Peterson, Anna Marie said. They dated for quite a while, but it just never turned into marriage.
At the memorial service, “he was just crying like a baby,” Anna Marie said. “He said, ‘I still love her. I should have married her. She’d still be alive.’”
Mark had never married, Anna Marie said, although he told her he “came close a couple times.” As close as he came, she said he never got over her sister.
“He was really broken up,” Anna Marie said. What’s more, his love would not have been unrequited, had her sister been alive.
“I think Kitty was still in love with him,” she said, telling how one time, when Kathleen was married to Drew and after their son Thomas was born, she’d spotted her old boyfriend on a boat on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin.
“She said, ‘My heart sank,’” Anna Marie recalled. But Kathleen’s heart proved resilient, because she moved on with her life, entering into a serious relationship after her marriage fell apart. According to an Illinois state police special agent, Kathleen and her boyfriend, Steve Maniaci, even contemplated marriage. Reportedly, he and Kathleen had a phone conversation at the end of February 2004 in which they discussed wedding plans.
Maniaci failed to respond to numerous requests to speak of his past with Kathleen, his knowledge of Peterson and his fourth wife, and the phone conversation with Kathleen. If they indeed discussed their marriage plans during that phone call, it was, as it turned out, the last time they talked about the matter.
Anna Marie, however, explained that her sister and Maniaci had known each other for close to half of their lives, meeting when they were both working for a company that provided jukeboxes and pinball machines.
“She was in her twenties,” Anna Marie said. “There was a bunch of them that got together. They called themselves the stinky dogs. They were all young, stupid, hanging out.”
The stinky dogs might have been young and stupid, but as they aged, they obtained professional and financial success, Anna Marie said. They also kept in touch and managed to meet periodically and even went on vacations together. When she was married to Peterson, Kathleen still saw the other stinky dogs about twice a year, although her husband disapproved.
“Oh, no, he didn’t like that at all,” Anna Marie said. “They would bring their significant others. Drew never went.”
Anna Marie said she sometimes went in her sister’s husband’s place. While she was out with them, she noticed the heat between her sister and Maniaci.
“There was an attraction between Kitty and Steve,” she said. “It just never went anywhere.”
After she split with Peterson, Kathleen and Maniaci had the opportunity to get a romance off the ground, and their future looked promising.
“My sister was very happy,” Anna Marie said. “Steve’s mild-mannered. He just loved the kids. I was so happy she was happy.
“She loved those kids to death,” she continued. “I don’t think she would have been with anyone who didn’t love the kids.”
Kathleen and Maniaci were together in early 2004. By then, the war between Savio and Peterson seemed to be winding down.
Then suddenly, during the last weekend of February, came an abrupt, total ceasefire.
That weekend, Peterson had his sons. He tried to return the boys to Savio at the appointed time, he said, only she was not home, or at least not answering the door.
It was unlike Kathleen to be gone when her sons were scheduled to return.
The reason for her strange absence would soon become known: a revelation that was a tragedy for her young sons and family but also spelled the sudden end of Peterson’s ongoing battles—financial, emotional, civil, and criminal—with the woman up the street.
D rew Peterson spent the last weekend of February 2004 with his two sons, Kristopher and Thomas; the highlight of the weekend was a visit to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The boys lived with their
At the memorial service, “he was just crying like a baby,” Anna Marie said. “He said, ‘I still love her. I should have married her. She’d still be alive.’”
Mark had never married, Anna Marie said, although he told her he “came close a couple times.” As close as he came, she said he never got over her sister.
“He was really broken up,” Anna Marie said. What’s more, his love would not have been unrequited, had her sister been alive.
“I think Kitty was still in love with him,” she said, telling how one time, when Kathleen was married to Drew and after their son Thomas was born, she’d spotted her old boyfriend on a boat on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin.
“She said, ‘My heart sank,’” Anna Marie recalled. But Kathleen’s heart proved resilient, because she moved on with her life, entering into a serious relationship after her marriage fell apart. According to an Illinois state police special agent, Kathleen and her boyfriend, Steve Maniaci, even contemplated marriage. Reportedly, he and Kathleen had a phone conversation at the end of February 2004 in which they discussed wedding plans.
Maniaci failed to respond to numerous requests to speak of his past with Kathleen, his knowledge of Peterson and his fourth wife, and the phone conversation with Kathleen. If they indeed discussed their marriage plans during that phone call, it was, as it turned out, the last time they talked about the matter.
Anna Marie, however, explained that her sister and Maniaci had known each other for close to half of their lives, meeting when they were both working for a company that provided jukeboxes and pinball machines.
“She was in her twenties,” Anna Marie said. “There was a bunch of them that got together. They called themselves the stinky dogs. They were all young, stupid, hanging out.”
The stinky dogs might have been young and stupid, but as they aged, they obtained professional and financial success, Anna Marie said. They also kept in touch and managed to meet periodically and even went on vacations together. When she was married to Peterson, Kathleen still saw the other stinky dogs about twice a year, although her husband disapproved.
“Oh, no, he didn’t like that at all,” Anna Marie said. “They would bring their significant others. Drew never went.”
Anna Marie said she sometimes went in her sister’s husband’s place. While she was out with them, she noticed the heat between her sister and Maniaci.
“There was an attraction between Kitty and Steve,” she said. “It just never went anywhere.”
After she split with Peterson, Kathleen and Maniaci had the opportunity to get a romance off the ground, and their future looked promising.
“My sister was very happy,” Anna Marie said. “Steve’s mild-mannered. He just loved the kids. I was so happy she was happy.
“She loved those kids to death,” she continued. “I don’t think she would have been with anyone who didn’t love the kids.”
Kathleen and Maniaci were together in early 2004. By then, the war between Savio and Peterson seemed to be winding down.
Then suddenly, during the last weekend of February, came an abrupt, total ceasefire.
That weekend, Peterson had his sons. He tried to return the boys to Savio at the appointed time, he said, only she was not home, or at least not answering the door.
It was unlike Kathleen to be gone when her sons were scheduled to return.
The reason for her strange absence would soon become known: a revelation that was a tragedy for her young sons and family but also spelled the sudden end of Peterson’s ongoing battles—financial, emotional, civil, and criminal—with the woman up the street.
D rew Peterson spent the last weekend of February 2004 with his two sons, Kristopher and Thomas; the highlight of the weekend was a visit to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The boys lived with their
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