An Illinois jury today found former police officer Drew Peterson guilty of murdering his third wife.
The Associated Press from the scene:
“Drew Peterson, the swaggering former suburban Chicago police officer who generated a media storm after his much-younger fourth wife vanished in 2007, was convicted Thursday of murdering his third wife in a case based mainly on secondhand hearsay statements from the two women.
“Peterson, 58, sat stoically looking straight ahead and did not react as the verdict was read, but several of Savio’s family members gasped before hugging each other as they cried quietly in the courtroom. Illinois has no death penalty, and Peterson now faces a maximum 60-year prison term when sentenced on Nov. 26.”
The trial kicked off at the end of July, almost a full decade after the death of Kathleen Savio. Reuters explains that at the time she died, investigators originally did not look for evidence of a murder and declared her to be the victim of an accidental drowning. But her body was exhumed after Stacy Peterson’s disappearance, leading investigators to charge Drew Peterson in Savio’s death.
