Drew Peterson called to grand jury

WAS BOLINGBROOK SGT. THERE TO TALK ABOUT HIS DEAD EX-WIFE OR HIS MISSING SPOUSE?

JOLIET —  The cop husband of missing mom Stacy Peterson had his day in court but kept his mouth shut about it before his lawyers whisked him away.

Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson visited the courtrooms of the county’s Emco building for about two hours Wednesday but refused to answer questions about his appearance on his way out to a waiting car driven by one of his two Aurora attorneys, Gary Johnson.

The other attorney accompanying Drew Peterson to the hearing, Fred Morelli, would not discuss matters as he ushered the embattled sergeant away.

“This is an ongoing investigation,” Morelli said. “We have nothing to say.”

It was not clear which investigation Morelli was referring to. Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, is the subject of a missing persons probe, and the mysterious death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, is being revisited by State’s Attorney James Glasgow.

“There’s a great deal of activity in the Savio review,” said Glasgow’s spokesman, Charles B. Pelkie. “There’s also a great deal of activity in the missing persons investigation.”

But Pelkie would not say if it was the Savio case, the Stacy Peterson investigation or both, that prompted Drew Peterson to go before the grand jury in the Emco building across the street from the county courthouse.

A courthouse staffer said the grand jury convened in the Emco building Wednesday afternoon. It was the first time, to his knowledge, this has occurred.

Neither Peterson’s family nor Savio’s family had any idea what lay behind Drew Peterson’s grand jury appearance.

Charlie Doman, the nephew of Savio, said his family was heartened by the prospect of his aunt’s case again being brought to light.

Mysterious death

Savio and Drew Peterson were still married when the 47-year-old sergeant struck up a romance with his 17-year-old future fourth bride. The teenage Stacy was working as an overnight desk clerk at SpringHill Suites on Remington Boulevard when the two met.

Within a year of Drew Peterson filing for divorce and marrying Stacy, Savio died under mysterious circumstances.

Her body was discovered after Drew Peterson attempted to return their two sons from a weekend visitation. No one answered the locked door and Drew Peterson, who lived down the street from Savio with new wife Stacy, sought help from a neighbor. The neighbor called a locksmith, and once entry was gained, went inside to find Savio’s body in a waterless bathtub.

A coroner’s jury ruled the death an accidental drowning. State police never brought criminal charges against Drew Peterson.

On Wednesday, Coroner Patrick O’Neil distanced himself from the decision made at the inquest. Despite the determination by the six-member jury, O’Neil said Savio’s family testified to their suspicions and “certain aspects of Kathleen’s death raised concerns for me as well.”

“In my professional opinion, having served at the time as the coroner for 14 years, it was my opinion that, at the very least, her death should have been ruled undetermined,” O’Neil said Wednesday. “The coroner’s jury, unfortunately, ruled otherwise.”

O’Neil pointed to then-State’s Attorney Jeff Tomczak as the man who would have pulled the trigger if criminal charges were to be filed. He also said a recent change in state law would have allowed him to bypass the jury and rule on the manner of death himself.

“Had this option been available in 2004, the ruling in this case would have been different,” O’Neil said.

Search is unsuccessful

The night before Peterson was called before the grand jury, state police served a second search warrant at his house in less than a week. Pelkie said the search warrant resulted from specific information developed on a target in the Peterson home. He declined to elaborate on any property removed from the residence.

Pam Bosco, the latest appointed spokeswoman for Stacy Peterson’s family, said volunteers continued searching fields and a forest preserve without success. She could not say why Drew Peterson was called before the grand jury but said, “We believe, we hope it involves the Stacy Peterson case.”

Bosco also said her family knew something was fishy about Stacy Peterson’s disappearance 12 days ago from the jump.

“Our first reaction was we suspected something,” she said. “This was a child who was always in contact with her family.”

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