CHICAGO – Drew Peterson denied reports Sunday that he and another man enlisted the help of two truckers to transport a package the morning his wife Stacy was reported missing.
In an interview with FOX News' Jamie Colby, Peterson's attorney Joel Brodsky said that such an encounter never took place.
"We dispute it because it did not happen. The incident doesn't make logical sense," Brodsky said.
Brodsky said Peterson, a former Bolingbrook, Ill., police officer, would know better than to ask strangers for help. He said the alleged incident is just another lead police are looking into, and he objects to the media's misinterpretation of the report "as fact."
"We don't know why these truck drivers would concoct a story like this, maybe to sell it to the National Inquirer."
• Click here to watch Jamie Colby's complete interview with Joel Brodsky
In an earlier statement Brodsky called the police report "nonsensical" and "ridiculous."
"It is our belief that what precipitated the press release is the realization by the Illinois State Police that no evidence exists of any wrongdoing by Mr. Peterson, or that a crime has been committed in the Stacy Peterson disappearance. Therefore, the Illinois State Police are relegated to following every lead, no matter how remote or ridiculous it may seem," Brodsky said.
Illinois State Police said Saturday that two truckers told authorities that around 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 29 --the day of Stacy's disappearance -- two men approached them at a Bolingbrook truck stop and asked them to "transport a package to an undisclosed location."
After reaching the location, the trucks were told that the men would "regain possession of the package and continue transporting it to a location not accessible by semi-trailers," the statement, written by Trooper Mark Dorencz, said.
The truckers identified one of the men as Drew Peterson and described the second man as being in his 50s, with salt-and-pepper hair and a stocky build, according to the police.
• Click here for photos of Stacy Peterson
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A spokeswoman for Stacy Peterson's family, Pamela Bosco, said she spoke to state police on Saturday about the truckers' report. She said police would not give her a description of the package the truckers saw and "left it rather vague because they don't know what this could lead to."
Tim Miller, founder and director of Texas EquuSearch, a nonprofit group that has helped authorities in the search, said earlier this week that police had asked searchers to look for a blue plastic barrel.
A relative of Peterson who claims he helped Peterson remove a container from the home after Stacy disappeared attempted suicide the next day.
Peterson, 53, has been named a suspect in the disappearance of his 23-year-old wife. Peterson has denied any wrongdoing in her disappearance and said he believes she ran off with another man.
Authorities are also investigating the death of Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead in a bathtub in 2004. A coroner's jury at the time ruled it an accidental drowning. Investigators now say they believe her death was a homicide staged to look like an accident, and are awaiting results of a second autopsy after exhuming her body last month.
Peterson has not been named a suspect in Savio's death.
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