Drew Peterson wants an apology from the Illinois State Police because he says they wrongly casted suspicion on him after his fourth wife disappeared.
A former Bolingbrook police sergeant, Peterson is charged with the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, whose body was found in a waterless bathtub in 2004. His fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, mysteriously vanished in 2007 and has not been found.
Peterson believes Stacy is alive and said in a statement Tuesday he wants an apology after another woman, Judith Bello, was discovered alive in California after disappearing 18 years ago.
Bello was reported missing in 1993 after she failed to pick up her 3-year-old at daycare after work, the statement points out. Police found her car abandoned the same day. Her husband was targeted as a suspect, according to the statement, because of their marital difficulties.
“There is a huge cloud of suspicion cast over Drew Peterson because of the Illinois State Police’s statement that Stacy Peterson is presumed dead; however there is absolutely no evidence to support that statement,” said Drew Peterson's attorney Joel Brodsky. “They made it seem like no woman, no mother, would ever just disappear, but as this most recent case shows, it does happen. In fact it happens more often than you would think”
Brodsky said in the statement Stacy Peterson's mother disappeared when her kids were young. “In Stacy’s mind disappearing may be ‘normal,’” Brodsky said.
Peterson has been jailed in Will County since 2009 because his case is mired in legal arguments that have gone all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court.
A movie about Peterson, played by Rob Lowe, will air on the Lifetime Network at 7 p.m. on Jan. 21. The movie is based on the book, "The Tragic Wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson," by Joseph Hosey.
