Staircase Murder: Part 2
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Michael Peterson from Durham, North Carolina is arrested and charged with staging his wife's death to look like an accident, a fall down the staircase. The prosecution and the defense both have solid version of events that are fully backed by the forensic evidence in the case. But which side will the jury believe? This is part two of the staircase murder, the story of Michael Peterson.

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Welcome to Forensic Tales. I am your host, Courtney. Each Monday, we release a new episode that discusses real, bone-chilling true crime stories and how forensic science has been used in the case.

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Hi everyone, this is part two of The Staircase Murder, the story of Michael Peterson. If you haven't listened to last week's episode, I encourage you to hit pause on this one. Go back and give part one of this story a listen. Don't worry, I'll be right here when you come back.

In part one last week, we talked about the early morning of Sunday, December 8th, 2001 in Durham, North Carolina. Michael Peterson and his wife Kathleen spent the evening drinking wine out on their back patio when around 1.30, 2 a.m. in the morning, Kathleen decided to go back inside the house to use the computer.

And according to Michael, he stayed out on the back patio having a smoke for about 45 minutes by himself. When he came inside the house around 2:40 a.m., he discovered Kathleen at the bottom of the staircase absolutely covered in blood after suffering from an apparent fall down the stairs. One of the first red flags in the case was the blood evidence.

For a fall down the stairs, there was a tremendous amount of blood, especially at the bottom of the staircase. More blood that you would expect to have seen in a fall. There were also a number of issues with Michael Peterson's story, like his claim that he stayed on the back patio smoking in 50 to 55 degree weather by himself until well past 2 o'clock in the morning.

A forensic meteorologist was called in, and he basically determined that the weather on the morning of December 8th, 2001, would have been well outside one's, quote, comfort zone to just be outside in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, as Michael claimed. And Kathleen's autopsy was ruled a homicide for a number of different reasons.

The forensic pathologist found evidence that Kathleen's red neurons in her brain were shriveled, suggesting to the pathologist that she likely experienced oxygen loss sometime prior to her death. And the medical examiner also noted seven deep lacerations to her skull, which were found to be inconsistent with a fall down the stairs.

And the autopsy really suggested that Kathleen died anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours before her husband Michael called 911. So Michael was arrested and charged with Kathleen's murder. And he hires a very high profile attorney by the name of David Rudolph.

And if found guilty in this case, Michael Peterson was looking at spending the rest of his life behind bars. Right after Michael was arrested, Kathleen's adult daughter, Caitlin, as well as Kathleen's sister, Candace, both believed that Michael was innocent. Kathleen's daughter and her very own sister didn't think Michael would ever want to harm, especially kill his wife.

According to Caitlin and Candace, Michael and Kathleen had a great relationship and they had a great life together. They had absolutely no reason to believe that Michael would be so cold-hearted as to kill Kathleen and even worse, kill her and stage it to look like an accident.

So Kathleen's daughter and sister both came forward and they basically very publicly stood by Michael's side. They stood up and told the press that they believed that Kathleen's death really was just some tragic accident. And they were adamant that the coroner's findings here were just wrong, but they

This support of Michael Peterson by Kathleen's family started to change when information about Michael's sexuality became public. So if you remember, police discovered thousands, and I mean thousands, of gay porn images on the computer that by all accounts was primarily used by Michael.

And they also discovered email exchanges between Michael and male escorts, including a prior sexual relationship that Michael had a couple years back with a college-age lacrosse player.

So this huge revelation that Michael was basically living a double life here, one with his wife Kathleen at home, and then another as a bisexual man engaged in sexual relationships with other men, was...

For the least to say, very shocking to Kathleen's family. They had absolutely no idea that Michael had this side of him. So as this information about Michael's bisexuality came to light during the investigation, Kathleen's daughter and sister Candace started to pull away their support of Michael and his family.

And Caitlin in particular, Kathleen's daughter, started to think that her stepfather Michael just might be guilty once she herself read the autopsy report. Between the lacerations to her mother's skull to the lack of oxygen to her brain prior to death, the evidence in the case just pointed more and more towards Michael's guilt.

So shortly into the investigation, Kathleen's family 100% pulled away their support from the Peterson family. And they basically did a 180 and came out and said that they actually believe Michael is responsible for Kathleen's death. And that this was absolutely no accident.

During the course of the investigation and leading up to trial, investigators learn about a prior incident in Michael Peterson's life that shared some incredible similarities with his wife Kathleen's accident. It almost seemed so far-fetched to even be true.

Prosecutors and investigators find out about an incident that happened in Germany in 1985, many years before Michael met Kathleen. While Michael was living in Germany, he befriended a woman by the name of Elizabeth Ratliff. Elizabeth actually worked at the same school as Michael's first wife, Patty.

And Michael also had a really good relationship with Elizabeth's husband, George, who at the time was also serving in the military. George Ratliff actually passed away from a heart attack during the U.S. invasion of Granada. And George's death left Elizabeth not only a widow, but also left her a single mother to two young daughters.

So after George's death, Elizabeth Ratliff grew even closer to the Peterson family. She was known to eat dinner with the Petersons, and even Michael himself was known to help Elizabeth not only clean up the house and help Elizabeth with certain things, but he was also known to help put Elizabeth's children to bed at night after dinner.

So needless to say, Michael really grew close to not only Elizabeth, but he also grew really close to her daughters. He kind of stepped in and became a father figure to the girls after their father's tragic and untimely death. So in 1985, a few years after George Ratliff's death,

Elizabeth was found at the bottom of the stairs by her nanny, Barbara. When Barbara discovered her, she was found dead at the bottom of the staircase with severe head injuries. Elizabeth's autopsy revealed that she died from an intercerebral hemorrhage, which was secondary to the blood disorder disease that she had.

And reports indicated that Elizabeth had suffered from severe headaches in the days and weeks leading up to her death. The medical examiner was able to determine that the hemorrhage resulted in almost instant death following her fall down the stairs.

Now, before Elizabeth Bratlett's death, Michael Peterson and his wife Patty had dinner with Elizabeth and her daughters the very night before. And according to reports that were taken by both the U.S. and German police departments,

After dinner, Michael reportedly stayed behind at Elizabeth's house and he helped her clean up dinner like he did. And then the following morning was when the nanny discovered Elizabeth's body at the bottom of the staircase. So it's believed that Michael Peterson was the very last person to see Elizabeth alive.

Elizabeth's death was almost an identical scene that Michael Peterson would experience once again with his second wife, Kathleen, all of those years later. After Elizabeth Ratliff's death, Michael actually took custody of Elizabeth's two young daughters, Martha and Margaret. By this point, the girls had lost their father and now they've lost their very own mother.

And once Michael gained custody of the two young girls and he had actually separated from his first wife, Patty, he moved with Elizabeth's daughters to the United States and basically started a new life. So the investigators who were working on Kathleen's case learn about a very similar incident with Elizabeth Ratliff.

This obviously raises some pretty major red flags. I mean, what are the chances that Michael experiences not just one death in his life from a fall down the stairs, but he actually experiences two? And of course, the investigators and prosecutors didn't believe that this was some freak accident or that this was some coincidence.

So in 2003, while Michael Peterson was just about to stand trial for Kathleen's murder, prosecutors exhumed Elizabeth Ratliff's body. And her body was exhumed from her grave site in Bay City, Texas. In April 2003, authorities performed a second autopsy on Elizabeth.

Forensic pathologist Deborah Radish, who if you recall, also performed the autopsy on Kathleen Peterson, was the same medical examiner in charge of Elizabeth's second autopsy.

At this point, Michael and his defense team argued to the court that Elizabeth's autopsy really shouldn't be performed by Radish, but should be performed by the Texas State Medical Examiner. But Michael's defense team was overruled here and the body was transported from Texas to Durham.

Forensic pathologist Deborah Radish believed that Elizabeth's injuries were also inconsistent with a fall or an accident. And based on the forensic evidence and now new witness statements, Radish ruled that Elizabeth Ratliff died from a quote, homicidal assault.

Later in 2003, the trial against Michael Peterson for the death of Kathleen got full underway. The prosecution in the case didn't exactly accuse Michael of Elizabeth Ratliff's death in Germany, but they certainly used the evidence in the case to draw some major parallels in the two accidents.

During trial, Michael's defense team was pretty quick to point out that Elizabeth's brain was actually missing from the second autopsy, and the defense team claimed that Michael was not the last person to see her alive that night. If you recall from Part 1, Michael Peterson worked for the Durham Herald Sun as a newspaper columnist.

And Michael was very critical of Durham's district attorney, James Harden Jr. Michael was known around the city of Durham to be a very vocal and outspoken critic of the DA. And now, as Michael Peterson stands trial for the murder of his very own wife,

It's none other than Deputy District Attorney James Harden Jr., who is assigned and in charge of prosecuting him. Now, if this scenario doesn't call for a change of venue, I don't know what else does. But in any event, there is no change of venue, and Harden becomes the lead prosecutor in Michael Peterson's murder trial.

During trial, there was some speculation that Michael and Elizabeth Ratliff had some sort of romantic relationship or possibly an affair happening at the time of her death. Michael was extremely close to Elizabeth and her two daughters, and he even took custody of the girls after the accident. And the girls continued to live with Michael in the States.

But both Michael's first wife, Patty, and Elizabeth's daughters, Martha and Margaret, have denied any romantic relationship between them.

Also, it's important to mention here that Patty, Michael's first wife, and Elizabeth's two daughters both stood by Michael during the criminal trial. They truly believed that he was 100% innocent in Kathleen's death. Not only did the prosecution use the evidence from Elizabeth Ratliff's death to draw some pretty big parallels to Kathleen's death,

They basically introduced the death at trial as Michael's quote trial run. Prosecutors believed that Michael used what happened to Elizabeth as a way to help him fake Kathleen's accident. Elizabeth Ratliff's nanny, Barbara, who was the one to discover her body at the bottom of the staircase, testified at Michael's trial.

Barbara testified that back in 1985 when she found Elizabeth, there was a ton of blood at the bottom of the staircase and that the blood was so similar to the amount found in Kathleen's case. But the police reports that were taken actually suggest the opposite because the police reports indicate that there was actually very little blood found near Elizabeth's body.

But another witness took the stand at Michael Peterson's trial, and they testified that they spent nearly an entire day cleaning up the amount of blood inside of Elizabeth's house. During the trial, which would become one of the longest criminal trials in North Carolina history, all of the forensic evidence was presented to the jury.

The prosecution really laid out a solid case against Michael Peterson that relied heavily on the forensic evidence. Prosecutors argued that the amount of blood found in the Peterson residence was inconsistent with an accident or a fall down the stairs. Remember, there was blood all over the place. On the stairs, on the walls, everywhere.

They spoke to the blood that was found on the bottom of Kathleen's feet. How could she have gotten blood on the bottom of her feet if she fell? Well, the prosecutors thought that at some point, Kathleen must have gotten up and got blood on her feet. The state argued that when first responders arrived at the Petersons' house, the blood didn't appear to be fresh.

Like the blood didn't appear to have just gotten there right before Michael called 911 that morning. Forensics that were hired by the prosecution estimated that the blood had been there possibly for a couple hours before the first responders arrived. Prosecutors told the jury about the two drops of blood found on the back patio and inside of the kitchen sink.

which paints the picture that after Michael killed Kathleen, he must have dragged her blood out on the back patio and into the kitchen. But how exactly did Michael kill Kathleen according to the prosecution? Well, during the trial, evidence was presented that first responders found water marks on the front of Michael's shorts that morning.

It appeared to them that maybe he tried to clean the shorts some time before calling 911. And in order to test this theory, Michael's shorts, you know, the ones that he was wearing outside in that 50 degree weather, were actually sent to the lab for forensic testing to be done on them. The forensic lab that the shorts were sent to found eight drops of blood on the inside part of the shorts.

According to the prosecution, the blood spatter on the inside of the shorts near the crotch area suggests that Michael stood over his wife Kathleen while he beat her, causing the blood spatter to come up between the shorts. But what exactly did Michael allegedly use to beat Kathleen to death?

The prosecution told the jury that Kathleen's murder was likely caused by a blow poke. The blow poke was a gift to the Petersons from Kathleen's sister, but was missing from the house at the time of the initial investigation and search. And if you recall from Kathleen's autopsy, the medical examiner noted seven deep lacerations to her skull.

wounds that the state believed to be consistent with the blow poke. So the blow poke was reportedly missing from the Peterson house after Kathleen's death. Apparently this blow poke, which the prosecution believed to be the murder weapon, wasn't found in the house during the course of the investigation.

pretty much insinuating that Michael used the blow poke to murder Kathleen, and then he got rid of it by taking it out of the house, and that's why investigators couldn't find it.

Now, the prosecution's theory that Michael used a blow poke to kill his wife came about because after the medical examiner released her findings about the seven lacerations to Kathleen's skull that were likely caused by a cylindrical object.

Kathleen's sister Candace was the one to come forward to basically suggest that the blow poke that she had gifted the Petersons just might be the murder weapon. The blow poke was supposed to be in the family garage where the rest of the fireplace accessories were. But again, according to the police, it was missing immediately following Kathleen's death.

But during the criminal trial, the quote missing blow poke magically appeared. And it was Michael Peterson's very own defense team that produced the blow poke and brought it into trial. According to David Rudolph, Michael's attorney, a family member of the Petersons found the blow poke in the family garage the very night before.

And the defense team argued that it couldn't possibly be the murder weapon because a forensics test revealed that the blow poke hadn't been touched in a very long time. And in fact, pictures of the blow poke showed cobwebs on it. It was basically covered in dust.

So according to the prosecution and the police, the blow poke was missing from the house after Kathleen's death. But according to Michael's defense team, it was there all along and it couldn't possibly be the murder weapon because it's clearly been untouched for a very long time.

This is a little bit of a problem for the prosecution because their story is that the murder weapon was the blow poke, but here's the defense saying that it was in the family garage the entire time and was just simply overlooked by the police. But even though the prosecution argued that the seven lacerations to Kathleen's skull was likely caused by a blunt object,

The defense team called in their very own forensic experts. And one of those experts was Henry Lee.

Now, in case you haven't heard of him, Henry Lee is a world-renowned expert in the field of forensic science. He has worked on a ton of famous cases, including John Benet Ramsey, O.J. Simpson, the D.C. Snipers case, and that's just to name a few cases in his career.

So David Rudolph and his defense team hired Henry Lee to basically help speak to some of the forensic evidence that the prosecution put out that pointed towards Michael's guilt. And at trial, Henry Lee was in charge of explaining to the jury how the forensic evidence and the blood evidence actually pointed towards Michael's innocence, not his guilt.

Lee testified that the amount of blood found near Kathleen's body at the bottom of the staircase actually wasn't relevant to the case at all. His analysis of the crime scene suggested that most of the blood spatter on the staircase was most likely coughed up by Kathleen rather than from the wounds themselves.

basically suggesting here that the blood patterns on the staircase appeared to be more of a spray pattern, which suggests Kathleen coughed up the blood after suffering from that fatal fall. Henry Lee testified that the amount of blood that first responders saw that morning could actually have been diluted by urine. So it's very common that shortly after death,

we humans will basically lose control of our bladders. And this sort of thing can certainly happen.

And in a pretty dramatic fashion, Henry Lee actually acted out his theory that Kathleen coughed up the blood causing the blood spatter by actually putting ketchup in his mouth in front of the entire courtroom, the judge, the jury, everybody.

And he basically just coughed it up. He spit out the ketchup to basically show how by doing that, it could cause very similar blood pattern. The version of events offered by Henry Lee and Michael Peterson's defense team was that all the forensic evidence pointed towards a fall.

Lee testified that based on the forensic evidence, it's likely that while Kathleen was five steps up on the staircase, she fell backwards, hitting her head on a sharp edge of a crown molding on the wall. She then tried to stand back up, therefore getting blood on the bottom of her feet and

But then she slipped again, hitting the crown mold on her way down the second time. And this is when Kathleen bled to death and where Michael discovered her. The prosecution used the same exact forensic evidence to paint a very different version of events that morning.

Prosecutor James Harden Jr. told the jury that Michael used the blow poke to attack Kathleen, hitting her seven times in the skull, which were consistent with the autopsy findings. And remember, the bloody shoe print found on Kathleen's sweatpants was

When paramedics arrived at the Peterson residence, Michael wasn't wearing any shoes or socks. In fact, his shoes and socks were found right at the bottom of the staircase, right next to Kathleen's body. And according to the prosecution, the bloody shoe print on the back of Kathleen's sweatpants were a match to the bottom of Michael's shoes.

Which, fitting into the narrative told by the prosecution, this meant Michael left the shoe print on Kathleen from stepping on her, bearing his entire weight on her, holding her down as he administered the repeated blows to her skull. The prosecution told the jury that the motive in the case was simple, money.

The jury learned all about Michael and Kathleen's debt, and they zeroed in on the $1.4 million life insurance policy as a motive to murder his wife. They used the gay porn images found on the computer as additional motive. According to DA James Harden Jr., Michael Peterson wasn't some loving father and husband.

He was a cold-blooded killer who spent his days chatting and meeting with male escorts online. The prosecution even called one of these male escorts to the stand.

28-year-old Brent Walgamott, a chemistry student at North Carolina State University, told the jury about his email exchanges with Michael Peterson from August to September in 2001. In total, Brent and Michael exchanged approximately 20 emails with each other.

In Brent's very own testimony, he testified that he was a former male escort who would charge his clients $150 an hour to do, quote, anything under the sun, end quote. He told the jury that he stood Peterson up on their scheduled date and that they never actually met in person, but testified that Michael solicited him on the male escort website.

While this testimony doesn't necessarily establish motive to the murder for the state, it definitely rebuts the defense characterization of the Peterson marriage as a quote storybook that they claimed in opening statements. There's no evidence that proved Kathleen found these email exchanges on the computer at the night of her death, but it's always been a thought of as a possible theory in the case.

An important forensic expert for the prosecution and who is going to come into spotlight a little bit later on was a State Bureau of Investigation agent, Dwayne Deaver. Dwayne Deaver testified to the bloodstain evidence at the scene for the prosecution.

Deaver's testimony at trial was really damning for Michael Peterson because he basically testified to the fact that the blood at the scene was not consistent with a fall down the stairs, but was consistent with repeated blows from a blunt object.

During the course of the trial, 65 witnesses testified and more than 800 pieces of evidence were presented to the jury. The trial itself lasted for just about three months and finally came to an end in October 2003.

The jury was made up of five men and seven women, and after deliberating for 15 hours over the course of five days, the jury finally reached a verdict in the case. On December 3rd, 2003, after becoming one of the longest criminal trials in Durham history, Michael Peterson was found guilty of the murder of his wife, Kathleen.

The jury in the case believed the prosecution's story that Michael bludgeoned Kathleen to death in the stairwell and staged it to look like an accident. They believed Michael learned from the incident involving Elizabeth Ratliff in Germany, and they believed the motive was simple, money.

After the trial, Michael was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The no parole aspect to the sentence was because although the jury thought the murder was a spur of the moment incident, they also believed there was premeditation involved on the part of Michael Peterson. And just to be clear here, premeditation in a crime doesn't have to be days, weeks, or even months of planning, right?

Premeditation can simply be just a few seconds or minutes. So Michael is found guilty of killing Kathleen and after the sentencing he is sent to the Nash Correctional Institute near Rocky Mount in North Carolina.

But since his conviction, Michael has adamantly maintained his innocence and has stuck to the story that his wife fell down the stairs. Pretty much right away after the murder conviction, Michael filed an appeal through his new court-appointed attorney, Thomas Maher.

This first appeal was heard before the North Carolina Court of Appeals on April 18, 2006. By this point, Michael had already been in prison for just about three years. And the basis for the appeal was that Michael believed that he didn't get a fair trial because it was on account of repeated judicial mistakes.

For example, they argued in their appeal that the story about Elizabeth Ratliff in Germany should have never been brought into trial and there were a number of other judicial mistakes that they noted. And after hearing testimony from both sides, the North Carolina Court of Appeals went back to consider the case.

But Michael and his defense team didn't exactly get the news they were hoping for. On September 19th, the Court of Appeals rejected Michael and his defense team's arguments that there existed any judicial mistakes at trial. In fact, in their court ruling, they noted that they believed that all the evidence that was presented at trial was admitted fairly.

And that the only issue the Court of Appeals noted was the original search warrant way back when. But they basically said that the issues with the original search warrant didn't have any adverse effects on the overall defense.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals didn't reach a unanimous decision in Michael's direct appeal, meaning not all the justices reached the same decision on the case. So under North Carolina law, this means Michael is now entitled to appeal the court's decision to the North Carolina Supreme Court, who, after hearing the case, decided to accept it.

The North Carolina Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the Peterson case on September 10th, 2007. But once again, Michael and his team didn't get the news they were hoping for because the Supreme Court affirmed the lower court decision, meaning Michael wasn't going to get a new trial. So by this point in the judicial appeal process,

Michael doesn't have very many options left. The case has already been denied by the Court of Appeals and was now affirmed by the higher court in the state. But still, Michael Peterson maintains his innocence and his family, including Elizabeth Ratliff's daughters, still stand by him.

And by late 2008, Michael hired attorneys Burkhart, Beal, and Jason Anthony. And through his attorneys, Michael filed a motion requesting a new trial in Durham County. And the motion was based on three important factors. One, that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence about the blowpoke.

Two, the prosecution used an expert witness whose qualifications were disputed. And three, that one member of the jury based his judgment on the case on racial factors. So the aspect to the motion that refers to the prosecution using an expert witness whose qualifications were, quote, disputed, related to Dwayne Deaver.

So Dwayne Deaver, if you recall, was the State Bureau of Investigation agent who testified to the blood evidence at the scene for the prosecution. He was the one who basically testified to the fact that the blood at the scene points to a homicide, not an accident. He was the guy who argued against the defense team's expert, Henry Lee.

Dwayne Deaver's testimony on the blood evidence played a huge role in finding Michael Peterson guilty. But before Michael's defense team could really present proof on this issue, their motion for a new trial for Michael was denied by the Durham County Superior Court on March 10, 2009.

In August 2010, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper led an investigation into the State Bureau of Investigation after several newspaper articles were published about the department's spotty work.

And during the investigation, it was discovered that Dwayne Deaver's work had been investigated by an outside agency and there was a ton of problems discovered within his work.

The review looked over 200 cases that were handled improperly by the county, and many of the cases involved Deaver. In fact, in two of these cases, Deaver reported the presence of blood on samples when his very own notes indicated negative results from follow-up tests.

Basically asserting that Dwayne Deaver has an extensive history of, for lack of a better term, spotty blood evidence testing and testimony.

And after information was released from this independent investigation, Dwayne Deaver was fired from his job in January 2011 after it was reported that he mishandled evidence in 34 different cases, including a case where a man was convicted of murder and had actually spent 17 years in prison based on his false testimony.

In Michael Peterson's trial, Deaver testified that he had been mentored by SPI bloodstain specialist David Spittel and that he worked over 500 bloodstain cases, that he had written over 200 reports in his career, and that he has testified in over 60 criminal cases.

But during this independent investigation, it was actually discovered that Deaver had written only 47 reports and David Spittel himself, that SPI bloodstain specialist, well, he testified that he didn't recall ever mentoring Deaver. And about the 60 cases he claims to have testified in,

Well, it turns out Deaver had actually only testified in four, Michael Peterson's case being the third. Dwayne Deaver being fired and his incompetence, for lack of a better word, paved the way for Michael Peterson's appellate team to file yet another motion with the court to get him a new trial.

By 2010, Michael was working on his appeal with his original trial attorney, David Rudolph. Rudolph was working pro bono on the case because he truly believed Michael was innocent. And obviously the family had absolutely no money by this point. So David Rudolph was working for free.

And this time around, the court reconsidered Michael Peterson's motion for a new trial based on the information learned from the independent investigation at the FBI. And on December 16th, 2011, Michael was released from custody on $300,000 bail and he was placed on house arrest.

This was all granted by Judge Hudson's finding that Dwayne Deaver had given, quote, materially misleading and deliberately false testimony about the bloodstain evidence in Kathleen's death. The judge basically found that Deaver had exaggerated his experience and qualifications and that he really had no business at all testifying at trial.

In July 2014, the bond restrictions that were originally placed on Michael for house arrest were actually modified and he was allowed to remain out of custody awaiting trial without the burden of being on house arrest. Later that same year, his attorney David Rudolph, who had been working pro bono all of this time,

decided that he could no longer afford to represent him anymore. It was just taking up way too much time, way too many resources, and he just couldn't keep doing it.

So Michael was assigned a court-appointed attorney, Mike Klinkenson. Hope I'm saying that right. Just one month later in November 2014, their request for a second trial to be dismissed was denied. And a second murder trial for Michael Peterson was scheduled to begin on May 8th, 2017.

But before the second trial could ever get underway, Michael Peterson, who was once again represented by David Rudolph, I know all of this attorney switching gets a little confusing. Between Michael and his attorney, Rudolph, they informed the court that a resolution in the case was going to be made.

Michael entered an Alford plea on February 24th, 2017. So basically an Alford plea is a guilty plea as far as the court is concerned, but it still allows the defendant to assert his or her innocence. And personally, I am not a huge fan of the idea of an Alford plea in our judicial system because

It's like, hey, I will plead guilty in this case, but not because I'm guilty. But again, in the eyes of the court system, it still acts as a guilty plea. And even though I'm not a fan of the Alford plea, was this a good deal for Michael Peterson to take? Well, absolutely not.

Because after the Alford plea was taken in February 2017, the judge sentenced him to 86 months in prison. And by that point, Michael had already served almost 99 months in prison. So basically, as soon as this deal was over, Michael was a free man. I could not cover this case enough.

without talking about one of the craziest aspects to it. And that is the owl theory. In late 2009, a new theory emerged about what caused Kathleen's death. And that theory was that she was attacked by an owl outside of her house,

She rushed back into the house and was knocked unconscious when she slipped on the stairs. See, I can barely tell that story without laughing a little bit. So this theory was actually thought of by a Durham attorney by the name of Lawrence Pollard, who was actually a neighbor of the Petersons.

Pollard basically came forward to the Durham Police Department about his owl theory after reading about microscopic owl feathers that were found entangled in a clump of hair that was inside of Kathleen's body when she was discovered.

And the sample was compared in September 2008. And scientists did actually find two additional microscopic owl feathers inside of Kathleen's hair.

So the theory goes that while Kathleen was being attacked by an owl, she possibly grabbed her head or her hair to maybe try and fight off this owl. And that would explain the clump of hair found in her hand. Apparently, owls can be very violent animals. I didn't know that. I don't have much experience with owls, but apparently they are violent.

But the owl theory in this case is nothing more than a theory. So where is Michael Peterson now? Michael still lives in Durham, North Carolina, and he occasionally makes TV appearances about the case. He's written a book titled Behind the Staircase, where he talks about the night of the accident and what it was like to live in prison all of those years.

And according to reports that I could find, all proceeds of that book are not actually going to Michael himself. Instead, proceeds of the book are going to a local charity. Kathleen Peterson's daughter, Caitlin, filed a wrongful death suit against Michael pretty early on. I believe she actually filed that civil suit against him well before the criminal trial even began.

But the civil case eventually settled for a reported $25 million, which so far in 2020 now, none of that amount has been paid by Michael to Caitlin or to anyone in Kathleen Peterson's family. That is the staircase murder, the story of Michael Peterson. I would really, really love to hear what you think.

Do you believe Michael was wrongfully accused for Kathleen's death? Or do you believe he's a cold-blooded killer? And what do you think about the possible owl theory? You can connect with me on Instagram at Forensic Tales, on Facebook, or emailing me directly at Courtney at ForensicTales.com.

Thank you guys so much for listening to this two-part special of the show. I hope you enjoyed learning about it as much as I have. Until next week, stay safe and stay healthy.

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If you'd like to become a producer of the show, head over to our Patreon page or email me directly at Courtney at ForensicTales.com to find out how you can become involved. Please join me next week.

We release a new episode every Monday. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.