Nearly 20 years after Drew Peterson became a national headline figure following the disappearance of his fourth wife, the former Illinois police sergeant is living out a very different chapter of his life.
Peterson is serving a 78-year prison sentence for the 2004 murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, as well as a later murder-for-hire scheme targeting the prosecutor who handled the case. His fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared on Oct. 28, 2007, and her whereabouts remain unknown. Peterson is still considered a suspect, an Illinois State Police spokesperson told Oxygen.
Nineteen years later, here is what is known about Drew Peterson’s life behind bars.
Who Is Drew Peterson?
Peterson married his high school sweetheart, Carol Brown, in 1974. They had two sons before divorcing in 1980 after he was accused of infidelity. In 1982, he married Victoria Connolly; that marriage ended in divorce in 1992.
Later that year, Peterson married his third wife, Kathleen Savio. They had two sons, but Savio eventually filed for divorce after discovering that Peterson was having an affair with hotel clerk Stacy Cales.
Just eight days after the divorce was finalized in October 2003, Peterson married Stacy.
What Happened to Kathleen Savio?
On March 1, 2004, Savio was found dead in her bathtub. She had bruises and a laceration on her head.
Savio’s sister testified that Kathleen had feared she might be harmed during a property dispute with Peterson, according to an Illinois appellate court opinion.
Despite those concerns, Savio’s death was ruled accidental in 2004. Peterson continued working in law enforcement and raised his four youngest children with Stacy.
That changed in October 2007, when Stacy disappeared.
What Happened to Stacy Ann Peterson?
After Stacy was reported missing, Peterson told police that she had left because the couple was experiencing marital problems. Her family, however, said that although she had been considering divorce, she would not have willingly abandoned her children.
Stacy’s disappearance also prompted investigators to take another look at Savio’s death after a fresh review of the evidence suggested that the bathtub drowning may have been staged.
According to a petition filed by prosecutors and obtained by CBS News, “The one-inch gash in the back of Kathleen Savio’s head did not render her unconscious, which would have been necessary for her to accidentally drown in the bathtub.”
Investigators exhumed Savio’s body in November 2007. A second autopsy concluded that her death was a homicide.
Peterson continued to deny involvement in Savio’s death while publicly urging Stacy to return home.
“Make yourself known. Make yourself seen,” Peterson told ABC News in November 2007. “Come out publicly. That’s it. Let this be over.”
He also disputed the results of a polygraph examination that indicated he had been deceptive in three answers about Stacy’s disappearance.
“I answered the questions truthfully,” Peterson told CBS News in 2008, “and why it showed up that I was deceptive, I have no idea.”
Peterson was arrested on a murder charge in May 2009. A Will County indictment alleged that he “caused Kathleen Savio to inhale fluid,” leading to her death. He pleaded not guilty.
At his 2012 trial, prosecutors argued that Savio’s injuries pointed to a struggle and presented evidence that Peterson had previously threatened to kill her, according to a 2017 Illinois Supreme Court opinion. They also alleged that on the night Savio died, Stacy saw Peterson dressed in black and washing women’s clothing that was not hers.
Another witness testified that Peterson had once offered him $25,000 to find someone to “take care of his third wife.”
Peterson’s defense argued that there were no signs of a struggle and that Savio had accidentally fallen in the bathtub.
In 2012, a jury convicted Peterson of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 38 years in prison.
Stacy is still classified as a missing person, and the investigation into her disappearance remains active, an Illinois State Police spokesperson told Oxygen. Peterson has never been charged in connection with her case.
Where Is Drew Peterson Today?
Peterson’s legal troubles did not end after he was imprisoned.
In 2014, he was accused of developing a murder-for-hire plot against Will County prosecutor James Glasgow, who had pursued the murder case involving Savio.
Peterson pleaded not guilty to charges of solicitation of murder for hire and solicitation of murder. His attorney argued that prosecutors lacked evidence to support the allegations. Nevertheless, Peterson was convicted in 2016 and received an additional 40-year sentence.
For security reasons, his exact place of confinement is not publicly disclosed. He was transferred to a federal prison in Indiana in 2017 and moved again in 2019 to a state prison outside Illinois.
Peterson continues to maintain his innocence.
“I didn’t murder Kathy,” he told Fox 32 in 2019. “And I didn’t murder Stacy.”
He has also said he believes Stacy could still be found alive.
“Well, there’s been all kinds of cases of a woman coming back years after,” he said, “as much as 10 or 12 years afterward.”
Spokespeople for the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to Oxygen’s requests for comment.
