Drew Peterson

Drew Walter Peterson (born January 5, 1954) is an American convicted murderer and former Bolingbrook, Illinois, police sergeant who was found guilty in 2012 of the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, a few months after their 2003 divorce.

Drew Peterson was born in Bolingbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, on January 5, 1954.

Peterson married Kathleen Savio (born June 13, 1963, in Glendale Heights, Illinois), an accountant, on May 3, 1992, just a few months after his divorce from Connolly.

He graduated in 1972 from Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, Illinois, where he ran cross country.

He joined the United States Army after graduation and briefly attended the College of DuPage in 1974 before moving to Falls Church, Virginia, to train as a military police officer.

They married in 1974, but divorced six years later after Brown learned about Peterson's infidelity.

Peterson began his thirty-year career with the local Bolingbrook police force in 1977.

In 1978, he was assigned to the Metropolitan Area Narcotics Squad, and in 1979 he received a "Police Officer of the Year" award from the department.

Together they had sons Stephen Paul Peterson (1980) and Eric Drew Peterson.

Peterson married his second wife, Victoria "Vicki" Connolly, in 1982.

They operated a bar together in Romeoville.

Connolly alleged a history of domestic violence during her ten-year marriage to Peterson, as did her daughter, who lived in the household until she turned 17.

In the wake of Stacy Ann's disappearance, Connolly told police that during their marriage, Peterson threatened to kill her and make it look like an accident.

She divorced Peterson after he started dating Kathleen Savio.

Their divorce was finalized on February 18, 1992.

Together they had two sons, Thomas (January 5, 1993) and Kristopher (August 8, 1994).

During their marriage, the couple lived at 392 Pheasant Chase Drive in Bolingbrook.

It was reported that between 2002 and 2004, police were called out to the Peterson house eighteen times on domestic disturbance calls, including calls for returning children late after visitation.

Their divorce was finalized on October 10, 2003.

Suspicions in Stacy Ann's case were fueled in part by the death of Savio, whose bruised body was found in a dry bathtub in her home in 2004 with a large gash to her scalp.

Initially, Savio's official cause of death was found to be accidental drowning.

On March 1, 2004, Savio's nude body was found in a dry bathtub in the master suite of the Pheasant Chase Drive residence.

Less than a month later, Peterson put the house up for sale.

He did not mention Savio's death to the new owners, claiming he was only selling the house due to the fact that his children enjoyed swimming in the pool at his secondary residence down the street.

Savio's death was initially ruled an accidental drowning by a coroner's jury that included a police officer who personally knew Peterson and assured the other jurors that he was a good man who would never hurt his wife.

Peterson first received national publicity in 2007 when his fourth wife, Stacy Ann Cales Peterson, disappeared.

Although the police and Stacy Ann's family suspect foul play, she has never been found.

Peterson retired in November 2007 at age 53 with the rank of sergeant and was given a (tax-free) $79,000-a-year pension (almost $6,600 a month).

However, following Stacy Peterson's later disappearance, Savio's body was exhumed and underwent forensic examination on November 16, 2007.

Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner who conducted the examination at the request of Savio's relatives and Fox News, concluded that she died of drowning following a struggle when her body was placed in the bathtub.

Postmortem photos showed extensive bruising and scraping to her back, torso, and face, as well as a large, unexplained gash in her scalp.

The results of the official autopsy ordered by the county have not been released to the public.

In 2009, in light of Stacy Ann's disappearance, Peterson was indicted for Savio's murder after a second autopsy showed evidence of a struggle.

Upon conviction he was sentenced to thirty-eight years in prison on February 21, 2013.

On February 9, 2015, Peterson was charged with two additional felonies—solicitation of murder and solicitation of murder for hire—for attempting to have James Glasgow, the state's attorney handling his prosecution, killed.

Peterson was convicted on May 31, 2016, and sentenced to an additional forty years on July 29, 2016.

His pension was terminated following his second conviction in May 2016.

Peterson met Carol Brown in high school and they attended his senior prom together.

On February 21, 2017, he was transferred from Illinois Department of Corrections custody to the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

In December 2019, Peterson was transferred to an undisclosed out-of-state facility.