Could the "Cold Justice" team get justice for Stacy Peterson?

As you may know, I am a huge fan of the reality TV show "Cold Justice".  In it's fourth season and now with Oxygen, former prosecutor Kelly Siegler teams up with seasoned detectives and travels across the country assisting law enforcement in smaller towns review their unsolved homicide cases.  They have had surprising results. Their work has helped to net many arrests, confessions and new information on some very old cases.  This is a great show.  There is a case that I'd LOVE to see them tackle; although it doesn't particularly fit their criteria because the case didn't occur in a small town with scare resources.  The case has been worked by many law enforcement agencies and I don't believe resources were an issue.  Nonetheless, why not try? The case I'm talking about is the disappearance (and presumed murder) of Stacy Peterson.

It's been a decade plus since the suspicious disappearance of former cop Drew Peterson's fourth wife Stacy.  Unfortunately she was most likely killed in the very home she shared with her killer husband Drew.  I find it most disturbing that this man has been able to escape justice in this particular case.  He nearly got away with the murder of 3rd wife Kathleen Savio, in fact if it had not been for the disappearance of Stacy, Savio's death may have remained an "accidental" death.

Drew Peterson is the obvious and only real suspect in Stacy's disappearance and probable murder.  Somehow he has been able to allude responsibility in this particular killing, more than likely drawing on his extensive experience in law enforcement to lessen the chances of the body being discovered.  The real question that needs to be answered is what did he do with her body?  It is widely believed that Stacy's body was placed in a large blue Rubbermaid type container.  Drew asked his half brother Thomas Morphey to help him move this container from upstairs of his home to his SUV.  Morphey immediately believed he had just helped move Stacy's body, however he did not go to the police right away.  Drew reportedly paid him several thousand dollars to assist him with this task, and Morphey allegedly had a drug abuse problem which Drew knew would make him a unlikely witness to the police.

Peterson had always claimed he could kill his wives and make it appear to be an accident.  He threatened Kathleen Savio with the claim and Stacy eventually figured out that Drew had killed Kathleen so when she showed signs of pulling away from him she became a potential witness and ceased being the wife he supposedly adored.  She simply knew too much and Peterson wasn't about to go to prison for killing Savio.  He believed he was above the law.  Having a second wife disappear within a short time of having your previous wife die a mysterious bathtub drowning death is very suspicious.  This shows that Drew believed he was smarter than his law enforcement colleagues and they may suspect there was a connection but he made certain they would have a hard time proving it.

Unfortunately we can strongly believe a person is responsible for a murder, but if they are careful and hide the body well and don't tell another single sole about what they have done - it's very possible for them to get away with murder.  Murderers usually get caught because they panic, they get sloppy and they are in such a hurry to get rid of the body and evidence that they choose the dump location poorly.  Peterson had been involved in law enforcement long enough to know what to do and what not to do.  He likely considered cell phone data and pings from both his and Stacy's cell phones.  He likely dumped the body at a time and location when the likelihood of him being seen was very small.  

I don't know the timeline in this case.  The day she disappeared, Stacy was supposed to help a friend paint a house.  Her last known phone call was around 10:25AM but she never made it to the friends home to paint.  Stacy's sister tried calling her repeatedly and the calls went to voicemail.  Stacy may have been dead by the time those calls went unanswered.  Her body may have remained in the home all day, with the kids there - hidden away in a closet or in that infamous blue Rubbermaid tub.  When Stacy was reported missing, Drew told anyone who would listen that she left him for a younger man, and she was probably sipping mai tai's on a beach somewhere in her bathing suit.  What a douche bag.

Stacy was particularly close to her sister Cassandra Cales, and to this day she has not given up on the search for her sister's remains.  What is it going to take to get the truth out of this sociopath Drew Peterson?  I believe he will take the secret of where Stacy's remains are to his grave.  I am not even certain if he was offered immunity and no additional prison time he would give up the information.  I'd much rather see him caught and prosecuted for murder.  What's it going to take?  Is there someone out there holding on to a terrible secret?  Would a reward with a meaningful amount of money persuade anyone with any knowledge to finally do the right thing?

Drew's prior wives were afraid of him.  His half brother is afraid of him.  Nobody should be afraid of Drew Peterson now.  His attempt to put a hit out on the prosecutor who got him convicted of murdering Savio was thwarted when an inmate sold him out.  I don't believe Peterson has the friends willing to do any type of violent favors for him any longer.  He's lost his power.  If somebody knows something, PLEASE contact the authorities.  It's time to end the suffering of Stacy's friends, family, children and the entire community.  Drew Peterson does not deserve protection or loyalty from anyone who may be harboring his evil secret.

I hope to one day see a headline that a grand jury has indicted him for Stacy's murder.  I just don't believe they have enough to do so at this point. Obviously she's not alive. She wouldn't be out of contact with her sister and would have never left her young children.  The thought that she ran off with another man is an insult that would only come out of the mouth of Drew.  He truly is the worst kind of monster.

There is another Drew Peterson special coming up on Investigation Discovery on August 25, 2017.  Will any new information be released?  Are the police still actively working on this cold case?  Could we lobby the Cold Justice team to get on this case?  I'd LOVE to see Kelly Siegler questioning Drew Peterson.  That would be something.

It is mind boggling when you hear about just how many men (and women) have murdered more than one spouse.  It's not always about money - with Drew Peterson it was a little of both; money and control.  He didn't want to lose half of his money to divorce with Savio, and he was quickly losing control of Stacy.  He simply couldn't let that happen, in addition to the fact that she knew he killed Savio.  In his mind, she had to die.

Another arrest for "Cold Justice" Team

Larry Leflore arrested

"Cold Justice" has assisted another police department in securing an arrest warrant on a cold case homicide.  The reality television show is in it's 4th season and continues to net results with the case profiled on the first show of this new season.

Larry Leflore was arrested in June of 2017 after a grand jury indicted him in the 1991 murder of his ex wife Mary Jane LeFlore.  Although he had been a suspect during the course of the original investigation, authorities did not believe they had enough evidence to secure a conviction and the case went cold.

From the outside, Mary Jane Leflore and Larry LeFlore appeared to be a typical married couple living in Huntsville Texas with their young son Brandon. Both of the LeFlores worked for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Mary Jane as a socialologist.  Friends say both were known to have had extra marital affairs during their marriage, and friends and collegues of Mary Jane reported seeing her come to work with clumps of hair missing and marks and bruises on her neck and body. 

Larry LeFlore was known to be jealous and controlling and this certainly caught the attention of law enforcement who would later investigate her disappearance and ultimately her murder. On July 19, 1991 Mary Jane LeFlore was last seen alive when she left work and was believed to be headed to a local mall for an appointment. When she failed to pick up her son as planned, Larry LeFlore says he drove to the mall to look for his wife - he claims that he saw Mary Jane in the passenger seat of a car exiting the mall parking lot.  Believing she may be having another affair, Larry told investigators he followed the car but he gave several versions of why the chase ended.  In one instance he claimed he lost the car he was following; in another he claims he was low on gas and had to stop the chase 

Whatever the reason for not following the car he claims his wife was in, he failed to even report her as missing until July 21, 1991.  The police were suspicious of Larry's story but had no evidence to dispute it and eventually the missing person case went cold until February 9, 1993 when a potential land buyer found a body in a rural area.  The badly decomposed body was soon positively  identified as Mary Jane LeFlore.  By the time the body was discovered, Larry  LeFlore had already filed for and was granted a divorce from Mary Jane and he collected life insurance proceeds from her death.

Larry LeFlore went on living his life while his wife's unsolved homicide went cold.  The arrival of the "Cold Justice" team was about to thaw out this cold case.  Former Harris County prosecutor Kelly Siegler and former homicide detectives Johnny Bonds and Steve Spingola rolled into town with a plan - to re-examine the details of this case with fresh eyes and perspective.  They planned to re interview all potential witnesses and people close to Mary Jane and Larry.  The scene where Mary Jane's body was discovered yielded no real clues as to the killer, although her cause of death points to it being a personal crime or a crime of passion.  By the time Mary Jane's body was found very little was left aside from skeletal remains which had been scattered, jewelry and few other personal effects.  Just because the killer did a good job of concealing the body does not mean he will get away with murder.

Larry Leflore will finally be made to answer for his crime.  He lived many years as a free man and I consider those years to be a gift - a gift he did not deserve if he is guilty of the crime for which he has been charged.  KUDOS to Kelly, Johnny, Steve and the local law enforcement team that is bringing him to justice!!

"Cold Justice" Episode 2 - What happened to photographer Morten Aigeltinger?

"Cold Justice Team" - Oxygen TV

Morten Aigeltinger

The second episode in Oxygen's "Cold Justice" series looks at the suspicious disappearance of well known local photographer Morten Aigeltinger.  Aigeltinger was by all accounts an accomplished photographer who was very passionate about his art.  He lived on a large farm property in West Virginia with his long time live in girlfriend and her mother.  For the life of me, I have not been able to locate the name of the girlfriend or her mother in any online article.

Morten was a well respected photographer originally from Norway who came to the United States approximately 30 years ago.  Now 56 years old, Morten settled into a quiet life on a farm in West Virginia while he continued to work as a photographer.  On September 9, 2015 he allegedly left his home early in the morning for a photo shoot he was scheduled to do - the location of the shoot was said to be less than an hour away, and law enforcement immediately became suspicious of this timeline provided by the girlfriend.

Morten never showed up at the photo shoot.  His girlfriend reported him missing to the police two days later on September 11, 2015.  Morten's truck was located on a river bank, abandoned and with windows down and unlocked.  It appeared as if he simply walked away from the vehicle.  There were no traces of blood or signs of a struggle in or around the truck.  Law enforcement brought in search dogs, cadaver dogs and scoured the riverbanks and the wooded areas beyond.  Helicopters were utilized - nothing was discovered despite the massive effort.

What happened to Morten?  In these types of "missing person" cases, the spouse or significant other is usually a good place to start the investigation.  After speaking with many of Morten's close friends, they discovered his relationship with the long term girlfriend was not as rosy as she had portrayed it to be to law enforcement.  One major point of contention was that Morten did not get along with his girlfriend's mother - and her extended stay at the house was a source of near constant tension between the two.  Secondly, Morten had recently discovered that his girlfriend had taken out 3-4 credit cards in his name without his permission and charged up somewhere in the range of $30,000 - $40,000.  Morten had contacted the credit card companies to report the fraud.  He confided in friends that he had not decided whether to press charges against the girlfriend which would essentially send her to jail, or pay the bill and end the relationship.

Either way, she was aware the end of the relationship was nearing.  Morten wanted her mother out of his home, and he was outraged at her betrayal with the identity theft.  There were text messages produced that showed that Morten's girlfriend was supposed to be driving her mother back to the New York area on a Monday - and Morten goes missing on that Wednesday? If you believe in coincidences, maybe this was a doozy of one.  I don't happen to think this was the case.  It was also rumored by Morten's close friends that his girlfriends mother had come after him with a knife in her hand.  When questioned about the incident by the Cold Justice team, she denied it outright and told them Morten tried to strike her!

When both mother and daughter/girlfriend were interviewed by Johnny Bonds during the Cold Justice team's visit, they were both fairly calm but very evasive in their answers.  Many facts the team knew to be true were repeatedly denied by these two ladies.  Case in fact:  the girlfriend denies she was due to drive her mother back to the New York area 2 days before Morten disappeared.  Her mother denied she had been living at Morten's home before he went missing.  She claims she only moved in after he disappeared.  The team knew this was a lie.

While there was little physical evidence found in the home and none in Morten's truck, blood evidence was found on a couch cushion and on clothes that had been through many wash cycles.  Unfortunately there were several peoples DNA profiles on each item so nothing could be definitively isolated.  This will more than likely end up to be a circumstantial case if enough evidence is uncovered to bring a suspect to trial.  Could the girlfriend's fear of prosecution for fraud and identify theft caused her to lash out and kill Morten?  Did the two women decide life on Morten's farm would be far better for them if he was not around?  It is truly a baffling set of circumstances.

The best evidence the team was able to uncover involves cell phone data.  What did the police ever do before cell phone data, security cameras and the like? The analysis of cellphone tower data showed that Morten's girlfriends cellphone pinged on a tower near where Morten's abandoned truck was discovered at approximately 1:30AM the morning of his disappearance.  Again, do you believe in coincidence?  She told the detectives who interviewed her that she never left the house the night before Morten went missing.  Well, her phone left the house!!  You can't argue evidence like that, especially when she essentially locked herself into the story of her going to bed and never leaving the house.  She says Morten left around 6AM the following morning and she never saw him again.  That makes her the last person to see him alive.  

Another telling sign that Morten didn't just take off and start a new life somewhere else:  his prized camera equipment was discovered in the corner of a dusty and dirty barn.  By all accounts, Morten NEVER would have left the equipment in such an environment.  This was how he made a living, but photography was more than a way to make a living to him.  He truly loved what he did.  His camera equipment was treated with the utmost care and respect.  His friends believe something must have happened to Morten for him to not show up for the photo shoot he missed that September morning.  Morten had money in the bank, he was living a comfortable life and had no known financial issues other than the large amount of credit card debt his girlfriend left him with.

At the end of the episode the evidence was presented to the DA to see if he believed there was enough to present to a grand jury.  Unfortunately, they want to see a little more evidence linking the primary suspect in this case.