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Stacy Peterson Search Fruitless

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jun 6, 2010 5:45PM

Calling it a search based on "a jailhouse tip," authorities conducted a search for the remains of Stacy Peterson near a farm in Peoria yesterday afternoon. But after a full day of searching, the investigation has, so far, come up empty-handed. David Alwan, on who's property the search was conducted, told the Tribune, "They had pretty solid leads with specific coordinates." Authorities do not consider Alwan connected to the case. Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Tom Burek told the press, "I don't want to stand here and tell you this is the magical lead that's going to solve the case. ... Like any lead we hope that it has a positive outcome. ... I don't want to allude to (the idea that) we're looking for a body. We're looking for evidence of a crime based on this lead that we have."

Will County Sheriff's spokesman Pat Barry said his office was unaware of such a tip and that Drew Peterson has been held in solitary confinement. Peterson's attorney Joel Brodsky called it a publicity stunt aimed at hurting Peterson's image ahead of his trial for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, scheduled to start in early July: "They're trying to dirty up the defendant with an irrelevant search. It's a despicable tactic." By yesterday evening, after 12 hours of searching, Sgt. Burek said, “We’ve exhausted the digging portion [of the search] with the anthropologist," and announced they had no plans to pick up the search today. Burek did note, though, that they would return to the area soon: "We are pursuing some other avenues in reference to this lead and we will be back in this area."