The search for the missing wife of alleged murderer Drew Peterson has moved to an adjacent county, but has still turned up no results.
Authorities searched last week near Galesburg, Illinois, in Knox County, for any trace of the missing Stacy Peterson, but found nothing, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The search follows a flurry of excitement in the case roughly two months ago, when police searched for days on a rural farm plot outside of Peoria. The police were described as "extremely confident" that Stacy's body was near the site, but turned up only animal bones.
Peterson, the fourth wife of former Bolingbrook police officer Drew, went missing in 2007. It was her disappearance that prompted police to re-open the death of Drew's third wife, Kathleen Savio, in 2004. Savio drowned in a bathtub in a case that was originally ruled accidental; further investigation three years later convinced police that her death was a homicide.
Drew Peterson cannot be charged with the murder of Stacy until her body is found. But Judge Stephen White, who is presiding over the case, considers it likely enough that Peterson is guilty, of both Kathleen's and Stacy's murders, that he has ordered Peterson be held in jail until the trial starts.
That trial has been delayed indefinitely, as prosecutors appeal a ruling by Judge White about hearsay evidence. The state legislature passed a bill commonly known as "Drew's Law," allowing hearsay evidence to be used in criminal trials under certain circumstances. The measure was designed to allow prosecutors more evidence to convict Peterson, but so far, Judge White has only ruled certain portions of the hearsay testimony admissible. Prosecutors are hoping for more.
Meanwhile, the search for Stacy's remains continues. From the Sun-Times:
State Police investigating the 2007 disappearance of Stacy Peterson searched an area near downstate Galesburg last week, but didn't find anything linked to the missing Bolingbrook woman.
Investigators searched a rural section of Knox County on Aug. 3 as part of their ongoing probe into the disappearance of the 23-year-old Peterson, Sgt. Thomas Burek said Wednesday.
But just as they did in neighboring Peoria County, the investigators went home empty-handed.