Police are "extremely confident" that the body of Stacy Peterson, the missing ex-wife of accused murderer Drew Peterson, is near the area they searched last weekend, according to the Joliet Herald News.
After searching for a full day on a rural downstate farm, authorities suspended the search last Sunday as they awaited more sophisticated equipment to help detect human remains.
The search began based on a tip from an unspecified source that police have described as very credible. TMZ.com had reported that the tip came from one of Drew Peterson's fellow inmates, but both authorities and Peterson's attorneys deny that claim.
Peterson will stand trial in July for the murder of his third wife -- Kathleen Savio. Stacy was his fourth.
Savio was found drowned in a bathtub in 2004, an incident authorities had insisted was a freak accident until the disappearance of Stacy Peterson. When she went missing, suspicious state police re-opened the investigation into Savio's death, deemed it a homicide, and brought charges against Drew.
If remains of Stacy Peterson were found, they might implicate (or, for that matter, exculpate) Drew in her death. For now, she is still "missing."
So far, this latest search for her remains has only turned up animal bones. And police haven't specified a date when they'll return to the dig.
But Pam Bosco, the spokeswoman for Stacy Peterson's family, said, "They're planning to go back as soon as they develop or focus their strategy."
And the Herald-News's unnamed source for the story says police are fairly certain they're searching in the right place. Now, the source said, "they just have to find her."