Peterson kin: I didn't help move barrel

MISSING WIFE

BOLINGBROOK -- The tightlipped law has kept a lid on a neighbor's report of Drew Peterson allegedly loading a large barrel into the back of his Denali soon after his wife vanished, but the former cop's brother says he didn't lend a hand.

"I don't know anything about it," said Paul Peterson, the brother of recently retired police Sgt. Drew Peterson, when asked about reports of a neighbor telling police that Drew and another man hauled a mysterious blue barrel from his residence to his Denali.

A police source said the barrel was "big enough to put someone in."

Pressed about the barrel and whether he helped his brother carry it, Paul Peterson said, "No, no," and retreated to the Pheasant Chase Court home of Drew and missing wife Stacy Peterson.

Stacy Peterson, 23, disappeared Oct. 28. Drew Peterson, her 53-year-old husband and the father of her two children, has repeatedly insisted she ran off with another man.

State police have shifted from calling the Stacy Peterson matter a missing persons case to a "potential homicide" investigation. They also have identified Drew Peterson, who made Stacy Peterson his fourth wife in October 2003, as a suspect in the case.

On top of this, state police have returned to scrutinizing the mysterious March 2004 bathtub death of wife No. 3, Kathleen Savio. A coroner's jury ruled Savio's death an accidental drowning at the time, but the attention drawn by the disappearance of her successor as maternal head of the Peterson household prompted investigators to turn a fresh eye to the case.

Savio's body was exhumed from its grave for additional autopsies, one of which, a private postmortem performed at the behest of her family, resulted in a conclusion of homicide. The results of the official autopsy have yet to be released.

On Thursday, Drew Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky of Chicago, produced an anonymous letter he says he received a day earlier that describes a Stacy Peterson sighting at a Kroger supermarket in Peoria.

Pamela Bosco, the legal guardian of Stacy Peterson's sister, Cassandra Cales, said the missing woman's family did not put much stock in Brodsky's revelation.

"I find it very interesting that Mr. Peterson put any value on the letter, especially since his initial statement was that she took her passport, bikini and a large amount of money and went to the Bahamas," Bosco said.

Bosco also was skeptical of other details in the unsigned letter in Brodsky's possession, and said she doubted Stacy appeared pregnant, as had been reported.

"She had a very expensive tummy tuck," Bosco said. "She wasn't pregnant."

Brodsky failed to return calls for comment.

Bosco said the supposed Stacy sighting is far from the first the family has learned of.

"We get these all the time," she said. "These tips have to be checked out."

Charles Pelkie, the spokesman for the state's attorney's office, would not comment on the investigation of the barrel report from the neighbor. He referred questions about Brodsky's letter, which he had not seen, to state police.

A spokesman for the state police, Master Sgt. Luis Gutierrez, would not discuss the letter or the barrel.

Bosco said Stacy Peterson's family, who say they have been deprived of seeing her son and daughter, ages 4 and 2, are taking steps to secure visitation with the children.

"We are looking at all the avenues we can right now," she said.

Bosco was somewhat heartened by talk of the blue barrel reportedly carried off by Drew and the mystery man.

"We sure hope it leads to something," she said. "It's very interesting."

Contact Joe Hosey at (815) 729-6054 or jhosey@scn1.com