A pathologist has determined that Kathleen Savio, the third wife of former Bolingbrook, Ill., police Officer Drew Peterson, was the victim of a homicide, reported WMAQ-TV in Chicago.
Savio's body was exhumed in November after Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared and questions arose about Savio's death. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow made the announcement in a Thursday press release. Dr. Larry W. Blum, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, concluded that the actual cause of Kathleen Savio's death was drowning and that the legal manner of death was homicide, according to a press release from Glasgow's office.
Blum's report was delivered to the Will County Coroner's Office on Thursday and immediately forwarded to the Will County State's Attorney's Office and the Illinois State Police, the release said. "Dr. Blum's forensic report renders his expert opinion that this is a homicide," Glasgow said in the release. "We have been investigating this as a murder since reopening the case in November of last year. We now have a scientific basis to formally and publicly classify it as such."
Savio's body was found in a bathtub in her home in 2004. Initially, her death was ruled accidental. No charges have been filed in Savio's death. Stacy Peterson, who vanished Oct. 28, 2007, remains missing. |