FATAL VOWS: The Tragic Wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson

by JOSEPH HOSEY

  “Sure, if she’s alive, she knows about it,” he continued. “And she’s going to be angry. And she’s going to, sooner or later, check in. I don’t care if she is off with someone else, the dude from wherever. This is enough crap to get her angry, and she’d respond to it. There’s no response. Therefore, there’s no Stacy. Therefore Drew can keep going and going and going and just play this egocentric game.”

  Whatever happened to Stacy, and regardless of whether Savio accidentally drowned in her tub, as the state police said in 2004, or if she died by the hand of another, as a forensic pathologist said four years later, Peterson’s egocentric game was a dangerous one. Public opinion and political pressure were undeniable forces pulling the authorities to press charges against him, and the possibility of the police descending on his home and carting him off to jail was very real. But Peterson continued to make public appearances, banter with the press, and stick to the increasingly absurd story that his wife took off and was gallivanting around some tropical locale with another man.

  Afflicting those people who, in basic terms, are hostile to society, antisocial personality disorder is believed to manifest itself in a lack of feelings or concern for the losses, pain, and suffering of victims; a tendency to be unconcerned, dispassionate, coldhearted, and unempathic, usually demonstrated by a disdain for one’s victims, Bonelli explained.

  “You got it. He’s having fun with this. Sociopaths do that, they have fun with tragedy because they don’t feel a sense of guilt,” Bonelli said. “Anyone who is not sociopathic wouldn’t be having fun with his wife’s death and disappearance.

  “It’s a game. It’s such a damn game to him,” Bonelli continued. “He’s having too much fun.” Of what an antisocial personality might be thinking in such a situation, Bonelli offers, “Everything’s okay, because I did it. It’s okay for me.”

  Then there’s Peterson’s inclination towards deceit. He is most proud of the time he spent as an undercover narcotics officer, a calling steeped in subterfuge and duplicity.

  Undercover officers “have to be deceitful,” Bonelli said. “And I think they learn how to slide a lot and to avoid issues, avoid being singled out. Their identity to being an undercover cop, they have to be sly.”

  Diane Wetendorf, an advocate, trainer and consultant based in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and specializing in police-perpetrated domestic violence, took this a step further.

  Police officers, particularly ones working undercover, “know, number one, how to lie well.”

  They also know, through their training, the best way to testify in court, she said. They only answer the questions, sticking strictly to facts, whereas “other defendants want to fill in,” Wetendorf said. “Cops are very savvy about that. It’s what they say. It’s how they say it. It’s what they don’t say. They know what to omit.”

  Wetendorf created the program Spousal Abuse By Law Enforcement in 1996, which provided specialized counseling as well as legal and advocacy services for victims of officer-involved domestic violence. Wetendorf worked collaboratively with police departments to develop policies, provided advocacy to law enforcement institutions nationwide, trained community advocates, and provided thousands of hours of individual and group counseling. She is also an author and consultant.

  On her Battered Women’s Justice Project blog, Wetendorf references the Stacy Peterson case:

  “Media coverage on the disappearance of Stacy Peterson has been remiss in its failure to highlight former Sergeant Peterson’s profession as a law enforcement officer. Although most reports have noted his profession there has been no analysis addressing his law enforcement experience as a significant aspect of his emerging profile as a serial abuser.”

  Wetendorf noted the high-profile case of, among others, Bobby Cutts Jr., an Ohio police officer who in February 2008 was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his pregnant girlfriend. “Too often, police departments deny that police-perpetrated domestic violence is a problem,” Wetendorf said. “After every exposure, they assure us that the perpetrator is a ‘bad apple’ and that the department ‘had no idea’ that the officer posed a lethal threat to the victim.

  “It is time that we acknowledge this problem and recognize the fact that officers who batter can be highly skilled at abuse. Officers have professional training in tactics of manipulation, intimidation, coercion, and the use of physical force, which makes them among the most dangerous abusers. Their knowledge of how the criminal justice system operates enables them to use that system to their advantage and to successfully avoid accountability for their actions.”

  Wetendorf said Peterson fits all of her criteria for an abusive husband working in law enforcement. Even if it’s determined that he had something to do with both Kathleen’s death and Stacy’s disappearance, she finds nothing particularly special about him. “There are thousands of them,” Wetendorf said. “Drew just happened to make the paper, for whatever reason. There’s nothing different about Peterson, except he’s a little more of a ham.”

  Wetendorf did concede that, while she was not surprised by the methods he has been accused of using to control his last two wives, some of his antics on the nightly news, and his quotes in the papers, have left her baffled.

  “I don’t know what the hell’s going on there,” she said.

  Bonelli, on the other hand, maintains that he knows exactly what the hell’s going on there.

  “He’s feeding his ego,” Bonelli said. “And this is where the arrogance and the cockiness that I spoke of at first comes right into it. He’s feeding his ego. And he thinks he’s not ever going to be at all caught, punished, anything. So he can get away with this.”

  Even when things weren’t going Peterson’s way, the pressure did not seem to get to him. In February 2008, soon after a forensic pathologist called Savio’s death a homicide, Peterson and Brodsky were jetting back to New York City for another turn on the Today show. It was the third time he had appeared on the show, and this time, Peterson’s demeanor was markedly more subdued.

  He allowed a crew from Greta Van Susteren’s program to film inside his house, following him around as he carried out his daily routine. The camera caught him performing such mundane tasks as making sandwiches for his children and taking the younger ones grocery shopping for the week’s food. He bemoaned his high weekly grocery bill, but said he was willing to pay the freight, so long as it meant he would be able to prepare healthy meals for his family. Apparently, allowing Van Susteren’s show to broadcast his everyday life with his family was all part of Peterson’s selling the world on the notion that he possessed a softer side. His effort was less than successful, however, and Peterson later told me he was a bit put off by the public criticism he received. Even when he was comporting himself in a sensitive and responsible manner, a disappointed Peterson complained, he could not convince the whole world that he was, at heart, a decent guy. But then, Peterson had a good four months of public image to repair.

  Before this attempt to appear sensitive and soft-spoken, Bonelli found Peterson’s media appearances “not consistent with the realities.

  “His expressions in [an interview]—he smirked. He was not real comfortable, which implied lying,” Bonelli said. “His eyes, he kept shifting. He could not keep a gaze, and that is also indicative of tremendous discomfort and lying. I’ve talked to you, Joe, and I look you straight in the eye, because I’m confident and comfortable. In those interviews I saw coverage of, he was all over the place. And he wasn’t on the interviewer. He was looking down. Looking down is always an indication of the lying thing. When you’re asked a question, and you know, you don’t know the answer, you look up. When you’re trying to avoid something, you look down.”

  Antisocial personality disorder is three times as prevalent among men as it is among women. It is widely accepted that the roots of the disorder begin in childhood and that family dynamics play an influential part. Beyond Peterson’s upbringing, which was detailed in a November 2007 People magazi
ne article, his choice of friends in adult life offers some support to the belief that he suffers from the personality disorder. Not surprisingly, antisocial children tend to be rejected by other children. They tend to gravitate toward other poorly socialized children who are also outsiders, although even these friendships tend to be characterized by a weak bond. As the men in Drew Peterson’s orbit were introduced to viewers courtesy of Greta, Nancy Grace and Geraldo, many understandably asked, “Where does Drew find these people?” Indeed the group is a sketchy bunch, and one defined by an ambivalent relationship with the center of the ring himself. There’s Tom Morphey, who has reportedly battled alcoholism and regular unemployment his entire life, who reportedly leaned on his cop stepbrother for jobs and furniture. Ric Mims sold out his “good friend” to the National Enquirer and used his short-lived tabloid television fame to launch www.RichardMims.com. Drew’s one remaining public ally appears to be Steve Carcerano, the neighbor with whom he discovered Kathleen’s body. That loyalty, however, may soon be tested as well: Carcerano is seeking a lucrative book deal of his own.

  The many pundits, psychologists, and online chat rooms indulging in speculation about Peterson’s pathology didn’t deter Peterson from turning to a member of the mental health profession to rally to his defense.

  “Renowned Psychotherapist Defends Care of Drew Peterson’s Children” trumpeted the press release issued by Peterson’s publicist, Glenn Selig. Selig’s company Web site, www.ThePublicityAgency.com, lists Peterson as a client, along with his attorney, Brodsky; “CarolAnn, Fitness Expert”; and Harper Realty of Tampa.

  The “renown” of this psychotherapist, Daniel Budenz, is arguable to say the least. Budenz, a certified alcohol and drug counselor, bought a bar at one point, although he was denied the liquor license. His daughter eventually took over the property after her application for the license was approved. Selig’s press release quoted Budenz at length, while noting that the psychotherapist “was friends with Peterson twenty years ago and recently reconnected.”

  Budenz said he got to know Peterson when they were both teenagers working at a Burger King. The pair shared interests, he said, including karate and flying.

  “He had this very playful character, very sharp,” Budenz said.

  The two lost touch as they aged, although Budenz said he did attend the wedding of Peterson and his first wife, Carol Hamilton. He and Peterson hooked up again after Budenz saw his old pal on television discussing Stacy’s disappearance.

  “I figured I’d give him a call and tease him, that you’re having problems with your relationship,” Budenz said. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Budenz offered to lend a hand. He said he was most concerned about Peterson’s kids.

  “The Peterson children are caught in the middle of dueling family members and a huge media frenzy,” Dr. Dan said in the press release. “The family has had to wake up at four in the morning to the roar of media generators, climb over the back fence to attend school and then hear the accusations against their dad on TV.”

  Despite dealing with all this adversity, Peterson was doing a fine job with the children, the statement said.

  “From what I see, Drew and the outside help he’s hired to help care for the children are doing a great job,” Budenz’s release claims.

  Budenz got a chance to observe the children up close, as Peterson and his brood stayed with him at his home during their trip to Disney World during the winter break.

  “We lived together with the kids,” he said. “They’re fine. They’re adjusted.

  “Stacy and Drew have done a very fine job,” Budenz said, adding, “I’m not saying everything’s perfect. No family is ever perfect.”

  “Drew is a very attentive father,” Budenz’s press release read. “The two oldest sons clearly understand what is happening—one is a police officer. The two teens are equally aware and are extremely helpful, wonderful, motivated young men who stand by their dad and help Drew with the youngest children.”

  He pointed out that Thomas, the older of the two sons Peterson fathered with Savio, who was fourteen when Stacy disappeared, was “number one in a class of more than twelve hundred, academically.”

  Budenz’s ringing endorsement of Peterson’s parenting skills makes no mention of the potential impact on the children of growing up without their mothers, or of their father’s regular bragging of meeting women in bars or of his gamely agreeing to participate in the aborted radio dating contest. Perhaps his two youngest, Anthony, nearly five when Dr. Dan made his way into Drew’s drama, and Lacy, three, could be sheltered from their father’s cavalier attitude toward the fate of his last two wives. However, for the sake of Peterson’s two school-aged sons, Kristopher and Thomas, one might wish their father would exercise a little restraint.

  Nearly four months after Stacy vanished, Peterson was still telling Anthony and Lacy that their mother was on a “vacation.” One had to wonder how long he was going to, or would be able to, keep up this story. But, at least according to Budenz, Peterson was doing something right.

  “The three- and four-year-olds are physically and emotionally vibrant and are well parented by Drew and the older family members,” he is quoted as saying in the press release. “These children are in great hands.”

  And lying to the youngest two was “extremely appropriate,” as well.

  “Drew told them, ‘Mom is on vacation,’” he said. “They don’t question it.

  “When the time is right to introduce more information, we certainly will.”

  Bonelli sharply disagrees with this approach.

  “Drew Peterson is not a child psychologist,” he said and questioned the effect that lying to the children would have in the long run. Eventually, they’re going to start asking when Mom’s vacation will end and when she’ll come home.

  “What is he going to tell them? She’s dead? She ran away? If you’re a normal person, you tell them when you know they’re not coming home. If you’re Drew Peterson, you tell them anything that makes Drew Peterson feel good.”

  Because, Bonelli said, everything Peterson does is about Peterson.

  “If Drew Peterson has an addiction, it is an addiction to power and attention,” he said. “These things are driving him. And he feels he has power because he’s really, in a sense, manipulating the whole country. I’d love to see [America’s Most Wanted host] John Walsh get a hold of him. Face to face, wouldn’t you love to see John Walsh and Drew Peterson go at it?”

  As far as Savio’s sons, Kristopher and Thomas, Bonelli believes they may not be handling matters as well as Peterson and his posse are letting on.

  “I have to think that they’re [Peterson’s sons are] devastated,” he said. “But they may have just drawn within themselves. But I can’t tell you because I’ve never seen them. I would speculate that there’s a good possibility that they’ve just become so withdrawn. I cannot contemplate them having a normal teenage life.”

  While Bonelli has not had the opportunity to observe the two teenage boys, he says he knows the correct way for their father to handle their situation.

  “Whether [Stacy] ran away or is dead, if you’re going to go through any kind of grief process, you’ve got to go through a lot of anger. Anger is necessary to get through any kind of grieving process.

  “Anger towards her, anger towards him, anger towards his sister, anger towards school. Just anger, anger, lots of anger,” Bonelli said. “Doing grief counseling is enabling the person to express the anger and then deal with it, because that’s such a necessary process.”

  Budenz fired a warning shot at Bonelli and others who would dare make a psychological evaluation of his old friend without spending a significant amount of time with him, much less even meeting him.

  “I have one word for that, especially for the professionals: malpractice,” he said.

  Besides, Budenz said, just watching Drew from the outside, observing his playful and often condescending facade, is no measure of the man he once worked w
ith at Burger King.

  “Drew has been bombarded for four months now,” he said. “He will play games and play tricks on the interviewer. That’s his personality.

  “And that’s what the media is seeing,” Budenz said of what he termed Peterson’s outsized “Chicago style” personality. “I don’t think the media is seeing the kids.”

  Budenz also cautioned the public to keep an open mind about Peterson.

  “Americans like to lock people up,” he said. “We have people who are retarded, who have severe alcohol and drug problems, and we lock them up. We don’t treat them.”

  Budenz also pointed out, “There are a lot of people who are locked up who didn’t really do it.”

  Of course, there are also a lot of people who aren’t locked up who really did do it.

  “You know, I can’t sit here and tell you what happened to her,” Bonelli said in our interview. “I don’t think anyone can. My gut feeling is that she’s dead. He’s not waiting for her to come home. He’s just waiting for this whole thing to blow over. And start romancing number five.”

  When the volunteer searchers resumed their efforts the last weekend of March 2008, it seemed like Stacy Peterson had been missing not five months but forever. Since November 9, 2007, when state police announced that her husband was a suspect in her disappearance and the state’s attorney announced that he was ordering Kathleen Savio’s body to be exhumed for another look, no one from the criminal justice system had said much of substance regarding either case.

  About the only development that broke this dry spell was the announcement in February 2008 that, according to forensic pathologist Larry Blum, Savio’s death had been a homicide, not an accident.

  How Blum determined this was a mystery, because Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow refused to release the report of the do-over autopsy. For all the public knew, when Blum examined Savio’s exhumed corpse he found a knife stuck in her back that the state police and first forensic pathologist failed to notice in 2004. Realistically, though, little if anything is likely to have changed regarding the circumstances surrounding her death. The thing that did change, the reason that Savio’s death was reexamined in the first place, was that Drew Peterson’s next wife vanished.