5 chilling details about Kathleen Peterson’s murder as shown in The Staircase (2022)

In a Durham, North Carolina, neighborhood, on December 9, 2001, novelist Michael Peterson came home from a dinner engagement to find his wife, Kathleen Peterson, lying lifeless at the bottom of their staircase made of wood.

The telecommunications executive had sustained serious lacerations to her head, and blood dripped from the floor down into the walls next to her body.

Immediately calling 911, Peterson maintained that she must have fallen because she had been drinking wine by the pool earlier in the evening.

What followed was a very high-profile legal fight that centered on one divisive issue: Was this a tragic accident, as Peterson claimed, or an act of violence on purpose? Charged with first-degree murder, Peterson was tried in 2003 in a trial that peeled away family secrets, forensic debates, and questions of justice.

He was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. A new trial was granted due to flawed evidence; he ultimately entered an Alford plea in 2017 for voluntary manslaughter, allowing his release after nearly eight years in prison.

The Staircase (2022) was first released on HBO Max in 2022, and is now streaming on Netflix.

The Staircase (2022): 5 chilling facts about Kathleen Peterson’s murder

1. The gruesome discovery on the staircase

Right from the opening moments of The Staircase, a miniseries released in 2022, the scene plays out very real: it's approximately 2:40 a.m. when Michael Peterson comes home and finds Kathleen lying at the foot of the 30-foot wooden staircase inside their house in Forest Hills.

Blood is pooling around her head, while crimson streaks paint the walls and stairs above her, indicating a violent end instead of some kind of tumble.

When the paramedics and police arrive, she has seven deep lacerations on her scalp, her body cold from the December chill.

Peterson, visibly shaken, tells the responders she had consumed wine and Valium earlier, possibly slipping while heading upstairs alone, as per Guardian recreates this chaos through frantic 911 audio and family reactions in the series, showing the immediate horror that turned a family gathering place into a crime scene.

Autopsy reports later confirmed massive blood loss as the cause of death, with no broken bones below the neck, fueling early doubts about a mere fall, as per the BBC.

2. blood spatter evidence pointing to foul play

Forensic analysis provides a core tension in The Staircase (2022), particularly the blood evidence prosecutors used to argue against an accidental fall.

Tests using luminol revealed faint traces of blood on the walls and ceiling of the staircase that, though invisible to the naked eye, glowed under chemical light to tell a story of possible struggle or repeated blows rather than a single descent.

Expert witness Duane Deaver testified that the pattern showed a clear case of beating, estimating Kathleen had suffered as many as 10 blows to the head with a blunt object, such as a missing fireplace blow poke-missing in the house, according to the Guardian.

The show airs lab scenes and courtroom cross-examinations where this piece of evidence led the 2003 jury to a conviction.

However, Deaver's credibility later crumbled; in 2011, he was fired for falsifying reports in multiple cases, leading to Peterson's retrial order, as per CNN.

3. Revelations of Michael's hidden bisexual relationships

One of the most salient and disturbing factors revealed during The Staircase (2022) has been the uncovering of the secret life of Michael Peterson, which prosecutors claimed showed motive for the killing.

During the trial, evidence showed explicit emails and payments to male escorts, including a male stripper, over several years, activities Peterson had kept from Kathleen amid their apparently stable marriage.

The series reveals tense family discussions and courtroom testimony when this bisexuality is weaponized, with the prosecution suggesting Kathleen discovered incriminating bisexual porn on their home computer the night she died, catalyzing a fatal confrontation over finances and fidelity.

Peterson maintained she knew and accepted it, but anonymous tips to police revealed checks totaling thousands to a man named Brad, adding financial strain amid Kathleen's executive salary supporting their lifestyle, according to the Guardian.

4. The eerie echo of Elizabeth Ratliff's death

One of the most unsettling parallels in The Staircase (2022) is how Kathleen's fate relates to that of Elizabeth Ratliff, a family friend who died in strangely similar circumstances in 1985.

Ratliff was found at the bottom of her German staircase with fatal head wounds; she had named Peterson the guardian of her children in her will just hours before he later adopted her two daughters as his own, Caitlin and Martha.

The series flashes back to that event, in which Peterson finds her body, much like Kathleen's, and questions abound during the 2003 trial: a coincidence or a pattern?

When exhumed in 2003, Ratliff's remains showed similar lacerations, leading to speculation of a repeated modus operandi, as CNN reported.

Prosecutors hinged an argument on this history as one that defined Peterson as a serial killer, while the defense pooh-poohed it as an unrelated tragedy, as per the BBC.

5. The bizarre owl attack theory

Coming well into the season, the "owl theory" is a macabre alternative explanation for an owl attack on Kathleen outside before she stumbled indoors in The Staircase (2022).

Defense attorney David Rudolf shows evidence, including microscopic feathers and pine needles in her hair, plus pine tree bark under her fingernails.

All that suggests an outdoor attack that forced her bleeding into the house down the stairs. Pathologist Dr. Neal Haskell testifies that the scalp wounds are similar to talon gashes, not blunt force, and tiny red feathers found at the scene are like those of local barred owls that are known for dives, according to CNN.

Catch The Staircase (2022) streaming on Netflix.