Peterson's Son Spills About Stashed Guns and Missing Stepmom

For the first time, the embattled Oak Brook cop son of accused wife-killer Drew Peterson publicly discussed his relationship with his father and the events surrounding the disappearance of his much younger stepmother, Stacy Peterson.

Stephen Peterson claimed he harbored no suspicions at all about Stacy supposedly running off with another man and abandoning not only her two young children, but also the two boys she adopted after Peterson's previous wife, Kathleen Savio, mysteriously turned up drowned in a dry bathtub in March 2004.

"He said his wife had left him," Stephen Peterson said during a disciplinary hearing convened by the Oak Brook Fire and Police Board Tuesday night. "He was upset and I was helping him out."

That help might end up costing Stephen Peterson his job. Police Chief Thomas Sheahan is gunning to dump him from the department for stashing an assault rifle and two other firearms at his home while the state police rummaged through his father's house in the wake of Stacy's disappearance in October 2007.

Stephen Peterson admitted under oath that he hid the guns in the closet of a spare bedroom in his North Aurora house while the state police executed a search warrant at Drew Peterson's place. The state police were looking for some sign of Stacy or clue as to what happened to her.

They apparently came up empty, as she remains missing and Drew Peterson–the only person to be identified as a suspect by the state police during their "potential homicide" investigation—has yet to be charged with harming her.

Stacy's disappearance did prompt the state police to arrest Drew Peterson in May 2009 and charge him with Savio's murder. He has been jailed since while he awaits the start of his trial.

While Stephen Peterson went out of his way to help his troubled father, Drew Peterson showed loyalty does not seem to run in the family. He ratted out his own son when an investigator found unloaded ammunition magazines for the AR-15 and questioned him about it.

According to Charles Hervas, the attorney representing Sheahan in the matter, Drew Peterson told the detective, "I knew you guys were coming and I took it to my son's house Tuesday."

Snitched off by his father, Stephen Peterson surrendered the guns to the state police the day after the search. Five months later, the state police arrested Drew Peterson on a felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon for allegedly possessing an assault rifle with a barrel shorter than the state-mandated 16 inches.

The assault rifle was the same one he smuggled over to his son's home for a few days. For some reason, Stephen Peterson, who possessed the rifle that landed his dad in jail, was never arrested or charged. Stephen Peterson, for one, was not surprised by this.

"I didn't believe I was in any danger of being investigated for this," he said.

In the near year and a half, that the gun case dragged through court, Will County Judge Richard Schoenstedt twice dismissed the charges. The second time, in October, he determined that prosecutors failed to prove Drew Peterson was not protected by a federal law allowing police officers to carry concealed weapons.

State's Attorney James Glasgow, who triumphed in the appellate court the first time Schoenstedt tossed the case, chose not to pursue a second appeal.

But the lack of a criminal case has not discouraged Sheehan in his bid to rid his department of Stephen Peterson.

Besides hiding the gun from the state police and possessing an allegedly illegal weapon, Sheahan has charged Stephen Peterson with failing to disclose he did this to his own department. Sheahan also took issue with Stephen Peterson accepting nearly more than $230,000 from his father after Stacy vanished and neglecting to mention this to either the state police or the Oak Brook department.

"I didn't believe it was relevant. It had no evidentiary value," Stephen Peterson said, explaining that the money was to assist him in caring for his four younger half-siblings in the event Drew Peterson was arrested.

Sheahan also has charged Stephen Peterson with discussing his travails with others, as the chief considers it a confidential matter.

During his testimony, Stephen Peterson also acknowledged that Stacy told his own wife, Teresa Peterson, that "she wanted out of her marriage " on Oct. 20, 2007.

Just over a week later, Stacy was out, but Stephen Peterson saw nothing strange about it.

"At that time, my father told me she left with another man and she would be back some time to deal with him," he said.

The hearing is scheduled to resume Dec. 9.