What did ex-fiancee tell Peterson jury?

Raines escorted by state police

For more than 15 months, state police have struggled to solve the puzzle of what happened to Stacy Peterson, and they just might crack the case if a young woman who recently lived in her house for a few weeks has any inside information.

Christina Raines, the 24-year-old purported fiancee and former live-in lover of the missing Stacy Peterson's husband, Drew Peterson, was hauled before the grand jury Thursday morning. She left in the company of her boyfriend and a couple state cops.

The state police were charged with unraveling the mystery of Stacy Peterson's October 2007 disappearance. They classified the missing woman's case a "potential homicide" and named her much older, Bolingbrook police sergeant husband their sole suspect.

Stacy Peterson is Drew Peterson's fourth wife, and her disappearance allowed state police to take another stab at the bizarre apparent bathtub drowning of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

Peterson and Savio were in the midst of a contentious divorce when she turned up dead in her dry tub in March 2004. State police failed to find any sign of foul play and her death was ruled an accident.

But when Stacy Peterson vanished, the case was revisited and authorities determined Savio was the victim of a homicide. The state police have not identified Savio's killer, or even any suspects in the case.

A grand jury was convened soon after Stacy Peterson disappeared. The grand jury has heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, the most recent of whom was Raines, the woman who moved with her two children into Peterson's home in December but split while being filmed by a camera crew last week.

'Ridiculous'

Asked whether he may have said anything incriminating to Raines during their time together, Peterson sarcastically replied, "Oh yeah, without a doubt."

"No, that would be ridiculous," Peterson said Thursday. "I mean, think about it."

Peterson speculated his former fiancee's police escort was to ensure she showed up for the grand jury appearance.

"I'm sure she didn't even want to go," he said.

In addition to Raines, the grand jury has been visited by another former girlfriend, an ex-wife, an former fiancee, his mother, stepfather, an attorney who represented him in a divorce, the attorney who represented Savio in her divorce, identical twin male nurses, various friends, an assortment of in-laws and past in-laws, a minister from a church he attended and others.

"I think they're going after my kindergarten teacher next," Peterson said.

Raines' father, Ernie Raines, who has called Peterson the "devil," did not know what his daughter discussed with the grand jury.

"I don't know nothing till she calls me," Ernie Raines said. "I didn't live inside (Peterson's) house. Whatever Chrissy's got to say, she's keeping it to herself."

Comment on this story.

www.heraldnewsonline.com