Laci Peterson's Creme Brulee French Toast

INGREDIENTS


1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
6 (1 inch thick) slices French bread , day old
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon brandy (optional)
1/4 teaspoon salt



DIRECTIONS
1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mix in brown sugar and corn syrup, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Remove crusts from bread, and arrange in the baking dish in a single layer. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, half and half, vanilla extract, brandy, and salt.
3. Pour over the bread. Cover, and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
5. Remove the dish from the refrigerator, and bring to room temperature (to avoid breaking your dish).
6. Bake uncovered 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until puffed and lightly browned.

Peterson tribute recalls fond memories

STACY PETERSON Husband does not attend
January 21, 2008

Candace Aikin is certain she will see her niece Stacy Peterson again — but not in this life.

“We have a lot of peace that she’s in heaven and that we’ll see her again,” Aikin said during a gathering Sunday in Bolingbrook to remember the missing mother of two.

Kerry Simmons, surrounded by members of Stacy Peterson’s family, addresses the media before a vigil for the missing Peterson on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday was Stacy Peterson’s 24th birthday.

“We love her,” said Aikin, who flew in from her home in California for the tribute at Living Water Community Church. “She’s in our hearts.”

Those who braved the bitter cold to attend the event saw a slide show that included photos of Stacy in happier times.

State Police have called her disappearance a “potential homicide” and have named her husband, Drew Peterson, a suspect in the case. Stacy Peterson vanished Oct. 28.

Among those attending Sunday was Melissa Doman, the niece of Drew Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio. Savio was found dead in a waterless bathtub in March 2004. Her death was initially ruled an accidental drowning, but the case is being reviewed in light of Stacy Peterson’s disappearance.

Family mix-upDuring the service, Candace Aikin recalled a bittersweet story from more than 10 years ago, when she was in town from California visiting her family. During her visit, Candace learned that her deeply troubled sister — Stacy’s mother — had been arrested and had claimed to be Candace.

She sorted things out with police, and when she was leaving to return to California, the then-13-year-old Stacy said, “Aunt Candy, you are always wanted in Illinois, and it’s not by the police.”
Noticeably absent from Sunday’s tribute was Stacy’s husband. Drew Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, maintains Stacy isn’t missing and that she has run off with another man.

Reached at home after the event, Peterson asked, “Did they have a pinata with my picture on it?” How typical of Peterson. It is a gathering for people who love his deceased wife, and all he thinks of is himself.

http://gretawire.foxnews.com/2008/01/21/open-thread-22/#comments Special thanks to Barb of Bolingbrook for posting this on Gretawire.

Stacy Peterson Remembered on her Birthday

By Danya Hooker, dhooker@mysuburbanlife.com
GateHouse News Service
Sun Jan 20, 2008, 10:52 PM CST

Bolingbrook, IL -

For the first time in three months, friends and family of Stacy Peterson had something to celebrate.

About 200 people gathered at a Bolingbrook church Sunday to share their favorite stories and memories in recognition of the missing mother’s 24th birthday.

“This is a great day for us,” Peterson’s neighbor and best friend Sharon Bychowski said. “It’s very therapeutic for us to come together as friends and family because today we get tell everybody what she means to us.”

Nobody enjoyed a good birthday party like Stacy Peterson, those close to her said. Peterson regularly played hostess for others’ birthdays and, in general, liked finding reasons to throw a party.

“I know if she was here she’d be telling us we did this completely wrong,” Peterson’s step-sister Kerry Simmons said.

Peterson’s aunt, Candice Aikin, flew all the way from southern California to attend the birthday party. She recalled Peterson’s last birthday, which they spent together in California, her vivacity for life and her belief that she will one day be reunited with her niece.

“I believe I’m going to see her again,” Aikin said. “I don’t know that it will be on this earth but I do believe I’ll see her again.”

Bychowski remembered Peterson’s love of cooking and their near daily habit of borrowing groceries.

“If your borrow her an avocado, it was good thing because an hour later she would come running back to you with an entire bowl of guacamole and chips."

Susan Olsen, mother of missing Maple Park man Bradley Olsen, was also on hand for the event, lending her support for Peterson’s family just hours after she and her family had held a private event in recognition of the one-year anniversary of her son’s disappearance on Jan. 20, 2007.

“We’re just sticking together,” Olsen said. “We’re just here to support each other, which we need. We need all the love and prayers and support we can get.”

Bychowski and Simmons said the search for Stacy Peterson continues and volunteers are working hard to raise money to continue the effort as soon as the weather improves.

“Our lives will never be back to normal until we find Stacy and bring her home,” Simmons said. “Until we get the truth about what happened to her and bring the person who did this to her to justice.”

The birthday vigil came on the heels of last week’s announcement by Illinois State Police that Drew Peterson remains their number one suspect in his wife’s disappearance and that new evidence has surfaced in the case.

Bolingbrook Police Chief Ray McGury, who attended the birthday vigil, declined to comment on the investigation but said he believes Stacy Peterson’s family will find the answers they are searching for.

“There’s no timetable but I’m confident there will be resolution. Based upon what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, I’m confident there will be some resolution down the road,” McGury said.
Peterson’s step-sister, Kerry Simmons, also succinctly dismissed claims by Drew Peterson that his wife was having an affair. Last week, his lawyer, Joel Brodsky, released a text message sent to Stacy Peterson a month before she disappeared that he said proved Stacy Peterson was having an affair.

“We’re not giving any merit to it,” Simmons said.

State police have also dismissed claims that Peterson ran off with another man.

Also Sunday, Bychowski released the details of a March 2 fundraiser that will help pay for renewed search efforts when weather allows.

The fundraiser will be held from 1 to 9 p.m. at 115 Bourbon Street, 3359 W. 115 St., in Merrionette Park.

The event will include two stages of entertainment, a silent auction and buffet.

Tickets may be purchased at the door or at a discounted rate at http://www.groovetickets.com/ or by calling 1-877-71GROOVE. For more information, visit http://www.findstacypeterson.com/.

Stacy Peterson--family dismisses text 'lead'

January 19, 2008
By JOE HOSEY Staff Writer

BOLINGBROOK -- The family of missing mom Stacy Peterson took aim at a clue her husband's attorney claims clears his client from suspicion in her disappearance.

Pam Bosco, the legal guardian of Stacy's sister, Cassandra Cales, said state police informed her the critical break in the case -- an anonymous text message -- is actually worthless. "They said, 'Pam, it's not worthwhile,'" said Bosco, who has taken on the role of spokeswoman for Stacy's family.

Peterson said he discovered a racy text message on a cell phone that belonged to his missing wife but was later given to his son. If she has replaced her phone so Drew couldn't monitor her, she would have kept the old one to make calls occasionally to throw him off.

Peterson alerted Brodsky, who in turn passed on the information to state police. The state police secured a search warrant for the phone and the accounts used to create the message. The accounts "may contain evidence of the offenses of first degree murder or concealment of a homicidal death," according to the warrant. It may work against him. Stupid bastard.

Bosco said state police told her the investigation yielded nothing of substance. "They said they tried," she said. "They knew about it way back when. They've done a thorough investigation of her contacts.

"It's an anonymous ridiculous text message from a Web site," Bosco said. She also said police informed her the message "can't be traced" back to its sender.

But Brodsky stood by his assertion that the message is a solid lead.

"They haven't told me that (it couldn't be traced)," he said. "I don't know who she's talking to."
Besides probing Stacy's Oct. 28 disappearance, state police also are revisiting the mysterious March 2004 death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio.

A state police special agent testified after her apparent bathtub drowning that there were no signs of foul play in Savio's death. According to the attending officer, who just happened to be the ex-husband who murdered her.

Bosco suspected there was bad intent behind the discovery of the text message supposedly sent to Stacy, and she laid it at the feet of Brodsky and Peterson.

"They want to slam Stacy," she said. "She was not having an affair," Bosco added. Only the worst of the worst scum would blame the victim.

Brodsky begged to differ, and held the text message, which also references a sexual act, up as the evidence. "It proves that the girl was having an affair," he said. "That's what it proves." Even is she was having an affair between mothering four children, being monitored 24/7 by her husband and trying to attend nursing school, that doesn't prove she ran away.

Contact Joe Hosey at (815) 729-6054 or mailto:jhosey@scn1.com?Subject=Story.Response

Officials: No Hilton Link to North Carolina Case

Provided by: Gannett News Service
Last Modified: 1/4/2008 10:39:31 PM

BREVARD, N.C. (GNS) -– Despite the similarity of a yellow jacket, investigators say there does not appear to be a connection between a missing hiker in north Georgia and the killing of an elderly woman last fall in the Pisgah National Forest.

“We’re not ruling it out, but right now, it does not appear that it’s related whatsoever, other than they both happened on U.S. Forest Service (property),” U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Harold Young Jr. said Friday.

Authorities are seeking a man believed to have been seen talking to a 24-year-old hiker missing since Tuesday in the vicinity of Blood Mountain in north Georgia.

The man, whom authorities believe is 60-year-old Gary Michael Hilton, was seen several times on New Year's Day with Meredith Emerson, 24, formerly of Longmont, Colo, and recently a resident of Buford, Ga., in suburban Atlanta.

Authorities said witnesses said the man had a yellow jacket and a backpack with enough gear for at least a couple of days.Meanwhile, John “Jack” Bryant, has been missing since he and his wife, Irene, went hiking Oct. 21.

Investigators found Irene Bryant's body Nov. 9 about 25 yards from where the Bryants' sport utility vehicle was parked on a roadside in the Pink Beds area of Pisgah National Forest.

Investigators have said someone killed 84-year-old Irene Bryant with a blow to the head. Jack Bryant, her husband of 55 years, is not suspected in the homicide, authorities said.

A surveillance photo taken at a Ducktown, Tenn., bank shows a person wearing a yellow rain jacket withdrawing money using the Bryant’s bank card. The hood of the rain jacket obscures the person's identity and the card has not been used since, authorites said.

The yellow jacket similarity is “curious,” but doesn’t link the two cases, Young said, adding that he has been in contact several times with the agent handling the Emerson search.“That was of interest, but we just don’t believe it’s related right now,” Young said.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Bryant Task Force Tip Line at 862-3645, the nearest FBI office or their local law enforcement agency.
(Asheville Citizen-Times)

http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=109062