The Drew Peterson case: Hearsay Hearing

Two wives to have major roles in pretrial hearing into drowning.

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Chicago Tribune at chicagotribune.com

By Steve Schmadeke

Tribune reporter

January 17, 2010

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Former Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson is charged with drowning estranged wife Kathleen Savio, but much of the information likely to be presented at a unique pretrial hearing that starts Tuesday will involve the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy.

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For Stacy's family, the hearing will provide their first detailed look at what was uncovered during the massive investigation launched after she vanished in 2007. Her disappearance and the exhumation afterward of Savio's body and reclassification of her death as a homicide helped turn the case into national tabloid fodder...

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also read:

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Cop admits mistakes in ruling Savio's death an accident (Chicago Breaking News)
Patrick Collins, retired Illinois state police sergeant, admitted there were numerous shortcomings in his investigation that led to the conclusion that the death of Drew Peterson's third wife was an accident...Collins admitted he broke with normal protocol and allowed Peterson to sit in on an interview with Stacy Peterson, who gave Peterson his principal alibi for his whereabouts in the days before Savio was discovered...Peterson, a Bolingbrook police officer at the time, asked for "professional courtesy" and sat about a foot away from Stacy while she was interviewed, Collins said...

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Other shortcomings he admitted to:

Not examining or saving a glass of orange juice in the kitchen or a cup in the microwave;

not specifically asking about the position of Savio's body in the bathtub; not asking if the people who had discovered her had touched the body...Steve Schmadeke

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Ex-Savio co-workers tell of Drew Peterson threats (Chicago Tribune)
One colleague said Savio, with a bruised arm, detailed a home invasion in which Peterson held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her right there, but it "would be too bloody." Another told the judge that Peterson stalked Savio at the office, sitting in the parking lot for hours — at least once in a Bolingbrook squad car, other times an unmarked vehicle — and waiting for her to leave...

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Thomas Morphey has told police that Peterson used him to concoct a fake alibi for that day..Prosecutors also quizzed a cell phone company representative over records detailing cell phone calls made on the day she vanished. And a police lieutenant testified that Peterson punched him in the head after a round of locker room horseplay at the Police Department.-- Stacy St. Clair, Steve Schmadeke and Erika Slife

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Drew Peterson's stepbrother recounts night he helped Peterson remove blue storage container

In a hushed Will County courtroom, Morphey testified that the two carried a heavy, blue container — containing what he thought was Stacy Peterson's body — out the front door of the house and into the back of Peterson's GMC Yukon Denali. Afterward Peterson turned to him and said, "This never happened"... Morphey, 42, is believed to be one of the prosecution's star witnesses because of his claims he helped Peterson dispose of his fourth wife, Stacy...

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He acknowledged he has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and battles manic depression. He admitted to being treated for drug and alcohol abuse, but he said his memory was clear about the morning of Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007...

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He said Peterson told him he would give him $200 to rent a storage unit under Morphey's name and store a container there."I said, 'What about the smell?'" Morphey said. "He said (the container) would be airtight."Peterson allegedly said Morphey would check on the unit "from time to time to make sure there was no odor." Peterson would return in six months after the "smoke cleared" to take care of it. If something happened to Peterson during that time, Morphey testified, Peterson allegedly told him to "drop it in the canal..."-- Erika Slife and Steve Schmadeke

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Eric Peterson, Drew's eldest son, finally surfaces Thursday afternoon at suburbanchicagonews.com

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Drew's son speaks...

The older of two children born to Peterson's first wife, Carol Brown, who is neither missing nor murdered, Eric Peterson, 31, recounted a savage tale of domestic abuse he says Drew Peterson perpetrated on Savio in 1993.

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Eric Peterson and his younger brother, Stephen Peterson, were visiting their father and Savio for the weekend when Drew hauled his wife through the front door by her hair.

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"She was being dragged and fighting to stop being dragged," Eric Peterson said, adding that Savio was shouting obscenities at her husband, begging the children to call the police and "screaming for help."

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Eric Peterson said his father ordered his sons upstairs and pulled Savio down to the basement. He said the commotion downstairs sounded like a train ran through the house.

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One of Savio's sisters and the police later showed up. The next morning, Eric Peterson said, there was no sign of Savio, but the house was strewn with broken glass and overturned furniture.
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Eric Peterson said it was apparent that Savio was drunk the night Drew Peterson dragged her around.

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Eric Peterson said he has not spoken to his father since January 2003.

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"I don't love him or hate him," Eric Peterson said of his father. "It's separate of emotion. It's indifference."