Body of police officer's 3rd wife exhumed amid investigation into new wife's disappearance

A photo taken from video shows the grave site of Kathleen Savio at the Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Hillside, Ill., on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007. Savio was the third wife of Bolingbrook (Ill.) Police Officer Drew Peterson whose bloody and bruised body was found in her bathtub in 2004.

HILLSIDE, Ill. - The former wife of a suburban Chicago police officer was exhumed from a grave Tuesday amid an investigation into the disappearance of the officer's current wife, a spokesman said.

A crane was used to hoist Kathleen Savio's casket from a plot at the Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery west of Chicago. Authorities were at the scene supervising, said Charles Pelkie, spokesman for the Will County prosecutor's office.

Savio, who was found dead in her bathtub in 2004, was the third wife of Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson. State's Attorney James Glasgow has said evidence suggests that someone killed Savio and tried to make it look like an accident.

An afternoon autopsy was planned, but results were not expected for days.

Investigators reopened the case into her death after Stacy Peterson, Peterson's fourth wife, disappeared last month. Authorities are hoping Savio's exhumed body can offer clues to how she died.

A coroner's jury ruled Savio's death an accident, even though there was no water in the bathtub where the 40-year-old's body was found face-down, her hair soaked in blood from a head wound. Investigators theorized the water had drained.

According to court records, Savio had gotten an order of protection in 2002, alleging a pattern of physical abuse and threats by Peterson.

Peterson's current wife, Stacy, was last seen Oct. 28 and state Police Capt. Carl Dobrich has said her husband is "clearly" a suspect. He said the case is now a potential homicide investigation.

The family of Stacy Peterson has said she feared her husband, was making plans to divorce him and would not have willingly left her children, ages 2 and 4.

Drew Peterson has said that his wife phoned him and told him she had left him for another man. A message for Fred Morelli, an attorney representing Drew Peterson, was not immediately returned Tuesday morning.

He has been relieved of duty and placed on suspension without pay pending completion of an internal affairs investigation and hearing.

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