What Happened To Drew Peterson's Kids?

Convicted murderer Drew Peterson had four wives and six children before being sentenced to decades in prison. As the Chicago Tribune detailed, the former Illinois police officer was first under scrutiny when his fourth wife Stacy disappeared in 2007. As the police investigated her disappearance, authorities took another look at the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

Savio was found dead in her dry bathtub in March 2004, and it had been ruled an accident, per the Tribune. However, Stacy's disappearance prompted investigators to exhume Savio's body for another examination. That time, Savio's death was determined to have been a homicide, according to the outlet. Drew was arrested in conjunction with his third wife's death and was convicted in 2012, receiving a 38-year sentence.

"Over time, you hear enough (from police). They can't all be full of sh*t. ... I'm sure he did it," Drew's son Stephen said of the suspicions that his father killed both Stacy and Savio, per Chicago Tribune. (The outlet notes Drew has never been convicted of killing Stacy, and maintains his innocence.)

As ABC 7 detailed in 2016, Drew received an additional 40-year sentence for allegedly plotting to kill James Glasgow, the Will County State's attorney, who was on the team that helped ensure the guilty verdict in the Savio case. "The outrage of me doing my job as a prosecutor, and this defendant having the audacity to try and have me killed for doing my job is just a moral outrage," Glasgow said.

After Drew Peterson's serious legal troubles, his son Stephen took in the younger kids, detailed the Chicago Tribune. Stephen and his brother Eric were born during Drew's first marriage to Carol Brown, which lasted from 1974 to 1980 (per InTouch Weekly). During a hearing in 2010, Eric replied "no" when asked if his father was a good dad and if he loved his father, the newspaper reported. In April 2021, Eric was arrested on felony drug charges after authorities found 40 marijuana plants in his home.

Drew had two more children during his marriage to Kathleen Savio, which lasted from 1992 to 2003, per InTouch. Sons Thomas and Kristopher were adopted by Stacy Peterson during her marriage to Drew, and they were 14 and 12 when Stacy disappeared. Thomas and Kristopher were taken in by older brother Stephen, and Tom, who has maintained his father's innocence, graduated valedictorian in high school before studying neuroscience at the UPenn, detailed 5 Chicago.

Stacy and Drew also had two children together after marrying in 2003. Their son Anthony was 4 at the time of Stacy's disappearance while Lacy was 2, noted ABC News. Stephen also took custody of them and moved into his father's home to raise the kids. In 2017, he told the Chicago Tribune his father "kind of put us in a really bad situation I have to clean up now" as he navigates life with Drew in prison and his half-siblings in his care.