The Strange Death of Kathleen Peterson

Around 2:40 a.m. on December 9th, 2001, a 911 call came into the Durham, North Carolina emergency dispatch. A frantic man on the other end of the line told the dispatcher that his wife had fallen down the stairs, and he needed help before suddenly hanging up. He phoned again several minutes later and demanded to know why the ambulance hadn't arrived. When the ambulance arrived eight minutes after the initial 911 call, Kathleen Peterson was dead at the scene.

Detective Arthur Holland of the Durham Police Department entered the home and assessed the scene. The body of 48-year-old Kathleen lay at the foot of a narrow staircase in a pool of blood. The amount of blood on Kathleen, along with the amount of spatter on the walls raised suspicion. Kathleen didn't appear to have simply fallen down the stairs. Instead, it appeared that Kathleen may have been bludgeoned to death. The main suspect? Her husband, Michael Peterson.

Todd Peterson, Micheal Peterson’s youngest son arrived home from a party shortly before 3:00 a.m. to find paramedics in the home. Holland notes that Peterson and Todd seemed to be in shock, yet something in Peterson’s behavior raised a red flag. Peterson paced around the house, picking up items and setting them back down. He mumbled about emails and went into his study several times and typed on his computer. Peterson was asked to leave his computer alone to which he complied.

Todd reported to Holland that his step-mom routinely drank heavily in the evenings and regularly took Valium to help her sleep. It’s speculated that perhaps this combination along with the thin flip-flops Kathleen was wearing might have contributed to the fall.

Kathleen Peterson

Kathleen Peterson was intelligent and successful. She excelled at math and science and was the first woman to be admitted into Duke University’s engineering program in 1971. She received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and then a Master's in Mechanical Engineering in 1975. It was at Duke that she met her first husband. The couple had one daughter, Caitlin, after years of struggling to conceive. The marriage ended shortly after Kathleen discovered her husband's affair.

After the divorce, Kathleen and Caitlin relocate to Durham, North Carolina where Kathleen took a job at Nortel. There, she rose to the position of vice president. Soon after, Kathleen ran into a handsome man new to the neighborhood. He was a successful author, had four children from a previous marriage, and they hit it off.

Michael Peterson

Michael was divorced from his first wife where he had two children and two adoptive children. After the divorce, the kids opted to live with their father. Michael served as a Marine in Vietnam and wrote military thrillers, one of which broke him into fame.

Marital Bliss

By all accounts, Michael and Kathleen had a happy marriage. They joined their blended family and seemed to have a great time with their five kids and each other. They hosted lavish parties in their 8,000 sq. ft. home and were considered to be Durham royalty. At the time of Kathleen’s death, the couple had been married for four years.

The Murder Investigation

After investigators secured the scene, Daniel George, the investigative technician, and Duane Deever, the blood specialist (remember him, he’s important), obtained Michael’s and Todd’s clothing as they both touched the body. George also took photos of the body and the blood spatter at the foot of the stairs along with samples of the blood and collected trace evidence from shoes and the surrounding area. It was noted that several hairs were clutched in Kathleen’s hands.

A Crazy Crime Scene

The staircase Kathleen was found at the foot of consisted of 19 steps. Located at the bottom of the stairs was a large amount of blood. In addition to the bloody stairs, blood droplets were found in the kitchen and a single blood drop on the front porch, 50 feet from where Kathleen lay.

The Night in Question

Michael Peterson tells Detective Holland that he and Kathleen had had a lovely, quiet evening. Todd headed out to a party (10:20 p.m.) with a friend leaving his parents home alone. The couple had received word that one of Michael’s books was up for adaptation into a film and they were celebrating. They had dinner, watched a movie, and headed out to the back patio to enjoy the evening and have more wine (12:00 a.m. ?). Michel reported that Kathleen had taken a Valium to help her relax. At some point, Kathleen got cold and headed into the house (1:45 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.). Kathleen suffered her injuries sometime after 2:00 a.m. Micheal Peterson head into the house (2:30 a.m. ?). He finds Kathleen and calls 911 (2:41 a.m.). The paramedics arrive (2:48 a.m.). Police and detectives begin arriving (3:00 a.m.) and secure the scene (3:42 a.m.). Peterson mumbles about emails and logs on and off to his computer several times (between 4:15 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.).

If this timeline is even close to what transpired, then Kathleen lay bleeding for almost an hour before she was discovered. Yet the autopsy calculated by the amount of blood loss that Kathleen lay dying from 90 minutes to two hours. This skews the timeline offered by Peterson.

Evidence

In addition to the bloody stairs, there were blood drops on the walkway leading to the front door. A bloody handprint on the outer door frame of the front door. Some of Kathleen’s hair containing the root ball was in her hands along with a few twigs and microscopic feathers (North Carolina v. Peterson). One source claimed that bloody footprints lead to the laundry room, but I couldn’t find any other sources to back that up.

A Police Conspiracy?

Michael Peterson had a weekly column in the Durham Herald-Sun where he regularly harped on the powers that be in the area, one of those being the police. Some people think that the police when after him like they did because they had publicity shamed them over and over. The police addressed these claims as absurd.

Typical Injuries with a Fall Down the Stairs

How Most People Fall Down Stairs

According to an article published in Forensic Science Intentional (2003), almost double the number of men over women who fall downstairs are fatally injured (males, n = 81; females, n = 35). Of those fatalities, alcohol played a role. While blood alcohol levels weren’t recorded in all incidents, it is to be expected that a number of those who were intoxicated when the fatal fall occurred said that intoxication played a part (Preußa, Padoscha, Dettmeyera, Drievera, Lignitzb, Madeaa, 2003). I know I’ve tried to navigate stairs while drunk and had mixed results.

As to the type of stairs involved in a fatal fall, household stairs were the main culprit. Most of these falls occur on cellar stairs and are considered “conspicuous,” (Preußa et al., 2003). The researchers don’t give a reason for household stairs being the main location where fatal falls occur. I would guess it has to do with familiarity. We become careless with our own stairs as we use them countless times a day. The frequency of use ups the ante where accidents are concerned. Kind of like how most automobile accidents happen near home.

In the cases examined by Preußa, 69 recorded the position of the deceased. In 52 cases, the body was located at the bottom of the stairs. In ten, the bodies were fully on the stairs. Three individuals had their upper bodies on the stairs, and four had just their legs located on the stairs. It is unknown if emergency teams moved or manipulated the bodies while trying to treat injuries (Preußa et al., 2003).

Injuries

The types of injuries that occur while falling down stairs can come about in several ways: falling head over heels, sliding over the top of the stairs or striking against hard objects such as walls or the stairs themselves all produce their own injury patterns across the body. The majority of fatal fall victims die due to skull and brain injuries (77 fatalities). Seven died from exsanguination, five from intoxication, two from intracerebral bleeding, and one from cervical spine injuries, (Preußa et al., 2003). Injuries also varied as to the reflexes of the individual. If the individual suffered a heart attack while on the stairs, “a fall during the course of death,” any injuries occurring in these falls do not contribute toward death.

Lack of static reflexes (breaking one’s fall by putting out a hand or arm) is attributed to severe facial injuries and injuries occurring to the back of the arms and hands. These types of injuries mostly occur with intoxication or death while falling. Most notably, Preußa and friends found:

“Falls at ground level, however, can also cause considerable damage and easily be misinterpreted as an act of violence per third party or as the actual cause of death.” -- (Preußa et al., 2003).

The majority of the individuals (97) used in Preußa’s study exhibited skull fractures and lacerations to the head. The majority of skull fractures are basal skull fractures. About a third received injuries to the forehead (32). Another third had injuries to the back of the head (37). Only 22 cases had injuries on both the front and back of their heads. Most lacerations occurred to the back of the head (Preußa et al., 2003).

Hat Brim Rule

Forensic science employs the ‘rule of the hat brim’ which states all injuries above the area of a hat brim can be attributed to a blow or a strike (blunt force trauma inflicted by another person). All injuries occurring below this line can be attributed to a fall. This rule is primarily applied to falls at the ground level (Preußa et al., 2003).

Kathleen Peterson's Injuries

In addition to seven deep lacerations to the back of Kathleen’s head (hat brim rule at ground floor), she also had multiple contusions and abrasions on her trunk, the backs of her hand and arms, and a fracture to the thyroid cartilage in her neck. No intracranial bleeding occurred.

Blood Alcohol Content

Kathleen Peterson’s blood alcohol content (BAC) was .07 (North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, 2001). According to Saint Benedict’s and Saint John’s University, a BAC of .08 is where impairment begins (Saint Benedict’s, n.d.). If Kathleen was a regular drinker like her step-son Todd and husband Michael Peterson claimed, she may not have been as impaired as an individual who only drinks occasionally. However, if Kathleen lay dying at the foot of the stairs for a considerable amount of time (nearly an hour to 90 minutes according to the timeline and autopsy), her BAC may have been slightly higher when the accident occurred since her body would have continued to metabolize any alcohol in her system.

Kathleen Peterson's Autopsy

Medical Examiner K.S. Snell ruled that the injured to Kathleen were consistent with a beating and that she subsequently died from severe blunt force trauma to the head (North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, 2001).

Defense Refutes Autopsy

The defense brought in renowned forensic scientist, Henry Lee. Lee argued that Kathleen’s injuries and the scene were consistent with a fall down the stairs.

Family Division

In the early days, Michael Peterson’s and Kathleen’s family stuck by him insisting that the police and the state had it wrong. There was no way Michael could have killed Kathleen. But after the autopsy results were released to the public, Kathleen’s daughter Caitlin and Kathleen’s sister Candace changed their minds about Michael and sided with the prosecution.

Michael Peterson's Trial

Michael Peterson’s murder trial was the longest in the history of North Carolina. For two years, persecutors and the defense gathered evidence and presented it to the jury. Yet, of all the speculation and demonstrations as to how Kathleen died, what really clinched it for the jury was the blood evidence.

The prosecution augured that the bloody stairs showed that Kathleen Peterson had died at the hands of her husband. The amount of blood and the spatter patterns on the wall, some of which was nine feet high, were indeed cast off from whatever was used to bludgeon Kathleen. The murder weapon was surmised to be something light and flexible so as not to fracture the skull, but hard enough to cause the deep lacerations that ultimately led to Kathleen’s death by exsanguination. While an object fitting this description was not present at the scene, the prosecution, with assistance from Candace Hunt Zamperini, Kathleen’s sister, settled on the murder weapon as the missing blow poke, the same blow poke that Candace had given her sister several years earlier.

The Infamous Blow-poke

Blow-poke is the shortened version of what is better known as a blowpipe. Blowpipes are rolled, hollow brass tubes with a hook-like tip and are used to arrange the embers of a fire. The hollow tube is used to funnel air to specific parts of a fire to aid in stoking the flames.

The blow-poke in question couldn't be located at the Peterson's home, but Candace was positive Kathleen and Michael had one since she had purchased one for her sister. She brought her own blow-poke to court so the prosecution could present it to the jury as an example of the instrument used to murder Kathleen.

Blood Evidence

Based on the testimony given by Duane Deaver, the blood technician and principal witness for the prosecution helped seal the deal for the jury against Peterson. It was determined through experimentation that the only way that Kathleen’s blood ended up on the staircase as it did was if Kathleen had been bludgeon while someone stood over her. This would mean that a void would have been created by the body of the assailant whose clothing would have taken the brunt of the blood spatter.

When investigators arrived at the Petersons’ home, Michael was barefoot, yet when his shoes are examined, the bottoms were bloody. A partial shoe print was found on Kathleen Peterson’s sweat pants. It was ascertained that Michael held Kathleen down with his shoed foot while he hit her.

Henry Lee

Using a whiteboard and ketchup, Lee recreated similar blood spatter to that at the scene. He argues that the blood spatter isn’t cast off but aspiration from bloody hair falling over Kathleen’s face as she coughed, sneezed, spit, or exhaled while dying. Yet, Lee couldn't rule out that Kathleen had been bludgeon, but he testified that the staircase scene looked more like an accident than a murder.

Faris Bandak

David Rudolph, Peterson’s attorney brought in biomedical expert Faris Bandak who created several computer simulations as to how Kathleen could have fallen down the stairs and received the seven injuries to her head hoping to create reasonable doubt in the mind of the jury. It didn’t work.

Elizabeth Ratliff

In 1983, seventeen years earlier, Elizabeth was a friend and neighbor of Michael Peterson and his first wife when they lived in Germany. Elizabeth was married and had two little girls, Martha and Margaret. Elizabeth’s husband had died and left her a young, grief-stricken single mom. The Petersons' encouraged her to move into the house across the street from them so they can help out with the kids.

Two years later, in 1985, Michael Peterson walked Elizabeth Ratliff home. The next morning her nanny discovered the door unlocked and Elizabeth lying dead at the foot of the stairs in a pool of blood. The nanny ran over the Peterson’s and called the police.

When the police arrived, Michael Peterson had the scene locked down. It was stated that he acted as if it was his home, not his neighbor’s. Michael told police that Elizabeth had been suffering from headaches, so that might have been why she fell. Elizabeth also had a blood condition akin to hemophilia which might account for the amount of blood at the scene.

The autopsy determined that Elizabeth had blood on her brain and that she must have suffered a stroke causing arterial hemorrhage which caused her fall. Her death was ruled accidental.

Friends and neighbors were immediately suspicious of Peterson.

A witness testified in a letter to police that they saw a man running from Elizabeth’s house in the middle of the night.

Elizabeth left her $35,000 estate and custody of her two children to the Petersons. The couple adopted the girls before divorcing.

Coincidence or MO?

When the DA discovered the odd death of Elizabeth Ratliff and its similarities to Kathleen Peterson’s death, they thought they’d struck modus operandi gold. Two instigators were sent to Germany to speak with local police. It was found that Ratliff’s body had been buried in Texas. The DA wanted to exhume her body and reexamine it for injuries similar to Kathleen Peterson’s, but they needed the permission of her daughters, Martha and Margaret. The girls agreed to exonerate their adoptive father in the deaths of their biological mother and stepmom.

Elizabeth’s body was exhumed and a new autopsy performed. When the back of her head was shaved, seven deep lacerations were found which looked very much like the ones on Kathleen’s head. No motive for Elizabeth’s possible murder could be found.

Doppelgangers (without the evil)

Another interesting factoid about Kathleen Peterson and Elizabeth Ratliff is the uncanny resemblance the two women had to one another. They look more like sisters than Kathleen does with her actual sister Candace.

The Damn Blow-poke Again

Turns out that blow-pokes can look a lot like curtain rods. In a dramatic television-like moment, the defense produced the missing blow-poke. The defense claimed to have located the missing blow-poke in Peterson’s basement. It had been overlooked because the hooked tip had broken off and it was masquerading as a curtain rod in plain sight.

This shocking reveal sent the defense for a loop, but they quickly got their sea legs and countered that perhaps the hooked tip was broken because it had been used to bludgeon Kathleen Peterson to death. When the defense revealed that the blow-poke tested negative for blood, tissue, and hair, the prosecution then argued that this may not even be Peterson’s blow-poke, that it was instead planted by the defense to put the blow-poke theory to bed.

The Verdict

On October 10, 2003, two years after the trial began, Michael Peterson was found guilty of the 1st-degree murder of his wife Kathleen Peterson. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Motion to Retrial

Duane Deaver: Exculpatory evidence

Duane Deaver tested Michale’s navy blue sweatshirt collected at the time of the initial investigation for blood evidence, but those findings were never turned over to the defense. Deaver claims that he presented the report to the prosecution to turn over to the defense, but the prosecution claimed to have never received the report. Turns out there was no blood evidence on Michale’s shirt, which might be considered strange if he’s holding his bloody wife in his arms. More importantly, what this shows is that there was no cast-off or blood spatter on his clothing to suggest he bludgeoned Kathleen.

An Unrelated Case

In 2010, a strange homicide case came across the DA’s desk. In this case, a man by the name of Greg Taylor was found guilty of murder back in 1991. Taylor was convicted by blood evidence provided by Deaver. A drop of blood was found near the wheel well of Taylor’s truck. It was the only piece of evidence that tied Taylor to the murdered woman.

Taylor was sentenced to life in prison, yet he maintained his innocence. In 2008, the Innocence Inquiry Agency (IIA) took Taylor’s case. IIA looked over the evidence that convicted Taylor and found that while the substance found on Taylor’s truck was indeed blood, it wasn’t human blood, but that of an animal. A tiny fact Deaver failed to mention in his reports or at the trial.

Taylor was exonerated through exculpatory evidence.

It is then discovered that Deaver mishandled over 100 cases, including Peterson’s. In most of those cases, without Deaver’s testimony, convictions would not have been made. Deaver also conflated his credentials and experience which is an act of perjury.

A New Trial

Due to the new evidence with Deaver being a liar and have a shitty work ethic, Peterson was granted a new trial. However, most of the evidence in his case was stored incorrectly and substantial cross-contamination occurred making it impossible for the state to retry him. Instead, the state of North Carolina offered Peterson an Alford plea.

The Alford Plea

By taking the Alford Plea, Peterson forfeited his right to a new trial and had to plead guilty to the crime of killing his wife. In return, he was granted his freedom with time served. He is still a convicted murderer, but he had essentially served his term in prison.

The 911 Call

Everyone panics and grieves in their own way. We know that someone who doesn’t cry or perhaps even smiles isn’t necessarily guilty. We all have our own comfort levels with loss and vulnerability. To judge someone one their reaction to an incident that has caused the death of a loved one can be a slippery slope. With that said, here are some notable language and behaviors from Peterson at the time of the 911 call.

• Peterson made his initial 911 call from the cordless phone found in the kitchen. When asked about his wife’s status, he can’t answer because he not with her. Usually, when people cal 911 they remain with the injured party. Peterson does not.
• In the background of the 911 call, there is a consistent clicking happening. Perhaps the sound of a keyboard? Peterson did spend time on his computer after the police arrived at the scene. Could he have been on his computer while on the 911 call? Maybe this is why he had trouble answering some of the dispatcher's questions about Kathleen’s status.
• Peterson never speculates that Kathleen may have fallen down the stairs. He says she fell down the stairs but claims he wasn’t around when it happened.
• The dispatcher asks how many stairs she fell down. Peterson can’t answer this because he claims he wasn’t in the room when it happened, or perhaps because Kathleen Peterson really didn’t fall down the stairs.
• He also says outright that she’s had an accident. He never brings up that she may have been assaulted by a robber or something of that nature. Where she was lying could have been the result of running away from an assailant, and she made it as far as the stairs.
• He mentions several times that “she’s still breathing” as if he thinks the alternative should be plausible.
• Peterson never mentions the amount of blood at the scene, which would have thrown most people. Unexpected blood is shocking. We have a visceral response to it.

More Than One Way to Die on Stairs:

Theory 1: Michael Peterson Bludgeoned Kathleen to Death

At first, there didn’t seem to be any motivation for Peterson to kill his wife, Kathleen. But as investigators combed through Peterson’s home, they discovered thousands of images depicting gay pornography, many of which Peterson had tried to delete, along with emails between Peterson and a male escort. The escort and Peterson never met, but only because the escort bailed at the last moment. In an interview with Investigation Discovery for their three-part docuseries An American Murder Mystery: The Staircase, the escort says he was just too lazy to show up that night.

Along with gay pornographic images on his computer, Peterson had printed out images as well. On some of these images, blood was found. This hearkens back to the theory that Peterson was at his computer while on the 911 call.

In addition to extramarital affairs, the Peterson’s were in debt. They had three daughters in college and two sons who were both in need of financial support. At the time of Kathleen’s death, the Peterson’s had over $130,000 in credit.

On a typical day, Kathleen would conduct business via her laptop, but she’d forgotten it at work. This meant she needed to use Michael’s computer to send and receive emails. At 10:40 p.m., the password “Atwater” (which is the last name of Kathleen’s daughter, Caitlin) logged into Michale’s computer. Kathleen spoke with Helen Prislinger, a coworker, just after 11:00 p.m. who said she would send her a file via email. By 11:53 p.m., the email arrived but the attachment was never opened. The prosecution postulated that Kathleen found either the gay porn or the emails from the escort and confronted Michael. A fight ensued and Michael saw his meal-ticket heading out the door.

Theory 2: Kathleen Falls Down the Stairs while Intoxicated

After staying outside for a bit with Micheal, Kathleen Peterson headed into the house. She logged into the computer in Michael’s study and called her coworker to send her a file. For whatever reason, Kathleen doesn’t open the file but instead headed to the stairs, possibly to go to the bedroom on the second floor. She slipped and fell. From the findings in Preußa’s paper published in Forensic Science Intentional, her injuries were consistent with a fall downstairs at ground level. The paper stated that many falls at ground level appear as if the individual had been attacked by a third party. This is consistent with how the scene presented itself. This still doesn’t explain the problem with the timeline and the missing hour.

Theory 3: The Owl Did It

Along with the hair found in Kathleen’s hand, three microscopic owl feathers were present. In 2009 the Peterson’s neighbor and friend, lawyer T. Lawrence Pollard decided to have the owl feathers tested to find which species of owl they belonged to. The feathers turn out to belong to a barred owl, the second largest owl in North Carolina, and who happened to have talons covered with microscopic feathers. Barred owls are very territorial, especially during mating season which happens during December, the same month Kathleen died. While barbed owls are known to attack humans that get too close to their nesting area, striking at the head and face, they have never been documented killing anyone, or even contributing to their death. That being said, several ornithologists examined the findings and agreed the attack and ultimate cause of death is possible.

Pollard argued that the lacerations on Kathleen Peterson’s face were too fine to have been created by blunt force trauma, but instead were inflected by the talons of a barred owl. Pollard postulates that Kathleen left the house to see to something in the front yard when the owl attacked her. She stumbled back into the house where she fell on the stairs, stuck her head, and died from her injuries. It can be argued that the injuries to Kathleen's scalp do resemble the talon of a bird.

References

Gajanan, Mahita. “Here's the Story Behind Netflix's Latest True Crime Docuseries The Staircase”. Time Magazine, June 11, 2018, http://time.com/5304761/the-staircase-netflix-true-crime/

“I Whispered Her Name.” An American Murder Mystery: The Staircase. Investigation Discovery. April 8, 2018. Television.

“Lightning Strikes Twice.” An American Murder Mystery: The Staircase. Investigation Discovery. April 9, 2018. Television.

North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Autopsy Report, (case number: 2001-9964). Durham, North Carolina. http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Other/peterson,%20kathleen_report.pdf

Preußa, J., Padoscha, R., Dettmeyera, SA., Drievera, F., Lignitzb, E., Madeaa, B. (2003). Injuries in fatal cases of falls downstairs. Forensic Science International https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0df4/f381014e6612fd8ef56ec3f9df4dc05f3d80.pdf

State of North Carolina County of Durham State of North Carolina vs. Michael Iver Peterson. (2017). https://guides.library.cornell.edu/c.php?g=134360&p=880907

“Reversal of Fortune.” An American Murder Mystery: The Staircase. Investigation Discovery. April 10, 2018. Television.

Saint Benedict’s and Saint John’s University. (n.d.). Understanding Blood Alcohol Content (BAC). https://www.csbsju.edu/chp/health-promotion/alcohol-guide/understanding-blood-alcohol-content-(bac)

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