Authorities were seen searching a Joliet canal Tuesday afternoon, the same canal where the sibling of missing Bolingbrook mother Stacy Peterson claimed her sister's body had been found years ago, sources close to the investigation told NBC Chicago.
Authorities confirmed an investigation was underway at the scene, but declined to offer specifics on what they were searching for. Lockport Township Fire Protection District Deputy Chief Edward Rossetto said the department was assisting the FBI with an investigation.
Sources close to the investigation said crews were brought to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in Joliet because of efforts made by Stacy Peterson's family. The FBI was at the scene, assisting Illinois State Police in the search.
According to sources, the search was terminated Tuesday afternoon and there are no plans to resume the search in the immediate future.
The location of the search marks the same water Cassandra Cales reported her missing sister's body was located in 2018. At the time, Cales said she had sonar images to prove she had found her sister's body.
"I have sonar images of her lifeless body on the bottom of the riverbed, which I will never release," Cassandra Cales wrote in a lengthy Facebook post. "That is not how I want the world to remember my beautiful sister."
Cales said she believes her sister's husband, Drew Peterson, "disposed" of her body on Oct. 28, 2007, "in the Sanitary and Shipping Canal, after having dropped off his step-brother."
Cales has long been vocal about the search for her sister. On the 10th anniversary of Peterson's disappearance, she held a fundraiser to pay for Team Watters Sonar, which has helped look for Peterson.
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Stacy Peterson, a Bolingbrook mother of two and the fourth wife of convicted killer Drew Peterson, disappeared at 23 years old in 2007.
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She remains missing more than a decade later and her husband continues to be a suspect in her disappearance, though he has never been charged in the case.
Drew Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, was sentenced to 38 years in prison in 2013 for the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead in a dry bathtub in 2004. Savio's death was initially ruled accidental, but the case was reopened after the disappearance of Stacy Peterson.
He is also serving a 40-year sentence after a conviction for soliciting the murder of James Glasgow, the Will County prosecutor who put him behind bars.
The mystery surrounding Stacy Peterson's disappearance has repeatedly made headlines over the years.
In 2017, Drew Peterson’s son said he believes his dad killed both Savio and Stacy Peterson.
“Over time, you hear enough [from police]. They can’t all be full of s---,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “I don’t want to come out and say he did it… but I’m sure he did it.”
Stephen Peterson noted that he still speaks to his father, who he says has never confessed to the crimes and has maintained his innocence.
