Too Little, Too Late: Drew Peterson Finally Offers Reward for Missing Wife Stacy Peterson

It's not often that you get to recycle a headline so quickly, but this week's wacky Chicago-based news environment offered a two-fer. First, Barack Obama suddenly catches on to what Jeremiah Wright, his pastor of twenty years, has been preaching and decides to say something about it: too little, too late.

Now former Bolingbrook, Ill cop Drew Peterson has decided to take time out from his media posturing to offer a reward for his missing wife, Stacy. You remember Stacy, mother of their two children, step-mother to two of Peterson's older children by his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Apparently Peterson has decided, in between dating and TV appearances, that he remembers his young fourth wife, too--although he says she ran off with another man.

Six months or so after Stacy's family, friends, volunteers, and just plain strangers have been constantly searching for her, Peterson is offering $25,000 for information about Stacy's disappearance: too little, too late.We're not sure where the money is coming from, as not too long ago, Peterson and his sidekick attorney Joel Brodsky were begging for monies for Drew on a website that quickly vanished.





Like the website, Stacy suddenly vanished, too. Just before she went missing, she told friends she wanted a divorce. She also told her pastor that Peterson had killed Savio, his third wife. Savio was found bruised and dead of what was first ruled an accidental drowning in a dry bathtub. Peterson controlled that crime scene.

Later, however, after Stacy's disappearance, Savio's body was exhumed for a second autopsy. That procedure, plus an outside autopsy by renowned pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, moved Savio's death into the "probable homicide" category. Savio, like Stacy, repeatedly told people that Peterson would kill her and get away with it.

Why was she so sure of that? He threatened her with that, many times, Savio told everyone who would listen. And then there was his stalking of Savio, control, and repeated physical abuse. Stacy, too, was monitored and tracked, and she was afraid she would be killed before she could get out.

Peterson's second wife, Viki Connolly, said the same thing, as did a former fiancee. Connolly says she's still afraid of Peterson.





Savio's family now, at last, has control of the seven-figure estate Peterson and the two minor Savio children inherited--which had been managed by Peterson, a boy who loves his toys (motorcycles, cars, guns,light aircraft). Lately, Peterson's been losing a lot: the Savio decision, the yanking of his weapons permit, and the court's refusal to give his guns back.

Apparently, Peterson and Brodsky have decided it's time for a little positive PR--or so the family and friends of both Savio and Stacy believe. We believe that too.

Peterson's recent media appearances have been more than a little bit frayed around the edges. His portrayal of the jovial college jock who is guffawing at a private joke about his self-professed "bad luck" with women is now several degrees beyond hackneyed.




Peterson, who we've written about ad nauseum (for some reason, the word "nausea" just comes up with the word "Peterson"), is most likely chumming for not only current PR, but to hook some sympathy with any potential jurors. Peterson, who says he expects to be arrested, alternates between fishing for sympathy and laughing it all off.

At this point, $25,000 isn't nearly enough to start cleaning up the ol' Drew dumpster enough to put even a dim shine on his public patina. However, it is enough to start speculation: did the offer hit the table as a ploy just before Peterson is arrested?

Stay tuned. Investigators still want answers about two timelines of extreme interests: Peterson's whereabouts before Savio died and before Stacy went missing.