The Disappearance of Stacy Ann Peterson
Mystery and Murder: Analysis by Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil McGraw
4.2 • 10.3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stacy Peterson’s disappearance doesn’t stand alone—because three years earlier, Drew Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio, was already sounding the alarm. In Part 2, Dr. Phil traces the relationship timeline: Stacy meets Drew at 17 while he’s still married to Kathleen, and Kathleen’s divorce filing alleges he was “having an affair with a minor,” followed by a temporary order of protection as she fears for her life.
Then the calls start stacking up—eighteen domestic disturbance responses between 2002 and 2004—each one a missed opportunity to recognize escalation inside a home where the husband also knows the system.
On March 1, 2004, Kathleen is found nude, face-down in an empty bathtub with visible injuries—yet her death is ruled an accidental drowning.
When Stacy vanishes, investigators exhume Kathleen’s body and a second autopsy changes everything: blunt-force trauma, signs consistent with drowning after injury, and a case that now looks like murder.
Dr. Phil breaks down what this pattern suggests about control, narrative manipulation, and why some cases don’t break until a second victim forces the system to look back.
Thank you to our sponsors:
Diabetes doesn’t wait. And the cost of waiting can be devastating. But there is another option you need to know about. Learn more: https://drphildiabetes.com
NMLS 182334, https://nmlsconsumeraccess.org APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.196% for well qualified borrowers. Call 888-841-1319, for details about credit costs and terms. Or https://americanfinancing.net/Phil
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | On October 28, 2007, 23-year-old mother of two, Stacey Ann Peterson vanished from her home in |
| 0:14.0 | Bolingbrook, Illinois. Stacey was young, pretty, and married to a well-known local police officer. The perfect recipe for a story, |
| 0:24.4 | and the media picked it up hard and fast. While Stacy's friends and family immediately suspected |
| 0:31.6 | foul play, her husband, on the other hand, shockingly didn't seem at all bothered or worried that his wife had just seemingly |
| 0:40.3 | disappeared into thin air. |
| 0:42.3 | In fact, Drew Peterson brushed off his wife going missing, often with a smile and a laugh, |
| 0:48.3 | as something he wasn't all that surprised by. |
| 0:52.3 | He chalked it up to his wife, vanishing in the thin air, |
| 0:58.0 | without a trace, to, she probably just ran away with some other mystery man. But Stacey's |
| 1:10.0 | loved ones, well, they weren't buying it. |
| 1:13.6 | They knew there was no mystery man, and they knew that, look, this wasn't some troubled |
| 1:21.6 | teenager or some transient adult with a history of leaving. |
| 1:26.6 | This was a young mother with two babies at home. |
| 1:32.2 | Babies she would never dream of leaving with a husband that friends revealed she was becoming |
| 1:37.2 | increasingly afraid of. |
| 1:41.2 | Drew was the last known person to see his wife. |
| 1:47.3 | He told police she left around 10 in the morning. |
| 1:49.5 | She was wearing a blue jacket. |
| 1:53.7 | He later claimed he found her car parked at a nearby airport and drove at home himself without notifying investigators. |
| 1:58.2 | Now, we have to go at these things with common sense and understand that there is |
| 2:05.6 | a science to analyzing, deconstructing, and profiling these people that we suspect to be |
| 2:14.1 | involved in heinous crimes. But it starts with two things. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. Phil McGraw, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. Phil McGraw and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.