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Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Neighbor: Savio was terrified of Peterson

Chicagotribune.com
By Steve Schmadeke and Erika Slife
February 1, 2010

On the night of March 1, 2004, when she and a neighbor discovered Kathleen Savio's body curled in a fetal position in an empty bathtub, Mary Pontarelli ran screaming from the bathroom into Savio's adjoining bedroom...

When Pontarelli returned to the bathroom that night, she checked Savio's wrist for a pulse. She ran her hand through Savio's wet hair and noticed it wasn't pinned up like normal. She saw no towels, bathrobe or clothes. A rug Pontarelli remembered sitting next to the tub was gone.

...Witnesses testified that Savio, fearful of Peterson, always kept her front door and screen door locked when she was gone or inside her home. But locksmith Robert Akin Jr. said only the front doorknob –– one of at least three locks on the two doors –– was locked when he was called to her home that night.

Mary Pontarelli's son Nick, 19, testified that Savio said Peterson would try to kill her... After her ex-husband moved out, Savio had Nick Pontarelli install a new lock and deadbolt on the home's front door. His father, Thomas, installed a deadbolt on Savio's bedroom door at her request after she said items were missing from the room.

Savio told Nick Pontarelli that Peterson had bugged the home and was recording phone conversations...he took photos of damage inside Savio's home that she said was caused by Peterson, including a drilled hole and scratches above the deadbolt on the bedroom door, and repairs from a large hole cut into the drywall of the garage that Peterson has admitted making to gain access inside the home. Pontarelli said Savio was planning to use the photos in the property dispute...

Emergency medical technician Louis Oleszkiewicz testified that a towel shown in crime scene photos alongside the tub was not there when he arrived. Under questioning from a defense attorney, he said he did not see a bathrobe and two towels shown in a photo, hung on the inside of the bathroom door, which were not visible when the door was open.

Also read these VERY informative articles from last weeks Tribune:

Well, Ollie, it looks like it's all coming together. I wonder if Drew's ego is still keeping him feeling secure. If all of this testimony is not allowed, what evidence would they have? This isn't even the Prelimary Hearing yet.

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