A gunshot allegedly fired by Drew Peterson narrowly missed his wife, Stacy, this summer as she retrieved a can of soda in the garage for him, she told her sister before she disappeared in late October.Drew Peterson was in the master bedroom when the gun allegedly went off, according to the account Stacy gave her sister Cassandra Cales. The bullet allegedly pierced the floor and went into the garage below.
"She heard a pow. It scared her. She looked around the garage -- she didn't know what it was," Cales told the Tribune on Tuesday. "Drew went down there. He picked up all the pieces and he never made a report [to police]. He patched the ceiling. Stacy showed me the hole. She peeled the carpet back and showed me where the hole was."
Cales said she sarcastically asked Stacy if the gunshot was an accident. She said her sister just stared at her.
Drew Peterson, 53, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, has been named a suspect in the disappearance of Stacy, 23, who vanished Oct. 28. State police have labeled the case a possible homicide, and the investigation has led authorities to re-examine the 2004 death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead in her home in an empty bathtub.
On Tuesday, investigators continued a days-long search of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in Romeoville and Lockport for evidence in Stacy's case, and Drew Peterson made a public appeal for money to defend himself.
Cales said the gun incident happened in August.
A minister who counseled Stacy said he met her at a coffee shop in August where Stacy blurted out to him that her husband admitted he killed Savio. The minister said Drew Peterson then called about a meeting, but they never got together.
Cales said she told Illinois State Police and Bolingbrook Police Chief Ray McGury about the gun incident when she reported her sister missing. Bolingbrook police Lt. Ken Teppel said McGury told Cales to report it to state police.
"He did say that Cassandra brought it up. ... We had no report of that either by Stacy or by Drew," Teppel said. "He recognized that it was integral to this investigation and told her to make sure Illinois State Police is aware of it."
Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, dismissed the story as just another rumor about his client.
"I'm sure the police were called and someone was arrested and charged with attempted murder," Brodsky said, his voice laced with sarcasm. "It's more baloney. Just another Elvis sighting."
Cales said that two weeks before Stacy went missing, she found her cell phone bill in Peterson's briefcase, with numbers highlighted and notes scribbled on it.
Cales said Stacy immediately got a new number and had the bill sent to Cales' work.
"She said, 'I can't take this anymore,'" Cales said. Stacy's friends and family have said she told Peterson she wanted a divorce in the days leading up to her disappearance.
Brodsky said his client has been the target of rumors and media attacks since the case broke. Earlier in the day, he sent out a news release announcing the establishment of the Drew Peterson Legal Defense Fund to help defray legal fees associated with the case and to hire a private investigator to search for Stacy.
Peterson launched a Web site, which had a short section of text explaining that the media has sensationalized the story, causing hardship for Peterson and his children. The news release said Peterson would not receive any money from the fund for his personal use.
Pam Bosco, a spokeswoman for Stacy's relatives, said she was not surprised by the appeal for money.
"The first thing that comes to my mind is that we must be hot on the trail for him to do something like this," Bosco said.
She dismissed the claim that the money would be used to hire a private investigator, saying Peterson had ample time to help look for his wife but chose not to do so.
Brodsky said his client has to contend with an investigation involving 64 Illinois State Police investigators, as well as "dozens, if not hundreds," of FBI agents.
Even though Peterson has not been charged with a crime, Brodsky said the sheer manpower arrayed against him is daunting, leading to equally daunting costs to prepare a possible defense.
"I mean, the cost of the independent forensic pathologist alone, he wanted $10,000 upfront," Brodsky said. "And that's not counting lawyers' fees and all sorts of other costs."
But by Tuesday evening, the Web site was suspended because it was generating too much traffic, according to its Web host, HostMonster.com. A customer service representative said http://www.defenddrew.com/ was taking up nearly 4,500 connections on the server, leaving only a little more than 500 connections free for all other sites.
Meanwhile, a site for Stacy Peterson, FindStacyPeterson.com, began accepting donations for volunteer searchers for her.
The money would be used to pay for food, gas and lodging for searchers, as well as for fliers, sonar equipment and airplane rentals and fuel. The Web site has drawn a lot of traffic since it was launched, said Anthony Laatz, site administrator. About 100,000 people visit a day, he said.
A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday on Brodsky's motion to have items seized by police -- including Peterson's vehicles and 11 guns -- returned to his client.
Prosecutors filed a response Tuesday, saying they had no objection to returning two iPods and 23 music CDs seized last month, but argued they have the right to retain custody of the GMC Yukon Denali SUV and Pontiac Grand Prix, the guns, computers and a backpack containing items of Stacy's.
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