Ribbons spark Peterson fight
Neighbor: Drew took down memorials
BOLINGBROOK — Drew Peterson and his child crept around their subdivision in the middle of the night, cutting down ribbons meant to honor his murdered third wife and missing fourth wife, said his disgusted next-door neighbor.
"What kind of a father are you that you would make your child think this kind of behavior, disrespecting ribbons that are placed to honor both of his moms, is acceptable?" asked the neighbor, Sharon Bychowski, on Tuesday.
(Submitted/Tom Morphey and Len Wawczak)
(STNG File Photos)
Bychowski said she and about 20 other "friends" of Peterson's missing fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, gathered Saturday afternoon to put purple and white ribbons on the trees along Pheasant Chase.
Peterson emerged soon after Saturday and cut the ribbons off four trees, Bychowski said. Paula Stark, a former friend of Peterson's who said she later recorded conversations with the homicide suspect at the behest of the state police, put up another four, and Peterson again cut them down, Bychowski said.
But the group put more up, she said, and strung their ribbons on trees from Peterson's home to the house he had shared with Kathleen Savio, his slain third wife, about 500 yards away. But Sunday morning, she said, they were gone. This did not stop the group from once again replacing the ribbons.
Calls to police
By 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Peterson was calling Bolingbrook police about it, said department spokesman Lt. Ken Teppel.
"Drew called, complaining streamers were being put on the trees in the parkway," Teppel said. "He wanted them down because it is against village ordinance."
The only problem, Teppel said, was that the ribbons did not violate any village ordinance. The police did not take action.
But Peterson allegedly did, and began snapping pictures of the group gathered in Bychowski's driveway. The police were called soon after, Teppel said, when Peterson and Stark's husband, Len Wawczak, reportedly exchanged harsh words.
Peterson also accused his stepbrother, Thomas Morphey, of joining with Wawczak and "calling him out," Teppel said. Morphey, incidentally, has claimed Peterson tried to rope him into a plot to murder Stacy and says he may have unwillingly helped Peterson carry his missing wife's body out of the house.
The police asked Peterson to give a written statement about the confrontation, Teppel said, but he refused, saying his attorney did not want him to do so.
While the police were at Pheasant Chase Court, the group in Bychowski's driveway told them Peterson had allegedly cut down the ribbons, Teppel said. But even if he had, the ribbons were placed on city property, and it is not against the law to remove them.
Night mission?
The police departed, but the ribbon fight was far from over. Bychowski said she saw Peterson and one of his children cutting down the decorations around midnight Sunday.
Both were clad entirely in black, she said, and the pair slipped over their back fence to take down the memorial to Peterson's last two wives.
The child's "future looks bleak, with a role model like Drew Peterson," Bychowski said.
Peterson dismissed the accusations.
"They're a bunch of liars and low-life (expletives)," he said of the group who repeatedly placed the ribbons on the trees. "There's not a job between them."
When asked about going out in the middle of the night with his child to cut down the ribbons, Peterson declined to comment.
Ribbons back up
On Tuesday, Bychowski said she planned to continue putting up ribbons in honor of both her missing friend and the woman married to Peterson before Stacy.
"In (Pheasant Chase) court here," she said. "We're attaching them to houses and mailbox posts, where Drew does not have the right to take them down."