Theories Based on LE Search in Peoria Area - June 5, 2010

We may have a break in this case with the reports that LE is searching and digging in an area northeast of Peoria, Illiniois for the remains of Stacy Peterson.

So we don't muddy up the search thread with theories, I thought we could have a thread here devoted to theories based solely on the search efforts in the Peoria area.

The background facts....................

We know that on October 28, 2007, Stacy Peterson disappeared. The last person outside the Peterson household to speak with Stacy was Bruce Zidarich, who talked to Stacy on the phone between 10:15am and 10:30am. By about noon, Drew Peterson told neighbor, Sharon Bychowski, that Stacy had gone to visit her grandfather at the assisted care facility where he resided.

It's important to note that Sharon Bychowski left that morning to do some errands about 9:30am. When she left she saw that both Drew's and Stacy's cars were in the driveway of the Peterson home. When Sharon returned about 11:30am, Stacy's car was gone.

At about 1:00pm Drew took the children next door to Sharon's house as she had told Drew she had some Halloween treats she wanted to give the children. Drew asked Sharon if she could watch the children while he ran a brief errand. Sharon reported that he was only gone about 15 minutes.

Drew returned to Sharon's, picked up the children and that afternoon took the children and went to the airport where he stores his ultralite airplane with the excuse that he needed to put the new registration stickers on the plane.

Later that afternoon, Drew's son, Chris was picked up for a band concert between 3:00pm and 3:25pm by a band member's mother. The mother noticed that Drew was in the garage, dressed in dark clothing with a dark hooded sweatshirt, and that the 3-year-old daughter, Lacey, was playing on the driveway.

Drew's step-brother, Thomas Morphey, has testified that he helped Drew move a blue barrel/container from the upstairs master bedroom, downstairs and into the back of Drew's Denali about 9:00pm that evening. Tom Morphey stated that the container was warm to the touch and he was scared. He thought Stacy's body was in that container.

In the meantime, Stacy's sister, Cassandra, and her boyfriend, Bruce Zidarich were trying to find Stacy. They called family members, including Stacy's grandfather, and no one had seen or heard from Stacy all day.

At about 11:00pm Cassandra went to the Peterson house, seeing that both Stacy's and Drew's cars were gone. Drew's son (mother: Kathleen Savio) Chris answered the door and told Cassandra that Drew and Stacy had a fight and Drew was out looking for her.

At about 11:30pm Cassandra called Drew's cell phone and Drew told her he was home and that Stacy had left him. Cassandra knew that Drew wasn't home as she had visual contact with the Peterson house and Drew car wasn't there, and neither was Stacy's. Cassandra said she heard the sound of someone fiddling with car keys.

At about 2:00am Monday morning Cassandra drove by the Peterson house again, and both Drew's and Stacy's car were in the driveway. Bruce Zidarich called Drew's cell phone and Drew told him that Stacy had run off with another man. He also told Bruce that Stacy had called him and told him she had left her car at Clow airport with the keys in it. Note: Clow airport is a short, 5 minute walk from the Peterson home in a northeast direction.

Cassandra went to the Illinois State Police and reported her sister, Stacy, missing.

My theory..............................

During the pre-trial hearing in January of this year, there was testimony from two witnesses who testified they saw a purple car parked on Apple Valley Road between 6:00pm and 7:00pm on October 28, 2007. One witness, a woman, who said she looked at the clock before leaving her house and it was 6:34pm, noted a suspicious man dressed in dark clothing wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt. She didn't get a good look at the man's face other than to note that he had a gray mustache.

The other witness said he was taking a walk on Apple Valley road between 6:00pm and 7:00pm, and he testified that the suspicious man came from the direction of a purple car, a General Motors car, but he didn't identify the make or model.

I did a map search for Apple Valley Road and find that its several blocks away from the Peterson home, in the opposite direction from the Peterson home with Clow Airport northeast and Apple Valley Road to the northwest, and one could probably easily walk that distance in just a few minutes.

I think Drew killed Stacy between 10:30am and 11:30am, and shortly after killing her, moved her car and parked it on Apple Valley Road, walking distance from the Peterson home. The car was gone from the Peterson property so that neighbors and anyone driving past the Peterson home would see that Stacy's car wasn't there and she probably wasn't home. The car was parked in a residential area that members of Stacy's family wouldn't drive by to get to the Peterson home.

I think the drive to the airport where Drew kept his ultralite airplane to put the new registration stickers on it was an excuse to make things appear to be normal and keep the children out of the house and away from the crime scene.

After Tom Morphey helped Drew move the suspicious blue barrel or container to Drew's car, Drew took Tom to his home.

I think after he took Tom home, Drew drove to Apple Valley Road and transferred the blue barrel/container to the trunk of Stacy's car. At this point I think Drew left his car there on Apple Valley Road. I think he then drove Stacy's car to a storage facility he had rented in someone else's name, or to the home of his accomplice, and left the container there. He drove home and left Stacy's car in the driveway, and walked the short distance to Apple Valley Road to drive his car home.

It's important to note that when LE investigated, cadaver dogs hit on the trunk of Stacy's car, and it was Stacy's car that Drew initially wouldn't allow LE to search.

We all remember that Drew took a 3-day "head-clearing" trip in the days after Stacy's disappearance.......he was back by November 1st. Drew left and returned on his motorcycle.

I think the purpose of that 3-day trip was to dispose of Stacy's body. He may have driven to his accomplice's home on his motorcycle, and together they made the trip in another vehicle to the Peoria area to bury Stacy's remains.

If Stacy's body is found buried in the area LE is now searching, northeast of Peoria, it will be interesting to learn if there's any connection to that area. The accomplice may have known someone there or knew those hunting grounds through someone, and knew they could bury Stacy there without detection.

I just have to say:

Great theory, Leila! :woohoo:

mitzi said:

I just have to say:

Great theory, Leila! :woohoo:

Click to expand...

Thanks Mitzi! Here's a map of the area that illustrates the Peterson home in relation to Clow Airport and Apple Valley Road

I have a theory about this so called accomplice being the source of the latest tip regarding the burial site being in the Peoria area:

Police confident Stacy's body is in Peoria, source says: By Joe Hosey, 6/11/10.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/plainfieldsun/news/2380460,4_1_JO11_PETERSON_S1-100611.article

Accomplice had been arrested or convicted of another nonrelated crime. To get a lighter sentence he's come forward with the information about where Stacy was buried.

If LE is actually that certain this tip is valid I sure hope they get back to the Peoria area quickly.

Recent lurker, first time poster, long time DP "watcher".

I like this forum and the open-to-possibilities attitude expressed here. I've been trying to keep up. I wanted to toss around just random ideas for consideration.

The Peoria search intrigues me, but there's something about DP that makes me think that site might only be a "partial" dump site, plastic barrel or not. I brainstorm in random ways, and often enough I try to think as the "devil's advocate", so bear with me, these are just some crazy ideas that won't leave me. I apologize in advance for rambling here.

I think multiple partial dump sites are plausible, but not by DP's grand design or planing. I think something rushed him. I don't think DP had infinite planning time to plan out multiple dump sites at the time of the crimes (i.e. one for a body, then one for clothing or murder weapon. If I were a detective going rogue and planning a murder, I'd damn well *destroy* those in addition to any body.)

However I wonder if a "set" of missing clothing, i.e. what DP would claim she left with, could be buried in Peoria, hoping never to be found, but he could twist this into a possible "See? some one else killed her after she left me!" scenario.

I wonder if he'd always had "remote locations" in mind for some future perfect murder. (I hike in some remote places, and always check my radio signal, cell phone, etc, and wonder, "Could searchers ever find me if I needed them to?")

Conversely, it's plausible that in some predatory mindset, DP might stake out several remote locations *hoping* one would be remote enough to bury a body, never to be found. He might have kept a mental list.

Digressing back Kathleen's "drowning" death, in the most jaded sense of the word, DP's learned a great deal on "what NOT to do" next time - if you're going to leave a body. Even though a "bathtub accident" is awfully convenient and hard to refute without witnesses. Simply creating doubt on a jury that "some freak slip in the tub" killed Kathleen. An honest detective knows, when you need it least, water can destroy enough trace evidence to weaken a forensics case, or even the simple suspicion of foul play. Coupled with no witnesses, and that first "accidental death" ruling, DP has set himself up with at least a case there for "reasonable doubt." But again, "leaving a body" has proved troublesome for DP, now we know.

So now, when he gets impulsive to rid himself of Stacy, he instead thinks himself sly, *tries* to plan a story of her running off - to buy time for a better-planned "perfect disappearance."

Because, by now, we know that that "No body, no crime" mentality is probably DP's "new" idea of the perfect murder. He's gotten bolder, learned from past mistakes, working up the ladder of confidence, so he's determined that he won't leave a body this time.

I just have this weird feeling that the Peoria site will contain evidence, but not a complete body. Perhaps it may only contain something the body was "wrapped in" after death? Possibly containing postmortem decomposition-generated fluids, or "the clothes she left in" to give himself a thinly plausible alibi from any actual crime near the time of the disappearance.

Why I'm still intrigued with the Peoria site: I don't know what will be recovered in Peoria but I've been witness to the legal phrase here in Florida concerning "Blood loss incompatible with Life." Which is a to say, a doctor or coroner can attest to evidence, that enough volume of blood has bled from a human body, or been recovered *without* a body, that without treatment a normal human could not survive. I believe the testimony is used to get a ruling when a missing person is needed to be declared legally dead, to move on with investigation for custodial claim on surviving children etc.

Anyway, what I suspect in Peoria is that a cadaver dog *might* have detected enough saturated, decomposing, buried scent to alert on it. But what might be buried there isn't dense enough to be detected with archaeological recovery technology.

With such evidence - if that's what's there, Police could possibly have the materials of Stacy's clothing/body wrap blood- and DNA-typed, then have her declared legally dead, so that more serious resources can be deployed in the investigation.

Meanwhile, they are going slowly now, so as to be very careful, and also mindful of the upcoming trial.

My idea of more than one burial site, needing separate risk of transportation, is pushing it, I realize. But I wonder if the body was disposed of elsewhere, but somehow the bloody clothes or materials used in transportation caused a delay or were "not factored in".

Perhaps DP might have *planned* to burn them, but ran short of time, or decided burning was too conspicuous -- and instead buried them in this hunting area. DP may not be "worried" about this site as being the body site, I'm hoping whatever's recovered still broadens the investigation, and pressures DP further.

Just Ideas, and my own personal speculations. Thanks for reading!

corq said:

Recent lurker, first time poster, long time DP "watcher".

I like this forum and the open-to-possibilities attitude expressed here. I've been trying to keep up. I wanted to toss around just random ideas for consideration.

The Peoria search intrigues me, but there's something about DP that makes me think that site might only be a "partial" dump site, plastic barrel or not. I brainstorm in random ways, and often enough I try to think as the "devil's advocate", so bear with me, these are just some crazy ideas that won't leave me. I apologize in advance for rambling here.

I think multiple partial dump sites are plausible, but not by DP's grand design or planing. I think something rushed him. I don't think DP had infinite planning time to plan out multiple dump sites at the time of the crimes (i.e. one for a body, then one for clothing or murder weapon. If I were a detective going rogue and planning a murder, I'd damn well *destroy* those in addition to any body.)

However I wonder if a "set" of missing clothing, i.e. what DP would claim she left with, could be buried in Peoria, hoping never to be found, but he could twist this into a possible "See? some one else killed her after she left me!" scenario.

I wonder if he'd always had "remote locations" in mind for some future perfect murder. (I hike in some remote places, and always check my radio signal, cell phone, etc, and wonder, "Could searchers ever find me if I needed them to?")

Conversely, it's plausible that in some predatory mindset, DP might stake out several remote locations *hoping* one would be remote enough to bury a body, never to be found. He might have kept a mental list.

Digressing back Kathleen's "drowning" death, in the most jaded sense of the word, DP's learned a great deal on "what NOT to do" next time - if you're going to leave a body. Even though a "bathtub accident" is awfully convenient and hard to refute without witnesses. Simply creating doubt on a jury that "some freak slip in the tub" killed Kathleen. An honest detective knows, when you need it least, water can destroy enough trace evidence to weaken a forensics case, or even the simple suspicion of foul play. Coupled with no witnesses, and that first "accidental death" ruling, DP has set himself up with at least a case there for "reasonable doubt." But again, "leaving a body" has proved troublesome for DP, now we know.

So now, when he gets impulsive to rid himself of Stacy, he instead thinks himself sly, *tries* to plan a story of her running off - to buy time for a better-planned "perfect disappearance."

Because, by now, we know that that "No body, no crime" mentality is probably DP's "new" idea of the perfect murder. He's gotten bolder, learned from past mistakes, working up the ladder of confidence, so he's determined that he won't leave a body this time.

I just have this weird feeling that the Peoria site will contain evidence, but not a complete body. Perhaps it may only contain something the body was "wrapped in" after death? Possibly containing postmortem decomposition-generated fluids, or "the clothes she left in" to give himself a thinly plausible alibi from any actual crime near the time of the disappearance.

Why I'm still intrigued with the Peoria site: I don't know what will be recovered in Peoria but I've been witness to the legal phrase here in Florida concerning "Blood loss incompatible with Life." Which is a to say, a doctor or coroner can attest to evidence, that enough volume of blood has bled from a human body, or been recovered *without* a body, that without treatment a normal human could not survive. I believe the testimony is used to get a ruling when a missing person is needed to be declared legally dead, to move on with investigation for custodial claim on surviving children etc.

Anyway, what I suspect in Peoria is that a cadaver dog *might* have detected enough saturated, decomposing, buried scent to alert on it. But what might be buried there isn't dense enough to be detected with archaeological recovery technology.

With such evidence - if that's what's there, Police could possibly have the materials of Stacy's clothing/body wrap blood- and DNA-typed, then have her declared legally dead, so that more serious resources can be deployed in the investigation.

Meanwhile, they are going slowly now, so as to be very careful, and also mindful of the upcoming trial.

My idea of more than one burial site, needing separate risk of transportation, is pushing it, I realize. But I wonder if the body was disposed of elsewhere, but somehow the bloody clothes or materials used in transportation caused a delay or were "not factored in".

Perhaps DP might have *planned* to burn them, but ran short of time, or decided burning was too conspicuous -- and instead buried them in this hunting area. DP may not be "worried" about this site as being the body site, I'm hoping whatever's recovered still broadens the investigation, and pressures DP further.

Just Ideas, and my own personal speculations. Thanks for reading!

Click to expand...

I like a lot of your thinking. But I would put these to thoughts back to you to try to work into your theory. Again, these are just MY thoughts and I could be wrong, so don't take this as I'm a know it all:

1. I've thought about multiple burial locations, but ruled it out in my mind because the more dump sites, the more possibilities of a random discovery.

2. Clothes: he was gone for 3 days. Time to burn would not have been a factor.

3. No doubt your logic is correct about the need to not leave another body, but I think for a slightly different reason. Not because he learned from the first one, because he got away with it at the time. But rather that two wives ending up dead by accident is a lot more troubling to law enforcement than one accidental death and one run-away. Either way, two wives dead, or one dead and one missing for three years screams of murder.

I agree, I think they have something from Peoria. Not sure what, but the circumstances of them saying it's a great lead but not getting back there for all this time tells me they are analyzing something they found.

jmo

corq said:

Recent lurker, first time poster, long time DP "watcher".

I like this forum and the open-to-possibilities attitude expressed here. I've been trying to keep up. I wanted to toss around just random ideas for consideration.

The Peoria search intrigues me, but there's something about DP that makes me think that site might only be a "partial" dump site, plastic barrel or not. I brainstorm in random ways, and often enough I try to think as the "devil's advocate", so bear with me, these are just some crazy ideas that won't leave me. I apologize in advance for rambling here.

I think multiple partial dump sites are plausible, but not by DP's grand design or planing. I think something rushed him. I don't think DP had infinite planning time to plan out multiple dump sites at the time of the crimes (i.e. one for a body, then one for clothing or murder weapon. If I were a detective going rogue and planning a murder, I'd damn well *destroy* those in addition to any body.)

However I wonder if a "set" of missing clothing, i.e. what DP would claim she left with, could be buried in Peoria, hoping never to be found, but he could twist this into a possible "See? some one else killed her after she left me!" scenario.

I wonder if he'd always had "remote locations" in mind for some future perfect murder. (I hike in some remote places, and always check my radio signal, cell phone, etc, and wonder, "Could searchers ever find me if I needed them to?")

Conversely, it's plausible that in some predatory mindset, DP might stake out several remote locations *hoping* one would be remote enough to bury a body, never to be found. He might have kept a mental list.

Digressing back Kathleen's "drowning" death, in the most jaded sense of the word, DP's learned a great deal on "what NOT to do" next time - if you're going to leave a body. Even though a "bathtub accident" is awfully convenient and hard to refute without witnesses. Simply creating doubt on a jury that "some freak slip in the tub" killed Kathleen. An honest detective knows, when you need it least, water can destroy enough trace evidence to weaken a forensics case, or even the simple suspicion of foul play. Coupled with no witnesses, and that first "accidental death" ruling, DP has set himself up with at least a case there for "reasonable doubt." But again, "leaving a body" has proved troublesome for DP, now we know.

So now, when he gets impulsive to rid himself of Stacy, he instead thinks himself sly, *tries* to plan a story of her running off - to buy time for a better-planned "perfect disappearance."

Because, by now, we know that that "No body, no crime" mentality is probably DP's "new" idea of the perfect murder. He's gotten bolder, learned from past mistakes, working up the ladder of confidence, so he's determined that he won't leave a body this time.

I just have this weird feeling that the Peoria site will contain evidence, but not a complete body. Perhaps it may only contain something the body was "wrapped in" after death? Possibly containing postmortem decomposition-generated fluids, or "the clothes she left in" to give himself a thinly plausible alibi from any actual crime near the time of the disappearance.

Why I'm still intrigued with the Peoria site: I don't know what will be recovered in Peoria but I've been witness to the legal phrase here in Florida concerning "Blood loss incompatible with Life." Which is a to say, a doctor or coroner can attest to evidence, that enough volume of blood has bled from a human body, or been recovered *without* a body, that without treatment a normal human could not survive. I believe the testimony is used to get a ruling when a missing person is needed to be declared legally dead, to move on with investigation for custodial claim on surviving children etc.

Anyway, what I suspect in Peoria is that a cadaver dog *might* have detected enough saturated, decomposing, buried scent to alert on it. But what might be buried there isn't dense enough to be detected with archaeological recovery technology.

With such evidence - if that's what's there, Police could possibly have the materials of Stacy's clothing/body wrap blood- and DNA-typed, then have her declared legally dead, so that more serious resources can be deployed in the investigation.

Meanwhile, they are going slowly now, so as to be very careful, and also mindful of the upcoming trial.

My idea of more than one burial site, needing separate risk of transportation, is pushing it, I realize. But I wonder if the body was disposed of elsewhere, but somehow the bloody clothes or materials used in transportation caused a delay or were "not factored in".

Perhaps DP might have *planned* to burn them, but ran short of time, or decided burning was too conspicuous -- and instead buried them in this hunting area. DP may not be "worried" about this site as being the body site, I'm hoping whatever's recovered still broadens the investigation, and pressures DP further.

Just Ideas, and my own personal speculations. Thanks for reading!

Click to expand...

First of all, Corq!

You've got some interesting theories and I want to address what I've put in bold.

When Drew's step-brother, Tom Morphey, testified at the pre-trial hearing in January he stated that in the days leading up to Stacy's disappearance, Drew had asked him, "would you kill for me?" Tom said no, and Drew later asked Tom if he would rent a storage unit in his name and let Drew use it. Tom refused to do that. It was his conversations with Drew in the days prior to Stacy's disappearance that led Tom to conclude that Stacy's body was in the container he helped carry from the master bedroom to Drew's Denali the night of October 28, 2007.

So, I think Drew had been planning to kill Stacy, but as you stated in your post, something rushed him. I suspect he learned that Stacy had an appointment with an attorney to file for divorce the next day, and that's what made him kill her that day.

When you consider the circumstances, Drew killing Stacy in the house on a Sunday morning when both of his teenage sons were at home, and most of the neighbors would be home (not at work), was likely done on an impulse. Had he planned it, he would be more likely to kill Stacy at a time when the older sons were at school, and the younger two with a babysitter - perhaps making an excuse of taking Stacy out for lunch to talk - and killing her away from the house and away from any possible witnesses.

On the possibility of multiple burial sites. Sometime during the first week after Stacy's disappearance, Rick Mims, who was then a friend of Drew's moved into the Peterson house to help Drew care for the kids. During the time he was there - I think about a week or so, he saw several things that made him very suspicious of Drew, and he moved out.

One thing that Rick witnessed was that one night during the week after Stacy's disappearance, Drew came downstairs dressed in black and he had something concealed under his shirt. He went out the back door and was gone for about 30 minutes. This suggests that Drew found something that he needed to get rid of and left the house. That item might be buried somewhere in the area, or he placed it in someone's trash barrel.

On the night of Nov. 1st, Mike Robinson, a friend of Drew's came to the Peterson home. Rick said that he and Drew went into Drew's office and Mike Robinson gave Drew a cell phone and charger and wrote on a piece of paper, "this is a cell phone for you to use, and told Drew to answer it saying he's from a heating and cooling company. They put that note in the shredder. He said Mike Robinson and Drew continued to write notes back and forth to each other, thinking the house was bugged. This suggests that Drew had some help.

I think that Stacy's murder had been planned, but not for that day. That day something happened that made Drew act on an impulse and kill her ahead of schedule. He was sloppy and there were a lot of details he had to do that he hadn't planned for.

Drew had gotten away with Kathleen's murder, and that made him bold. I don't think that ever, in his wildest dreams, did he think Stacy's disappearance would garner the national media attention it did. It was that national media attention that's been his undoing.

bumping because some skeletal remains have been found near the Illinois River in Glasford Il which is in Peoria County, and a camp ground and boating/camp club is nearby