Kathleen said she had no will, lawyer recalls

PETERSON CASE But Drew claims he found it after her death
March 8, 2008
BY JOE HOSEY Herald News

While she was divorcing Drew Peterson, Kathleen Savio said she didn't have a will, her former lawyer said Friday.

Attorney Harry Smith's statement raises new questions about a two-page, handwritten will that Drew Peterson unveiled 15 days after his ex-wife drowned in her bathtub in 2004. The will -- dated March 2, 1997 -- named Peterson's uncle James B. Carroll as executor of Savio's estate. Carroll later awarded Peterson control of virtually all of Savio's assets, although Peterson and his third wife already had divorced.

Smith on Friday also said that Drew Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, met with him twice in the week before she vanished to solicit advice for her own divorce from the embattled Bolingbrook ex-cop.

Stacy Peterson discussed divorce twice with Smith in the five days before her Oct. 28 disappearance, he said.

"She was looking for advice regarding a dissolution of marriage, [the] results and ramifications," Smith said, though he declined to offer specifics, saying: "That would be a good way to be sued."
State Police have classified Stacy Peterson's disappearance a "potential homicide" and named her husband a suspect in their investigation. State Police also are probing the mysterious March 2004 death of Savio.

State Police initially said her death appeared to be accidental. After Stacy Peterson vanished, Savio's body was exhumed for additional testing. The forensic pathologist conducting those tests concluded Savio was the victim of a homicide.

Smith was representing Savio in her long divorce proceedings from Peterson.
Though he said he recalled Savio told him she and Drew Peterson didn't have a will, he couldn't offer specifics about the conversation.

Drew Peterson, meanwhile, has said he found the will after his ex-wife died. "We just tucked it away, and I found it after she died," Peterson said earlier this year. "There's nothing sinister and out of line about it. Everything was done proper."

A Will County judge accepted the will as valid in 2005 after two of Drew Peterson's friends testified they had witnessed Peterson and Savio sign the document.