The many wives of Drew Peterson - Part 1

0:00 Hi, I'm Tina, and I'm Rich. And if there's one thing we've learned in over twenty years of marriage, it's that some days you'll feel like killing your wife, and some days you'll feel like killing your husband. Welcome to love, Mary Kill, Hey Rich, Hey Tina. How are you? I'm doing pretty good. How are you? I'm fabulous, fabulous. I'm really excited to be done with the Peterson trilogy. Yeah, I'm sure there will be another Peterson that will pop up eventually. I refused to research anywhere Peterson's. Never do another Peterson case exactly. I'm almost pausitive. This will be two parts. No way to just say it's going to commit to it two parts. Yes, sorry for all the multi parters, but man, there's just so much information about these men. One thing I will say for Drew is I am one hundred positive that Drew is guilty. And I wouldn't say that in many cases, all the Peterson's, all the Peterson's, I think he is the most guilty. I mean, I think that Scott is guilty too, for sure, but I think that the evidence against Drew is just overwhelming. I think, well, honestly, there is not a ton of no evidence against him. But once you get to know Drew, and you got to know Drew, you just don't doubt his built at all.

1:26 I have no doubt. So huge, huge, huge news in the true crime community this week that shook everyone. Yeah, the news is that the La Innocence Project has taken up Scott's case. Shock, it was shocking, It was shocking. They made some court filings where they are basically seeking additional DNA testing, additional discovery and what was that. There was a third thing reviewing documents that have been under seal. It's hundreds and hundreds of pages long. People are questioning the Los Angeles Innocence projects credibility, but they are credible organizations. They're very reputable. They're not the same as the Innocence Project, but they are affiliated with the Innocence Project through the what's called the Innocence Network, which is a there's a whole bunch of different seventy two different factions of it. Yeah, so it is a Yeah, it's a reputable organization.

2:23 There is some new evidence and we've been hearing about this new evidence for years from Janey is it Janie Peterson, Yes, she's talked about this for years, so we don't really know what this new evidence could be possibly related to the Medina burglary. We'll stand the story, of course, and if there's enough information, we'll do a little mini episode about it. Yeah, fascinating development. Will be interested to see where it goes. I really dropped the ball because this case is in Chicago, Chicago Land. Yeah, I'm from Chicago, born in Chicago, wasn't raised in Chicago. I don't have a Chicago snack, and I'm really I'm I'm really mad at myself that I didn't plan ahead, very disappointed in you. No, I don't really know what Chicago snacks would be. I know exactly what Chicago snack you would pick, Miss Fisher's. That's not that's a Rockford snack. That's not a Chicago enough like a hot like hot dogs or the Italian beef a beefizza. I don't know. We'll never know, now, will we. All? Right?

3:29 Well, my lovely, amazing, sweet kind friend Kelly, who is a personal friend that I've known since high school, believe it or not, sent me this beautiful box from nuts dot com, and I'm just going to give that much shout out. And that's just a snack that I brought you because this is the Supreme Box. So thank you, Kelly. It really a lovely gift and huge box of nuts and it's like a it was packaged really well. So the reason I'm saying this is just if you not not sponsored, because they wouldn't sponsor, but well maybe they would, but it's just beautifully packaged and I'm Kelly probably picked out the things in it, but it's it's lovely. It has several different kinds of nuts where big nut nut eaters. There's a little jar of jelly. There's some dried apricots, some chocolate covered sunflower seeds, just chocolate covered sunflower seeds. Yeah, some cheese sticks. Just it's a lovely gift. So all right, we're going to take a sample of everything. Sure, no, no, you can pick one. You can pick one thing to open, all right. I don't know what I'm gonna pick. I'm fascinated by the chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

4:41 Oh really, I've never had those before. Oh yeah, yeah it existed. Okay, I'll let you have those, all right, we'll be right back. What do you think I really like the chocolate covered sunflower seeds? The Rich has a lot of salads, and on his sALS you always put sunflower seeds, but you have never chocolate some flower seeds. Really though, you can hardly taste the sunflower seeds. It's kind of like just eating chocolate. They're really cute and colorful. I had some cashews. I can never have enough cashews, and they were fresh and delicious. And cashew is your favorite nut, I couldn't pick up. I really do genuinely love nuts. I have some unfavorite nuts, but I don't think I have a favorite nuts.

5:21 But we have cashews or maceadamia nuts or almonds. They're all good. Nice. So that was a lot of nut talk, And I'm curious how much of are my comments get edited because you do the editing and I never less. I don't. I don't edit you. I deserve to be edited. Absolutely. The world deserves to hear the full glory of Tino. According to that one star review we got this week, but we're not gonna We're not gonna dwell on then, we're just gonna let it go, Let it go, Let it go. At three pm today, there's a huge event that you're really excited about, Virtue Crime podcast that is made up of ninety percent female listeners. We talk about football way more than we should. You're the one who brought her up. Do you want it? Well? I know, but I know you're so excited about it. It's the Detroit Lions and they are in the playoffs. So I just want you to give a predictions so by the time this airs next Monday, you'll either be like a really smart guy or people will feel lout of Well. I do want to remind every one of my prediction back in like August, before the season started, I said the Lions were going to make it to the NFC Championship game boiler he says this every August. Okay, maybe, but they're so.

6:34 They're playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this afternoon. I predict the Lions will win. It will be thirty one to twenty seven. Okay. And it's so sweet because we had several people like that have messaged us, you know, Can Teleridge, congratulations and the U of M National championship. So well, for anyone who knows anything about the Lions football, they've been bad for as long as I've been alive, so and that's a long time. Yeah, So I am not a Lions fan, but I am thrilled for you because I love you. All right. On to Drew Peterson. Stacy Peterson, twenty three, was last seen on Sunday morning, October twenty eighth, two thousand and seven, in bowling Brook, Illinois, by her fifty three year old husband, Drew Peterson. Drew, a police sergeant, was a twenty nine year veteran of the bowling Brook Police Department. Stacy planned to meet her sister and a friend to paint a rental house. She never showed up, and no one was able to locate her all day. Her husband claimed he'd talk to Stacy, his fourth wife, around nine pm, when she told him she was leaving him and their four children for another man. No one, not any of Stacy's friends or a family, believed this claim. In the early morning hours of October twenty ninth, twenty two year old Cassandra Cale's, Stacy's sister, walked into the Illinois State Police Department in Lockport, Illinois to report her beloved sister as a missing person. We're going to talk about bowling Brook, Illinois for a minute. Bowlingbrook, Illinois incorporated in nineteen sixty five. Is younger than its most famous resident, Drew Peterson. Less than

8:07 thirty miles southwest of Chicago, young families were lured by advertisements that featured a handsome and distinguished British butler named mister Dover to model homes in three similar subdivisions, the Westbury, Colonial Village and King's Park subdivisions. I'm not sure I would be lured to a town just because of some English butler on an advertisement, But okay, I think if you lived in the Chicago area and you wanted affordable housing, you mister Dover probably looked pretty good to you. These three subdivisions were referred to as Bowlingbrook Subdivision in what was then Westbury, Illinois. People came via the Stevenson Expressway, the new and improved Route sixty six had been renamed. It was the long umbilical cord that stretched out from the city of Chicago to the far west farmlands. The first model homes went up on Rockland Court off Route fifty three, just north of the current plus Pheasant Hill shopping center. For as little as a two hundred dollars down payment, you could purchase a ten thousand dollars home. But for that price. You received little more than an unfinished box on an unpaved street, bare of many creature comforts like carpet, flooring or landscaping. But you are a homeowner today.

9:20 Nearly seventy five thousand people live in bowling Brook. Bowling Brook borders the communities of Woodridge, Romeoville, Plainfield, Naperville, and Darien. It's relatively inexpensive housing and its proximity to Chicago make it an increasingly popular place to call home. Bowling Brook is a safe place to live, with a crime rate sixty percent lower than the national average. That is, unless you are romantically linked to Drew Peterson. Have you ever been to bowling Brook? You know, I have a lot of family in Illinois and cousins and things, but I don't think anyone in bowling Brook. But it's we considered moving to Naperville years ago, years and years ago. And it's a great area. Yeah, great location near Chicago. Yep, very nice. Drew Walter Peterson was born on January fifth, nineteen fifty four, in bowling Brook, Illinois, the oldest of three children. So another horrible Capricorn. I'm a Capricorn.

10:18 It just seems like there's an abundant amount of capricorns. I don't know. His father, a former marine, was an abusive alcoholic. His mother was a meticulous housekeeper, a standard Drew's four wives would later fall short of. According to him, Drew's father was hard on him. He had high expectations for him, and high school, Drew was on the football team. He frequently had to run laps for mouthing off to his coaches, wearing all of his cumbersome football gear. He became so good at running that he joined the cross country team instead. He graduated from Willowbrook High School in nineteen seventy four, then joined the Army, where he became a member of the Elite Honor Guard. After two years in the Army, Drew joined the bowling Brook Police Department. He was soon promoted to work as an undercover narcotics officer for multiple jurisdictions with the Metropolitan Area Narcotics Squad. I don't have this in here, but for a while he worked at it must have been when he was in the Army he worked as a guard at the White House. Interesting. Drew married his high school sweetheart, Carol Brown, in nineteen seventy four. He was twenty. She was seventeen seventeen. That's young. Yeah, she was young. They had two sons together, Stephen and Eric. They divorced in nineteen eighty after six years of marriage when she discovered that Drew was having an affair. This would not be Drew's only affair. No, hard to believe, well, Drew said, quote, I take full responsibility for that.

11:48 Carol was a good woman. Unquote. Vicki Connolly became Drew's second wife in nineteen eighty two. They met at a bar and married six months later. She was five years younger than Drew. He had a daughter from a previous relationship. Vicky and Drew didn't have any children together. Drew was abusive to Vicki and frequently cheated on her. He had threatened to kill her and promised that everyone would believe her death was an accident. Vicky recalled waking up one night Withdrew menacingly standing over her when Vicky was in a near fatal car accident. She believed that Drew tampered with the brakes on her car. They were married for nine years, and she told the Chicago Tribune quote, when it was good, it was wonderful, It was great, but when it was bad, it was really bad. Unquote. Vicky said that Drew played mind games and bugged their home. He was the one having an affair, but became increasingly suspicious and controlling of her. Vicky was never unfaithful. Drew said that Vicky was warm and loving before the marriage fell apart. It's nice that he can say nice things about his wife. I guess, yeah, I'm already starting. I already hate this guy. Between his first and second marriages, Drew was engaged to another woman, twenty year old Kyle Peiriri. They were engaged for four months before she ended the engagement years later. She accused him of stalking her and using his authority as a police officer to make her life difficult. He stalked her while he was working, pulled her over,

13:20 and ticketed her several times for benign offenses such as bald tires. Oh that's horrible. It is horrible, and it's terrifying. Like if you're dating a police officer and it goes bad and they want to get revenge or they want like it's that's scary, right. They have a lot of power and they can make your life miserable and there are several examples of Drew abusing his authority as a police officer. Kathleen Savio was the youngest of four children born to Henry and Mary Savio. Henry was an HVAC technician. The Savio kids grew up in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood. Henry and Marry divorced when Kitty, as her family called her, was two. When Mary remarried, the family moved to Melrose Park, Illinois. Kitty's new stepfather didn't have a steady job, and Henry failed to pay child support, which caused the money to be tight for the family. When Kathleen was seventeen, she earned her ged and moved out of the house. She began work as a bookkeeper while attending community college working towards a degree in accounting. Kathleen ended a five year relationship with an accountant that she had been dating when she didn't think it was going anywhere, and she agreed to go out on a blind date with Drew Peterson. Kathleen was in her late twenties and wanted to get married and start her own family.

14:39 She quickly fell for Drew, but she didn't know that he was still married to his second wife, Vicki. When she found out, she was furious. Drew told her that Vicky wasn't a good wife, she was a drug addict, and they were getting divorced. Drew proposed to Kathleen six months after their first date. Are you seeing a pattern here? A little bit of a pattern? Yet? They were married on May third, nineteen ninety two, a few months after his divorce from Vickie was finalized. Kathleen's sisters said, quote, he seemed wonderful. He was mister Romance, the nice, upstanding young cop. In the beginning their marriage was great. Kathleen had things like she never had before, a beautiful home, fur coats, everything.

15:20 She felt like a princess. They quickly had two sons together nineteen months apart, Thomas and Christopher. Kathleen was a wonderful, nurturing mother, and she was a beloved member of her family. But she was also known to be strong, willed, feisty, and a fighter. Was there an age difference between Drew and Kathleen ten years ago. I'm sensing a pattern. Yeah, definitely, he had some patterns. Drew soon became abusive physically and verbally. He called Kathleen fad and said she looked like a dog. He shoved and pushed her once down the stairs. Her injuries were severe enough to land her in the er she was and bruises. So just not a nice guy.

16:03 No, it's another pattern with him to the abuse, I guess. And yeah, I think the abuse Scott increasingly worse is he got older. One month, Kathleen noticed that Drew's cell phone bill had blown up. She took a closer look and called the number that most frequently appeared. A young woman named Heather answered. Kathleen asked her to come over to the house so that she could confront her other to stop the affair with Drew. After her talk with Kathleen, so Kathleen was like a brave woman. She wasn't afraid to confront things in her life. In two thousand and one, Drew began a relationship with sixteen year old Stacy Kalees. He brought her to his home to have sex with her while his family supped upstairs. Kathleen received an anonymous letter from a bowling Brook City employee alerting her to the affair. In early two thousand and two. There are conflicting reports about Stacy's age when she and Drew started seeing each other. But Cassandra, Stacy's sister and biggest advocate, is adamant that she was sixteen when they started seeing each other. I don't know if their relationship was physical at that point, but definitely by the time she was seventeen the relationship became physical. And how old was Drew at this point? He's thirty years older. Oh my goodness, yeah, he was forty seven when they started dating. Here's the letter that Kathleen received in the mail. Kathy, this letter is being sent to you for your benefit.

17:27 At this point in time, you are probably aware that your husband is having an affair. The girl's name and she is just that a girl is Stacy Yelton, which isn't her name? Her name is Stacy Cale's. She was born July seventeenth, nineteen eighty four and resides at five eleven Preston, Apartment one twenty nine in Bowling Brook. You may already have all of this information, but if not, you will need it to prevent any further embarrassment and disgrace to you and your family. This affair has been going on for several months and several people have been aware of this situation. Because of her age seventeen and the fact that she is an employee of the village, and because of Drew's age and his occupation, he holds a position of authority over her.

18:11 Hw could be charged criminally for his intimate involvement with this minor. Village officials and everyone at the police department have complete knowledge of this situation. It has been an ongoing joke within the department. The issue has been discussed and has been decided to conceal his behavior to protect the village and Drew because of his political alliances with Roger Clark and Ken Each they are protecting themselves from the embarrassment and the liability. The real victims being you and your family should be the ones being protected from the embarrassment. This is not the first time in the past year that Drew's immoral and unethical behavior has been concealed. This past summer, Drew allowed the beating of an arrestee who is handcuffed and defenseless.

18:56 The past fall, Drew was suspected to have planted narcotics cocaine on two separate drug raids to obtain a substantial arrest to overshadow his recent behavior and now his illegal intimate relationship with a minor. Drew has been willing to sacrifice his integrity for his personal gain, with total disregard that his actions will embarrass and disrespect his wife and children. Beware who you talk to within the village administration and within the police department. Protect yourself and your family. Wow, isn't that crazy? I have questions? So, and Kathleen has some notes scrawled on the bottom of this letter, and it says letters sent to my home in October two thousand and one warning me of Drew's illegal actions and embarrassment to wife and kids. Drew's credibility isn't there anymore, and now he dictates a seventeen year old to do his dirty work. That's astonishing to the receive a letter.

19:56 Oh, I know, I can't imagine. And we don't know who wrote the letter. It was anonymous. I mean it was a city employee, right, someone. And Kathleen did not She was not aware of the affair before this letter. Like that was her how she found out? I believe. So. Yeah, yeah, Kathleen was devastated. She kicked Drew out of the house and immediately took steps to end the marriage, and the spring, Drew and Stacey moved in together into a new house that he purchased blocks away from the home he had shared with Kathleen and his sons, so in the same subdivision. Drew claimed he wanted to be close to his children, but it seemed more likely that he was trying to antagonize Kathleen. Drew and Stacy taunted Kathleen, rollerblading past her house and giving her the finger.

20:37 Stacey and Drew liked the attention their age difference attracted. They would kiss passionately in public, and she would pretend he was buying liquor for her and her friends and call him Daddy. I mean, Stacy's seventeen. Bit of a break. Yeah, definitely give Stacy a break because she's under his influence. And we're going to learn more about Stacy in a few minutes, but she's had a pretty hard upbringing. On occasions Stacy and Drew were dropping the boys off at Kathleen's house after a weekend visit, Stacy held Kathleen's video camera in her hand, filming her. Kathleen lunged at the camera and Stacy yelled, you hit me, Drew put Kathleen in a headlock and arrested her. She was charged with battery. The matter was later dismissed and expunged from the record, so another example of Drew abusing his authority. The police were called eighteen times for domestic disturbances during the contentious divorce. Kathleen called about twelve times, and Drew or Stacy about six. Kathleen filed an order of protection against Drew on March eleventh, two thousand and two, alleging physical abuse, harassment, and interference with her physical liberty. Drew told her he would burn the house down just to shut her up. He threatened to kill her many times, she wrote into the petition to the court, quote, several times he has restrained me, held me down, knocked me into walls, come after me with a poker, ripped my necklace off, left marks on my body, threatened to steal the children and desert me. The restraining order was granted,

22:07 but Kathleen later dropped it because Drew would otherwise not have been able to work because he wouldn't be able to carry a gun, and she and the boys were still depending on Drew's income as a police officer and may. Kathleen was arrested for pushing, spitting, and punching Drew when he pressed charges after one of their fights, and Kathleen also punched Stacy. I think Kathleen was just she was embarrassed and overall with emotion, and she was really struggling with the situation. Sounds like a horrible situation her. I mean, her husband is dating a child right yeah, and living right in the neighborhood and taunting her. Everyone in the neighbors and everyone is seeing this in front of them.

22:48 It's just it's just he's disgusting. On July fifth, two thousand and two, Drew broke into Kathleen's house and held her at knife point for hours, threatening to kill her while she sat on the stairs. As he held a knife to her throat, he told her that he would kill her right there, but it would be too bloody. Wow. So Shrew's account of this that event, he said, Oh, she was trying to seduce me and we were just talking on the stairs, and she was showing me her breast and she was trying to have kissed me and have sex with me. So that does not sound like the same, very different accounts. Yeah, November fourteenth, two thousand and two, Kathleen wrote a letter to the Assistant States Attorney, Elizabeth Fragail, asking for help. This is kind of long, but I think it just shows Kathleen what she was struggling with and her state of mind. And whenever we read quotes, we have to read them as they are, and Kathleen's writing here is there's some grammatical errors, but we need to read it as she wrote it. Do you want to read it?

23:53 Sure, Miss Fragail. On three different occasions, I have tried to reach you over the phone regarding charge as I filed against Drew Peterson on the date of July fifth, two thousand and two. Note, I did contact the police department and talked to the Assistant Chief, Mike Kelcagno, in reference to Drew's break in that same weekend. I then filed a report in regards to my safety from Drew by two officer that arrived at my residence three nine two Pheasant Chase, Bowlingbrook, Illinois. When I found out mister Peterson was having an affair with a miner at the police department, he began to get very violent by striking me with his hand and chasing me through the house with a police stick. At that time on record, I had to get an order of protection from him. There have been several times throughout my marriage with this man where I ended up at the emergency room in bowling Brook for injuries, and I have reported this, only to have the police leave my home without filing any reports. On July fifth, mister Peterson got into my home with a garage door opener he programmed for himself while I was out of town with my sons. I was unaware of his presence and was very, very afraid for my life. This man popped out from our living room well while I was walking downstairs with a basket of laundry. I was shocked and dropped all the clothes and stood there asking him to get out. Drew was in uniform, swat uniform with his police radio in his ear. He yelled for me to sit down and be quiet. I refused, and he pushed me on the stairs. He told me to move down to the third step and

25:23 not to move or speak. He was very angry that in our divorce the judge ruled he would have to pay me child support. He told me he didn't want to pay me anything. He left my boys eight and nine, and I with many bills up to two thousand dollars and with an eleven thousand dollar income tax bill as well as sixty eight hundred dollar property tax bill for us to pay. Needless to say, we are without money or any credit. He kept me in a position for a very long length of time while trying to convince me how horrible I am and I just need to die. He asked me several times if I was afraid. I started to panic. He pulled out his knife that he kept around his leg and brought it to my neck. I thought I'd never see my boys again. I just told him to end this craziness, and he, for some reason pulled back.

26:11 I didn't tell the police because I know they can't protect me from him. I know he will be back. He's now attempting to try to make me look like the bad guy with untrue charges of battery against him and his seventeen year old girlfriend. The sick thing is I really think they're enjoying this. Over the summer, they went out of their way to rollerblade right in front of my home, drive by and stop for long lengths of time in front of the house, childish things like his girl his girlfriend flipping me off if I was out in front with the kids while driving by. At the present time, my children have been in a program at school called Rainbows, in efforts to repair some of the damage Drew and his girlfriend have created, one of which Drew falsely arrested me in front of my children, with my face in the grass and calling me a criminal for hitting his girl friend, which didn't happen. Instead, she called me a bunch of inappropriate names in front of my children, so I felt it was necessary to get them back in the house away from this. When I ran to the truck, it being very high up, I noticed Stacy, his girlfriend, taping me with the stolen camera Drew took from our home. I attempted to take the camera and my next goal was to return to my home with my children, but I was thrown to the ground and treated like an outlaw and booked and arrested for no reason. My wrist was sprained when I was being thrown to the ground and held down by Drew, who was not on duty at the time.

27:34 While this was happening, my children were being held against their will by Stacy while she told them to sit down and be quiet. The letter goes on for quite a bit longer where she details other incidents that happened, but I'm going to skip past and go to the end, to the end here where she says he knows how to manipulate the system and his next step is to take my children away or kill me instead. I really would like to know why this man wasn't charged with this unlawful entry and attempt on my life. I'm willing to take any test you want me to take to prove my innocence of charges against me, and also any lie detector test on my statement I filed against him. I really feel Drew is a loose cannon. He's out on the streets of bowling Brook patrolling and just taking the law into his own hands. I haven't received any help from the police here in bowling Brook and asking for your help now before it's too late. I really hope by filing this charge it might stop him from trying to hurt us. Sincerely, Kathleen Peterson. Nothing came of this letter, which is so sad and hard it is. It's really hard to read it just because you can just feel her, the fear that she has in this situation and pain m HM. Drew and Kathleen bifurcated their divorce, which means it was divided into two parts.

28:52 Marital status and everything else such as custody agreements and separation of assets would all be handled up. Really, their marriage was dissolved by the fall of two thousand and two, but the rest of the legal issues were pending, and the intent of bifurcating their divorce was that Drew could sooner marry Stacey. The court date for the second half of Drew and Kathleen's divorce was set for the first week in March. Kathleen would likely be given half of everything. Drew was furious, as you can imagine, about his assets being split in half. On March first, two thousand and four, after a weekend with Tom and Chris, Drew dropped them off at their mother's house. When Kathleen didn't open the door, Drew brought the boys back to his house for another night.

29:37 It was unusual for Kathleen to not be home with the time of a schedule drop off. She had called the police on multiple occasions when Drew was late dropping the boys off. The next night, he attempted to drop them off again, dressed in his uniform. Again, Kathleen didn't answer the door. Drew summoned two neighbors for help. Because of his acrimonious relationship with Kathleen, he was hesitant to enter the house unassisted. Drew waded in the foyer while the neighbors searched the house for Kathleen. After a locksmith was called to open the door, the neighbors found Kathleen forty naked and dead in the bathtub with a one inch bloody gash to the back of her head. She was face down in the tub with her knees drawn up underneath her, and her feet were pressed against the back of the tub. It looked like she was in Child's post. Do you know what Child's post? It's a yoga pose I do. I do Child's Post all the time. I asked you yesterday, child. I didn't know what it was, but I googled it and I was like, oh, yes, I do this all the time because of my back issues and help Child's postes. It's a good post. But it was really odd that that's how her body was positioned in the tub.

30:45 The bathtub was empty, but Kathleen's hair was wet, I think part of partly wet from with water but also with coagulated blood, and her fingers were wrinkled. Blood was also at the bottom of the tub, which is strange because if there had been water in the tub, you would think that the blood would have washed away. So strange. The scene just felt a little suspicious. There was no towel, bath matt or robe near the tub, and the shampoo bottles were all kind of lined up around the tub, like nothing really looked askew, and you would think if there, if she fell hit her head, she would have grabbed for something. And oddly, like I said, there was no towel or anything, but later, like some people that arrived at the scene said there was no towel. But then in the crime scene photos there was a towel that was fold in a neatly placed.

31:38 I showed you the photo and the towel was like right by the faucet, which seemed like you wouldn't put the towel right by the faucet. So I don't know if the scene could have been manipulated or not. The bowling Brook Police Department were called and they were all too familiar with the troubles between Drew and Kathleen because Drew was a police officer. It was a delicate situation and the Bowling Police Department decided it would be prudent to hand the case over to the Illinois State Police. The police quickly assessed the situation and assumed that Kathleen had slipped in the tub and drowned. The house was not properly processed as a crime scene, however, no fingerprints or DNA samples were taken. But to be fair, there were no signs of foul play at Kathleen's house, no sign of forced entry or burglary. But if you're Drew Peterson, you had a key, so you didn't need to force yourself in. And there were no defensive wounds to her body, which will go over later because maybe there were. However, it was strange that the bathtub was stoppered but empty, and Kathleen's hair was wet and her fingers were pruned. It's all very strange to me. I'm not sure at what point the water would have right, Why were her fingers pruned? Yeah, it true, you know, like it was twenty four hours since Ian Drew had tried to drop the kids off. We can assume she was dead in the tub for at least twenty four hours, I believe. So. Yes, yeah, it's changed because you could think, you could imagine the water would slowly seep out even if it was stoppard, but the fact that she was still wet. She was still wet, her hair was wett, and think her body was wet.

33:10 Give me Sarah woodmer vibes, remember Sarah. Yeah. The financial settlement, which was said to be finalized the next week, would force Drew to give Kathleen half of his pension, the value of the house, which was over three hundred thousand dollars, and I believe the house was paid for primary custody of the boys and division of businesses the couple owned. Drew would also have to pay a couple thousand dollars in child sport each month for his two sons, Thomas eleven and Christopher nine. Drew owned a one hundred thousand dollar life insurance policy on Kathleen, but she also had her own policy that was valued at a million dollars, and Drew was the beneficiary of that policy.

33:52 I believe he still was at that point sounds like he had a motive. He sure did and means Steve Maniaki, Kathleen's boyfriend of about a year, was the last person known to have talked to her. He spoke to her on Sunday morning at about one am. She asked him to come over, but he was already in bed and declined. No one was able to reach Kathleen all day on Sunday, Okay, So I just want to clarify the timeline before we go on. We know that Kathleen was alive Sunday morning, very early at one am, yes, and her body was not found by the neighbors until Tuesday evening, right, so it was a pretty long period of time. But Sunday no one heard from her, right, so she probably died on Sunday. That's what I am thinking that early Sunday morning, that that's when Drew came over and killed her. Kathleen's sister, Susan Savio, said she told her that if she died, it may look like an accident, but it's not, and she added, it's just very hard for me to accept what had happened. His reactions to this were a laughing matter.

35:02 He was cleaning everything out and he was ready to get rid of the house. It's very hard end quote. An autopsy was done the day after Kathleen was found dead. The pathologist didn't reveal anything suspicious in the autopsy. Kathleen was a normal, healthy, forty year old woman. There were no drugs or alcohol in her system. They found a one inch blunt laceration to Kathleen's scalp, a red abrasion to her left buttox, three bruises on her lower abdomen, a bruise on the back of her thigh, purple bruises on both shins, two abrasions to the left wrist, an abrasion to her right index finger, and a red abrasion on her left elbow. The pathologists believed that all of the bruising and abrasions were older and from a prior incident, and did not contribute to Kathleen's death. He believed that the gash on the back of her head was consistent with a fall. But it's strange because the tub was circular in nature, and you know, I would think you would get a bump, a bad bump. What would you get a gash?

36:02 Right? It seems unlikely and all of those bruises. That was a lot of bruises were all from a previous, previous incident and not fresh. What do you think about that? I am suspicious? The pathologist and paneled a six member jury for a coroner's inquest in May two thousand and four. The jurors were able to choose between five possible causes of death, natural, accidental suicide, homicide, or undetermined. The verdict of a coroner's inquest holds no legal sway. An inquest is held when the cause of death is suspicious but there is no obvious fall play. The jury agreed with a pathologist and found Kathleen's cause of death to be accidental. Kathleen's sister was adamant that Kathleen's death was no accident and implored police to take a closer look, a more thorough look. Quote. I was screaming my head off. I was calling everyone I could. I had a suitcase full of stuff. The coroner said, closed, it's an accident. I asked the coroner's staff more than once.

37:04 Is there any further testing you can do? I'm thinking maybe exotic drugs or maybe a strange poison. Stacy was Jew's alibi during the time of Kathleen's death. But it's kind of weird because you know, we don't know her when she was three. She was dead. So Stacy was like, I was by his side for forty eight hours. I guess we don't know. When Stacy was questioned by the police, Drew was by her side and he had coached her for hours before the questioning. Of course he had. Yeah, so, and you know you're not supposed to have anyone with you when you're questioned by the police. Shrew produced a will from the nineteen nineties that gave him ownership of Kathleen's estate, although Kathleen had told her lawyer that she didn't have a will. Oh do you think he forged it? Yeah? I do, I sure do. What a guy, let's take a break, we'll be right back. You were going to tell us a little bit about Stacy's background, right, yes. Stacy and Cales was born on January twentieth, nineteen eighty four, in Downers Grove, Illinois, to Anthony and Christy Kele's. She was the third of five children. Stacy had an older brother, Yelton, and three sisters, Jessica, Lacey, and Cassandra. Jessica sadly died in a house fire before Stacy was born. Lacey, who was born two years after Stacy, died from sudden infant death syndrome. After losing

38:37 her second child, Christy fell into a downward spiral. She left her children with relatives for weeks at a time and saw them only occasionally. She spent time at a psychiatric hospital and struggled with alcohol abuse, drinking a case of beer a day. She had several run ins with the LAFT for disorderly conduct, drunk driving, damage to property, and shoplifting. She was also charged with child neglect. Her husband, Anthony, also an alcoholic, was abusive to Christy and the children. They divorced in nineteen ninety. Anthony was granted custody of the children. Can you met like the courts like which parent? Which alcoholic parent is less horrible to the children? Yeah? So Anthony did get custody and he took the children, relocated to Florida and remarried. So the children, obviously they did not have a stable environment. They moved frequently, and eventually they did return to Illinois. Yelton, Stacy, and Cassandra often had to depend on each other because of their neglectful parents. The siblings were all very close. All they had in the world was each other to depend on, and they had to be really resourceful sometimes, you know, they didn't have food or money, and they always made it work. And they did have some other relatives that help them out from time to time, but the only ones they could truly depend on were each other. Yeah.

40:00 When Stacy was fourteen in nineteen ninety eight, Christy left the house with only her Bible. She told her family she was going to church, but she was never heard from again. Her disappearance was never investigated. Nuts that is insane. Yelton was in and out of jail on sexual assault and theft charges. When she was in high school. Stacy went to live with her half sister, Tina, who was eight years older. They were very close. Cassandra went to live with a family friend named Pamela Bosco, who became her legal guardian. Stacy graduated from high school a semester early and worked as an overnight hotel clerk at spring Hill Suites in Bolingbrook, and that's where she met Drew Peterson. She was only sixteen years old. Drew was forty seven.

40:45 As Drew grew older, his romantic partners seemed to become younger. They met when Drew's partner was romancing another clerk at the hotel. Drew was charming and he made Stacy feel safe. She preferred older men. Drew was generous with Stacy. He bought her a car, paid for her apartment, and helped her furnish it. It was more than her parents had ever done for her. So Stacy is this vulnerable, very vulnerable young woman, And I wouldn't call Drew charming or dashing, but other people have, and I think she just he made her feel secure and took care of her. No one else had been doing that, so I think it was probably a huge relief to have him in her life right and having an authority figure, someone who's a contector. And members of the bowling Brook Police Department weren't happy when they discovered that, still married, Drew was dating a miner, but the age of consent in Illinois is seventeen. However, if the person the miner is dating is in a position of authority over them, it is considered illegal. For example, if they were a coach or a teacher. Drew was determined not to be a person of authority over Stacy by the Office of the Attorney General of Illinois. It's hard to believe, huh it is. But one question I have is earlier in the letter that was written to Kathleen, the person writing the letter claimed that she worked for the village, which in that situation, I would imagine he would be a person of authority over her. But this sounds like she was working at a hotel. I don't know if that person was mistaken, but I know that Drew and Stacey met while she was

42:17 working at the hotel. Okay. Candace Aiken, Stacy's aunt, her mother's sister, said that she was like a mother to Stacy. Quote. I met Drew in two thousand and one, right after she met him. It was pretty crazy, but she was old enough to make her own choices. Yeah, she wasn't. There was nothing I could do. She didn't have a mom, she didn't have a lot of guidance. I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just how her life was. She lived in California, so maybe she didn't feel like there was anything that she could do that really bothered me. She's like, oh, she's like my daughter by I wouldn't let my daughter date a fifty year old right, Yeah, Drew and Stacy were reckless having sex in Drew's house when Kathleen and the children were sleeping. Drew had a secret room in the basement that had a padlock on the door. It was painted all black with mirrors on the walls and ceiling.

43:09 Stacy would spend the night and sneak out in the morning. That's not creepy, No, not at all. Drew Peterson was fired from the bowling Brook Police Department after working as an undercover cop for seven years. He enjoyed being undercover, and his superior said he was good at the work. Shrew was fired after he went rogue and ran his own investigation into a gangster. At the same time, the state was also pursuing an investigation into the same person, so they were pretty mad when he screwed it up. No. No, he also tipped off a biker gang about an impending drug bust. He was indicted, but the charges were later dropped and he was rehired.

43:50 Which is strange to me that they hired him. Mm hmm, sounds like he had a very like his record was he was always in trouble for something. He was over always overstepping his It was Drew's world and everyone else was just living in it. And Drew was a horrible husband. But he did work hard. I'll give him that. At one time he had as money as six jobs and business as he owned, among them a printing company, a bar called Sud's Pub, a karate school. He was a cable installer, a wedding photographer, a chimney sweep. It's a police office he did. He had all six of these businesses or jobs at the same time while he was a police officer. I'm not sure if they were all at the same time. Wow. There she was also a licensed pilot. And by all accounts he was a good dad. But I wrote that, and then later on I found that one of his sons was like, he was a horrible father. Wow, killing your children's mothers enough to say you're probably not a good dad. Very valid point. Not long after Kathleen's death, forty nine year old Drew and nineteen year olds Stacy were married on October eighteenth, two thousand and three. Can you imagine going to that wedding and celebrating this union of these two people, that thirty year difference, and poor Stacy just doesn't know what she is getting herself into. Right, and not long after Kathleen died too. I mean, I know they were, you know, not together anymore, but still, that's the whole thing is just pretty ugan.

45:24 And I don't know what the kids are supposed to do with right. Drew proposed three times before Stacy relented and said yes. Their son, Anthony, named after Stacy's father, was born three months before their wedding in July two thousand and three. A daughter, Lacey, soon followed in two thousand and five. Remember Lacey was Stacy's baby sister who had died in a fire. But Lacey Peterson, Wow, that is weird. It's weird. It's not like Lacey is a common name, right, And there's a Kathleen Peterson, Kathleen Peterson, which it makes me think there's something going on in the simulation. The simulation theory. Can you can probably tell our listeners more about that if they don't know about it all? Well, the theory is that it's very possible, perhaps even likely, that we are living in a simulation.

46:10 Likely, yeah, because if you I'm not going to do a great job of explaining this. But if you lived in a society that had really powerful abilities to create a simulation of a of the universe, you would do it eventually. And so if you created a simulation, you would probably create lots of different simulations. And so the odds are pretty good that we're in one of those. The odds are good. Okay, you're going to have to give me some data to bake that maybe we could do it. We're gonna have to bring a physicist on to explain it a little better. Well, I think about this book a lot, But there's a book called The Midnight Library, And is that kind of the same theory. There's kind of like different versions of our life in different parallel universe type of thing. Yeah, OKAYO as a rabbit hole, we should probably go further down. It absolutely not. Drew now had six children, but his oldest two were like much older and were grown. And I should mention too that Drew's two oldest sons are both older than Stacy. Ask that. Yeah. After Kathleen's death, Thomas and Christopher moved in with Stacy Andrew, and she legally adopted them.

47:21 She considered them all her children, and it sounds like she was fabulous with the kids and loved them dearly and was a fabulous mom. Family was very important to her and she worked hard to keep them all together. Stacy even helped me and Drew's relationship with his extended family. Stacy Andrew's neighbor, Sharon Bakowski said, quote, Stacy was your friend in five minutes and your best friend in ten. Family and relationships were so important to her. End quote. Stacy and Sharon became extremely close despite a twenty five year age gap. She told Sharon, quote, if I'm missing, it's not an accident. He killed me. She would say that to me all the time, many, many, many times. End quote. Does that sound familiar.

48:02 It sounds extremely familiar. Yeah, I mean Kathleen said it to her sister. After Lacey's birth, Stacy underwent several cosmetic procedures laci eye surgery, braces, a breast augmentation, liposection, a tummy tuck, and laser hair removal. So Stacy's like twenty two, and why does she need all these procedures? She was beautiful and I'm sure you know she bounced back from her pregnancy. Is just fine. It's just bothers me that she went through all that. And it's not clear if she wanted the procedures or Drew wanted her to have the procedures, but Drew was happy to pay for them, although he was angry when the plastic surgeon refused to insert double the implants in one hundred pounds. Stacy doctor argued that her body could not support such large breasts, and then Stacy just she was trying really hard to portray this image as a mom, and she stuck dressing in her cut off shorts, in her you know, crop tops, and started dressing more like a mom. I'm sure Drew was not a fan of that. After Stacy's cosmetic procedures, Drew became obsessed with controlling her and frequently followed her around town and would show up randomly wherever she was, which is horrible. I think oftentimes he was in his patrol car dressed in his uniform and he would you know, just pop up, just stimidating. Yeah. Yeah. About a year before Stacy's disappearance, in September two thousand and six, her half sister, Tina Ryan, aged

49:34 thirty one, died from colon cancer. Tina and Stacy were very close, and she was devastated by the loss of her sister. She became depressed and was described antidepressants, and Drew saw this as a sign of weakness. He didn't understand why Stacy was bereft and quickly lost patience with her grieving. Stacy had suffered from postpartum depression as well after the birth of her children, and then too, Drew just lacked and would call her hormonal and crazy. And it's one of those guys that think women on their period are irrational and any possible emotion was because she was having her period. Yeah, Drew grew increasingly jealous. Stacy stapped marital counseling with Reverend Neil Shory. Sometimes they met him as a couple, and sometimes Drew went and sometimes Stacy went independently of each other. Reverend Shory said one day that Stacy called him and asked to meet him at the Starbucks. There was something she needed to get off her chest, and it happened to be the last time he ever saw her. About two months before she disappeared, Stacy confided a dark secret to him that had been weighing heavily on her. She at first just told me more things about her life and her marriage, how hard it was, the jealousy. And then she looked at me, and I just had this sense that she was about to say something profound. I said, whatever you want to tell me, you're free to do it. And she sort of stared at me and she said he did it. I said he did what? And she said,

51:05 Drew killed Kathleen Saviot, Drew killed his third wife. What did you say to her at that point? I believe one of the first things I said to her was, what do you want me to do with this information? And she said, I don't want you to do anything. I just want you to know. Revn Shory said he couldn't divulge everything Stacey had told him, but he was confident with all the information that he had that True had killed Kathleen. I have some issues with Reverend Schory. First of all, he's young, and he's good looking, and I don't think anything was going on between them, but well Truth thought there was, which he's not a reliable source. But I watched at least six different documentaries or you know, just different segments on TV shows, and he was in all of them, it seemed, and that always is a little suspicious to me when someone he does have some good information, but he said, you know, what do you want me to do with this information? Well, well, Reverend, if if Drew killed his other wife, shouldn't you tell Stacy leave right?

52:09 I don't think he was a licensed therapist, but but still I think that he could have protected Sugar. Yeah. And the fact that he wanted to tell everyone his story, well, but he does say like, oh, I want everyone to know this story, and that's why he, you know, tells so many people. Yeah. Stacy's sister Cassandra told Crime Watch Daily that she was planning to file divorce just days before she disappeared. Stacy's aunt Candy, her good friend and neighbor Sharon Bakowski, and Reverend Neil all corroborated that Stacy had confided in them as well that she was going to enter her marriage. Furthermore, an attorney named Harry Smith said Stacy had called him in the days before she disappeared, seeking his counsel as well. On the night before Kathleen's body was found, Stacy woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that Drew was not in bed. She went downstairs. As he entered the house wearing all black, he put some strangely put some women's clothing in the washer, and she really didn't question about it, and he went to bed and they never spoke of it. Stacy began taking nursing classes at the local community college and the fall of her disappearance and she was planning for a fresh start without Drew. That's really sad, and she must have been so terrified. I mean, if you were married to someone and you knew in your heart that that person had killed his previous wife, that's just such a scary situation, especially when he's a cop and you know that he can get away with things, and that would be really terrifying. Well,

53:42 Stacy was so young and impressionable. I'm sure that when they first started dating, through was like, oh, Kathleen, it's horrible, you would believe this woman. And then Drew manipulated this situation, put Kathleen in these situations where she was so emotional and made her look a little crazy, like by stealing her camera and just you know, all the aggression microaggressions and some were not mi you know, bigger aggressions. Yeah, my point is that Stacey thought that Kathleen was crazy, but then years into their marriage, she realized, oh, there's nothing special about me. I'm I'm going to be Kathleen too. She was trying to get out of the marriage, but she, you know, she didn't do it fast enough. We put the cart before the horse a little bit, and we haven't talked about Stacy's disappearance, but I think we're going to have to get to that next time. Oh not until part two, huh, Not until part two, okay, but we'll definitely finish tomorrow and then we will be done with Peterson's forever. I'm tired of the Petersons, me too. All right, before we leave, do you want to talk about the show we watched on Netflix last night? Real quick? Yeah, Well, we just started watching it, so we only watched one episode, which was very like I really I wanted to binge the whole thing, but I was like, Oh, I have this case to finish. It's called American Nightmare. It's I think it's gotten a lot of attention. I've heard about it a few places, so you may have already seen it. If you have, don't tell us anything. The story is

55:14 just a crazy, crazy story. It's bananas and I just don't know where it's going to go, but I am looking forward to and if you haven't watched it, you might want to give it a try. It's called American Nightmare and it's on Netflix. Netflix. Who charges way too much these days? Oh, some criticism. It's so expensive, it's ridiculous, and we threaten every month to stop it, but we have not stopped. Yeah, well, we got to finish this first. Well that's how they get you. Yeah, but it is fun when we have like a collective documentary that we're all watching at the same time and experiencing, because you know, we don't have that any as much with I guess there's sports and some reality TV. Yeah, yeah, not like the old days like who Shot Jr?

55:54 Wished myself a little bit there, But I was a child. I was a child, yeah, like three years old, probably probably younger than I was, probably my mother's phoon. I was probably a twinkle in my dad's eye, as they say. All. I think that's all we have. Please rate, review, follow and subscribe, Find us on social media, or send us an email at lovemarykillat gmail dot com. Consider supporting us on Patreon dot com. Slash Lovemrykill one Tier five dollars a month for early, ad free and bonus episodes until next time. Don't kill your wife, Don't kill your husband. The bank unto