Thread: Cop suspected in wife's disappearance

Peterson attorney seeks items' return

By DON BABWIN, Associated Press Writer
6 minutes ago

JOLIET, Ill. - Guns, two vehicles and other items seized from Drew Peterson's home after his wife disappeared should be returned, an attorney for the former police officer said Wednesday, arguing authorities are trying to "vex" his client.

John Carroll, who spoke at a hearing in Will County Court, also belittled the warrant that allowed for the seizures after Peterson's wife vanished more than a month ago. He said it's only reasonable if Illinois State Police believe Drew Peterson used all 11 guns to kill his wife and both vehicles to transport her body.

"That's ludicrous," said Carroll, one of the former Bolingbrook police officer's attorneys.

Authorities have called a suspect in his wife's disappearance but he has not been charged.

Stacy Peterson was last seen Oct. 28 and reported missing by her family the next day. Drew Peterson, a longtime member of the Bolingbrook Police Department until he quit after his wife's disappearance, has said he believes his wife left him for another man and is alive.

Prosecutor John Connor defended the warrant and authorities' decision to keep the seized items, saying defense attorneys are "attempting to put a clock on the state (police) in their investigation." He said it's far too soon to talk about returning all the items.

In a filing Tuesday, prosecutors did agree to return two iPods and 23 music CDs taken from Peterson's home but objected to defense attorneys' request to return the 11 guns, vehicles, the children's computers and a backpack "apparently containing some items" belonging to Stacy Peterson.

Judge Daniel Rozek asked attorneys to submit briefs and said he would return to court with a decision Monday.

Drew Peterson, who was not at the hearing, said later that he's most bothered by the seizure of the computers belonging to his two teenage children. He also has two children younger than school-age.

"My kids basically need their computers for school," Peterson told an Associated Press reporter at his home. "The kids have been without their computers since this thing started."

"If anyone wants to donate one, I'll take it," he added, chuckling. On Tuesday, another Peterson attorney launched a Web site seeking public donations to help pay for his defense.

On Wednesday, attorney Joel Brodsky said the site was being shut down because the defense fund "has met its short term goal." Brodsky wouldn't say how much money was raised, citing attorney-client privilege.

Carroll argued at the hearing that even if Rozek agrees the warrant is valid, there's no reason to keep the items for more than a month.

"the point is, how long can they hang on to these things?" Carroll said. "We're saying they've had enough time."

Authorities are "attempting to vex Mr. Peterson," Carroll said, noting it is difficult for Peterson to be without his vehicles during the holidays.

Connor said authorities still need the items to conduct their investigation and do further testing.

Earlier Wednesday, the Chicago Tribune reported that Stacy Peterson's sister told authorities that Drew Peterson had fired a gunshot that narrowly missed his wife last summer.

Cassandra Cales said her sister told her that Drew Peterson was in his master bedroom when the gun allegedly went off as Stacy was getting a soda from the garage.

"She heard a POW. It scared her. She looked around the garage — she didn't know what it was," Cales said. "Drew went down there. He picked up all the pieces and he never made a report (to police). He patched the ceiling. Stacy showed me the hole. She peeled the carpet back and showed me where the hole was."

Drew Peterson's attorney dismissed the account as a rumor.

"It's more baloney," Attorney Joel Brodsky said. "Just another Elvis sighting."

Bolingbrook police Lt. Ken Teppel said Wednesday that Cales, who reported her sister missing Oct. 29, met with Police Chief Ray McGury later that day and Cales told McGury about the alleged incident. McGury encouraged Cales to report it to state police, Teppel said.

State Police spokesman Trooper Mark Dorencz declined Wednesday to discuss details of the investigation. He said authorities from several agencies were continuing their underwater search of a canal in west suburban Chicago. Authorities have not said why they are searching the canal.

Peterson says media's portrayal unfair
By The Associated Press
33 minutes ago



Drew Peterson says the news media tries to portray him as an insensitive, cheating husband because it sells better.

Peterson, appearing Friday night on CNN's "Larry King Live" with his attorney, Joel Brodsky, said that since his wife Stacy Peterson disappeared, he does not date but goes out socially once a week.

Peterson said he never cheated on Stacy Peterson but "technically" cheated on previous wives once the marriages broke down.

"Everybody says I cheated, but I went out and sought female attentions elsewhere after the marriages were over," Peterson said. "But we were still legally married, so technically I cheated."

Drew Peterson said a man he believes had an affair with Stacy Peterson before her disappearance is a nurse who still lives in the Chicago area.

Peterson told King he hadn't approached the man, saying, "No, I wouldn't do something like that."

Stacy Peterson received pornographic text messages from the man a few weeks to a month before she disappeared, lending credence to Drew Peterson's contention she left him for another man, Brodsky said on the broadcast.

Stacy Peterson's family and friends have maintained that while Peterson contemplated divorcing her husband, she was not having an affair.

King read a statement from a friend of Stacy Peterson's, Pamela Bosco, who said Drew Peterson was more interested in high-profile TV interviews than finding his wife.

"Mr. Brodsky, Drew and his PR agent's constant appeal for public appearances is nothing more than an advertisement to promote Drew for future profit," Bosco said.

Stacy Peterson vanished Oct. 28. In November, police labeled her disappearance a possible homicide and named Drew Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, a suspect.

Authorities are also trying to determine whether Drew Peterson had any role in the 2004 death of his ex-wife, Kathleen Savio.

Drew Peterson hasn't been charged and denies wrongdoing in both cases.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080412/...8lQDG7xJlH2ocA

That bas tard killed his wife and because of who he is, he'll get away with it, for now anyway.

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — A former police sergeant suspected in the disappearance of his wife was stopped for speeding early Saturday morning on the way to meet a young woman.

Drew Peterson said he was stopped at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday in Naperville, Ill., for speeding on his way to help a 22-year-old woman in Chicago's western suburbs, the Sun-Times reports.

He didn't get a ticket and police, instead, gave him a warning.

Peterson is suspected in the October 2007 disappearance of his wife, Stacy, but he hasn't been charged.

The former Bolingbrook police sergeant said he was pulled over as he drove to pick up the woman he describes as a friend after she called him for a ride.

Peterson's attorney said the woman works at a tanning salon he sometimes visits.

"That's just the type of guy he is," attorney Joel Brodsky told the paper.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354297,00.html

MmmmHmmm...he was out to "help" her. Is that what the kids are calling it today?

The ******* was finally arrested for killing the 3rd wife.


http://news.aol.com/article/drew-pet...ested%2F471473

Ex-Cop Indicted in Murder of Third Wife


LOCKPORT, Ill. (May 7) — Drew Peterson, the brash, mustachioed former police sergeant who found tabloid fame after his fourth wife's disappearance more than 1 1/2 years ago, was indicted Thursday in the drowning death of a former wife found dead in an empty bathtub in 2004.
Peterson, charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the death of Kathleen Savio, was arrested during an evening traffic stop near his Bolingbrook home. "I guess I should have returned those library books," a handcuffed Peterson told police, the Daily Herald reported.

He was being held on $20 million bond, Illinois State Police Capt. Carl Dobrich said at a news conference

"We are very confident in our case," Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said.
Savio's body was found in a dry bathtub. Her death initially was ruled an accidental drowning, but authorities later said it was a homicide staged to look like an accident.
The two-count indictment against Peterson alleges that "Peterson on or about Feb. 29, 2004 ... caused Kathleen Savio to inhale fluid,"
Savio's family has long voiced suspicions, saying she feared Peterson and told relatives if she died it wouldn't be an accident. Their fears resurfaced after the October 2007 disappearance of Stacy Peterson, then 23.
Drew Peterson, 55, is a suspect in the disappearance, which police have called a possible homicide, but he has not been charged. He repeatedly has said he thinks Stacy Peterson ran off with another man.
One of Peterson's attorneys, Andrew Abood, said the indictment was not a surprise.
"There was tremendous pressure for the government to do something in this case," Abood said Thursday evening. But he said one of Peterson's sons with Savio has "provided a lock tight alibi" for his father.
In an appearance on CBS' "The Early Show" last month, 16-year-old Thomas Peterson appeared alongside his father and defended him.
"I highly do not believe that my dad had murdered my mom. Because, first off, he wasn't there, he was with us during that period of time," Thomas Peterson said at the time.
Savio's 73-year-old father, however, said Thursday that an arrest was long overdue.
"I always wondered," about her death, said Henry Savio, who joined another of his daughters in filing a wrongful death lawsuit against Drew Peterson last month. "I was never pleased with the (coroner's finding of accidental drowning) from the beginning."
"The state police had been telling us the day was coming. We kept hearing it for about eight months. I'm almost in tears here. It's been so hard for our family," the dead woman's brother, Nick Savio, told WLS, the ABC affiliate in Chicago.
Drew Peterson has seemed to relish being under the media microscope since Stacy Peterson's disappearance, appearing in People magazine and on multiple national talk shows — most recently to tout his new engagement to a 24-year-old woman.
Publicist Glenn Selig said this week that Peterson was interested in a job offer from a Nevada brothel that is the setting for the HBO reality show "Cathouse." An HBO spokeswoman said the network would sooner cancel the show than allow Peterson to appear on it.
From the day Stacy Peterson was reported missing, her husband, a cop of nearly 30 years, knew that if investigators weren't focused on him, they soon would be. Less than two weeks later, Illinois State Police called Peterson a suspect and her disappearance a possible homicide.
When authorities announced they believed the 2004 death of his ex-wife looked like it was a homicide, Peterson knew authorities were looking closely at him in that death as well.
"The husband is always a suspect, whether you declare him so or not," said another of Peterson's attorneys, Joel Brodsky, after authorities said an autopsy on Savio's exhumed body revealed she was murdered.
Savio's body was found in March 2004 by a friend of Peterson after the police sergeant called to say he was worried because he had not talked to or seen her for a few days. The couple had recently divorced.
Questions about Peterson surfaced immediately, with Savio's sister telling a coroner's jury that her sister feared Peterson and had told family members if she died that it might look like an accident but it wasn't.
Peterson married Stacy, who was 30 years younger. They had two children, who lived with the couple along with Peterson's two children from his marriage to Savio.
On the morning of Oct. 28, 2007, Stacy Peterson talked to a friend. Stacy Peterson's sister, Cassandra Cales, tried to call her in the middle of the afternoon and did not get through. Late that night, Cales went to the Petersons' home, but neither Drew nor Stacy was there. A few minutes later, she reached Drew Peterson on his cell phone and he told her Stacy had left him.
Cales didn't believe it and reported her sister missing the next day.

Witness: Peterson indicated he'd kill his 4th wife
By Don Babwin, Associated Press Writer
5 mins ago

JOLIET, Ill. – The stepbrother of a former Illinois police officer accused of killing his third wife told a hushed courtroom Thursday that he believed he might have helped his relative dispose of the body of his fourth wife, who has not been seen for more than two years.

Thomas Morphey testified at a hearing to decide whether prosecutors can use "hearsay" evidence to try and prove allegations that Drew Peterson killed his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in 2004. Peterson hasn't been charged in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, but authorities say he is the only suspect.

While the Will County hearing is about the death of Savio, Thursday's testimony focused on the day Stacy Peterson disappeared. Prosecutors would not say why Morphey was being asked to testify about Stacy Peterson, but Will County state's attorney's office spokesman Chuck Pelkie said the reasons would become clear in the proceedings.

In a packed but quiet courtroom, Morphey said Peterson suggested when they talked on Oct. 27, 2007, that he intended to kill Stacy because she planned to divorce him, win custody of their children and take Peterson's money.

Morphey said he drank heavily the next day.

"I just heard someone was going to murder somebody else," Morphey explained.

Peterson brought Morphey back to his Bolingbrook home, went into a master bedroom and rolled out a large blue barrel that Morphey estimated weighed up to 150 pounds.

"He had me grab an end, he grabbed the other end and we proceeded down the stairs," Morphey testified. "It felt warm."

Morphey stopped short of saying that Peterson directly admitted murdering Stacy and he said the two men never talked about what was in the barrel. Earlier in the day, Morphey testified he had told Peterson that he always assumed he had killed Savio, but that Peterson denied it.

Savio's body was found in an empty bathtub in her home in 2004. Her death had initially been ruled an accidental drowning — until Stacy Peterson's disappearance led officials to exhume Savio's body, conduct another autopsy and conclude Savio was the victim of a homicide.

The story of the blue barrel has been central in Stacy Peterson's case. Numerous search parties over the years, including divers, have focused on finding it, but it has never turned up.

In court, Morphey said he had not wanted to go with Peterson, in part because he didn't want anything to do with what Peterson did. Morphey did not explain why he agreed to help him.

According to his testimony, the two men took the barrel, put it in Peterson's SUV and Peterson drove Morphey home.

"'He said, 'This never happened,'" Morphey testified. "I said, 'I won't tell a soul.'"

Nevertheless, Morphey said he later told his girlfriend, brother and a neighbor. He said he was stressed out, nervous and drinking more than normal.

Morphey said he didn't contact the authorities because he wasn't sure the incident would be handled fairly due to Peterson's job.

"He was a police officer," Morphey said. "I thought, 'What would be the point of calling 911?'"

Morphey said his fear led him to overdose on the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in an attempt to end his life.

"I felt everything was coming down on me," he said. "I'm still scared to death."

In a cross-examination, Peterson's attorneys raised questions about Morphey's mental state and whether was a credible witness.

Morphey suffers from a bipolar disorder and has admitted to drinking too much as well as problems with drugs. On Thursday prosecutors presented evidence that buttressed what Morphey said happened. That included video footage and witness interviews showing that both men made a trip to Starbucks around the time of the alleged blue barrel incident.

Peterson's stormy marriage with Savio was mentioned Thursday in afternoon testimony.

A son from Peterson's first marriage to Carol Brown described watching Peterson in 1993 dragging Savio into the house by her hair.

"She was screaming for help," said Eric Peterson, who described Savio as drunk. "He was pulling her down the stairs."

Eric Peterson, who once spent weekends with Savio and Peterson, has been estranged from his father since 1993.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100122/...l0bmVzc3BldGVy

Neighbor: Stacy Peterson said 'I'm already dead'
By Don Babwin, Associated Press Writer
27 mins ago

JOLIET, Ill. – The fourth wife of former Illinois police officer Drew Peterson was sure her husband would murder her, even telling a neighbor just days before her disappearance in 2007 that "'I'm already dead,'" according to testimony at a pretrial hearing on Monday.

The neighbor sobbed uncontrollably at times as she spoke during the hearing meant to determine what, if any, "hearsay" evidence prosecutors can use during Peterson's upcoming trial on charges he murdered his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in 2004.

Sharon Bychowski told the court that she came upon Stacy Peterson, then 23, crying outside her suburban Chicago home. She explained how she had packed 10 boxes of Drew Peterson's clothes and asked her husband, 30 years her senior, to leave. But he'd refused.

"She said, 'If I disappear, Sharon. It's not an accident. He killed me,'" a visibly shaken Bychowski testified.

As Stacy Peterson described how she feared for her life, Bychowski advised her to put what she was saying in writing.

Her response, Bychowski said, was to say — "'It doesn't matter. I'm already dead. He's going to kill me.'"

At one point, the judge called a brief recess to allow Bychowski to regain her composure.

Peterson has pleaded not guilty in Savio's 2004 death. Officials exhumed her body and ruled her death a homicide only after Stacy Peterson vanished three years later. He hasn't been charged in her disappearance, but authorities do say he's the only suspect.

Bychowski testified that Stacy Peterson, despite expressing fears for her own life, never said anything about Savio's death or that she may have suspected Drew Peterson of killing Savio. Drew Peterson and Savio had divorced, and he had already married Stacy Peterson before Savio died.

Bychowski also testified that Stacy Peterson talked at length about her intention to divorce Peterson.

"She didn't love him anymore," Bychowski said. She added that, for Stacy Peterson, "having sex with him made her skin crawl."

Drew Peterson tried to dissuade his young wife from leaving by showering her with gifts, including a motorcycle and a ring, as well as by paying for breast enhancement surgery, Stacy Peterson allegedly told Bychowski. But holding up the ring at one point, she said, "'He thinks he's going to keep me. No way,'" Bychowski recalled.

Drew Peterson was so possessive of Stacy, he even installed a satellite GPS tracking system in her cell phone to monitor her movements by computer, Bruce Zidarich — a then-boyfriend of Stacy Peterson's sister, Cassandra Cales — also testified Monday.

The focus of the hearing, now in its second week, is the possible use of "hearsay" evidence in the Savio case. But Bychowski is only the latest witness to testify at length about Stacy Peterson.

Last week, Drew Peterson's stepbrother, Thomas Morphey, described how he believed he might have helped Drew Peterson dispose of Stacy's body in a large blue barrel.

In the initial investigation into Savio's 2004 death, retired Illinois State Police Sgt. Patrick Collins also testified last week that he never considered the possibility of murder. He said he never collected any forensics evidence from the home where her body was found in a bathtub.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100125/..._drew_peterson

Witness: Peterson bragged he could cover up murder
By Don Babwin, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 52 mins ago

JOLIET, Ill. – An aunt of former Illinois police officer Drew Peterson's missing wife testified Tuesday that he once bragged he could kill someone and "make it look like an accident."

Candace Aikin testified that Drew Peterson made the boast in front of her, Stacy Peterson and others at a family gathering in January 2007, months before Stacy disappeared.

"I just remember him saying something like he could kill and make it look like an accident," Aikin said.

She said Stacy Peterson heard that and replied, "Not with this chick you don't."

Aikin also said Stacy and Drew Peterson often fought, and that her niece told her he would follow her from room to room while she was speaking on the phone.

Drew Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police officer, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the 2004 death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Authorities exhumed her body and ruled her death a homicide only after Stacy Peterson vanished three years later.

Drew Peterson hasn't been charged in Stacy Peterson's disappearance, but authorities say he's the only suspect.

Aikin's friend, Donna Badalamenti, also testified. Badalamenti, who has know Stacy Peterson for years, said they were at a family event in 2003 when Peterson told her that if the marriage to Stacy Peterson didn't work out he would kill himself.

Badalamenti told Drew Peterson not to say that, and she said he responded, "Then I'll kill her."

Earlier Tuesday, Will County Judge Stephen White ruled that Neil Schori, a counseling minister at Westbrook Christian Church in Bolingbrook, could testify about some of what was said during conversations he had at a coffee shop with Stacy Peterson. It was unclear how much of the conversations the judge would allow, but he was expected to rule Wednesday.

White also ruled that Schori couldn't reveal what was said during conversations he had with Drew and Stacy Peterson at their home or during conversations he had with Drew Peterson.

Schori was expected to resume testifying on Wednesday.

Defense attorneys objected to Schori testifying about any conversations with Drew Peterson, arguing that they should be confidential because Schori was acting as a religious minister. But prosecutors argued that the privilege doesn't apply because Westbrook is a nondenominational church and had no specific rules about confidentiality.

The focus of the pretrial hearing, now in its second week, is the possible use of "hearsay" evidence in the Savio case.

Hearsay, or statements not based on the direct knowledge of a witness, usually isn't admissible in court. Illinois judges can allow it in murder trials if prosecutors prove a defendant may have killed a witness to prevent them from testifying. There's little available forensic evidence in Savio's case, so prosecutors are expected to rely on statements Savio allegedly made to others saying she feared Peterson could kill her.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100127/...l0bmVzc3BldGVy

Doc: Peterson's 3rd wife wasn't prone to falling
By Don Babwin, Associated Press Writer
31 mins ago

JOLIET, Ill. – Prosecutors on Wednesday began battling Drew Peterson's attorneys over a crucial question a jury will have to answer at the former police officer's upcoming trial — whether his third wife died accidentally by falling in the bathtub or whether she was murdered.

Called by prosecutors to testify, Kathleen Savio's physician Dr. Vinod Motiani told the court there was nothing in Savio's medical history to suggest she was prone to falling. He said he never treated Savio for dizziness or for injuries suffered in a fall.

But Motiani did concede to defense attorneys that his records included at least one notation that Savio had complained about dizziness and numbness. He also read a note in his files from another physician that said "she feels very unsteady in her gait."

Peterson's attorneys were expected to bring up Savio's medical history and point out that she was taking a number of medications at the time she died and drank alcohol.

Motiani's testimony came during the sixth day of a hearing about what hearsay evidence Will County Judge Stephen White will allow at Peterson's murder trial. The doctor's testimony is particularly significant because Savio's death was initially ruled an accidental drowning in 2004. It was only after the 2007 disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, that Savio's body was exhumed and her death was reclassified a homicide.

Peterson, a 56-year-old former Bolingbrook police officer, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Savio's death and is considered the only suspect in Stacy Peterson's disappearance.

Also called to testify Wednesday was Patrick Callaghan, an Illinois State Police special agent assigned to investigate Stacy Peterson's disappearance. He said from the outset of the investigation, Drew Peterson said he and Stacy had been having marital problems and that he believed she left him for another man.

Callaghan said Peterson told him Stacy Peterson called him the night she disappeared to say she'd left him. Callaghan also said Drew Peterson never said he was with his stepbrother Thomas Morphey that night.

Morphey earlier testified that the night Stacy Peterson disappeared he helped Drew Peterson move a blue barrel he now believes contained her body.

Callaghan also noted that when Peterson talked about his wife, he used the past tense.

"He stated she was a hot 23-year-old girl," Callaghan said. "He stated she was a good mother. Again, using 'was,' the past tense."

A minister who was scheduled to testify Wednesday will instead testify Friday.

The hearing stems from a state law that allows a judge to admit hearsay evidence in first-degree murder cases if prosecutors can prove a defendant killed a witness to prevent him or her from testifying. The law was passed after authorities named Peterson a suspect in Stacy Peterson's disappearance and after they began re-examining Savio's death.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100127/..._drew_peterson

Hearing for Drew Peterson comes to an end[i]
Don Babwin, Associated Press Writer – 56 mins ago[/b]

JOLIET, Ill. – A hearing for Drew Peterson ended Friday night with the same question it began with a month ago: Is there enough evidence to convince a judge that the former police officer may have killed his third and fourth wives to keep them from testifying before a jury?

In dramatic closing statements after the last of more than 70 witnesses testified, prosecutors portrayed Peterson as a cold-blooded killer who took the lives of Kathleen Savio in 2004 and Stacy Peterson three years later to keep them from getting his money.

"They are killed so they can't take the witness stand in a divorce proceeding," said Will County Assistant State's Attorney John Connor.

But defense attorneys said the case against Peterson is built on lies.

Savio's death was a tragic accident, they said, and Stacy Peterson may have vanished in 2007, but she's not dead.

"For someone to say five, six, seven, eight, nine times that she's dead doesn't mean she's dead," defense attorney George Lenard said. "The reason she is not here with Mr. Peterson is that she left, and she left with another man."

The former Bolingbrook police sergeant is charged with Savio's death, but no charges have been filed in Stacy Peterson's disappearance. Friday's closing statements marked the first time they said outright they believe he killed Stacy Peterson.

The unprecedented hearing is easily the most extensive use of a state law allowing a judge to admit hearsay evidence in first-degree murder cases if prosecutors can prove a defendant may have killed a witness to prevent him or her from testifying. The law was passed after authorities named Peterson a suspect in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, then exhumed Savio's body and reopened her death investigation.

The statements that prosecutors want Judge Stephen White to admit as testimony are those in which the women allegedly expressed to friends and family that they were afraid Peterson would kill them.

Prosecutors want friends and relatives of Savio to be allowed to testify about a threat she described, in which Peterson reportedly held a knife to her throat and allegedly told her he could kill her and make it look like an accident. They also want the judge to allow a friend of Stacy Peterson to testify Peterson had told her he killed Savio.

Defense attorneys argued that many of the statements shouldn't be admitted. For example, they pointed to statements Savio gave police after the alleged knife incident in which Savio never said Peterson had a knife.

"She describes things the way she wants in order to make people feel sorry for her," said Andrew Abood, saying Savio wasn't a credible witness.

White also must consider testimony from three pathologists. They all agreed Savio drowned, but two — including Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City chief medical examiner who testified Friday — contended Savio's death was a homicide. The other pathologist backed the original finding that her death was an accident.

Throughout the hearing, it became clear the hearsay evidence is critical for prosecutors. They presented no physical evidence linking Drew Peterson to Savio's death, and Stacy Peterson remains missing.

Abood characterized the weakness of the case against Peterson this way: "They (prosecutors) want to come in here and say it's a staged crime scene because they have no evidence."

But prosecutors said the only explanation for the deaths of both women is that Peterson killed them. Both, they said, posed a threat to Drew Peterson. They said he was worried his property settlement with Savio would wipe him out financially, and that Stacy Peterson's planned divorce from him would do the same.

What happened, Connor said, is exactly what Savio and Stacy Peterson feared would happen, as friends and family described.

"Mr. Peterson's wives are two-for-two in predicting their own murders," he said.

White did not say when he would rule on the hearsay, but he did say he would order the ruling sealed until a jury is selected. He explained that he didn't want his decision to influence potential jurors.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100220/...Fyc2F5aGVhcmk-