COP'S 3RD WIFE RULED 'HOMICIDE'

The Associated Press

February 23, 2008 -- CHICAGO - Amid the search for former police officer Drew Peterson's fourth wife, an autopsy on the exhumed body of the man's third wife found what her relatives have long suspected - her death was no accident.
Kathleen Savio died by drowning and her death was ruled a homicide, Dr. Larry Blum said in an autopsy report released Thursday by the state's attorney's office. It was the second autopsy performed on Savio.

She was found dead in her bathtub in March 2004, shortly before her divorce with Peterson was finalized. Four years ago, a coroner's jury ruled her death was an accident.

Savio's body was exhumed late last year after Peterson was named a person of interest in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy. He has said Stacy Peterson ran off with another man, but her relatives deny any affair and say she would not have willingly left her two young children.

Blum's report largely echoes the work of nationally known pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who performed a third, unofficial autopsy at the request of Savio's family. Baden concluded that Savio died after a struggle, and her body was placed in the bathtub.

Peterson, 54, who was a sergeant in the Bolingbrook, Ill., police department, has denied any involvement in either case and has not been charged with wrongdoing.