Last Sunday night I introduced you to ANOTHER trucker who had an altercation with a man he says he believes 100% is Drew Peterson 13 days before Stacy disappeared. This trucker, Allan Scott, who was interviewed by me on Geraldo at Large last Sunday night, has now been interviewed by Illinois State Police and his 9-1-1 call to police the morning of October 16th when he describes how a man he says is Drew Peterson approached him at the 55 truck stop has been confirmed by Bolingbrook Police.

Scott is a hazmat trucker who takes hauling hazardous material seriously. His cell phone records shown to us before our interview show that call to 9-1-1 on the date in question. His trucker logs indicate he had to leave the 55 truck stop for “a safe haven”. He explained how even with all his years experience he felt threatened when he had the encounter he described with two men flashing a badge one of whom he believes was Drew Peterson. Please pass the word that THIS TRUCKER IS NOT THE TRUCKER POLICE ARE NOW SAYING LIED.

While in Bolingbrook last weekend I went out on a search with Dr. Michael Baden. I just received some photos from Dr. Baden and I am posting them here. I also shot video after Dr. Baden was asked by the professional search team to check an area - it looked like a ditch - where they’d uncovered bones.

These turned out to be animal bones and the search for Stacy seems more focused in the water now then on land but the cold weather will work in the investigators favor as you will hear Dr. Baden explain when I post the video interview I shot with him in the field on Monday. So check back!!

I just got this new video camera and will try to post many more exclusive videos for you in the weeks to come.

Producer marla cichowski gives me a crash course on the videocam

The searchers spread out in rough terrain

11 year old tells me she doesn’t want Stacy lost anymore.

Search volunteer and his dog Ridley

I remain in New York City this week, where I continue to watch the coverage of the Stacy Peterson disappearance, and the investigation into her husband’s possible involvement. I am not sure if I’ll be returning to Bolingbrook to help with the coverage of the story, at this point, but am standing by. Because I am based in New York, that means that I cover the states in my region, so this story is not in my “jurisdiction”.

Jeff Goldblatt and Steve Brown in our Chicago bureau are doing an amazing job working their sources, and Greta of course is chasing down every lead imaginable. Today it’s all about what Stacy reportedly told her clergyman about the death of Drew’s 3rd wife, (he says she told him Drew killed her) and about Drew’s step-brother who may have unknowingly helped him dispose of her body in a blue barrel.

A friend of Drew’s went On The Record tonight with Greta, and says Drew maintains he did no such thing. It seems like everyday there is a huge development, and I can tell you from being there in Bolingbrook, and hearing about some of the things that haven’t been reported on yet (Fox staff working to confirm many new leads..) there will be much more to come.

In the meantime, I’m working on another story that should air Friday on The Fox Report about a man in Long Island who has been trying to put solar panels on his roof and has been voted down by the Board of Architectural Review in his village. The board members think that the panels will mess up the charming quaint look of the house and that his will no longer fit in with their community if they go up. (the panels were going to be installed in the back) It’s been an interesting story to work on - here you’ve got a guy who wants to do the right thing for the environment, and do his part, but can’t because it’s not pretty enough. He’s fighting the decision… we will bring you the update.

The last few days there’s been so much talk about the blue barrel - big enough a neighbor is reported to have said -to hold a body. The barrel first seen in Drew’s backyard…then carried out by Drew and a mystery man into his SUV as the reports go.

Could the blue barrel be the smoking gun that brings this case to a close? Could it be the key piece of evidence that answers what happened to Stacy Peterson…the young mother of two (and of two of Drew’s other children she adopted) who all spent this Thanksgiving holiday without their mother?

Frankly I am skeptical that the blue barrel alone answers those questions and given the time and attention the Illinois State Police are devoting to the case (64 of their officers are on it full time) and the involvement now of the FBI, I think they would already have found the blue barrel and would have known what was inside.

What I do recall from my guided tour of Drew and Stacy’s home (offered by Drew just hours after the police came through executing a search warrant) is two things - the top of a different blue container and the bed linens taken by police.

As I took the tour Drew offered me room to room exclusively and without any cameras, in the basement there was a large blue top to a container - not a barrel - but a rubbermaid type container that was very large without the matching bottom. Relevant? I don’t know. But it seemed odd to me that it was sitting there without the bottom in sight. Drew did not make reference to it.

Second, in Stacy and Drew’s bedroom, Drew did ask me to note that all their bed linens had been taken by police during their search. I checked other rooms and only the sheets in that room were taken as potential evidence. Relevant? I think so. Again, I don’t have news to share that the sheets or that container will connect Drew to any crime, but we have heard so much about the barrel I thought those of you following the case should know about the sheets.

I also keep thinking about the above ground pool behind the Peterson home. Drew mentioning to a number of us that Stacy took her bikini…along with the belief that this blue barrel held pool chemicals…and the news that Kathleen Savio’s body was found in a bathtub.

Does anyone have information that police have checked inside that pool (covered for the winter months)? Was it part of their search?

If you have ANY information on where either Drew or Stacy’s cars were particularly on October 28 or 29th, the Illinois State Police want to hear from you or you can leave your information here.

This last weekend I had some serious deja vu. Many of you are going through the same thing, watching the coverage of the Stacy Peterson disappearance, and remembering the Laci Peterson case. Missing young wife… husband under a cloud of suspicion, Christmas time, cute neighborhoods, mysterious circumstances. It’s all there.

I did live reports all weekend from the outside of Drew and Stacy’s house in Bolingbrook, talking to neighbors, family members, search volunteers and eventually Drew Peterson. Just like Scott Peterson, he seems a little calm about the fact that his wife is missing and hasn’t been heard from in four weeks. As we always say, everyone handles stress, anxiety, and fear differently, so it’s not fair to cast judgment when we don’t know all of the facts, but boy, it sure feels strange.

Some of the people I talked to who know Stacy very well, and had daily contact with her, told me they were surprised that Drew hasn’t asked them once if they’ve heard from Stacy. Seems odd. Drew Peterson’s side of the story: his 23-year old wife ran off with another man and left him, but we’ve heard from most everyone who knew Stacy, that Drew didn’t allow much time for that opportunity, and she never would have left her kids. He reportedly watched her every move, followed her around, and was always suspicous of her activities outside her house.

I was in my rental car outside his house yesterday when he pulled up with his brother. You’ve seen Drew in the past ambushed by reporters in his driveway… but this time, there was no one else around except for our camera crew a few feet away and me sitting in my car writing my next report. As he was walking up his pathway, I flung open my door, put my pen behind my ear (which you can see in the tape of us talking… just wanted to explain that white thing in my hair) and ran across the street to see if he would talk to me, and he did. I asked him first about his kids, because Paul his brother had told me that we were scaring the children by being outside. Drew says he’s mostly annoyed by the early morning reporters who power up the generators before the sun comes up to illuminate his house to do their live shots, and it wakes them up. Remember Stacy and Drew’s little ones are only 2 and 4, and the other two kids are young too.

While we were talking I notices a very comfortable ease with his demeanor, I wouldn’t expect him to be panicked while talking to me, it has been four weeks… but he just seemed very calm to me, was pleasant and had a smile. He said he didn’t know what was going on in the investigation to find his missing wife, and said “Why don’t you tell me?”

I asked him if he knew one of his older sons, a police officer, is reportedly testifying in front of the grand jury this week about this case, and that of Drew’s 3rd wife that was found dead in her bathtub, and he said he didn’t know about it. I asked him point blank what his story was about the report that he was seen loading a blue barrel out of his house with a friend around the same time that Stacy was reported missing, and he shrugged that off with a smile, and said he had nothing to say about that and shook his head, like “no way, that didn’t happen.” Then HE brought up the scuba diving weights that are reportedly missing from his house. We’ve been hearing that Drew had a lot of scuba gear in the garage, and that when the search warrant was executed, the weights were gone. He says not true. He went on to say that he hopes that the FBI’s involvement in the case will help clear his name and then said he had to go inside. I had so many other questions for him….

I’ve talked to people who have been questioned by investigators about Drew and Stacy’s bedroom furniture. One person reportedly has said that they saw Drew carry out a nightstand that was there when cops originally took pictures inside their house after she vanished, and then when they went back to take more pictures, it was gone. A neighbor who knows Stacy well, was asked by the cops to draw the layout of the furniture in that room on a piece of paper.

As I said in my last blog… it could be nothing, it could be everything, but I have a feeling we will be hearing more about this in the future.