Savio Web site draws skepticism

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?

A fundraising Web site was set up in missing mom Stacy Peterson's name. Then, her husband, Drew Peterson, started one of his own. Now, relatives of Peterson's deceased third wife have made it an Internet trifecta with a site to raise money for battered women.

But Kathleen Savio's sister was skeptical of the Web site and the relatives she says launched it.

"I'm not touching this money. I have nothing to do with it," said the sister, Anna Doman.

Doman said her brother, Henry M. Savio, also was unaware of any plans to raise money through kathleenkittysavio.com. Doman believes her sister, Susie Doman, and her father's son from his third marriage, Nicholas Savio, are behind the Web site.

"I wish Nick would stop walking around saying he's my brother," Doman said. "He's my half-brother."

Nicholas Savio was not well acquainted with Kathleen Savio or her two sons, Kris and Tom, she said.

"The first time he saw Kitty's children was at her funeral," Doman said. The boys are 13 and 14.

The Web site solicits donations, saying, "We would be so thankful, she is crying for help. We would also like to start a fund for battered women in Kathleen Savio's name."

The donations are to be sent to an address in Indiana, care of Nicholas Harold Savio. It does not specify how the money will assist battered women, but if a contributor provides a return address the administrators will "let you (know) what battered women's shelter the money was sent to and also so we can thank you."

Attempts to contact the administrators through the e-mail addresses provided on the site were unsuccessful.

This did not surprise Doman.

"He's not speaking," she said of Nicholas Savio. "He's not telling us anything."

Kathleen Savio perished in what officials classified an accidental bathtub drowning. But investigators have reopened the investigation of her mysterious March 2004 death in the wake of the disappearance of Drew Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson.

Stacy Peterson vanished Oct. 28. State police have labeled her disappearance a "potential homicide" and named Drew Peterson a suspect in the case.

Savio's body was exhumed in November for additional testing. The results of these tests have yet to be publicly released.

In the petition to have Savio's body unearthed, State's Attorney James Glasgow said the woman's death scene looked unlike a genuine accident, and instead appeared "consistent with the 'staging' of an accident to conceal a homicide."

Besides asking for money, the Savio site also solicits information about the woman's death and directs readers to call state police.

Drew Peterson's short-lived Web site, defenddrew.com, asked for donors to contribute to his legal defense fund. The site was online for less than a day before its hosting company shut it down due to the massive traffic it generated.

The site set up for Stacy Peterson, findstacypeterson.com, is trying to raise funds to cover the costs of searches for the missing woman. Any money left over will go to the four children -- including Savio's sons -- she left behind, said Pam Bosco, the spokeswoman for Stacy's family.

But even Bosco, who started to set up the trust with the help of a lawyer, is distancing herself from the Stacy Peterson Web site.

"I know the site was started with good intentions. I believe now it has good intentions. It just needs to be controlled," Bosco said.

"It has a life of its own right now," she said. "There's a 'Stacy store' (on the forum). I have no idea who's doing this."

The proprietor of the "Stacy store" is selling bracelets to raise money, Bosco said.

Both the Stacy site and Drew's erstwhile site gathered money through the Internet collection service Paypal and not exclusively through the postal service, as the Savio site does. Drew Peterson's lawyer, Joel Brodsky, questioned the legitimacy of mailing money to an address in Hammond to assist an unidentified women's shelter.

"Given the method they are accepting donations, I hope there are measures in place for keeping track of where the money is going to go," he said.

The state's Attorney General's office oversees the Charitable Trust Act. Individuals or organizations soliciting funds for charitable purposes are required to register with the state.

"The Attorney General's Office doesn't have enough information at this time to know if these individuals or groups are soliciting on behalf of a charitable purpose to know whether or not they should register with our office," said Robyn Ziegler, a spokeswoman for the attorney general, said of the three Web sites.

But Brodsky was sure the money raised through his client's site could not be considered charity.

"My attorney's fees are not a charitable donation," he said. "I get my money the old-fashioned way -- I earn it."

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