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The True Crime Story That Inspired HBO's The Staircase · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back, deep divers. Get ready, because today we're tackling
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  a case that's truly perplexing. We're diving into the mysterious
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  death of Kathleen Peterson.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this one is a roller coaster, that's for sure.
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  We're talking at investigations, trials, appeals, the works.
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  Speaker 1: It's a wild ride, and we're breaking it all down
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  for you. We've got excerpts of a detailed account of
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  everything that went down. So picture this December two thousand
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  and one, the Peterson family home. Everything seems normal, and
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  then Michael Peterson, Kathleen's husband, makes a frantic nine to
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  one one.
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  Speaker 2: Call, and that's where it all begins, right, that call
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  changes everything.
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  Speaker 1: He finds Kathleen at the bottom of the staircase, unconscious.
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  Can you imagine that one moment, your whole world turns
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  upside down.
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  Speaker 2: It's like a nightmare. What stars as an accident quickly
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  spirals into something a lot more complicated, especially when the
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  autopsy results came in.
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  Speaker 1: Right, the autopsy, that's always a turning point, but in
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  this case, it really threw a wrench in things. What
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  did they find, Well.
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  Speaker 2: For one, Kathleen had these lacerations on our head, seven
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  of them. Not your typical thing from falling down some stairs.
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  Speaker 1: That does sound strange.
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  Speaker 2: It was enough for the medical examiner to rule it
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  a homicide and suddenly all eyes are on Michael Peterson.
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  Speaker 1: From grieving husband to prime suspect. Just like that, And
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  as if things couldn't get more complicated, the investigation uncovered
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  another layer to this story, Michael Peterson's bisexuality.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that really added fuel to the fire. Especially back
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  then in two thousand and one, societal views on sexuality
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  were very different. Prosecutors really jumped on that, suggesting it
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  as a possible motive, you know, maybe a fight between
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  Michael and Kathleen. But it makes you think, did hey
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  maybe fixate too much on his personal life and not
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  enough on the hard evidence.
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  Speaker 1: It's a question that still lingers, for sure, and you
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  have to imagine the impact on the family, especially Kathleen's sisters.
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  They were supportive of Michael at first, but that revelation,
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  it drove a wedge between them.
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  Speaker 2: Totally understandable, and just when you thought the case couldn't
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  get any more tangled, another bombshell gets dropped. You ready
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  for this?
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  Speaker 1: Okay, now I'm really hooked. What could possibly make this
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  whole thing even more complicated.
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  Speaker 2: So remember how Kathleen was found at the bottom of
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  that staircase. Well years before, a friend of Michael's, someone
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  he knew through his first wife, died in a very
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  similar way. Elizabeth Ratliffe also found at the bottom of
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  a staircase.
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  Speaker 1: Hold on, are you serious? That's a crazy coincidence.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd raised a lot of eyebrows. Remember, at that time,
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  her death was ruled an accident. But after Kathleen's death,
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  investigators decided to take another look. They even went so
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  far as to exume Elizabeth Ratleff's body.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, that's a big step. Did they find anything? Did
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  it back up their suspicions about Michael?
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  Speaker 2: Get this, after the second autopsy, the medical examiner actually
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  changed their findings. They ruled Elizabeth Ratliffe's death a homicide.
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  Speaker 1: You're kidding. So now you have two cases years apart,
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  both involving a staircase, both ruled homicides, and Michael Peterson
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  is the common length. This is unbelievable.
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  Speaker 2: Tell me about it. It's like something out of a movie.
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  Speaker 1: So, with this new information about Elizabeth Ratliffe, what happens
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  to Michael.
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  Speaker 2: With all this swirling around him, the suspicious deaths, the
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  questions about his past. He ends up going to trial
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  for Kathleen's murder.
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  Speaker 1: That trial must have been insane, the media attention everything.
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  What was the prosecution's angle? How did they try to
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  prove he did it?
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  Speaker 2: They basically presented Michael as this manipulative husband, claimed he
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  had financial issues, played up his bisexuality, even suggested Kathleen
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  found out and threatened to leave him.
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  Speaker 1: And the defense what did they say?
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  Speaker 2: They fought tooth and nail, so there was no hard
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  proof tying Michael to the crime, pointed out holes in
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  the prosecution story, insisted that Kathleen's death was nothing but
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  a terrible accent.
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  Speaker 1: So you have both sides, each with their own compelling story.
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  What did the jury make of all of this?
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  Speaker 2: After a long and intense trial, the jury came back
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  with a guilty verdict. Michael Peterson was convicted of Kathleen's murder.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, guilty? What was the sentence? Did he just accept it?
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  Speaker 2: He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. It
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  seemed like that was it, the end of the story.
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  But this case just wouldn't quit.
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  Speaker 1: Oh I bet there's more. What happened next? There's always
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  another twist with this case, isn't there? What happened that
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  changed the game this time?
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  Speaker 2: This is where it gets really interesting. Remember Dwayne Dever,
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  the SBI analyst, the one who testified for the prosecution.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the blood evidence sky right him.
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  Speaker 2: Turns out his work had been called into question before,
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  like in other cases, there were issues with how he
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  handled evidence.
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  Speaker 1: Wait, seriously, so the expert they used to put Michael away?
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  He wasn't so trustworthy after all? What happened when that
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  all came out?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it blew the case wide open. Dever's whole testimony,
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  it was tainted. Suddenly, there's doubt everywhere. They couldn't just
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  ignore that.
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  Speaker 1: So what happened? Did they retry the case with a
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  different analyst?
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  Speaker 2: Well, they granted Michael a new trial. You get out
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  of prison on bail after eight years, can you imagine?
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  But then instead of going through another whole trial, Michael
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  Peterson made a decision that shocked a lot of people.
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  Speaker 1: What did he do?
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  Speaker 2: He took an Alford.
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  Speaker 1: Plea an Alford plea. Okay, for those of us who
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  don't have a lot degrees, break that down for me.
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  What is that.
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  Speaker 2: So basically, you plead guilty, right, but you don't actually
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  say you did it. You're kind of saying, Okay, there's
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  enough evidence that I might be found guilty, but I'm
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  still maintaining my innocence.
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  Speaker 1: That was like a legal loophole.
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  Speaker 2: It's more like a middle ground. Let's both sides move
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  on without a clear winner or loser. In Michael's case,
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  he got a reduced sentence, time served, walked free, but
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  it still doesn't answer the question of what happened to
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  Kathleen exactly.
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  Speaker 1: He's off the hook legally, but the mystery is still there,
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  and it sounds like the show isn't over yet. Even
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  with everything we've discussed. We've got the prosecution story, we've
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  got the defense's story, we've got mishandled evidence. But now
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  there's another theory we need to talk about. And it's
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  a weird one.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, this one is out there. It's called the
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  Owl theory the Owl series.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, you got to tell me more about this one.
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  What does an owl have to do with any of this?
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  Speaker 2: What if? Yeah, what if Kathleen's death wasn't a murder
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  at all? What if it was Get this a freak
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  accident involving an owl.
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  Speaker 1: Hold on an owl attack. That sounds like something out
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  of a nature documentary gone wrong.
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  Speaker 2: Owls, especially the big ones, they can be aggressive. Those
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  talons seriously sharp, and they can do some damage.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I know owls can be tough, but to
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  actually kill someone. What's the evidence there?
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  Speaker 2: Well, they found a feather and a small twig caught
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  in Kathleen's hair. Some people think that points to an
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  owl attack and the type of injuries she had. Some
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  experts say they could match up with what an owl
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  could do.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. So we've got a tangled web here, the prosecution's case,
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  the defense, the messed up evidence, and now the owl theory.
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  It's almost like this case was designed to be debated forever.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the thing about it, right, It forces you
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  to think, what do you believe and why. It's not
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  just about the evidence, it's about how we interpret it.
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  Even with all the information, sometimes we just can't know
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  for sure.
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  Speaker 1: It really makes you think this case, it's got it
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  all love lost to fight for justice. It's captivated people
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  for years, spark countless arguments, and we still don't have
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  all the answers.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the beauty of a good deep dies, isn't
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  it digging into the unknown, grappling with those unanswered questions.
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  It reminds us that the truth sometimes it's a lot
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  more complicated than we want it to be exactly.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes those are the most captivating stories. Thanks for joining
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  us on this journey into the heart of the Michael
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  Peterson case. It's a story that continues to fascinate and baffle,
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  a reminder that the truth can be elusive, and sometimes
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  the most unsettling possibility is that we may never truly
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  know what happened that night until next time. Keep diving deeper.