Savio and Peterson were in the midst of a bitter divorce in 2004 when Savio was found dead in her bathtub with a 1-inch laceration on the back of her head. At the time, the coroner believed the cause of death to be an accidental bathtub drowning, but the most recent autopsy shows signs of a struggle, including bruises on her extremities, abdomen and buttocks, and five scraping abrasions.

Forensic pathologist Michael Baden ruled the death a homicide. Peterson, who pleaded not guilty to the murder of Savio in May, remains in jail, awaiting trial.

New Autopsy: Drew Peterson's Third Wife Was Killed [CNN]

• Church historian Mary Rubin argues in her new book that over the years, the image of the Virgin Mary has drastically changed. Although Mary was initially depicted as a "figure of immense solemnity," in the 11th and 12th century there was "an attempt to make Mary into the mother next door, not just the mother of Jesus in heaven, who cooks and does everything that mothers do." • After surviving an accident that killed her father, a brave 7-year-old drove the family's damaged car several miles to get help. Police say that alcohol was likely a factor in the crash. • Canadian prosecutors have dropped charges of attempted murder against a U.S. man believed to be involved in the slaying of several abortion doctors. James Kopp is currently serving a life sentence, plus 10 years, for the 1998 fatal shooting of a doctor who ran an abortion clinic. • Divorce lawyers and private detectives agree: GPS is a great tool for catching cheating spouses. • A new documentary, Pressure Cooker follows several high school students as they take high-stress cooking classes to prepare for the Culinary Institute of America scholarship competition. Top Chef meets The Paper? • Former tennis prodigy Andrea Jaeger has joined the ranks of the Anglican Dominican nuns. As a child, Jaeger was scarred by both the instability of her life and her distant, abusive father, and she hopes that today's child stars will be better nurtured and protected. •  City officials in Karachi, Pakistan cite the rising influence of the Taliban as the primary reason women are experiencing an increase in violence and harassment. • An Italian bride made it through her ceremony only to run off at the reception with the driver. She claimed that she had to change clothes, but once she left, she had her new lover call her husband. Her husband is now seeking to file charges. • Horrible person Drew Peterson called into a radio show this morning to try out a few of his brand new prison jokes. We're not laughing. •  A "feral" child has been found in Russia living with her parents and grandparents in the Siberian city of Chita. The 5-year-old girl was never allowed out, and never learned to speak. She lived for years in a room with several dogs and cats, and thus reportedly communicates by barking. • New research illustrates the significance of coloring in gender identification. If the skin around the eyes and mouth are reddish in hue, than the face is more likely to be identified as male. If it is greener, the face is seen as female. • A 27-year-old incarcerated man has plead not guilty in the murder of Chandra Levy. •  A 32-year-old religious school teacher from Miami has been charged with sexual battery on a child after she admitted to having sex with a 15-year-old student. When police arrived at her house to question her, she was unavailable, due to the fact that she had gone on vacation in Disneyland with the student. • 

• The results are in: Tyler Barker, 15, is the father of baby girl Maisie. Tabloids named Alfie Patten as the young father (he was 12 at the time of conception) of Chantelle Stedman's child, but DNA tests have revealed that Barker is the real dad. • After a judge denied Rod Blagojevich's request to travel to Costa Rica to film the reality show "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!", his wife, Patti, said that she is going to participate in his place. • A couple from Ohio, Danica Wallace and Jeremy Welsh, were arrested after police spotted them having sex in a parked car with Wallace's two children buckled in the back seats. "We were horny and we wanted to fuck," Welsch explained. • CNN has a piece today<,/a> on women's roller derby and the ladies who have led the recent revival of the sport. In recognition of both its popularity and its pitfalls, sports doctors are working on studying the game to determine the best ways to prevent and treat injuries. • The stick-figures on bathroom signs have become something of a problematic symbol for the gender studies crowd, and Sociological Images examines the ways in which the simple signs send messages about gender and parenting. • Suze Orman is being sued for fraud over a long-term insurance plan that was sold to two California residents by a firm bearing her name. • A recent survey found that 7 out of 10 women are embarrassed to discuss vaginal dryness and pain with their doctors, which makes them reluctant to seek medical help or information. • The French gynecologist who treated Rachida Dati could face harsh punishment for writing about Dati's birth and quick recovery. Claude Debache will appear before a medical council this week. • Elyse Umemoto, winner of the Miss Washington 2007 title, has spoken out about the horrible "double life" she led as a pageant queen and a victim of domestic abuse. Her abusive boyfriend published photos of her in her underwear online, but Umemoto does not want that to be what she is remembered for. "I want my legacy to be about empowerment, not what those pictures convey," she said. • A new study has found that wage levels relate to intelligence and skill as well as perceived attractiveness. "We've found that, even accounting for intelligence, a person's feeling of self-worth is enhanced by how attractive they are and this, in turn, results in higher pay," said the author of the study. • 

• Remember that singing cat video from awhile back? Here is another video from the same dudes, which teaches normal guys how to get their cats to yodel. • WTF: A teacher from Miami has been arrested on charges of assaulting his students. Jean E. Dorvel reportedly kicked a kindergartner in the face for going to the bathroom without permission. • Although women play key roles as cast members and choreographers, few have made it as stage directors. The Washington Post covers the dearth of female directors, and the notable few who have made it big. •  Speaking of female choreographers, Judith Mackrell for the Guardian worries that their numbers are actually dwindling. She argues that modern dance used to be virtually run by women, but in recent years, men have taken center stage. • A green tree frog from Australia is recovering well after undergoing surgery. The frog was injured when he was run over by a lawnmower, but vets anticipate a full recovery. • Ernie Raines, father of Drew Peterson's live-in fiance, says that Peterson may have enough money to cover the $20 million bail bond. What? How? •  The CDC announced yesterday that pregnant woman with swine flu should get flu medicine Tamiflu immediately, although it is not normally recommended for women who are in the family way. • Spain's Queen Sofia has asked the Barcelona zoo to move Susi, their only elephant, into a larger pen. • Meet Sunitha Choudhury. Five years ago, she became New Delhi's first female cab driver, and now she is running for parliaments. She says she wants to go into politics so that she can protect the poor. •

• And in other adorable animal news, the NYT City Room blog covers the story of Molly the calf, who escaped the slaughterhouse and is now living with her boyfriend on a 60-acre farm in Suffolk county. • A 32-year-old Muslim dentist living in the UK faces a charge of misconduct for refusing to treat female patients unless they donned headscarves. • Musicians are reacting in different ways to the use of music as a weapon of torture. Bands like Rage Against the Machine and Massive Attack are trying to get music banned as a form of torture, while Jonathan Mann has set the words of recently released memos on waterboarding to music. • Susan the Scientist is being billed as the next Bill Nye the Science Guy. Click here to watch one of Susan's educational videos. • A hospital in Canada is now able to offer breast cancer screening and results in the same day. • A new website named Momicillin promises mothers temporary relief from "crankiness, confusion, self-doubt, body-aches, memory loss, fatigue or general malaise due to excessive exertion or repetition during job-related activities. These activities may include, but are not limited to: binky finding, goop removing, conflict negotiating, facial contorting"... you get the idea. • According to a Washington-based nonprofit, there are 1.7 million kids in America with an incarcerated parent. This interesting article discusses the difficulties of growing up with family in prison. • Soft, decadent, luxurious four-ply toilet paper is the latest victim of the recession. • In case you still care about celebrities and their charitable causes, here is the first entry in Sienna Miller's travelogue from the Congo. • A woman from North Carolina recently returned a stolen terracotta fragment of ancient Roman ruins that her husband pocketed when they were on vacation in Italy 25 years ago. • A spokeswoman from HBO said that they would cancel "Cathouse" before letting Drew Peterson appear on the show. However, a spokesperson for the Bunny Ranch says they're still talking to Peterson. • Samantha Orobator, the pregnant Briton being held in prison in Laos on charges of drug smuggling, may return to the UK to serve her sentence if she is convicted by Laotian courts. British officials are "pleased with the prisoner transfer agreement." •

• The D.C. Council has approved a bill that recognizes same-sex marriages performed in states where it is legal. The legislation is considered the first step toward allowing gay marriages to be performed in Washington, but it's unclear how the bill will fare in Congress, which has final say over D.C.'s laws. • The Maine House of Representatives has approved a bill that would allow same sex couples to marry in the state. Now the bill will go back to the Senate, which voted last week to support the bill. Gov. John Baldacci has not said whether he will veto the bill or allow it to become law. • The body of a man believed to be homosexual has been dug up twice in Senegal because people don't want him buried in the Muslim cemetery. The second time his body was exhumed it was left outside the family home, and it is believed that he is now buried on the property. Homosexual acts are illegal in Senegal, a majority Muslim country, and anti-gay sentiment has been on the rise since a court overturned the conviction of nine people for committing homosexual acts last month. • Greece's only two same-sex marriages, one male and one female, have been annulled by a court. The couples used a loophole in the law that did not specify gender in civil weddings to marry. • A judge ruled that 20-year-old University of Colorado student Abby Toll will be allowed to stay at her mother's house this summer with her dog, even though she is accused of taping her boyfriend's dog to a refrigerator. Police say Toll bound the 2-year-old shiba inu's legs, snout, and tail with packing tape, then stuck him upside down to the side of the refrigerator. Toll is charged with felony aggravated cruelty to animals and drug possession. The dog is at the local Humane Society, and will be put up for adoption. • Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his wife Veronica Lario have chosen their divorce lawyers. She has chosen Maria Christina Morelli, who is famous for winning the right for a woman who had been in a coma for 17 years to be removed from life support. Following the verdict, Berlusconi launched an unsuccessful effort to change the law and keep the woman alive. • Berlusconi went on state-run television today to deny that he had an affair with an 18-year-old and repeat that his wife should publicly apologize for embarrassing him and admit that she was wrong. • A front-page editorial in the official newspaper of the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference said Berlusconi's behavior is "worrying" and said Italy deserved a Prime Minister who was a "mirror of the country's soul" and called on him to be more "sober and sombre". • In a study of 6,437 children from the age of 7 to 12, British researchers found that pre-teens who were bullied as children have twice the risk of having delusions, hallucinations, and other psychotic symptoms. The scientists said bullying may even trigger people who are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia. • Mia Metzgers of New York is suing a woman who outed her as a dominatrix in a sexual harassment lawsuit against Metzger's boyfriend. Metzger says the revelation ruined her nursing career. • Dozens of women are suing the company that manufactures ObTape, a vaginal sling that is surgically inserted under the urethra to prevent urine leaks. In one case, several months after the surgery, a patient developed a painful, bloody, vaginal discharge, and pieces of the tape started working through her vaginal wall. The product had been cleared for sale by the FDA. • Disney has eliminated the "image screening positions" at its parks. The employees used to check photos taken during certain rides to censor photos in which women purposely flashed their breasts, in hopes that they would be put on the photo preview for everyone to see. Disney says anyone who exposes him or herself on a ride will still be ejected from the park. • 44 people were killed at a wedding in Turkey, including the bride and groom, by masked men armed with assault rifles and grenades. The men are believed to be from a family feuding with the bride's family. They were angry that a relative had been rejected as the groom. • A survey of 400 men who attend church by a UK men's magazine found that 60 percent don't like flowers and embroidered banners in church. Nearly 60 percent said they enjoyed singing, but preferred "proclamational hymns" to emotional love longs. 72 percent said their favorite part of the service is the sermon. • A Kansas State University researcher Kay Ann Taylor says that poverty is rooted in the U.S. education system because, "Far too many schools continue to endorse a curriculum of the absurd that encompasses 'heroification' of primarily white males, while the contributions of women and people of color appear in pop-out format in textbooks," and laws like the No Child Left Behind Act and military recruitment in low-achieving schools leave poor students at a disadvantage. • Denis Hof, the owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel featured on Cathouse, may offer Drew Peterson an apprenticeship after Rod Blagojevich turned him down. Hof said, "He doesn't have an old lady now; at least they can't find her. He might as well be on my show and have some fun with the girls." • A fight broke out in an Oregon bar after a man slapped a woman's butt while she was singing karaoke. Her husband confronted the man, which led to a 12 person fight involving beer bottles and chairs being used as weapons. • The towns of Newton and Wellesley in Massachusetts have released a list of their most popular names for dogs. Bailey is most popular in Wellesley and Lucy is most popular in Newton. Several dogs in each town are named for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. • The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to ban the trade of seal products across Europe. • The hand-cranked device in this video reenacts the "Don't Tase Me Bro" incident with mechanical figures. •

• A member of Israel's "modesty patrol," an all-male vigilante group, has been sentenced to four years in prison for the brutal gang assault of an Israeli divorcee. • Bone tests reveal that Chinese athletes have been faking their ages to compete in junior events. • Ugh: Last week the Arizona House voted to impose new restrictions on women seeking to have abortions, including an enforced 24 hour waiting period and a mandatory lecture. The bill also allows pharmacists to refuse EC, even to rape victims. • Not even sex is recession-proof: sex toy sales have fallen in France, according to sector specialists. • Thanks to Twilight author Stephanie Meyer, French teens are rediscovering Emily Brontë's classic dark novel Wuthering Heights. • Monday got you down? Here are some adorable pictures of a baby panda. • With 670 women dead per 100,000 live births, Haiti has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the Western hemisphere. • A study from Cornell University found that women with advanced math abilities are more likely to chose a field not related to mathematics than men with similar skills. • According to Sociological Images Singapore Airlines are known for their advertising featuring "Singapore Girls" - pretty, smiling girls who "have become a symbol of Singapore itself." • Most Australian voters in Beaudesert, Queensland say that they don't really give a crap about parliamentary candidate Pauline Hanson's nude photo scandal. • At 80, Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat is the only surviving member of a group of housewives who founded Lijjat Papad, a multimillion dollar company which sells the popular Indian wafers called poppadoms. • Today, two female cops became the first women to direct traffic in Rome's Piazza Venezia. • New research from Denmark shows that early pacifier use may lead to shorter periods of breastfeeding. • Drew Peterson's stepbrother Tom Morphey went on Good Morning America today and confessed to suspicions about Peterson's involvement with his wife Stacy's disappearance. "He was planning on killing somebody," Morphey said. • 

• Luckily whatever strange form of Crazy infects the women around Drew Peterson isn't catching. His former fiancée-who-wasn't-really-engaged-to-him's dad is now denying that the engagement was a hoax. And you wondered how Jerry Springer could still find people to be on his show. • German pop singer Kim Petras has become the world's youngest post-operative transsexual at 16 and can't wait to wear bikinis and really tight pants. • Because of bikinis, tight pants and the general objectification of women that Christians feel is in opposition to their values [cue snickering] a bunch of church websites are leaving Go Daddy to those that appreciate porny Superbowl commercials. • More sex equals more cancer, you libidinous trollop. • Divorce and depression makes people think you look older. • Please then go cheer up (if you're into dudes, that is) with this video of naked British athletes playing with their balls for science, recommended by Andrew Sullivan. • If you or your partner is ambidextrous, you might be able to switch-hit, but you might also have more difficulty conceiving. • Rich people just don't give a fuck about you. • Sometimes women prefer not to let a man know how interested she is, and not just because she's read The [Fucking] Rules, unless it's been translated into German or because Germans also think that a man should do the wooing. Nope, it's probably totes evolution. • But at least cats don't suck the breath from infants.

• Nadya Suleman, the newly-famous mother of 14, has hired an agent. Nadya says she hopes to become a TV childcare expert. • A new study has found that the context in which women recover memories of their childhood sexual abuse can greatly effect the authenticity of those memories. • Authorities in Egypt have been forced to address the rising rates of sexual harassment in Cairo, what was once considered one of the safer mega-cities in the world. • A woman from New Jersey has launched a website, 52Weeks2FindHim.com, to help in her husband hunt. Neenah Pickett has been on several dates with men who contacted her online, but says she rules out anyone who sends her a picture of themselves without their shirt. • Women with higher levels of a hormone produced midway through pregnancy have a higher risk of developing postpartum depression, study says. • A recent study has found that, among high school biology, chemistry, and physics students, there is a noticeable bias against female teachers. • Canadian researchers have developed a new tool to screen for breast cancer, which they believe may help doctors better tailor treatment to individual patients. • Authorities say that a kindergartner found a stash of Oxycontin in her pants that had allegedly been hidden there by her live-in uncle. He is being charged with possession and reckless endangerment. • Screw astrology! In Japan the hot new sham science is blood typing. Matchmakers, kindergartens, and companies are all using blood types to determine compatibility. Unsurprisingly, the theory was first imported to Japan from Nazi race ideologies in the 1930s. • The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Fertility Society have issued a joint statement that warns women against freezing their eggs for "lifestyle reasons" on moral grounds. • Doctors (different ones, we assume) have issued a warning against wearing large earrings because they could potentially damage earlobes, leaving "unsightly" scars. • A trial is scheduled to open Wednesday in a lawsuit filed eight years ago against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus over animal abuse claims. • A leading biologist has described blushing as one of the "biggest gaps in evolutionary theory." Unable to determine any solid reason for blushing, scientists theorize that it may have been a deterrent against lying, designed to favor the most honest among us. • The now-defunct strip club Scores has left behind a treasure trove of cheap wine, marked down to 97% of its original price. • New research has indicated that a strong jawline is one of the telltale signs that a women will be unfaithful. • In response to the lame damsels in distress that populate romance novels, writer Andrea Pickens has created a trilogy about three kick-ass female spies. • Science has brought us one step closer to our all-women utopia! For the first time, developmental biologists have turned adult cells into egg and sperm cell precursors. • An elderly couple from Washington have passed away after 62 years of marriage, a mere six hours apart. (I haven't seen it yet, but I think there's a Notebook reference to be made here). • Historians have found the diary of a Victorian S&M slave Hannah Cullwick. The 19th-century notebook explicitly documents the sexual relationship between Hannah and her master Arthur Munby. They believe that Hannah turned down the opportunity to become a Victorian lady, preferring instead to continue living as Arthur's slave. • 

• Madeleine Pickens, wife of T. Boone, has announced she'll create a 1 million acre refuge for wild horses after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said it will euthanize some of the animals in order to control the herds that roam over 10 Western states. • A retired librarian who died two years ago left more than $2 million to be split between the universities she attended: School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia .• Three wrestlers claim that they were infected with herpes simplex 1 because York College coaches let team members wrestle with active lesions. • A recent survey in England found that 14 million people admit to reading on the toilet and up to 8 million say they like to talk on the phone or in person while on the loo. • The Australian Council of Trade Unions has warned Australia's Federal Government that paid maternity leave is "not negotiable" and should be delivered in next year's budget, leaving the US as the only developed country without a universal paid parental leave scheme. • A letter from Lewis Carrol to his child muse, Alice Liddell, is expected to fetch between £4,000 to £6,000 pounds at auction next week in England. • Ever wonder what happened to "the Bee Girl" in Blind Melon's classic "No Rain" music video? She is 25 and an aspiring actress. • Tennessee State University has blocked students' access to the anonymous and troll-y message board, Juicy Campus. • Japanese graphic designer Sachie Tani will appear in an upcoming episode of Animal Planet's Cat 101 with her cat Goma, a bona-fide internet celebrity. • A new study claims that obese women who get pregnant after bariatric surgery tend to be healthier and less likely to deliver a baby born with complications. • An AP photographer successfully reunited two girls with the family they were separated from during the war in Congo. • Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefieldthe inspiration for Eri Yoshida, a 16-year-old Japanese girl who was drafted into a pro Japanese baseball team says he hopes to see Yoshida pitch one day. • A new study reveals that the part of the brain that copes with stress flips to the opposite side of a woman's brain when she gets her period. • An Indiana Court of Appeals ruled this week that the state's policy of not charging motorists for special "In God We Trust" license plates was constitutional. • More than 80,000 people have signed an internet petition to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, urging him to release a pregnant lawyer from a prison camp in Mordovia in a case against a former oil magnate. • The managers of Pascha, a brothel in Germany, say they would eliminate their $6 entry fee in exchange for customers getting the brothel's logo tattooed on their arm. • Ethel, a 4-year-old rabbit in England whose back legs became paralyzed last year, got a custom-made wheelchair to help her move around. • A study claims that Millennials are much more confident than previous generations of kids and many think they will be "very good" employees, mates and parents. • A 74-year-old grandmother in England has been banned from driving for 18 months after she drank and drove after an aerobics class earlier this month and attempted to drive up some stairs. • A flamingo that flew out of a zoo in Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday has been recaptured and returned to zoo officials. • Suspected wife-murderer Drew Peterson met with divorce lawyers to discuss divorcing his wife Stacy who has been missing for over a year. •

Drew Peterson: "I'm Prepared For Anything" [NBC News]

In other depressing news this morning about murder committed within marriage  remember, as many as 25% of American women are victims of domestic abuse  Wisconsin resident Mark Jensen was convicted yesterday of dosing his wife, Julie Jensen, with antifreeze. (These stories are beginning to sound The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Spouse Edition: "K is for Kathleen who drowned in a tub/ J is for Julie, poisoned with love.") And another Midwestern husband murderer, Stephen Grant, was sentenced to 50-80 years in prison yesterday for killing his wife. Early last year, Grant beat his wife Tara to death and then cut her body into 14 pieces in his father's tool-and-die shop. According to UPI, Stephen and Tara's 7-year-old daughter recently drew a picture of her mother's funeral. "[The first picture] showed her father under a rock while [a second picture] said, 'My dad thinks he has power.'" The Grants' two children saw their mother being murdered. They are now in the custody of their mother's sister.

Peterson's 3rd Wife's Death Ruled A Homicide [MSNBC]
Wis. Man Convicted In Antifreeze Poison Case [MSNBC]
50-year Sentence In Dismemberment Killing [UPI]

Earlier: All Stories Tagged 'Drew Peterson'
CDC: 25% Of American Women Are Victims Of Domestic Abuse