Search For Stacy Peterson Could Resume This Week

Stacy Peterson

Update- 6/15
Peoria Journal star reports-
Search for Stacy Peterson goes quiet    

Illinois State Police have said a search of the property would resume, though no timetable for a return to the land has been revealed.

Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy said Tuesday his department still is awaiting word from the lead investigators on the case.
"The Will County State's Attorney's Office and Illinois State Police District 3 said that when they return, they would contact us before they came," he said. "At this time, we're protecting the site, waiting to assist them when they return."
 Katfish....ponders will continue to follow up on this story.

 Original entry- 6/7

The main focus of this entry is the latest search for the remains of Stacy Peterson of Bolingbrook, IL. The 23-year-old mother of two small children has been  missing since Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007. 

The 2007 disappearance of Stacy Peterson, the fourth wife of a suburban Chicago police officer, Drew Peterson, triggered a media frenzy, especially after the investigation revealed Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, had died under mysterious circumstances several years before.

In May 2009, Drew Peterson, 56,  was indicted by a Will County grand jury on charges of first-degree murder for the 2004 death of Savio. Peterson has plead not-guilty and awaits trial in isolation at the Will County Jail on a $20 million bond. The Savio murder trial is scheduled to begin on July 8, 2010. The grand jury continues to investigate the disappearance of Stacy Peterson.

Katfish...ponders hasn't written about either case before now, but I have been following them in the media and on blogs. I decided to write about this latest search because it is happening close to where I live.

There have been other searches over the past couple years including sending divers into murky Chicago-area waters.  I'm  hopeful  this search will yield some answers for the family of Stacy Peterson. In November 2007, Drew Peterson revealed that he had received an unsigned letter alleging Stacy Peterson had been spotted in Peoria. The letter, bearing a Peoria postmark, purported that a possibly pregnant Stacy Peterson had been seen in the Kroger store at the Madison Park Shopping Center. Police could never confirm that information.The fact Drew said the letter was sent to him instead of law enforcement makes me go hmmmm.... Bolingbrook is 140 miles from Peoria.

The Illinois State Police, Will County State's Attorney criminal investigators and several other police agencies arrived on the site, located in a rural area west of Peoria, IL  on Friday morning (June 4) after receiving what was deemed a credible tip.

The media reports as to the "source of the tip" to Stacy Peterson's remains has varied somewhat, and as with most breaking news stories other details have been conflicting as well, but I'll give you what information I've been able to gather from local reports and a little digging. Law enforcement has refused to elaborate on any of the details of the tip.

Stacy Peterson's family was alerted of the tip, and the Chicago Sun-Times reported that her family had arrived in Peoria on Saturday to await news.

 First, here is a Google map showing the location of the site being searched and the route to the Madison Park Shopping Center where Drew Peterson says Stacy was sighted. The two locations are 14 miles apart on a fairly direct route. I have also included pictures from Google of what the area being searched may have looked like in the Fall when the corn is up. I don't know if this area was harvested at the time Stacy went missing but you can see visibility is obscured from the road when the corn is up.
                                               

A = Big Hollow Sportsman's Club  

B = Madison Park Shopping Center 

The Peoria Journal Star (PJS) reported that a cadaver dog alerted handlers to human remains in the area sometime Friday. An anthropologist from the Dixon Mounds site in Fulton County was called in to aid with the search. Sources said the scientist was brought in to help determine whether the ground had been disturbed. Police didn't start excavating until Saturday.

As you can see in the picture above, the corn is much shorter now, however, no equipment or personnel were visible from the road. The dig site is located in a heavily wooded area a considerable distance off the roadway near Grange Hall and Trigger roads near Kickapoo Creek.

Dave Alwan, a local businessman, owns the property, which is adjacent to the Big Hollow Sportsman's Club. Alwan is not considered to be involved in Stacy Peterson's disappearance, police sources said. The PJS also reports their sources say there is no known connection between Drew Peterson and Peoria County, such as for hunting or social reasons.

Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Tom Burek

Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Tom Burek told reporters Saturday evening that investigators and an anthropologist had finished digging in a 10-foot-by-10-foot area on Dave Alwan's Echo Valley Farms property.

Anthropologist Alan Harn, the assistant curator for Dickson Mounds Museum who helped authorities search the central Illinois location for the remains of Stacy Peterson told The Associated Press on Monday that he excavated three sites on Saturday identified by cadaver-sniffing dogs but found no human remains, only opossum bones.

Harn said he believes authorities do have a "really good" tip. He's advised investigators to return to the area near Peoria with a device that gets images of what's underground. Harn says the tip about the site came from "a representative" of someone in jail. He declined to say more.

On Monday, Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy said, "I believe in talking with Will County and state police that we will work with them further concerning the site, the information they've gotten about this location and the way they got the information seems to make it viable." McCoy declined to say more about the investigation.

Rainy weather in central Illinois including several damaging tornados that struck in western parts of Peoria County on Saturday night has contributed to the delay in the search today but the search may resume as early as tomorrow, Tuesday, June 8.


 Investigators have pursued several tips about Stacy Peterson's disappearance over the years, and report they will continue to follow all leads. Drew Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, called the most recent search "patently ridiculous." "Drew's position from day one has always been that she ran off with another man, because that's what she told him," Brodsky said. "This is just another in a long line of unsubstantiated rumors about Drew Peterson, all of which have proved to be false."

Katfish Ponders will continue to follow and report as this search proceeds.

Here is a link to a CBS News report  from December 2007 which details many of the circumstances surrounding the early days of the investigation into Stacey Peterson's disappearance....

As I stated above, Stacy Peterson's disappearance brought renewed interest in Kathleen Savio's death. Here is a link to a CNN report that offers more details surrounding Savio's death and the eventual arrest of Drew Peterson. Sphere: Related Content