Former FNC Producer Who ‘Helped’ with Kathleen Savio’s Autopsy Responds

By kevin 

Steph Watts, who was a producer for Fox News’ “On the Record,” has responded via TVNewser to recent media reports of his involvement in the investigation into the death of Drew Peterson‘s third wife, Kathleen Savio.

As we reported Friday, Dr. Michael Baden, the medical examiner who had performed Savio’s autopsy, stated during cross-examination that Watts had assisted him in performing the autopsy.

“During the autopsy, which lasted approximately 3 hours, I took extensive notes and shot video,” Watts writes to TVNewser. “I never had any physical contact with the body of Kathleen Savio, nor participated in ‘performing’ the autopsy in any way.”

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Watts insists neither he nor his news organization exerted any influence over the autopsy: “There is no magic wizard behind the FOX News curtain, pulling strings to influence the findings by one of the country’s finest Forensic Pathologists.”

His full response after the jump


It’s been interesting watching the media report the story of my alleged participation in the autopsy of former Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio. For all of you who preferred to regurgitate inaccuracies, and didn’t take the time to simply call to check the facts, here they are: It was through my work on Greta’s show, that we uncovered documents leading us to facts that questioned the original classification of Kathleen Savio’s death as an accident, and exposed egregious errors by the Bolingbrook Police Department, the original coroner and coroner’s jury. Dr. Michael Baden agreed that the findings indicated Savio’s death was a homicide. After reviewing the same documents, the State Attorney’s office decided to exhume the body of Kathleen Savio and perform a second autopsy. The family of Kathleen Savio, weary of the State Attorney’s office, discussed with me having an additional private autopsy done, but knew they could never afford such an expensive endeavor. I took their interest to Dr. Michael Baden, and he volunteered his time. I was already in Chicago covering the case, and accompanied Dr. Baden on every endeavor while he was in town. I asked permission of the family to be in the room with Dr. Baden while the autopsy was performed, and they agreed. I agreed with the Savio family that I would only film Dr. Baden, and no images of the body would ever be filmed or aired. The family knew Dr. Baden would be reporting his findings, whichever way they concluded. During the autopsy, which lasted approximately 3 hours, I took extensive notes and shot video. I never had any physical contact with the body of Kathleen Savio, nor participated in “performing” the autopsy in any way. There were a least 6 Illinois State Police troopers in the room at any given time, and the entire experience was handled with the utmost respect to the Savio family, and most importantly to Kathleen. There is no magic wizard behind the FOX News curtain, pulling strings to influence the findings by one of the country’s finest Forensic Pathologists. In conclusion, if Drew Peterson’s defense attorney is basing his case on the fact that I was in the autopsy room of a woman his client likely murdered, I would suggest he size Peterson up for a few more of those fancy orange jumpsuits he seems to like so much.

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