a staircase. reporter: but to martha and margaret, the whole thing seemed absurd. the fact that michael was being 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 ve gotten two screaming little ragamuffin kids out of it and that s it? like, there s nothing there s no reason for it. reporter: for the investigators in north carolina, though, the death in germany became a strong building block in their circumstantial case for murder. and what s more detectives learned that michael peterson had a secret life. secrets tawdry ones were about to spill out in the durham courthouse. coming up enter brad, the male escort. what types of services did you perform? oh, wow. that s that s pretty broad.
the questions amybeth expected to be asked never were. i wondered, you know, why aren t they talking to people? why aren t they asking questions? no one did. reporter: later that day, michael peterson phoned elizabeth ratliff s family in the u.s. with the dreadful news. margaret blair is elizabeth s sister. he said um margaret, there s been an accident. liz fell down the stairs and died. what are you saying? i just totally went numb. i mean, my sister. he s saying she died. she s young. she s got two beautiful little children. babies, really. reporter: those baby girls? they are martha and margaret. michael took custody of the girls after the accident in germany. and then michael, along with his first wife patty, and then later with kathleen, raised them as his own. patty was saying that our birth mother was like a sister to her. she was her closest friend in the whole world. and it was said in our mother s will that we would go to mike
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full-fledged investigation would ensue. but, as she tells it, michael peterson spoke to the authorities that day, relating that elizabeth had a hereditary bleeding disorder. perhaps she d had a stroke and fallen down the stairs the questions amybeth expected to be asked never were i wondered, you know, why aren t they talking to people? why aren t they asking questions? no one did reporter: later that day, michael peterson phoned elizabeth ratliff s family in the u.s. with the dreadful news. margaret blair is elizabeth s sister he said um margaret, there s been an accident liz fell down the stairs and died. what are you saying? i just totally went numb i mean, my sister. he s saying she died she s young. she s got two beautiful little children babies, really reporter: those baby girls? they are martha and margaret michael took custody of the girls after the accident in germany. and then michael, along with his
found at the bottom of a different set of stairs. family friend. and investigators now suspect that michael may have been responsible for both deaths. in the search for evidence, they were about to exhume her body. could the old case shed new light. continuing with our story, here s dennis murphy reporter: as time went by, margaret blair had come to accept michael peterson s explanation of her sister s death years before, a tumble down the stairs in a german townhouse. i just believed what i was told about the cerebral hemorrhage and, you know, i m presuming that a doctor had, you know, made this diagnosis. reporter: but when she learned that kathleen had also been found dead at the bottom of a staircase, margaret began wondering anew about how her sister died. she started reaching out elizabeth s old friends from germany. when i talked to her friends,