Relative adds twist to missing-wife case

The suspect’s stepbrother said he helped remove a large container from the house.

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. (AP) — A relative of former police officer Drew Peterson reportedly helped him move a large, heavy container out of his suburban home the day his wife vanished, an allegation that sparked a furious denial from Peterson’s attorney.

Peterson and his stepbrother removed the container from an upstairs bedroom and put it in his sport-utility vehicle, according to media reports that cited anonymous sources close to the investigation into Stacy Peterson’s disappearance last month.

The stepbrother, Thomas Morphey, later became distraught after learning that Stacy Peterson was missing and tried to kill himself, The Herald News of Joliet reported Wednesday.

Authorities say Drew Peterson is a suspect in his fourth wife’s disappearance and have called her case a possible homicide. Investigators are also re-examining the 2004 death of Drew Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio. Police have said her death may have been a homicide staged to look like an accidental bathtub drowning.

Peterson, 53, has denied wrongdoing, saying he believes the 23-year-old Peterson left him for another man and is alive.

Peterson’s attorney, Joel Brodsky, denied that anyone helped Peterson move a container from the home and claimed the stepbrother has a history of mental problems.

“I don’t know what world Thomas Morphey is living in, our world, his world or if he’s veering back and forth between the real world and whatever fantasy world he’s living in,” Brodsky told The Associated Press.

Steve Carcerano, a friend of Drew Peterson’s, said Peterson told him he called Morphey to confront him.

“He called him and said, ‘Why are you saying this stuff?’” Carcerano told the AP.

There was no answer when a reporter knocked on the door of Morphey’s Bolingbrook home Wednesday morning. Later, a woman who pulled her car into the garage talked briefly to reporters in the driveway. She refused to give her name, but when asked about Morphey said “he’s in treatment” before declining to comment further.

A spokesman for Will County prosecutors declined to comment on the media reports, and Illinois State Police did not return messages.