The Disappearance of Stacy Peterson: What Kathleen Savio Said

Stacy Peterson, age 23, has been missing since October 28. That Sunday night was the last time her husband, Drew Walter Peterson, said he spoke with Stacy. Since then, the strange alchemy that shoves some missing persons cases into the national spotlight and lets others fade has worked on this developing story, and many cable news networks do hourly updates on the case.

There are many reasons Stacy's disappearance has attracted so much attention. Here are a few:

* Her husband Drew, from whom Stacy was estranged, is a police Sgt. with the Bolingbrook, Illinois PD, and he is a good 3 decades or so older than Stacy;
* Stacy sent foreboding e-mails to several people in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, and they pointed towards her husband should anything happen to her;
* Stacy was Drew's fourth wife, and his third wife, Kathleen Savio, died under mysterious circumstances.

In 2004, shortly after her divorce from Drew Peterson, Kathleen was discovered dead in an empty tub in her home in Bolingbrook.

An investigation into Kathleen Savio's death found no sign of foul play. There was a bit of blood in the tub, Savio's hair was wet and there was blood in her hair, likely from a gash on her scalp. The inquest into her death concluded the gash had been from a fall in the tub.

Naturally, Stacy Peterson's disappearance called Kathleen Savio's death into question.

Kathleen Savio talked about her fear of her cop husband. Her family has said that she even wrote a letter to a State's Attorney saying that if she died and it looked like suicide, her husband did it.

Kathleen also talked to friends and acquaintances about her troubled marriage.

Requesting anonymity, one such friend has corresponded with The True Crime Weblog.

Kathleen's friend stated she knew Savio from a class they'd taken together in 2003. She wrote, "[Kathleen] started talking about her soon-to-be ex Drew [. . .] She stated that she thought that he'd hurt her. She told me that her marriage had broken up because of his 'fooling around' with 'young girls'..."

Drew allegedly met the girls while working as some kind of mentor or teacher for the Bolingbrook Police Department's police cadet program.

Kathleen's friend continued: "Kathy stated that she'd called and told BPD about him with the girls, and, specifically one named Stacey, (that Drew had started fooling around with her when she was 16) but that they refused to do anything about it. She said that for awhile there would be a BPD car outside her house off and on, just parked across the street."

Savio allegedly said these things to her friend in the fall of 2003.

After Drew Peterson moved into a home up the street from the place he'd shared with Kathleen Savio, Kathleen was asked how her soon-to-be-ex could possibly afford two $200,000-plus homes on a police Sergeant's salary.

According to her friend, Kathleen smiled and said, "That's a good question." She wouldn't elaborate any further on the question.

Kathleen's former friend and colleague had a much more alarming story to relate about Drew Peterson -- Kathleen Savio's version of the story, at least:

She told me that he had told her that he could kill her and no one would ever know. I had to walk her to her car a couple of times after class because she was afraid, saying Drew was trying to intimidate her in their divorce settlement, and was stalking her. They owned a bar together in Montgomery, Il and were partners in a (printing) company in (I think) Lombard, Il. She knew that he'd try to do something to her. She told me that Stacy would come over to her house and ring the door bell, and want to 'chat.' We both felt like she was somehow trying to 'become' Kathy; almost like she wanted to take over her life, if that makes any sense. Stacey had enrolled at [Joliet Junior College] and was going to go into the nursing program as well...

According to the person who made the statement above, Drew Peterson was also investigated in the late 80s for "shaking down drug dealers for drugs" and money.

Those charges were dismissed, due to lack of evidence.

Drew Peterson's late third wife allegedly had her own take on that: "Kathy said that no one would testify against him. Kathy told me that she knew a lot about him that could get him into trouble." Kathleen Savio seemed to believe that Drew wasn't the only one who'd been involved in the alleged illegal shakedowns.

Kathleen Savio's friend stated later that she believed that Drew Peterson "collected quite a bit" of money from Kathleen's life insurance settlement.

Had the information from Kathleen's old classmate come out of the blue, it might not have been as compelling as it was.

However, conversations remembered from 2003 and 2004 with the dead woman dovetail well with a report published today in the Chicago Sun Times:

When Susan Savio got the news that her sister had drowned in her bathtub, she immediately wanted to know one thing: Did Drew Peterson kill her?

Kathleen Savio had told family "that if she would die, it may look like an accident, but it wasn't," Susan Savio said in a newly released transcript from a coroner's inquest into the death of Kathleen Savio, Peterson's third wife, who died in 2004 after they divorced.

"She was terrified of that -- [of] him and him threatening her," Susan Savio said.

The documents were released Thursday as Will County officials considered exhuming Kathleen Savio's body. Her unusual death is getting a second look as teams search for Peterson's current wife, Stacy, missing since Oct. 28...

Drew Peterson has recently spoken out about Stacy's disappearance and all the suspicion against him. From NBC 5 in Chicago:

On Thursday, Peterson broke his silence with the media in front of his Bolingbrook home when he told reporters, "The media is terrorizing my children."

NBC5's Kim Vatis said that authorities are considering exhuming Savio's body for further investigation, after the Will County coroner cast doubt on the original findings of the 2004 autopsy results, saying that the death by "drowning" determination was inaccurate and that the autopsy results are, at least, "undetermined."

"Do you want to comment on the coroner's statement?" a reporter asked Peterson as he was going from his SUV to his front door Thursday night.

"I have no comments for the media because they did everything wrong," he said, barely showing his face under a hooded sweatshirt...

As this post was being written, it was announced on MSNBC that Kathleen Savio's body will indeed be exhumed.

Sergeant Peterson's problems with the media may soon pale beside his problems with his fellow cops, if evidence of foul play is found on his third wife's remains.

UPDATE, 4:10 p.m. ET

As is noted in the comments below, Drew Peterson is now officially a suspect in his ex-wife's disappearance. From Fox News/The AP:

"Drew Peterson went to being a person of interest to clearly a suspect," said Illinois State Police Capt. Carl Dobrich at a press conference, adding that the case has shifted to a potential homicide case...

(NOTE: For a quirky look at a very different kind of crime story, check out this post by me on RADAR Magazine's "Fresh Intelligence.")

A Note of Thanks and Some "Fresh Intelligence"

Check out my new post at RADAR Online's "Fresh Intelligence":

"Conan Priest's Stalky Online Homily."

The headline gives you some idea of where that piece goes, but you have to check it out for yourself -- and leave a comment there, if you like. Now.

I'll wait.

Back? OK -- sorry to tease, but more crime-blogging here soon -- the first of the late Fall/early Winter illnesses is making its rounds through my household and I'm feeling a little poorly, but I'm still working on stuff.

I'll sign off this note with the following:

To everyone who watched MyCase.com [MyCaseDotCom.com] and sent a note, made a comment, or added me on MySpace, thank you, very, very much. I was very happy with how the show looked and sounded and proud to be a part of it. What will happen in the future? I'll just have to keep you posted.

Live Blogging MyCase.com

10:05 p.m. ET

Watch this space.

Between 10:30 and 11:30 Eastern Time I'll be blogging about the Court TV premiere of MyCase.com [MyCaseDotCom.com]. I wrote about the show, which will feature me as a representative crime blogger/cybersleuth, in this entry.

I guess I've live-blogged before, but I never thought of it that way. For this event I'll try and post something new at each break. I'll make notes on the case itself, about my experience making my part of it, and my impressions of the end-product.

I welcome any questions from readers in the comments, and will try and answer them in this post.

So, stay tuned....

10:30 p.m. ET

I started just blogging about Taylor Behl's disappearance in September, 2005, but it was that blogging that led to my first professional writing gig, and I think it's only fair I link some of that work -- my portion of the Taylor Behl articles published by the Crime Library can be read if you go here: Taylor Behl Murder -- Full Case Coverage.

Most of my blog entries, just for reference, can be accessed by clicking this link. They were originally posted to the now non-existent PlanetHuff.com/DarkSide. OK, that site isn't exactly defunct. You can still see The Dark Side via the Wayback Machine.

*****

I didn't have much contact with Janet Pelasara (Taylor Behl's mom), at all when she was in the news, talking about her daughter's disappearance, but I've been in touch with her since, and she's a truly impressive woman who has weathered an unimaginable blow. I was glad she was willing to participate in making MyCase.com -- I only wish I'd had the chance to meet her in person.

In some respects I'm just as fascinated as anyone else would be with this show, so far -- I can't recall seeing Taylor's friend Glynnis Keogh much before, and the cops who investigated this crime are awesome. To hear one of them say the information being blogged about was "incredibly accurate" is pretty damned satisfying.

10:45 PM

My wife, Dana: "Your beard looks really red on TV."

In the comments OPI asks what I think of the show so far.

I'm surprised at just how much I like it. Not because I thought it'd be bad -- having seen one other true crime-related production from some of the same people at Optomen, I knew this would be original, have a visual style that really set it apart from other true crime shows -- but because I was nervous about my part in it.

I'm also happy the cops participated so much in the taping. The folks at Optomen did a fantastic job of weaving in the separate elements making up the investigation into what happened to Taylor. The re-enactments work well, too -- I particularly liked the way they used projection of text in some scenes.

10:59 PM

I have never seen that shot of Ben Fawley appearing to cry as he enters his Alford plea.

Now it sticks with me, because it crystallizes just how psychopathic this guy was. He'd screwed up his face and was speaking in a hushed, strained voice. Any casual observer would think Ben was crying.

But there wasn't a tear to be seen. I'm sure there never was.

What may have been hard to capture in 30 minutes -- heck, even an hour -- was how trawling through the kind of vast online presence created by a psycho like Ben will worm into your brain. I've investigated and written about two killers who had particularly complex online lives -- Joseph Edward Duncan and Ben Fawley. With both, there were moments when I wanted to go peel the guys out of my brain. Even their most innocuous writings would leave me queasy.

Ben's performance in that courtroom video only crystallized that feeling from him -- that he was so profoundly soulless that even across the Web he left me feeling nauseated, seasick.

I still react badly to any website containing more than its fair share of skull images.

11:11 PM

Someone e-mailed to ask if it was weird to see myself on camera in that capacity -- not as a talking head on a news show, but in documentary made with real flair, cinematic style.

In a word, yes.

A few things about some of the scenes where I was on the computer. I don't want to break "the fourth wall" or anything, but I don't own a fly Mac like the one I used during those shots and no office of mine anywhere has ever been that stylishly furnished or neat.

That said, after just using that Mac for footage, I'd go back to Macs again in a heartbeat.

The cyber cafe was in Manhattan, and if I lived in Manhattan, I can guarantee you I would indeed be parked in that place on a regular basis doing my writing.

The day we taped there I kept getting refills on my coffee, and after a while I was holding up shooting because I kept having to use the restroom.

TV. It's all about the glamor.

My verdict on MyCase.com?

After finally getting to see the whole thing, I'm enormously proud to have been any part of it at all. I know it may seem like I'm supposed to say such a thing, but I've never been the kind of guy who would just say what he's supposed to if I didn't feel it. If I'd thought the show stank, I wouldn't be writing about it after that last update.

Instead, I think documentary-style shows that fall into the true crime genre need to be more like MyCase.com. The show took a truly unique angle of the story and told it with style and with incredible pacing. They managed to find a way to tape me that I didn't wince as I watched my part of the show tonight. And I was ready to wince.

If there were a series like this I'd watch it every time it was on, and wouldn't care whether I was a part of it or not.

NOTES

Answering some comments...

What was this like for me? Well, you'd never know by watching that half-hour that this show was pretty much nearly 2 years in the making. My part was done 10-11 months ago, too -- I'm not shaving my head anymore, I wear a full beard now. I look different, so there's something peculiar in seeing myself captured at a particular point in time.

On the whole, it was exciting and humbling. Exciting to travel and talk about this thing I do with smart people who got it (they obviously did, based on the way they presented my portions of the show). Humbling in part because you'd never know that while I was in NYC to tape MyCase.com my back kept trying to go out, and I had to navigate around that the entire time. That was my body reminding me I was an out-of-shape dude nearing 40 and didn't have any reason to start getting cocky now.

Would I do more? In a heartbeat. But I'd also want some other folks who do what I do to be a part of it. Frankly, I love the idea of being the person who talks to them, something like that. Generally, though -- if I could do something like this show and also continue writing -- I'd be a pretty happy blogger, indeed.

Will I be on every week?

At the moment I don't know of any plans for such a thing. If you want that, just write Court TV and tell them you loved the show and want to see more.

If there do end up being plans for some more shows, I'll let readers know as soon as I'm able.

OPI asked in the comments if this case changed my life. Here's my answer (which is also in the comments section):

Yes. It did change my life. Internally, as much as anything. It really brought home to me how truly complex people can be -- young people like Taylor, psychos like Ben.

My writing about Taylor got me my first paid freelance writing work, and I'd not even tried to get the gig -- it fell in my lap. That was life-changing. As popular as my blog was becoming at that time, I'd still only considered writing for a living in passing.

I think my understanding of what I was doing changed. I realized just how serious it was, for one thing. Taylor's youth and the pain in her mother's eyes whenever I saw Janet on TV brought that home. I also realized that there might be times I was the first to come up with something. That was a responsibility I'd been aware of, but Taylor's disappearance and the blogging I did in relation to it really slammed the point home. One has to really think about the information they've discovered and use some judgment when you make it public.

An Alleged American Murderess in Italy *UPDATED*

NEW: Read my article for Radar on this case, published online today, November 19, 2007: "Sex, Lies, and Videotape: Inside the Amanda Knox murder investigation."

****

THIS ENTRY HAS BEEN UPDATED, INCLUDING LINKS TO MIRRORS OF AMANDA KNOX'S MYSPACE PAGES.

(For the title of this post, a hat-tip goes to the inimitable Yankee Bob.)

Someone had slit Meredith Kercher's throat, possibly with a pen knife. The pretty, dark-haired 21-year-old British woman was supposed to be in a safe place. She was in Perugia, Italy studying in the third year of her 4-year European studies degree, to be acquired through the University of Leeds in the UK.

But on the morning of November 2, 2007, Meredith lay dead on her bed, covered by a duvet.

Police found a broken window, but the door to Meredith's room was locked and no valuables had been taken.

Meredith lived in a charming little white house on the Viale Sant'Antonio with three roommates, two Italians and an American woman, 20-year-old Seattle resident Amanda Marie Knox.

Knox and her boyfriend, 24-year-old Raffaele Sollecito, reported the homicide to authorities. Photos published in various British papers showed the gamine Knox looking pale and serious as she spoke with detectives.

The British tabloids screamed of a maniac on the loose in Perugia, and Italian papers delved into the tawdry side of the crime, speculating that there was a sexual motivation behind the murder.

A break came in the case today.

Amanda Marie Knox, a former barista who had ambitions of becoming an author, confessed to playing a role in an assault and murder of her friend and roommate. Arrested along with Amanda were her boyfriend Raffaele, and the man who owned the bar where Amanda waited tables, 37-year-old Congolese national Patrick Lumumba (the Times Online reported that Lumumba claimed he was the grandchild of the first elected Prime Minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba).

Italian police believe the motivation for the attack on Meredith Kercher was sexual. They think Meredith fought her attackers, and this led to the young woman's murder. She had no intention of having an orgy with anyone.

News outlets like London's Mail have learned from publications like The True Crime Weblog. Their long article about accused killer Amanda Marie Knox's MySpace presence can be read here: "Foxy Knoxy: Inside the twisted world of murdered Meredith's flatmate."

Journalists Colin Fernandez and Beth Hale delved into the fiction Amanda posted to her MySpace blog as well as all the typical info MySpace profile owners list on their pages. [Edit: Amanda Knox's profiles have all been made private or deleted.] Because authorities outside the U.S. sometimes take the personal web pages of accused criminals off-line -- and friends or family members frequently take them down, mirrors of each page have been made. A mirror is just a facsimile of the original. Many links will be broken, but some have been edited to refer back to either this post or the other mirrored pages:

• Mirrored version of http://www.myspace.com/foxyknoxy03;
  
• Mirrored version of http://blog.myspace.com/foxyknoxy03 .
  

The True Crime Weblog has Amanda's lone YouTube video. It is one of those ill-advised things many young people tend to post to that site -- about 32 seconds of Amanda with several male friends. She appears to be extremely drunk, but is insisting in the video that she's had just "One and a HALF" shots of some unnamed drink. Language warning: one of the guys in the video says "dirty f*ckers" at the end:



The strangest thing about the video is that it could be any bunch of 19 or 20-year-olds drinking in a kitchen anywhere. Save that the center of the short bit has been accused now of taking part in a lewd and bloody scenario, one that would be more easily explained were it not for her gender, and her demonstrable intellect.

Watching Amanda laugh on the video as she insists she isn't drunk underscores the strangeness of the accusations against her. It is likely that she is literally thousands of miles from the place where that video was made tonight, as she sits behind bars in Italy. It is also certain that those who know Amanda are thinking the allegations against her -- which prompted Italian police to declare the Kercher murder "case closed" -- are many more thousands of miles from the Foxy Knoxy they know.

This entry will be updated and revised.

As always, any tips about this case are welcome.

If you're a member of Digg, Digg this story.

An additional link from the Times Online: "Meredith Kercher 'killed after refusing orgy.'"

UPDATE 1, 2:09 p.m. ET, 11/07/07

The Mirror published an article containing some statements from Amanda Knox today, titled, "Accused girl 'heard Meredith's screams'."

Amanda made several statements about Meredith Kercher's murder and her interactions with both her boyfriend and her boss, Patrick. Read one way, her statements appear to be in conflict with one another and with some things she wrote in her MySpace blog.

From the Mirror:

"I want to tell you what happened because it's left me really shocked and I am really scared of Patrick. I met him on the evening of 1 November (when Meredith died)."

Then she described how on Monday she had met Patrick outside the University for Foreigners in Perugia where both she and Meredith studied.

She told police: "I met Patrick on the morning of November 5th, he was asking me questions. He wanted to know what I had told the police, he wanted to know if I wanted to talk to journalists so I could find out what was known about Meredith's death."

The first statement is confusing. Was Amanda saying she'd only just met Patrick Lumumba on the 1st? Because her blog would imply otherwise. In an entry posted on October 15, Amanda wrote:

Speaking of working, I've been working everynight (except for monday night) from 10pm to 230am at a bar called Le Chic. Its a really small place owned by this man from the congo. his name is patrick...

It is hard to understand why a young woman might know about the murder of a housemate and lie about it at all. Unless police in this case are correct, and Amanda was a participant in Meredith's murder and any attempts to cover up what really happened afterwards

Readers have made sympathetic comments already on this post about Amanda, but I have hesitated to be too sympathetic, and I've also hesitated to be damning in what I write. But something is wrong here.

Is that something reflected in Amanda's fiction? Judge for yourself. Both stories found in her MySpace blog touch on themes of sexual violence. If Amanda Knox were not accused of taking part in a sexually violent murder, few would think twice about her fiction. There are people out there writing Harry Potter fan fiction conjuring up much more disturbing scenarios than anything Amanda wrote.

In context, though... you have to wonder. And from the boot of Italy through the United Kingdom all the way over to Seattle, WA, there are plenty of people wondering about Amanda Knox now, and how she ended up entangled in such a grim and gruesome murder.

Missing in Georgia: Justin Gaines

Justin Gaines, an 18-year-old college student from the North Atlanta suburbs, has been missing for 5 days.

The muscular, blue-eyed college freshman came home from school in Athens last Thursday, November 1, and decided to go out to one of his favorite bars, Wild Bill's.

When Justin called a friend to come pick him up later in the night, the friend couldn't oblige.

By Sunday, Justin's mom, Erika Wilson, was worried. She got in touch with his friends and tried local medical facilities but found no trace of her son.

Police are now trying to track Justin's cell phone signal and look over any relevant video surveillance from the night Justin disappeared.

Justin Gaines had several online profiles, even a blog.

His MySpace, http://www.myspace.com/gaines54, is locked. The profile photo shows a well-built young man with short brown hair smiling for the camera.

When he was still playing fullback for the Brookwood High School Broncos, Justin created a Geocities website, where he listed some of his favorite hangouts and a few of his likes and dislikes. He wrote at the top of the page:

Hey. I'm Justin. I like to meet girls, hang with friends, play football, party, listen to music, watch movies, go to the beach, run, and go on my boat. I love to have fun and I'm up for trying anything.

Until 2005 Justin kept a Xanga: http://www.xanga.com/Gaines54. He wrote about typical high school stuff in the journal, including a beach trip with a friend and other visits to Wild Bill's:

Me and Kevin went to New Smyrna Beach. Chilled and it was awsome One night went to Club Paris and went to some Disney world Water Park and Unerversals and Island Of Adventure. Over all it was pretty pimp. When me and Kevin were at the beach we also got our ear pierced cause we were bored it pretty cool i guess...

[. . .]

We got back and i just been chillen and Hanging out with my baby and stuff. went to wild bills like a week ago with her. yesturday she came over and today Im going over to her house.She just the greatest gal ever.On Sunday me and a bunch of my boys are all going up to Six Flags. On monday school starts up it gunna suck. Im gunna miss the summer but i guess it will be alright.

Justin reportedly has two fake IDs. The names: Brad Shewe and Brad Allen. He has diamond studs in both ears and the last time he was seen, Justin was wearing a long-sleeved gray with "Abercrombie" stamped on the chest. He attends Gainesville State College in Oconee, GA and is normally good about checking in with his family.

It is hard to believe that someone in Justin's circle of friends doesn't know where he is. He'd obviously been hanging out at Wild Bill's for years. Though it's a big place, a frequent visitor like Justin may have had friends on the staff and plenty of other friends and acquaintances who would typically show up any given weeknight, just as he seemed to do.

Missing men simply don't receive the same news coverage as missing women. This may be because there is a (often mistaken) impression that men somehow bring about their own circumstances when they vanish -- that, or they meant to disappear and don't want to be found. Justin's youth and the known circumstances of his disappearance don't match well with an intentional disappearance.

Did Justin find a ride after all on November 1, 2007? The wrong ride?

If you think you've seen Justin Gaines or know where he is, you should call the Gwinnett County PD at (770) 513-5300.

Source:

MyFoxAtlanta.com;
The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The Bizarre Murder of Devon Epps

(11/05/07: This blog entry was originally published at CrimeBlog.US on August 20, 2007 at 2:14 p.m. ET. Normally it would have been transferred to this domain and the post back-dated to reflect the original publication date, but a huge new development in the case made me elect to make this post current. Amanda Smith, the woman you are about to learn about, has been arrested and charged with the murder of her son. Thanks to reader Reannan for the e-mail giving me the heads-up on this not particularly startling twist in the story.)

A mother named Smith. A mysterious attacker, and a dead little boy. In South Carolina.

Sound familiar?

The mother in this case isn't named Susan, and the attack in question didn't take place in October of 1994.

Amanda Reagan Smith's son Devon Chad Epps was murdered on August 12, 2007, in Greenville, South Carolina.

Here is what Amanda, age 26, has been telling investigators in Greenville . . .

Amanda and Devon were stopped at Jacobs Road and Interstate 85 that Sunday night when a scruffy-looking white man carrying a knife ordered the mother from her car.

The man locked himself in the car with Devon. Then, inexplicably, he smothered the boy, holding a pillow over the child's face. The boy was taken to a hospital, where he was declared deceased. Amanda Reagan Smith was injured as well. She was treated and released from the hospital that night.

The Greenville News reported that Devon's death was caused by "asphyxia due to neck compression."

A suspect sketch has been circulated, and some believe the sketch resembles Devon's father, David Epps. Police have told local media that they've received more than 30 tips since the sketch was made public.

Greenville TV station WYFF published an online article on August 15 about Devon Epps's funeral. Reactions from people living near the scene of the crime were mentioned:

Residents familiar with area where the crime occurred said they were surprised to hear that something like that happened there.
"There are several businesses in that area that have surveillance cameras so we're trying to go to those businesses and meet with the managers to see where exactly those cameras point, and what areas they cover," said Michael Hildebrand of the Greenville County Sheriff's Office.

The same piece also stated that investigators didn't "believe the sketch is that of a homeless person living in the area."

What really happened to Devon Chad Epps?

A random attacker at night using a pillow from the crime scene is strange, given that the crime scene was a car stopped on the road. The attacker wielding a knife but using the pillow instead is stranger still.

Devon Epps was not abducted. He was not molested. He was simply asphyxiated. Why? Why did Devon's mother get away with minor injuries? If Amanda Smith's story about her son's murder is true, it is the very definition of a random and senseless murder.

While local Greenville press has been careful to report "just the facts," people posting comments on articles about Devon's murder have voiced frank suspicion. One short example comes from the article accompanying the sketch of the suspect. A reader of that post using the screen name "chelly" wrote, "I hope I am wrong, but this sounds like another Susan Smith case to me. I pray I am wrong, because being a mother myself, I cant imagine why one could hurt their own child."

An active discussion about this murder began at Websleuths.com shortly after the crime was reported. While some forum users there were hesitant to question the story of a mother who might be grieving a terrible loss, others cut to the chase. On August 16, Websleuther "Latteda" wrote, "I came to this thread to see if the mother had confessed yet. I just don't believe her story."

Early in the Websleuths discussion, "Taximom" posted links to Amanda Reagan Smith's MySpace page -- www.myspace.com/crazysexxyluv. [Mirrors down on 11/05/07.]

Amanda wrote the following under "About Me":

Hey and welcome to my page! Im single mother of a hyper 7 year old boy named Devon (aka Devil lol), a full time nursing student, a home health assistant, and one CRAZY ASS CHICK!!!.... Hell, Ill try anything once!...twice if I like it ;)..... I can be that gurl that sticks by your side and always has your back OR I can be that bitch that you never turn your back on- its all in how u treat me....Ive been through alot of shit just like every one has. That stupid saying "what doesnt kill you will only make you stronger" is so sadly true. Everything happens so that something better can come along. We just have to be patient and see what the future brings!! Sometimes we have to lose every thing we have to see what really matters in life... and that is LIFE itself! So as hard at seems, pick up the pieces and superglue them back together, and be thankful for every breath.. life is short so handle with care!!!

Amanda went on, decribing herself:

I am not shy ~ I am way too outgoing ~ I care way too much how others feel ~ I am entirely too optimistic ~ I don't smoke ~ I spend too much time working ~ I dont spend enough time studying ~ I find myself in trouble alot ~ I spend too much money on my son ~ I've never been, and never want to go to jail ~ I am all about joking around with people ~ I am often sarcastic, but dont mean any harm ~I appear to be a bitch ~If you're selling something, I don't wanna buy it ~ I have a weakness for big guys and men in uniform ~ I love guys with trucks ~ My favorite food place is Monterrey's ~ I don't eat boiled peanuts ~ I am always listening to music ~ I eat out too much ~ I am very laid back ~ I drive too fast ~ I am OCD about my alarm clock ~ I hate being late ~ I walk around without shoes ~ I always sleep with a fan on ~ I don't like cats ~ I don't like when people are fake ~ Im always myself - Like me or Leave ~ I like cars with loud mufflers ~ I love hot-tubs ~ I sleep with like 6 pillows ~ I only use 100 watt light bulbs ~ I get attached to people quickly. . .

Under the section of the page titled, "Who I'd Like to Meet," Amanda wrote, "Well lets see... Ive given up on MEN! lol so just friends to hang out with and chat with would be great. You can never have too many friends!"

She had 45 friends attached to her profile, but well over 400 comments, indicating a lot of chatting back and forth, along with the usual MySpace spam messages and "Happy Monday" greetings. The Google-cached version of Amanda Smith's "crazysexxyluv" page captured her photos, as well. She mentioned Devon in her "About me," but Amanda Reagan Smith's photos were all about her social life and partying.

If she was a single mother seeking someone new in her life, her profile as it appeared in mid-July made some sense. She wanted to emphasize the fact that she was fun, sociable, easy to know. Yet she also was apparently tired of men.

According to the posters from Websleuths, Amanda made marked changes to her profile before taking it offline altogether. Those are either not yet available, or were never cached.

Police initially made statements that indicated there was evidence at the scene of the crime to support Amanda's story. For several days, she was not named in the media, and at least one statement was made declaring that she was not a suspect.

But unfortunately for Amanda Smith, she is named Smith and her son was murdered under very strange circumstances in South Carolina, allegedly by a random, mysterious stranger. Even if she is telling the gospel truth, comparisons between her situation and the Susan Smith case from 13 years ago are unavoidable.

Susan Smith claimed that she was carjacked by a stranger. Her sons, Michael and Alexander, vanished for a time. Smith and her estranged husband ended up on national TV pleading for the boys' return.

In the end, Michael and Alexander were found, still strapped into their carseats, in Susan Smith's car. She'd rolled the Mazda in John D. Long Lake, drowning the boys.

Susan Smith confessed her actions, and her motivation was apparently her desire for a relationship with a man who'd told her he wasn't interested in a single mom with 2 young boys in tow. Smith later claimed that her madness was also sparked by sexual abuse she'd suffered as a child. She grew into a woman who got attached very easily, a dependent, narcissistic personality.

It may be that there is a scruffy stranger lurking in the woods around I-85 and Jordan Road in Greenville even now, waiting for the next opportunity to smother some hapless child traveling with his mother. Stranger things have happened.

Every now and then.

But none come to mind, at the moment.

(For more blog-based coverage of this story, check out Rapid Eye Reality.)

Tips!

The True Crime Weblog wants your tips.

I don't meant donations this time (though those are always welcome), I mean information. On any story blogged about here, or related to crime stories you'd like me to cover.

I can't guarantee that I will cover every story sent my way, but I can guarantee that I'll take each message I receive seriously and may respond in depth if needed.

If you have a tip for something covered by RADAR Magazine, they do have their own address to use, but I'll welcome a tip you might think RADAR-worthy as well, and pass it on, if needed. Sometimes writing for the Crime Library was hard because I couldn't decide whether to pitch a story to my editor there or blog about it. RADAR's crime/scandal coverage is pretty specific, so I don't worry about any conflicts in content between this blog and paid work for them.

This post is to reiterate something I've told tipsters via e-mail in the past, but rarely touched on in the blog: In addition to referencing traditional media stories, this blog also contains original research and reporting.

That may explain to you to some degree why I've also been fortunate enough to do professional true crime writing since I began this endeavor in late 2004. The True Crime Weblog isn't about regurgitating news you can get from Reuters or the AP, unlike many other news-related weblogs. Here, I seek always to add to what those sources have already told you. I don't hesitate to use traditional media sources to check my work, to validate it, and I don't mind using mainstream media reports as starting points. But I don't see any point in crime blogging most of the time unless I have something new to add to the story.

All tips and story ideas are welcome, but I really prize original information. If it is already being reported on your local TV stations or in the newspapers, it is more akin to background on a story, or perhaps an idea for a story. If you send me something you think may not be public knowledge save to you, that is a tip. And those are pretty damned important.

When we're dealing with original reporting, information sent from a reader that may first see light of day on this weblog, I need to know these things as well: Whether or not you want me to use your name or screen name; Your source for the information, preferably with a URL if you have one; Why you think it's a worthwhile tidbit.

If these things aren't included, I need a real e-mail address to which I can respond. I may have to write you and ask where you found your information, and I will ask if it's already been published.

It occurred to me to make this post after I received several requests and suggestions in relation to the disappearance of Stacy Peterson, in the Chicago area. The 23-year-old woman vanished last Sunday and national media quickly picked up on the story, mainly because her much-older cop husband Drew had several previous marriages and his wife before Stacy died under mysterious circumstances.

The cable news nets or major papers picking up on a story like that will not always stay my hand from doing an entry -- I've proven to myself that I can take on big stories and still break news in the past. You just have to watch MyCase.com Wednesday night at 10:30 ET on Court TV to see one big example of what I'm talking about.

So far, though, I can't add anything to the unfolding story of Stacy Peterson's disappearance. At the moment, anything I post here about Stacy or her husband would be information already published or broadcast elsewhere. Most of the time, I just don't work that way. I've made some exceptions -- the open threads for readers interested in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are the most recent ones that come to mind. But those exceptions are few and far between.

Hopefully I've illustrated why I don't always write about what seem like crime stories ripe for true crime blogging, and I've clarified what it is I'm doing here.

Any questions, just like tips, can be sent via my contact form.

(Unrelated note: I made it into my hometown newspaper today! Along with Keith Urban, Brooks & Dunn, and the Smashing Pumpkins, to name a few. Yes, I'm originally from Nashville, and the last time I recall being in the Tennessean was more than twenty years ago, in a review of some theater thing I did.)