Pastor: Ex-Cop's Missing Wife Feared Him*

Friday November 30, 2007 9:16 AM

By TARA BURGHART

Associated Press Writer

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. (AP) - The wife of a former police officer told a
clergy member months before she disappeared that she feared her husband,
a church official said Thursday, echoing comments the woman's sister
made soon after she vanished.

Stacy Peterson requested a meeting in late August with a member of the
Westbrook Christian Church pastoral staff when the church made a routine
call to see why she and Drew Peterson had not attended recent services,
Rob Daniels, the church's pastor of spiritual formation, told The
Associated Press.

At the meeting, Peterson said ``she feared for herself because of her
husband,'' Daniels said.

He would not say whether Peterson was afraid her husband would kill her,
only that she feared ``bodily harm.''

Authorities say Drew Peterson is a suspect in his fourth wife's
disappearance and have called her case a possible homicide.
Investigators are also re-examining the 2004 death of Peterson's third
wife, Kathleen Savio, saying it may have been a homicide staged to look
like an accidental bathtub drowning.

Stacy Peterson was last seen by her relatives on Oct. 28. Days later,
her sister, Cassandra Cales, said Peterson was afraid of her husband and
was making plans to divorce him. ``She told me ... she feared for her
life,'' Cales said.

Peterson, 53, has denied wrongdoing, saying he believes 23-year-old
Stacy Peterson left him for another man and is alive. Peterson has since
resigned from the Bolingbrook police force.

His attorney, Joel Brodsky, did not immediately return messages Thursday.

Daniels did not address a report Thursday in the Chicago Sun-Times that
Peterson told a clergyman in August that her husband had confessed to
her that he killed Savio and made it look like an accident. The
newspaper cited an anonymous source close to the investigation and did
not identify the clergyman or the church.

The Westbrook Christian official made a ``judgment call'' not to alert
authorities and did not consult with other church staff, Daniels said.
The church's clergy are legally required to alert authorities only about
allegations of child abuse or if someone threatens to harm themselves or
others, he said.

It wasn't clear whether investigators have questioned church members or
staff about the Petersons. Messages left late Thursday for the Illinois
State Police were not immediately returned.

Daniels would not identify the clergy member who met with Stacy Peterson
or say where the meeting took place, other than it was not at the
church. Daniels also would not reveal specific details of the
conversation, but he said church leaders only learned of it Thursday.

Stacy and Drew Peterson and their children occasionally attended
services at the church from 2004 to January 2007 but then stopped
coming, Daniels said. The church, less than a mile from the Peterson
home, has served as a headquarters for several volunteer searches for
Peterson.

Church officials have not made any decision on whether they need to
review how the church handled the situation, Daniels said.

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Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this
report.