Peterson prodigy

Tom Peterson was 11 years old when his mom, Kathleen Savio, was found dead in an empty bathtub of their home. Just three years later, and only months into his freshman year at Bolingbrook High School, his father’s fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished. His father, former Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson, became the prime suspect in Stacy’s October 2007 disappearance and was later charged with Savio’s death.

The cases set off a media firestorm that resulted in news trucks parked in front of Tom’s house and intense scrutiny on Drew Peterson’s family. But through it all - his father’s arrests, the court dates, the tabloid stories - Tom has churned out ‘A’ after ‘A’ in the classroom and excelled in music and sports. The lanky, sandy-haired teen is ranked first in a class of 817 students with a 4.808 GPA and will graduate as valedictorian in June. He has his sights set on Harvard, Boston University and Northwestern, among others, to study neuroscience. His classmates voted him “Most Likely to Succeed.”

(He was photographed at the school with the understanding that fellow students would not be identifiable.)