Months later, step-brother of Drew Peterson returns

Said to have helped him move blue barrel

November 2, 2008

BY DAN ROZEK AND JOE HOSEY Staff Reporters drozek@suntimes.com

After disappearing for months,

former Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson's step-brother has resurfaced in Bolingbrook, attending the one-year anniversary vigil for Peterson's missing fourth wife, Stacy.

Thomas Morphey had gone into seclusion last November after sources reported he allegedly helped Drew Peterson load a large, blue barrel into Peterson's SUV on the day 23-year-old Stacy vanished from the couple's Bolingbrook home.

Peterson has been named a suspect in the still-unsolved Oct. 28, 2007, disappearance of his wife but has not been charged in that case.

The day after Stacy Peterson vanished, Morphey was hospitalized for a suspected overdose of sleeping pills, then disappeared from public view. Sources said the 40-year-old Morphey had been placed in protective police custody, but authorities never confirmed those reports.

Morphey reappeared this past week but could not be located for an interview. His girlfriend, Sheryl Alcox, wouldn't say where he was or why he's back at the couple's Bolingbrook house. Previously, she had said he was receiving "therapy."

Morphey could be a key witness for authorities investigating Stacy Peterson's disappearance, but Alcox and a law enforcement source said he hasn't appeared before a special grand jury trying to determine what happened to her.

Illinois State Police Lt. Luis Gutierrez declined to comment about Morphey.

Alcox said she and Morphey already have run into Drew Peterson at a local store, but neither man spoke to the other. "He didn't come near us that time," Alcox said.