When asked to comment on his wife, Stacy, telling her family members to look for her body if she was to disappear, Drew Peterson showed not concern for her but, rather, anger and disgust. Notice how his chin rises and a slight bulge forms below the mouth and that his lower lip tightens. The worry? Anger links to violence, and disgust means rejection – a combination that could be lethal.
So often during the interview with Matt Lauer, Drew Peterson either didn’t emote, blinked (out of stress) or closed his eyes or otherwise looked away. Such an avoidant, subdued response doesn’t exactly scream empathy or concern for his wife’s disappearance. Moreover, the slight sarcastic smiles and signs of contempt shown here, where the corner of the mouth twists up, suggest a sense of eerie disengagement instead of worrying about his wife’s fate.
Some of the strongest signs of anger came when questioned about Stacy’s statement to friends that she had found her husband controlling and abusive. Not only did Drew hedge by saying he “didn’t believe” he’d ever been physically abusive to her, his eyes narrowed in anger and his lower lip tightened slightly in a parallel display of anger.
