We are surrounded by Angels and Other Enlightened Beings who wish to help us as we travel on our journey and experience the grand adventure of life. As mentioned above, Kathleen's high powered, high earning job meant she could afford to take out a hefty life insurance sum, which totalled $1.4 million. Kathleen Peterson may refer to: Kathleen Peterson (murder victim) Kathleen Peterson (artist) This page was last edited on 9 August 2022, at 12:05 (UTC). And it looked as though someone had tried to clean up blood from the wall near the stairs. Another important element of Michael's case focused on blood spatter found at the scene. Kathleen Peterson, 48, who was a successful business executive and was Michael's second wife, was found dead on 9 December 2001. Kathleen Peterson (born 21 February 1953 - died 9 December 2001, Age: 48 Years) was an American businesswoman, philanthropist, engineer, media face, and entrepreneur from Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Horrifying discovery. "They had a real story, which lasted until May 2017. Photos of her shaved head surfaced early on in the investigation, leading detectives (and later the prosecuting team) to believe she had been struck multiple times with a large, blunt object (the notorious blowpoke as referenced in the film.) The NBC series most recently broadcast an update of Down the Back Staircase in 2017. Over the years, there had been some tense moments over money and Michaels mayoral election bid, and the two frequently fought and made up. Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her home in 2001. At addition, she enrolled in Duke University's engineering school. Kathleen M. Peterson is the Founder and Chief Vision Officer of PowerHouse Consulting. 2 popular chain restaurants get B grades: Triangle sanitation scores (Feb. 28), Repealing North Carolinas pistol permit law makes everyone less safe | Opinion. We also talk about "life" on the Other Side with a new anecdote or two! Born Kathleen Hunt on February 21, 1953, she graduated first in her class from J.P. McCaskey High School andreports Indy Week"became the first female student accepted into Dukes engineering school." When paramedics arrived to render aid, Michael's son Todd was already . Peterson could have been sentenced to 64 to 86 months in prison, but the judge acknowledged the 89 months hed already been incarcerated, and thus, Peterson was made a free man. Their marriage, a second for both, seemed happy. On Dec. 9, 2001, novelist Michael Peterson found his wife, Kathleen, dead at the bottom of the back staircase. In one of his messages, Michael wrote that he was happily married to a dynamite wife but that he was very bisexual. Over the years, Dateline has continually covered the case of how writer Michael Peterson's wife, Kathleen, ended up dead at the base of a staircase in their 14-room house. But perhaps the most shocking element of the trial revolved around the mother of Michael Peterson's two adopted children. On December 9, 2001, Michael Peterson found his wife, Kathleen Peterson, dead at the bottom of the back staircase in the 11,000-square-foot mansion that they shared with their children in Durham, North Carolina. While Kathleen wasn't one of the employees to have been laid off, she reportedly told her sister Candace she was concerned that by the end of the year she wouldn't have a job. Call 1-888-626-7386 Advisor Id: 42767. This type of plea allows the accused to maintain their innocence while also acknowledging that the prosecution likely has sufficient evidence to convict. By Amy . Psychic Norbert, the only psychic asked by the family of Stacy Peterson to investigate her disappearance, correctly predicted the arrest of her husband, former Bolingbrook, IL police officer Drew Peterson. Once the strange coincidence of the unusual death was discovered, Elizabeth's body was exhumed as part of Michael's trial, and an autopsy concluded that she had died as the result of a "homicidal assault," and not a stroke, per The News & Observer. Michael Peterson and David Rudolf in court in 2017. Lestrade's access to Michael Peterson means the HBO Max adaptation has a wealth of source material to draw upon. The man who claims hes a psychic and goes by the name Biond Fury has reportedly purchased the Durham home that sadly served as the murder site for Nortel executive Kathleen Peterson. For instance, one theory suggested that the lacerations on the victim's head were caused by an owl, as "a microscopic feather was found in Kathleen Peterson's hand with some of her hair," via The News & Observer. Evidence was found of Peterson soliciting male escorts and was paying for sex when Kathleen was murdered. Another motive suggested by the prosecution hinged on the Peterson family's tenuous financial situation. Licensed Professional Counselor providing individual mental health therapy to adolescents and adults. Although testing would later confirm that Kathleen had some alcohol in her system, it was nowhere near the stagger and face-plant level. Follow More from Medium andrew costa in Human Parts Today I. Kathleen Winell Peterson, 73. Resides in Orange, CA. So what were really looking at here is someone who allowed his wife to bleed out on the floor for hours before he called 911.. Every product on this page was chosen by a Harper's BAZAAR editor. Instead, Michael laid the blame for his murder conviction on humans. The prosecution put forth several possible motives for Kathleen's murder. On 8th December 2000, Michael Peterson called emergency services saying that his wife Kathleen Peterson had fallen down the stairs. The trial of Michael Peterson saw untold twists and revelations, and a new HBO miniseries starring Colin Firth as Michael and Toni Collette as Kathleen looks likely to blow the whole thing open again. At the time of Peterson making the 911 call, he had claimed that Kathleen was "still breathing" however, when the authorities arrived, Kathleen had passed away from her injuries. However, Michael Peterson himself didnt return home after his release. Michael Peterson accused of murdering his wife Kathleen in December 2001 Kathleen found unconscious by Michael in North Carolina home, died short after Michael was convicted for murder in 2003 . Life is really full of surprises," the director told French publication LExpress. There's a lot of information that wasn't shared about Michael and Kathleen's life in The Staircase. And then there was the owl theory, introduced late in the documentary. That part of the prosecutions case doesnt seem impressive. Now 79 years old, he lives alone in a ground-floor . She had been drinking and was wearing floppy shoes, so she probably tripped, Michael told police. At 2:40 a.m. on December 9, 2001, Peterson called 911 to say he'd found his wife's body at the bottom of a staircase. But nothing could have prepared the family for what would happen shortly before Christmas in 2001. The front of the house at 1810 Cedar St. is visible from the street, but the entire 3.4-acre property is gated. Forensic Files produced A Novel Idea back in 2006, but any murder story that includes well-educated mansion owners plus a cheerful male escort on the witness stand is sure to be revisited many times. She graduated first in her class. Subsequent chapters were filmed after the house was sold. Michael claimed that Kathleen had been suffering from blackouts due to stress. While Michael was a novelist and newspaper columnist of varying success, Kathleen was an executive at communications firm Nortel, earning around $150,000 per year, via NBC News. In the last two episodes of The Staircase, filmed in 2016 as Michael Peterson's legal case finally drew to a close, you might have noticed the lawyers mentioning "strangulation" injuries discovered in Kathleen Peterson's autopsy. It was ruled in 2004 that Atwater and her biological father would be awarded the $1.5 million life insurance policy in Kathleen's name, which was initially would go to Peterson, WRAL reports.. The couple threw dinner parties for dozens of friends at their spread, which included a swimming pool with decorative fountains. "Michael Peterson knew that the amount of money he was bringing in through his writing had plummeted down to next to nothing," author of a book on Kathleen's death entitled Written In Blood, Diane Fanning, said on the Beyond Reasonable Doubt podcast. Following the show's airing, though, some want to learn more about the real details of . Michael Petersons attorney, David Rudolf, told the court, Show me one piece of evidence, one person who says that Kathleen was upset because Mike was bisexual. As viewers of both the documentary and HBO Max's adaptation will quickly learn, the crime scene looked extremely shocking. But other evidence pointed convincingly to Michaels guilt. It was her initiation as Healer and Guide into the Lineage of King Salomon that amplified Kathleen's natural ability to flow this Light and love energy. By the time Michael and Kathleen became a couple, his two daughters and Kathleens daughter from her first marriage, Caitlin Atwater, were already good friends. Brainy bunch. The authorities exhumed Liz Ratliffs body in 2003 and discovered multiple scalp lacerations, similar to those found on Kathleen Peterson. Peterson subsequently ended up raising Ratliffs young daughters, alongside his own two sons, as Ratliffs husband had died previously. The Staircase, starring Colin Firth and Toni Collette as Michael and Kathleen Peterson, explores the life of Michael Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife Kathleen at their sprawling North Carolina home after she died under suspicious circumstances in December 2001.. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Inside Kathleen Petersons Mysterious Death And The True Story Behind The Staircase. According to Cosmopolitan, barred owls are native to the area and known to attack joggers with some frequency. Your tax-deductible investment will help us work to Her hands and arms had contusion bruises but not her legs, which suggests evidence of a struggle. Many people are already familiar with the tragic death of Kathleen Peterson, who in 2001 was dead at the bottom of a staircase in her North Carolina home . Michael may have been a local newspaper columnist and author, but he wasn't a big earner - and he didn't own the 1810 Cedar Street property. That means a decreased flow of blood to the brain, and it takes hours for that to happen. Ashlie Chandler. Here are five facts to know about the case: 1. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Kathleens career as a telecommunications executive was thriving, and Michael had received a half-million-dollar advance on a book deal. Kathleen was also a successful lady. Some psychic. She co-edited The Emma Press Anthology of Illness, and previously spent all of her money on Kylie Cosmetics. Wikimedia CommonsIt has been theorized that a Barred Owl attacked Kathleen. However, HBO Max's The Staircase gives viewers the opportunity to reexamine the circumstances surrounding Kathleen's death, while also delving into Michael's trial. As reported by CNN Law Center, medical examiner Dr. Kenneth Snell had initially marked Kathleen's death as an "accident" caused by falling down the stairs. She confronted Michael about cheating on her, there was an argument, and he beat her to death with a fireplace implement, they alleged. Colin Firth plays her husband, Michael Peterson, the man who was accused of her murder. A forensic analysis showed that she had been lying there alive for hours before Michael called 911 around 2:40 a.m. convicted in one of North Carolinas longest trials, Peterson entered an Alford plea while awaiting a new trial in 2017. nationally recognized scholar and author Henry Louis Skip Gates Jr. As Peterson documentary debuts on Netflix, Durham braces for new attention -- and scrutiny, recent drone video that the house still has the swimming pool. And an owl expert testified that the appearance of a trident with three limbs converging to a point at roughly 30 degrees from each other, and a fourth limb converging to the same point at nearly 180 degrees from the centre limb of the other three limbs.. Amy Mackelden is a freelance writer, editor, and disability activist. The Petersons were close friends with Elizabeth Ratliff, who had two young daughters, Martha and Margaret. Kathleen and Michael Peterson famously lived in a sprawling 14-room mansion in the Forest Hills suburb of Durham, North Carolina. An agent from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), Raymond Young, assessed the couples finances and discovered that they had more than $142,000 in debt spread across 20 different accounts. Evidence collected from 1810 Cedar Street included Peterson's computers, pieces of wood from the stairwell, swabs of . While he'd been outside smoking his pipe, his wife of 14 years had taken a fall down the stairs. Perhaps he was trying to delete some files. Author, freelance writer and self-employed recruiter. But first, heres a recap of A Novel Idea along with extra information drawn from internet research: Full house. Its not what [de Lestrade] included, its what he did not include, Jones whose 2004 book A Perfect Husband profiles the case and became the basis for the 2007 Lifetime movie The Staircase Murders, starring Treat Williams told The Post. In 2018, Academy Award-winning French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade released The Staircase, a 13-episode Netflix documentary investigating the real causes of Peterson's passing. Early on in The Staircase, a 13-part docu-series originally produced in 2004 in France that both confuses, confuddles, frustrates and leaves us longing for more, we learn that Kathleens apparent tumble down a flight of stairs looked a lot more like a murder then a fall. What has yet to be determined was exactly how Kathleen met her demise. Tide turns. She had a net worth of around $2 million, according to Forensic Files. The legal age you can get married has just changed, Charles & Camilla break major royal tradition, Courteney Cox speaks on Harry magic mushroom claim, Harry 'adding at least one more chapter' to memoir, Dylan responds to being misgendered on Instagram. Ultimately, no charges involving Ratliff were brought, but North Carolina used the information about her death to strengthen the Kathleen Peterson case, which lacked a murder weapon. This, they said, led to a heated argument that ended with Michael pushing Kathleen down the stairs. She was a successful student and was the first woman admitted to Duke Universitys School of Engineering in 1967, where she earned her bachelors and masters degrees and met her first husband, physicist Fred Atwater. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. "Without Kathleen's job and her pay check, he could not continue to support his two adult sons, he could not continue to maintain that home, he could not live the lifestyle he'd grown accustomed to. In the spring before Gates bought the home in June 1989, it was a location for the 1990 movie The Handmaids Tale, which was filmed in Durham and Raleigh and starred Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway and Natasha Richardson. Whats more, the raptors are known to dive-bomb humans when they feel threatened, almost always targeting the head.. So what about the owl? The most recent Durham County tax appraisal is $1.9 million. CNN reported that Young testified during the trial, revealing the Petersons had been spending $100,000 a year more than they made for three years before Kathleen Peterson's death. But as circumstantial evidence . Stacy Peterson went missing in 2007 and her bloated piss bag of a husband Drew Peterson probably had everything to do with it. But Michael hit a rough patch when he decided to run for mayor of Durham. Diane Fanning explains the injuries in a little more detail in her book, Written In Blood. We know she had one biological daughter, Caitlin Atwater, two adopted daughters, Martha and Margaret Ratliff, and two step-sons,. Netflix acquired the series in 2018, once again reigniting fascination around the case. Everyone knows at least one wacky guy who wears shorts in cold weather. The couple combined their families into one household in the 5-bedroom 5-bath abode in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Durham. Insurance jackpot. She offers a refreshing and sometimes challenging philosophy to positioning the Contact Center as the true lifeline of the enterprisebelieving that vision, brand . Not inebriated. In response, the prosecution also argued that the motive could have been money. On October 10, 2003, the jury found Michael Peterson guilty, and the judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole. Menu Log In Sign Up A male escort even testified in court that he'd engaged in an email exchange with Michael mere months before Kathleen's death, with the pair planning to meet in person, via CNN. "It is simply not possible for me to discuss this with Kathleen.". They've [laid] off 45,000 people," he wrote. As the case rolled along, more shocking facts would surface. He stayed outside to smoke for 45 minutes or so and found her at the bottom of the stairs when he came back in. But public interest in the case didnt really explode until the following year, when Netflix expanded and updated a documentary by French director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade to create a 13-part bingefest called The Staircase. Much of that footage would be used for the construction of the original Staircase documentary. Kathleen was dead by the time first responders got there. Son uncooperative. However, that meeting never transpired, and it's unclear if Kathleen knew about her husband's sexuality or not. So, what do fans of The Staircase have to say about all of this? Although Michael was still married with four children of his own, the new couple merged their families in 1987. On Nov. 25, 1985, when Michael was living in Germany and married to his first wife, Ratliff turned up dead at the bottom of a staircase just as Kathleen Peterson did 16 years later. He was granted a new trial in 2011 on the grounds that the prosecution had delivered misleading testimony. And the happy hustler was off the table too the seizure of Petersons computer messages was ruled unlawful, so Brad couldnt testify again. You'd think this would have been a major point of evidence, but for some reason, up until then it had never been referenced in the docuseries. They argued Michael's plan to kill his wife revolved around the $1.4 million life insurance policy she had in place. Michael, a writer and would-be politician, called emergency . Michael Peterson echoed these fears in an email to a family friend six days before Kathleen's death. Usually it was the result of direct trauma to the bone and was common in strangulation or attempted strangulation," she noted. The couple originally moved into the home in 1997, four years before the incident. And since 2017, he has been a free man after his charges were reduced to manslaughter and he was released on time served. Her life insurance would have ensured Peterson would be able to maintain his public persona. Lifeline of the enterprisebelieving that Vision, brand True lifeline of the original Staircase documentary of source material to upon... Case doesnt seem impressive sex when Kathleen was dead by the prosecution put forth several possible motives for 's! 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