MISSING MOM SEARCH TEAM NEEDS HELP

HUNDREDS OF VOLUNTEERS HOPED FOR TO LOOK FOR STACY PETERSON TODAY

She has not slept in days. She's all but certain her sister is dead. But Cassandra Cales said Monday evening that the search for Bolingbrook mother Stacy Peterson must go on.

"She is giving me the strength and energy I need to push on," Cales said of her sister. "I haven't really slept in six or seven days. I try to sleep, but I just can't."

An all-volunteer Texas team that helped in the search for missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba is expected to lead search efforts this morning, Cales said.

The Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and Recovery Team is equipped with divers, helicopters, dog teams, horses and foot teams. The founder of the team, Tim Miller, said he will have 15 people from his group but hopes "hundreds" of volunteers will show up for the search at 8 a.m. today at the Westbrook Christian Church in Bolingbrook, not far from the Peterson home. Plans are to search five "water areas" and two quarries.

"We have been extremely successful in the past," he said, adding that his team has helped find 250 people alive and the remains of 73 other people.

Another of the missing woman's relatives wonders where police investigators were Saturday and Sunday, when dozens of volunteers combed the area near Peterson's home looking for clues.

"Where are the police on this one? What are they doing?" said Suzan Robison, one of Peterson's aunts.

A spokesman for the state police said Monday there's a reason police weren't out searching during the weekend.

"We were actually in the process of organizing searches for [Monday]," said Trooper Mark Dorencz, a state police spokesman. "I can assure you we are working on this case day and night." Dorencz said teams of eight officers and a search dog focused Monday on seven areas, which he declined to identify.

Are investigators talking to Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson?

"We are focusing on Stacy and finding Stacy," Dorencz said.

Although Stacy Peterson told relatives in the days leading up to her disappearance last week that she was afraid of her husband and wanted a divorce, Drew Peterson is not considered a suspect in the case, Dorencz said.

"He has been cooperative in the investigation," he said.

Bolingbrook Police Chief Raymond McGury said the department received no reports of problems in the marriage.

Investigators will try to talk to Stacy Peterson's children to see if they know anything of her whereabouts.

"We would like to talk to the kids," said Charles B. Pelkie, spokesman for State's Attorney James Glasgow. "We will be taking steps to make that happen in the near future."

Stacy Peterson is Drew Peterson's fourth wife. His third wife died under mysterious circumstances in March 2004. Glasgow is turning a fresh eye to that case to see if the death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, warrants criminal charges.

Stacy and Drew Peterson have two children, ages 2 and 4. Drew Peterson also has two minor children from his marriage to Savio and two older children from a previous marriage.

Glasgow's office has been trying to get information from the children of another missing mother. Their efforts to speak with the children of Lisa Stebic, of Plainfield, have been thwarted by their father, Craig Stebic, who police have labeled "a person of interest" in the case.

Lisa Stebic has been missing for more than six months. Searches and billboards have failed to turn up any clues to her whereabouts. Police initially talked to her children, but the state's attorney's office would like to do a more in-depth interview. At the advice of his lawyer, Craig Stebic has forbidden that.

"We made it clear we want to talk to these children, too," Pelkie said. "It's the same position. We'll be taking steps in the near future to find out what these children know about the disappearance of their mother."

Staff writer Joe Hosey contributed to this story.