Going West: True Crime - Drew Peterson // 64

Episode Date: April 4, 2020

In 2004, a young mother of 2 died tragically in her home in the Chicago suburbs. 3 years later, her husband's new wife disappeared. So, is this a coincidence, or did the husband have something to do with two of his wife's untimely deaths? This is the story Kathleen Savio, Stacy Cales, and the man they both married: Drew Peterson. ________ Hunt a Killer Get your first box for 20% off by using code "GOINGWEST" at checkout! huntakiller.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Teef. And I'm your other host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. We have got another evil Peterson. It's like a bad trend. And for those who don't know what I'm talking about, there's Michael Peterson, there's Scott Peterson, and they're all accused of the same type of crime, which is just weird. Yeah, I don't know what's going on with these Peterson's,

but I'm sure there's some very lovely Peterson's out there in the world. So as usual, we want to give shout outs to everyone who gave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts this week. Thank you so much to Jackie from Odessa, Texas, Stacy from Stanton, Virginia, Stanton, Stanton. I hope I said that right. And Helen from Jackson, Mississippi. And then we've got Jack from Medford, Oregon, Kyrsty Ann from Missouri, and Katie from West Hartford, Connecticut. Thank you so much to Kendra from Alabama, Jackie from Telford, Pennsylvania, and Victoria from Cleveland, Ohio.

And a big thanks to Haley from Summit, Mississippi, Gary from Odinton and Paula from New Hampshire. Thank you so much to Shadlin from Denver, Colorado, Kelly from Tucson, Arizona, and Tracy from West Milford, New Jersey. And then we have Sarah from Portland, Oregon, Kathy from Mechanicsville, Virginia, and Michelle from Denver, Colorado. A few more here guys. We've got Mariana from Columbus, Ohio, Brandy from Brigham City, Utah. Hope I said that one right too. And Cassie from St. George, Utah. And last but not least, thank you to Ariana from Bellingham, Washington, Marion from Canada, JP from Google Burn, Australia, Georgia from New South Wales, Australia, and Eric from

Sudbury, Ontario. We just came out with two new bonus episodes for our patrons. If you want bonus episodes, we just have 12 right now for our $5 tier, and we're starting to do a second bonus episode for the $10 tiers. And of course, we have to give thanks to those who have subscribed this last week over on Patreon. Big thanks to Rachel, Jennifer, Kali, charisma,

Angela, Lindsay, Cheyenne, and Dora Dosh. Dora Dosh. Dora Dosh. All right, guys, this is episode 64 of Going West, so let's get into it. Last year, a young Illinois woman named Stacey Peterson went missing. The case quickly drew national attention when her husband grew Peterson, a police officer, became a suspect. She did say to many of us, not just me in confidence, but many of us that if anything happened to her it was not an accident he killed her.

And investigators are taking another look at the death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio. Savio was found dead in a bathtub in the couple's home in 2004. You seem so upbeat. How do you manage to stay so upbeat given the fact that your wife's been missing for three months? You know, you do what you can. You know, I'm not going to go hide in the corner and cry about it. The neighbors said that they saw you carrying out a big blue barrel that would be big enough. Again, I get, I get a shepherd that's not what you agree to talk about.

I didn't agree to any restrictions on conversation. I would never do that. I just wonder what... Okay, well then I guess I gotta walk away. Have a good day, Mr. Shepherd. There's a nice talk in here. Well, he'll talk about the dating, but he won't talk about the fact that the neighbors say they saw him with a large 55-gallon blue barrel carrying it out with someone else. And shortly after his wife went missing. They saw him with a large 55 gallon blue barrel carrying it out with someone else. And shortly after his wife went missing. You have a good day, guys. Drew Walter Peterson was born on January 5th, 1954 in Bowlingbrook, Illinois to parents

Betty Morphe and Donald Peterson. Bowlingbrook is a safe village and suburb of Chicago with a population of around 73,000 people. Drew was the oldest sibling of three and his father, Donald, who was a marine, ran the household like a tight ship, and he was very strict and expected his children to fall into line, so to speak. By the time Drew was 17, he had already received his pilot's license. He attended Willowbrook High School and joined the cross-country team, where he met a young girl who he took to prom and considered his high school sweetheart, Carol Brown. After Drew graduated high school in 1972, he made the decision to marry Carol before joining the army where he would be stationed in Falls Church, Virginia, and begin training to become

a military police officer. A short while after this, Drew moved back to Illinois, specifically Bullingbrook, where he and Carol would have two sons together. He then went on to join the Bullingbrook Police Department in 1977. In 1978, he began to work in narcotics and even received an award for officer of the year. Even though things seemed to be going well for Drew, he and Carol ended up divorced in 1980. Apparently, this could be attributed to Drew running his household in the same fashion as his father did,

as well as him cheating on Carol multiple times. In 1981, Drew met a 20-year-old woman named Kyle Peary when he was the age of 27. The pair hid it off pretty well, and soon after they became engaged. Kyle would later go on to mention that she enjoyed dating Drew because he was a police officer and could get her into bars because she was underage, which is a bad sign right off the bat that your older cop fiance is getting you like he's scummy. Yeah, that's definitely

not a good look. Like his previous relationship, Drew would become controlling and abusive. When Kyle tried to break off the relationship, Drew and his police buddies would start writing her parking tickets. But they wouldn't place them on Kyle's car. The tickets would add up and go unpaid until the point that a warrant was put out for Kyle's arrest. Want a guess who came to a ruster? Yeah, I mean, I can take a wild guess who came to a ruster. It's so creepy and manipulative for him to do the parking ticket thing. He's so mad that she's breaking up with him that he's gonna, like, literally have a warrant put out for her of what the fuck? Who does that?

Yeah, and we'll learn a lot more about Drew throughout this episode, but he's very, very controlling and does not know how to deal with rejection. Oh yeah, this parking ticket thing is not as bad as he can get. And this also wasn't the first or the last time that Drew would use his powers a police officer to get what he wanted. In 1982, Drew would meet and quickly marry a 23-year-old named Vicki Connolly. They both had children from previous marriages and from the outside seemed pretty functional as a couple. They even managed to bar together for a short period of time, but the happiness didn't last long.

Drew once again became a controlling cheater, but this wasn't his only problem. In 1985, while working as an Arcautics officer, he was under investigation for bribery and disobedience by the Bowlingbrook Fire and Police Commission. Among bribery and other infractions, Drew was fired from his job, but reinstated the following year after he appealed the case. By this time, Drew was demoted to a patrol officer and received a pay cut which put a lot of stress on Vicki and his relationship. But they say together for the next 10 years, despite Vicki mentioning that their relationship was less than ideal.

In 1992, after years of abuse and Drew's infidelity, Vicki decided to throw in the towel. She explained that one incident in particular had really sealed the deal for her. One night after a particularly aggressive fight, drew pusher to the ground while pointing a gun to her head and explained that he could make her murder seem like an accident if he wanted to. During Vicki and Drew's marriage, Drew had been sleeping with an accountant named Kathleen Savio.

And when his marriage with Vicki fell apart, he would then go on to marry Kathleen on May 3rd, 1992. So this guy is just fucking marrying all over the place. Serial Marrier. Yeah, he's on his third marriage by now. Why? I'm guessing that his controlling nature probably had something to do with that. Well, I totally get why these women don't want to be with him, but it's so weird to me that his,

it seems like it's his goal to just continue to move from relation to relationship, like really quickly. Oh yeah, he gets over women and finds women very, very quickly. But, Kathleen was born on June 13th, 1963, in the neighborhood of Little Italy in Chicago, Illinois, to parents Mary and Henry Savio. Her father worked as a heating and AC installer, and Kathleen was the youngest of three siblings, but her parents divorced when she was just two years old, so she would go on to live with her mom in Melrose Park. When she was just 17 years old, Kathleen dropped out of high school

and moved into her own apartment. She still got her GED, and she just didn't wanna continue going to school. And she even got her associate's degree and marketing at Triton College in Illinois. Yeah, her and her siblings moved out earlier than a lot of young people do, but it was because her dad didn't pay child support, and her mom's husband didn't work very often.

So they had a really tough upbringing and had to learn to fend for themselves pretty early on. So Kathleen did her best with these circumstances, and she was really motivated. She wanted to have her own career, her own home, and eventually raise a family. She was a super hard worker, and she wanted that like ideal American life. So she started working an accounting job out of college and she loved it. They are, she met another accountant who she began dating and they were in a serious relationship for about five years. But it turned out he didn't want to get married and that was a deal breaker for Kathleen. They split up and Kathleen agreed to go on a blind date with Drew Peterson. All she knew about him was that he was a police

officer, but she soon discovered that he was married to his second wife and that their marriage wasn't working. But Kathleen didn't care about that because their date went so well and she was just head over heels for him. She also really loved the fact that he had a stable job and even owned a house, because that's what she wanted in life. She wanted to settle down, and even though she was a working woman, it was attractive to her that he was a successful working man.

Kathleen was also very attracted to the bad boy essence that Drew had since he was a police officer. I'm not sure where you get bad boy from police officers. Well, I think because, sorry to interrupt you. I think because of the narcotics thing, he was like, oh, I'm a narcotics officer, whatever, and like, I'm this cool dude. Yeah, I don't know.

We've all seen those movies, so I guess I kind of get it. The only thing that really put her off from the relationship was Drew's clingingness. For example, when they spoke on the phone, Drew would demand that Kathleen told him that she loved him. He was very needy in that way, and it kind of weirded Kathleen out a bit. But just six months after meeting, Drew was sure about Kathleen, so he divorced Vicki Connolly and asked 29 year old

Kathleen to marry him. And despite Kathleen's slight hesitance, she agreed because at this point she loved him. And this goes back, sorry, we're just talking about how he's like a serial marrior or whatever. I don't have a better term for that. But he is married to a woman. He's cheating on her, having an affair, and then right out of that relationship is already engaged to somebody else. Right, he's like a grass-as-greener type of guy. Like, he's married to a woman, and you'll see this trend.

He always cheats on whoever he's married to. I mean, he'll cheat on them, and then go for the person that he's having an affair with. But that's why I'm so confused why he keeps wanting to get married because obviously this guy doesn't seem like he's very good with making commitments and being monogamous, so just don't be married, just date a bunch of women.

Right, exactly. And from what I heard or from articles that I read, Drew was kind of a player. So in the times where he was single, he would definitely use his police badge to try and get with women. He has commitment issues, for sure. But over the next two years with his relationship with Kathleen, they had two sons together,

first it was Thomas, then Christopher, and Drew and Kathleen even bought a tavern in Montgomery, Illinois called Suds Pub. And they were doing really well for themselves. They were making good money, living in a beautiful neighborhood, taking vacations to Hawaii when they could. So on the outside, I think they kind of seem like that perfect American family. To me, like owning a pub with your spouse is so ideal. I don't know, that just seems like a cute ass life. For her even, this was what she wanted, you know, to have a family business and live in a nice neighborhood

with her kids and her husband, but once again, this relationship did not work out. Wait, didn't he have or manage a pub with Vicki as well? Didn't we talk about that? Yeah, they managed one together, but this one they actually bought together. But that is weird that he did that with two different women. So Kathleen would tell her friends that she felt like a trapped animal.

She also told a close friend that on one occasion drew grab her neck and said, why don't you just die? After 11 years of marriage, they were officially divorced. And they split, you know, of course, for the same reason that these other marriages didn't work out. Throughout the last two years of their marriage alone, the police were called to their house 18 times with reports of domestic disturbance.

And it's unclear if these calls were made by neighbors or by Kathleen herself or a mixture of those two, but the police were sent to the home a considerable amount of times. Yeah, and just think about how this scenario goes down. He is a police officer, and I'm sure when the police come over, I mean, he's already used his buddies in the police force to harass another woman that he was dating, so I can only imagine them showing up to the house and being like, is there a problem here and Drew's like, nope, and they just go on their way.

Well, that's what's so scary for Kathleen because she was in danger and she was probably so terrified of him. And here the police come who are supposed to be the people that help you and her husband is just so manipulative that he just sends them away like nothing is going on. And it's awful.

There was even one photo that I found where Kathleen is smiling but she has a black eye so this was definitely something she was dealing with for a long time and she could not get the help that she needed because he was a cop. That's very very terrifying and I can't even imagine being a woman in that situation where you just feel like you have no one on your side. And, you know, the police are on your husband's side and you've got nothing else you can do. And how do you even get out of that? Because he's already threatened her life, we know that. And he's a police officer so she can't go and file a report because it'll probably get lost or something, you know.

Like, how do you get out of this? Yeah, very tough situation for Kathleen. In 2002, so over a year before they officially divorced, Kathleen filed for an order of protection against Drew, claiming that he had physically abused her and get this, guys. Just eight days after their divorce finalized, he married another woman,

this time to a girl who was 30 years younger than him. Who he had been having in a fair with during he and Kathleen's marriage. Of course. Yeah, of course. So yeah, the trend continues. Her name was Stacey Ann Cales, and she was 17 years old when they began their relationship. When they got married, Drew was 49 and Stacey

was 19. Weirdly enough, Stacey too had graduated early from high school, just like Kathleen did. She was working the night shift at a bowling-brook hotel when Drew Peterson started coming in to do routine checks. He would walk around the hotel and make sure everything was safe. While Drew was still married to Kathleen, neither he nor Stacy told anyone about their relationship, but when they were engaged, Stacy told her family, and they all felt really strange about it, because her fiance was around the same age as her own parents, and everyone was uncomfortable with it. But Stacy liked the idea that he was older because he could provide for her. She had been living with her sister and her sister's husband at the time and she wanted

out. Drew bought her a furnished apartment and whatever else she could ever need. But just like he was with Kathleen, he was very clingy and possessive. Stacy wasn't allowed to have any friends, especially if it was a guy. Before they were even married, they had their first child together. And this was still while Kathleen and Drew were legally married. They had a son named Anthony while Stacey was 19 years old. While Drew and Stacey began their marriage,

Kathleen and Drew were still trying to resolve some outstanding financial issues in April of 2004. This would include finding out who would take custody of the children, who would get the estate, and who would get the bar. So this was a really big deal. For the time being, Kathleen had the kids during the week, and Drew would get them on the weekends. So on Friday, February 27th, 2004, Drew picked up the kids from Kathleen's. That day, Kathleen spent time with her newer boyfriend and they were together until the next morning. Later that day, which was now Saturday, Kathleen spoke with the next-door neighbors, the Pontarelli's. And by the way, Mary Pontarelli was Kathleen's best friend at the time. So she and her husband invited Kathleen to a party, but for whatever reason, Kathleen declined.

On Sunday, so the next day, Drew arrived at Kathleen's to hand over the kids, but Kathleen didn't answer the door. Since he couldn't get inside because he didn't have a key, he took them back to his house and then went to work. He later said that he assumed she was out and decided to just return later on in the day. But when he went by again, she still didn't answer the door. So Drew kept the kids another night. On Monday morning, Drew tried to call Kathleen to see where she was, but she didn't answer any of his calls.

That night, he called the Pontarelli's to see if they had seen her. They said they hadn't seen Kathleen since they invited her to a party on Saturday, two days prior. Drew asked the Pontarelli's if they would go with him into Kathleen's house. Drew called a locksmith to open Kathleen's front door along with the Pontarelli's, along with another neighbor named Steve Carcerano.

They were finally able to get into the house around 10.30 pm, and that's when Mary Pontarelli and Steve found Kathleen dead in her empty bathtub. They called out for help and Drew ran up to see her, and that's when he checked her pulse and stated that she was dead. He then called police. It's said that upon finding her body, Drew seemed to be very shaken and upset. 45 minutes later, a coroner came to examine Kathleen's body.

He said her body was cold and that rigor mortis had slightly set in. First suspicious clue here is that he asked the neighbors to accompany him inside so that he wouldn't discover her body alone, there would be other witnesses. Yeah and the second thing that's pretty suspicious is the fact that her body had slightly gone into Rigor Mordus and she hadn't been seen in two days so kind of wondering what's going on there. And I'll definitely get into my theory a little bit later on

that. Police noticed that there were no signs of struggle, nor forced entry, and Kathleen didn't have any defensive wounds. Her hair was damp, but the bath was dry. She had bruises all over the front of her body and her back was scraped up. On the back of her head, she had a gash that was an inch deep. Because of all this, they determined that Kathleen had died in a freak home accident caused by slipping into the bath and drowning. The following day, Drew was interviewed at the Bowling Brook Police Department and he explained

that he spent the entire weekend home with the kids. And one day later, the police interviewed Stacey Peterson, who also seemed very upset about the whole thing. Kathleen's death was ruled accidental officially in May, so about two months later. There was no other question. They thoroughly didn't believe that she was killed, and the officer who investigated the scene was a great friend of Drew's, and he felt there was no way Drew would ever hurt one of his wives. I had also read that, before Kathleen's death when Drew was living on his own in his own

place, just a few houses away from Kathleen's house, by the way, he would break into Kathy's house, abuse her, and threaten her life. Kathleen had also confided in her sister, saying that Drew said that he could kill her and make it look like an accident, which we have heard before? And this isn't the only one of his wives who has told a loved one that he threatened to kill them. So, this is multiple different people saying very similar things. Exactly.

He had said the same thing, apparently, to Vicki before their marriage ended as well. And what's really unfortunate is that they chalked this up simple and plain to an accident, even though they couldn't explain the gash on her head, because she was found in a partial fetal position in the bath on her side. So why would there be a gash on the back of her head? So they really just didn't even try on this one, but we'll get into that later. Yeah, and also wasn't the bathtub dry by the time they got there? So I'm thinking if she slipped and hit her head and then drowned, there'd still be

fucking water in the bathtub. There's just so many questions. Just way too many questions on this one. Two weeks after Kathleen's death, Drew Peterson produced a handwritten will, signed by Kathleen and himself. It was dated March 2, 1997, and it stated that if one of them passed, the other would get all their assets. There's a lot of speculation about this because Drew had previously told Kathleen's divorce lawyer that neither of them had a will.

Drew took full custody of the kids, who now 9 and 11 and he resumed his life with Stacey and Stacey even legally adopted Christopher and Thomas. In April, so over a month after Kathleen died, Stacey became pregnant and in January 2005, she had her and Drew's second child together. This time, it was a daughter named Lacey. Weird because Lacey Peterson, who we covered her case, a lot of people are familiar with her case that happened in Northern California, she was killed about three, was it three or two years before the birth of this child? So that's just a little weird. Yeah, and it is kind of strange when you hear

about things like that, but definitely no relation to that case to the Scott Peterson and Lacey Peterson case, but it is very strange. Drew's controlling nature would go so far that he would spend thousands of dollars on his new wife Stacey's appearance to make her into his version of a perfect woman. Everything from liposuction to a tummy tuck, braces, lactic surgery, and a breast augmentation. Drew began to track Stacy's mileage on her car as well as her cell phone records and her general whereabouts. Then, in 2006, Stacy's sister Tina, the one who she had previously lived with when she met Drew, died from colon cancer, and this Stacey into a depressive state. At this point in time, Stacey was telling her other sister Cassandra that Drew was abusive, controlling, and that she wanted to divorce him.

The death of her sister Tina really made her realize a lot and Drew began to notice that she was stepping back from him. Stacey wanted to go back to school and she felt like she had kind of missed out on her whole, you know, young life, her early 20s, because she's married and she has kids to this guy who she doesn't want to be with anymore. Right, she didn't have any, like, young adult life. She just became a mom and a wife right off the bat. And especially because he was so much older, it's not like they were hanging out with people her age at all or doing anything that 23-year-olds do. So, well at this point, she was 23 by the way. And after she talked to Drew about it, he decided that he

was going to be the one that was going to leave. And let's just talk about for just one second how weird and controlling Drew is. He's got this wife who is 30 years younger than him, and apparently she's still not good enough for him, so he has to spend thousands of dollars on rearranging her to make her look perfect. This is so fucking weird. It just goes back to the serial mario thing. You really want a better term for that. Yeah, I do too, but no, it's just creeping me out.

She's already 30 years younger than you, and you would be lucky to have her since you're an old crusty fart. But seriously, he's spending all this money on changing her appearance when it's like, well, you're not a fucking catch yourself there bud. If beautiful Stacey Kales is not good enough for him, this just further proves my point that this man should not have wives and God, what is good enough for you dude? Yeah, what does he think? What does he think he's like a model? Does he think he's hot? I don't I don't get it.

Like I'm getting like I don't know why this is coming to my head, but like madhatter slash old Tim Curry vibes. Yeah, he's definitely got some eyebrows and a mustache and the old police buzz cut, I think. So he's just like a wolfy old dude. Oh, and by the way, so when he actually started dating Stacey when she was 17, the reason that he got away with that is, once again, because he's a police officer, so no statutory rape charges were put in place. Definitely illegal, so gross. So although Drew claimed he would be the one leaving, the situation couldn't be more

opposite. On October 26th, 2007, Stacey told Drew that she wanted a divorce. She told her friends and family she asked him for a divorce and that she feared for her life. And she was pretty close to finishing her nursing degree which she had been studying on and off since before she and Drew even got married. So her plans were to get a divorce, become a nurse, and start her life the way that she wanted it. But just two days us that Stacey Peterson disappeared. According to Drew, that Sunday morning, which was October 28, 2007, the couple woke

up and Stacey decided to go to her sister's house to help her paint. And by the way, we read in an article that it was her brother or somewhere else that it was her friend, but for my research, mostly I found sister so I'm going with that. Drew spent the day with the kids, but around 9pm that night, Stacey called him, allegedly, and explained that she was in love with another man. She was running away and she left her car at the airport. When police checked the couple's house, the only items missing were a few thousand dollars cash,

her passport, and a bikini. And no other items seemed to be missing from the house, not any of her other clothes or her other, you know, toy letries or personal belongings. So apparently she grabs cash, a passport, and a bikini that she plans on living in for the next however long. It's just hard to believe. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. Stacey's sister filed a missing person's report at 4am as she knew how destructive her sister's marriage was, and police started looking at Drew Peterson as the prime suspect.

At this point, the media was all over this case, especially since Drew was now being interviewed by them. But people were getting a bad idea about the man who was trying to convince the world that he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance. On one occasion, Drew made an appearance on the Today Show and remarked, I'm not trying to be funny here, but Stacey Peterson would ask me for a divorce on a regular basis, and it was based on her menstrual cycle. Way to make every woman in the world hate your ass. Seriously, what a fucking asshole! Like, that's just like your wife is missing, dude. That's what I was gonna say.

She's missing and you're basically talking shit about her. Like, what does that say about you? Yeah, and I also read in another article that he didn't just do this one time during a media interview. He would pretty much dog on Stacey every time he made an appearance. We'll post video footage on our Instagram page and on our Twitter. So at

going west pod on Twitter, at going west podcast on Instagram so you can see his demeanor. He just, ah, like the way that he acts during interviews, he's just like sitting back, not a worry in the world, confident, pompous ass. Yeah, he's very, very pompous and we'll try to do our best to put those videos up for you guys to check out. Police found Stacey's 2002 Pontiac in the parking lot for the Cloud Airport in Bullingbrook, Illinois, which was actually very close by to the Peterson's home. After her disappearance, Drew went on a paid leave from the police department and then he was approved to go into retirement since at that point, he was 53 and had worked for the police department and then he was approved to go into retirement since at that point

he was 53 and had worked for the police department for 29 years. I think you have to be working for them for at least 20 years to retire so he was at that point. And he would be given about $6,000 monthly pension, but his chief ended up refusing his resignation because he wanted him to be fired instead of for him to resign. Because remember, in 1985, he had been fired for misconduct, but he ended up being reinstated because there wasn't enough evidence to prove it. But this was brought up again at the time of his resignation. This, and the fact that he was being looked at in Stacey's case, his chief was just like, no. But with lack of evidence all around, they let him resign and they gave

him that monthly pension. But regardless, he was able to collect $1 million from Kathleen's life insurance policy. So even if he didn't get this monthly pension for his job, which he did, he still had money. And we're not sure when he collected from this life insurance. We couldn't find the date, but that's good information. Quick note, were there no security cameras at the airport? I'm guessing no. I didn't see anything in my research, but I'm assuming if there was, we would have all the answers that we needed.

But I'm gonna go with where her car was. There probably was nothing. I would definitely guess that, but I mean, I feel like they would be able to go back to the day that she supposedly left and gone through airport security footage. Well, this was 2007, so this was after 9-11 when things became a lot more strict in airports and you would have definitely been able to track whether or not she had gotten on a plane and they didn't find any evidence that she did. Yeah, so also very suspicious.

After Stacy disappeared, investigators started looking into Drew's life, and they started suspecting that maybe Kathleen didn't die accidentally. Although Stacey's car was parked in the parking lot at the airport, and her passport was gone, Drew claimed that he received an anonymous letter saying that Stacey was alive and doing well and that she was in Peoria, Illinois. But Stacey's family knew that she was afraid of Drew, and if she was going to leave him, she wouldn't have left her kids behind and not told any of them where she was going. If she felt her life was in danger, she was equally as concerned for her very young children.

She would never have abandoned them. And Drew never even showed proof of such a letter existing. So you just have to believe his word, which really isn't enough. And you would think if he got this letter from his missing wife, he would have made a big deal about it and showed the letter and showed more proof. But even this, if she was going to divorce him, why would she send him a letter? If she left, because she was so afraid of him, she wouldn't have, she would have sent her family a letter. Exactly, exactly.

She's not gonna send a letter telling her abusive ex-husband who she is afraid of, where she is. She's just not gonna tell them. In the days after Stacey's disappearance, police searched the Peterson home and collected various different items from the home, including bedding, 11 different guns, various electronics,

Stacey's car, and Drew's 2005 GMC SUV. And to be clear, her car was at the airport, but I just included in there because it's part of the evidence that they took. So I'm not sure how they figured this part out, but they were also missing items from the house. And I doubt Drew would have admitted to these things being gone because supposedly there was a large blue barrel, scuba diving weights, and a nightstand missing.

And of course, those are very suspicious materials to be gone from the home at this time. On top of that, one of Drew's neighbors saw Drew accompanied by another man hauling the barrel away around the same time that Stacy went missing. Turns out this man was Drew's step brother Thomas, and he told police that he was paid to help get rid of the barrel, but that he didn't know what was in it. And let me just note that at the time that he helped him get rid of the barrel, but that he didn't know what was in it. And let me just note that at the time that he helped him get rid of this barrel, she was not reported missing.

It was just around that same time. Maybe it was the same day, maybe it was the day after, but it was before she was reported missing. After knowing that Stacy disappeared and that there was suspicions surrounding Drew, Thomas began believing that he may have unknowingly helped Drew dispose of Stacey's body, and this destroyed him so much that he attempted suicide. But Drew denied that he and Thomas ever got rid of any barrel at all and told police that

Thomas had a history of mental illness, so his word should not be trusted. Yet the neighbor also witnessed this, so it wasn't just Thomas's word. Thomas also later stated that Drew wanted him to rent a storage unit under his name, and that he would pay him $2,000 to do so. But Thomas didn't rent it because he didn't have his ID on him. Then, they went to a local park and Drew apparently handed Thomas a cell phone and told him not to answer it but that he'd be right back. Thomas said he waited for 45 minutes until the phone rang twice and the call was coming from Stacey. Thomas now believes that this was Drew setting up the

call tower pings so he could set up Stacey's location away from his. Meaning that he was trying to put Stacey's phone in one place and his own phone in another place and make the call happen. Meaning that if he did kill her, then he would try to establish this to make it seem like after her disappearance, she called him. It's very smart. Yeah, he's definitely doing everything you can to get away with this murder. And obviously he's a police officer, so he knows these little tricks. And that is exactly why he made that call, is to make people believe that Stacy was still alive somewhere.

Assuming that Thomas is telling the truth, I wonder why Drew didn't just put his own phone in a park, or something, or put it somewhere, like why recruit someone who could go against you? Because that's exactly what Thomas did. Drew probably thought that Thomas wouldn't say anything or wouldn't figure out what was going on. Just a week and a half after Stacey disappeared, police announced that they believe that Stacey was a victim of foul play and that she did not run away. Drew was their only suspect at the time and he was not cracking. They decided to exume Kathleen's body to do a whole new autopsy because they felt like Drew could be guilty for the death of Kathleen and the disappearance of his newer wife, Stacey. Which is why Kathleen's family believed all these years since she had died by the way.

So okay, this is when all of Drew's exes came forward and told their stories. So, his second wife, Vicki, told the media that Drew had threatened to kill her on multiple occasions and that he could make it look like an accident. So, we've heard the same patching of words from multiple of his wives, which to me that means that he said it to all of them, obviously. There was another woman who we haven't mentioned in this story that told the media about her relationship with Drew in the 80s. They had become engaged, but she broke it off because he was incredibly possessive and jealous.

They're literally all saying the same thing. It's the same story. Yeah, it's exactly the same story over and over. Drew is controlling. He's a same story. Yeah, it's exactly the same story over and over. Drew is controlling. He's a cheater. He's abusive. And then they get a divorce. And then he gets married again.

It's just a cycle. Since Thomas really only helped Drew load the blue barrel into his SUV and didn't end up actually disposing of it, police had no idea where this barrel could be. And it never surfaced. So with no body, there was no crime. Police had no idea where this barrel could be, and it never surfaced. So with no body, there was no crime. Even though we all pretty much know that Drew had something to do with it, we can't prove

it until we find her body. But they did have Kathleen's body, and they performed the second autopsy three and a half years after she was buried. It was again determined that Kathleen's cause of death was drowning, but they believed that the manor was homicide. They no longer believed that she died from a freak accident at her house, and they were looking at this case in a different light. They realized that falling into the tub would not have produced a gash on the back of her head, but instead on the front of her head. There was also no evidence in the bathroom of her hitting her head, so they believed another object had been used on her, one which

they never located. The other injuries on Kathleen's body were not consistent with slipping and falling into the bath. The hemorrhaging in her chest muscles told them that she had been bent over the bath or the sink or toilet technically and had her face forced into the water so that she would drown. And this autopsy was done by a totally different pathologist who even stated that they believed the original pathologist on the case had been asked to chalk it up to an accident because the new one just didn't understand how someone could do this autopsy and not know it was a homicide. It was that obvious. One of Drew's longtime friends named Rick came forward and told police that he and Drew

purchased three blue 55 gallon plastic containers from a cable company in 2003. And he even showed them photos. Stacey's sister Cassandra asked police if they would give Drew a polygraph test about the blue barrels because she thoroughly believed her sister had been put in one and then dumped somewhere by Drew. She said that two days before Stacey went missing, she saw the barrel in his garage, but the next time she came over it was gone. But Drew's attorney denied that he ever had this barrel and no such polygraph test was executed.

Just one year after Stacy disappeared, Drew got engaged yet again. My God. At this point, Drew had been a single dad, living with four kids, who was being looked at for one murder case and one disappearance of his previous wives, and somehow someone agreed to marry him. It was 23-year-old Christina Reigns, who would be his fifth wife.

But just a month after their engagement, Christina moved out of his house and broke off the engagement. At this point, Drew was 54 years old, so Christina's dad was not okay with his young daughter dating an older man, let alone an older man who's being looked at for such vile crimes. Christina had already been manipulated by Drew and he didn't want it going any further. After her dad spoke with her, Christina says she came to her senses and she left Drew. Good choice.

On May 7, 2009, so five months after the engagement ended, Drew Peterson was officially indicted for the murder of his ex-wife Kathleen Savio and his bail was set at a whopping $20 million. The trial wasn't set to take place for over a year, so a judge ruled that Drew remain in the Will County jail until the trial was over because they believed he would either flee or kill himself or someone else if he was released. In July 2010, they planned to call the trial off because they didn't know if they had enough reliable evidence to convict him of the crime.

But the judge ruled that they could use eight statements made to family members and friends by the victims before their death. So their whole problem was that so much of what we know about Drew and what he did is from the family and friends of his ex-wives. Because all these women had told their loved ones that he threatened them. But this was still important to tell a jury because it's very incriminating. They were worried credibility would be an issue since it was all hearsay, but the judge just basically stated that it was okay and that they could use this as evidence. But remember, Kathleen did file the order of protection against Drew,

and there is also the record of all 18 domestic disturbance calls. And this was her trial, so this information was very useful. But the prosecutor could also use eight statements made to Kathleen's family regarding Drew's abuse. The trial didn't end up starting until July of 2012, which was over three years after Drew was arrested. The day after Kathleen was murdered, her sister Anna saw Drew scrubbing the bathtub that his ex-wife was found in, and she actually relayed this information to the court.

She and many other friends and family of Kathleen also told the court about the fear that Kathleen had and all the things that she had told them about Drew, including his physical abuse and threats to kill her. Then, a man named Jeff Patcher approached the witness stand. He had met Drew Peterson years prior back when they both had been working for a cable company, and he stated that in November 2003, around four months before Kathleen died, Drew Peterson had offered to pay him $25,000 to hire a hitman to kill his wife, Kathleen. And Jeff had actually been in Drew's squad car doing a ride along when Drew had asked him

that question. And Jeff had actually agreed to do this. They even came up with a code word to let Drew know that she had been killed and that it was all done. Jeff also stated that Drew wanted to know exactly when it was going to happen, so he could create a good alibi. Later on, Drew told Jeff that his family was doing good and to forget about the favor he asked. And Jeff also said that he didn't find out that Kathleen died until about four months after it had happened, but that he was incredibly suspicious by it,

knowing that Drew had literally hired him to take care of her. And prosecutors used this information to their advantage because now someone was swearing under oath that Drew had wanted her dead at least four months before she died. They also stated that his motive was to avoid the divorce settlement because Kathleen could take the house, the business, his money, and their kids, and it would have been too much of a loss for him. So he got rid of her. On September 6, 2012, the trial came to a close.

After the jury deliberated, they found Drew Peterson guilty for the premeditated murder of Kathleen Savio. He was sentenced to 38 years in prison, meaning that he would have the possibility of getting out at the age of 96 and hopefully he never lives that long. And was originally sent to Maynard prison in Illinois. But within a month of being there, he was attacked by another inmate who wanted to sell Drew's belongings on eBay since his case was so highly discussed in the media. Then Drew was moved to a different correctional facility in Indiana. He of course has appealed numerous times, but the Illinois

Supreme Court remains firm on their sentencing. In December 2019, Drew Peterson was, for some reason, sent to a state facility outside of Illinois and Indiana, but his location is not disclosed. And this is probably because he was targeted so much, I would assume? out of Illinois and Indiana, but his location is not disclosed. And this is probably because he was targeted so much, I would assume? Yeah, I would kind of assume the same thing. It's very obvious that Drew is guilty of these crimes, and it's been made even more obvious after he was charged with another murder for higher plot in 2015. James Glasgow was the lead prosecutor in the Kathleen trial and Drew wanted him killed since he was the one who put Drew behind bars

I mean Drew put Drew behind bars, but okay Drew whatever you say you're just making it so much worse for yourself You're you're already in prison because you killed your ex-wife and now you're trying to get the prosecutor killed? Like boy, you just don't know when to quit, do you? Well, luckily, a fellow inmate knew about Drew's plan because he probably bragged about it. And this inmate told officials how Drew was gonna do it. So they set him up with a wire to see if Drew would give any details and he did.

So in May 2016, Drew was found guilty of solicitation of murder and was sentenced to an additional 40 years in prison. Thank God and don't ever let that guy out. So let's talk about Kathleen's murder. Rigor mortis apparently had only slightly taken effect when they found her body at around 1030. Well, technically when the medical examiner and pathologist got there, which was like 45 minutes later. So at 11.30 pm, Ish, he had determined that she had slightly gone into Rigor Mordus.

And Rigor Mordus, you know, there's a lot of factors, what the temperature is, etc. It usually goes into effect around three or four hours after being killed and it hits its peak at 12 hours after being killed. So if, you know, assuming he's not lying because he obviously lied about her having died accidentally, she would have died very soon before they found her. Which means that he had killed her that day. But also, what is the possibility that he paid off this medical examiner to explain that rigor mortis had had said in at that time, because we already know that the pathologist who had done the report later on when they exhumed the body had said that I don't know

how this other guy didn't realize that this was a homicide. So I'm thinking Drew might have paid off this guy to say that Rigor Mordis had slightly been setting in, which would have set up an alibi for Drew because he was technically with his kids Monday morning. It's possible that he did so that it could have placed her death around the time when he had an alibi, but he still doesn't have an alibi for her supposed time of death because he just says he was with the kids. So I don't really think that makes much of a difference My only other thing is that the day before he had claimed that he had gone over to drop off the kids with Kathleen But that she wasn't home

So I don't really know why Drew would say this unless it was giving him an opportunity to set up his alibi because we know That that's the type of guy that Drew is. Okay, that's a good point because that is really strange. There's no reason for her to have not open the door to let her kids back in the house on two separate occasions in the same day. And it's not like she did this often where she was never home and Drew was like, oh, you'll just stay at my house another night kids. That didn't happen. He always returned them on Sundays and she was there. You know, she was a good mom. There's no reason that she would have just been MIA, especially because she was not with her boyfriend that day,

because they had last seen each other Sunday morning. So she knew. I'm sorry, Saturday morning. Right. Exactly. So she knew that her kids were supposed to be returning to her that day. So I just don't, I just doesn't make any sense to me and I feel like that part is kind of suspicious. That is weird though because you would assume she would have died on Sunday since nobody had seen her that whole day and the whole next day. Exactly. And that's my whole point here is that I think it's possible that she was killed on Sunday. I couldn't say for sure. It's also possible she was killed on Monday, but I just thought that we should bring that up. Also, I read that rigor mortis disappears usually in 24 to 36 hours. So if

she was killed the day before, why would rigor mortis just slightly be taking effect? None of it makes sense. I'm on our sand. And that's that's what leads me to believe that Drew may have paid this examiner to falsify her time of death. And that wouldn't be the first time that something like that has been done. I also read that rigor mortis is not a very good indicator of time of death because there are so many factors. So her just going into rigor mortis even if that is true. So last thing I'm gonna say on rigor mortis, it doesn't necessarily mean that she died four hours before she was found. She could have very well died the day before, but sometimes cause of death is very hard to determine, and in this case I didn't see them have a particular

time that they thought it happened. And if you guys have your own theories about this specific situation, just let us know. To this day, Stacey's body has not been found. Weirdly enough, Stacey's mother, Christy Kale, actually disappeared in 1998, so nine years before Stacey did. But police don't believe that their disappearances are connected because they firmly believe, as do the rest of us, that Drew killed her and hid her body somewhere no one has found yet. Christy was last seen on March 11, 1998, going to church, or her friend's house, it's

not clear which. She never arrived and was never seen or heard from again. She had six children and an ex-husband who she had a difficult and sometimes abusive relationship with. They also had many financial problems. She's known to have had depression after one of her daughters died in a fire in 1983, and four years later, another child of hers died of sudden infant death syndrome. And it's so strange because out of the four children left after two tragically died, one of them died of colon cancer, Tina

in 2006, and another, Stacey, disappeared never to be seen again. It's very spooky and very, very sad. Yeah, this is so tragic. It's just this whole family is just riddled with heartbreak. If you know anything about the disappearance of Christie Kale, please call the Blue Island Police Department at 708-396-7025. And if you have any information about Stacey Peterson's disappearance, please call the Bowling Brook Police Department at 630-226-8600. And if you are a victim of domestic abuse and are in an emergency situation, call 911. Or if you need support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. Or if you're unable to speak safely, text love is one word, two, two, two, five, two, two.

You are not alone. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everybody and like we said, if you are suffering from domestic violence, please reach out and get help using those numbers that we provided you guys earlier. Next week, we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into. If you guys want to see photos or videos

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