Suspect Cop's 1st Wife: 'This Is Very Tragic'

Nov. 19, 2007 — -- Drew Peterson's first wife said that her ex-husband could be a bit overbearing during their marriage, but that she would be surprised if he was involved in the suspicious death of his third wife or his fourth wife's disappearance.

Carol Brown, Peterson's first wife, told "Good Morning America" that "never in a million years" would she imagine a scenario like the one that's playing out in suburban Chicago.

"It's heartbreaking to think about the children," Brown said, referring to Peterson's teenage children with Kathleen Savio — who died in 2004 — and the two young children he has with Stacy Peterson, who has been missing since late October.

Brown, who was married to Peterson in the 1970s and has two grown sons with him, said that the two of them grew apart and that she discovered he was having an affair with another woman before the couple ultimately divorced.

Brown said Peterson, now 53, did not like her going out to bars with her girlfriends, but she also said she would not expect violent behavior.

This weekend, Peterson, who resigned from the police force last week and already has been named a suspect in Stacy's disappearance and possibly Savio's death, said the media scrutiny has taken a toll.

"I've lost 30 pounds," he said to reporters outside his home. "Jenny Craig's got nothing on me, 'cause I lost 30 pounds through this ordeal."

Savio's body was exhumed last week when police reopened the investigation into her death, originally ruled an accidental death by drowning. After examining her body Michael Baden, a renowned forensic pathologist, said that Savio's death was a homicide.

"She had about a dozen bruises on her body, including a laceration on the back of the left side of the head," Baden said. "You don't get that in drowning in the bathtub."

Savio's sister Sue Doman said, "There was marks on her hips, her arms, her elbows, on her legs."

Baden also found fresh bruises on Savio's chest and abdomen and what appear to be defensive wounds on her hands — evidence, he says, that her death was no accident.