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The Staircase Murders - 5 Things you Might not Know about Michael Peterson · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: Michael Ivor Peterson, commonly known as Mike among his acquaintances,
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  is a seventy eight year old author and distinguished military
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  veteran who previously campaigned for the position of mayor in Durham,
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  North Carolina. However, in two thousand three, he was sentenced
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  to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, after being
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  found guilty of the murder of his wife, Kathleen Peterson,
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  in two thousand and one. In February two thousand seventeen,
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  after enduring years of investigations, multiple trials, extensive media scrutiny,
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  and numerous controversies, Peterson was exonerated and released from prison,
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  having spent over fifteen years incarcerated. The case surrounding the
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  death of Peterson's wife, often referred to as the Staircase murder,
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  has garnered significant media attention and has been the subject
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  of various popular programs, including the limited series The Staircase,
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  currently available for streaming on Max. This complex narrative is
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  filled with unexpected developments, hidden truths, intriguing personalities, and divergent theories.
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  Below are key points to understand about this widely discussed case.
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  The body at the bottom of the staircase. At two
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  forty a m. On December ninth, two thousand one, Mike Peterson,
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  aged fifty eight at the time, contacted emergency services to
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  report that his wife, Kathleen, aged forty eight, had fallen
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  down a staircase consisting of fifteen to twenty steps within
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  their residence. He stated that he had been seated by
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  the back yard pool and entered the house to discover
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  Kathleen deceased. Peterson indicated that his wife had consumed alcohol
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  and may have taken a valium, suggesting that she could
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  have tripped as a result. The toxicology report appeared to
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  support this assertion, revealing that Kathleen's blood alcohol concentration was
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  point zero seven, which is near the legal limit for driving. Nevertheless,
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  the autopsy report for Kathleen indicated that she had suffered
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  significant head and neck injuries consistent with being violently struck
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  by a blunt object, and it was determined that she
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  had died after losing blood for over ninety minutes. Initially,
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  Kathleen's children backed Peterson's account, claiming he was outside reflecting
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  on material for his upcoming book when he discovered the
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  tragic incident involving their mother. However, their support shifted dramatically
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  as Mike's hidden truths came to light during the investigation
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  the owl theory. After one of the most protracted trials
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  in North Carolina's history, a jury found Mike Peterson guilty
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  of murdering Kathleen Peterson in October two thousand and three.
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  The presiding judge imposed a life sentence without the possibility
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  of parole. Peterson persistently appealed the conviction and sought a
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  new trial, without success until two thousand and nine, when T.
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  Lawrence Pollard, an attorney residing near the Petersons, discovered a
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  reference to a feather in the trial's court documents. Pollard,
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  who had not participated in the earlier legal proceedings, proposed
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  a theory suggesting that Kathleen may have been attacked by
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  an owl prior to her fatal fall, which could account
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  for the extensive damage to her head and neck. Initially
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  met with skepticism, the owl theory soon gained credibility. Reports
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  indicated that owl attacks were not uncommon in the Peterson's neighborhood.
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  Microscopic owl feathers, a splinter from a tree limb, and
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  cedar needles were found in a clump of hair that
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  had been forcibly removed from Kathleen's scalp. The wounds on
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  her scalp resembled those made by the talons of a
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  predatory bird. Additionally, blood smears and spatter patterns suggested that
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  she bled outside before forcefully closing a door. Doctor Patrick
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  t Reetig, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University
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  of Minnesota, along with Kate Davis, a wildlife expert and
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  director of Raptors of the Rockies, both asserted that Kathleen's
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  injuries could indeed have been inflicted by a large bird
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  of prey, specifically a barred owl. Mike Peterson copse a
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  plea deal despite the absence of a new trial stemming
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  from the owl theory. Attorney T Lawrence Pollard took on
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  Mike Peterson's case and collaborate with the novelist's legal team
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  to highlight the prosecutorial errors from the initial trial, a
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  venture that yielded unexpectedly significant results. Following Peterson's conviction. In
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  two thousand and three, District attorney Michael Nifong faced disbarment
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  and imprisonment due to misconduct related to the Duke La
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  Crosse case, while State Bureau of Investigation SBI analyst Dwayne
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  Deva was dismissed for fabricating evidence in thirty four different cases.
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  These revelations, along with additional instances of incompetence and corruption,
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  culminated in Peterson's release from prison in twenty eleven, during
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  which he was placed under house arrest while new trial
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  arguments were underway. By twenty fourteen, many of the restrictions
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  on Peterson were lifted, and the States subsequently approved a
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  new trial scheduled to commence in May two thousand and ten.
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  On February twenty fourth, two thousand seventeen, Mike Peterson entered
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  an Alfred plea to involuntary manslaughter, which allowed him to
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  maintain his innocence while acknowledging that a jury would likely
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  convict him, having already served a E. L. L.