Drew Peterson, 55, a retired police officer from Bolingbrook, Illinois was arrested on Thursday night at 5:30 p.m., just hours after a grand jury handed down a two-count indictment in the 2004 murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.
The suspect was arrested a short distance from his home (see video below) and was taken into custody. He is being held in Will County on a $20 million bond. The charges are that Peterson intentionally killed Savio and knowingly performed an act to cause great bodily harm.
Savio, 40, and Peterson were divorced at the time of her death, and she was living with their two children just three blocks from where Drew was residing with wife number four Stacy Peterson. Savio was found dead in a bathtub, and though there were signs of body trauma, the coroner’s report ruled the death an accidental drowning.
Stacy Peterson provided an alibi for her husband but at some point told her minister that Drew Peterson had killed Kathleen Savio and had made it look like an accident. She said she was afraid of her husband.
Stacy Peterson, 24, disappeared on October 28, 2007 and has not been heard from since. Two weeks later, Kathleen Savio’s body was exhumed and a second autopsy performed. The finding was that the body had been battered and the cause of death was changed from accidental death to a homicide.
Drew Peterson’s four underage children have been placed in the care of Stephen Peterson, a relative and police officer in the Chicago suberb of Oak Brook, Illinois.
More photos of Peterson, Kathleen and Stacy below and CNN video showing the arrest.