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Did state police bungle the Peterson case?
Testimony shows cops may have mishandled much of murder investigation
February 28, 2010
<snipped>
Prosecutors spent a month tarring Drew Peterson with hours of testimony about how he supposedly killed his last two wives. But after all the witnesses and all the arguing, in the end, it was the state police who may have looked the guiltiest of all. The revelations about how the state police allegedly mishandled the death investigation for Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, emerged during the hearsay hearing as a prelude to Peterson's murder trial.
Police: No sign of foul play
Based on testimony from witnesses, closely is not a word one would use to describe the way the state police looked at the death of Savio. But dismissing the concerns of those who reached out to them was only half the problem with the state police's method of gathering witness information in the Savio case. The law's long arm did not reach out very far to find anyone else; a state police "canvass" of the residents around Savio's home stopped short of her ex-husband Drew Peterson's street, less than a quarter mile away.
Possibly worse, the state police did not interview a single member of Savio's family during their investigation, including two sisters who said Savio predicted Peterson would kill her and make her death appear accidental.
Belief unchanged
While the state police did not talk to too many people about the circumstances surrounding Savio's death, others, including Lisa Mordente, who was once Savio's boss at a Romeoville sign company, did not go out of their way to seek out the law either.
No demerit?
And if anyone else in the state police -- aside from Falat -- cared about the circumstances of Kathleen Savio's life and death, they must not have looked into it deeply; the state police determined she died accidentally, just as Deel and Collins figured from the start. But less than three and a half years later, Stacy Peterson, the wife Collins allowed to be held and coached by Drew Peterson during her basement interview, mysteriously disappeared. Suddenly, the Kathleen Savio backstory became a much more compelling subject to the state police.
Another murder case
Whether Deel can operate in the county or not, the damage to the Savio investigation has already been done. And questions about his performance may be raised in at least one other high-profile murder case as well.
Critical of the cops
Anderson, who briefly lived with her family in Savio's basement, told much the same story as Smith. "They never followed up with me," she said. "I called. I made a couple of phone calls." Three-and-a-half years later, when the state police got a second chance to solve the mystery of what happened to one of Drew Peterson's wives, they again proved less than adept at returning telephone calls.
*Much More At Link!
Article:
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/2074488,police_bungle_peterson_jo022810.article
Testimony shows cops may have mishandled much of murder investigation
February 28, 2010
<snipped>
Prosecutors spent a month tarring Drew Peterson with hours of testimony about how he supposedly killed his last two wives. But after all the witnesses and all the arguing, in the end, it was the state police who may have looked the guiltiest of all. The revelations about how the state police allegedly mishandled the death investigation for Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, emerged during the hearsay hearing as a prelude to Peterson's murder trial.
Police: No sign of foul play
Based on testimony from witnesses, closely is not a word one would use to describe the way the state police looked at the death of Savio. But dismissing the concerns of those who reached out to them was only half the problem with the state police's method of gathering witness information in the Savio case. The law's long arm did not reach out very far to find anyone else; a state police "canvass" of the residents around Savio's home stopped short of her ex-husband Drew Peterson's street, less than a quarter mile away.
Possibly worse, the state police did not interview a single member of Savio's family during their investigation, including two sisters who said Savio predicted Peterson would kill her and make her death appear accidental.
Belief unchanged
While the state police did not talk to too many people about the circumstances surrounding Savio's death, others, including Lisa Mordente, who was once Savio's boss at a Romeoville sign company, did not go out of their way to seek out the law either.
No demerit?
And if anyone else in the state police -- aside from Falat -- cared about the circumstances of Kathleen Savio's life and death, they must not have looked into it deeply; the state police determined she died accidentally, just as Deel and Collins figured from the start. But less than three and a half years later, Stacy Peterson, the wife Collins allowed to be held and coached by Drew Peterson during her basement interview, mysteriously disappeared. Suddenly, the Kathleen Savio backstory became a much more compelling subject to the state police.
Another murder case
Whether Deel can operate in the county or not, the damage to the Savio investigation has already been done. And questions about his performance may be raised in at least one other high-profile murder case as well.
Critical of the cops
Anderson, who briefly lived with her family in Savio's basement, told much the same story as Smith. "They never followed up with me," she said. "I called. I made a couple of phone calls." Three-and-a-half years later, when the state police got a second chance to solve the mystery of what happened to one of Drew Peterson's wives, they again proved less than adept at returning telephone calls.
*Much More At Link!
Article:
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/2074488,police_bungle_peterson_jo022810.article
