Drew Peterson Killed Kathleen Savio, Said Missing Wife Stacy

Before she went missing, Stacy Peterson told clergy and friends that her husband, former Bolingbrook cop, Drew Peterson killed his third wife, Kathleen Savio, according to Michael Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Stacy, Peterson's fourth wife, also warned that if she disappeared Peterson would have killed her. Savio, who supposedly drowned in a dry bathtub, told her family and friends the same thing.

Even though Savio filed a protective order, made 18 abuse complaints,and wrote to an assistant state attorney pleading for help, she was ignored. Following a post-exhumation autopsy, expert Dr. Michael Baden said her death was a homicde.

Peterson, once fired for revealing the identity of an uncover officer to a known killer, has a history of lying, cheating, and abuse. He allegedly threatened three of his wives with death , bragging that because he was a cop he could make a murder look like an accident.

The day she disappeared, Stacy reportedly told Peterson to get out of the house as she began divorce proceedings. Are there multiple motives for Stacy Peterson's disappearance and possible homicide?

Follow the money. When Savio died, Peterson was freed from child support and alimony. He also inherited more than $1.5 million in various assets.

If Stacy Peterson divorced him, she could claim one-half of those assets, as well as child support for their two children and a part of his $72,000 a year pension. If her claims about Savio's death were true, she could also name Peterson as a killer, making her disappearance a double win for Peterson: protecting the money and removing a threat to a murder cover-up.

The Peterson investigation, which now includes the FBI and dozens of Illinois cops, is gaining momentum. Still unknown: the whereabouts of Thomas Morphey, Peterson's step-brother, who reportedly helped Peterson move a large blue bin out of the Peterson's bedroom the day Stacy disappeared.

Morphey, sources say, then became distraught, and said that he was afraid that he had helped Peterson move Stacy's body. He wound up in the hospital with a drug overdose in what is currently being called a suicide attempt.

For more background on this bizarre case, check out the archives here.

How Believable is Drew Peterson? Citizen Panel Says: Not Very

How believable is Drew Peterson? Well below "zero," according to MediaCurve's analysis.

MediaCurves, a highly-specialized communications analysis group, showed clips of Matt Lauer's Today Show Nov. 14 interview with Peterson to a panel of 300 men and women. Using techniques developed by MediaCurves, the panel responded via mouse movements as they watched the clips.

After analysis, MediaCurves overlaid the survey results on the actual interview footage. The results are pretty amazing.

Peterson's believability repeatedly tanked into the minus 60% range. Men and women totally agreed on their perceptions.

However, Peterson did get one vote of confidence. When Lauer asked Peterson if he could present anything that would clear him in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, or or the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, Peterson said "no."

The score on that "no" immediately zoomed well above zero. The panel obviously believed that statement, unlike others.

MediaCurves also provided a "before and after" comparison of beliefs about Peterson's involvement in both cases. The results show that suspicion of Peterson increased dramatically after seeing the interview.

As experts have been saying all along: Peterson's using his own big mouth to dig an equally big hole.

Forensics Casebook III: Kathleen Savio, Stacy Peterson, the Chicago Cop & Faking Death by Drowning

As promised in Forensics Casebook II: Kathleen Savio, Stacy Peterson, Dr. Baden, & the Chicago Cop, I'm going to tell you how a homicide can be made to look like a drowning. Given that Savio apparently drowned, battered and bruised, in a dry bathtub, the questions asked in Forensics Casebook II are especially relevant to the mystery of her death.

But first, a PSA (no, not a Public Service Announcement, a Peterson Service Announcement): now that Drew Peterson, the hastily-retired former Bolingbrook police sergeant, has lawyered up, we're all supposed to note a few things. First, Joel A. Brodsky wants it made clear that noted expert Dr. Michael Baden did not identify Peterson as the culprit in any homicide of Kathleen Savio.

In one of the most wasted and uncomfortable interviews in this whole mess, Matt Lauer tackled Brodsky and the snickering Peterson. Brodsky, with Peterson literally jammed up shoulder-to-shoulder and arm-to-arm with him, noted that there is no official linking of Peterson to either Savio's death or the fact that Stacy Peterson, wife #4, missing.

OK, so Peterson's been officially named a suspect in Stacy's disappearance, but there's no linkage between him and the questions about the lives and fates of his wives. There's an entire Peterson laundry list of control factors for the world, announced by his lawyer as Peterson clams up, then tweaked by Peterson when he un-clams.

Like this: Peterson says he's distressed about the effect of media coverage on him. Oh, today's People Magazine shoot? He didn't mean that, obviously. Nor did he think that the People shoot would disrupt his family life. It's so hard, you know, being a media phenomenon: you have to tease 'em with "no," then give 'em a little leg and a little "yes, yes."

But in the middle of all this we find: shattered lives. Back to Baden's autopsy of Kathleen Savio, Peterson's third wife (Stacy, #4, is still missing in case you lost that among all the Drew, Drew, Drew promotions). Funny thing: Baden never said that Peterson did it. He specifically said that "who done it" wasn't part of the responsibility of an autopsy. But apparently Brodsky wanted to make it clear that what Baden didn't say wasn't right.

However, Savio's exhumed body stood as mute witness to her death. Baden, acting for the Savio family, said it was definitely a homicide. Initially, the authorities had ruled it an accident by drowning.

Savio's first autopsy had revealed "moderate edema" of the respiratory system. The head laceration and some bruises were also noted.

There are many good references for forensics. For this, I chose Forensics for Dummies simply because it is accessible to the layperson and forthrightly stated.

Here's they key point: "... If you place a corpse in water, and it remains submerged for a period of time after death, the lungs passively fill with water, and the ME's examination can't distinguish this postmortem fluid in the lungs from liquid that resulted in death."

Savio was in the water long enough to have wrinkled fingers, when found in the dry tub. How long was that? And was the "moderate edema" of the respiratory system caused by water entering the lungs before or after death?

Was Savio unconscious, or even dead, when she was placed in water? There are many things, including inconsistent statements from Peterson and witnesses, that need explaining.

Forensics Casebook I: Kathleen Savio, Stacy Peterson, the Chicago Cop & Fox's Greta Van Susteren

It's time to take an analytical look at all the components of the case involving former police Sgt. Drew Peterson, whose third wife mysteriously turned up drowned in a dry bathtub, whose fourth wife is missing, and whose second wife is still afraid of him.

This case has been a poster child for the merging of media and investigation. As a long-time journalist and a former security expert, I've been taking a look at the various elements of the coverage of this compelling story.

Unequivocally, the best, fairest, and most consistent coverage has been provided by Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. Her transparent coverage, including her podcasts and her blog, have been a model of how to incisively and competently conduct journalistic business while maintaining a human approach.

Obviously, there's a lot going on in this case. So we're going to look at it in terms of a broad-based forensics, from physical to psychological to sociological. The commentary will necessarily be graphic in some parts, when the autopsy of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio (who left Peterson a millionaire-plus) is discussed.

We'll also take a look at Peterson's actions, his comments about Stacy Peterson, the missing fourth wife, his body language, and his statements during Matt Lauer's good interview with Peterson on the Today show.

I'll be using the LSI Scan technique, pioneered by international expert Avinoam Sapir. The website describes the technique like this:
"....the most effective technique available for obtaining information and detecting deception from statements of witnesses or suspects."

I was privileged to be included in the LSI Scan basic class, and am now enrolled in the advanced class. Sapir has, indeed, developed a technique for analyzing statements that is crisp, scientific, and wholly reliable.

During the interview with Lauer, Peterson made what I believe to be the most significant statement he has yet made. That single statement sums up the fates of both wives.

Caveat: Neither LSI Scan nor Sapir are involved in my commentary. This is simply my use of the technique.

The Peterson cases, which have brought so many tears to so many, actually revolves around water. Kathleen Savio was determined to have drowned, and her first autopsy noted that her hair was wet (yes, there was blood there too)--and her fingers were wrinkled, according to many reports. If her fingers were wrinkled, then at some point she had been submerged in water--in a dry bathtub.

Now to fourth wife Stacy Peterson,.The first place the cops went looking: a small retention pond near the Peterson home. The second place they went looking? Water again.

How did Savio's fingers get wrinkled? And what led police to start their search for Stacy with water?

We'll have more to say about that. Consider this an exercise in "citizen forensics," as we look at the case of the Chicago Cop and the mysteries surrounding his wives. Are we looking at a modern-day Bluebeard hidden behind a blue uniform?

That's the question, I think, that America is waiting to have answered.