Relative linked to Stacy Peterson case

JOLIET, Ill., Nov. 28 (UPI) -- The stepbrother of former suburban Chicago police Sgt. Drew Peterson attempted suicide, apparently believing he helped dispose of Peterson's missing wife.

Stacy Peterson, 23, the 53-year-old Peterson's fourth wife, hasn't been seen since Oct. 28.

The Joliet Herald-News reported that Thomas Morphey attempted suicide two days after allegedly helping Drew Peterson haul a large blue plastic container from a bedroom at Peterson's Bolingbrook, Ill., home to his sport utility vehicle.

"I think I just helped Drew dispose of Stacy," the newspaper quoted an anonymous source as saying, relaying a conversation with Morphey.

Stacy Peterson was reported missing after she failed to meet her sister, Cassandra Cales, Oct. 28. Drew Peterson has said Stacy phoned him that day to say she had left him for another man.

Investigators have named Peterson a suspect in his wife's disappearance and possible death though he continues to deny any involvement.

"There's no container -- no blue barrel," Peterson attorney Joel Brodsky told the Chicago Tribune. "That's all part of the growing swirl of rumors that seem to have engulfed this case."

Officials also have reopened the investigation into the death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio. Initially that death in 2004 was ruled an accident but the body has since been exhumed and the death reclassified as a possible homicide. Savio was found dead in her bathtub just months after divorcing Peterson.