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Under Suspicion

By Alex Tresniowski and Nicole Weisensee Egan

Originally posted Wednesday November 21, 2007 05:00 PM EST

Peterson (with Stacy) says, "I was very much in love with her – even today. Photo by: Courtesy Cassandra Cales

Peterson says he made some of the 18 calls to police himself, and that in the other cases, "she would say I was violent after chasing me around the house, swinging at me. I never laid a finger on her." Peterson also says Savio's abusive childhood caused the erratic behavior he blames for the failure of their marriage. "I didn't want to divorce her; I wanted to help her," he contends. "We tried five marriage counselors. But she refused to accept that the problem was her, ever."

Savio's brother Henry denies his sister was somehow broken by her childhood; he says they grew up in a close-knit family that was not abusive and that Kathleen was a proud woman determined not to let Drew intimidate her. Toward the end of their marriage, Kathleen "found out Drew was having an affair with a 17-year-old," says her sister Susan. "Someone anonymously sent her a letter saying she was the laughing stock of the police department." Peterson admits he was still married when he started seeing Stacy, then working as a hotel desk clerk. "I asked her, 'Why don't we go out?' " he recalls. "I thought she was older than she was. I said, 'Do you mind that I'm 47?' She said, 'Not at all. I'm 17.' I was shocked. But I was a lonely old man."

Peterson's affair with Stacy ended his marriage to Savio, and their divorce became official in 2003. In March 2004 Peterson became alarmed after not hearing from Savio for more than a day, he says. "I was coming home from work around 9:30 p.m. when Drew stopped me," says Peterson's former neighbor and good friend Steve Carcerano, 39. "He said, 'I've been trying to drop off the kids and Kathy's not answering. I need to get into the house.' " After a locksmith opened the door, Carcerano and his neighbor Mary went into the house while Peterson waited in the foyer. "I walked by the bathroom, and I noticed what I thought was an exercise ball in the tub," says Carcerano. "Then I looked down and saw it was Kathy. Mary came in and started screaming 'Oh my god!' and then Drew came running upstairs."

Peterson's reaction? "He checked her pulse, and he was trembling and said, 'What am I going to tell the children?' " says Carcerano. "He was emotional, distraught." Despite puzzling questions – why was there no water in the tub? why was Savio's body so bruised? – a coroner's jury quickly ruled her death an accidental drowning. "The investigation was very fast; it was 1-2-3," says Savio's sister Susan. "But my sister always told everyone that he would kill her and make it look like an accident."