23 year old mother had a lot on her plate. perhaps stacey was just too busy, even for cassandra. but after waiting hours, cassandra picked up her phone and dialed say see. her phone is never of. i do not care if she is watching the kids, or doing anything, she will answer. hey, i m going to call you back. and she does. but, it went to voice mail and that is when my gut started going. as the hours ticked by and still no word from stacey, cassandra became increasingly alarmed. she reached out to other family members, stepsister carrie symonds. right away, when she said that she could not get a hold of, where we knew something was wrong. we all knew how close cassandra and stacey were, and of course we all felt the panic and the anxiety of, where is she? cassandra called stacey s husband, drew, a police
run to help whoever needed anything. but at the end of october, 2007, it was stacy s family who were dropping everything in a desperate bid to find her. the sense of urgency was almost crippling for her sister, cassandra. i was up for almost three days and i actually had to go to the doctor, who had to give me a shot to get me to reacts. the sisters shared a special bond. i know that you guys did not have it easy growing up, right? no, we did not have easy growing up, at all. you really looked out for each other? yes. did you guys talk about your hopes and dreams, what you want it someday? not really. it was just surviving that day. you know, are we going to eat, are we going to be fed? cassandra does not like to talk about their childhood. their parents divorced when
what i need to say. what needs to be said. most important, at the heart of it all, is the story of two women, two moms who lives are now forever inextricably linked. what happened to stacey had everything did do with what happened to kathleen. on every level. and i think that their stories will be forever told together. the story began in late october, 2007 in boling brook illinois. 30 miles outside of chicago. we had dinner, watch the movie. cassandra calles vividly remembers the last day she spent with her older sister, stacy peterson. it was just a simple evening in. she was going to call me, when she woke up in the morning. when she said, i will call you in the morning? that never happened. it was odd to be sure, but the
pretty much put us all to shame when it came to taking care of kids, and stuff. drew and stacey married that october and when drew s ex-wife, kathleen savio, died suddenly five months later, stacy adopted the two boys kathleen had withdrew. were you surprised when stacey said that she was adopting kathleen s two boys? not at all, stacey wanted a family. they lost their mom and she wanted to be there to comfort them. stacy and drew had another child together, a daughter. by the fall of 2007, with four kids, a home, and a police officer husband, stacey, now 23, seemed to finally have what she and cassandra longed for. it was so beautiful. we did not have that growing up. we did not have that happy family. and she was building that withdrew? right. but now, stacey was missing