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Nancy Grace

Cop Named Suspect in Wife`s Disappearance

Aired November 09, 2007 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAT LALAMA, GUEST HOST: Breaking news tonight, a stunning twist in the case of a young mom of two, the fourth wife of a veteran police sergeant, who vanishes into thin air in the Chicago suburbs. That same police sergeant, Drew Peterson, now officially named a suspect in Stacy`s disappearance, state police reveal the young mom`s disappearance a likely homicide, this after Drew Peterson finally breaks his silence, lashing out at the media from his family driveway.
And tonight the state`s attorney says, it will exhume the body of wife number three, a renewed interest in the mysterious death of Kathleen Savio after a coroner rules her death may not be an accident after all. What will the exhumation reveal? An tonight: What evidence do police have to name police Sergeant Drew Peterson a suspect?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say that right now, Drew Peterson has gone from a person of interest to clearly being a suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Authorities in Illinois are changing the status of the Stacy Peterson case. It is now officially a homicide investigation. And on top of it, they say her husband, police officer Drew Peterson, is a suspect in her disappearance. Also, investigators have officially filed for a petition for exhumation on Peterson`s ex-wife, Kathleen Savio, who died under mysterious circumstances soon after he and Savio divorced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: Good evening. I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. Breaking news tonight. A young mom, the fourth wife of a veteran police sergeant vanishes, and tonight, her husband officially named a suspect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say that right now, Drew Peterson has gone from a person of interest to clearly being a suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... an analysis of some of the elements in the protocol, the autopsy protocol, the facts and circumstances that were collected at the time of the investigation. Those would include a gash to the back of her head that was not sufficient to render her unconscious. The wound, being a head wound, would have created profuse bleeding. The blood evidence in the tub area is not consistent with the water leaking slowly out of the tub and leaving a residue.

The abrasions that were seen on her left buttock and on her elbow are not the type of injuries that would occur on a slick surface as those that were in the tub area. With 29 years of experience, there was no doubt in my mind it wasn`t an accident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drew Peterson has gone from a person of interest to clearly being a suspect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: Rapid speed developments, important ones. So let`s go right to Mary Frances Bragiel, WBBM Newsradio. You know, they`re saying they thought of him as a person of interest within 24 hours of Stacy missing. They just didn`t tell us, did they.

MARY FRANCES BRAGIEL, WBBM NEWSRADIO: No, they didn`t, but it doesn`t surprise me. He did appear before a grand jury earlier this week, which, obviously -- it`s unclear at this point, though, if he appeared before the grand jury based on Stacy Peterson or Kathleen Savio. So you know, obviously, they have enough evidence to consider him, at this point, a suspect.

LALAMA: Jon Leiberman, "America`s Most Wanted," He`s a suspect, he`s not arrested. What does that mean?

JON LEIBERMAN, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Well, Pat, this is really an amazing development today. We knew that state police got a lot of evidence out of the Peterson home. We knew that they got the evidence out of the car, forensic evidence. This is a major development. He is clearly a suspect here, and police are most likely simply waiting for the grand jury to return an indictment in this case.

LALAMA: Right. Got to build a case. Got to have something. I want to go to a very special guest, and that`s Pam Bosco. You are family friend and spokesperson. We are just very interested to hear what your reaction is tonight to the developments.

PAMELA BOSCO, STACY PETERSON FAMILY FRIEND AND SPOKESPERSON: It`s been mixed emotions. The family has gone through a lot this past week. So I think, like I said, the news out today gives us new hope that we will find Stacy, and we hope that this case will progress a little bit faster now.

LALAMA: Pat Brown, criminal profiler, I mean, I`m almost breathless about how much has happened. It`s fascinating. From a profiler`s perspective, what do you say?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, I think it`s very interesting that they`re now labeling her disappearance a homicide because They haven`t found a body to prove that somebody killed her that way, so they must have a substantial amount of evidence, either physical evidence from the car or the home or witness evidence, to actually label it as a homicide when a person`s still missing. So I think they`ve got something and they`ve got him cold.

LALAMA: All right, let`s go right to our lawyers. This is one to debate. Holly Hughes, former prosecutor -- we`ve got Julia Morrow, defense attorney, and we have Randy Zelin, defense attorney. Holly, I mean, it`s hard not to try to connect number three with number four now, is it not?

HOLLY HUGHES, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Absolutely not, Pat. I mean, lightning doesn`t strike twice in the same place. Like I said last week, unless he is the unluckiest man in the world, this is a homicide. And it`s just like the police are calling it. I couldn`t agree more with Pat brown, who said, Hey, police aren`t going to call this a homicide unless they`ve got some good evidence. They are not going to come out and name him a suspect. They don`t want to face any kind of libel suit. I think they`ve got the goods, and I think it`s a ploy. They`re trying to pressure him. He knows what being named a suspect means.

LALAMA: Julia, if this was your client, what would you be telling him to do tonight?

JULIA MORROW, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I would be telling him to keep doing what he has been doing, which is cooperating to the extent that he`s giving authorities access to things in his house, his car, et cetera, and not trying to block any type of search. But at the same time, I would tell him to, obviously, keep his mouth shut.

LALAMA: Randy, want to weigh in on that one?

RANDY ZELIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I have to tell you, I think if they had the goods, he`d be arrested already. Why give a guy the opportunity to bolt? Quite frankly, I think they want to break him. They want him to crack. They want him to do something stupid under the pressure. And quite frankly, the fact that they want to suck in wife number three`s death is exactly why you only want to look at the four corners of a particular case, so you don`t infect this case because of an old case.

LALAMA: Pam Bosco, family friend and spokesperson, do you fear he may try to take off? The pressure is very, very big right now for him.

BOSCO: I have no idea what he`s going to do at this point. He was rather cool up to this time, so we can only assume that he can either proceed like that or if they -- I have no idea. We have no idea. He`s never reacted as I would have predicted him to react this whole time.

LALAMA: Where are the children? And are you concerned?

BOSCO: We have no idea. We haven`t seen them.

LALAMA: You have no idea where Stacy`s little ones are at this point?

BOSCO: No, we have no idea. I hope they`re safe.

LALAMA: Do you have any recourse in terms of finding out? Can you go to the courts and say, We want to make sure these children are OK?

BOSCO: We`ll have to possibly look into that.

LALAMA: Kathy Chaney, do you know -- excuse me, let me just say where you`re from, and that`s "The Chicago Defender." Can you tell us where is Drew tonight?

KATHY CHANEY, "CHICAGO DEFENDER": Drew is at his home, but he`s not answering the door. He`s already lashed out at media, compared us to pigs. He says that we`re terrorizing his children, we`re hampering his efforts to help in the search.

LALAMA: Lillian Glass, let me just ask you, if he`s saying -- calling the media pigs, not good PR, would you say?

LILLIAN GLASS, PSYCHOLOGIST: Oh, no.

LALAMA: Not that we`re so special. He doesn`t owe us anything. But you know, still, is that the right thing to do at this point?

GLASS: Right. You know, oftentimes, when you point the finger at somebody, there are three fingers pointing back at you. So it`s a defense mechanism, what he`s doing, and he`s telling the press that the children are deathly terrorized, and that word "deathly" says a lot.

LALAMA: Well, let`s have a listen to this. Rosie (ph), play the sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. DREW PETERSON, HUSBAND OF MISSING WOMAN: What do you get when you cross the media with a pig? What do you get? You get nothing because there are some things a pig won`t do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: Pat Brown, did that make any sense to you?

BROWN: I think -- well, I think that what he`s doing -- he`s upset that the media is going in on his territory. Remember, this is a man who`s very territorial. He likes the power and control. He liked it over his wives. And now he`s a little ticked off that people are coming after him and he has to defend himself. So I just think he`s lashing out to say, To get out off my property, get out of my life, you know, Just don`t mess with me.

LALAMA: Mary Frances Bragiel, he`s on unpaid leave now? Is that correct?

BRAGIEL: That`s correct. It was announced late this afternoon. Bolingbrook police (INAUDIBLE) unpaid. He`s suspended and officially relieved of his duty until an investigation, an internal investigation.

LALAMA: All right, now, the big issue, the other big issue is the fact of the coroner`s report. It`s an extraordinary thing to take someone`s body from the grave, is it not, true, Lawrence Kobilinsky, who is our forensic scientist on board tonight?

LARRY KOBILINSKY, FORENSIC SCIENTIST: Well, sometimes, Pat, if you`re looking for answers, you have to resort to exhumation of a body. Quite frankly, I`m not convinced that the exhumation will provide the information that the police are looking for. Quite frankly, there`s a lot of information in that first autopsy report, and having looked at it, I`m pretty convinced that there was an equal possibility that it was an accident as it was a homicide.

LALAMA: You think so? Why do you say that, when everyone else has such a differing opinion at this point?

KOBILINSKY: Well, there were a number of issues that were found in that report. For example, there were multiple abrasions and contusions. In other words, there were bruises and these -- abraded skin all over her body -- on her fingers, on her wrist, on her elbow, on her buttocks, on her shins and on her head. There was a gash on the back of her head. This is not the kind of thing one typically finds in a drowning victim.

Now, there`s no question she drowned. The question is whether she drowned after falling and hitting her head and becoming unconscious or she was pushed under the water. And quite honestly, it`s unlikely that the gash in the back of her head led to unconsciousness. It was a superficial wound. it didn`t result in any kind of hematoma. So there`s enough information in that autopsy report to at least say, We`re not sure.

LALAMA: OK. Now, listen to this. This is what state police said today, that after review of the evidence, quote, "What it looks like is that it`s consistent with the staging of an accident to conceal a homicide."

Jon Leiberman of "America`s Most Wanted," what do you have to say about that?

LEIBERMAN: Absolutely, it is. And some of the abrasions and contusions on her body, too, were older sort of marks on her body, indicating that she could have been the victim of domestic abuse for weeks leading up to this, some of the purple abrasions.

But absolutely. I mean, the coroner here and the prosecutors feel that this body was most likely staged to make it look like an accident in order to, like you said, conceal a homicide. There are so many inconsistencies here. Her family told us that she would have had her hair in a ponytail when she takes a bath, but the coroner`s report says, you know, that her hair was matted down with some blood. It was clearly down. She had a necklace on, according to the coroner`s report. Family say she wouldn`t have had a necklace on.

There are so many inconsistencies here. There was no water in her lungs, but you would think that if she had drowned, that there would be water in her lungs. I mean, so many things there.

LALAMA: Pam Bosco, family friend and spokesperson, I`ve heard people discuss -- of course, we don`t know at this point, but discuss whether it`s possible that Stacy may have had some sort of information about wife number three and what happened to her. Has that ever crossed your mind, or you`re not making any leaps at this point?

BOSCO: I can`t believe that could be possible. We didn`t know what Stacy knew or didn`t know at this point. It`d be speculation. But I can`t imagine a man or somebody doing this to that woman would ever leak that out to a teenager.

LALAMA: Yes. It`s pretty scary. Sally from Canada. Let`s take a call. How are you, Sally?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good, thank you. How are you?

LALAMA: Good. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is, I`m just wondering, if this girl has been missing for a while now and she`s a missing person, then why hasn`t there been any sort of talk about her credit card records or her debit card or anything like that?

LALAMA: Mary Frances Bragiel, WBBM, what about the use of cell phone, credit card, anything like that?

BRAGIEL: There has been no use of her cell phone since she disappeared, according to police, last Sunday. So more than a week ago. And if there was any activity on her credit card or cell phone at this point, I can guarantee you that Illinois State Police investigators would have come forward with that information, proving that she could, in fact, be alive.

LALAMA: Holly Hughes, former prosecutor, Drew says she wouldn`t use her cell phone because she doesn`t want anyone to find her.

HUGHES: You know, this guy is pathetic, Pat, if he can`t come up with anything better than that. First of all, he`s trying to say that she ran off with another man. Her family members say that is not possible. She didn`t talk to anybody about that. This is what every guy who kills his wife says.

And again, he`s been named a suspect. We`re not saying whether he`s guilty or innocent, but it`s not looking good for him. He`s saying she doesn`t want to be found? She wouldn`t walk out on those two children. Everybody, everybody who knows this woman said there is no way she would leave them, especially since she knows what kind of fellow this is. She wouldn`t leave those kids in his care and walk off. That is not a good excuse.

LALAMA: Kathy Chaney, I understand that the authorities were able to speak to the teenage children -- that would be Kathleen`s children -- under a neutral territory, so as not to traumatize them. What do you know about that?

CHANEY: We know that the teenagers did speak to the police voluntarily, but we have not heard of what the conversations were about. But they did go voluntarily.

LALAMA: All right, let`s look at what kind of case this might be. Julia, does it look like whatever prosecution will end up on this case has anything strong right now? The fact that they haven`t arrested him, what does it mean to you?

MORROW: Honestly, Pat, I think the fact that they named him a suspect was is a kneejerk reaction to all of the public criticism right now about the way the Savio investigation was handled.

LALAMA: Well, are they going to hang themselves out to dry like that, you know, he`s a suspect and then not have a case?

MORROW: That`s not hanging themselves out to dry. He`s a suspect by virtue of the fact that right now, they`re considering it a possible homicide. Holly`s screaming. She`s, you know, judge, jury and executioner already. They haven`t named this an official homicide. It`s being called a possible homicide. And because of that and because he was one of the last people to talk to her before she went missing, of course he`s going to be a suspect.

They haven`t charged him. They haven`t arrested him. And if, in fact, they had all this damming evidence that everyone is speculating about, based on what I have no idea, he`d be charged right now, sitting in a jail cell. But he`s not.

LALAMA: Holly?

HUGHES: I got to tell you I think the police are building their case, and I think they`re doing a wise thing. This is a pressure tactic, absolutely. He`s a law man. He knows exactly what it means to be named a suspect. And if they didn`t have anything they, wouldn`t go out there on that limb and name him a suspect. He`s got one dead wife under very suspicious circumstances. One is missing now. He`s got no good explanation. He`s been lying all over the place.

Pat, if he was so innocent, he wouldn`t have to lie. The first thing he said was, Oh, everything is great in our marriage, there`s no problem. I talked to her Sunday night. Then suddenly, when she`s still gone two weeks later and everybody`s starting to look at him funny, all of a sudden, then he says, Oh, the marriage wasn`t that great and she ran off with another guy. What`s he lying for, if he`s so innocent? That`s what I want to know.

LALAMA: Wow, this is going to be one to debate for the rest of the evening. Hang in there.

To tonight`s "Case Alert." Police make an arrest in the brutal beating of a prominent realtor to the stars, Linda Stein found bludgeoned to death October 30 inside her exclusive 5th Avenue Manhattan highrise, police reveal Stein`s personal assistant confessing to the crime and now charged with murder. She admits striking Stein with a yoga stick, stein found lying in a pool of blood in the middle of her living room, with blunt force trauma to the head and to the neck.

Nancy`s twins are here. And to check out messages from Nancy and exclusive video, go right to CNN.com/nancygrace and click on Nancy`s baby blog.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kathleen Savio was the third wife of Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson. According to court records, Peterson found his ex-wife in the bathtub at her home in March of 2004. A coroner`s jury ruled at the time the death was accidental, but no water was found inside the tub. State law at the time prevented the coroner from overriding their decision.

Drew Peterson`s fourth wife, Stacy, remains the subject of an intense search. Stacy Peterson has been missing since October 28. Her husband says she called him to say she was leaving him and their two kids, something her relatives have repeatedly denied.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. I want you to listen to this. The police found evidence in their investigation of Stacy that led them to making the decision to exhume the body of wife number three. Pat Brown, what does that imply to you?

BROWN: Well, I`m not exactly sure. I think they`re looking, hoping that they`ll find something specific because I really don`t know -- even if you prove that this is a homicide at this point, which I think it is likely to have been, you can`t necessarily prove who did it because there has to be some kind of evidence linking that homicide to someone. And at this late date, I don`t know where they`re going to get that from.

LALAMA: But it almost sounds like they may have found something in Stacy`s house that helped them with number three. Holly, am I wrong there?

HUGHES: No, I think what they`re doing is making the connection based on the fact that they`ve now named Stacy`s case a potential homicide because what they`ve got is, they went in and did a second search warrant, Pat. Don`t forget.

LALAMA: Right.

HUGHES: They were there Thursday...

LALAMA: Right.

HUGHES: ... then they went back again. Now, they`re not going to do that if they don`t think there`s a reason for the second search. So either they had a tip that there was something in the house they missed, or something they found on Thursday led them to believe that there was additional evidence in there. And now that they`re calling it a potential homicide, I think they`re probably thinking, Hey, if he did it once and there`s suspicious circumstances for wife three, let`s go back and re-look at that. I think they are connected, you`re absolutely right about that, Pat.

LALAMA: Randy, are we piling on here unfairly?

ZELIN: It`s scary. It is truly scary.

LALAMA: We`re scary?

ZELIN: You have on the one hand a death that was ruled accidental years ago. Case closed. Gone. Good-bye. And a jury made that decision. Now fast-forward the movie. A woman disappears, what, two weeks ago. Now suddenly, that death is suspicious.

LALAMA: Well, what`s your point?

ZELIN: My point is that you have to look at the evidence within the four corners of each case, and you can`t start doing one of these things. It`s not going to work.

LALAMA: OK.

ZELIN: And it`s unfair.

LALAMA: All right. I think we`re going to have to have some response to that when we come back.

To check out a message from Nancy about her new twins, Lucy Elizabeth and John David, go to CNN.com/nancygrace and click on Nancy`s baby blog.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We looked at this as a missing person case, but also believed strongly that, based on the Savio investigation and the information that we were gleaning within the first 24 hours of the missing person case with Stacy, Drew Peterson has gone from a person of interest to clearly being a suspect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. Pam Bosco, family friend and spokesperson of Stacy, I`ve admired the family, and you know, how committed they are to all of this and the fact that they have been really realistic about saying, You know what? She`s probably maybe not going to come back. How does the family hold up like that?

BOSCO: We`ve been very strong. We stick together. We communicate well with each other, and we know we`re both out for the same thing. We`re all in this together. We really just want to bring Stacy home right now. Like, it would be closure for all of us, so we really are just all working together to find that.

LALAMA: Lillian Glass, how would you help counsel a family? This -- I mean, you know, you always say when you don`t have -- you at least want the body back. You at least want closure. How do you counsel a family in this situation?

GLASS: Well, it`s so difficult because you don`t have closure. And there are a lot of emotions that are coming up. There`s a lot of anger. There`s a lot of hostility. There`s a lot of questioning. There`s a lot of fear. So again, you just have to be there and let the family vent and communicate to you what they`re feeling.

LALAMA: Pam Bosco, just in a few seconds, can you tell me, are you in contact with Kathleen Savio`s family at all, or you don`t really communicate too much?

BOSCO: We`ve had some contact.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news coming out of Illinois. We told you about Stacy Peterson. She has been missing since October 28. Drew Peterson, that`s Chicago (SIC) sergeant Drew Peterson, has now been named a suspect in the case. He is a Bolingbrook, Illinois, police sergeant. He is 53 years old, Stacy Peterson 23 years old. There`s also some developments in this case that happened regarding one of his earlier wives, his third wife, Kathleen Savio. The coroner will exhume that body. Her death in a bathtub had been ruled an accidental drowning, but now there is some question about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAT LALAMA, GUEST HOST: I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. Well, probably Drew Peterson is hunkered down and lawyered up. Jon Leiberman from "America`s Most Wanted," you know, he isn`t arrested yet. Don`t you think they`d be afraid he`d take off?

JON LEIBERMAN, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": No, not at all. In fact, to suggest that they don`t have evidence and that`s why they haven`t locked him up is just not a good suggestion, and here`s why. They`re watching Drew like a hawk, number one. Number two, why lock him up right now and have the clock start going on the judicial proceedings, when police don`t have all their forensics back? Why paint themselves into a corner when they can take their time, they can watch Drew Peterson, they can build a strong case because that`s clearly the direction that they`re heading, and they can do that?

But you know what, Pat? I agree with Pam 100 percent. We need to find Stacy Peterson, and that`s what we`re going to call on our viewers to do tomorrow night on "America`s Most Wanted" is help us find Stacy.

LALAMA: Yes. We can`t lose sight of that. Whatever`s happening to Drew, this is still a young woman who is not accounted for and it`s so important to find her.

You know, we need to go to Lawrence Kobilinsky and talk about this whole exhumation process. Here`s what I`m told that they`re going to be looking for -- broken bones, subcutaneous bruises, evidence of a forced drowning. They`ll take X-rays. Is it realistic to think that after, let`s see, what is it, three years, they can find something fruitful to help them solve this case as to whether it was an accident or a murder?

LARRY KOBILINSKY, FORENSIC SCIENTIST: It`s a good question, Pat. If, in fact, they find evidence on the skeleton that there was fractures or healed fractures or some sort of breaks, I mean, they can build a case around that. There would be information.

But you have to remember that there`s a very good possibility that the soft tissue is completely gone. Quite frankly, I don`t know whether the body had been embalmed or not. You can exhume a body and find a body in excellent condition after three or four years. On the other hand, you can find a totally skeletonized body. So what they`re going to find, we really don`t know. But certainly, if this person had been abused and there may have been breakage of bones, that would certainly come up on an autopsy.

LALAMA: Very quickly -- and I don`t have a medical background, so this may seem like a not intelligent question, but is there any way to find any kind of DNA evidence as to a perpetrator, or is it just too late for that?

KOBILINSKY: I think it`s probably too late for that. Certainly, if they had to verify that this body is that of Kathleen Savio`s, they could do that through DNA. But DNA is not going to solve this case. Quite frankly, there`s no question she drowned. The question is, manner of death. How did she drown? That`s the issue. Was it an accident, was it a homicide? The autopsy report seems to indicate it could go either way. Calling this an accident, there`s no real basis for that.

LALAMA: Pat Brown, Randy Zelin thinks it`s unfair that we`re making al these connections, three and four, we`re jumping in there, we`ve got him convicted, and you know, it`s just not fair. As a profiler, you wouldn`t be able to stop comparing the two cases, would you not?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, no, Pat. I mean, obviously, one of the things you do is look at behavior because people are like a book. They have chapters in their lives, but there`s always a story that goes from beginning to end. It doesn`t change in the middle and the person becomes somebody different of a story (INAUDIBLE) a complete different tale. Doesn`t work that way.

So we look back in his past and we see what he does. He`s like a serial marrier (ph) -- married four people. He`s committed adultery. The wives are complaining that they`ve been abused and scared. He`s got dead women, you know, lurking around him. So you have to look at all this behavior, and that points you in a direction, but that`s all it does. It makes you focus in on him as a great person of interest. And then when you get the evidence, that`s what pushes it over into a suspect.

LALAMA: Let`s move to North Carolina and to our caller, Heather. Hey, Heather.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Pat.

LALAMA: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good. Real quickly, I just have to send my love to Nancy...

LALAMA: You bet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... and those precious babies. I am so happy for her. Congratulations.

LALAMA: We all are. It`s spectacular.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. My question is this. If, indeed, the autopsy on Kathleen`s body proves that this was, indeed, a homicide, is there any possibility that investigators can go back and do any type of internal investigation of the authorities that were in charge of that case to begin with? Because this is outrageous.

LALAMA: Well, you know, when you listen to the -- that`s a great question because when you listen to the state authorities today, it`s almost, like, excuse me, a third grader could have figured out that this looks a little suspicious. Pat Brown, can you go back and say, All right, who sat down and said that this was an accident and why?

BROWN: Well, that is concerning. I mean, you do wonder how this didn`t get labeled a suspicious death. You know, there was a jury there looking at it, too. So I don`t quite understand what pushed it over into being an accident. And I think you have to prove that the investigators in the case really were looking the other way or trying to influence a jury in some way, some proof that they just didn`t get -- you know, the same thing happened to them. They just sort of thought, Well, maybe it was, and they just didn`t -- I don`t know. I can`t -- you know, I really have a hard time with this one.

LALAMA: Yes, I know...

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: You know, I don`t understand how it`s not a suspicious death.

LALAMA: Pam Bosco, friend and spokesperson, we know that Kathleen Savio had a life insurance policy and that she had said to the state authorities, He has said he doesn`t want to have to pay me anything. Do you know whether Stacy had a similar financial situation that possibly Drew could have benefited from?

PAMELA BOSCO, FRIEND OF STACY PETERSON AND FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: No, we have no information on anything like that. I`m curious about that, too. But no, I can`t say yes to that.

LALAMA: All right. Holly Hughes, former prosecutor, could you go back and say, All right, did everybody just cover up for this dude or what? Could you do that, or is it just too late for that?

HOLLY HUGHES, FORMER PROSECUTOR: No, it`s not too late, Pat. You can absolutely go back and look at it, but you`re going to have to prove that the people who were doing the investigation willfully ignored evidence. And it sounds like what we have here is a miscommunication. One of the jury members, the six jury members -- and remember, Pat, these are not medical doctors, OK?

LALAMA: Right.

HUGHES: The coroner holds the coroner`s inquest. These six members of the community who are not medically trained...

(CROSSTALK)

LALAMA: One of the jurors is now saying, Well, we didn`t know we were able to say undetermined.

HUGHES: Absolutely right.

LALAMA: That stinks (ph) to me. But Julia, what do you think about that? And Randy, let`s get in here and have a discussion.

JULIA MORROW, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, first of all, I think that it`s unfair for the coroner, O`Neil, to now be coming out and questioning that coroner`s jury when they didn`t even have as an option to say undetermined. He`s jumping on the bandwagon now, this witch hunt, to get Drew Peterson, saying, Oh, well, when they came out with that decision, I was against it, but back then, there was nothing we could do. We couldn`t overturn it.

(CROSSTALK)

MORROW: And the juror says, Well, wait a minute, we didn`t know that was an option. We were told accidental, suicide, homicide.

LALAMA: Well, and guess what...

MORROW: We were never told undetermined.

LALAMA: Guess what? Tell me if I`m wrong here, but I think that if there is a pending case that should come forward, that the defense attorneys cannot bring up the accidental ruling on number three, is that right, Randy?

RANDY ZELIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I think it raises a very difficult question of admissibility. It`s a matter of relevance. It`s a matter of how do you get it in, the competency of it? And it possibly opens the door -- you want to talk about shooting yourself in the head, yet alone the foot. If you open that door, you let the prosecution ram right through it.

LALAMA: Holly?

HUGHES: He`s absolutely right. I mean, you don`t want to open that door as a defense attorney because once you do, the prosecution can bring in all of that prior evidence. It`s going to come in as a similar transaction. And the jury`s going to get to hear all about that victim, as well, which is something the defense doesn`t want. And as for Julia`s comment -- let me just back up for a minute -- that I was playing judge, jury and executioner -- Julia...

(CROSSTALK)

MORROW: ... still bothered by that.

HUGHES: ... only in perfect world -- I`m not bothered by it, honey...

MORROW: Apparently, you are.

HUGHES: ... I`m just dreaming over here, OK?

MORROW: It was, like, 10 minutes ago, wasn`t it, that I said that?

HUGHES: Absolutely.

MORROW: It was 10 minutes ago.

HUGHES: That`s right. But I haven`t had a chance to respond to you.

MORROW: Oh, OK.

HUGHES: So in a perfect world, that would be the way it is. But let me tell you something...

MORROW: Right, that you would -- that you would be the judge, jury and executioner...

HUGHES: Common sense...

MORROW: ... as opposed to, like, 12 citizens, as per the Constitution. But go ahead.

HUGHES: OK. Common sense tells you, how could they not look at the other ones, guys? How many dead wives does this fool get to stack up before somebody says, Hey, wait a minute, maybe something isn`t right?

(CROSSTALK)

MORROW: -alibi. Everyone`s forgetting...

ZELIN: Why look at it now?

MORROW: ... the alibi. Pat, what about the alibi for the third wife? Even if that woman was killed, he has a lock-solid alibi. What, did he hire some world-class assassin who went in there, killed that third wife, and for the past three years has slinked back to obscurity and kept his mouth shut and no one knows about it? That`s the only way he had anything to do with her death is if he hired someone and no one knows about that person.

LALAMA: All right. Ding, ding, ding, ding! Hold on. Let`s take a call. Annette from South Carolina, very quickly, what`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was wondering, back with when this first started, Nancy was asked about the first two wives, and there`s never really been anything much said about that.

LALAMA: I`ve got an answer for you. The police were asked today, Have you talked to them? They wouldn`t confirm it, but they said, We`ll just tell you that we`ve spoken to all relevant people. That should tell you everything you need to know.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re formally reopening the investigation into the death of Kathleen Savio. We`ve handed out the petition for exhumation that was filed today. The petition is based on new evidence that we`ve obtained in the investigation of the disappearance of Stacy Peterson and an analysis of some of the elements in the protocol, the autopsy protocol, the facts and circumstances that were collected at the time of the investigation. Those would include a gash to the back of her head that was not sufficient to render her unconscious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. Now, here`s the deal. Two search warrants executed at two different times and some interviews, and that`s when law enforcement said, OK, he`s a suspect.

Kathy Chaney, do we have any specifics about what made them go, OK, bingo, now we can name him?

CHANEY: No. At first, he wasn`t fully cooperative. He was cooperative up until the first search warrant was executed, and then he didn`t want them to search a Pontiac Grand Prix. After that, he became uncooperative. But they are focusing on, like, cell phone records.

LALAMA: And I think computers also, perhaps. There`s something important about computers on search warrant number two?

CHANEY: Yes.

LALAMA: You heard that? Mary Frances Bragiel, how about you? Anything you might know about what allowed them to hit pay dirt, so to speak, from a law enforcement standpoint?

MARY FRANCES BRAGIEL, WBBM NEWSRADIO: Well, certainly, the -- the search -- excuse me -- the search warrants that were issued because they did remove, the first time, three rifles, as well as a couple computers and other large containers from the house. But again, as I said earlier, he appeared before a grand jury earlier this week. Whether he testified regarding Stacy Peterson or Kathleen Savio is unclear, but sources do tell me that he pled the 5th at each question.

LALAMA: Oh, interesting. Pam Bosco, family friend and spokesperson, do you have any idea about the interview with Kathleen`s children, the teenage children? We know it was on neutral territory so as not to cause them any further trauma. Anything you can tell us about how that went or how fruitful it may have been?

BOSCO: No. They`re not letting us anywhere near the children, and we`re not getting any information about that.

LALAMA: How about the actual search, the search warrants? (INAUDIBLE) just don`t know that many details.

BOSCO: You know, they really much don`t tell us too much because we are in front of the media and they probably don`t want anything about the case to be revealed, so

LALAMA: Yes. I don`t think they want to blow this one. Lillian Glass, it`s got to be like burying someone a second time to go through something as severe as exhuming the body. How would you counsel that family?

LILLIAN GLASS, PSYCHOLOGIST: Oh, it`s going to be horrible for the family, just horrible, because what`s going to happen is they`re going to have to relive that death over again and go through the whole grieving process. So it`s not finished for them.

And one thing I`d really like to add, because we keep seeing the video of Drew with the mask on and the American flag, and that`s very telling in terms of his body language, that he`s hiding himself, and especially hiding behind an American flag, which signifies freedom.

LALAMA: But it`s weird. But it`s weird because he comes outside dressed up like this and compares the media to pigs. It`s all very odd.

You know, I have a question for the lawyers. You know, if there`s an issue of money, we know he didn`t want to have to -- according to Kathleen, didn`t want to have to pay child support in number three. There was a life insurance policy. You know, Holly, I`m just thinking, you know, is it possible that four knew something about three, and he thought, Oh, my gosh, I -- I mean, I`m just -- I`m thinking out loud here. I know I`m going to get blamed for piling on. But is he thinking, I got to keep her quiet about something and I can also get some more money, possibly, just possibly?

HUGHES: Pat, there might be a money motive and it might just be an ego thing. You know, the first two left him. Then number three is getting ready to leave him, so he decides, I`ll do away with her. Now number four is going to walk out on him. I mean, this man is getting older. He`s 53. There`s not that many good years left to go pick up these young woman and get them to marry him.

Maybe there`s a money motive. I don`t think that number four knew anything about number three.

LALAMA: You don`t?

HUGHES: I think he`s too smart for that. I don`t think he`s going to tell a young 23-year-old that he had anything to do with the death of the previous wife. I don`t think he`s going to be that stupid. I really don`t.

LALAMA: But here`s something else. You know, they got to interview Kathleen`s children finally. They didn`t even do that first time around. That`s all part of the, Gee, it`s just an accident, so forget about it. They finally did.

Randy, couldn`t those kids have been helpful in a -- you know, say, We heard Mom and Dad fighting, we heard Stepmom and -- you know, couldn`t that be a big part of it? Because it was shortly after the interviews that they made him a suspect.

ZELIN: Well, certainly, it could be. And they are 12 and 14, so they could be sworn. You just have to understand the oath. But I think you just raised a really great point. The point being, on the one hand, you have a body, you have a motive, the money, and that`s ruled an accident. On the other hand, you have no body, no motive, no weapon, no statements, and that is a homicide. This is not a pu-pu platter. You can`t take some from column A and some from column B.

LALAMA: Wait, a pu-pu platter? OK. Julia, what do you think about pu-pu platters, while we`re on that subject?

MORROW: Well, I -- first of all, I think -- I`ve actually never had a pu-pu platter personally.

LALAMA: OK.

MORROW: Although I do like Asian food. I think Randy made an excellent point here, and I think that just highlights a point I made earlier about how this whole thing with naming him a suspect is really a knee-jerk reaction to what happened with Savio.

LALAMA: Randy, quickly.

ZELIN: Hey, couldn`t say it better myself.

LALAMA: There you go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LALAMA: Well, what a week for the NANCY GRACE show. Tonight, we celebrate the births of Nancy and David`s new little baby twins, Lucy Elizabeth and John David.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: When I lost my fiance to violent crime so many years ago, wife, much less mother, did not seem part of God`s plan for me. My life for 20 years has been representing crime victims in and out of court. I`m happy to report the plan for my life has made a U-turn. This past April, I married David, and tonight announce that we are expecting twins.

LALAMA: We have a very special announcement tonight. Nancy and her husband, David, welcomed their twin bundles of joy this weekend, John David born at 1:54 PM on Sunday, his sister, Lucy Elizabeth, born right after that at 1:55 PM, baby John weighing 5 pounds and 1 ounce, his sister, baby Lucy, weighing 2 pounds and 15 ounces.

DAVID LINCH, NANCY GRACE`S HUSBAND: John David seems extremely happy. While Lucy Elizabeth was quite small, she came into the world screaming and yelling, and she`s going to give Nancy a real run for her money.

NANCY: I want to thank you all for all your letters and your e-mails and your gifts for the twins. And as you`re about to see, I`ve used every one of them and they`re in the babies` nursery right now.

I have two bassies (ph). I have a whole shelf full of books. I`ve got cowboy boots galore. This is my great-great-grandmother`s chair.

LALAMA: A heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to proud parents Nancy and David and their new twins, Lucy Elizabeth and John David.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: Once again from me to you, Nancy, and your family.

Tonight, let`s stop to remember Army specialist Donald Valentine III, only 21, Orange Park, Florida, killed in Iraq. With a big smile and a big heart, he loved football and basketball and dreamed of being a police officer and starting a family of his own with his new bride. He leaves behind grieving parents Donald and Anna (ph), his sister Monica (ph), his younger brother, Daniel (ph), who plans to join the military, and his widow, Lucia (ph). Donald Valentine III, an American hero.

Thank you to all of our guests and to you at home for being with us. And remember, go to Nancy`s baby blog for photos, videos and messages from Nancy about the twins.

See you again at 8:00 PM sharp Eastern. Until then, have a wonderful evening. And thank you, Nancy.

END