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NEED TO KNOW
- Former Illinois police officer Drew Peterson was convicted of murdering his third spouse, Kathleen Savio, after his fourth spouse, Stacy Ann Peterson, went lacking
- In 2016, he was sentenced to an extra 40 years in jail for trying to rent somebody to kill the legal professional who efficiently prosecuted him in Savio’s dying
- Stacy has by no means been discovered
Drew Peterson nonetheless maintains his innocence within the homicide of his ex-wife, Kathleen Savio, and the disappearance of his spouse, Stacy Ann Peterson.
The previous police officer had been married to Savio, his third spouse, for nearly a decade when their relationship got here to an finish. Savio found her husband was having a sexual relationship with Stacy, then a 17-year-old resort receptionist, and filed for divorce in October 2001, per CNN. In only a few years, Drew and Stacy bought married.
Relations between Drew and Savio turned more and more hostile, with the police being referred to as to intervene in disputes on quite a few events. In March 2002, Savio even filed a petition for an emergency order of safety, claiming in courtroom papers that Peterson “restrained me, held me down, knocked me right into a partitions, come after me.” Months later, he held Savio hostage at knifepoint, one in all her coworkers, Issam Karam, alleged in Drew’s trial. On March 1, 2004, Savio was discovered lifeless in her bathtub.
Savio’s dying was initially dominated an accident and life continued for Drew and Stacy, who had welcomed two kids. However as time went on, their relationship grew tense; by 2007, Stacy was contemplating divorce, her sister shared in a 2015 episode of Homicide Made Me Well-known.
Then Stacy vanished on the morning of Oct. 28, 2007. Drew turned a first-rate suspect in her disappearance — and the mysterious circumstances motivated investigators to reopen the case surrounding Savio’s dying. Not lengthy after, Savio’s dying was dominated a murder.
So, the place is Drew Peterson now? Right here’s every thing to find out about what occurred to his wives.
Who’s Drew Peterson?
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Drew was born in 1954 within the suburbs of Chicago. Whereas attending Willowbrook Excessive Faculty, he met his first spouse, Carol Brown. Upon commencement, Drew joined the navy and shortly after, Drew and Brown bought married.
The couple ultimately moved to Virginia, the place Drew skilled as a navy police officer. After they returned to Illinois, Drew turned an officer with the Bolingbrook Police Division. The couple later welcomed two kids: Stephen and Eric. In 1980, Drew and Brown divorced after she found he had been having an affair.
“Earlier than my father was Drew Peterson, the nationwide headline, he was my father. He was a superb man. He was nice to us. He took care of his children. He was a humorous man. He taught me so much. He was all the time there for us,” Stephen shared on A&E’s Monster in My Household. “However principally every thing you knew — we had been flawed.”
Following the break up, he started relationship and was briefly engaged to a lady named Kyle Piry. Wanting again, she says she ended the connection as a result of Drew had change into controlling, amongst different issues. After calling off the engagement, Drew allegedly harassed her and even arrested her on false fees, she instructed ABC Information in February 2009. At one level, Piry filed home abuse fees however Drew’s colleagues on the police station allegedly persuaded her to not pursue them, she instructed Immediately.
Ultimately, Drew met Vicki Connolly and, in 1982, the couple bought married. Connolly instructed the Chicago Tribune that the couple operated a bar collectively whereas elevating their kids from earlier relationships. She claimed Drew was dishonest on her and alleged that he could possibly be violent at occasions, however even when the police had been referred to as, no studies had been filed.
Round that point, Drew was fired from his police job after he was discovered responsible of misconduct, disobedience, failure to report a bribe and self-assigned police motion, per the Chicago Tribune. He was reinstated the next yr, however Connolly says issues at residence started to develop worse. Drew allegedly bugged the home to observe her exercise and at one level reportedly instructed her that he might kill her and make it appear like an accident, she instructed the outlet.
By 1992, Connolly had allegedly witnessed Drew’s affair with Savio and filed for divorce.
What occurred to Drew’s spouse Kathleen Savio?
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Throughout his marriage to Connolly, Drew started an affair with Savio after assembly on a blind date. Just some months after his divorce from Connolly was finalized, Drew and Savio wed in Could 1992. Shortly after, they welcomed two kids: Thomas and Kristopher.
Savio’s sisters later stated that they consider she was bodily abused all through the wedding, claiming to CNN’s Married to a Assassin that their sibling as soon as ended up within the hospital with a lower to the top and bruises.
Issues got here to a head in 2001 when somebody anonymously positioned a notice in Savio’s mailbox that warned her of Drew’s unlawful alleged relationship with a 17-year-old lady, per Chicago. When Savio confronted Drew, issues allegedly turned bodily, which he has denied, in keeping with the outlet.
The couple separated quickly after however their relationship grew much more strained amid divorce proceedings and arguments over baby custody. Between 2002 and 2004, police had been referred to as by the couple on 18 totally different events. Drew has denied ever having “laid a finger on her.”
In July 2002, Drew allegedly broke into Savio’s residence and held her hostage at knifepoint, threatening to kill her, per CNN.
On March 1, 2004, Savio’s bruised, nude physique was discovered face-down in an empty tub in her toilet. There was a gash on her head and bruising on her physique. On the time of her dying, she was set to obtain a part of Drew’s pension, in keeping with CNN.
After a brief investigation by the state police and the coroner, Savio’s dying was dominated an accident. It might be a number of years earlier than the reality behind her dying was uncovered.
“The investigation was very quick; it was 1-2-3,” her sister Sue Doman instructed PEOPLE in December 2007. “However my sister all the time instructed everybody that he would kill her and make it appear like an accident.”
Who’s Stacy Ann Peterson?
M. Spencer Inexperienced/AP Picture
Whereas Drew was nonetheless married to Savio, he met his future spouse Stacy, who was simply 17 on the time. Drew and Stacy ultimately purchased their very own residence close by and moved in collectively. After a number of years of relationship, Drew and Stacy married in October 2003. They went on to welcome two kids collectively: Anthony and Lacy.
All through their marriage, Stacy was allegedly subjected to verbal and bodily abuse, in keeping with family and friends. Her aunt, Candance Aikin, instructed Married to a Assassin that Stacy was usually “underneath lots of stress” and admitted to her that Drew would often “accuse her of all these various things, and he or she could not actually go wherever or do issues.”
By October 2007, Stacy was contemplating divorce.
“Stacy checked out me and he or she goes, ‘So how do you’re feeling about me getting a divorce from Drew?’ ” Stacy’s sister, Cassandra Cales, stated on an episode of Homicide Made Me Well-known. “Her face turned pale white. She instructed me, ‘If something ever occurs to me, Drew did one thing.’ My coronary heart stopped, and I stated, ‘Let’s go. Let’s go proper now.’ She stated, ‘I can’t.’ She stated, ‘If I take the children, he’s the breadwinner.’ ”
What occurred to Stacy?
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Stacy went lacking on the morning of Oct. 28, 2007. Based on the Heart for Lacking Individuals, she was supposed to assist a pal paint their home, however did not present up.
It was later found that within the days main as much as her disappearance, Stacy had spoken to a divorce legal professional and tried to pack up Drew’s belongings to kick him out of their residence, per the Chicago Tribune. An in depth pal and neighbor stated she witnessed Stacy crying exterior of her home and instructed her that she was having a tough time getting Drew to depart.
Stacy had no prior document of disappearing, and family and friends believed that it might have been utterly uncharacteristic of her to desert her kids.
“There isn’t any method she would go away her kids. She wished to depart Drew, not the children,” Cales instructed the Chicago Tribune.
Because the seek for Stacy continued, Drew turned a major suspect. He claimed that Stacy left him for an additional man and that he had discovered her automotive at a neighborhood airport. Drew claimed that he later drove the automotive again to their residence — however allegedly didn’t permit investigators to utterly search the car, per the Chicago Tribune. Investigators later discovered that none of Stacy’s clothes was lacking and no cash had been withdrawn from her checking account, making a deliberate disappearance unlikely.
Regardless of the suspicions surrounding him, Drew turned a fixture within the media, making tv appearances to debate Stacy’s disappearance. He maintained that she had been having an affair.
“Stacy loves male consideration. She might [have] ran off with a man and he or she could possibly be dancing someplace. I don’t know,” Drew stated on Larry King Dwell in April 2008, claiming that the day she went lacking, she referred to as him. “She instructed me she discovered someone else and he or she was leaving.”
Was Drew charged in reference to Savio’s homicide?
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After Stacy’s disappearance, investigators determined to reopen the case surrounding Savio’s dying. In November 2007, Savio’s physique was exhumed for reexamination by a coroner on the grounds that the proof was “in keeping with the ‘staging’ of an accident to hide a murder,” per NBC Information. On Feb. 21, 2008, Will County State’s Lawyer James Glasgow introduced that Savio’s accident had been reclassified as a murder.
In March 2009, Drew was indicted by a grand jury and was formally arrested on two counts of first-degree homicide within the dying of Savio, per ABC Information. He was held at Will County Grownup Detention Facility on a $20 million bond till the trial started.
Because the trial unfolded, a number of key items of data had been revealed. Based on Married to a Assassin, it was revealed that the preliminary lead investigator had by no means handled a murder earlier than and against the law scene tech had collected virtually no proof from the toilet the place Savio was discovered. There have been no fingerprints and no DNA.
Moreover, when Drew was interviewed shortly after Savio’s dying, it was achieved within the break room of his personal police division. Drew shared that he had been at residence with Stacy on the time of Savio’s dying — however when Stacy was interviewed about her husband’s alleged alibi, Drew was within the room monitoring the dialog.
Later, many individuals near Savio took the stand, testifying that she had been frightened of her ex-husband and believed that he wished to kill her. One former coworker alleged that Drew had provided him $25,000 to search out somebody to kill Savio, per Fox Information.
On Sept. 6, 2012, Drew was discovered responsible of murdering Savio, per CNN. A number of months later, he was sentenced to 38 years in jail.
Was Stacy Ann Peterson ever discovered?
Scott Olson/Getty
Stacy remains to be thought of a lacking individual to at the present time. Her household has continued the search within the Chicago space, though Cales believes she is aware of the placement of Stacy’s physique. In a 2018 Fb put up, Cales wrote that she believes Drew disposed of Stacy’s physique within the Chicago Sanitary and Transport Canal.
Shortly after Stacy went lacking, authorities took sonar photographs within the canal, by which Cales says she will be able to see Stacy’s stays. Whereas divers had been despatched to get well the physique, it has by no means been retrieved. Cales is at the moment elevating cash on a GoFundMe for the prices to ship divers to find and procure the stays.
In the meantime, Drew’s former protection legal professional, Joel Brodsky, has additionally claimed to know Stacy’s whereabouts, however can not reveal them to as a consequence of attorney-client privilege.
“I do know every thing about each of his wives — every thing,” Brodsky instructed WGN9 in Could 2022. “I really feel dangerous about Drew nonetheless not taking accountability and Stacy nonetheless being lacking. I’m eager about perhaps revealing what occurred to Stacy and the place she is.”
Because of that interview, a decide issued a gag order, per the Chicago Solar Instances. Brodsky was later charged with oblique contempt of courtroom, per WGN9; as of February 2025, he was interesting that cost, in keeping with Shaw Information.
Moreover, Drew allegedly instructed fellow inmate Antonio Smith that Stacy was a “lifeless lady” and he killed her, Smith testified in Could 2016.
The place is Drew Peterson now?
Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune/Tribune Information Service through Getty
Whereas incarcerated, Drew tried to recruit Smith to rent somebody to kill Glasgow, the legal professional who efficiently prosecuted him in Savio’s dying.
In courtroom, Smith testified that Drew approached him within the jail yard and instructed him that he wanted to “have somebody kill James Glasgow.” Smith contacted authorities about Drew’s request and was instructed to proceed to steer the killer on whereas carrying a wire. In recordings, Drew stated he “despised” the lawyer and appeared responsible Glasgow for his incarceration and the lack of his police pension.
Drew was ultimately charged with solicitation-for-murder and was sentenced to an extra 40 years in jail, per Immediately.
He is at the moment serving his 78-year jail sentence. After quite a few appeals — which have been unsuccessful — Drew started campaigning for a brand new trial; In April 2024, his request was denied by a decide, per NBC Chicago.
All through his imprisonment, Drew’s kids from his marriages to Savio and Stacy have been within the custody of one in all his older kids, Stephen. He raised them within the residence Drew left behind and Thomas even graduated highschool as valedictorian, per ABC Information.
In a current interview from behind bars, Drew shared that he doesn’t need his kids to consider he’s a assassin.
“I’m not wanting my kids to consider that I killed their moms,” he instructed NewsNation in February 2024. “I don’t need them considering that of me … I didn’t try this. I need them to know the reality and consider the reality.”
In the meantime, Stephen instructed the Chicago Tribune in February 2017 that he believes his father “most likely” killed each Savio and Stacy.

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