mom she did not die from falling down stairs, that she was beaten to death. but caitlin s childhood playmates, her step-sisters margaret and martha, stood strong with their father. dad told me that he didn t do it, and i believe him. i trust him. the step-sisters never spoke again. caitlin removed her belongings from the house. i ve lost, obviously, far more than just my mother. i thought, you know, i i did lose martha, and margaret, and michael, my family, my home. could the family agony get any worse? well, it could and by a wide margin because now investigators were picking through michael peterson s past, turning the clock back some 20 years, and taking a peek at his previous life an ocean away. what they would discover was beyond eerie. how can michael have found two women dead at the bottom of a staircase? a stunningly similar tragedy in michael peterson s past gets the attention of investigators.
oh, good lord. yes. and valentine s day and halloween she made a celebration out of everything, everything. kathleen s daughter caitlin step-daughter to michael, says her mom was always happiest at the holidays. she loved christmas. she loved being in the mood, playing christmas music from the start of december all the way through new year s. it was the kids actually, who brought kathleen and michael together. his first marriage had started to fall apart. she was separated. michael was raising his two boys and two young girls, margaret and martha. the girls became neighborhood playmates with kathleen s daughter caitlin. they played oh my god, barbies and those little my little ponies and those damn little trolls. all the time, all the time. and then kathleen came over to borrow a book one night. and that s when it began. as the kids spent more and more time together, so did michael and kathleen. it wasn t long before they approached the kids about
in the kitchen, blood stains on a cabinet, and underneath, a drop of blood on the counter. and right beside it, an opened wine bottle and two glasses. it was, you know, very, very time consuming. you don t want to, you know, go through it real speedy. you want to make sure that you cross all your ts and dot all your is. it would take investigators a couple of days to go through the 9,000 square foot estate. while they did, michael and the kids took refuge at a neighbor s house. just spent most of the time in bed then margaret came in, martha, caitlin, everybody flew in, everybody. he says from the moment the police arrived at the house, they were aggressive towards him and his family. but even in his haze of shock and grief, peterson says, he thought he knew why. i had written some really negative comments. i d i d been a columnist. and i ve really, really been hammering the police. you you you lit out at the cops, huh? oh many times.
she said um something s happened. your mom has fallen down the stairs. you know it was an accident. you know, you should come home. by the time kathleen s daughter, caitlin, got the word, it was as shocking as it was definitive. her college roommate delivered the news. she looks me straight in my eye and she just says, caitlin, it s your mom. she s dead. those words still ring clearly in my head. kathleen s sister candace couldn t believe what she was hearing. michael called her directly. it was still vague or she we couldn t tell if she fell down the stairs or she fell off a ladder, but there was no question i kept saying, are you sure she s dead? yes, michael was sure. candace headed to her sister s house. the whole thing was sealed off with crime scene tape. and this is a this is a mansion, huge property. so the police kept saying, you know you may not want to go in. there s so much blood. this is really awesomely scary. the police were not
it was don t, period. had she known that there were assignations, that there were hookups, what did how do you think she would ve taken it? i wish i had told her. i mean, that s one my regrets regrets. i wish i we had discussed it. we didn t. i was afraid not that she would leave me, she wouldn t that she just wasn t she was the most open-minded, liberal, intelligent woman. as for the other piece of the prosecution s motive, that the petersons were on the edge of financial ruin oh, that was bull. a lot of money out on cards. total expensive schools that were bleeding them. the wonderful house was something of a money pit. what s your reaction to all of that stuff? well, my reaction is exactly what the prosecution proved. in court, the financial expert who testified about their debts also noted that in the end the petersons were still worth $1.5 million dollars. i had money. and it s not a matter it was not a financial problem. but what about that d