Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The Peterson children's uncle brought groceries to the house, and as he left he blasted the reporters who've been in the neighborhood for weeks.

"Amend the laws, change the law and make it illegal for you guys... why you're nothing more than paparazzi leave this poor little family alone," Paul Peterson said Wednesday night. "I'm sure that the two moms would not like their kids tortured like this."

His outburst came on the same day former Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson declared his innocence on NBC's "Today" show. Peterson went on national television Wednesday to proclaim his innocence in the disappearance of his fourth wife and the death of his third wife.

Peterson told NBC's "Today" that Stacy Peterson, his fourth wife, had asked him for a divorce, but he thought it was due to hormones.

"I'm not trying to be funny, but Stacy would ask me for a divorce after her sister died on a regular basis," Peterson said. "It was based on her menstrual cycle."

"For a man to declare that any kind of relationship issues are based on PMS or menstrual cycle, I think half the men out there would have missing wives," Pamela Bosco, a spokeswoman for Stacy Peterson's family, said after the interview aired.

Stacy Peterson, 23, was last seen Oct. 28. Authorities say the case is a potential homicide investigation and have identified her 53-year-old husband as a suspect.

Drew Peterson was a sergeant in southwest suburban Bolingbrook until this week, when the department said he submitted a resignation letter, effective immediately.

Peterson said that his wife fell into a deep depression after her sister died of cancer, and had been taking medication. They often had fights after that, he said. In one instance, he said, she hit him in the head with a frozen steak. But he said he never hit her. Stacy Peterson's loved ones said that's a lie.

"I've heard his kids say they have seen him hit her. And there were other family member witnesses there as well," Kerry Simmons, Stacy Peterson's stepsister, said.

Peterson believes his wife has left him for another man. He has not participated in any of the organized searches for her and said he has no plans to look for her because he thinks she left willfully.

"Why would I look for somebody who I don't believe is missing? She's just gone. She's where she wants to be," Peterson told NBC.

"If you really think that she left you, why haven't you asked anybody if she's heard from, if we have heard from her. He has not ever asked any of us," Sharon Bychowski, Stacy Peterson's best friend, said. "I think he knows exactly where she is."

The interview aired a day after the body of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, was exhumed in Illinois as authorities look for clues about how she died.

Savio was found dead in her bathtub in 2004, her hair soaked in blood from a head wound, just before the couple's divorce settlement was finalized. The death was ruled an accidental drowning, but investigators now say evidence suggests that someone killed Savio and tried to make it look like an accident.

Peterson downplayed any similarities between the two cases, but said his relationships with both women were troubled. Both suffered from emotional problems, he said, but were beautiful and exciting when he first met them. He denied he had anything to do with the two cases.

"I can look right in your eye and say I had nothing to do with either of those incidents," he said.

Peterson acknowledged that there were mysterious circumstances surrounding Savio's death, but said he didn't know what, if anything, the exhumation would accomplish.

"It's a shame her rest in peace has to be disturbed for something like this," he told NBC.

Stacy Peterson's family has said she feared her husband, was making plans to divorce him and would not have willingly left her two young children. Savio's relatives have long suspected she didn't drown accidentally.

Peterson, who had been suspended without before resigning, said he agreed to the interview because he believed both women's families and the media were targeting him.

"I think my silence has basically painted me guilty in the media," he said.

Peterson has told his two youngest children -- aged two and four -- that "basically, mom has gone on a vacation." The two teenage sons he fathered with Savio also live with him.

He also pleaded with his wife to return: "Come home," he said. "Tell people where you are."

Drew Peterson said he expects his legal defense in each case could cost as much as $250,000. "If anybody would like to take my case and help me out here, please call," he said.

That drew criticism from Stacy Peterson's stepsister. "It was like he had no feeling whatsoever... He was just trying to get a lawyer to take his case," Simmons said.

Theresa Zagnoli is a communications expert in business in legal affairs. She watched the interview and said Peterson acted "like it's a big joke, it's all about him." She said Peterson's body language betrayed him. "He was stiff and unmoving," she said.

"He brought that cop role with him to the screen, to the television and he played it. I would not have advised him to do that… he's not even showing verbally or non-verbally that he's even interested in where his wife is," Zagnoli said.

CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller said Peterson did not damage himself legally. "The more he exposes himself to the public, the better off he is. The more that he's secretive, the more that he hides behind the bandana, the more that he stonewalls people, people perceive that he's guilty," Miller said.


CBS 2's Joanie Lum and West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

cbs2chicago.com's Most Popular Pages
 Slideshow: People's Sexiest Men Alive
 Slideshow: '90s TV Stars Then & Now
 Slideshow: Useless Body Parts
 Slideshow: In To Be Out: Gay Celebrities
 Slideshow: Did You Know? Stars From Chicago!

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)