Nov 5, 2007 10:57 pm US/Central
New Tip Line, High-Tech Help In Search For Woman
Husband In Another High Profile Missing Woman's Case Offers Support To Drew Peterson
BOLINGBROOK, Ill. (CBS) ―
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Stacy Peterson, 23, has been missing since Sunday, Oct. 28.
CBS
While police investigators have been focusing on specific areas searching for missing mother Stacy Peterson, a group of volunteer searchers have brought in some heavy equipment to aid in the search.
As CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports, the Illinois state police searched nine areas Monday, ending the effort around 6 p.m. A spokesperson says they found nothing.
Stacy Peterson's friends and family say they just want some sort of closure and hope an intensified search will give them that.
The not-for-profit group Equusearch has set up headquarters at the house next door to the Peterson's. The professional search team is looking for a command center, recruiting volunteers and will soon launch a full scale search for the 23-year-old mother of two.
The director of the group announced he would bring high-tech equipment, horse riders and volunteers to the search, but wouldn't say where they'll start. "There may be somebody who knows where she is. If we share it, we're not going to take a chance on her being moved," Tim Miller said.
Dennis Watters is the latest person to join the search. He's in town assisting Texas Equusearch and plans to use his sonar equipment to scan area lakes, ponds, rivers and quarries.
"We've recovered numerous bodies with it," Watters said. "It's gonna allow us to take very detailed pictures of the lakes and quarries in the area."
Peterson's been missing for more than a week. Her husband, Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson, says he last spoke to his wife on October 28.
Miller says he hopes his cadre of volunteers can help.
"I think there's strength in numbers, so once we get our plans together we'll be calling for volunteers," Miller said.
Stacy Peterson's friends and family say she recently told them she was in a manipulative and controlling marriage.
"She did say to many of us, not just me in confidence, but many of us, that if anything happened to her it was not an accident. He killed her," said her friend and neighbor Sharon Bychowski.
The mystery is similar to the case of Lisa Stebic, the Plainfield mother who vanished last April. Her husband Craig Stebic, told the Chicago Sun-Times he relates to the Bolingbrook cop, saying, "I know what he's going through."
"Craig has cut us off from seeing Lisa's children. And yet I was almost speechless to hear that he found time to make sympathetic comments about drew Peterson," Melanie Greenberg, Lisa Stebic's cousin, said.
Bolingbrook police said they investigated 18 domestic complaints between Drew Peterson and his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who died accidentally in a bathtub in 2004.
"She told me that he would kill her; it would look like an accident but it wasn't," Savio's sister, Sue Doman, said.
Doman said Savio asked her to take care of her kids.
The Bolingbrook police chief said there were no domestic complaints between Drew Peterson and Stacy Peterson before now.
Friends and family have set up a new Web site, FindStacyPeterson.com, in hopes someone can provide clues into Stacy's disappearance.
Also, the Illinois State Police have set up a Stacy Peterson Tip Line at (815) 740-0678.
Texas Equusearch helped comb Aruba for teenager Natallee Holloway two years ago. She has never been found.
CBS 2's Dana Kozlov and Joanie Lum contributed to this report.cbs2chicago.com's Most Popular Pages
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