Sounds like a serial killer to me.
Drew Peterson's 3rd Wife Murdered by Drowning, New Autopsy RevealsThursday, February 21, 2008
CHICAGO — The death of the third wife of former police officer Drew Peterson has been officially declared a homicide after another autopsy revealed she drowned, the Will County state's attorney said Thursday.
The second report on Kathleen Savio's March 2004 death included photos from the scene and reports from the initial investigation, along with results from microscopic examinations and toxicological tests, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said in a statement.
"We have been investigating this as a murder since reopening the case in November of last year," Glasgow said. "We now have a scientific basis to formally and publicly classify it as such."
Savio, 40, was found dead in her bathtub shortly before her divorce settlement with Peterson was finalized.
A coroner's jury ruled after the first autopsy that her death was accidental, but her body was exhumed last Nov. 13 after Peterson was named a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson. She has not been found, but Drew Peterson said she ran off with another man.
Drew Peterson told the (Joliet) Herald-News on Thursday that the results "shocked" him. "You're kidding me. Unbelievable. That's hard to believe," said Peterson, 54, a former sergeant with the Bolingbrook Police Department.
Peterson has denied any involvement in either case and he has not been charged with wrongdoing. His attorney did not immediately return a telephone call Thursday from The Associated Press.
Authorities were not prepared to name a suspect, said Charles Pelkie, a spokesman for Glasgow's office.
"The investigation continues at this point," Pelkie said. "We've got an active grand jury investigation, we've got an active state police investigation."
Savio's family members, who received the news from Illinois State Police on Thursday, were not surprised.
"This is something we've believed for almost four years. It's a good thing that it finally came out," Savio's niece Melissa Doman said. "But it could have prevented if people would have listened to her before she was killed."
Savio filed for an order of protection in 2002 after Peterson allegedly knocked her down, ripped a necklace off her, and left marks on her body. She wrote in the order that she feared Peterson could kill her.
"I'm angry that it took years for them to fix it and it took a 23-year-old woman going missing, possible dead for them to look at something that could have fixed right away," Doman said. "She was my favorite aunt and she's gone."
Doman declined to say who she thought was responsible for Savio's death. She said she did not want to interfere with any current investigations or leads that authorities may have.
Dr. Larry W. Blum, the forensic pathologist who performed Savio's autopsy, said tissues were collected during the first autopsy on March 2, 2004, a second autopsy on Nov. 13, 2007, and a third autopsy performed by nationally known pathologist Dr. Michael Baden at the request of Savio's family on Nov. 16, 2007.
"It is my opinion based on my education, training, experience and personal observations, and to a reasonable degree of medical and scientific certainty, compelling evidence exists to support the conclusions that the cause of death of Kathleen S. Savio was drowning and further, that the manner of death was homicide," Blum said in a portion of the autopsy report released by the state's attorney's office.
A special grand jury convened in November 2007 is investigating both Savio's death and Stacy Peterson's disappearance.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331816,00.html
