Deadly suspicion

After Stacy Peterson vanished, the family home came under siege.

Drew Peterson: I can stand here and cry if that would make you happy. I'm doing the best I can with a hard situation. The best I can.

But as the weeks went by, Drew Peterson’s "best" began to look like his worst.

Drew Peterson: Watch this. I am not the typical person I am. I'm normally I am a lot more humorous like that.

Investigators have had little to say publicly as they probe Stacy’s disappearance, searching woods and waterways and conducting interviews. Now this is what we know about Stacy’s last days with friends and family.

On Wednesday, Oct. 17, eleven days before Stacy disappeared, a friend says he got an email from her. It was the eve of her fourth wedding anniversary. This what the email said:

(E-mail from Stacy)
I am finding that the relationship I am in is controlling, manipulative and somewhat abusive.

That same day Stacy left a phone message for her dad.

(Voicemail from Stacy)
Hey dad, it's me, Stacy. I just wanted to call you and tell I love you. I also wanted to give you my new phone number. OK. Love you. Bye.

Thursday, Oct. 18 was the anniversary. Drew gave Stacy a new bauble -- a diamond ring. If she thought it was another attempt to buy time with her, she wasn't saying so.

Pam Bosco: She showed this ring. A big diamond ring. And she was just very happy about it. Showing it off to everyone.

On Friday, Oct. 19, Stacy’s friend Scott Rossetto met her at a restaurant. Scott says the two of them had been exchanging flirty texts but they were not involved romantically. According to Scott, Drew showed up at the restaurant.

Scott Rossetto: Asked me how'd I’d feel if my wife went off with another guy … Just kept staring at her. He sat with us for about a good 15, 20 minutes.

Thursday Oct. 25, was only three days before Stacy disappeared. Family friend Pam Bosco says she got a call from Stacy, who asked if she could rent a property.

Pam Bosco: She goes, “I have to get out of here, you know. I’m not feeling very safe. I'm afraid he's going to hurt me.”

Pam offered advice and later told investigators that Stacy had reached a decision. She was ready to file for divorce.

Pam Bosco: She was going to look for a lawyer.

Saturday, Oct. 27 was the day before Stacy went missing. Pam says Stacy’s sister Cassandra went to the Peterson home for dinner. Cassandra told Pam that Drew came in looking "really angry.”

Pam Bosco: She's serving him food acting as polite as a wife can be and he just looked at her with this angry look like he was about to kill her.

Drew was on the clock that night. He went back to work and the sisters shared what would be a final heart to heart, with chilling words from Stacy.

Pam Bosco: She said Stacy leaned forward and gave her a hug and said “I love you … if anything happens to me, he killed me. It wasn't an accident.”

Sunday, Oct. 28 was the day Stacy vanished. Apparently it began normally. Drew finished his overnight shift around 3 a.m.

Drew Peterson: I came home. I came to sleep. I talked to her briefly in the morning.

Stacy's family and friends said she was supposed to help paint a house that day. Investigators were told a friend called her about the plans around 10 a.m.

Pam Bosco: He said, "Where are you?" "I’m in bed yet," she said. "I’m still in bed." And she hadn't gotten up yet to paint this house they were planning on painting that day.

Drew told investigators he saw Stacy around 11 a.m. for the last time. It’s unclear what happened next but it seems he went back to sleep.

Drew Peterson: She was gone when I woke up.

Hoda Kotb: And you-- and you knew she wasn't going to come back or… ?

Drew Peterson: I left her alone all day. I didn't bother her. I thought-- I was under the impression she was going to be spending time with her grandfather.

But that didn't happen.

Tension in Stacy’s family ramped up, Pam says, when Stacy’s sister Cassandra couldn't reach her in the afternoon.

Pam Bosco: The phone was off and she couldn't get through. That's when the concern started to build, because of the night before.

Pam says Cassandra punched her cell over and over, trying to reach her sister.

Pam Bosco and Cassandra could not get through on that cell phone to Stacy.

Drew, for his part, has told reporters he did not hear from Stacy until about 9 a.m. that night when he says she called him with a devastating announcement: she was leaving him.  Investigators have reported the last activity on Stacy’s phone was about the same time .

According to Pam, Cassandra and Drew spoke on the phone at 11:30 p.m.

Pam Bosco: That's when she heard the rustling of the keys. He's out of breath-- that kind of stuff.  And she-- he said that, "She's-- she left me. She went with another man. She went to the Bahamas or something. She took her bikini. The passport's missing and she took money."

Then, two days after Stacy disappeared, the police received a visitor -- with a bizarre story.

Walter Martineck: I told them everything that happened, you know.

Water Martineck, Jr. barely knows Drew Peterson. But he's a good friend and neighbor of Drew's stepbrother Tom Morphey. On the night of Sunday, Oct. 28, Morphey was desperate to talk so Walter invited him over.

Walter Martineck: He goes, "I've got to talk to you. You-- you can't--" he put his arms on my shoulder, "you cannot tell anyone." I go, "Calm down. What's the matter? What's the matter?" He goes, "I think I just helped move Stacy with Drew." I go, huh?

Walter says Morphey paced the garage saying he'd helped Drew move a sealed container that night from an upstairs bedroom in the Peterson house into Drew's SUV. Morphey was somehow convinced the container held Stacy’s body, even though no one knew she was missing at that point. Walter says he struggled to make sense of a wild story.

Hoda Kotb: What did he say in detail?

Walter Martineck: He goes, "I went with Drew to his house. He asked me to help him move something, and I said 'Yeah.'" I go, "That's understood, but what do you mean, Stacy?" And he goes, "Well, we lifted blue container out of-- out of his room down into his truck." "Well, how do you know it's Stacy?" "It was warm." And the way he said "warm," it's like it was warm.

Hoda Kotb: So, he thought there was a body in there?

Walter Martineck: That's what he said. I go, "Did you see it?" He goes, "No. But in my heart, it was there."

But the puzzle remained -- why would Tom Morphey ever think he'd helped move Stacy’s body in a blue plastic container?

Walter Martineck: Because, like, from what Tom said Stacy was filing for a divorce. And Drew had to be out and apparently Drew wanted everything to himself.

One final note about the day Stacy disappeared: Bolingbrook police say Drew called in sick to work.

On Friday, Nov. 9, Illinois state police called Stacy’s disappearance "a potential homicide." The police named a suspect for the first time:  Stacy’s husband Drew.

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