'Terrible things' unite families

Relatives offer support as officials search for a missing mom, investigate a 2004 death

BOLINGBROOK -- The families of a police sergeant's third and fourth wives have banded together to get to the bottom of what befell their loved ones.

"I like to think of it as one big family," said Pamela Bosco, a longtime acquaintance of police Sgt. Drew Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, who has been missing from her Pheasant Chase Court home for 16 days.

Bosco feels Stacy Peterson's relatives, for whom she is acting as a spokeswoman, and that of Peterson's third wife, share a family bond in dealing with "terrible things happening to women."

His third wife, then his ex-wife, Kathleen Savio, was found dead in March 2004 in the bathroom of the home down the block from the one shared by Drew and Stacy Peterson. Her lifeless body was discovered in a dry bathtub.

An autopsy determined she drowned and a coroner's jury ruled the death an accident. A state police investigator testified Savio's injuries appeared consistent with her falling and said, "There was nothing to lead us to believe that anything else occurred. There was no other evidence at this time that shows that anything else occurred."

But State's Attorney James Glasgow now says it's clear the death was "not an accident," and revealed plans to exhume Savio's grave so her body can be further investigated.

"We're happy with the way Glasgow and the coroner are doing everything," said Savio's nephew, Charlie Doman. "It's just a shame the people before him. It's like he's paying for their mistakes."

Doman said he expects his aunt's body to be exhumed today or later this week. He had little faith in the state police, the agency that investigated Savio's death the first time around, taking up the case again.

"I think another agency needs to look at it," he said. "Well, they (messed) up. Now what are they going to do about it?"

State police also are probing the disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy. Bosco said "new technology" recently made available to the family has led them to search new, undisclosed locations in the area surrounding the Peterson home.

"This is a slow process," Bosco said. "We're working with the state police. They have their own investigation."

Bosco said the search, which has focused primarily on various bodies of water in the vicinity, will resume at 10 a.m. today.

Drew Peterson did not answer the door of his home Monday. Telephone messages left at his residence were not returned.

He remained suspended without pay from the police department for a fourth day Monday.

Bosco acknowledged the coming week, with the prospect of Savio's exhumation, will be hard for her counterparts in Savio's camp.

"We connect," she said. "To what level, I don't know. We're always in support of each other."

Doman said the families have been in contact and that his sister, Melissa Doman, and the half-sister of Stacy Peterson, Cassandra Cales, have exchanged computer messages.

Doman was heartened by the reopening of his aunt's death investigation but wondered why the police did not pursue the issue with more vigor in the spring of 2004.

"If they're protecting this guy, why are they protecting this guy?" he said. "Does he have something on them?"

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