It's been a year since Stacy Peterson disappeared from her suburban Chicago home. And while the rest of her family searches for closure, her husband — named a suspect in her disappearance — says through his publicist that the anniversary is "just another day of her being away."
The 23-year-old mother from Bolingbrook, Ill., vanished on Oct. 28 last year, after failing to keep an appointment with her sister. In the months following her disappearance, police named her husband, Drew, as a suspect, and they exhumed the body of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who initially had been thought to have drowned when her body was found in the family's empty bathtub.
A new autopsy concluded that Savio died from a homicide and not, as initially believed, by accidental drowning.
"I have consistently and steadfastly maintained that I had nothing to do with Stacy's disappearance and the death of Kathy Savio, my third wife," Drew Peterson said in a statement released by his publicist. "I hope that Stacy returns home or reveals herself, and that I am one day cleared of any wrongdoings in both cases."
Peterson's family, though, believes Stacy won't be coming home alive.
"We’ve always felt that she’s dead," family spokeswoman Pam Bosco told FOXNews.com. "We just want answers to what actually happened."
Peterson, a former sergeant with the Bolingbrook Police Department, began dating Peterson when she was 17. They have two young children, Anthony, 5, and Lacy, 3.
In the days following Stacy's disappearance, her sister, Cassandra Cales, told FOX News that the young mother would never leave her children.
"I wanted to get her out of there — she said she was fearing for her life — and she said she wasn't going to leave those kids," Cales said last November.
As Drew Peterson contended his fourth wife left him for another man, police divers searched a retention pond near the couple's home for signs of the missing woman. Friends of the Petersons later told state police they had secretly recorded conversations with the former police officer, alleging he mocked investigators as "idiots" following his wife's disappearance.
Last week, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow issued a statement about the Savio and Stacy Peterson cases, indicating that a special grand jury is still weighing evidence in both.
"I fully expect there to be a resolution in at least one of these investigations in the near future," Glasgow said.
Drew Peterson currently faces felony charges in connection to illegal guns found in his home.
"The shock is a bit worn off, so now you just dealt with the raw reality that she’s gone and she’s never coming back," Bosco said, adding that the separation from Stacy's children has made the year that much tougher.
"We have not had contact with them; he does not allow that," she said. "That is the connection you had then to Stacy right now, and to lose that is very difficult."
Drew Peterson addressed the welfare of his children through the press release. "There's no need for worry," he said. "I am taking good care of them though I have to admit acting as both dad and mom takes a lot of work and patience."
Stacy Peterson's family plans to mark Tuesday with a private vigil, Bosco said. Drew Peterson, who said he thinks about Stacy every day, does not plan to attend any vigils; instead, he'll be on the "Today" show.
"I am giving one interview and then I will be far from the media spotlight spending quality time with my kids who need their dad now more than ever," he said.
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