Drew Peterson, Stacy Peterson, Kathleen Savio, and a Deadly Marriage

Drew, who has been convicted of the murder of one of his wives and is suspected of murdering another, is a coldblooded man. While he had a history of abuse, Drew Peterson was untouchable until the sister of one of his wives pursued justice against the murder. Let’s get into it.

Drew and Hamilton were married for six years, but not all those years were filled with joy. In an exclusive interview with the Chicago Tribune, Hamilton revealed that Drew had never been abusive or controlling toward her, but that he did cheat on her while she was pregnant with one of their two sons (via All That’s Interesting). “I thought he always had respect for me, but I guess when you stray in a relationship, you don’t have respect for the person that you were doing that to,” she said.

In 1982, Drew married Vicki Connolly. The two operated a bar together in Romeoville. During her nine-and-a-half-year marriage to Drew, Connolly alleged that Drew was violent toward her and her daughter, who lived in the household until she turned 17 years old. According to In Touch, Connolly said that Drew “put me up against the wall in the garage and grabbed me by the throat.” Drew’s and Connolly’s relationship ended six months before he remarried once again.

In 2001, the couple separated due to Drew’s affair with a 16-year-old Stacy Cales, who was working as a front desk clerk at a Bolingbrook hotel. Two years later, Peterson would marry Stacy.

Kathleen feared Drew by this point, and told her sister, “He’s gonna kill me and it’s gonna look like an accident.”

By this point, the Bolingbrook police had responded to 10 service calls regarding Drew and Kathleen (via The Columbus Dispatch). Police would respond to eight more calls before Drew and Cales married in October 2003.

Stacy started to note that Drew became increasingly controlling and suspicious, accusing her of infidelity and prohibiting her from seeing family and friends. According to family friend Bruce Zidarich, “[Stacy] would always look over her shoulder. She said, ‘I’m gonna tell him that I want a divorce.’ … It came up more and more often” (via ABC News).

On March 1, 2004, Kathleen was found dead in a dry bathtub in her home. A coroner’s jury initially ruled her death as an accidental drowning.

On Feb. 27, 2004, Drew picked up his children from Kathleen Savio’s house, then spent the weekend with them, Stacy, and his adult son Stephen. On Feb. 29, Drew, Stacy, and his children went to the Shedd Aquarium before attempting to return the children to Kathleen at 8 p.m. She did not answer her phone or her door. On March 1, Drew went to work and then went to Kathleen’s house at 7 p.m. Drew asked neighbors Mary Ponterelli and Steve Carcerano and a locksmith to enter Kathleen’s home and ran into the house after he heard a neighbor scream. Kathleen’s drowning was initially categorized as an accident.

Unsatisfied with Drew’s story, Cales files a missing person’s report with Illinois State Police. Drew’s suspicious behavior, which included resigning from the Bolingbrook Police Department when he was just shy of his 30th anniversary with the department, prompted detectives to look back on Kathleen’s death.

Authorities believed that Kathleen’s death was a homicide and that Drew Peterson was the most likely suspect. By this time, Drew started a new relationship with Christina Raines, who would leave him in 2009 after he talked about how easily he could “snap” someone’s neck (via All That’s Interesting).

Peterson is also a suspect in Stacy Peterson’s disappearance, however, he has not been charged for a simple reason: No one can find Stacy Peterson. Now missing for 16 years, it seems unlikely that we will ever find out what happened to Stacy. Stacy and Drew Petersons’ children and stepchildren with Drew are currently in custody of Peterson’s adult son Stephen (via The Chicago Tribune).

Peterson was moved to the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana, after an Illinois Department of Corrections official wrote in a letter that would later become public, “Offender Peterson is a threat to safety and security of the department and therefore an Interstate Corrections Compact Agreement transfer is being initiated by IDOC.” As of Feb. 14, 2022, Peterson does not appear in the Illinois prison inmate database. However, his case remains under IDOC jurisdiction.