Return to Transcripts main page

Nancy Grace

New Search in Stacy Peterson Case; Powerful Nor`easter Smacks Hurricane Sandy-Ravaged Northeast

Aired November 07, 2012 - 20:00   ET

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

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight. Twenty-three-year-old mom Stacy Peterson vanishes, upscale Chicago suburbs, husband/cop Drew Peterson the prime suspect in his fourth wife`s disappearance, Peterson finally charged in the 2004 drowning of wife number three, Kathleen Savio, Savio found covered in bruises, drowned to death in a bone-dry bathtub.

Bombshell tonight. As we go to air, we confirm that at this hour, FBI and state police searching a heavily wooded forest preserve just 15 miles from Peterson`s home, searching for the body of fourth wife Stacy Peterson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A new search for Drew Peterson`s fourth wife, Stacy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Illinois State Police, with help from the FBI, searched the Hammel Woods forest preserve.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ll go out and search.

DREW PETERSON, HUSBAND OF MISSING STACY PETERSON: You know, they`ve been through my house a few times, so it`s, like, It`s not here!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities think Peterson knows exactly where Stacy is.

PETERSON: I`m a suspect. (INAUDIBLE) suspect from the beginning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police and the FBI are searching a wooded area where her cell phone showed activity before she disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stacy called him the night she left and told him she was leaving.

PETERSON: (INAUDIBLE) I had nothing to do with either of those incidents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have no evidence that any crime occurred because no crime occurred.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have a boat to help on water and a dog to help track scent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`re not going to find her in some bush or some pond or stream. They`re going to have to look elsewhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Drew Peterson is considered a suspect in the case, but he`s never been charged.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It happens. Wives sometimes run off. Sometimes it happens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) You`re not the kind of girl who lets marriage stop you. (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don`t ever hold me down again!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.

Bombshell tonight. As we go to air, we confirm at this hour, FBI and state police searching a heavily wooded forest preserve just 15 miles from Peterson`s home for the wife of -- for the body of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson.

Now, as you all recall, Drew Peterson recently convicted in the death of wife number three, Kathleen Savio. She`s found covered in bruises head to toe, drowned to death in a bone-dry bathtub.

We are live and talking your calls. But first, I want to go out to Joe Hosey, author of "Fatal Vows." He has been to the Stacy Peterson search site. You know him better than anybody else. What is Peterson`s reaction, in your mind, to the search that`s going on at this hour for wife number four?

JOE HOSEY, AUTHOR, "FATAL VOWS": You know, if she`s there, he can`t be feeling too good about it. And I don`t know if she`s in that spot, but I know the police have thought she might be in that area, that area, Shorewood (ph), Illinois. There was a man living there, Scott Rosetto (ph). He`s now in Germany. He`s in the Army. He`s a nurse in the Army. But Stacy visited him right before she disappeared, and there`s been a theory that Drew was going to frame him for Stacy`s murder.

GRACE: Yes, and all of this is in very close proximity. Matt Zarrell, what`s happening right now? I understand that there are dogs on the scene, there are shovels on the scene. Police are chalking it off to knowledge they`ve had for some time, but they`ve been out there for a couple of days, and they are searching into the night, Matt Zarrell.

MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, Nancy, you`re right. You`ve got local authorities, as well as the FBI, including an FBI mobile command center truck was there. There are also reports about a white and black dog searching the area. Helicopters, boats are also out. Two people, a man and a woman, were seen standing on a walking path, holding shovels. There are reports they`re looking for any evidence that Stacy`s body may have been buried in that wooded area.

GRACE: C.W. Jensen, retired police captain -- C.W., they`re keeping it tight, close to the vest, but cops are not going to spend this amount of time, hundreds of hours and all of these police out there in the elements, searching. Think about it. They`re out in the woods right now with shovels and dogs. It`s nighttime. It`s cold. They`ve got to have a lead, Jensen.

C.W. JENSEN, RETIRED POLICE CAPTAIN: I`m just going to throw this out. And obviously, I know -- I don`t know anything more than anyone else does. But many times -- remember, he has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife. If I was the investigator, I would go to him and say, Look, you have nothing to lose, except if we charge you again, Nancy -- and you know this as a prosecutor -- and we can get a death penalty on this case, so why don`t you just tell us where your wife is?

I just, personally, as a homicide detective, find this very interesting that they would go to this specific location.

GRACE: Joining me right now to answer that and other questions, Steve Greenberg. This is the attorney -- the current attorney for Drew Peterson, his client suspected in the disappearance of fourth wife Stacy Peterson. Now, this on the heels after his conviction in the murder of Kathleen Savio, wife number three.

Steve Greenberg, were you advised that police are conducting a search at this hour?

STEVE GREENBERG, ATTORNEY FOR DREW PETERSON (via telephone): We weren`t advised of anything. But let me correct the last gentleman. There is no death penalty in Illinois. There`s nothing to be gained by going to talk to Drew and they would learn nothing by talking to Drew because Drew has nothing to do with Stacy Peterson`s disappearance.

GRACE: So in your mind, Steve Greenberg, after hundreds of hours you`ve spent with Drew Peterson, you think it`s just a coincidence that one wife drops dead in the bathtub and a jury convicts him, and the other wife, a 23-year-old young woman, a mother, just leaves her children, up and leaves and is never heard from again, right?

GREENBERG: I don`t think it`s a coincidence, Nancy. But if you listen to what the jurors said who convicted him, but for a certain witness testifying who never should have testified, they not have convicted him because they had no evidence that he had anything to do with it. They had no evidence that he was even in the house that evening, just as they have no evidence that he has anything to do with Stacy Peterson`s disappearance.

GRACE: Well, I know the witness you`re talking about. You`re talking about Stacy Peterson`s divorce lawyer that the defense team called to the stand. And on the stand, Stacy`s divorce lawyer said Stacy told him, Hey, do you think I`d get a better divorce settlement if I threatened to tell what I know about Kathleen Savio`s murder? I`m sure that`s the witness you`re talking about.

But Matt Zarrell, there`s a lot more evidence in the Stacy Peterson case. Let`s start, for instance -- everybody, the search is going on at this hour. There are dogs out in this 400-acre forest preserve, 15 miles north of Drew Peterson`s home. Are they on the verge of discovering the body of wife number four, Stacy Peterson, a young mother.?

Matt Zarrell, let just talk about the evidence in the Stacy Peterson murder case. She didn`t just leave, Matt. She didn`t just leave her children behind. She didn`t leave all her clothing, her furs, her phone, her cell phone, her pocketbook. No, it didn`t happen that way.

Let`s talk about Drew Peterson`s brother-in-law, Matt Zarrell. He`s got immunity. And what does he have to say?

ZARRELL: Yes, Nancy. The guy`s name is Thomas Morphey (ph). He is Drew Peterson`s stepbrother. He says that he helped Peterson remove a warm and heavy blue barrel from the Peterson bedroom around...

GRACE: Did you say warm, warm...

ZARRELL: ... the time Stacy was reported missing.

GRACE: ... W-A-R-M, as in mother, warm?

ZARRELL: Correct.

GRACE: OK.

ZARRELL: Now, Morphey says that, actually, the night before Stacy went missing, Peterson takes him to what he thinks is a job interview. However, they instead go to a local park. Peterson complains about Stacy cheating on him, says he had to take care of the problem. Peterson also asked Morphey if he loved him enough to kill for him.

Morphey said Peterson then drove him to a storage facility where they rented -- they tried to rent a unit.

Then the next day is when they plan (ph) with the cell phone. Apparently, what Morphey claims is that Peterson picked up Morphey the day Stacy went missing. The two men went to a park, where Peterson handed Morphey a cell phone, told him, Don`t answer it. Then Peterson leaves.

Morphey says about 45 minutes later, the phone rings, then it rings again, and both times, the caller ID showed it was Stacy`s cell phone. Peterson then returned to the park within an hour of the phone calls to pick Morphey up.

GRACE: So to you, Steve Greenberg. You`re the attorney for Drew Peterson. And what his own brother-in-law has to say is damning. He says that he comes into the house that night, that all the children`s doors are shut, that Drew Peterson tells him, the brother-in-law, (SIC) Steve Morphey, (SIC) to be quiet, don`t bother the children.

And he gets him to lug this warm blue container, like an ice chest of sorts, all the way down, load it up, he said a plastic bag was sticking out, that he then gets him to stage phone calls from Stacy Peterson`s cell phone to Drew Peterson`s cell phone.

Now, you know, Steve Greenberg, true, it`s not a murder weapon. True, it`s not a dead body. But that`s pretty strong circumstantial evidence.

GREENBERG: You know, Nancy, they went into that house and they ripped out everything. And they had, by the time Stacy disappeared, the latest and greatest scientific techniques, and they came up with not one shred of evidence, nothing at all. Now, if you think that someone can slice and dice somebody up...

GRACE: I don`t.

GREENBERG: ... and shove them into a small ice chest...

GRACE: But they can absolutely strangle them.

GREENBERG: ... and leave nothing...

GRACE: They can absolutely strangle them or smother them, asphyxiate them with a pillow, strangle them manually or by ligature, and there won`t be any DNA left.

GREENBERG: And shove them into an ice chest...

GRACE: Hey, look! Hey, this is not...

GREENBERG: ... like a contortionist?

GRACE: ... my first time at the rodeo, all right? There are plenty of ways to commit a murder where the perpetrator is the size of Drew Peterson and the victim is the size of Stacy Peterson, and there`s absolutely no DNA evidence whatsoever, all right?

GREENBERG: No blood, no fiber...

GRACE: Yes.

GREENBERG: ... no nothing.

GRACE: Yes, especially if the murder...

GREENBERG: No nothing!

GRACE: ... is committed in her own bedroom, where her own DNA would be naturally found.

OK, with me tonight is Steve Greenberg. Everybody, at this hour, police are out searching, state police and the FBI, a 400-acre wooded forest preserve 15 miles near Drew Peterson`s home. Are we set to crack the mystery in the disappearance of Stacy Peterson wide open?

As we go to break, as you all know by now, on the heels of superstorm Sandy -- more than half a million people still no power, temperatures plunging -- the Northeast corridor now bracing for another storm.

Very quickly, before we go back to the search for Stacy Peterson`s body, Bernie Rayno is joining me, senior meteorologist, Accuweather.com.

Bernie, you`ve got more bad news for me, guy?

BERNIE RAYNO, SR. METEOROLOGIST, ACCUWEATHER.COM: Yes, unfortunately, I do, Sandy -- Nancy. Every time I come on the show, it seems like I have bad news.

We have a nor`easter. It is snowing now in New York City down toward Philadelphia, center of the storm south and east of Long Island. Strong, gusty winds in southern New England, as well. But Slippery travel across Connecticut, New Jersey.

And those areas, Nancy, that really got devastated by Sandy, now they`re dealing with a couple of inches of snow, as well, with temperatures in the 30s. We`re going to keep it snow-covered and slippery from New York City, Philadelphia, all the way up into southern New England as we go through tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search resumed for Stacy Peterson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`re not going to find Stacy there. Stacy ran off with another man.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re done, Drew. It`s over!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know you`re not going anywhere!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: State police have told me they`ve known from day one Stacy didn`t leave willingly, and so they have evidence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ll go out and search. You know, they`ve been through my house a few times. It`s, like, It`s not here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`ve told me what to look for in the searches. So basically, we`re out there looking for a body.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are live and taking your calls. Straight out to the lines. Crystal in Iowa. Hi, Crystal. What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. My question is, why didn`t they search this area before? And I also have a comment. He`s a cop, so he would know exactly how to make a person disappear.

GRACE: You know what, Crystal? You are exactly correct. And another thing, Crystal. As I was just duking it out with his current lawyer, Steve Greenberg, there`s a lot of ways to commit murder and the body is never found and DNA is not found.

Back to searching this particular site. To Robyn Walensky, anchor/reporter with TheBlaze. They have searched around this spot before, have they not, Robyn?

ROBYN WALENSKY, THEBLAZE: They have, Nancy. And you know, I was on this story five years ago on day one, when she disappeared. And what strikes me about this is the location of this 400-acre forest.

Yes, they were there the last time. But it is a huge, huge area. But it`s about a 15, maybe 20-minute drive max from the Peterson home.

And keep in mind this is a 30-year veteran of the Bolingbrook Police Department. He is 58 years old, Nancy. He knows the terrain. This is the I-5 south. It goes directly from the home to this area, if one was driving.

And Nancy, I have to tell you that there was a theory five years ago that -- there is a regional airport that is right next to this forest area. There`s also another regional airport that is within a mile of the Bolingbrook home. And there was a theory at the time that he or someone else could have gone up in a plane and dumped the barrel with the body in it into a lake or into a forest.

It has never been proven. Obviously, this blue barrel has never been found. But boy, wouldn`t it be interesting if someone has spotted this plastic blue substance? As you know, Nancy, a water bottle -- you know, these things, or any kind of plastic material just doesn`t disappear. So to my ear, this is an extremely significant development tonight.

GRACE: Steve Greenberg, does your client, Drew Peterson -- does he know how to fly a plane?

GREENBERG: I`m sorry. I didn`t hear you, Nancy. Does he what?

GRACE: Does Drew Peterson know how to fly a plane?

GREENBERG: Drew Peterson flew a plane. But all of these theories are just absurd because people say...

GRACE: So that`s yes?

GREENBERG: Yes, he knows how to fly a plane. But he doesn`t fly it over the local forest preserve and drop bodies down there.

GRACE: Really? Well, a jury seemed to think that he killed his third wife. So what`s stopping him from killing his fourth wife, too, Steve Greenberg?

GREENBERG: Well, A jury found that he killed his third wife because somebody put in statements that were unreliable...

GRACE: No...

GREENBERG: ... and should have never come in.

GRACE: ... they found that he killed his third wife because the evidence proved it beyond a reasonable doubt.

GREENBERG: Well, that`s what the jury thought, and we`re going to challenge that because I don`t think that there was any evidence.

They had the same theory there. He`s an experienced police officer. If you think about that. Experienced, can cover up the evidence, all those things that all your guests keep saying are exactly why if he did (INAUDIBLE) and he didn`t -- but if he did, they wouldn`t have any evidence.

You can`t say, Well, he`s so good, we`d have no evidence, but he`s so bad, we have evidence.

GRACE: The evidence that they have tonight is circumstantial, but many a case has been proven without a body.

Unleash the lawyers, Peter Odom, defense attorney, Brian Claypool, defense attorney, LA, Eleanor Odom, prosecutor, formerly with the National District Attorneys Association.

What about it, Claypool?

BRIAN CLAYPOOL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, I`ll tell you what. I have to agree with Steve Greenberg and I disagree with you. There wasn`t really any evidence at all in the trial of Kathleen Savio. Exhibit A would have been enough reasonable doubt. That was the medical examiner`s report. He concluded that this was an accident.

GRACE: Whoo!

CLAYPOOL: That in and of itself...

GRACE: You must not have been...

CLAYPOOL: ... would have been reasonable...

GRACE: ... in that courtroom because...

CLAYPOOL: That`s right.

GRACE: ... the jury absolutely did not agree with you. They came out with a big fat guilty, Eleanor.

ELEANOR ODOM, PROSECUTOR: I know they did, Nancy. And I love it how they`re trying to make this all about the third wife. This is about what`s going on now in the search for Stacy Peterson. And clearly, they have some type of new evidence or tip that`s leading them to really conduct a very serious search.

GRACE: Peter Odom?

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The strongest evidence that they have in this case is this person, Brophy (ph). And that statement is so incredibly unreliable, Nancy. First of all, it took him years to come out with this blue barrel story. And who would ever help someone move a warm blue barrel without saying, Hey, what, is there a body in there? Come on.

GRACE: Maybe somebody that was afraid.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Helicopters, search dogs, shovels -- and they`re all being employed at this hour 15 miles north of former husband/cop Drew Peterson in the search for the body of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson.

We are taking your calls. Larry Fishelson, telecommunications expert and co-founder of Dynalink Communications -- Larry, thank you for being with us. You heard the scenario that Matt Zarrell described, and this is coming from Peterson`s own stepbrother, Morphey, all right?

Now, how can that show me where the body is? What`s the significance of that setup phone call from Stacy Peterson?

LARRY FISHELSON, TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPERT (via telephone): Nancy, thank you for having me. What`s very interesting with the setup call is he was a savvy police officer, so he understands that through phone pings, you could tell the location of where the calls were made within a three-mile radius. So by setting up those calls, I believe he was trying to take the search possibly somewhere else.

Now, I also had seen that he had a GPS tracker on her phone as a jealous husband, let`s say. So it is very possible, by where they`re looking now, that that GPS tracker was in the phone and they know the possible location. And even with it turned...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Drew Peterson believes that my sister left.

PETERSON: It`s just something I`m going to have to live with.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My sister did not leave willingly. She was taken.

PETERSON: I guess I`m a suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s a suspect of Stacy`s disappearance, which I don`t understand because disappearing is not a crime.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police and the FBI searching a wooded area where her cell phone showed activity before she disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The week before she disappeared she told him to get out. I don`t want you here. I want a divorce. He absolutely refused to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know that he was very controlling of Stacey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are live at this hour. Police, state police and the FBI searching a heavily wooded 400-acre forest preserve. It`s about 15 miles away from former cop Drew Peterson`s home. They are searching for the body of his fourth wife, Stacey Peterson. This on the heels of his conviction in the murder of wife number three, Kathleen Savio.

Robyn Walensky, anchor/reporter with "The Blaze." Robyn, they`re not saying what led them to this spot, but I want to go through again those setup phone calls and what we know about the stepbrother, Morphy.

ROBYN WALENSKY, ANCHOR/REPORTER, THE BLAZE: OK. Well, the stepbrother has claimed that he helped Drew Peterson out of the Peterson home in Bowling Brock with a warm, blue barrel. Warm to the touch, that he estimates weighed about 120 pounds, Nancy.

Now Stacey was 5`2" and she weighed 100 pounds. So it is quite possible that it was her body inside that blue barrel. And it is quite possible that -- I`m sorry. We`re having a bad connection. I just want to make one point, Nancy. And that is, is that Stacey Peterson was the mother of four. She had two biological children, ages 4 and 2, and she was also caring for his two older sons, ages 12 and 14.

She would never have left four children. This is not about an affair, Nancy. The motive here is that she believed that her husband killed his third wife and she told at least two other people about it.

GRACE: Liz, do we still have Steve Greenberg with us?

Steve Greenberg, we were just talking to Larry Fishelson, telecommunications expert, and he reminded me that your client set a GPS tracking device -- she had a GPS tracking device on her phone. Drew Peterson was trying everything he could to prove his wife was having an affair, but he never could prove it.

STEVE GREENBERG, ATTORNEY FOR DREW PETERSON, SUSPECT IN STACEY`S DISAPPEARANCE: Well, I think it`s clear when we looked at the evidence in the other case that she probably was. But how does that establish that he had anything to do with her disappearance? If anything, the fact she was having an affair shows that she wanted to get away from him and she ran away.

GRACE: Well, do you think that -- doesn`t it seem odd to you that she ran away to have the affair, but the guy she was allegedly having an affair with is still right there?

GREENBERG: Well, the guy she was allegedly having the affair with was found by the judge in the Savio case to be so dishonest and so unreliable that he barred his testimony. Something I`ve never seen in my 26-plus years of practicing law.

GRACE: Well, representing Drew Peterson, I`m sure you`ve seen a lot, Steve Greenberg.

We are taking your calls. To Dr. Bill Manion, medical examiner joining me tonight out of Philly.

Hi, Dr. Manion. Dr. Manion, if her body had been in, for instance, an ice chest all this time, what condition would it be in now?

DR. BILL MANION, M.D., MEDICAL EXAMINER, BURLINGTON COUNTY, NJ: Well, if that chest was sealed, that would retard the decomposition. There still would be some decomposition. And I`m wondering if the police are concerned that maybe some gases are breaking through the plastic and perhaps cadaver dogs might be able to detect something now.

Also, oftentimes people in prison will be bragging about their crimes and maybe he told another prisoner, yes, I dumped her out in the woods there, where they were looking before, and then that prisoner has come forward to try to get favor by saying, oh, Drew Peterson told me where the body is. That may be one reason they`re looking there.

GRACE: Out to Joe Hosey, the author of "Fatal Vows." He literally wrote the book on Drew Peterson. There`s no way that I see him talking behind bars, Joe. I just don`t see it.

JOE HOSEY, AUTHOR, "FALSE VOWS": No, I don`t see that either.

GRACE: He`s to smart.

HOSEY: And he`s not talking. And, you know, there`s no deal being made, like Steve said. He`s not facing the death penalty. There`s a good chance she might be in this area because this man that Steve brought up who -- whose testimony was barred, Drew went there. He tried to frame him. Some of the stuff being talked about tonight, I mean -- I don`t know. Throwing her out of a plane? That doesn`t make any sense at all.

I don`t -- I don`t know where that`s coming from. If you`ve ever seen Drew`s plane it`s like a hand glider with a lawnmower engine on it. I don`t know. But there`s a possibility she`s there. There is. And they`ve been looking hard, they spent three days now with an awful lot of people, a few dozen FBI agents, you got state police, you got dogs, you got helicopter, you got boats.

They must think they`ve got something going on there.

GRACE: Well, let me ask you this, Joe. What do we know about the day Stacy Peterson disappeared?

HOSEY: We know that -- we know what Drew told us basically. And he`s told conflicting stories. One story he told me was she woke him up after he worked the night shift, you know, because he was nightshift police offer, and told him she was going to paint the house of her brother whose parole was revoked and was going back to prison. They had to repaint the house to get out of the lease, and then she never showed up.

He`s also told people, though, that she went to visit her grandfather in the retirement home where he lived. So I mean in the very first few days of her disappearance, he`s already tripping himself up.

Also in the very first few days of this, Tom Morphy told the police about helping to carry this blue barrel out of the house. He didn`t wait years like that other person said. He said this in the first few days after it happened. After he tried to kill himself. Yes. Yes. So, I mean, there`s evidence, there`s a lot of direct -- but that not hearsay either. That`s direct evidence from Tom Morphy.

GRACE: And you know, Eleanor --

HOSEY: The cell phone pings are physical evidence.

GRACE: Following up on what Joe Hosey is saying, you`ve got the stepbrother, who, when this starts falling apart, tries to kill himself. And within the first days after Stacy Peterson`s disappearance, after he tries to kill himself, he gets a deal and tells police everything he knows.

ELEANOR ODOM, FELONY PROSECUTOR, DEATH PENALTY QUALIFIED: That`s exactly right, Nancy. You kind of look at him and think well, what does he have to gain or lose by giving this statement? You know, when you`re looking at judging credibility of someone`s statements to police or to a jury, in fact.

GRACE: Right.

ODOM: So that`s what we`re looking at.

GRACE: Very quickly, I`m being joined right now by Bernie Rayno. Bernie is a senior meteorologist with Accuweather.com.

Bernie, thank you for being with us again. You`ve got your hands full tonight. Explain.

BERNIE RAYNO, ACCUWEATHER.COM METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Big snowstorm actually off the Jersey coast right now. And, Nancy, the same areas that got so devastated by Sandy just a week ago, now they`re dealing with a few inches of snow, strong, gusty winds, snowing in New York City, three to six inches of snow tonight into tomorrow morning.

And the snow will be spreading northward into Maine as we head toward our Thursday morning. All kind of slippery travel across the northeast. Philadelphia, the heavy snow will be off to you. The nor`easter as we go through tonight.

Now better news tomorrow while the snow pushes into Maine, it will start to dry things out across all of the mid-Atlantic and the northeast as we go through Thursday and finally some warmer air will come in as we head toward the weekend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Always saying you should be out helping to search.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: New search for Drew Peterson`s fourth wife, Stacey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why am I going out searching for somebody I don`t believe is there? You know, it`s a waste of my time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That search is happening right now, 15 miles north of Drew Peterson`s home, as he sits behind bars in the death of wife number three, Kathleen Savio, found covered in bruises, drowned to death in a bone dry bathtub.

The search is on at this hour with state police and the FBI, joining in together. Helicopters, dogs, shovels, the works. A mobile crime unit there on the scene.

Is the body of Stacy Peterson about to be revealed 15 miles north of the home of Drew Peterson?

Taking your calls. Out to -- I believe this is Ann in Louisiana. Hi, Ann.

ANN, CALLER FROM LOUISIANA: Hi, Nancy. I`ve got a big fat hug for you from your Cajun friends down here.

GRACE: Thank you to all my Cajun friends. Thank you very much, Ann. What`s your question, love?

ANN: I have two quick questions, the second hinges on the first. I remember that after his conviction, he fired the lawyer and got a new lawyer and filed an appeal, or was that someone else? Or -- is the attorney not representing him well?

GRACE: I think he had Brodsky for a really long time but just recently, now that you bring it up, Ann in Louisiana, Brodsky`s off the case, they`re claiming ineffective assistance of counsel, among other things on their appeal.

So Brodsky is off the case. OK. What`s your second question?

ANN: The second one, if that`s true then if they find Stacy and bring charges on -- you know, would they go ahead and prosecute him since he`s already spending life in jail or do you think they would go ahead and prosecute him in case some kind of when he out on the appeal?

GRACE: I think that no matter what, at some point he is going to be prosecuted in the disappearance and death of wife number four, Stacey Peterson, regardless of what happens on the Kathleen Savio case. And I predict it`s not going to be reversed on appeal. That`s what I`m -- that`s what I`m saying tonight.

Out to clinical psychologist, Dr. Seth Meyers, joining me from L.A.

You know, I keep wondering what this is doing to her family. She`s been gone all this time. They`ve probably reconciled with it. And every time a new search begins, they have to relive it all over again.

DR. SETH MEYERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Right. Well, I think this really brings up two primary feelings. And one is relief. Relief that there could be some sort of justice that is served, that there could be some answers, some closures. But at the same time it also really must bring up a tremendous amount of anxiety, re-awakening all those negative feelings, the anger, the rage, the frustration that were there the first time around.

GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Eleanor Odom, Brian Claypool, Peter Odom.

Guys, I want you to take a listen to what Larry Fishelson, telecommunications expert, is going to say. You were saying about the pings and GPS tracking. Then I`m going to follow that up with questions to the lawyers.

Go ahead, Larry.

LARRY FISHELSON, TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Yes. What`s very interesting here is that he had a GPS tracker on her phone. Now what that is, it`s an application in the phone which he could remotely track. Now what`s possible here is that, you know, after something occurred here -- if it did occur, he could have went ahead and just stopped the GPS tracker. But all that information, no matter when it stopped, is all stored out there in what we call the Cloud, which is data servers, networks that store all this information.

So they could have gone back. He could have opened his mouth and mentioned something about hey, I had GPS tracking her phone and gone back and through the GPS they`ll be able to see every single location of that phone down to the minute little area.

GRACE: You know, Eleanor Odom, why is it? We`ve heard all this business about him putting a tracker on her phone that he could look at remote and see where she was at that exact moment. Why do guys always claim the wife is having an affair? And vice versa when it`s them? They`re the one having an affair. And when you hear his current lawyer, Steve Greenberg explain it, it`s like listening to a snake charmer.

If you listen long enough, you kind of like go with it. It`s completely wrong, he`s got it completely bass-akwards. They`re claiming, hey, because she had an affair, that claim she ran away. Well, the guy she`s having an affair with is still there in town, all right? I mean their argument doesn`t make any sense.

ODOM: Well, no. But, Nancy, it`s so typical. Defendants all over, they just want to put the spotlight on somebody else. They`re the victim, not the person who has actually disappeared and is more than likely dead. So that`s why they do it, Nancy. Remember, it`s power and control on the defendant`s part.

GRACE: Peter Odom?

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, he might not have been the world`s greatest husband. He might have been a jealous husband. But --

GRACE: Which time?

P. ODOM: That doesn`t make him a killer, Nancy. And if police have evidence --

GRACE: Second verse, same as the first.

P. ODOM: If the police have evidence that he was a killer -- pardon me, if I could finish that sentence, if the police had evidence he was a killer, then they should arrest him. If they don`t have enough evidence, they should leave him alone.

GRACE: You mean leave him alone in his jail cell?

P. ODOM: Leave him alone about this case. They`ve never had enough evidence, and by the way --

GRACE: Yes, leave the poor guy alone.

P. ODOM: If they prosecute him, if they prosecute him for this second -- for the second crime and that first crime comes in as evidence and it gets overturned, then this one will be overturned as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You forget that I know you`re not the kind of girl who lets marriage stop you. You forget that I know what kind of whore you are.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My god. Don`t ever hold me down again. I can`t do this anymore. We`re done, Drew. It`s over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know you`re not going anywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`re right. I`m not going anywhere. You are. You`re moving out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: At this hour, the search is on for the body of Drew Peterson`s fourth wife, Stacey Peterson. This, as he cools -- as he cools his heels behind bars after a jury convicts him of murder of wife number three.

We`re taking your calls. Lisa in Michigan, hi, Lisa. What`s your question? I think I`ve got Lisa. Lisa, are you there, dear? OK. How about my other Lisa?

Lisa, are you with me?

LISA, CALLER FROM CANADA: Hello, but I`m actually from Canada. Sorry.

GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?

LISA: Hi, Nancy. Can I please first say quickly, I`ve been watching your show for 10, 11 years every night.

GRACE: Thank you.

LISA: And I love what you do for victims and their families. It`s so sweet.

GRACE: Thank you.

LISA: OK? Now my question about the Drew Peterson case is when his third wife was found dead, how come they didn`t do a thorough investigation and put him in prison to save the fourth wife at least from missing now?

GRACE: Absolutely, Lisa. You`re so right. You know, we`ll never know the truth of why the police department -- remember, he was a member of the local police force -- did not thoroughly investigate the death of Kathleen Savio. Of course, now he has been convicted. But because of that, he was walking free and had the opportunity and the motive and the means to kill wife number four.

Joe Hosey, author of "Fatal Vows," weigh in.

HOSEY: Weigh in? You`re right. We`ll never know the full story. We know what they said in court. We know what the state police said when they were up on a witness stand. And it sounds like incompetence. You know? I mean, people have asked me, is this a conspiracy? I`m like, well it`s a conspiracy of errors. They -- I don`t know how they could look at this case with this woman who is going through a violent, tumultuous divorce with her police officer husband and then she`s dead in a tub.

And if you`ve seen those death scene photographs, they`re grizzly. There`s no water in the tub, there`s blood all over the tub. She`s jammed down there with her toes bent backwards. I mean, at the very least, one of these detectives should have said, this doesn`t look right. We better do some investigating. And instead, they`re like, well, no, it`s an accident. Let`s go home.

Within a half hour they decided it was an accident, they closed the book on that case and no one would have ever heard of her if Stacey Peterson didn`t disappear. No one would even know -- Kathleen Savio would be dead and no one would care.

GRACE: You know, Joe Hosey, author of "Fatal Vows," you have been to the scene where they are searching right now. Describe it.

HOSEY: You know, there`s a lot of -- there`s a lot of agents, federal agents. You`ve got state police. You`ve got their dog, it looks like a spring spaniel or something. They got a huge mobile command center. There were helicopters up in the air.

You know, I mean, this is a lot of manpower and a lot of hours. And you know they tried -- the state police told the forest preserve officials -- it`s a forest preserve district where this park is. They told them we`re just practicing our search techniques. They lied to the forest preserve officials about why they`re there. I don`t know why. I mean -- and this is like a pretty heavily traveled area. You know, you`re not going to -- you`re not going to flood into the radar with this with helicopters, and dog, and a huge bus and FBI on the side.

I mean I don`t know who they think they`re fooling. And I don`t know why they`d want to fool anyone. Go out there and look for this person. If you`re looking for Stacey Peterson, look for her. Why would you try to keep that a secret? Who are you keeping that a secret from?

GRACE: Well, you know, Eleanor, a lot of people are saying you can prove the case with circumstantial evidence, you need a body, but hey, we`re not in a rush. Drew Peterson is behind bars for the murder of Kathleen Savio.

So police can take their time. It`s not he`s going anywhere. And there`s no statute of limitations on murder. If they find her remains 15 years from now, if they don`t find him tonight -- they`re out digging right now, everybody. If they don`t find them tonight he`s not going anywhere. It`s not like he`s hopping a plane to Prague.

ODOM: Well, no, he`s not, Nancy. And they`ve got to be -- but they also have to get the evidence that they can as fast as they can before it deteriorates.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: The show is not over. We`re back in 60 seconds. But now we remember American hero, Army Captain Daniel Whitten, 28, Grimes, Iowa. Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal, West Post grad, Loved traveling, the Chicago Cubs. Parents, Jill and Dan. Stepmother, Penny. Sister, Sarah. Widow, Star.

Daniel Whitten, American hero.

And tonight, happy birthday to Oklahoma friend grandma Ruby and Natalie, here with her daughter, Heather.

Everyone, please, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Dr. Drew up next, everyone. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Good night, friend.

END