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 They suspect she was killed. But that theory did not dawn on them until her husband came under suspicion in the recent disappearance and possible murder of his new wife.
Drew Peterson, a former police office in suburban Bolingbrook, denies any role in his wife's disappearance, saying she told him she was leaving him for another man.
Stacy Peterson, 23, was reported missing Oct. 29, the day after failing to show up to help her sister paint a house. She was 17 when she began dating Peterson. He was 47 and still married to Savio.
Peterson believes his wife has left him for another man, and said he has no plans to look for her because he thinks she left willfully.
"Why would I look for somebody who I don't believe is missing? She's just gone. She's where she wants to be," Peterson told NBC's "Today" show.
Peterson's troubles began during his marriage to Savio, who died in 2004.
She left behind a trail of clues about the couple's stormy marriage, including an order of protection she filed in 2002 after Peterson allegedly knocked her down, ripped a necklace off her and left marks on her body. Savio wrote in the order that she feared Peterson could kill her.
"He wants me dead, and if he has to, he will burn the house down just to shut me up," she wrote.
A coroner's report includes testimony from Savio's sister, who said Savio warned relatives that if she died, it may look like an accident, but it would not be.
Authorities have not said Peterson, now 53, is a suspect in Savio's death. But they have reviewed autopsy photos, police reports, court documents and even exhumed her body as they point the finger at Peterson in Stacy Peterson's disappearance.
"I would say that right now Drew Peterson has gone from being a person of interest to clearly being a suspect" in his fourth wife's disappearance, Illinois State Police Capt. Carl Dobrich said last week.
Peterson downplayed any similarities between the two cases but said his relationships with both women were troubled. Both suffered from emotional problems, he said. He denied having anything to do with the two cases.
"I can look right in your eye and say I had nothing to do with either of those incidents," he told NBC.
Authorities have been tightlipped about the specifics of their investigation, including what they hope to learn from examining Savio's body. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said some tests that should have been conducted on Savio's remains never were.
In the final days of her marriage, Savio traded battery allegations with her husband, who resigned from the police department this week.
Drew Peterson twice persuaded the state's attorney's office to bring battery charges against his wife, but she was acquitted both times. Peterson never was charged, although Bolingbrook police have said officers investigated 18 domestic calls involving the couple.
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 Savio's family suspects police were trying to protect one of their own.
"She called it the 'good old boys club,'" said Charlie Doman, Savio's nephew. "Cops taking care of cops, is what it was."
Among the documents Savio's family has kept for years is a copy of a letter they say she sent to an assistant state's attorney in Will County, claiming Peterson had beaten her several times, but police declined to file reports.
They also have a report from a suburban Chicago hospital that Savio visited in 2002 for treatment of a sprained wrist after what she said was a confrontation with Peterson. The report includes a notation by someone, possibly her doctor, that Savio said her husband was a Bolingbrook police officer and that the police would not take a report on the incident.
Documents relating to Savio's domestic battery arrests are gone. According to her family, she had the arrests expunged from her record. A spokesman for the Will County state's attorney's office said authorities have found little paperwork on the arrests, and it is unclear whom Savio was accused of attacking.
But Savio's family said that, in one of the cases, the alleged victim was Stacy Peterson. Doman said Stacy Peterson became pregnant while Drew Peterson was still married to Savio.
An emergency room report provided to The Associated Press by the family contains a notation that Savio was injured during a confrontation involving someone named Stacy. Savio, her family said, was arrested after the two women argued.
"He staged it to make it look like a battery," said Pamela Bosco, a close friend of Stacy Peterson's family.
Savio's family is relieved to see authorities investigating their long-held suspicions about Peterson.
"Finally, they're paying attention," Doman said. "They're looking at everything that they had there already."
Peterson was married twice before Savio.
Dave Brown, who is now married to Peterson's first wife, told WGN-TV Wednesday that his wife hasn't talked to her ex-husband in more than 10 years. But he said his wife has never mentioned Peterson being violent or threatening during the marriage.
"She didn't have any of that kind of problem with him that long ago," Brown told the station. "There's nothing that we can add. It's up to the courts. This is America; people are innocent until they're proven guilty."
[Associated
Press; By DON BABWIN]
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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