Witness: Cop suspect seen with big barrel

BOLINGBROOK, Ill., Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A neighbor in Illinois has reported seeing former police officer Drew Peterson and another man loading a large plastic blue barrel into his SUV.

The Herald News of Joliet, Ill., citing sources, said that the neighbor told police he saw Peterson with the barrel, allegedly large enough to hold a human body, a few hours after Peterson's wife Stacy was last seen.

Peterson, who retired from the Bolingbrook (Ill.) Police Department after his wife's disappearance, told People magazine that he expected to be arrested. In the cover story of the current issue of the magazine, he denied killing Stacy or his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead in a bathtub in 2004.

Peterson's lawyer told the Chicago Tribune that his client received a letter Wednesday from an anonymous tipster who claimed to have spotted Stacy Peterson in a supermarket in Peoria, Ill. Joel Brodsky described the letter as a "glimmer of hope" for his client but a spokeswoman for Stacy Peterson's family said they wondered why the writer would remain anonymous.