First search done, more on the way

By Danya Hooker, dhooker@mysburbanlife.com

More than 40 volunteers turned out Saturday for the first family-led search for missing Bolingbrook mother Stacy Peterson.

Searchers spent more than eight hours combing wooded areas and open fields near the Illinois and Michigan Canal in Joliet. Although the search didn’t turn up anything groundbreaking, lead organizer Roy Taylor said the group will continue to meet every weekend until weather stops them.

“As long as it takes, that’s our new motto,” Taylor said. “As long as it takes, we will find Stacy.”

The search for Stacy: Week in review

Bolingbrook, IL -Here’s a look at some of the week’s developments in the Peterson case.

•Drew Peterson’s mother and stepfather testified Thursday, March 20, before the grand jury investigating the death of their son’s third wife and the disappearance of his fourth. Al and Betty did not discuss their testimony.

• A hearing to determine the fate of 11 guns seized from Drew Peterson’s home was postponed, the Will County state’s attorney’s office announced Monday, March 24. A Will County judge recently ordered state police to return the guns, along with other items seized during a Nov. 1 search of Peterson’s home. A day after the order, state police revoked Peterson’s right to possess firearms, rending the judge’s decision moot. Peterson’s attorney Joel Brodsky later asked the judge to allow Peterson’s son, an Oak Brook police officer, to hold on to the guns. The hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, March 25, and has been rescheduled for April 17.

•Stacy Peterson’s family announced Wednesday, March 26, that they will renew searches for the missing Bolingbrook mother this weekend. All volunteers are asked to attend a training session at 9: 30 a.m. Saturday, March 29, at the Bolingbrook Recreation and Aquatic Center, 200 Lindsey Lane, and must present a valid state identification card. Weather permitting, searches could begin Saturday and Sunday and will continue every weekend.

• Also Wednesday, the group, Friends of Stacy Peterson, announced it will hold another fundraiser May 10 at Ditka’s Sports Dome in Bolingbrook. All proceeds will go toward continuing search efforts. Additional details will be released at a later date.

• The independent pathologist for Will County that recently ruled Kathleen Savio’s death a homicide, testified before the special grand jury investigating her death and Stacy Peterson’s disappearance. Dr. Larry Blum performed the autopsy in November after authorities exhumed her body. Savio was found drowned in her Bolingbrook home’s bathtub March 1, 2004.

~Compiled by Danya Hooker, Suburban Life Publications

‘We’re not going to stop’ Stacy’s family vows to find answers

By Danya Hooker
dhooker@mysuburbanlife.com
Stacy Peterson’s friends and family will renew their search efforts this weekend and are asking for help from the community.

“If it was your family member, your sister, daughter, niece, I would be out there helping you, so I’m asking for your help,” Peterson’s sister Cassandra Cales said Wednesday during a press conference announcing the searches.

Searches for Stacy Peterson scheduled; another fund raiser on the way

By Danya Hooker
dhooker@mysuburbanlife.com
The first volunteer-led searches for Stacy Peterson this Spring are slated to begin this weekend.

But searches require money, and a lot of it.

Reporter’s Notebook: New info on searches

Here’s some information from a press release from the members of the non-profit group Friends of Stacy Peterson.

Another fund raiser to aid the search efforts is scheduled for 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. May 10 at Ditka’s Sports Dome, 730 N. Bolingbrook Drive, Bolingbrook. Anyone interested in helping to plan the event can call Carol Penning at (630) 300-4207. All proceeds will go toward upcoming searches.

Speaking of upcoming search efforts, members of the Search Team will be holding a press conference in front of Bolingbrook’s Village Hall, 375 W. Briarcliff Rd., on Wednesday March 26. Information on the Saturday March 29 training and additional searches will be made available.

For more information visit www.findstacypeterson.com.

Information on upcoming searches

We just saw this come over the FindStacyPeterson.com forum. Lead search organizer Roy Taylor is organizing training sessions for volunteer searches on Saturday morning (3/29). Searches could begin Sunday, weather permitting.

Visit the forum post for more information.

Peterson’s parents testify before grand jury

Drew Peterson’s mother and stepfather testified Thursday before a grand jury investigating the death of their son’s third wife and the disappearance of his fourth, according to media reports.

Al and Betty Morphy did not discuss their testimony.

Peterson’s stepbrother Tom Morphey made headlines when he reportedly confided to a friend that he had helped carry a large blue barrel from Peterson’s home to his car on the night his wife Stacy, then 23, disappeared. Morphey’s friend Walter Martineck said a distraught Morphey came to his home after Stacy Peterson went missing and told Martineck he believed he had just helped Peterson move his wife’s body.

Peterson, 54, has been named a suspect in his wife’s disappearance, which police have labeled a possible homicide. The case prompted investigators to revisit the March 2004 drowning of Peterson’s third wife Kathleen Savio. Shortly after Savio’s death, a six-person coroner’s jury ruled the drowning accidental. In February, an independent pathologist for Will County ruled the death a homicide.

Drew Peterson has denied any wrongdoing in either case. He has not been charged with any crime.

The search for Stacy: Week in review

Here’s a look at some of the week’s developments and in the Peterson case.

Peterson has his vehicles back

Drew Peterson picked up his two seized vehicles Tuesday after a judge ordered state police Monday to return them.

State police seized the vehicles, a GMC Yukon Denali and a Pontiac Grand Prix, while carrying out a Nov. 1 search warrant.

Read the full story at www.mysuburbanlife.com 

Next court date set for Savio estate hearing

By Danya Hooker

dhooker@mysuburbanlife.com

A Will County judge will hear the first arguments on a petition to re-open Kathleen Savio’s estate during a hearing next month.

Five of Savio’s relatives filed a joint petition Monday to re-open the estate in preparation for a wrongful death lawsuit against her ex-husband Drew Peterson, according to Lawrence Varsek, an attorney for two of Savio’s siblings.

“They (the family) have a lot of questions,” Varsek said. “They’re not satisfied with the previous answers and we need the authority of this court to find the answers.”