Mother of Drew Peterson says wife ran off, is 'ashamed'

The mother of a 53-year-old former police officer suspected in the disappearance of his 23-year-old wife is backing up her son's assertions that the woman ran off with another man and is alive.

Betty Morphey says her son, Drew Peterson, never would harm anyone.

"I'm proud he's my son and I feel so bad he's got to go through all this because of her," Morphey told the Chicago Sun-Times for a story in Tuesday's editions. "She was just too young."

Police have named Peterson a suspect in the disappearance of Stacy Peterson, who was last seen Oct. 28, and authorities have called the case a possible homicide. He has denied involvement.

"I would tell her I'm ashamed of her for putting the family through this," Morphey said. "She knows where she is."

Amid the investigation into Stacy Peterson's disappearance, prosecutors also are reviewing the death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, whose body was found in a bathtub in 2004.

At the time, authorities ruled her death an accidental drowning, but investigators exhumed her body last week at the request of a prosecutor, who has said after examining evidence he believes her death was a homicide staged to look like an accident.

A pathologist who conducted another autopsy on Savio's body for her family said last week he believes the woman was murdered.

Morphey said she has lost weight and is sick over others' suspicions her son had anything to do with his third wife's death or fourth wife's disappearance.

"All of this is not necessary," Morphey said. "(Stacy) didn't have to walk out and leave everybody stranded and not knowing what to do. All she has to do is call and say she's fine."