Chicago Area Local News

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. (CBS) ― As the search for the missing wife of a Bolingbrook police sergeant enters its 12th day, authorities have reopened the investigation into the death of the sergeant's previous wife.

Officials at the Will County State's Attorney's office are discussing the possible exhumation of the body of Kathleen Savio, the third wife of Sgt. Drew Peterson.

Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, has been missing for the past 12 days. One of her family member was glad that the investigation into Savio's death was being reopened.

"I'm glad that they went back to research that," said Stacy Peterson's friend Roy Taylor. "I'm glad that they didn't just worry about Stacy. Stacy's very important, obviously, but I'm glad that they went back, and maybe Kathleen's family can get some closure here as well."

Savio was found dead in a whirlpool-style bathtub in March 2004. At the time, it was ruled accidental, but on Wednesday, Will County Coroner Pat O'Neil released a written statement regarding her death.

It reads: "Certain aspects of Kathleen Savio's death raised concerns for me as well… it was my opinion that, at the very least, her death should have been ruled 'undetermined.' It must be noted that a state's attorney's office may file criminal charges in a case regardless of a ruling by a coroner's jury that a death is accidental."

The original coroner's report is a 28-page document that Kathleen Savio's family members believe shows how a coroner's inquest became a miscarriage of justice.

"We always believed she was murdered," Savio's sister, Anna Doman, said. "There was no way my sister was not murdered."

And they believe Drew Peterson killed his ex-wife. But a six-member coroner's jury ruled Savio accidentally drowned in her bathtub. The coroner said Wednesday that was a mistake. He released on Thursday the inquest transcript.

The proceedings began when Kathleen's sister told how she was informed by a relative of Kathleen's death.

"I was told that my sister was dead," Doman said. "I asked if her ex-husband killed her, and she told me she didn't know. And the reason I ask that is because she was terrified of him and him threatening her. "

The only police officer called to testify never was at the death scene, and didn't attend the autopsy, where eight separate injuries were noted on Savio's body.

The coroner asked him if there was "any signs of a struggle noted at the scene?"

The officer answered: "no there was not."

"Any signs of a struggle or defense wounds?" the coroner asked.

"No, there was not," the officer answered.

"And there was a little bit of blood in the tub?" the coroner asked.

The officer said, "That's right."

But, DuPage County's chief deputy coroner, Charlie Dastych also reviewed the autopsy report at CBS 2's request, and isn't so sure.

"The injuries that are noted in the autopsy report definitely indicate there is evidence of suspicion that could be looked at at a different level," Dastych said. "Evidence of a possible struggle."

"When they talk about an injury to the scalp, and blood matted in the hair, I think it would raise questions of what caused this trauma if you're drowned in a bathtub," said DuPage County Coroner Peter Siekmann. "But basically healthy people that have no toxic substances in their system, essentially they don't drown."

No charges were originally filed in the case, but the current state's attorney decided to reopen it in light of Stacy Peterson's disappearance.

"If the coroner's jury says it's an accident and the pathologist who performs the autopsy says it's not an accident, the state's attorney has every right in the world to forget and disregard what the coroner's jury has to say," said CBS 2's legal expert Irv Miller.

Anna Doman said Kathleen Savio told her she knew she would be killed. And although she's never said publicly that she believed Drew Peterson killed Kathleen, she's not holding back anymore.

When asked if she thinks Drew Peterson killed Kathleen Savio, Anna Doman said, "It's hard to say… yeah, I do. …He had the most to gain – money."

She says there was $1 million in life insurance and a more than $600,000 estate that stood to be divided.

"She would have gotten half. Instead she got none," Anna Doman said. "He got it all."

Records show Savio obtained an order of protection against Drew Peterson in 2002, alleging a pattern of abusing and threats. She did the same in a letter to a prosecutor, written 16 months before she died.

"He knows how to manipulate the system, and his next step is to take my children away, or kill me instead," Savio wrote in the letter. "I haven't received help from the police here in Bolingbrook and am asking for your help before it's too late."

Search For Stacy Peterson Continues

Meanwhile, professional searchers and volunteers continue to seek Stacy Peterson. Drew said she voluntarily left him, but her family says she would never have abandoned her children.

Stacy's disappearance remains a missing persons case, and Illinois State Police are investigating. They are conducting searches based on information that comes in, along with volunteers from the professional search group Texas Equusearch.

"By water, we've got a lot of different water areas that we're doing this sonar equipment. We're going to be back up in the air today with an airplane and a helicopter again," said Texas Equusearch founder Tim Miller. "I know her sister said, 'I can live with the fact that maybe she's dead, but I can't live with the fact that I'm not going to be able to say goodbye to her, so please don't quit.'"

On Wednesday, CBS 2 news partner the Naperville Sun saw Drew Peterson leaving the courthouse annex at 3:30 p.m. Published reports said he came for grand jury proceedings but officials would not confirm that.

But a friend of Drew Peterson's told a producer for the CBS Early Show that Peterson was in court and repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment.

CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman and Mike Puccinelli contributed to this report.

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