoping some way, she's out there still," said family friend Bruce Zidarich.

Stacy is Drew Peterson's fourth wife. Questions also remain about the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who drowned in a whirlpool-style bathtub three years ago. At the time, the Will County coroner's office ruled the case accidental, but the Will County state's attorney's office has reopened the case.

[Lorie Taylor]

www.suntimes.com/news/metro/633460,CST-NWS-boling03.article

Raking the bottom
BOLINGBROOK | Divers search pond for woman, State Police take interest in aircraft

November 3, 2007
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO AND DAN ROZEK Staff Reporters

As divers probed a murky pond Friday searching for clues in the disappearance of Bolingbrook mother Stacy Peterson, Illinois State Police zeroed in on her cop husband's micro-light airplane.

Divers spent nearly seven hours painstakingly scouring the pond, near Clow Airport in the far southwestern suburb, but came up with nothing in their search for Peterson.

And State Police were at a hangar at Cushing Field, about 65 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, for about an hour Friday morning, said Michael Hudetz, a flight instructor at the airfield and owner of A&M Sports, a company selling micro-lights.

Hudetz said he showed investigators Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson's two-seater Aquilla Trike and the hangar where Peterson keeps it.

"They asked a lot of questions," Hudetz said. "They seemed very interested in how it works. They wanted to know where the people sit, where they put their feet. They wanted to know how the [aircraft's] parachute works."

Investigators also asked Hudetz if there were any "barrels" at the airfield.

"One of the guys I shook hands with was wearing thin plastic gloves," Hudetz said.

But State Police were "very vague" about why they were at the hangar Friday, Hudetz said.

The divers, who were aided during the morning by a cadaver-sniffing dog riding in a boat, didn't find any items that could be linked to Stacy Peterson's disappearance, authorities said.

Husband being 'cooperative'
There was no specific tip or information that led police to search the 2-acre pond, said Trooper Mark Dorencz, a State Police spokesman.

The pond is a few blocks from Peterson's home and sits at the end of the runway at Clow Airport, a small public airstrip.

"We're basically just covering the area [near the home]," Dorencz said, adding the investigation into Peterson's disappearance remains "a missing person's case."

Divers from the Naperville and Plainfield police departments stretched a cable across the bottom of the pond, then two divers slowly swam along the cable, feeling along the bottom for objects. After the divers completed each sweep, the cable was moved a foot or two along the bank, allowing the divers to swim back across and search a new area of the pond.

Peterson was reported missing Monday by worried relatives. Her husband, Drew Peterson, told investigators he last saw his wife Sunday morning and last spoke to her by phone Sunday night.

Drew Peterson, 53, wasn't questioned Friday by investigators, but "he's been cooperative," said Master Sgt. Luis Gutierrez, another State Police spokesman.

Peterson didn't talk to reporters still parked outside the family's home.

About 11 a.m., Peterson rode out of his driveway on a motorcycle, with a red-white-and-blue bandanna pulled up to his eyes.

About two years ago, Hudetz trained Drew Peterson to fly his micro-light, which runs about $20,000 new, the flight instructor said.

"He was actually a private pilot before that," Hudetz said. "He flew regular airplanes. He seemed like a very nice guy."

Sometimes Peterson flew alone but he had also flown with his wife, Hudetz said

[Lorie Taylor]

www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/633440,4_1_JO03_MISSING_S1.article

Spouse under scrutiny
MISSING BOLINGBROOK MOM

November 3, 2007
By JOE HOSEY Staff Writer

BOLINGBROOK -- The police have searched his house and seized his property. A media horde has camped in front of his home. A crowd of in-laws criticize him. But at least one man feels for the police sergeant whose wife disappeared nearly a week ago.

"I know what he's going through," said Craig Stebic, the Plainfield pipefitter who has a missing wife of his own. "Especially with you media and everything."

Stebic, the husband of the vanished Lisa Stebic, has weathered police and media scrutiny for more than six months.

Sgt. Drew Peterson is on Day 6 and already has shown signs of strain, briefly venturing out in front of the media with an American flag bandanna covering his face, dark sunglasses and an NYPD baseball cap pulled low over his eyes before running back inside Thursday. Then on Friday, witnesses say he drove away from the media throng on his motorcycle with the same bandanna covering his face.

Peterson's missing wife, 23-year-old Stacy Peterson, last was seen Sunday morning. She apparently was heading to meet the boyfriend of her sister Cassandra to help him paint a house but never reached her destination.

Cassandra and other family members since have expressed their suspicions of the 53-year-old Drew Peterson in the media.

Drew Peterson was still married when he met 17-year-old Stacy Cales while she was working as an overnight desk clerk at Spring Hill Suites on Remington Boulevard. Their March-November romance spelled the end of his marriage to his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

Within years of Drew Peterson filing for divorce, Savio died under mysterious circumstances.

Her body was discovered after Drew Peterson attempted to return their two sons from a weekend visitation. No one answered the locked door and Drew Peterson, who lived down the street from Savio with his new wife Stacy, sought help from a neighbor. The neighbor called a locksmith, and once entry was gained, went inside to find Savio's body in a waterless bathtub.

State's Attorney James Glasgow has revisited the case to see if it warrants criminal charges, but "the missing persons case is the immediate concern right now," said Glasgow's spokesman, Charles B. Pelkie.

Divers search pond
The missing persons case continued Friday with police divers searching a retention pond near the Petersons' home on Pheasant Chase Court.

State police also have turned an eye to a micro-light airplane owned by Drew Peterson. Investigators were at a hangar at Cushing Field in Newark, about 30 miles west of Joliet, for about an hour Friday morning, said Michael Hudetz, a flight instructor who also sells micro-lights.

Hudetz said he showed investigators Drew Peterson's two-seater Aquilla Trike and the hangar where Peterson keeps it.

"They asked a lot of questions," Hudetz said. "They seemed very interested in how it works. They wanted to know where the people sit, where they put their feet. They wanted to know how the (aircraft's) parachute works."

Investigators also asked Hudetz if there were any "barrels" at the airfield.

About two years ago, Hudetz trained Drew Peterson to fly his micro-light, which run about $20,000 new, the flight instructor said.

"He was actually a private pilot before that," Hudetz said. "He flew regular airplanes. He seemed like a very nice guy."

Sometimes Peterson flew alone, but he had also flown with his wife, Hudetz said.

The search for Lisa Stebic, which passed the six-month mark last week, continues as well.

But police working that case have dropped the nicety of labeling it a missing person investigation, revealing in July that they had concluded Lisa Stebic was not involved in an accident or forcibly abducted. They believe she was a victim of foul play, and that Craig Stebic knows something about her disappearance.

[Lorie Taylor]

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/c...ews_opinion_ugc

Family, friends search woods for missing Bolingbrook mother

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons | Tribune staff reporter
8:17 PM CDT, November 3, 2007

Giving up hope that missing Bolingbrook mother Stacy Peterson is alive, her family and friends are now focused on finding information to help with the investigation into her disappearance.

Dozens of people combed a forest near her home for several hours on Saturday looking for any traces of the 23-year-old, who disappeared last Sunday. Their search through the wooded Knoch Knolls Park came up empty, but the group planned to return with more people on Sunday morning.

Peterson's sister, Cassandra Cales, said the family no longer believes she is alive.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this," Cales, 22, said during the search. "I just want whoever did this to her brought to justice."

Cales also confirmed Saturday that her sister said the Friday before she disappeared that she feared for her life and wanted a divorce from her husband, Drew, a Bolingbrook police sergeant.

Neighbors posted fliers at local malls while friends created a Web site to pool information on her case. Some searched the DuPage River a mile from her home by kayak; others walked a cadaver dog through nearby wetlands at Whalon Lake Dog Park.

Meanwhile, her sister pieced together a timeline of accounts from friends and family of the days leading up to her disappearance.

It was a coordinated effort by a community hungry for an explanation into her disappearance, especially as the national media have descended upon the quiet southwest suburban neighborhood.

Drew Peterson, 53, has been interviewed by police in his wife's disappearance. The couple have two children, ages 2 and 4, and Drew has two sons, ages 13 and 14, from a previous marriage. His former wife and the mother of his sons, Kathleen Savio, drowned in a bathtub accident in 2004, but prosecutors are now reviewing that case.

Authorities are calling the Stacy Peterson case a missing-person investigation, but those who knew her best suspect foul play and say Peterson never would have skipped town without her children.

Peterson was reported missing to the Illinois State Police early Monday after she failed to meet her sister Sunday to help paint a house. Her husband said he last saw her about 10 a.m. Sunday, and last spoke with her about 9 p.m. Sunday when she called on her cell phone to say she was leaving him.

Authorities were not performing any searches on Saturday after divers spent Thursday and Friday dragging a 5-acre pond at Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport, just blocks from the Peterson home. Drew Peterson, who is licensed to fly a plane, said he found his wife's car in Clow's parking lot Monday.

State Police on Friday searched a hangar at Cushing Field in Sheridan where Drew Peterson kept a plane, according to Michael Hudetz, a flight instructor at A&M Airsports. Cushing Field is about 38 miles west of Bolingbrook.

Among those helping in Saturday's search was Anne Bielby, who has never met Peterson, but wants to see a happy ending to the story.

"This is my hometown, so it's personal," she said. "You can't not look. As more time passes, you lose valuable clues." The Web site dedicated to Stacy Peterson is findstacypeterson.com.

[Lorie Taylor]

www.suntimes.com/news/metro/634898,CST-NWS-boling04s1.article

Wife's e-mail shows troubled marriage
BOLINGBROOK | Volunteers searching for missing woman

November 4, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter/[e-mail]

Friends and family of missing Bolingbrook mother Stacy Peterson vowed to continue their search today through a heavily wooded area near her home, while a recently uncovered e-mail sent by Peterson sheds new light on the troubled relationship between her and her cop husband in the days before her disappearance.

About 60 volunteers spread out Saturday morning along a jogging trail and a large wooded area around Route 53 and Royce Road in Bolingbrook. They also blanketed area stores with fliers. Peterson's husband, Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson, left his home Saturday morning and did not join in the search effort.

Stacy Peterson's sister, Cassandra Cales, did participate but told NBC5 she believes her sister is dead.

"No, she's not alive," Cales said, echoing the fears of many searchers.

The search will resume at 9 a.m. today, with volunteers asked to meet at Peterson's Bolingbrook house on Pheasant Chase Court. Employees from a professional search company from Texas are expected to volunteer as well beginning today, said one search coordinator, Roy Taylor, whose mother is a close friend of Stacy Peterson's.

Illinois State Police have expressed interest in a barrel once at the Peterson home. Searchers focused on that but came up empty Saturday.

One searcher, Mike Cepuran, who said he knew Stacy Peterson since she was a little girl, paddled a kayak as part of the search along the DuPage River. Cepuran found a barrel -- but it was empty.

Police divers have searched a nearby pond, and investigators also have examined a micro-light airplane owned by Drew Peterson.

Friends and family called Stacy Peterson "a good person" who would never leave her two children. Worried relatives reported Stacy Peterson missing on Monday.

'Keep me in your prayers'
On Oct. 17, she e-mailed a family friend, expressing concern over her deteriorating relationship with her husband. The e-mail was provided by the friend, Steve Cesare, to the Naperville Sun.

"i have been arguing quite a bit w/my husband," Stacy Peterson wrote.

"as i mature with age i am finding that the relationship i am in is controlling, manipulative and some what abusive," she wrote in the e-mail dated Oct. 17. ". . . tomorrow is our 4 year anniversary and I am not as excited as the years that have past.

". . . if you could keep me in your prayers i could use some wisdom, protection, and strength."

Stacy Peterson is the fourth wife of Drew Peterson. His third wife, Kathleen Savio, was found dead in an empty bathtub in her Bolingbrook home in 2004. The death was ruled accidental.

Drew Peterson and Savio were divorced at the time. Their two sons inherited the $1 million life insurance policy Peterson held on his ex-wife, court records indicate.

[Lorie Taylor]

www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/634171,CST-NWS-mitch04.article

Tales of missing, slain women stirring up fears
Investigators must make their disappearances a priority too

November 4, 2007
BY MARY MITCHELL Sun-Times Columnist

The Authentic Diva called me in a panic. "You'd better be careful," she said with urgency. "I walk on the lakefront every day, and I'm going to get me some Mace."

"I'm not worried," I told her. "I've got Smoochie." Smoochie is a trash-barking, mixed-breed malamute who won't let strangers come near me.

But I understood my friend's anxiety after the string of stories we've seen lately about Chicago area women who have gone missing and later were found dead.

A recent five-part series by Chicago Sun-Times reporter Maudlyne Ihejirika revealed that a shocking 20,000 people disappear in Chicago each year. Although most missing persons are found, Ihejirika's series detailed the pain, frustration and unending grief that families of the missing endure while awaiting answers.

As of Friday afternoon, the family of Stacy Peterson, a 23-year-old Bolingbrook woman who disappeared without a trace last Sunday, was one of these families.

The young woman's husband, Sgt. Drew Peterson, 53, of the Bolingbrook Police Department, has told the media that his fourth wife isn't missing.

"I have no reason to suspect foul play," Peterson said, suggesting that his wife was so unhappy in the marriage that she had run off with some unknown man, leaving the couple's two young children behind.

Despite law enforcement's decision to reopen an investigation into the death of Peterson's third wife in light of the disappearance of his fourth, Peterson told reporters he wasn't nervous at all.

Husbands, boyfriends usually suspected
On the same day Peterson disappeared, the family of Alma Mendez, a 38-year-old Chicago Heights woman, also began a search. Mendez, a mother of three, disappeared from a jogging path in the Cook County Forest Preserves near her home. On Tuesday, her body was found in a lake. Law enforcement officials have said Mendez likely was struck with a blunt object and her neck was slashed.

She recently had separated from her husband, Conrado, who told officials he was visiting with his parents when his wife went jogging. Conrado has not been named a suspect or person of interest in his estranged wife's slaying.

Then there is the case of Nailah Franklin, the 28-year-old woman whose body was found in a Calumet City forest preserve in September, 11 days after she was reported missing. More than a month later, police still can't tell us how she died.

The only person publicly linked to Franklin thus far has been Reginald Potts Jr., who -- despite having had several run-ins with the law since her body was found -- hasn't been named as a suspect in connection with her death.

Potts has publicly declared that he didn't kill Franklin, and he claims to be the target of police harassment.

Women need to choose men carefully
Equally disconcerting is the case of 38-year-old Lisa Stebic of Plainfield. Six months after she disappeared, police still don't know what happened to the missing mother of two.

Stebic's relatives now claim that her estranged husband, Craig Stebic, "has not participated in any way, at any time, to help find" her.

Under such circumstances, the very mention of a person's name -- whether an ex-lover, husband or estranged husband -- will cast that person under a cloud of suspicion.

It's unfortunate, yet unavoidable.

I found one recent local case of a missing woman in which a stranger was accused of killing the woman and attempting to hide the homicide.

Last March, authorities in Kane and DuPage counties charged 16-year-old Gareng Deng with fatally shooting Marilyn Bethell, a 47-year-old substance abuse counselor, in 2005. Police allege that Deng killed Bethell during a home invasion and disposed of her body in a wooded area two miles from her home.

More often than not, however, it turns out the missing woman was killed by someone with whom she had a personal relationship.

But as Ihejirika pointed out in her series, only children under 10, the elderly and those deemed endangered, such as the handicapped, get priority when it comes to police searches for the missing.

It's time to reconsider that policy.

Given the number of missing women who turn up dead, advocacy groups should immediately pressure police to make their cases a priority, including missing teenage girls who have no history of running away.

And one other thing.

Maybe a can of Mace or a watchdog aren't the answers. Maybe what women need is to be more discerning of the character of men they let into their lives.

[Lorie Taylor]

www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/police/634551,4_1_JO04_MISSING_S2.article

Family seeks search help

November 4, 2007
By TONY GRAF STAFF WRITER

BOLINGBROOK -- The search for a missing Bolingbrook mother continues this morning, as her loved ones are inviting the public to help.

Stacy Peterson, 23, of Bolingbrook was last seen a week ago today. On Saturday, her sister Cassandra Cales and her fellow searchers looked around many places in the Bolingbrook area between Weber Road and Illinois 53, and Boughton and Royce roads.

The number of people in the search party is growing, Cales said.

"Today we had 60, but tomorrow we'll have way more," she said Saturday night.

People who want to help may show up at 9 this morning at 5 Pheasant Chase Court in Bolingbrook.

That address, right next to Peterson's home, is the home of neighbor Sharon Bychowski.

"We're going to meet here on Sunday, and we're going to go out looking for Stacy. We're organizing a party to leave fliers and to search for her," Bychowski said.

Bychowski also said a professional search team will arrive late today, and will be in place to start searching the Bolingbrook area on Monday morning.

On Saturday, Bychowski had a table set up on Pheasant Chase Court to register people to search, get e-mail addresses in order to send updates, and register where searchers are going so people do not duplicate efforts unnecessarily.

"We want to cover as much area here as we can," Bychowski said.

On Saturday, Cales and her search party recovered a barrel in a detention pond, but the barrel turned up empty.

"As soon as we saw it, we called the police," Cales said. "The police got it out, inspected it. It was nothing."

Cales and her helpers searched from 8 a.m. to about 8 p.m. Saturday. Late Saturday, Cales was reviewing where she and her helpers had searched, and where they might search today.

A little after 8 p.m., Cales said she was planning to go back out and search even more.

Stacy Peterson is the wife of Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson. A photograph that appeared Friday in The Herald News showed the couple with their children Anthony and Lacy, and Drew's children from his third marriage, Kris and Tom.

[Lorie Taylor]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/634550,4_1_JO04_MISSING_S1.article

Friend: Missing woman unhappy

November 4, 2007
By Jennifer Golz Sun-times news group

BOLINGBROOK -- Stacy Peterson may have told friends and family she wanted a divorce from her husband, Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson.

But she wrote her own chilling message in e-mails to a friend, who shared them with the Sun-Times News Group.

"I have been arguing quite a bit with my husband," Stacy wrote in an e-mail to family friend Steve Cesare 10 days before she disappeared.

"As I mature with age I am finding that the relationship I am in is controlling, manipulative and somewhat abusive," she wrote in the Oct. 17 e-mail. "Tomorrow is our four-year anniversary and I'm not as excited as the years that have passed.

"If you could keep me in your prayers I could use some wisdom, protection and strength."

Cesare said he worried when he received these e-mails from Stacy, but was in disbelief at the reports that his friend went missing.

"Someone could take off, but they usually let someone know and if Aunt Candy doesn't know where she is, then nobody knows," Cesare said, referring to Stacy's aunt from California who visited the Peterson household just a week before her niece's disappearance.

Cesare has known Stacy since she was a young girl, as he dated her older sister Tina in the 1990s. The two kept in touch after Tina died last year of colon cancer.

Cesare last saw Stacy two months ago when she surprised him at work with a picture album of her sister's from when the two had dated.

"I couldn't imagine this family going through any more tragedy," he said. "They've been through plenty."

Stacy's mother disappeared a decade ago, seemingly without a trace. And before that, Stacy lost two sisters, one in a house fire and another to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, according to a family friend. A brother of Stacy's has continuing legal troubles.

Those childhood hardships may have led Stacy to marry a man 30 years her senior.

"It was the picture of a controlling older man and I was always very cautious of it because this is a guy you don't want to mess with, so I always kept my distance," Cesare said.

Drew Peterson made it easy for Cesare to keep his distance because Stacy's husband limited her phone use.

"Don't worry about calling my cell anymore, or the house phone. I have talked with Drew, so no worries," Stacy wrote in an e-mail to Cesare.

"I don't think she ever had time to get away from him," he said.

According to Cesare, this included when her sister battled cancer in a downstate hospital.

"I tried to arrange to drive Stacy to see her sister," he said. "We were going to go for the day and would be back that night but her husband wouldn't let her go with me.

"It didn't make sense because we were going to see her sister and he wouldn't let her go."

Cesare is doubtful that Stacy has run off with another man, a scenario her husband has offered in response to questions about her disappearance.

"She was thoughtful enough to bring me that photo album," he said. "It's a piece of Tina I'll have to remember.

"I hope they find her alive and well."

[Lorie Taylor]

www.nbc5.com/news/14507933/detail.html


Second Search For Bolingbrook Mom Kicks Off Sunday

POSTED: 2:33 pm CST November 4, 2007
UPDATED: 2:51 pm CST November 4, 2007

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. -- Another search of the forests near the home of missing Bolingbrook mother, Stacy Peterson, kicked off Sunday morning from 6 Pheasant Chase Circle.

For Saturdays search, about two-dozen volunteers took part, but organizers were hoping for a bigger turnout and a more organized search Sunday. Search organizer Roy Taylor said people crowding each other was a problem Saturday, but after reinstruction, the search went well. The volunteers have learned from their mistakes and had better forms of communication and knew to preserve evidence in their second search, Taylor said.

Peterson hasnt been seen in a week. She's the wife of Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson, who has suggested she left him for another man.

Stacys sister, Cassandra Cales, said she believes her sister is dead and that the family's focus is on determining what happened to Peterson and bringing the person or people responsible to justice.

Illinois State Police said the 23-year-old woman's disappearance is being investigated as a missing persons case.

Friends and family of Stacy Peterson have set up a Web site about her.

[Lorie Taylor]

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-peterson_newnov04,0,4325632.story?coll=chi_home_top

Family, friends search woods for missing Bolingbrook mother
Missing woman, 23, likely dead, they say

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons | Tribune staff reporter
November 4, 2007

Giving up hope that missing Bolingbrook mother Stacy Peterson is alive, her family and friends are now focused on finding information to help with the investigation into her disappearance.

Dozens of people combed a forest near her home for several hours on Saturday looking for any traces of the 23-year-old, who disappeared last Sunday. Their search through the wooded Knoch Knolls Park came up empty, but the group planned to return with more people on Sunday morning.

Peterson's sister, Cassandra Cales, said the family no longer believes she is alive.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this," Cales, 22, said during the search. "I just want whoever did this to her brought to justice."

Cales also confirmed Saturday that her sister said the Friday before she disappeared that she feared for her life and wanted a divorce from her husband, Drew, a Bolingbrook police sergeant.

Neighbors posted fliers at local malls while friends created a Web site to pool information on her case. Some searched the DuPage River a mile from her home by kayak; others walked a cadaver dog through nearby wetlands at Whalon Lake Dog Park.

Meanwhile, her sister pieced together a timeline of accounts from friends and family of the days leading up to her disappearance.

It was a coordinated effort by a community hungry for an explanation into her disappearance, especially as the national media have descended upon the quiet southwest suburban neighborhood.

Drew Peterson, 53, has been interviewed by police in his wife's disappearance. The couple have two children, ages 2 and 4, and Drew has two sons, ages 13 and 14, from a previous marriage. His former wife and the mother of his sons, Kathleen Savio, drowned in a bathtub accident in 2004, but prosecutors are now reviewing that case.

Authorities are calling the Stacy Peterson case a missing-person investigation, but those who knew her best suspect foul play and say Peterson never would have skipped town without her children.

Peterson was reported missing to the Illinois State Police early Monday after she failed to meet her sister Sunday to help paint a house. Her husband said he last saw her about 10 a.m. Sunday, and last spoke with her about 9 p.m. Sunday when she called on her cell phone to say she was leaving him.

Authorities were not performing any searches on Saturday after divers spent Thursday and Friday dragging a 5-acre pond at Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport, just blocks from the Peterson home. Drew Peterson, who is licensed to fly a plane, said he found his wife's car in Clow's parking lot Monday.

State Police on Friday searched a hangar at Cushing Field in Sheridan where Drew Peterson kept a plane, according to Michael Hudetz, a flight instructor at A&M Airsports. Cushing Field is about 38 miles west of Bolingbrook.

The Web site dedicated to Stacy Peterson is findstacypeterson.com.

[Lorie Taylor]

ttp://www.suntimes.com/news/635435,CST-NWS-stebic05.article

'I know what he's going through'
MISSING WIVES | Craig Stebic: I can relate to Bolingbrook cop

November 5, 2007
BY JOE HOSEY The Herald News

The police have searched Sgt. Drew Peterson's Bolingbrook house and seized his property. A media horde has camped in front of his home. A crowd of in-laws has criticized him.

In Plainfield, there's a man who can relate.

"I know what he's going through," said Craig Stebic, the Plainfield pipefitter who has a missing wife of his own. "Especially with you media and everything."

Stebic, the husband of the vanished Lisa Stebic, has weathered police and media scrutiny for more than six months.

For Peterson, it is Day Eight since his wife, Stacy Peterson, went missing. He is already showing signs of strain, venturing out with an American flag bandanna covering his face, dark sunglasses on and an NYPD baseball cap pulled over his eyes. On Friday, he drove away from the media throng on his motorcycle, the bandanna covering his face.

While Craig Stebic might think his heart is in the right place, his concern for the embattled Bolingbrook cop has left his in-laws confused.

"Craig has cut us off from the children. But he has a moment to say he empathizes with Drew Peterson?" said Melanie Greenberg, spokeswoman for Lisa Stebic's family.

"I'm not usually speechless, but I was speechless for a moment after that," Greenberg said.

Appearing on news shows
Greenberg says she has been in contact with Cassandra Cales, the sister of Peterson's 23-year-old missing wife. Greenberg advised the family to start a Web site, which was already in progress, and to take action.

"I think people are following our lead," Greenberg said. "The first instinct of a family is to be paralyzed."

Stacy Peterson's family has been anything but paralyzed, appearing on national news shows and undertaking searches for Stacy on their own. Some relatives also have expressed harsh criticism of Drew Peterson, who treated Stacy, his fourth wife, "like a 2-year-old," said one relative.

Stacy Peterson was 17 when she and the 47-year-old Peterson got engaged. When they met, Peterson was still married to his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who died under mysterious circumstances after he and Stacy tied the knot.

Savio's body was discovered after Drew Peterson attempted to return their two sons from a weekend visitation in March 2004. No one answered the locked door of her home, and Drew Peterson, who lived down the street from Savio with Stacy, sought help from a neighbor. The neighbor called a locksmith, then went inside to find Savio's body in a waterless bathtub.

State's Attorney James Glasgow has revisited the case to see if it warrants criminal charges, but "the missing person's case is the immediate concern right now," said Glasgow's spokesman, Charles B. Pelkie.