But most of all, she was funny and sexual but had this marvelous sense of life and vitality just reporter: and you were in the swirl of the local society. right? yeah. reporter: charity balls and parties and nice dinners. yeah. and she did all of this. she reporter: good, smart friends at your table? absolutely. she would invite people over. she cooked meals. and she d do the desserts. she did it all. reporter: so michael was all too happy to say yes when after years of living together, kathleen suggested the couple make it official. so we got married. and it was a gigantic wedding. it was in the house. and there must have been 150 people there. and it was just wonderful. i always thought, you know, this is what i ll register as the happiest day of my life. reporter: kathleen s younger sister, candace, says kathleen was over the moon, as well. she was thrilled to be marrying michael. all three girls were bridesmaids in her wedding. i remember at the wedding
I mean, you know, if he wasn t writing a book or had any royalties coming in, he had no income. reporter: and, according to kathleen s sister, michael s dabble in local politics had brought even more stress to the marriage. when he ran for mayor, he d been called out publicly if a lie a whopper of one. the war action novelist claimed to have been awarded a purple heart, only he hadn t. he got hurt, not by taking hills in vietnam, but in a car accident in japan. when it became public about his lies, it did cause kathleen these friendships. she had to decide whether to stand by michael or keep these friendships, and these friendships were lost. reporter: so if the true state of the petersons marriage was murky, investigators thought the story told in blood was becoming clear. not only was there more of it in the stairwell than detectives would expect to see with a fall, but according to emts, much of it was dry when they arrived. so you have to wonder when the victim actually
Means. i mean, you know, if he wasn t writing a book or had any royalties coming in, he had no income reporter: and, according to kathleen s sister, michael s dabble in local politics had brought even more stress to the marriage when he ran for mayor, he d been called out publicly if a lie a whopper of one the war action novelist claimed to have been awarded a purple heart, only he hadn t. he got hurt, not by taking hills in vietnam, but in a car accident in japan. when it became public about his lies, it did cause kathleen these friendships. she had to decide whether to stand by michael or keep these friendships, and these friendships were lost. reporter: so if the true state of the petersons marriage was murky, investigators thought the story told in blood was becoming clear not only was there more of it in the stairwell than detectives would expect to see with a fall, but according to emts, much of it was dry when they arrived so you have to wonder when
they were living above their means. i mean, you know, if he wasn t writing a book or had any royalties coming in, he had no income. and according to kathleen s sister, michael s dabble in local politics had brought even more stress to the marriage. when he ran for mayor, he d been called out publicly in a lie, a whopper of one. the war action novelist claimed to have been awarded a purple heart, only he hadn t. he got hurt, not by taking hills in vietnam, but in a car accident in japan. when it became public about his lies, it did cause kathleen these friendships. she had to decide whether to stand by michael or keep these friendships, and these friendships were lost. so if the true state of the petersons marriage was murky, investigators thought the story told in blood was becoming clear. not only was there more of it in the stairwell than detectives would expect to see with a fall, but according to emts, much of it was dry when they arrived. so you have to wonder when
Blood. responding officers immediately suspected she d been murdered. investigators were focusing hard on her husband michael, but this mystery was just getting started. another sordid tale from michael past was about to surface. a suspicious death too similar to kathleen s for investigators to ignore. here again is dennis murphy. 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 kathleen s death is when i first had contact with um the family members of elizabeth ratliff. and just who was elizabeth ratliff? to answer that question we have to turn the clock back almost twenty years in michael peterson s life and go across the atlantic to germany. in the early 1980 s, michael peterson was living with his first wife near a u.s.