Mysterious Package Linked To Missing Woman

A man believed to be Drew Peterson asked two truck drivers to take a package to an undisclosed location in the early morning hours of Oct. 29, the day his wife Stacy was reported missing, Illinois State Police said Saturday.

Two men - the one said to be Peterson and a man believe to be in his 50s, with salt-and-pepper hair and a stocky build - approached the truck drivers around 3:30 a.m. at a Bolingbrook truck stop, Trooper Mark Dorencz said in a written statement.

The men asked the truck drivers to "transport a package to an undisclosed location;" after reaching the location, the men would "regain possession of the package and continue transporting it to a location not accessible by semi-trailers," the statement said.

The statement did not provide details, including what might have been in the package. State police did not return calls Saturday night.

Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, said in a statement that his client "categorically denies that any such encounter took place."

"It is our belief that anyone who logically examines the scenario that is being suggested by the Illinois State Police will reject it out of hand being nonsensical," Brodsky said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for Stacy Peterson's family, Pamela Bosco, said she spoke to state police on Saturday about their statement. She said police would not give her a description of the package and "left it rather vague because they don't know what this could lead to."

A nonprofit group that has helped search for Stacy Peterson has said searchers were asked by police to look for a blue plastic barrel.

And earlier this week, several media outlets, citing sources close to the investigation, reported that Drew Peterson's stepbrother tried to commit suicide after helping Drew Peterson remove a large rectangular plastic container from his home the night Stacy Peterson disappeared.

A friend of Thomas Morphey, Peterson's stepbrother, said Morphey told him he feared he had helped Peterson dispose of his wife's body.

Brodsky has said there was no container and that Morphey was not credible because he had psychological problems.

Peterson, 53, a former Bolingbrook police officer, has been named a suspect in the disappearance of his 23-year-old wife, and authorities have called the case a possible homicide. Peterson has denied any involvement in his fourth wife's disappearance and said he believes she ran off with another man.

Authorities also are investigating the death of Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio. She was found dead in a bathtub in 2004 and a coroner's jury at the time ruled it an accidental drowning. Investigators now say they believe her death was a homicide staged to look like an accident, and are awaiting results of a second autopsy after exhuming her body last month.

Peterson has not been named a suspect in Savio's death.

More than 200 people braved freezing temperatures to scour areas in Chicago's southwestern suburbs Saturday looking for signs of Stacy Peterson and another missing mother, Lisa Stebic, 38. The search was called off after four hours when snow and sleet thwarted the effort.

"We just hoped that one of our families would have closure today and one of our families might have some answers," said Melanie Greenberg, a cousin of Stebic, who vanished from her Plainfield home in April.

The turnout in suburban Romeoville was the biggest so far in the high-profile Peterson case, which police are investigating as a possible homicide.

Bosco said she was pleased by the volunteers who braved bitter temperatures to search for the women.

"You can see that they just want to do everything they can," she said. "It shows how much people care and how much they're involved in the situation."

Meanwhile, Peterson's lawyer asked a judge to order investigators to return property seized from the family's home last month.

The items include two cars, 11 guns, iPods, school supplies, computers and nearly two-dozen CDs.

Will County Judge Dan Rozek is to consider the matter Dec. 12.

Brodsky says Drew Peterson is entitled to his weapons, which were taken from a locked safe Nov. 1.

"He certainly must feel the hate - or dislike - out there for him," Brodsky told The (Joliet) Herald-News. "I can understand why he feels safer if he has his weapons with him in the house, at least."