Two truckers said a former police officer suspected in his wife's disappearance may have asked them early on the day she was reported missing to carry a package for him, police said Saturday.
The truckers said two men, including a man they now believe was former Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson and another man in his 50s with salt-and-pepper hair and stocky build, approached them at about 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 29 at a Bolingbrook truck stop, Illinois State Trooper Mark Dorencz said in a written statement.
The men asked the truckers to "transport a package to an undisclosed location;" after reaching the location, the men would "regain possession of the package and continue transporting it to a location not accessible by semi-trailers," the statement said.
The statement did not provide details, including what might have been in the package. Neither State police nor Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, immediately returned phone calls seeking comment Saturday night.
Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, said in a statement that his client denies that any such encounter took place.
'Nonsensical'
"It is our belief that anyone who logically examines the scenario that is being suggested by the Illinois State Police will reject it out of hand being nonsensical," he said.
A spokeswoman for Stacy Peterson's family, Pamela Bosco, said she spoke to state police on Saturday about their statement. She said police would not give her a description of the package and "left it rather vague because they don't know what this could lead to."
Tim Miller, founder and director of Texas EquuSearch, 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.
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.