22-year-old defends Peterson relationship
BOLINGBROOK | 'He's just a nice guy'
The 22-year-old woman whom Drew Peterson was seeking to help when he got stopped for speeding by police has been questioned extensively by investigators probing the disappearance of his fourth wife.
Speaking publicly for the first time, the Darien woman said Thursday that State Police investigators questioned her for two hours earlier this week about Peterson and her involvement with him.
(AP file)
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she had little to tell them because she has known the 54-year-old Peterson for only about three weeks.
She met him at the suburban tanning salon where she works, has spent time with him, even stayed overnight at his Bolingbrook house, but insisted the two aren't romantically involved.
"He's not my boyfriend," said the woman. "He's just a nice guy. He's been nothing but nice to me."
Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police officer, has been named a suspect in the October 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, 23-year-old Stacy Peterson. Investigators also are reviewing the 2004 drowning death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, which initially was ruled an accident but has been reclassified as a murder.
Peterson on Thursday would say little about the new relationship but said the woman has been to his home and that he has taken her flying in his two-seat, ultralight aircraft.
"She's a nice girl," said Peterson, who has denied any involvement in Stacy Peterson's disappearance or Savio's death.
The woman knows Peterson is under police investigation but said that didn't deter her from seeing him socially. "I'm not going to judge someone," she said.
She was talking to Peterson on her cell phone early on May 3 when Naperville police stopped a car in which she was riding. When the driver was taken into custody, she asked Peterson for a ride -- prompting him to hurry to Naperville so quickly that he was stopped for speeding.
The woman said she has been warned by police she likely will be called before the Will County grand jury investigating Stacy Peterson's disappearance and Savio's death. A Bolingbrook police officer who worked with Drew Peterson testified Thursday before that grand jury, as did Savio's sister, Anna Doman -- though both declined to comment on their testimony.
Peterson said he isn't worried about whether the grand jury ultimately will indict him.
"Whatever they're doing, I just have to roll with," he said.
Joe Hosey is a reporter for the Herald News.