A Letter to Drew: Reading between the lines

If you spotted someone that you thought was in the national spotlight as a missing person where foul play was suspected, what would you do?

Would you:

A) Write an old-fashioned letter saying where you spotted the person and put it in the postal mail?

B) Send it to the man suspected of foul play in her disappearance?

C) And would you not sign it?

D). All of the above.

Of course not.

I am describing a letter that Drew Peterson claims to have received yesterday, but didn’t open until today. This letter wreaks of absurdity yet if we look closely at the only three words that are quoted from the letter and released by the media, it is suggestive of something.

Read moreThe writer of the letter states that he/she saw Stacy Peterson in a Peoria supermarket, and said that Stacy had “a little pudge.”

“A little pudge” …is a red flag for me.

It immediately hit me as abnormal.

These are the only three words we can surmise that are verbatim from the letter.

I just knew it was odd but I didn’t know why at first. It just stopped me dead in my tracks. It gave me pause. Then I wondered if perhaps the wording was something a man might say, but that wasn’t it. A woman could technically say this as well, though much less likely — so I knew that wasn’t it.

Then I thought about how a witness who spotted another stranger might report what he or she saw. A witness wouldn’t give a personal opinion such as this — at least not in this manner. If the witness thought Stacy was pregnant — he would simply state the facts — as facts: “It appeared that Stacy Peterson was pregnant.”

But the more I thought about it for a few minutes, it finally hit me! If I don’t know someone and I have never met them before — I would NEVER know if they had a paunch, or “a little pudge”.

How could I?

I would have no idea what was baseline for someone I didn’t know. I would have no prior notion of a stranger’s body-type, build, etc. to know what was unusual for them. What I witness the first time would be my impression of “normal” for the person. I would be no wiser to any pudge, or change.

The choice of words in the letter (if they are accurately being reported) is indicative that the person who wrote the letter knew Stacy to make this assertion because a witness who didn’t know Stacy would not think like this.

Or, we are flat out dealing with a crazy person (which, of course, is possible). Mental disease and disorders are a part of life — but boy would I want to investigate this further. My curiosity is peaked and peaked big time.

I am sure the police are doing DNA testing on the letter. May it lead us to the truth. If a crazy person wrote it – so be it. But if someone else wrote this on false pretenses — let’s find them!!