Did Drew Peterson tell the truth?
POLYGRAPH | Biggest answers 'not deceptive'
The new book Drew Peterson Exposed about the former Bolingbrook police officer and his dead third wife and missing fourth wife is billed as a 300-page news story. And it does have some news.
Peterson -- under a cloud of suspicion after his third wife Kathleen Savio's mysterious death was finally ruled a homicide and his fourth wife Stacy Peterson vanished nearly a year ago -- agreed to take separate polygraph tests to address questions about both cases.
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)
5:30-6 A.M.* Comes home from work at Bolingbrook Police Department.
* Talked to Stacy, who said she was going to visit her grandfather.
* Went to sleep.
10-10:30 A.M. (PERHAPS AS LATE AS 11 A.M.)* Awakened by children.
* Stacy gone, kids home.
NOON-1 P.M.* At home with kids.
1-1:30 PM* Children at home (Tom and Kris watching Anthony and Lacy).
* Goes out to run Sunday errands.
2 P.M.* Calls work (Bolingbrook police). Takes the night off. (Did this because he was retiring in December and had accumulated sick time to use or lose.
3:15 P.M.* Tom, his 14-year-old son, is picked up by friends for a band concert.
6 P.M.* Takes Kris, Anthony and Lacy to McDonald's. They have dinner and play at the playground at McDonald's.
7:30 P.M.* Returns home with Kris, Anthony and Lacy.
8 P.M.* Tom gets home from band concert.
9 P.M.* At home, receives call from Stacy that she found someone and is leaving.
9:15 P.M.* Leaves home to go and look for Stacy.
11-11:30 P.M.* Returns home.
* Gets call from Stacy's sister, Cassandra Cales while still in the driveway. Tells her Stacy called and said she left with another man and took her passport, money and clothes.
11:45 P.M.* Walks and gets Stacy's car and drives it home.
MIDNIGHT* Gets home and goes to bed.
AROUND 2:30 A.M.* Gets call from Bolingbrook PD telling him Cassandra Cales is filing a missing-persons report regarding Stacy
* Vaguely recalls getting another call, maybe from Cassandra's friend Bruce Zidrach. (Very tired and does not have a clear recollection of this call).
Lee McCord -- described by author Derek Armstrong as an expert polygrapher with 30 years experience -- administered the tests and concluded Peterson was truthful when he said he had nothing to do with the death of Savio.
But in a polygraph focusing on the disappearance of Stacy Peterson, McCord found Peterson "deceptive" in answering three of six questions. The polygrapher asked: "Do you know the whereabouts of your wife Stacy?" Peterson said "no" -- a response the tester deemed "deceptive." Peterson said "yes" to whether he got a call from his wife the night of her disappearance. Again, McCord said that was "deceptive," and concluded the same to Peterson's "yes" to whether he last saw his wife at their home before going to bed after an overnight shift at work.
Author Armstrong, who bills himself as a journalist, author of mystery thrillers and "marketing guru," examines the results of the polygraph and concludes that Peterson, who has never been charged with a crime in connection with his wives but has been described by authorities as a "suspect" in Stacy Peterson's disappearance, would not have harmed his wives.
At one point, he describes Peterson as an enigma -- but not a killer.
He backs that assertion with Peterson's own hour-by-hour breakdown of how he spent Oct. 28, 2007 -- the day Stacy Peterson vanished, leaving behind their two young children. Authorities previously have questioned the timeline Peterson gave them.