Transcripts For WNBC Dateline NBC 20160320

Tcere were arsecrets on the ha drive. On the computer. Hmm, big secrets. A simple case of murder. Was it . A review of the sli s showed at . Traces of bird feather . Yes. In trying to solve one mystery, police may have solved two. Here i have two women who. Appeared to die the same way. Lightning dont strike the same place twice. Thats a whole lot of women dead at the bottom of the stairs in this guys life, dont you think . But what looked like the end of this st y its really stuff made for tv drama. S just another beginning. I always had hope. When the cell doors slide sh ut with a resounding clank i was a wreck during this period. I really was. When the sun will come up through razor wire every day for the rest of your life thats where it begins and ends. A convicts glimmer of a csuccessf appeal and retrial may keep desperate hope alive. I always had hope. It has to be made right. But in the real world of criminal justice, most of the time once youre inside, youre done. This is reality that we couldnt change. But not every case ends t way youd expect. Meet Michael Peterson. His case, which defies all odds, became known as the staircase murder. The sensatiothl investigatnon and trial that ensued would rip a family apart. The secrets, the sleaze on display for everyone to gorge on. Appalled. This is the last thing she would have ever, emer wanted t happen to her husband. Lets go back to the night, early december, 2001 and stroll up e driveway of gracious, ramble g ing house in a better neig orveod of durham, north carolin the homeowners, kathleen and Michael Peterson, are out back on the patio, as the story goes, finishing a bottle of wine. In the living room, the Christmas Tree is already up. The grown peterson children, pected some for the holiday. Kathleen was always happiest in that season, as her daughter caitli remembers it. She loved christmas. She loved being in the mood playing music from the start of december all the way through new years. It was the kids actually who brought kathleen and michael together. His marriage started to fall apart. She was separated. Michael was raising his two boys and two young girls, margaret d martha. The girls became neighborhood playmates with kathleens i guess that was really when ori met michael, before he was ever romantically involved with mother. As the kids started spending more time together, so did kathleen and michael. Caitlin, a big one sh about becoming a family together. They sat me down and said, ryou tnow, caitlin, how wow like it if margaret and martha come to live with you and i immediately thought a and thats exactly how michael presented it to his two girls. Mavergaretshe older. It is really funny. I lhink he put it, were going to have a long sleepover. And we said, yeah. Her younger sister, martha. I of course, we want to live with caitlin and kathleen and play barbies and be a yeah, be a family together. Michaels two boys from his first marriage, todd and clayton, were almost out of the nenest by the time their dad movedlin with kathleen. Still, clayton has good mea eo of dropping by tht mded i would go over all the time. Id babysit the ge ls and spend a bit of time over there. We were very close. Michael was a worldly u. S. Marine vet and was now a fulltime writer. One of his vietnam books got a big advance, money that went towards buying the big house. He said, were thinking about moving into this house, and they drove us over. We didnt even go inside. We just looked, and we thought, oh, my goodness. You know, this is amazing. There in his office hed write his war stories and churn out sharpelbowed columns on City Politics for the local paper. Stickintheeye stuff. Hed even been a losing candidate for mayor of durham. Kathleen, meanwhile, was a top business exec whod risen through the ranks of nortel, the telecommunications company. Hashe received a masters degree in engineering from duke, even appearing on the coverage of a university magazine. She was nothing if not a super oomom juggler. It was as much a priority to as her showing updto work on time. Power points by day, Martha Stewart at night. Her younger sister candace was in an awe of her energy. Not only did she raise these children and hnve a quite accomplished corporate career, they entertained like several dinner parties a mon. Oh, dinner for 50 . Shed do it. And kathleen would even whip up nightly threecourse meals with michael presiding at the table. Loquacious, fun to be with, incredibly wellread. He was always the entertainer at dinner. He would carry the conversation and just have the most funny stories. So, the children were delighted when after years of living together michael and kathleen made it official and got married. I always thought, you know, this is what will register as the happiest day of my life. And for kathleen, it just may have been. She was thrilled to be marrying michael. Alhel three girls were bridesmaids in her wedding. I remember at the wedding the the day they married, my sister glowed. Kathleen and michael were a e . Durham power couple. For more than a decade, their life together had been a whirl of parties, art op nings, chobary events. To candace, her sister had never been happier. She liked the pr stige of ing able to say, im with this man whos an author and well tllraveled. But as christmas 2001 approached with the girls away at college, kathleen was jittery, she was taking valium. T oob had been overw tlming of late, all those long hours at the office. More than anyone, she welcomed the timeout the upcoming holidays offered. And so, on that mild december night out back by the pool, as the story goes, michael and kathleen embraced his surprise good news that day. A bigtime hollywood producer was nibbling at optioning one of his novels for the movies. Another midnight glass of wine was in order. Drink wine. They could probably have two bottles of wine and, you know, start showing it a little bit. What happened next would be the subject of a decade of debate. It seems that kathleen left michael to finish his cigar by the pool. She had to get on the computer to read an emain for a Conference Call in the morning. Still, another work crisis. Michael says he went back inside the house about 2 00 a. M. Only to discover something ghastly. Kathleen soaked in blood at the bottom of the back staircase. 911, what is your emergency . [ bleep ]. Iplealo. Whats wrong . My wife had an accident. She is still breathing. What kind of accident . She fell down the stairs. She is still breathing. Please come. By dawn, the news of kathleens fall, only the vaguest of details was reaching the sisters at college. Family members delivered the awful ne. She said somethings happened. Stairs. You know, it was an accident. You know, you should come home. By the time kathleens daughter, caitlin, got the word, it was as shocking as it was definitive. She looked me straight in my eye. And she just said, caitlin, its your mom. Shes dead. Those words still ring clearly in my head. What had happened on that back staircase pooled now in blood . Did Kathleen Peterson fall down the stairs . That was one possibility but detectives were considering another. I remember feeling that something was going badly with the police. The police. Start by taking care of families for 70 years. Earn the trust of 32 nfl teams. Be there for americas toughest and help, when help is needed americas 1 isnt a status earned overnight. Its earned in every wash, and tide, americas 1 detergent fewer calories than butter. I cant believe its made with real, simple ingredients. Were on a whale. I cant believe my role isnt bigger. Unbelievable taste. Enjoy i cant believe its not butter your body was made for Better Things than rheumatoid arthritis. 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Rask your rheumatologist t early on a sunday morning, a w weeks before christmas, thleen petersons sister, candace, answerethe phone. It was her brotherinlaw, michael, with unimaginable news about kathleen. She had fallen down the stairs. Was still vag. We couldnt cll if she felly down the stairs or she fell off a ladder, but there is no question i could think, are you yes, michael was sure. Candace het. Ed to her sisters house, shocked to find police everywhere. The whole thing was sealed off withdcrise scene tape. D this is a mansion, huge property. The police were cautioning hedsr oot to go insi. They kept saying, you may not want to go in. Ere is so muyech blood. This is really awesomely scary. But candace needed to find something to bury her sister in. So, as soon as the officers would allow, she enters. Thats when michael showed her the back staircase where he said kathleen had taken that fatal mble. My sisters blood is waswed poolsyuu p against thugwaal. There is blood just everywhere. And now a disturbing thought took root in edace and then began to grow. What if kathleens death wasnt sh couldnt go there. I still want to believe it was an accident. I dont want something horrible happened. But all that blood, up the walls, could it all be from a fall down the stairs . Gnawing at detective art holland, ever since he arrived at the house the day before in the early mornin hours after kathleen died. Ive seen falls. Ive had famil thembers fall, and to me it did not look anywhere like a fall. But the medical examiner who came to the house thought that kathleen could possibly have died from a fall down the stairs. He could see some lacerations or feel some of the lacerations onro the back of mrs. Petersons head and he stated this could be the result of a fall. And certainly the emts had encountered a distraught Michael Peterson. He was found cradling kathleen, crying so hard he had to be pulled away. But still investigators wanted to be sure that this was an accident. Explained to him, you know, sorry for his loss, but that the scene had to be processed. It would take the inbvestigators the better part of two days to go throughhe 9,000squarefoot house. It was, you know, very time t want touo go tvrough it real speedy. You want to make sure that you cross all your ts and dot all ur is. The crime scene tech starued by photographing the stairwell, documenting the pool of blood and spray up the wall. Outside, drops on the walkway anknd a smear on the front door. On kathleens body, a bloody shoe print. In the kitchen, bloodstains on the cabinet, underneath a drop of blood on the counter. And right beside it, an open wiss bottie and two glasses suggested that perhaps a night of drinking had, in fact, led to a tumble down the stairs. Even kathleens daughter, caitlyn, couldnt rule it out. She knew how to hold her alcohol. But thats not to say that she didn drink a lot. She co d easily drink a large amount of alcohol if she was up until 2 00 in the morning. Meanwhile, Michael Peterson and his kids took refuge at a neighbors house. Michael and his brother, bill, kept watch on the police we walked by the house several times to see what the police were doing. Bill, a lawyer, advised michael not to talk with the cops. Im thinking as an attorney now. Because i dont know whats going on. All i know is the Police Obviously think something is going on. Bill worried it was payback time. He was concerned that his big brother had put a bullseye on his own back with those columns he wrote for the local paper. It turned out he often targeted the cops. He was extremely critical of them on a regular basis. He gave them a stick in the eye . Constantly. They were a regular foil of his. So, he was taking on the good old boy system there . Very much so. Very much so. Michaels daughters were also worried. They knew very well their father trelished being a provocateur, ans. D now the police were swarming their house, walking the yard, looking under bushes and trees. Y i remember feeling that something was going badly with the police. It wa. A few days after kathleens death when michael called a family meeting to he told them that no matter what they heard, no matter what the police tried to concoct, he would never have hurt kathleen. He specifically wanted us to know that he did not do it. D he told us that,dsou know,s they had been there, and they had been drinking, that he had gone out to the pool, and he came back and found her at the bottom of the stairs. I said we believe you. But would the police . They seemed intent on peeling away the veneer of the petersons marriage. What was going on behind the closed doors in the mansion on cedar street . They were asking me que iocs about kathleen and michaels relationship and if i knew of anything. I thought they were happily married. She was very muc h in love with him. But the detectives were beginning to believe the perfect marriage was anything but. The peters marriage behind closed doors and the bombshell in the coroners report that would tear a family apart. I said you need to read this. Did not die from falling down the stairs. The stairs. Weve been quietly selling kraft macaroni cheese with no artificial flavors, preservatives or dyes. And guess what . Moms didnt notice. Kids didnt notice. Dogs didnt notice. This person named bill didnt notice. Spring breakers, coffee makers, movers and shakers, working from home fakers. None of them noticed a thing. Because this kraft mac cheese. Still tastes like. Kraft mac cheese. Its changed. But it hasnt. Look like this. Feel like this. Look like this. Feel like this. With dreamwalk insoles, turn shoes that can be a pain to comfoabee ones. T ir soft cushioning support means you can look like this. And feel like this. Dreamwalk. dog mmm, beneful healthy weight is so good. And lowcalorie. Keeps me looking ood. Hey, i get some looks, i hear the whistles. vo beneful healthy weight, a delicious, lowcalorie meal your dog will love. With wholesome rice, real chicken, and accents of vegetables and detective holland of the Durham Police department didnt like what he was seeing in the stairway when he arrived at the petersons sprawling mansion on cedar street. Even though the onscene medical examiner thought the wife kathleen h akada ossibly died from a fall down the stairs, the detectives gut told him there was simply too much blood. This doesnt look like an accident. He called in a specialist to analyze the blood in the stairway. We had to change gears. What was called in originally as a fall, accidental fall, changed over to a suspicious death. So while the fore sos team did its collecting, the detectives started to peek behind the curtain of this rham power couple. In addition to the forensic evidence youre gathering, you have to ask whats going on in this marriage, right . Right. Thats a big part of your investigation. Detectives pull kathleens si mster, ntdace, asidento ast f shed noticed any trouble in hsh sisters marriage. The police took me ino a police van to interview me privately. In her grief, candace was hesitant to say anything bad about her nowwidowed brotherinlaw. Shed always liked him. He was a fun person to sit and chat withcrosixthe diner ble. He was interisti. He was a little arrogant about his intelligence but he was a very smart man. I was his biggest defender. She told investigators sisters marriag it was only later that a conversation shed had with thleen a few monthtebefore she died started haunting her. She was very, very concerned ab, out her job stabilitn at hgri company, and they were making layoffs. And kathleen confided in enr,th ufid ncial pressures were growing. R income oas shaky and her s expeeses exploding. I didnt realize h. W much 143,000 on plastic. The big house, it turned out, was a money pit, and there were the big College Tuition bills. We have got three kids going to college and good colleges, expensive, private colleges. Kathleens daughter, caitlin, knew just how heavily the Financial Stress was weighing on her mom. She was writing big checks not only for her tuition to cornell, t also hel ng out margaret and martha. Michael had taken responsibility for them after theeair mother died when they were young. There was a lot of financial problems. I sensed it. I sensed the stress of that. And to make matters far worse, kathleen had been plowing a big part of her sixfigure income back into her companys stock. The petersons had gone all in with the dotcom mania. H bmichael kept coming up to kathleen all day long saying, nortels worth this. Oh, now its worth that. Oh, now its worth that. He was fascinated with look how rich were getting off nortel but by late 2001, the bubble had burst. The stock tanked, and most of kathleens nest egg went with it. A few weeks before she died she felt she was looking at her own fiscal cliff. The Financial Stresses were about to explode right before christmas. This was like the perfect storm coming together. And when investigators looked at the couples credit reports they saw just what kathleens sister candace feared. If he wasnt writing a book or had any royalties coming in he had no income. And michaels dip into local politics caused only more stress in the marriage. When he ran for mayor he was called out for a lie. A whopper of one. The war action novelist didnt claimed. He was hurt not by taking bullets in vietnam but a car accident in japan. When it became public about his lies, it caused kathleen the friendships. She had to stand by michael or keep the friendships and the friendships were lost. The admired two on the town, the petersons, had taken a big hit. And the whole ugly incident did make candace wonder about her brotherinlaws judgment. Why would you lie and then run for mayor when you will be totally vetted in the terms of the truth of your military history and background . And now with her dead they were stacking up. Were the problems starting up to a motive for murder. The blood pattern analyst completed his initial findings. He told me he felt strongly that this was a homicide. The lead detective saw a marriage on the rocks and a scene that he believed had too much blood for a simple fall down the stairs. Just a few days before christmas, Michael Peterson was charged with the murder of his wife. He turned himself in. His children were stunned. To Loke Kathleen d then to se dad, basically, we were all shock. As the officers booked michael into the county jail, the family stood unified behind him. Kathleens daughter, caitlin, echoed her stepfathers claim that the cops were harassing hiphm. My mother would just be absolutely appalled. This would be the last thing she wanted to happen to her husband. It was hardly the christmas that the Peterson Family had so looked forward to. Kathleen dead. Their father in jail. It was just us kids in that house by ourselves, you know, trying to piece together a christmas. But soon, another bombshell. And this one would blow the family apart. Two months after christmas, the coroner released the results of the official autopsy. Multiple lacerations to the lk of her headfoike she was bludgeoned to death. Ssevere, longlinear lacerations. Not consistent with a fall . If kathleens sister candace had been harboring suspicions about what had really happened to her sister, the medical examiners report was the thing that pushed her over the edge. How theres seven huge lacerations that basically alped her . She was murdered. That one picture, that was it. After reading the autopsy re aport herself, kathleens daughter, caitlin, agreed with her aunt. She called her stepsister, margaret. I said, you need to read this. You need to understand that mom didnt die from falling down the stairs, that she was beaten to death. But caitlins childhood playmates, her stepsisters, margaret and martha, stood strong with eir father. Dad told me tham he d dntdo it, and i believe him. I trust him. The stepsisters never spoke again. Caitlin removed her bengings from the house. Ive lost obviously far more than just my mother. I did lose my family, my home. In our family and then just to have that dissolve was very, very painful. Could the family agony get any worse . It could and by a wide margin because now Michael Peterson was not only accused of killing his wife kathleen, but was also facing questions about the death of another woman on another staircase years before. Its horrific. Ri s a nightmare. What authorities would die scover was, well, beyond eerie. An incredible coincidence or was it Proof Positive of murder . Heri i have two womenhthat appeared to have died the same way, two women that are associated with michael peterso lightning doesnt sike the same place twice. Me place twice. Wich with my phone . Why cant my battery last long enough to navigate me through th e scary woods . Ugh. Eh, probably fine though. Ightning strike] why cant my phone have enough memory to hold all 145 of my movies, like that one with the action and the martial arts . Quality lowlight photos instead of this big, expensive camera . [police car siren] why dont you come down om there, sir . You got it why doesnlemy phone ak after i pour this expensive champagne all over it . How amy i sposed to show people how rich and carefree i am . Why did i have to wait so long in this commercial to do a celebrity sports person cameo . 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Got it the weathers supposed to be beautiful this weekend, too. Do you think we should get a boat . We need the big bag. A i put my sunscreen on already. Me too. Lets go wimming yeah. Cannonball now thats the good stuff. The sonoma collection. In police work, a good tip can make your day. And also make your life a lot more complicated. Just such a tip came to the desk of the detective working the Kathleen Peterson case. I think it was two or three days after kathleens death is when i first had contact with e family members f eln abetcr ratliff. Elizabeth ratliff was the mother of the two girls that michael was raising. And elizabeths relatives had an happened to her. Another woman pn mr hael akpetersons life on another staircase. Lets leave the house on cedar st et for a f moments and go back in time almost 20 years across the atlantic to germany. Frankfurt in the early 1980s. Michael peperson was living with his first wife, patty, and their two sons near a u. S. Air force base. Michael was working on a novel while she taught grade school to children of the military. Margaret and marthas mother Elizabeth Ratliff worked alongside patty. Michael and patty were our parents best friends. I remember actually patty was saying that our birth mother was like a sister to her. When the girls father, an air force officer died on a mission, the petersons and the rest of the closeknit Community Stepped up to help. It took a couple of years for the overwhelmed widow to pull herself together. Some zest in life, death found the ratliff family again. It was november 24th, 1985. Elizabeth and her young daughters had gone to the petersons for dinner. Later, Michael Peterson brought them home. The next morning, another good friend of the expat circle amy beth burner were summoned to elizabeths townhouse by the girls hysterical nanny. Come. Theres been a horrible accident. She already rounded up Michael Peterson a few doors down. As we walked in, michael was at the bottom of the staircase. And liz was covered with a coat and was puddle of blood going from where she was laying all the way down under the staircase. Elizabeth ratliff was dead. Amy beth asked Michael Peterson what happened. He said, well, sh probably had an aneurism like her father. I thought, well, thats possible. Those stairs are pretty steep d slippery and wooden. But as am beth thought about it, there was too much blood for a slip and fall. Blood not just where elizabeth lay but high up along the staircase walls, too. If you fell down the stairs, whys there bl pd sputteiad up he wall . It didnt make any sense to me. And she said, there were household details out of order. Like the table that liz set out every night with the girls breakfast plates. It was bare. The snow boots she routinely left by the front door still on her feet. Liz never wore her boots in the house. She always took her boots off. And that was another clue to me that something was wrong. Its obvious that she was either ruwhnning from someone or tr ng to escape. Had elizabeth been attacked the night before . Had her death not been by Natural Causes . Amy beth thought a fullfledged investigation would ensue. Authoritars that day, relating at elizabeth had been complaining in recent days of severe headaches, and she had a hereditary bleeding disorder. Perhaps she had a stroke and fallen down the streets. The questions amy beth expected to be asked never were. I wonderechwhy arent they talking to people . Why arent they asking questions . No one did. Later that day, peterson phoned elizabeths sister Margaret Blair in rhode island with the dreadful news. He said, margaret, theres be wien ao accident. Liz fell down the stairs and died. What are you saying . I just totally went numb. Margaret could not believe it. I mean, my sister. Hes saying she died. Shes young. Shes got two beautiful little children, babies really. I mean, of course, i had a thousand questions afterwards. But any questions regarding fo l pla in eliza eh ratliyfs death were laid to rest by the results of an autopsy performed at a u. S. Elizabeth died, the examiner said, from a brain hemorrhage, Natural Causes. Hesir body was flown to texas for burial beside her husband. At the funeral sisi mat to anxiou for further details wasnt going to hear anything more from Michael Peterson. Ke michael was very aloof and very strange. Did he spme d no. He didnt really say a lot at all. He never talked about the what happened to lf . Lizs will had designated the petersons and not her family as t he itgirls legal guardians. You didnt think thats strange . E petersons . Whido are these people . Well, actually, you know, i can understand how that could happen. This was her world now. Liz must love these people and trtoustel them to the nth ggree. Not long af r, the new Peterson Family now with two boys and two girls moved back home to North Carolina. The marriage of patty and struck up a kalationh ip with kathleen. Then there was their decade together raising kids, his bestseller, her business success, her social whirl in durham. Fast forward to decemberi 2001 and comes tek uncanny, eerie parallel involving another death on another staircase. Margaret, Elizabeth Ratliffs sister, got a call from one of the girls. She said, margaret, theres been an accident. Kathleen fell down the stairs d died i went, do you know what youre saying . I said, the same thing happened to she said, i know. Margaret decided she had no choice but to pick up the phone and call the detective working the Kathleen Peterson case. Do you know that my sister in 85 had n accident . She fell down the stairs and died and michael was the last person to be with her. Not know that. I was overwhelmed with here i have two women that appeared to die the same way, two women that are associated with Michael Peterson. The detective started digging into the Elizabeth Ratliff story. He learned that the pathologist who attributed elizabeths death to nat al causes back in 19lh85 couldnt say for certain what had caused her brain hemorrhage. Had she been thedvictim of a stroke, a fall or foul play . The North Carolina authorities decided the only way to know for sure would be to have the body exhumed from the grave in texas and look for themselves. Disturbing what they found. Dead women tell no lies, say some. The lacerations were very similar to the ones that had been perpetrated upon Kathleen Peterson. N w pandoras box is open. Ever since darryls wife started using gain flis al their laundry smells more amazing than ever. sniff honey, isnt that the dogs towel . dog noise hey, mi towel, su towel. More scent plus oxi boost and febreze. Its our best gain ever want great whitening without the mess . Think outside the box. Colgate opticclaite toothbrush plus whitening pen for 5 shades whiter teeth. Brush, whiten, go no mess, no waiting, no rinsing. Colgate optic white toothbrush plus whitening pen. [burke] at farmers, weve seen most everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. Even turkey jerks. [butcher] im sorry burke covered march fourth,2014. Talk to farmers. Weve seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. As time went by, Margaret Blair had come to accept Michael Petersons explanation of her sisters death years before. A tumble down the stairs in a german townhouse. I just believed what i was told. About the cerebral hemorrhage and presuming that a doctor had, you know, made this diagnosis. And for close to two decades, the aunt in rhode island watched from afar as her nieces margaret and martha were raised by the petersons. First in germany and then in North Carolina w th michaels second wife, kathleen. Visits with the girls had been all too brief. They would co w visit me back and forth. But, you kto t i jurt felt e ry time i had to send them back to north strolina. But when she learned that kathleen had also been found dead at the bottom of a staircase, margaret began to fear her sister elizt eths accidental fall might be anything but. When i talked to her friends, i found out that blood had been wersll, that dglsnt happen when you have a cerebral hemorrhage. Margaret recalled that right after elizabeths funeral there had been at least one relative asking questions about Michael Peterson. There was a member of my fhiamily who said, i think Michael Peterson has something to do with lizs death. Said that very thought . Yes. And at that time, i can remember sayinginpeople donesgo around kih lling people. You know, thats absur but now authorities in North Carolina were starting to feel those grave suspicions might be warranted. After reviewing Elizabeth Ratliffs case, investigators led in part by then durham assistant District Attorney freda black concluded that the only way to figure out how elizabeth died was to dig up her grave. We decided that it would probably be worthwhile to try to exhume her body to determine whether the findings in germany were accurate or not. Get the okay from elizabeths daughters, margaret and martha. The girls who believed in their fathers innocence as fiercely as they mistrusted the authorities struggled with the ordeal. The hardest thing ive ever had to do was to write off on the exhumation of our birth mother. But ultimately they agreed. I signed off on it because we wanted to be like, theres no way this could have happened. Like, please look at the evidence. I will do this to free our dad of these accusations. On a beautiful blue sky day, the remains of Elizabeth Ratliff were exhumed from the resting place in texas. Her body was driven to North Carolina where it would be studied by the same medical examiner whod ruled Kathleen Petersons death a homicide. It was a risk here. Wasnt it . It was. If you opened the coffin and decided the authorities in it Natural Causes decided it needed to be done. Roll the dice basically. Exactly. The detective peered through a moored window as the top was pried off Elizabeth Ratliffs coffin. It was so airtight it was hard to use the crank to get the casket to open. Once it was raised, you could see part of Elizabeth Ratliffs face and hair. It was remarkable. They were stunned. The body was practically intact. Her fingernail polish was still on. Her dress was still perfectly in place. She had her Wedding Dress on. That was very difficult. The m. E. Took a closer look at the injuries to elizabeths head. She was finding lacerations, deep gouges in the scalp. Seven. Seven lacerations . It was amazing. It was uncanny. The lacerations were very similar to the ones that Kathleen Peterson and in her findings, she made a decision that ms. Ratliff had been murdered. Now, pandoras box is open. Who killed her . The answer was obvious to the authorities. There were now two women in Michael Petersons life both dead in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs. Both believed bludgeoned. Kathleens sister candace thought that peterson had killed both women. I had a better chance of being struck by lightning than at the bottom of a staircase. But to martha and margaret, the whole thing seemed absurd. Accused of killing kathleen, the woman they called mom, was bizarre enough. But now, their birth mom, too . What would their father have gained by killing Elizabeth Ratliff . He would have gotten two screaming my tto ragamuffin kids out of it. And thats it. Like theres nothing theres no reason for it. For the investigators in North Carolina, though, the Building Block in their circumstantial case for murder. Im just thinking that my case is getting a whole lot better. And whatmore, ditectives learned that Michael Peterson had a secret life. Secrets, tawdry ones, were about to spill out in the durham oucour house. Enter brad, th male erport. What types of services did you perform . Oh, well, thats pretty broad. Michael petersons walk on the wild side. What compelled about this story is the notion that you ne to. Soeemething to hide . I say we own it. Lose all that negativity. Just let it go. Oh, and lose those terrible black balloons they give you on your 50th. Whats up with that . Hey hear you. Thats w our members love aarp the magazine. It celebrates you. With fun and provocative content, from lifestyle and entertainment bto indepth reportin and its just one of the gteat benefits oo membership. If you dont think this is right for me when you think aarp, aarp. 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But as the trial began, the Prosecution Team was determined to introduce the jury to the man behind the microphone on the courthouse steps. Michael pete. He actually had two sides to him. Some people say ur. Jekyll and mr. Hyde. But there was a side that outsiders saw and there was a side that the insiders saw that was very different. This case is about pretense and appearances. Its about things not being as they seem. Aphrodite jones who wrote a book about the case and hosts true crime on discovery said that as theifase got under way, it was clear that michael and kathleens marriage was far from the p fect one that their friends envied. What mpelled me about ttis story is the notion that you never know who youre married to. And this case, Kathleen Peterson had no idea that she was married to a wolf in sheeps clothing. Scratch beneath the glossy veneer, the beautiful house, sparkling dinner parties and prosecutors would tell the jury theyd find a marriage in more than the Couples Money problems, more than the loss of social standing after michael got caught out lying about his military record, there was what investigators found when they searched his home office. There were secrets on the hard drive, on the computer, huh . Hmm, big secrets. And the prosecution would begin to reveal those secrets in graphic detail to a packed North Carolina courtroom. While kathleen toiled away at her executive job to pay the couples mounting bills, michaels writing career was hitting a wall. He had some free time on his hands. And we believe that he somewhere along the way began to form relationships, lets say, with men that he particularly met on the computer. Not women. But men. The prosecutions theory was this. The night kathleen died, she asked michael if she could use his computer to receive an email about a sunday morning Conference Call. Kathleen was not allowed in nobody was. But that night, because she had an important meeting in the morning, michael allowed her to get this one particular email. She had forgotten her laptop at work. It was in his office that prosecutors believe she stumbled upon a series of explicit email exchanges between her husband and an escort. His name, soldier top brad. His website pic was a come hither beefcake pose complete with dog tags. He performed every service under the sun happily for pay. He was a male prostitute. You have great reviews, and i would like to get together, peterson wrote in one email. Ive never done escort but used to pay to blank a super macho guy who played lacrosse. Im very bi and thats all there is to it. What types of services did you perform . Oh, well, thats pretty broad. On the witness stand, the three months before kathleens death, he and Michael Peterson had arranged to meet. We were to hook up. And what were you all planning on doing . Having sex. The hookup never happened. But combine that revelation with the other ombustibles in the couples life like the Financial Stress, an you have allndhe in edients the prosecution told the jury for a fatal confrontation. If kathleen had known this, she would never have stayed in that marriage according to her family members. She was not one to be cheated on. Forget about having somebody whos being a bisexual with other men. Further evidence that michael attacked kathleen ferociously, the prosecution stated, was as clear as the spray of the blood up the staircase walls. The amount of blood, the positioning of the blood, the location of the blood, it was overwhelming. In general terms, the greater the force, the the back stairs, the prosecutor called the states blood pattern expert, duane deeper. He told the jury with certainty that Kathleen Peterson had been beaten to death. He testified the droplet pattern high up the walls was exactly what youd expect to see with the weapon rising, striking and casting out blood with each new blow. I believe theres a minimum of four blows that have occurred this scene. Hwhats more, he testified, this bloodstain was found on the insihof petersons shorta. Hed done tests that he said proved that the only way to get there is if peterson is standing over his wife beating her. The individual wearing these pants at the ime of thates pact was in close proximity to the source of blood when it was impacted. The blood pattern expert also pointed out something especially chilling to the jury. Technicians that responded had noticed drops of fresh blood on top of dried blood on one stair step. Happened in two stages . There were two attacks. Kathleen peterson was beaten and she fell, and then to make sure she was dead, she was beaten again. Further evidence to support the theory of two attacks showed up in lab tests the prosecution argued. Kathleens head injuries had produced something called red neurons which they say form ter oxygen s withheld from e brain for at l st two urs. That gives mr. Peterson at least two hours to do things. Before the 911 calls placed. Hat was he doing during all that time . The state argued he was staging the scene. Detectives saw what they thought were white marks on the stairs. To them, it was an attempt at a cleanup. And there were those two wine glasses on the kitchen counter suggesting an evening of maybe too much drink followed by a tumble down the stairs. The thing was, kathleens fingerprints werent on either glass. In f t, the prosecution said was low enough that she could have passed a roadside brea alyzer test. Was the writer of fiction making up y a ither storya overing up murder as an cident . It seemed like somebody had poured the whole bottle of wine down the drain to make ii look like they had been drinking more than taey had. So, this is staged . It was staged. Yet, if kathleen was bludgeoned to death as pr ecutors though pros. Em. Investigators hadnt found the murde wean. Prosecutors believed it was hollow fireplace tool seen here in family photographs. It had been a gift f m candace to her sister a decade before. I just found it to be a great gift. I definitely saw it by the fireplace. Prosecutors thought peterson had ferreted the blow poke out of the house that night after the attack. Ift he had, hat could explain those blood drops on the walkway. Blood dropping from the murder weapon as it wabl potentially dispos of somewhere outside the dwelling. Its most powerful evidence was what the medical examiner found on the top of kathleens head, seven tears to the scalp. Do you recall any case where someone died falling down e steps and there were multiple lacerations . Io. Were you able to determine in your opinion what the manner of her death was . The manner of death in this case is homicide. Injuries that were eerily si dimilachto those suffered by the peterson ams l friend from germany all those years before, Elizabeth Ratliff. And the jury almost in a trial within a trial heard that story. The long ago germany friends testified about their suspicions about Michael Petersons involvement in another stairway death. Another one with so much blood. The blood was up so high that i i couldnt figure out how did the blood get up there. It was the bow that wrapped up the states case. Do you really believe that same place . Do you . Michael peterson had been the last person known to have seen not only Kathleen Peterson alive but also Elizabeth Ratliff. Thats a whole lot of women dead at the bottom of the stairs in thiviguys life. Dont you think . So, there was the prosecutions case for conviction. Blood evidence. A staged scene and the trigger. The violent confrontation between husband and wife that resulted when a secret appetite for men was exposed. And not a bit of that made any nse ohe defense was about to tell the jury. The prosecution said it was missing. Guess what turned up. My heart started unding. That damning blood evidence. Ing blood evidence. Looking great and stepping out with confidence includes having beautiful feet. My newest beauty routine secret discover the latest innovation from amop\. The new pedi perfect now get effortless hard skin removal on dry or wet skin. Plus, it has 2 speeds and its rechargeable. E easy way for touchably soft feet. Suits me and my new shoes. New amop\ pedi perfect wet dry. Amop\. Love every step. Buy one take one is back at olive garden because theres nothing like a gr t meal with the family except maybe another great meal with the family buy one take one choohe one delicious entr\e at our place andad another for yours starting at 12. 99 may all your tahomorwiws. 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For months, Michael Petersons girls margaret and martha sat in court sufferini as prosecutors labeled their dad a killer. They would accuse my father of double murders or the wife murder or the staircase murders and we couldnt stand up and say, wait a second, this isnt true. But now it was lead defense attorney David Rudolphs turn to convince a jury of that. Kathleens death, he said, was a simple, fatal accident. Nothing else made sense. The truth is that Kathleen Peterson after drinking some wine and some champagne and taking some valium tried to walk up a narrow, poorly lit stairway in flipflops. Death. There had been no violent confrontation that night, rudolph argued. No discovery of explicit emails by kathleen. All that he believed was a fantasy of the Prosecution Team. Michael peterson was bisexual, sure, but that didnt mean the petersons werent an extraordinarily happy couple. Did michael have sexual needs that he fulfilled outside the marriage . Okay, he did, but that didnt mean that their relationship was anything other than great. Even brad the escort testified that peterson wrote to him about how much he loved his wife. In his emails, unlike most of my clients, indicated he had a great relationship. Most clients dont want to say anything about the relationship. He indicated he had a warm relationship with his wife and nothing would ever destroy that. Kathleen could have known about the sexual inclinations. Bill said the sexual interest were no shock to him. Were you shocked to learn that . No. I have known that since i was 14. Even if kathleen discovered her husbands bisexuality that night, bill says an explosive fight wasnt the likely outcome. I think she would be the kind of person that would talk through Something Like that, even seeking external help if she wanted fell she needed it. As for the peters money problems, not so, the defense argued. Contrary to being on the brink of financial collapse, the couples net worth, assets minus debt was a tidy pile. The states financial analyst admitted as much in crossexamination. The situation in december of 01 was a couple worth approximately 1. 5 million after paying off their deetsc thats correct. The defense now had to scale the mt. Everest of the case. The forensics, explaining to the jus ry all that blood. Resulted in spatter so high up the staircase walls . The defense will call dr. Henry lee to the stand. Celebrity medical examiner, henry lee of o. J. Ca e famere would show the jury in theatrical fashion just how kathleen falling and staggering about coughing up blood could have accounted for the spray. An injured person wal ng, can move, can shake their head. Can move their head. Can move the arm. Can step forward. Obviously, the blood all around was due to her being alive and moving around for some period of time. It didnt have to do with what inflicted the wounds. And the blood on his shorts . That could have happened the defense said while micha pebiterson was cradling his wife. As for the other blood evidence, the police aid proved that Michael Peterson had tampered with the scene, drops of blood in the house and more onu he walkway outside, none of that could be trustt bttorney the blood in that area had beenecompletely altered. The scene at the house had been completely conta nated. The defense argued the police had failed to secure the staircase for their first hour on the scene. Allowing michael and even his son, todd, to track kathleens blood throughout the house. Michael goes up to kathleen with the police watching, hugs her. Dd takes him, puts him on the couch where theres blood transfer. And then todd says, can i go get some soda and a glass . And the police say, sure. And here goes todd Walking Around the kitchen with blood on his hands. The defense believed the blood evidence was misinterpreted by overzealous investigators who may have had in for peterson from the mstart. Remember those newspaper columns taking pot shots at the local rhaps his family thought this was payback time. He did not make a lot of friends with the police force. And so, perhaps they could have, you know, been doing little l extra to him. As for the supposedly suspiciously death of Elizabeth Ratliff in germany, the defense granted it as a weird coincidence but legally here in durham, North Carolina, completely irrelevant. Peterson was never charged with ratliffs murder and maintains he had nothing to do with her death. What you hadfias a sort of circular argument. Because she died at the foot of a stairway, then Kathleen Peterson must have been murdered d because katayama Kathleen Peterson was murdered then Elizabeth Ratliff must have been murdered. Well, the reality is that Elizabeth Ratliff died of a stroke. And that was determined by an autopsy at the time and it was never suspicious until kathleen died. Petersons brother agrees. Investigt. Ors had the scene in germany and found no indications of foul play. Two dead women at the bottom of a stairwell. 17 years apart . Coincidences do happen. Then there were those ghastly lacerations on kathleens head which the states medical examiner attributed to a beating. Defense attorney rudolph countered with an expert of his own, a neuropathologist who noted what he didnt find, n skull or bone fractures. Av Kathleen Petersons injuries were the result of a fall and not the result of a bemigting. There was absolutely no fractures anywhere, no fractures to her fingers, to her arms, to her skull, and there was absolutely no injury to the brain, and thats just almost an impossibility if what youre doing is beating something with a metal object. Just as unlikely, rudolph said, was the prosecutions contention that the brutal attack took place in c a cramped stairwell. If mhael p beating his wife with a metal object, wouldnt there have been nicks and dings in the wall . The defense took the jury on a tour of the cedar street home to show them there were none. It just defies imagination to think that he could have done that in that space and not caused some collateral damage. And for a final exclamation point, the defense had a perry mason moment up its sleeve. The prosecution had insisted throughout the murder weapon used to bludgeon Kathleen Peterson was the fireplace blow poke, only police never found it. T near the end of the ial, a stunning revelation. My heart star d pounding. Petersons son, clayton, said while fixing his car, hed come across the missing blow poke. It was t re all along he said and the cops had simply missed it. Here it was in the basement just sittinguin the corneri covered in dust and cobwebs. Clayton ran upstairs to tell news wit. Iskepticism. He thought it was a setup and that it was planted there and that the police were going to come storming in to the house. Thats a blow poke, isnt it . In court athe feoense played the moment for all it was worth. It appears to be. Getting the lead detective to agree that if this was, indeed, the murder weapon, it was completely intact. Do you see any dents in there . Even like a tiny little indentation . It doesnt appear to have any indents in it. That was the blow poke. Well, if it is, then what was the murder weapon . Lawyer David Rudolph thought he peppered reasonabledsoubt all the way throggh the states circumstantial case. From the questionable analysis of the blood in the stairwell to the mapital perfect st m that wasnt to the murder weapon that wasn cat missing at all and was no more than a dusty fireplace tool. The peterson camp was confident. We were so positive that he was going to get off because in our minds it was ttert clear thing in the world. But would the jury agree . The verdict. I thought that we had won that case, hands down. I didnt do anything. We, the 12 members of the jury, find the defendant to be be . Yeah. No. Living for tomorrow, lost within a ream let the sun shine through to lift your spirits once again is ouse love makes the world feel good and it feels so good oh yeah and it feels so good z mixes it with love r nd makes the world taste good this kid makes stains like crazy so we got our new he washing it was our detergent. So we switched to tide turbo clean. Now we get way cleaner clothes way faster he turbo clean. 6x the cleaning power after five months of trial, one of the longest anyone could remember in North Carolina history, the peterson case was finally in the hands of the jury. I had this moment of doubt where i was like, what if it doesnt happenk what if h gets convicted . And i was like, no. Th theres no way. The peterson kids were confident their dad would be going home with them. And michaely brother bill, a wyer himself, was certain the prosecutors had not proven their case. I thought that we had won that ase handd down. I could not see anyone coming away from that trial with the conclusion beyond a reasonablei doubt that my brother inflicted a beating that caused her death. I just did not see it. But it seemed the jury as though the jury would never come back. Day one, no verdict. Ditto day two and day three. And the jurys deliberating and youre waiting and waiting and yeah. Well were getting more and more optimistic, too, because the longer the jurys out, were thinking theyre having trouble, doubts. Finally, on day four, they got word. The jury had a verdict. We were aolutely terrifhed. We knew the magnitude of this decision. A hush, and then the clerk began to read. We the 12 membe of the jury unanimousl find the def dant to be guilty of first degree murder. I felt violently ill. We all sort of reached over and grabbed each other as if we were trying to hold on to the family. It s was definitel a terrible mo ment in my life. As soon as we heard the fuldn juror say guilty, i just waso weeping like i was being taken er by grief hod shock. Is there anything you want to say before the Court Imposes punishment . I would like to say Michael Peterson turned to his kids. He said, its okay. Its okay. I think on his part he was just trying to calm himself down. His role was to protect us. He was acknowledging that we had a huge loss and that we had just lost everything and th t it was going to be okay and he was yogoing to find some way to make it okay again. Michael peterson turned to face the judge for the reading of the sentence. The defendant is imprisoned in the North Carolina department of corrections for the remainder of his natural life without the benefit of parole. For kathleens sister candace, the verdict was n hing to celebrate. Makes me cry when i heard it. Theres no joy in this. Its ust great sadness. And petersons defense attorney David Rudolph was racked with would have, could have, should have doubts. I was devastated. It made me question myself. As one of North Carolinas most battle hardened criminal fense attorneys, he knew how im the chances were for a retrial once a case went on to the appellate court. And i c fate than being in jail for something you didnt do, picularly when t s a loved one os died. You dont even have a chance to grieve that person. To durham to be with his brother th arough the trial was in dihesbelief. I went back to the house and i broke down. Thats the worst day of our lives. Our collective lives. Iabsolutely the worst. The brother steppha in to ye help in whatever way he could. There was the big house ho sell. Margaret and martha about to be without a roof over their heads would have to move to nevada with him. He visited mic el in prison to get things started. My brother had to sign some papers, power of attorney for me so that we could wrap up his life and he came up aen nd tried to reach his hands through the glass and crying. That was bad. The peterson childreg signed themselves to the harsh reality that prison was now their fathers home. They visited him whenever they could. I would just sob every time i left. You because theres why would you cry in front of dad . Thats not going to help him. But then when you leave youre sobbing in your car. Years passed. The girls now young women watched their father age. Still, Michael Peterson told hisadaughter he wasnt gi ving up. We would have hope for every sinongle appeal. And every single time it would get beaten down. By the end of 2007, the North Carolina Supreme Court rejected uhmihuh. Petersons request for a new trial. For peterson, it seemed to be the end of the line. Wasnt going to come out. At was the hard part. With litt to lose, he spoke in prison with Aphrodite Jones hwho had written a book on his case. I know im not guilty. I knew i didnt hurt kathleen. Its very difficult for me to accept the fact that im a prisoner, a conv cted murderer. Just ites nonsense. His interest on men was not an iy,ue ie bee marriage. Did kathleen know yes, of course, she knew. I mean, it just was not a major factor in our lives. Theres love, and then theres sex. And thats what that was. Peterson told aphrodite he and kathleen were enjoying a ple anevening t me the night she died. We had sex. She took a bath. We came downstairs. She started to cook. It was a a pasta thing. It was a night like many others peterson said until he found kathleen at the bottom of the staircase. People would say, how do you know she fell down the stairs . Well, well, you know, you co deal. Of the stairs. Stairs. He said he never would have hurt kathleen. My heart in my id like to believe kathleen fell down the stairs. But nobody bays that one. His words were, but nobody buys that one. Wrongfully accuse wrongful convicted. Absolutely. Wrongfully accused. Wrongfully c victed. And hes going to find a way out of this. Out in a coffin or out the front gates. Th coffin seemed more likely. But then, life can take some very strange twists and turns. A new th e of how Kathleen Peterson died. A review of the sdes showed what . Traces of bird feather . Es yes. We need this vacation so bad. Absolutely. Honey, can you grab my hat . Got it the weathers supposed to be beautiful this weekend, too. Do you think we should get a boat . We need the big bag. I put my sunscreen on already. Lets go swimming yeah. Cannonball now thats the good stuff. The sonoma collection. Only at kohls. See me. 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For a different kind of medicine, ask your dermatologist about cosentyx. Pet moments are beautiful, unless you have allergies. Then your eyes may see it differently. Only flonase is approved to relieve both your itchy,z watery eyes and congestion. No other nasal allergy spray can say that. Complete allergy relief or incomplete. Let your eyes decide. Flonase changes everything. For the past three months, weve been quietly selling kraft macaroni cheese with no artificial flavors, preservatives or dyes. And guess what . Moms didnt notice. Kids didnt notice. Dogs didnt notice. This person named bill didnt notice. Spring breakers, coffee makers, movers and shakers, none of them noticed a thing. Because this kraft mac cheese. Still tastes like. Kraft mac cheese. There are pleasant places to idle away your golden years, but North Carolinas Nash Correctional Institution isnt one of them. But thats where Michael Peterson, father, novelist and wife killer according to apuur of his peer was incarcerated. Just another number in a cell block with other felons, life without the possibility of parole. Th onlyt ay micda was. Ever going to get outdof prisond wa ms inck toffin. Out in reno, though, petersons lookalike youngedor brother hadnt leven up hope, not yet. Lle eterson the lawyer had been digging ceaselessly for years to come up with someth hg new in his brothers case that the court might consider, but it was the longest of long shots after the appeals fizzled. Did the lawyer in you say thats it . My brothers no, thats when the real hard ouof money, out of lawyers. So, thats when the burden fell me and whoever would help me. Bill peterson spent hours in the Durham County courthouse combing through the District Attorneys piled high boxes of evidence. Was there someing that had been overlooked . And he wasnt the only supporter nursing alternate theories of thleen pcterns death. Theres a neighbor on cedar street, an attorney, who had an intriguing idea for what he believes happened that night. His scenario of an accidental death has come to be known as the owl theory. Weve seen owls in the area. He thought that this was very plausible. He put together this whole theory himself. S so, ht. Es how brother bill envisions the owl theory happening. Kathleen who spent the day putting up Christmas Decorations goe out mront thatnoight worle michael is b k by the pool. Shes checking on her lawn display beneath the trees. The owl flew down and landed her scalp in a manner that would be consistent with the la ratireadthat were fotnd on her scalp. Bleeding, kathleen struggles in to e house getting only as far as the staircase where she joins the defenses depictg. N of falling, passing out, coming to and rising again only to fall for the final time. The d. A. s office had been approached with the owl theory durirgd. He trial and dismissed it outopght. Whats wrong with the owl theo ry . The lack of feathers, the lack of other things that might be l t behind if an owl had, in so ct, viciouoly sotacked her w basically why it didnt seem to make sense. The cops are making a gig joke of this. They put a picture of the owl on their most wanted list. So, the peterson jury never did hear about an owl theory. But zip ahead five years. The neighbor who was advocating for it was still looking for something to back his theory up. Sure enough, there it was in the a feather. You have to magnify them 400 times just to see them. Tim thompson, owner of aslsociated microscopes, was hired to examine the slide of that feather at the District Attorneys office. They grow under the talons of an owl. When they attack something, they leave behind these small particle feathers. Thompson peered through his microscope, studying a clump of hair found clutched in Kathleen Petersons hand. Tangled in the hr were not one, but two minute feathers, a surprise he says both to the detectives and the assistant d. A. With him. They were just surprised that their lab people had not found it. Bill peterson was surprised, too. He was further proof that an owl may have attacked kathleen. A review of t slides showed ex . Traces of bird feather . Yes, yes. Exactly right. In her hair. Another very, very compelling ling about the idea that an owl attacked kathleen, the suvepporters thought, was how it accounted for the distinctive lacerations on the scalp. Had the three main talons of an owl like these caused a bleeding head swoop . Symmetrical tears. We had an ornithologist who said it was aconsistent with the l claw. Thi of the trident talon claws. Yeah, yeah. As we all know, a scalp wound causes plenty of bleeding. She panicked. Obviously running in the house get away from the howl, at she did and ran down the stairwell. And if an owl attacking human sounds like so much urban legend, donsoteas that to byron unger. He owned a company about ten miles away from the peterson home. He was leaving work with his manager one night when an owl swooped down from the trees and swiped his colleague on the head. This surveillance cauera caught and if that werent strange enough, it happened to byron himself just two weeks later. Ive never been hit so hard by someeling that felt like a baseball bat. Knocked me probably five feet to the ground. Knocked you . On the ground. Scattered me. I was bleeding so bad, i thought i lost my eye. His wife waiting for him in the car dialed 911. They didnt believe my wife. They thought we were crazy when we said my husbands been attacked by a bird or an owl. Show me where on the head you think it got you. Idot me right here into my eye a little bit and up into my hair reallylbsd. All this was black and blue. The side of the face and all up in here hit by talons. Is that what happened to Kathleen Peterson . But critics see problems with the eahat an oe attacked kathleen. Problems like, why isnt there more of a trail of blood from the front door to the staircase . And why would she go up the stairc e at all . Writer Aphrodite Jones is one who thinks the owl theory falls apart. Michael was supposedly then outside, as well. Being attacked . Wouldnt he have rushed to the other side of the lawn to see what was tne matter . And kathlee s sister, candace, does not believasfor an instant that an owl was responsible for what she sees as r sirthren bludgeoning eath. Im supposed to believe an owl ripped her apart th last s no ripping n her arms of an owls talons. The thing is so ludicrous. In the summer of 2009, petersons neighbor filed a motion on the owl theory requesting that Michael Peterson be ranted a new trial. The trial judge dismissed it. E owl theory was dead in court t lives on still in the cour of pubtec opinior there are people a lot smarter than me who absolutely are convinced that this is what happened. So, with the motion for a new ha demied, with the owl shweooed ou of court, itmy wlly did seem finally to be the last chapter for the novelist. But a surprise ending or at in store, and no one could have seen it coming. So this is junk science voodoo. Its complete voodoo they dont have the evidence they think they need to convict the person so they make it up. Problems with the state crime lab lead to a possible new trial for Michael Peterson. Oooh, i think i saw dessert hey whats that . You. You want me to eat you . Honey, he didnt say that dont fight your instincts with each for 150 calories or p try our lemon bars, brownies, fiber one. Seresto makes it easy to help protect your dog or cat from fleas and ticks. With the performance you expect from a monthly topical in a nongreasy collar. Seresto kills and repels fleas and ticks for 8 continuous months. Seresto by 2010, seven years after Michael Petersons conviition, his daughter martha had given up hope that her father would ever be released from Nash Correctional Institution. Dad was probably going to be in prison until he died. This was the reality that was never going to change. But in the cell blocks at the same prison had been another inmate who would account for an astonishing reversal of fortune for peterson. His name is greg taylor. I had a wife and daughter and a suburban home and a career and also had some, you know, habit s s from my youth regarding drugs and alcohol thatalednte intl a ditch one night. After a night out, taylor was ccused of a bruta crime, the murder of a woman in an industrial section f raleigh, North Carolina. From day one, he says he professed his innocence. Any chance to prove im innocent, i jumped at it. But the police didnt believe him. Perhaps because investigators found a spot of what looked like blood on the fender of his truck. Tyler had a bandoned it just yards from where the body was found. The lab backed up the suspicions. The blood was the issue right from the very beginning. Theres no way i could be telling the truth with the victims blood on my truck. Tat trial, taylor was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He appealed his conviction all the way to the u. Supreme court unsuccessfully. You figured you were going to die in prison . Yes, sir. But taylors fate balan to change when his case fell into the hands of a North Carolina attorney who fights to reverse wrongful convictions. She got a hold of the original blood analysis. Its one of those moments i ll r ember fooever. The documents showed the substance on taylors truck did test positive for indications of blood in a preliminary test. But the lab workers had refined tests that had never been reported to the authorities. Those tests showed there had never been blood on tylers vehicle. Why wouldnt that lab person call up the detective, the prosecutor and say i got some bad news for you . The theory of the victims blood on the car, it is not. Yeah. Youre thinking with common sense. Youre thinking with moral obligations, ethical obligations. Did that not happen . That did not happen. When a threejudge panel heard the evidence that greg tyler had been convicted of murder in part for blood on his truck that wasnt blood at all, the decision was unanimous. Greg taylor is innocent of the charge of first degree murder. Taylor, they ruled must be leased from prison immediately. They limblly destroyed my life. My family. How many days . How many years . 6,149 days, almost 17 years. Wrongfully accused, yes, sir. But what does the story of wrong time, wrong place greg taylor have to did with Michael Peterson . Everything it turns out. Oid with Michael Peterson . Everything it turns out. Michael peterson . Everything it turns out. Michael peterson . Everything it turns out. T . Heard be special agent dewayne deaver. Remember him . Scene tf. Beating. He was a star witness for the prosecution. In the peterson trial. The blood pattern expert that put Michael Peterson in the staircase bludgeoning his wife. Peters attorney avid rudolph believed deavers tes mony was crucial to the state winning a conviction. What he did was to give the jury a scenario of how this allegedly happened and that Michael Peterson was there and inflicting the blows and that was all from his reading of the blood evidence. After greg taylors exoneration, one section of the crime lab at the sbi, the state bureau of investigation, came under intense scrutiny. The state Attorney Generals Office retained independent were other cases where lab agentsntailed roineport test results. They went through all the sbi files and tried to match up cayoses that were similar lireg taylor. Reporter joseph neff covered the story ofdmhsconduct at the state bureau of investigation for raleighs the news and observer. He says the attorney general review found more than 200 problem cases. The worst examples had the same agent in common. There are a handful of cases that were egregious in their minds. Al five of those were the work of deaver. The developments got defense attorney rudolph thinking. The blood pattern analysis linked to misconduct in other cases, what damage might have done to Michael Petersons . Quite a bit according to the lawyer. R starters, rudolph says, deaver wasnt truthful about his professioh,nal experience on the stand. Of blood splatter analysis. Not true. He said he had been to the scenes of fallger5 times. In fact, he had never been to a scene of a fall. Whats more, an investigation by reporter neff had revealed that the methodology behind some of the experiments that deaner and other agent s s conducted was flawed, designed to produce proprosecution results. All of the tests that we found were absolutely unscientific. We talked with experts around the country and described them to them, and the experts say, you know, this is this is junk science. Like this test conducted for a 2009 murder case. Deaver videotaping the experiment was attempting to match a bloodstain on the accuseds shirt. Thats a wrap. Thats a wrap. Just like the movie. Right. So this is junk science, voodoo . It is complete voodoo. They dont have the evidence the person, and so they make it up. In the peterson case, deaver had conducted experiments which he said showed that the bloodstain on the inside of Michael Petersons shorts was evidence that peterson was over his wife beating her. Remember that . The individual wearing these pants at the time of that impact was in close proximity to the source of blood when it was impacted. This was considered huge at trial. Blood evidence that put peterson in the stairway. Heres a tape of that experiment. On the second attempt, reporter neff said deaver and another agent got the results they wanted. She does a touchdown dance like she is in the end zone and it just scored, running across the lot pumping her fist. When petersons brother, bill, saw the experiment videos, he was appalled. Its all reverseengineered stuff. Its all designed to get a result. To me, it is not scientific at all. Duane deaver was fired. Case nor as an analyst and field agent was the cause for the termination termination. He is fighting the dismissal. He says he maintained an outstanding job perform mavens rating, reputation and that he did nothing wrong. For the peterson defenders, though, the implication was clear. The jury had been misled by a witness whose credibility as an expert had been damaged. After all, the state and its Closing Argument had even played on deavers credibility to try to secure a conviction. Then youre just going to have to believe that duane deaver is just a liar. And he has no reason in the world to come up here and lie to you. Defense attorney rudolph filed a motion asking for a new trial. And the judge, this time, was ready to listen. Will Michael Peterson soon be a free man again . Its really stuff made for tv drama. Tv drama. Your body was made for Better Things than rheumatoid arthritis. Before you and your rheumatologist move to a biologic, xeljanz is a small pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. Xeljanz can reduce joint pain and swelling in as little as two weeks, and help stop further joint damage. Xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. 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When yen get your vitamins at walgreens, you help give lifechanging vitamins kids across the globe. Get vitamins here. Waarlgreens. A the cornhr of d happy and healthy. Ah, lilly. She pretty much lives in her favorite princess dress. And shes not exactly dy. Even if she gets a stain shell wear it for a week straight. So i use tide to get out those week old stains and downy to get it fresh and soft. And since im the one wh. Ihas to do the laundry, i do what any expert dad would do. I let her play sheriff. I got 20 minutes to life. You are free to go. Tikedehand downy. Of atgon their own a decade after he was arrested for killing his ife, kathleen, an olderlooking Michael Peterson was back in a nodentcarolir. Courtroom arguing for a retrial on the grounds that the states crucial blood pattern expert had given false testimony against him. But as far as thleens sister, canondace, was oncerned, prison was where peterson deserved to rot. Ten years without my sister. Ten years without her and ten years the rest of us have been alive d had our freedom but not kathleen. As the years passed, the hurt miing he raw. She is determined to hold her former brotherinlaw responsible. My sisters dead for eternity. Oh, no, no, no. He murdered my sister. He too the prime of her. He should be held accountable for what he did. David rudolph s just as determined to free his client from prison. Trial, rudolph methodically dissected the original testimony of blood pattern expert duane deaver. Agent deaver lied to this not once or twice, but repeatedly. And with the peterson Supporters Holding their breath, the same judge who presided over the murder trial now laid out his thinking point by point, rhetorical questions. Is a new trial required for newly discovered evidence, due process violations and perjured the answer to those questions is, yes. Did duane deaver misrepresent himself to the jury . Yes. Did dane Duane Deavers testimony make a difference in this case . Yes. It will be the courts order that mr. Peterson will receive a new trial. And there it was. Michael peterson would be getting a new trial. His family was overwhelmed. I just about fell out f the chair. The bench just almost flipped over. I was weeping with joy and shock and could not believe that there was hope. I was, like, my dads getting out. Were going to have our dad back. For the peterson children, now there was only joy. Lots of hugs. Lots of happy, happy photographs. So were all like jumping up in to the air in a silly picture of for defense attorney David Rudolph, the judges decision was a chance for redemption. It was a magic moment for me because for eight years i had labored under that and secondguessed myself and wondered if there was things i should have done differently. And it all boiled down to a witness who was not telling the truth. 24 hours after the judge issued his decision sharply criticizing the agents work on the case, 69yearold michael terson was released on a 300,000 bond. Got to hold his grandchild then thanked his supporters and shared his hope for vindication. I have waited over 8 years, 2,988 days, as a matter of fact, and i counted, for an opportunity to have a retrial. I want to thank judge hudson for giving me that opportunity. So that i can vindicate myself and prove my innocence in a fair trial this time. Arrest. His every move monitored by an electronic ankle bracelet. But that was just a detail to his son, clayton. He wasnt in prison. He wasnt in jail. He wasnt behind bars. He was a free man again wearing clothes. For the girls, margaret and martha, the dark cloud that lay over the family name for nearly a decade had lifted. We were part of the Peterson Family, and we are not afraid to say it. We were so stigmatized before, you know, and like hiding it. But there was still a chance that Michael Peterson could return to prison. The state appealed the decision to grant peterson a new trial. Both sides were back in court as the state argued its position before a panel of appellate judges. The defendant in this case received a fair trial and there does not need to be a new trial in this case. In the end the state court of appeals unanimously upheld the ruling granting Michael Peterson a new trial and with plans for a new trial moving ahead, the prosecutor may have to try a as defense attorney rudolph and peterson left the courthouse, they walked away believing some of the critical blood evidence will be inadmissible the second time around. I think their case is very, very badly compromised because of deaver. Kehe das all oe r y. E crime scene. However, prosecutors could still opt not to retry Michael Peterson. In that case, reporter neff who investigated misconduct at the state crime lab says one witness may take the blame. A lot of people might regard Michael Peterson as a killer who got out on a technicality. Thats widely perceived. Ere is a possibility that Michael Peterson may be guilty, and he may never go back to prison. Taat indeed. Is true, thats because of Duane Deavers misconduct. Michael petersons days in the mansion on cedar street are long gone, with it his standing among durhams upper crust. He passes his days quietly now. Spending time with those closest to him. At the library and writes about his experiences in prison. He still wears his wedding ring, his kids visit when they can. Hes always been there for us, of course, im going to be there for him. Its just second nature. Peterson for now is free from his prison cell but not from the suspicions that still surround him. My fathers still somewhat reclusive because while there are a lot of people that believe hes innocent and support him, there are other people who despise him and believe hes a murderer. For kathleens sister, candace, if her former brotherinlaw is retried, it will dredge up all the pain again. But theres no way, she says, that she will back down. I have to relive how my sister died. She died one of the worst, worst ways. She was beaten, and she knew the person who she loved was beating her. Theres no way im not going to get justice for her. So the hopelessly divided families may be destined to face North Carolina courtroom. Either way it falls, one familys justice will be anothers cosmic miscarriage. Everyone older now but no less passionate in their convictions about what really happened on the staircase. That dreadful accident one side will say. That savage murder the other. E murder the other. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. Yo ank you