Peterson Rips 'Package' Claim as Result of 'Crazies'

Dec. 2, 2007 — -- In an exclusive phone interview, Drew Peterson denied a new police report suggesting he asked two truck drivers at a Bolingbrook, Ill., truck stop to transport a package for him the night his wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared.

"I have no knowledge of anything like that," Peterson told ABC News Saturday. "It's the first I've heard of it."

Peterson called the report "totally fictitious," and added, "It wasn't me."

Peterson's denial came after the Illinois State Police released a statement Saturday saying: "On Oct. 29, 2007, at approximately 3:30 a.m., two truck drivers were approached by two men at a truck stop in Bolingbrook, Ill. One of the two men is believed to be Drew Peterson and the other described as a white male, early 50's, salt-and-pepper hair, with a stocky build. The two men request the truck drivers to transport a package to an undisclosed location. Upon reaching the location, the men would regain possession of the package and continue transporting it to a location not accessible by semi-trailers."

Stacy Peterson, 23, vanished from her home in Bolingbrook on Oct. 28. Since she was reported missing a day later, suspicion has swirled around Drew Peterson, 53, her husband and a former sergeant at the Bolingbrook Police Department. Police named Peterson a suspect in his wife's disappearance three weeks ago.

Peterson has denied any involvement in his wife's disappearance and has said he believes she ran off with another man.

Anthony Laatz, a close friend of Stacy Peterson's and her family, said those looking for the missing mother-of-two are optimistic about the new developments in the case.

"We're definitely excited," Laatz told ABC News from the house of Sharon Bychowski, Drew and Stacy Peterson's neighbor, where the searchers gathered Saturday night after spending the day searching for signs of Stacy in the blistering cold.

"The fact that the police is releasing [this information] means they're getting close to something," Laatz said.

After hearing of the new allegations, Sharon Bychowski told ABC News she wouldn't think Peterson, a 29-year veteran of the Bolingbrook police force before he resigned last month, would get so many people involved in allegedly disposing of his wife's body.

"It strikes me that he should know better," Bychowski said. "But I guess he is so arrogant, I shouldn't be surprised that he thinks he's untouchable."

Bychowski said she was confident Saturday's report would help find Stacy Peterson.

"I think it's a good puzzle piece," she said.

Several Chicago newspapers reported earlier this week that police told volunteer searchers to look out for a blue plastic barrel they believe may have been used to transport Stacy Peterson's body the day she disappeared.

"We've always thought it was a possibility that she was transferred to somewhere else," Bychowski told ABC News. "We're looking at all the possibilities."

Drew Peterson, meanwhile, shrugged off Saturday's new report.

"I think it's a couple of more crazies coming out of the woodwork," Peterson told ABC News. "I got girlfriends from 30 years coming out of the woodwork. I'm waiting for my seventh grade prom date to say that I was a bad kisser."

Stacy Peterson was Drew Peterson's fourth wife. His third wife, Kathleen Savio, was found dead in a bathtub in 2004 in what the coroner at the time ruled was an accidental drowning. The Will County state's attorney has since called her death suspicious.

More than 200 people braved freezing temperatures to search areas in Chicago's southwestern suburbs Saturday looking for signs of Stacy Peterson. But the search was called off after four hours when snow and sleet thwarted the effort. Dozens of people also attended a candlelight vigil in Romeoville to pray for her safe return.