CNN is discussing this right now, and it just sounds odd:
Drew Peterson, the former police sergeant who authorities call the prime suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, has been indicted on murder charges related to his third wife, Kathleen Savio, the Illinois state attorney’s office said.
***After Stacy Peterson went missing in October 2007, media frenzy and police scrutiny on Peterson revealed Savio had died mysteriously a few years earlier during a nasty divorce.
Savio died just before the division of the marital assets was finalized, making Drew Peterson the sole beneficiary.
Savio was found in the dry bathtub of her home. At the time, the death was ruled an accidental drowning. But her family continued to insist that Savio died as a result of foul play.
The investigation into Stacy Peterson’s disappearance brought renewed interest in Savio’s death.
Authorities exhumed Savio’s body, further tests were conducted, and her death has now been ruled a “homicide staged to look like an accident.”
Brodsky told King he believes the case has always been about circumstantial evidence and that he will bring a pathologist to trial who will say Savio died from an accidental drowning.
“I think the jury’s going to see that, in fact, this always has been an accidental death and still is an accidental death,” Brodsky told King.
A couple of things. First, I remember a bit of the coverage of Drew Peterson from a couple of years ago, and he is a first class jackass, and it would not surprise me one bit if he is responsible for one or more of the deaths of his former wives. Second, I’m not sure what the odds are on having several of your wives disappear/die mysteriously, but I would be they are in the Powerball range. Third, I’m aware we that people are convicted all the time on circumstantial evidence.
Having said all that, am I the only one who finds it odd that investigators can’t find the evidence they want, so they just went back and had a “do-over” on the autopsy until they had the results they wanted? Does that happen a lot? Am I wrong to thing Drew Peterson is a scumbag, but still be uncomfortable with this?
Sorry to go all missing white woman cable news on this, but I just found that detail about this story to be odd.
CalD
Happens all the time on cop shows. (Or is the proper generic term now “Law & Order” shows?)
Michael
Peterson got some help from within his department the first time around – that blunted any sort of aggressive investigation.
When they picked him up this time, he quipped “I guess I should’ve returned those library books”.
Personally, I think this guy is a serial killer, who offs his women as he views them as discardable once the relationship is done. If he gets acquitted on this, I can readily see him doing it again – he’s a 1st class douchenozzle.
harlana pepper
Michael, agreed. I was just going to say that. Sounds like a comprehensive investigation on death of third wife never got off the ground and it’s easy to see why. Not incompetence, just politics. That said, it sure as hell is going to be tough getting evidence from an exhumed corpse that’s been in the ground for years. Will be interesting to see if they can come up with anything.
Rosali
The family of wife #3 was always suspicious since she had previously stated that she was afraid of Drew and if she died, it would not be an accident. I guess that when wife #4 disappeared, the reports of family #3 gained more credence. I think it was a shoddy autopsy done at the time of death for wife #3 that was done more thoroughly the second time around.
DougJ
My take as well.
Napoleon
I think they did not find the woman’s hair or what ever it was in Ted Bundy’s car until something like the 3rd search they made of his VW. I recall Rolling Stone doing this big piece on how Ted was being set up by dirty cops who planted the evidence (and I recall that after reading the piece I was actually convinced Bundy did it). I think there may have been other examples of this in the Bundy case where it took them a few searches to come up with certain evidence.
Of course Bundy later confessed.
gopher2b
I don’t think they even did an autopsy the first time around. His buddies killed any real investigation.
sparky
There’s a big difference between reopening an investigation and retrying a criminal case. In theory, in a trial the state already has all of its evidence on the table and so it doesn’t get a do-over. An investigation, on the other hand is not a formal proceeding. Not the worst place to draw an arbitrary line.
On a related note, I see the Obama DOJ has dropped the effort to retry a soldier after a mistrial. Good on them, and this is my penance for getting the DADT wrong. :P
Kevin K.
Blogging about this when we still don’t have single-payer health care in this country proves that Balloon Juice is not a blog that cares about progressive causes. Please hand in your membership badge at the door, sir.
Zifnab
You can’t just retest a body and magically find new DNA evidence that wasn’t there before. Nor can you throw the body on the slab and magically autopsy up new results that weren’t on the victim to begin with. I mean, I’ve got absolutely no problem with police rechecking their work.
I’m more worried why they wouldn’t have found this the first time. Did the guy that did the first Peterson autopsy just not give a shit?
At the end of the day, this’ll all come up in court. If there was serious funny business going on (or even if there wasn’t and Peterson gets a good lawyer) you’ll see it come out before the judge. And then you can decide if this was a bad first investigation or a slimy second investigation.
But I don’t see why telling your corriner to recheck the body after you’ve picked up additional disturbing details would be a bad thing.
Will
I’m sorry, but the explanation “accidental drowning in a bathtub” is woefully inadequate on its face. I accidentally stubbed my toe, sure. I accidentally dropped my phone into the toilet, right. I accidentally got into the bathtub and breathed water til I was dead? Really? There’s got to be some detail before that. She had to hit her head or take a handful of lexapram or something.
I hope they fry him, BTW.
satby
It’s pretty widely acknowledged here in IL that the investigation into the third wife was perfuntory at best, because he was active on the suburban police force at the time (how does one drown in a dry tub, anyway?).
So the autopsy this time around is the real one, the first autopsy probably wouldn’t have mananged to get a D in HS biology.
Zifnab
@Kevin K.: No George Soros check for you!
The Other Steve
What the hell is it with guys named Peterson!?
harlana pepper
OT, but i have the window open and the kittehs are MOST interested in the outside goings on, lots of bird chirpings and such, it’s so cute — and thank you, John, for the Tunch pics since I was about to go through withdrawal. He gets more purdier every day!! I love his micro-paw clutchingks. He won’t commit, he’s just not going to give you that much, just a scinch of biskit-making, but not enough to let you know he loves you. So typical.
omg, here comes the mailman — high drama ahead
sarah
ditto satby. the whole thing is really sketchy and this is probably the first time they’re doing things right. See the Chicago Sun-Times overview here.
Brian
“what the odds are on having several of your wives disappear/die mysteriously”
Nate Silver would know.
Punchy
Wait — an accidental drowning in a dry bathtub?
/steam pours from head, chin rubbed….shit still doesn’t compute
joes527
@Zifnab:
No, but you can look at a bruise or a cut that you looked at before and thought it was just a bruise or a cut, but this time you can imagine some fantastic circumstance where this bruise or cut could be caused by foul play.
TADA! Evidence.
Not saying that that’s what went on here, but the difference in physical evidence between an accidental drowning and a drowning due to foul play might be pretty peripheral and, in the end, a matter of interpretation.
Now, if if what happened was that they missed the 7 bullet holes the first time through and noticed them the second time, then yeah, it probably was foul play.
DonnaInMichigan
Its spring time.
It’s time for the white, missing/dead females/with white suspect boyfriend/husband, for all the cable shows to go gaga over, during the long hot summer months.
Nancy Grace must be creaming in her pants.
Rosali
O/T- Today is day 10 of the jury deliberations in the 3rd trial of the Liberty City 6 case in Miami. They’ve had to replace 2 jurors already during deliberations when one got sick and another said that she did not trust the law and would not continue deliberating. The first 2 trials ended in hung juries and it is expected that if there’s a 3rd hung jury or mistrial that the prosecutors will not try again.
Pooh
As they say in The Wire, “murder stay murder”
harlana pepper
one of my kittehs does ‘air biskits’ — she likes to be draped over my shoulder with her little forelegs dangling over and look out at the world and she gets so happy, she starts making air biskits.
Face
Hopefully Obama will nominate Peterson for the Supreme Court.
aimai
to me the creepiest part of the story I read was that some guy who runs a legal brothel out in Nevada was planning on hiring him as the bouncer/enforcer/security guy. Dead and missing wives might be a clue to the employer that this guy has some serious isssues with women. So anyone hiring him as “security” is really hiring someone to intimidate the women more than the clients. Sick.
aimai
harlana pepper
general question for anybody who filed their taxes electronically: how long did it take you to get your refund back, i filed with Turbotax a month ago and I thought I would have had my refunds by now.
ricky
I happen to enjoy the refreshing insight that blogging brings to missing white women cases that the cable format
just cannot deliver. Perhaps it is the absence of screechy Southern accents hiddeen behind spayed coiffures.
ricky
Harlana have you checked the “most stressed” neighborhood outlet of a national bank chain? Most of our tax money seems to be stopping there first.
Joey Maloney
I figure a MWW story is close enough to an open thread, so – has anyone had Old Potrero whisky? It’s a single malt rye from a San Francisco distillery that claims they’re making it as close as they can to the 18th-century American whiskys. It’s cask strength, distilled in a copper pot, and aged a whole 2 years in uncharred oak.
I have to say, it’s interesting. Completely different from the single malt Scotches I’m used to. It has very acidic yet tasty finish. Definitely an acquired taste, but I’m enjoying the process of acquisition.
satby
@Punchy:
From the Sun-Times article:
“Savio’s body is found in the bathtub of her home. There is no water in the tub, and her hair is drenched with blood from a head laceration. Savio’s death is ruled an accidental drowning.”
Rosali
I am hooked on Forensic Files and get special satisfaction when the investigation/evidence catches someone who killed his/her spouse or partner. They could have just divorced the spouse. There was no need to go out and commit murder.
harlana pepper
@ricky: I beg your pardon, my coiffure has never been spayed, thank you very much! see Concerned Women for America!
neil
You’re not thinking of the other wife-murderer, Scott Peterson, are you, John?
BethanyAnne
Took me about 2 weeks, Harlana. I used taxact, fwiw.
Hunter Gathers
@harlana pepper:
Two weeks. Go here.
Notorious P.A.T.
Exactly. We think solving a crime is a “CSI”-type puzzle, but it isn’t. It’s more like a lot of legwork. Hair, DNA, blood, prints etc aren’t that easy to find.
Meanwhile, would it surprise anyone if this guy found a woman stupid enough to agree to be wife #5? “Oh, I can change him!” she’ll think.
joes527
I guess that’s why I’m not a coroner. I would have gone with poisoning.
harlana pepper
@satby: holleee crap, there’s going to be some fracture on the skull, he would have done better to have strangled her but then her hyoid bone could have been injured that way as well, he is fooked.
Wayne T
It’s not a do-over because they never DID anything in the first place.
gwangung
Too, depending on when the original murder was, there’s new techniques and methodologies, even new science that’s been developed that can now be applied.
Comrade Darkness
@harlana pepper: We filed on Apr 14 and got our deposit Apr 24.
sarah
@Notorious P.A.T.
he already did. he found another young girl and they were briefly engaged before someone finally slapped some sense into her.
The Grand Panjandrum
@harlana pepper: If you asked for a direct deposit then you should have gotten a notice from the IRS as to when to expect payment. You can go to the IRS site and find out the status of your return.
Jim C
@Notorious P.A.T.:
Well, she isn’t Wife #5 yet, but he does have a (very young) girlfriend to whom he has proposed.
The local media love getting quotes from her father.
Face
Fuckin christ, didja HAFTA put this in my head? Can one perform a self-labotomy?
Jim C
@sarah:
I’m glad to know I’m not as up on this case as I feared I was.
Back to lurking for me.
Jay
If a network wants me to change the channel, all they have to do is have a story on Drew Peterson or Casey Anthony.
David Hunt
She could have drowned in a tub with water in it whose plug was not great. The water would have slowly drained away and she would have been found in a dry tub. Or she could have involuntarily kicked the plug loose while drowning but not in time to save herself.
Satby’s comment at #28 makes it more suspicious. I don’t know if “hair drenched with blood” indicates if the blood was still wet, or had if it had time to dry.
And as John mentioned. The odds of two wives dying under mysterious circumstance seems like it would be in the state lottery odds, if not Powerball.
The Moar You Know
@Joey Maloney: Got some right now. It’s the best whisky I’ve ever had, but I’m not really much of a whisky drinker. But yeah, the Old Potrero is excellent!
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
@harlana pepper: Less than two weeks with direct deposit. If they are mailing you a check, I think it is quite a bit longer.
wilfred
Didn’t you post not long ago on the Law of Large Numbers? Miracles do happen, only they’re just probabilistically determined; people do win Powerball.
Peterson can be that rare guy whose wives die weirdly, but maybe he should be waterboarded just to make sure. In the bathtub.
harlana pepper
@Hunter Gathers: Thank you! checking now . . .
fuckity fuck, this is not looking good
THEY DON’T HAVE MY FILING!!!!! TURBO TAX IS GOING TO PAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tavella
You see it all the time with poison — some sudden death is classified as a stroke or heart attack, then a few years later someone gets suspicious when the spouse or neighbor is picked up for another death, they dig up the body to do toxicology tests.
A (potentially) violent death probably leaves less evidence after years of decay, but you can still check for fractured hyoid bones and the like. I suspect the reclassification probably has as much to do with looking at the records of the original case as any new evidence, though. I.e., if she was classed as drowning but there was only traces of water in her lungs.
Incertus
@Joey Maloney:
Not only had it, I got to help bottle it four years ago when I was working at Anchor Brewing. Fritz Maytag, who owns the place, is a bit eccentric, and decided to build a still based on the still that George Washington used just because he likes doing that sort of thing. By the time I left, he was also making a really good gin (that I can’t drink because I become a raging asshole on gin) and a grappa that I wouldn’t know whether it was bad or good, but that tasted like fruity fire and kicked me in the ass.
sarah
@harlana pepper
The IRS is nicer than we generally give them credit for. Talk to someone there and resubit your taxes and you’ll likely be okay.
MattR
@sarah:
Especially if they owe you money and not the other way around.
Jon
Depending on the jurisdiction, you can ask for a 2nd autopsy if you have cause or new evidence. I would bet that a potential suspect’s next wife disappearing mysteriously would qualify as enough to let a 2nd coroner take a look at an old ruling–especially when the family of the “victim” is consenting to it.
Dennis-SGMM
@tavella:
I think it was the serial number of his service pistol stamped on her skull in reverse bas-relief that tipped them off.
Mo
At a mystery writer’s conference, saw a “Murder or Not?” quiz show presentation with actual crime scene photos. The slip and fall bathroom deaths were more horrific looking than most of the firearm deaths – way more blood. Really ugly stuff. Have been more than a little paranoid in the shower since. It’s the head injury knocking you unconscious and then ending up underwater and drowning that kills you.
Ukko
Turbo tax lost ours one year and we didn’t find out until we didn’t get our stimulus checks. Fortunatly, if the government owes you a refund they don’t worry about being late. The way it was explained to us was that April 15 only matters if you owe.
Michael
Face
If you hated that, try this: Nancy Grace love noises and her enthusiastic exhortations to greater coital effort.
You can thank me now.
Shinobi
I think the creepiest thing about this case is that his young daughter is named Lacy Peterson. I could overlook everything else, but, she was definetly born after the Lacy Peterson case.
Also, he is a former police officer, Chicago area police are notoriously insular. It’s likely that his status may have protected him from earlier prosecution.
Betsy
@The Other Steve:
Guys named Peterson, with wives whose names rhyme with “acey.” Public service message: if your name is Taci, Tracy, Macy, Jaycee, or Gracey, DO NOT marry someone named Peterson. Seriously. Don’t do it.
The first time I heard about this Peterson guy, it took me weeks before I realized they were talking about a *different* Peterson whose wife Stacey/Laci had disappeared.
Betsy
@harlana pepper:
OMG, that is terrible. I’m so sorry. I hope it gets fixed ASAP.
Notorious P.A.T.
http://www.lcshockey.com/issues/85/images/85chris.gif
harlana pepper
gaaahhh! sorry, had to get that off my chest
angulimala
The guy was a cop for 20+ years.
I think it’s smart to assume he is going to be better at staging murders and fooling coroners than Joe Schmoe. He might be innocent, but it’s very suspicious.
Persia
@Betsy: Me too.
Blue Raven
@angulimala:
And that right there tells me why the first “autopsy” was useless. The thin blue line is abused far too often.
As for what an autopsy on a long-dead corpse could reveal, I remember my college professor whose specialty was forensic anthropology. He was the guy they’d call in for cases such as the time someone found a barrel that had been buried in Golden Gate Park and it contained someone’s remains. Said barrel had been there a while, perhaps years. But he was able to learn many things from those remains. So the most recent late Mrs. Drew Peterson, having been nicely embalmed and buried in a lined casket, would be a walk in the park by comparison for someone with those skills.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@harlana pepper:
Never more than two weeks. This year I received my return in 6 days.
jibeaux
The prosecutors of Michael Peterson, convicted wife-killer, here in my neck o the woods (mental note: possibly avoid husbands named Peterson) went to Germany to exhume a body of a family friend who also died reportedly of a fall down the stairs. I don’t think they found anything especially different the autopsy results the second time, other than, well, I expect the condition of the body…
Snarki, child of Loki
“what the odds are on having several of your wives disappear/die mysteriously”
10-15 years ago, a woman was convicted of murder in the UK after her second baby died of SIDS. Once? Bad luck. Twice? Must be a crime. The odds are ASTRONOMICAL!
But it turned out that there was a previously unknown genetic predisposition to SIDS, she had it and passed it on. The woman was eventually freed, but not before spending a lot of years in prison.
That’s not to say that in this case the spouse death/disappearances are accidents or the like, but that using “the odds” to convict someone can easily lead to a miscarriage of justice.
Kirk Spencer
@harlana pepper: The IRS has a link to find the status of your refund. Instructions and link are here.
edit to add – I see I’m late and you’ve already gone there. ah well.
Persia
@Snarki, child of Loki: Leaving SIDS politics aside, do you really need me to explain the difference between a genetic anomaly that runs in families and the genetics of a bunch of non-related women? Really?
Polish the Guillotines
Beware the “Missing White Woman(TM)” story, as it portends great disaster.
Chandra Levy was in wall-to-wall rotation until 9/11 swept her off the teevee.
Lacy Peterson ruled cable until… wait for it… the US attacked Iraq.
Natalie Holloway owned the news cycle until Hurricane Katrina made Brownie a household name.
I tells ya, something evil this way comes. Break out the gaffer’s tape and plastic tarps. Be afraid. Be very — AIEEEEEE!
asiangrrlMN
Great. I am not up for another round of MWW. I had more than my fill with our own case some years back.
In this particular case, I see it as most of the commenters do: They did a shit-poor job the first time around because he’s a member of the thin blue line, and now, they’re forced to take a closer (read, real) look at it.
Thank you all for pointing out that Drew Peterson and Scott Peterson are two different people. I was getting confused.
dr. luba
@harlana pepper: I’ve been using Turbotax (nee Macintax) for–OMG–14 years. Doing my taxes was one reason I bought my first computer.
When you file electronically, Turbotax will now send you two notices–the first when your file is sent, the second when the IRS accepts it. (You used to have to check for acceptance yourself.) Something to keep an eye out for next year.
If you were told your return was accepted, and it wasn’t, you have a bone to pick with Turbotax.
Chris
If you don’t think that the authorities can just find a way to make the autopsy say what they want (or find the pathologist that can find what they want), then I suggest you google the name “Steven Hayne.”
mcsey
That’ll teach him to have her cremated.
Steve
On the second autopsy: There was a cold case a while back that went like this. 2 friends are at home. The first hears a gunshot and runs into the room and finds the second as shot himself in the head. Ruled a suicide, and buried. Years later, new evidence crops up implicating the living friend. They exhume the body and use some kind of surface scan on the head and determine that the gun barrel was turned upside down when pressed against the head, proving it impossible to have been a suicide. The living friend is charged with murder and convicted. So second autopsies can definitely turn up new evidence and turn a case.
@ Harlana: did you get any of the submission confirmation emails?
ChrisZ
I have to take issue with this quote, you are not doing the math correctly. Yes the odds of having more than one of your wives die/disappear mysteriously are very small, but we haven’t preselected Peterson and then found that this rare thing happened. What are the odds that, in the entire population of the United States that there will be a man two of whose wives will die/disappear under mysterious circumstances? I don’t know, but I bet they aren’t too bad. Your statement is equivalent to saying:
“What are the odds of winning the powerball fair and square? They’re tiny, therefore if someone wins the powerball they almost certainly cheated!”
This is obviously fallacious, but your statement is equivalent.