'Fatal vows': Book digs in to Stacy Peterson's disappearance
'FATAL VOWS':
'There's something wrong with this'
September 7, 2008
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Around 2 p.m., Bychowski called Stacy's cell phone. The call went straight to voice mail, which struck Bychowski as odd. "When she's gone, she never turned her cell off, ever."
Bychowski did not hear from Stacy for the rest of the day. At about 8:30 a.m. the next morning - Monday, Oct. 29 - her doorbell rang. She expected it to be Stacy, who usually rang the bell and walked right in. This time, though, it was Peterson. He grabbed Bychowski by the arm and, saying he needed her, took her to his house. She didn't even have time to put on her shoes.
"I thought, 'Oh, my God. Oh, my God, what's wrong?' My heart is pounding, that kind of pounding when you get pulled over by the cops? ... 'What's wrong? What's wrong?' 'Just come, come.' He wouldn't tell me. I see that there's both cars in the driveway."
Once she was inside Peterson's house, he dropped what he must have thought was a bombshell, only Bychowski knew it was coming.
"He says, 'She left me,' " Bychowski said. "I go, 'Yeah.' ... I'm thinking, 'And?' 'Cause I know how unhappy she is, and I know she wants to leave him. I thought she left for sure.
"I said, 'Where are the kids?' And he says, 'They're upstairs.' "
With this revelation, she knew something was amiss. "He goes, 'I know this is really difficult for you. I know you thought she was your bud and all.' I'm like, 'Now what do I do?' I'm in the house alone with him, basically. And you know what else was odd? Everything was perfect. Like, we have the same flowers. They're always on her kitchen table. Gone. There's nothing on the kitchen table. No kids' placemats. No sippy cups. Nothing. Odd." Peterson then complained of Stacy looting their safe and going on a spending spree. He said she took $25,000 from their safe at home, Bychowski said, but Stacy had told Bychowski the week before that she had transferred $25,000 to pay off a home-equity line of credit so they would only have to divide up assets and not liabilities. "But he doesn't know that I know that," Bychowski said. "So I just said, 'Oh.' "
Peterson said Stacy also took passports and car and house titles and bought herself new clothes and a bikini. The list gave Bychowski further cause for concern.
"Well, I also know that she has a favorite bikini. She's not going to give that up. I know she has these fabulous bras that she bought herself as a treat after she had her liposuction. I said, 'She's not giving up those bras.' I know her. She had favorite bras. She's not giving up all those bras."
Bychowski was in disbelief. She figured Stacy would leave Peterson sooner or later, but she could not swallow that the young woman would abruptly depart without taking her children. When she got home and briefed her husband, she said he had a similar sense of dread.
"I said, 'Bob, the kids are there.' He sits up and he goes, 'OK, that's not right.' I said, 'You don't think I'm being a drama queen to tell you that I think that there's something wrong with this?' And he goes, 'One thing I know about her is, she'd never leave her kids.'
"My husband's not involved with a lot of stuff," Bychowski said, "but he knows her well enough to know those kids are always with her."
Soon after Bychowski returned home, Stacy's sister Cassandra and Bruce Zidarich were at her door.
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