12 Crimes of Christmas - "THE COP WHO KILLED HIS WIVES: DREW PETERSON'S BATHTUB MURDER & THE WIFE WHO VANISHED"

0:03 Callarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Sunday, January fourth, twenty twenty six. Welcome to the finale of our twelve Crimes of Christmas series, and we're ending with a cop who thought his badge made him untouchable. October twenty eighth, two thousand and seven, Ballingbrook, Illinois, Thomas Morphy gets a call from his stepbrother Drew Peterson. Drew's a police sergeant twenty nine years on the force, needs help with something. Drew picks him up. They drive to Drew's house on Pheasant Chase Court. Drew leads Thomas upstairs to the master bedroom. There's a blue plastic barrel big enough to hold a body.

0:45 Drew says, help me carry this. Thomas grabs one end. It's heavy and warm to the touch. They carry it downstairs, loaded into Drew's gmc denali. Drew looks at Thomas and says this never happened. The next day, Drew Peterson's fourth wife, twenty three year old Stacy, is reported missing. Thomas Morphy believed Stacy's body was in that barrel. The guilt overwhelmed him. He swallowed bottles of xanax and Paxel tried to kill himself survived. Stacy Peterson has never been found, but her disappearance triggered something made investigators take a second look at the death of Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio. She'd been found dead in a dry bathtub three years earlier, ruled an accidental drowning case closed, except now they reopened it, exhumed her body, found evidence of a struggle, reclassified her death as homicide. Drew Peterson copp husband father, was charged with murder September twenty twelve, convicted thirty eight years in prison, but that wasn't enough for Drew. From his prison cell, he plotted to have the prosecutor killed, got caught, convicted again forty more years. Drew Peterson will die in prison, but his fourth wife has never been found and her family is still waiting for justice. I'm Red Carter. This is celebrity trials today, the cop who killed his wives.

2:15 This is the finale of our twelve Crimes of Christmas. Drew Walter Peterson was born January fifth, nineteen fifty four. Grew up in the Chicago suburbs. Joined the Bolingbrook Police Department in nineteen seventy seven, rose through the ranks, became a sergeant, worked nights, respected by some colleagues, feared by others. He was also a serial husband, four marriages, each one ending worse than the last. Wife Number one Carol Brown, married in the nineteen seventies. Had two sons, Eric and Stephen. The marriage ended in divorce. Carol later described Drew as controlling, abusive.

2:58 Wife Number two Victoria Connolly, married in nineteen eighty two, divorced in nineteen ninety two. Victoria would later tell investigators that Drew was obsessive, possessive, that leaving him was terrifying. Wife number three, Kathleen Savio. This is where the bodies start piling up. Drew met Kathleen in nineteen ninety two. She was twenty eight, he was thirty eight. They married that same year. Had two sons together, Thomas and Christopher, but the marriage was violent from the start. Kathleen filed for divorce in two thousand and one. The proceedings were bitter. They fought over everything, the house, the pension, the children.

3:38 In two thousand and two and two thousand and three, Kathleen filed eighteen police reports against Drew alleged abuse, stalking threats. She wrote a letter to the Will County States Attorney begging for help. He wants me dead and if he has to, he will burn the house down just to kill me, she wrote. I really believe if he will, he knows how to manipulate the system and his family as well. Nobody helped her. Drew was a cop, his fellow officers knew him, protected him. The reports went nowhere. The divorce was finalized in October two thousand and three. Kathleen was supposed to receive a portion of Drew's pension and other assets. The final settlement was scheduled for early two thousand and four, but before that could happen, Drew was already on to wife number four. Stacy Anne Kle's was nineteen years old when she started dating Drew Peterson.

4:36 He was forty nine. She was a hotel receptionist, he was a police sergeant. She'd had a troubled childhood. Her own mother had disappeared in nineteen ninety eight and was never found. Drew started dating Stacy while still married to Kathleen, moved her into his life before the divorce was even final They married on October eighteenth, two thousand and three, days after his divorce from Kathleen was finalized. Stacy was young, naive, thought she'd found stability with an older man, a cop, someone who could protect her. She had no idea what she'd married into. In March two thousand and four, five months after Drew married Stacy, Kathleen Savio was found dead.

5:17 She was in the bathtub of her home, a house less than a mile from where Drew now lived with Stacy. The tub was dry, Kathleen's hair was wet. She had a large gash on the back of her head bruises on her body. The initial investigation was handled by Illinois State Police, but one of the coroner's jurors was a police officer who personally knew Drew Peterson. He assured the other jurors that Drew was a good man who had never hurt his wife. The death was ruled accidental drowning. Case closed. Drew Peterson inherited the house, got the kids, avoided paying the divorce settlement. Kathleen Savio was forty years old, mother of two, had spent years begging for help, warning people that Drew would kill her. Nobody listened and now she was dead. Rest in peace, Kathleen, Someone has to say your name. For three years, Drew Peterson got away with it, lived his life, raised his kids, worked his job.

6:28 Married to a woman thirty years younger than him, Stacy Peterson tried to make it work, had two children Withdrew, Anthony in two thousand and three and Lacy in two thousand and five. Legally adopted Kathleen's sons, treating them like her own. Four children total, a house in the suburbs, a husband with a pension. But by two thousand and seven, Stacy wanted out. She was twenty three years old, had spent four years with a controlling, possessive man, three decades her senior old friends that having sex with Drew made her skin crawl, that she didn't love him anymore, that she wanted a divorce. She consulted a divorce attorney, bought a new cell phone. She hid from Drew, started packing boxes of his belongings, trying to kick him out of the house. She told me Drew wouldn't go. Her neighbor, Sharon Bachowski, later testified he wouldn't leave, but Stacy had something else, something that could destroy Drew. Peterson she knew the truth about Kathleen. Before Kathleen died, Stacy had been Drew's alibi, told police he was home with her the night Kathleen was killed, but Stacy later confided in her pastor, Reverend Neil Shorey, that she'd lied. Stacey told the reverend she woke up in the middle of the night when Kathleen was killed, Drew wasn't in bed. In the early morning, she saw him removing his clothing and emptying the contents of a bag into the washing machine. Told Stacy he'd

8:00 killed Kathleen, taught her how to lie to police if they started asking questions. Stacey also told Kathleen's former divorce attorney, Harry Smith, that she wanted to use Drew's murder of Kathleen as leverage in her own divorce. Can I use this against him? She asked. Drew Peterson knew his fourth wife could send him to prison, and in October two thousand and seven, Stacy Peterson vanished. October twenty eighth, two thousand and seven, Drew told people he last saw Stacy leaving their home around ten or eleven am. She was supposed to meet a friend and help paint a house never arrived. Drew said he spoke to Stacy by phone at nine pm that night. She told him she'd left him for another man. Her car was at Klow Airport, about four hundred yards from their home, keys on the floorboard, doors unlocked. But nothing about Drew's story made sense. None of Stacy's clothing was missing, she hadn't withdrawn money from their bank counts. Her cell phone was never used again.

9:03 She left behind four children, including two toddlers, without a word. And then there was the blue barrel. A neighbor saw Drew and another man loading a large blue container into Drew's suv around the time Stacy disappeared. That man was Thomas Morphy, Drew's stepbrother. Morphy later told police everything. Drew had called him the day before Stacy vanished, asked him a chilling question, how much do you love me? I do? Morphy said, enough to kill for me. The next day, Drew picked up Morphy, took him to a park, talked about Stacy allegedly cheating on him, said he had to take care of the problem. Then they went to Drew's house.

9:46 Drew led Morphy upstairs to the master bedroom. There was the blue barrel, heavy warm to the touch. They carried it downstairs, loaded it into Drew's truck. Drew looked at Morphy and said, this never happened. Morphy went home, couldn't stop thinking about what he'd done, what was in that barrel. He knew, he knew Stacy was inside. The guilt destroyed him. On October twenty ninth, the day Stacy was reported missing, Thomas Morphy swallowed bottles of xanax and paxel, tried to kill himself, was rushed to the hospital. Survived. At the hospital. Prosecutors offered Morphy immunity in exchange for his cooperation. He took the deal, told them everything. But Stacy's body has never been found. The blue barrel has never been recovered.

10:36 Wherever Drew Peterson disposed of his fourth wife, he did it well enough that seventeen years later, she's still missing. Drew maintained his innocence, told reporters Stacy ran off with another man called Morphy mentally ill, bipolar, alcoholic, unreliable, but nobody believed him, and Stacy's disappearance forced investigators to take another look at Kathleen Savio. The death Drew had gotten away with for three years, was about to catch up with him. We'll be right back with the murder conviction, the Hearsay law named after Drew Peterson, and the prison plot to kill the prosecutor. November two thousand and seven, Kathleen Saviot's body was exhumed. Doctor Michael Baden, former New York City medical examiner, conducted a new forensic examination. His conclusion Kathleen died from drowning following a violent struggle. Her body had been placed in the bathtub to make it look like an accident. The bruises, the gash on her head, the position of her body in a dry tub, none of it was consistent with accidental drowning. February two thousand and eight, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow announced the findings.

12:02 Kathleen Savio's death was ruled a homicide, a homicide staged to look like an accident, Glasgow said. May two thousand and nine, Drew Peterson was indicted for the murder of Kathleen Savio, but prosecutors had a problem. Their case was almost entirely circumstantial. No murder weapon, no eye witnesses, no DNA evidence placing Drew at the scene. What they had was hearsay statements Kathleen and Stacy had made to friends, family, attorneys, and clergy statements about Drew's violence, his threats, his confession to Stacy about killing Kathleen. Under normal rules of evidence, hearsay isn't admissible. You can't testify about what someone else told you. The defendant has a sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him. But Kathleen was dead and Stacy had disappeared, likely killed by the same man on trial.

12:59 Illinois legislator saw the problem. In two thousand and eight, they passed a new law. It allowed prosecutors to introduce hearsay testimony in murder cases if they could prove the defendant killed the witness to prevent them from testifying. They called it Drew's Law. Drew Peterson's own crimes had created the legal mechanism that would convict him. The trial began in July twenty twelve. Prosecutor James Glasgow presented the hearsay evidence. Reverend Neil Shorey testified about what Stacy told him that Drew confessed to killing Kathleen, that Drew taught Stacy how to lie to police. Harry Smith, Kathleen's divorce attorney, testified that Stacy wanted to use Drew's murder of Kathleen as leverage in her own divorce. Thomas Morphy testified about the blue barrel, the warmth Drew's words, this never happened. Drew's own son, Eric Peterson, testified about watching his father drag Kathleen into the house by her hair in nineteen ninety three.

13:59 She was screaming for help. Eric said the defense attacked the witnesses, called Morphy mentally ill, called the hearsay unreliable, argued there was no physical evidence of murder, but the jury believed the voices from beyond the grave. September sixth, twenty twelve, after fourteen hours of deliberation, the jury returned its verdict guilty first degree murder. Drew Peterson showed no emotion. His family sat in stunned silence. Kathleen Saviot's relatives wept with relief. At sentencing, Drew addressed the court, broke down in tears, called Kathleen's family liars, accused Prosecutor Glasgow of destroying his life. Mister Glasgow, all aspects of my life have been destroyed. Peterson said, never forget my face, never forget what you've done. I don't deserve this. Judge Edward Bermilla was unmoved, called Peterson remorseless, sentenced him to thirty eight years in prison. Drew Peterson was fifty nine years old.

15:03 Even with credit for time served, he'd be well into his nineties before he'd be eligible for release. But Drew wasn't done making enemies. In twenty fourteen, prosecutors discovered that Drew had been plotting from prison, trying to hire someone to kill James Glasgow, the prosecutor who'd put him away. Drew recruited a fellow inmate to help, offered ten thousand dollars for the hit, didn't realize the inmate was cooperating with authorities recording everything. March twenty sixteen, Drew Peterson was convicted of solicitation of murder for hire, sentenced to an additional forty years. He's now serving a total of seventy eight years. He'll be one hundred forty nine years old when his sentences are complete. Drew Peterson will die in prison, but Stacy Peterson has never been found and the family is still waiting where they are now. Drew Peterson is seventy one years old, incarcerated at the Terrey Hate Federal Correctional Complex in Indiana, still filing motions, still claiming innocence, still trying to overturn his conviction. In twenty twenty one, he filed a petition arguing he received ineffective legal counsel, said his attorney, Joel Brodsky, refused to let him testify in his own defense. The petition has been working its way through the courts. In January twenty twenty five, a judge ruled Peterson mentally competent to pursue his appeals. He appeared in court with his hair and a crew cut,

16:35 cracking jokes with the judge. You look like you could handle yourself, Peterson told Judge Dave Carlson. The judge replied, I'm too old for that. Drew Peterson has nothing but time and nothing to lose by fighting Joel Brodsky, Peterson's former attorney, has been ordered not to discuss the case after allegedly violating a gag order. He claims he has information that could solve Stacy's disappearance. Nobody knows if that's true. True. Stacy Peterson has been missing for seventeen years. She was twenty three years old when she vanished, would be forty one today. Her body has never been found. Drew Peterson remains the only suspect in her disappearance, but has never been charged. Without a body, without physical evidence, prosecutors have never moved forward. Her family holds vigils every year, keeps her memory alive, waits for answers that may never come.

17:28 Kathleen Savio's sons, Thomas and Christopher, were raised by Stacy after their mother's death. Then Stacy disappeared too. They've lost two mothers to the same man. Stacy's children, Anthony and Lacy, were toddlers when their mother vanished. They've grown up without her, their father in prison for murder, their mother just gone. The Peterson children have been through hell, multiple mothers dead or missing, a father convicted of murder, a family destroyed, made by one man's violence. Drew Peterson was a police officer for twenty nine years, sworn to protect and serve. Instead, he used his badge, his knowledge of the system, his connections to murder his wives and evade justice. For three years.

18:17 He got away with killing Kathleen Savio might have gotten away with it forever if Stacy hadn't disappeared, if investigators hadn't taken a second look. But Stacy Peterson, by vanishing, triggered the investigation that put Drew behind bars. In death and disappearance, Stacy helped convict the man who killed her. That's our Drew Peterson episode, and that's the finale of our twelve Crimes of Christmas series. March first, two thousand and four, Kathleen Savio, forty years old, found dead in a dry bathtub. Bruises on her body, gash on her head ruled accidental, reclassified as homicide three years later. Twenty eighth, two thousand and seven, Stacy Peterson twenty three years old, last seen at her home in Bolingbrook. Her stepbrother helped her husband carry a warm blue barrel from the master bedroom.

19:11 She's never been found. September sixth, twenty twelve. Drew Peterson convicted of first degree murder thirty eight years March twenty sixteen, convicted of plotting to kill the prosecutor forty more years. He'll die in prison, but his fourth wife is still missing, and justice for stacy remains incomplete. Over the past twelve days, we've covered some of the most infamous cases in modern history. John Benet Ramsay, the child beauty queen whose killer was never found. Robert Durst, the billionaire who got away with murder until he couldn't. Jodiarius, the jealous ex who stabbed her boyfriend twenty seven times. Oscar Pistorius, the blade runner who shot his girlfriend through a bathroom door. Aaron Hernandez, the NFL star who threw away everything for murder, Michael Peterson, the novelist with two women dead at the bottom of staircases.

20:07 And Drew Peterson, the cop who killed his wives. What do these cases have in common? Intimate partner violence, domestic abuse, men who killed the women who loved them. The call is coming from inside the house. Kathleen Savio filed eighteen police reports, wrote letters begging for help, said Drew would kill her. Nobody listened. Reva Steinkamp told Oscar Pistorius she was scared of him. Three weeks later, she was dead. Travis Alexander's friends warned him about Jodi arias he didn't listen. The warning signs were there. They're always there, and too often we ignore them until it's too late. Kathleen Savio was forty years old. Should have seen her sons grow up.

20:52 Should have been free of Drew Peterson. Stacy Peterson was twenty three years old, should be forty one now, should have raised her children, built a life. Rest in peace to both women and to all the victims we've covered over these twelve days, someone has to say their names. I'm Red Carter. Thanks for joining us for the twelve Crimes of Christmas. Tomorrow we're back to regular programming. This is Celebrity Trials.