• Font Size    
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Bolingbrook Cop's Deceased 3rd Wife Sought Help

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)



The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +   

Bolingbrook Cop's Deceased 3rd Wife Sought Help

Kathleen Savio Wrote In 2002 That Her Then-Husband, Sgt.Drew Peterson, Was Violent Toward Her And She Feared He Would Kill Her

JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) ― The search continues for missing Bolingbrook mother Stacy Peterson. Meanwhile, after not being seen for days, her husband, Drew Peterson, made an appearance in Joliet.

CBS 2 news partner the Naperville Sun saw Drew Peterson leaving the courthouse annex at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. It was rumored that he would be there for grand jury proceedings but officials would not confirm that.

CBS 2 West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli made a trip to the coroner's office on the fourth floor of that building where Drew Peterson was spotted. An official asked that he leave. When asked if the building was a public building, the official responded, "Not today."

Officials would not confirm anything regarding that grand jury Drew Peterson reportedly attended Wednesday.

Will County Coroner Pat O'Neil released a written statement Wednesday night regarding Kathleen Savio's 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."

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

Prosecutors are discussing whether to exhume the body of Drew Peterson's third wife.

Three and a half years after Kathleen Savio was found dead in a bathtub, her sister, Anna Doman, is speaking out for the first time for her desire to see her youngest sister exhumed from her eternal resting place.

In a letter written in 2002, 16 months, before she died, Kathleen Savio she accuses Drew Peterson of violence, saying, "There have been several times throughout my marriage with this man where I ended up at the emergency room in Bolingbrook for injuries."

And sometimes she claimed the veteran police sergeant used weapons saying, "He pulled out his knife that he kept around his leg and brought it to my neck. I thought I'd never see my boys again. I just told him to end this craziness and he for some reason pulled back. I didn't tell the police because I know they can't protect me from him."

Her sister says Kathleen always lived in fear of her husband.

"She came right here and told me. Oh, yeah, she said 'take care of my boys and I want you to make sure you get these papers because I want you to go get him," Anna Doman said.

So that's why this sister is releasing those papers, in the hopes that authorities will exhume Kathleen's body and find out exactly how she died.

Anna Doman says Kathleen always believed that her husband, Drew Peterson, would hurt her.

"She told me she'd never make it to the end of the divorce. She'd never make the property settlement," Anna Doman said. "That's a shame."

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." 

In the letter, which was addressed to a prosecutor, Kathleen wrote of Drew, "He knows how to manipulate the system and his next step is to take my children away, or kill me instead."



She goes on to say, "I haven't received help from the police here in Bolingbrook and [am] asking for your help now before it's too late. I really hope by filing this charge, it might stop him from trying to hurt us."

When Kathleen Savio died, Melissa Doman lost her favorite aunt. But she thinks of the woman she called Kitty every time she looks at her daughter.

"When I had my daughter, I named her after my aunt, so that no matter what I'll never forget," Melissa Doman said.

Savio's family will never forget a loving mother and sister, who is always in their hearts, a woman whose story they are telling now because she no longer can.

"How in the world could anyone say it was an accident?" Anna Doman said. "The cut was on the back of her head, and she was on her face in a waterless bathtub. Give me a break."

CBS 2 tried to reach Drew Peterson Wednesday but he did not return calls. Anna Doman says she has not spoken to authorities since Stacy Peterson went missing, but says she is now ready to.

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


(CBS 2, the Naperville Sun and the Aurora Beacon-News are news partners covering stories in the western suburbs. Send story tips to tips@cbs2chicago.com. (© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.