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[Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that would like to remind us all that you can
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observe a lot just by watching he is the captain and I'd like to remind you that
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playing a game of flicky flicky in public is a crime it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
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Trillium Brewing Company garage grade four and a quarter bottle caps out of five Secret Stairs is trillium's
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cocoa hints which makes Secret Stairs awesome and this wonderful beer was brought to us by these good good peeps
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right here first up we have Amanda from Baltimore Maryland a big shout out to Nicole from Rahway New Jersey next up we
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business that's right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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[Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] please please [Music] Kathleen Peterson was born February 21st
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1953 in Greensboro North Carolina she grew up in Lancaster Pennsylvania and graduated first in her class at high
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school also voted Girl of the Year so it's quite obvious she was well liked and respected by her fellow classmates
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she moved to Durham North Carolina to attend Duke University it's been reported she was the first female
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student accepted into Duke's engineering school so a very bright young woman she
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met her first husband Fred Atwater at Duke they had a daughter Caitlyn their marriage did not last later she met
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Michael Peterson Michael graduated from duke as well after extensive schooling and education Peterson took a job with
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the U.S Department of Defense to research military involvement in Vietnam he also had a first marriage to a lady
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named Patricia Sue she taught Elementary School on the Rhine Maine Air Force Base
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in West Germany they had two children Clayton and Todd in 1968 Peterson enlisted in the Marines
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and served in Vietnam in 1971 he received an honorable discharge with the rank of Captain after a car accident
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left him with a permanent disability Michael and Patricia lived in Germany for some time there they befriended
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Elizabeth and George Ratliff and their two children Margaret and Martha now unfortunately George would pass away
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and after his death the Petersons and the Ratliff families became very close when Elizabeth Ratliff died in 1985
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Michael became the guardian of her two children after Michael and Patricia divorced in 1987 Clayton and Todd the
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two sons went to live with their mother Patricia and Margaret and Martha stayed with Michael who then moved to Durham
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North Carolina Clayton and Todd would later also join their father okay so both are divorced
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then when later Michael and Kathleen meet and then they are together in 1992 the couple bought a 14-room dream home
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on Cedar Street and five years later Kathleen and Michael married in 1997. now our murder case and the day in
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question takes place in 2001. by this time Kathleen is and has been a successful business executive for Norton
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making about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year Peterson Michael Peterson wrote three novels based around
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his experiences during the Vietnamese conflict The Immortal Dragon a time of war and a bitter peace are the three
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titles of his books he also co-authored several other books and he worked as a newspaper columnist for the Durham
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Herald Sun where his columns became known for their criticism of of police and Durham County District Attorney
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James Harden Jr mainly because of what Peterson suggested was a lack of ability for the local law in order to solve
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cases and get convictions let's start with the timeline of the murders so we'll start a day before the actual
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event so on Friday December 7 2001 Kathleen takes the day off from work that afternoon the Peterson's Michael
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and Kathleen go Christmas shopping Friday evening the Petersons attend an event for the North Carolina Independent
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party Michael was involved in politics at different points in his life so it makes
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sense that they would be attending this event now on Saturday December 8th at approximately 3 30 p.m hundreds of files
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are deleted from Michael Peterson's PC with a disc purging program called quick clean at 4 41 PM Michael arrives at the
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YMCA gym at approximately 6 PM the married couple talks about renting a movie for the
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night at 6 59 PM Michael rents America's America's Sweethearts at Blockbuster Video
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at 9 45 PM Christine Tomasetti arrives at the Peterson's home to take Todd their son to a party she sees Kathleen
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and Michael sharing a bottle of wine at this time around 10 20 p.m Christine and
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Todd leave for this party at 10 40 PM the password at Water logs into the Peterson's PC
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Michael Peterson says that they finished the movie probably around 11 p.m and then they went to the kitchen and talked
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for a while Michael later says that the two would talk at night for two to three
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hours sometimes and that he knows that they drank two bottles of wine that night he does not give a more exact
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amount of time that they are in the kitchen drinking and talking but pay attention because the following times
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are extremely important to our case at 11 08 PM Norton Network's co-worker Helen prislinger later testified that
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she talked to Kathleen Peterson at this time and that Kathleen did not sound intoxicated and did not seem abnormal in
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any way she did not sense that Kathleen and Michael Peterson were fighting at this time and he heard Kathleen ask her
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husband for his email address Miss pritzlinger said Kathleen needed a document for a teleconference scheduled
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for 10 a.m the next day and was expecting an email with that a doc with that document attached the email was in
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fact sent to Michael Peterson's email address at 10 53 PM prislinger's email arrives the blank emails PowerPoint
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attachment was never opened the attachment was titled readiness on Sunday December 9 2001 maybe sometime
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after midnight the Petersons drank and talked outside near the pool please note it is about 50 degrees out at night that
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night at this time according to Michael after talking in the kitchen the two went to the pool and quote we were
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talking here indicates near the pool for a fair amount of time again Captain not
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giving us a great exact understanding of how long he believes they were out there
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and at what time did they go to the pool but indicating that they were outside talking another statement he actually
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says that they're out on the porch for a while then they go out to the pool area
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but Michael was uh pipe smoker so he would smoke his pipe and talk outside so yes it's kind of
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chilly outside but he's smoking I think Kathleen might have been a smoker maybe on some level you know you know we
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have those people that smoke when they drink right um and I say that because later there
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was some nicotine found in her body so she could have joined him for a smoke or just took a puff or two uh when they're
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outside having their conversation but there's also a lot of people that when they drink it's like uh right when they
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start drinking they don't need one but once they get past a certain point they need many cigarettes so right away I
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don't see I don't have any red flags no major red flags going off regarding Michael Peterson's statements about that
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night just I mean other than the computer being cleaned right right that seems odd but on top of that I mean as
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far as what's going down at this point in the evening 11 o'clock 12 O'Clock maybe a little bit later
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having watched the docu-series the staircase they didn't directly show this but often when Michael Peterson is kind
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of doing the one-on-one thing with the camera I almost always see like little red
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stains on the side of his lips like this comes off to me as a guy that very much
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likes drinking his wine um and so him saying that him and his wife were hanging out on a Saturday
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night having a couple bottles of wine does not strike me as weird it actually I I think this is probably exactly what
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was going down at that time and we also have the eyewitness that came in to pick
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up the sun says hey I saw the two hanging out and they were drinking together now according to Michael
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this is where I start to wonder about things because according to Michael at approximately 2 30 a.m he leaves the
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pool area he goes inside and he finds his wife at the bottom of the stairs go back what time did she leave the pool
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area well that's what's a little bit unclear to me because he states that we were out here for a fair amount of time
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talking we were talking together and he estimates that she could have left as long as 45 minutes to an hour before he
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left the pool area or it could have been as little as 30 minutes from when he left the pool area but during that time
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sometime during that time Kathleen leaves the pool area and heads inside for bed Michael stays outside to drink
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and has a smoke like you said then Kathleen at some point suffers multiple deep complex lacerations and avulsions
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to the scalp multiple small abrasions and contusions to the face and a fracture with associate Hemorrhage of
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the thyroid cartilage in the neck so quite a bit of injuries during this time right now depending on which report you
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read and this is not a major deal because we're talking about a difference of 60 seconds or so some Reports say at
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2 40 a.m some say 2 41 am Michael Peterson calls 9-1-1 and that's the 9-1-1 call that you heard at the start
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of the show now the operator picks up and says Durham 911 where is your emergency to which Michael replies uh
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1810 Cedar Street please operator what's wrong Peterson my wife had an accident she's still breathing operator what kind
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of accident Michael Peterson she fell down the stairs she's still breathing please come
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9-1-1 is she conscious Peterson what 9-1-1 is she conscious Peterson no she's not conscious please
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9-1-1 how many stairs did she fall down Michael Peterson what what 9-1-1 how many stairs Peterson uh uh uh
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he's failing to give an answer there regarding the stairs I get this doesn't seem like a question
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he might have been expecting whether he's guilty or innocent the 911 operator tells him to calm down calm down sir
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calm down Peterson no damned 16-20 I don't know please get somebody here right away please 9-1-1 okay somebody's
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dispatching the ambulance while I'm asking you questions Peterson it's uh oh it's Forest Hills okay please please
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9-1-1 okay sir someone is dispatching the ambulance is she awake now Peterson um um 9-1-1 hello hello Peterson
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um um um now that's the end of that call asked if she's awake now Peterson does not give an answer and for whatever
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reason we don't know but the call is ended 2 46 a.m Michael Peterson calls 9-1-1 a second time 9-1-1 Durham 9-1-1
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what is your emergency Peterson where are they it's 1810 Cedar she's not breathing please please would you hurry
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up 9-1-1 sir Peterson can you hear me 9-1-1 sir Peterson yes 9-1-1 sir calm down they're on their way
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can you tell me for sure she's not breathing sir hello hello at 2 48 a.m paramedics arrive and
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Kathleen Peterson is found dead in a hallway at 3 A.M police and detectives begin to
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arrive and search 1810 Cedar Street at 3 24 a.m investigators secure the scene now between 4 15 and 5 A.M
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some point Peterson logs on to his office computer and he's overheard mumbling something about email
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at 5am Michael Peterson calls his attorney now let's go into some more detailed accounts of what took place during this
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time shall we so we have James Rose and Ron Page paramedics with the Durham County Emergency Medical Services they
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arrive at the Peterson's Residence at this same time Michael's son Todd Peterson arrived the Peterson's house is
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a large estate home with an open four-year entrance the paramedics found the front door open and noticed blood on
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it straight ahead through the front door is the large main staircase leading to the second floor
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immediately to the left after entering is a front hallway leading down to the kitchen
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off of this hallway near the kitchen is an enclosed narrow stairwell also leading to the second floor yeah there's
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a turn in in the staircase as well yeah and upon entering the house the paramedics observe Kathleen lying at the
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bottom of this stairwell her legs were out into the hallway and her head was just inside the encased open door frame
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where the first few steps are located now the stairwell runs parallel to the hallway but has a few angled steps as
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you had just mentioned at the bottom designed to open up the staircase perpendicular into that hallway
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Michael was seen standing over Kathleen in a semi-neese bent position with blood
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on his hands arms legs and feet he wore shorts and a t-shirt this t-shirt is partially soaked blood soaked with
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splatter spots when paramedics arrived at Kathleen's body Todd the son tried to pull his father away stating dad she's
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dead the paramedics are here paramedics Rose and Paige quickly determined that Kathleen had no pulse
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and she was not breathing Michael stated that he had gone outside to turn off the
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lights came back in and then found her at the bottom of the steps paramedic Rose testified later that
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there was an enormous amount of blood he said dried blood was on the steps and also on the wall and it also looked like
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it had been wiped away or wiped on it had been smeared instead of just blood droplets on the wall he testified
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that based on his experience there was an unusual amount of blood for a fall and that the most severe injury he had
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seen from a fall was a broken neck the blood under Kathleen's head had already clotted and started to harden so
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detective Holland was asked to give his opinion on this scene yeah he's from the
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homicide unit and they wanted to bring him in because they were a little confused about what they are seeing
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right there's we have a call that a a person fell down the stairs that there's been an accident yet they're seeing a
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lot of blood and they're seeing blood in different places throughout the house which is calling it they're calling the
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scene suspicious right so Holland says that he received a page approximately around three o'clock in the morning and
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that he was going to arrive at this death investigation he said that the call he received came in as someone had
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fallen down the steps but upon arrival detective Holland says this does not look like an accident forming an
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immediate opinion detective Holland identified himself to Mr Peterson and even shook his hand and explained to him
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that he was sorry for his loss but that it appeared that the scene looked suspicious and it needed to be processed
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at trial detective Holland was asked was Michael helpful at that point did he answer your initial questions detective
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Holland said no no he pretty much was very quiet kept to himself didn't say a whole lot now police videotaped the
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scene as the officers found it Michael Peterson's tennis shoes and socks by the foot of the body white towels soaked red
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with blood from Kathleen's injury to the back of her head blood smears up the oak
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staircase and on the walls above detective Holland called for a crime scene analyst and expert in blood
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spatter who in turn told the detective he felt strongly that this was a homicide
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for the next 20 hours officers meticulously photographed and documented what they now regarded as a crime scene
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there was a small amount of blood outside on the walkway blood stains on the front door the blood on the kitchen
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sink a wine bottle and glasses on the counter every inch of the three acre property
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was combed luminal testing revealed bloody Footprints leading from Kathleen Peterson's body into the laundry room
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then going to the kitchen refrigerator and sink then moving to a wine glass cabinet which also had blood on it the
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footprints mysteriously stopped at the cabinet they just stopped yeah later at trial the defense would challenge the
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cops on what they didn't do at the Peterson house the police didn't tape off the area of the stairwell until 3 34
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a.m almost an hour after the call came in and by then it was too late Peterson's lawyers criticized what they
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called sloppy police procedures the blood in that area had been altered the scene at the house had been contaminated
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example Michael goes up to Kathleen with the police watching hugs her Todd takes him
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the son puts him on the couch where there's blood transfer and then Todd says can I get some soda in a glass and
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the police say sure and he goes there he goes Todd walking around the kitchen with blood on his hands so at trial
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police would point out that they found blood in suspicious locations mainly in different areas of the kitchen right and
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that these were red flags however as I just stated you can see you can kind of see why there may have been blood in
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strange locations throughout the kitchen and in my opinion the blood in the kitchen area for example was a complete
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irrelevancy once you established that there was contamination there in the kitchen with the police standing right
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by well they also did tests to make sure that there there wasn't any cleaning products used in the kitchen to clean up
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any evidence and there was none found later that day Dr Deborah radish a pathologist with the office of the North
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Carolina medical examiner performed an autopsy on Kathleen's body toxicology results showed that Kathleen's blood
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alcohol content was .07 percent the autopsy report concluded that Kathleen sustained a matrix of severe injuries
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including a fracture of the thyroid neck cartilage and seven lacerations caused by a homicidal assault to the top and
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back of her head consistent with blows from a blunt object the result of repeated blows with a light yet rigid
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weapon and had died from blood loss 90 minutes to two hours after sustaining the injuries they also found that she
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took a Valium that night later Michael Peterson's defense disputed this Theory according to their analysis Kathleen
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skull had not been fractured by the blows nor was she brain damaged which was inconsistent with injury sustained
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in a beating death forensic expert Dr Henry Lee hired by the defense testified that the blood spatter evidence was
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consistent with an accidental fall down the stairs police investigators concluded that the injuries were
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inconsistent with such an accident we'll get right back to the staircase right after this quick beer break
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[Music] foreign [Music] cheers mates cheers to all cheers to everybody how about some theories
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Captain let's get into some reasons why the prosecution and law enforcement would believe that Michael Peterson had
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motive to kill his wife okay so we have Durham County District Attorney James Harden Jr and the prosecution attacked
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Peterson's credibility focusing on his alleged misreporting of his military service and what they described as
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Michael's secret life and we will get into that in a bit but first Michael's credibility during a campaign for mayor
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Michael P Michael Peterson claimed he was awarded a silver star a bronze star with Valor and two purple hearts he had
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all of these medals but said he did not have the documentation for them he claimed he received one Purple Heart
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after being hit by shrapnel when another Soldier stepped on a land mine and the other when he was shot Peterson later
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admitted his War injury was not the result of the shrapnel wound in Vietnam but was the result of a vehicle accident
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in Japan where he was stationed after the war as a military policeman okay so he was a military policeman he's hit by
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a car or he's in a car accident and then he claims that he got a purple heart for that but not for that but for
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something else well when he's running for mayor he claims that he sustained big time Big Time wounds during the
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course of War he was inflicted with shrapnel and then he was also shot which is a much bigger difference than being
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in a car accident so we have a liar on our hands well not only that and these are Big lies I mean this is also a guy
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that wrote three books about the Vietnam War right right fictitious books I believe but
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they centered around the Vietnam War well some articles refer to him as a war hero
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um I don't know if I would go so far he's a war zero yeah I mean I mean technically I guess in my mind anybody
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that serves overseas serves this great country is some form of hero the problem I have here is he's elevating himself to
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a whole different level and he was obviously not deserving of any of that credit that he was willing to take I
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mean we have we have men and women that come home to their families in caskets right that receive purple hearts that
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receive some of the awards that he is claiming that he earned and he didn't and and like you said a
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liar and these are Big lies another motive for Kathleen's murder would be a 1.5 million dollar life insurance policy
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the prosecution witness uh Raymond young said that the Petersons were spending about a hundred thousand dollars a year
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more than they made during the each during each of the three years before Kathleen Peterson's death young also
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testified that when Kathleen Peterson died the Petersons were carrying more than
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142 thousand dollars in credit card and credit line debt spread across 20 active
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accounts now the defense objected to this unsuccessfully that Young's credit card information essentially a report of
00:28:57
a report amounted to hearsay testimony the defense also complained that young did not distinguish between different
00:29:06
kinds of expenses such as recurring bills and discretionary purchases during his analysis of Peterson's cash flow
00:29:15
the defense pointed out that young had counted checks written to buy stocks as expenses but didn't count the sale of
00:29:24
those stocks as quote normal income the defense also questioned young about why he did not account for the thousands of
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dollars that flowed through Kathleen Peterson's accounts when Norton networks her employer reimbursed her for business
00:29:40
expenses using Young's own figures of the couple's assets mortgage liabilities and
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credit card debt the defense showed that the Petersons had a combined net worth of more than 1.4 million dollars defense
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lawyer Thomas Mayer asked as they sat there that December weekend even with your analysis this couple was worth more
00:30:04
than 1.4 million dollars isn't that correct that's right young replied so again the prosecution is trying to prove
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that they had some money issues and that would be the motive because then he could collect the insurance check
00:30:17
that kind of backfired on the prosecution so their next theory for motive is going to be kind of a dark
00:30:23
secret yeah this this Theory would be that Kathleen's murder uh uh was motivated by the discovery of Michael's
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Secret Life by Kathleen on the night of the murder so the prosecutor believed that Kathleen stumbled upon something
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explosive on the Peterson's home computer downloaded images of naked men there was
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two approximately 2 000 of them there were also Liaisons outside of the marriage a series of email exchanges
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between Michael Peterson and a local male prostitute he had found through the internet that Kathleen didn't know about
00:31:03
the other man introduced in trial was Brad from Raleigh so he's at wait 2 000 downloaded
00:31:10
naked pictures of dudes correct pornography on his computer that's a lot of twig and berries well this guy Brad
00:31:18
from Raleigh was a 20 year old 26 year old excuse me former Soldier and I think he went by the moniker top Soldier his
00:31:27
website pick was a Beefcake pose complete with dog tags according to the prosecutor by late summer 2001 four
00:31:35
months before Kathleen's death Michael Peterson agreed to get with Brad for sex at Peterson's home Brad on the stand
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said we were to hook up I believe on September 5th 2001. the prosecutor asked and what was the price you quoted him
00:31:53
Brad said I believed it was 150 dollars per hour but Brad told the court when the appointed day came around he was
00:32:02
tired and canceled the prosecutor so you just simply didn't contact him back at all Brad stated I don't think I
00:32:11
contacted him that night I have found out that I contacted him about 25 days later to apologize for not showing up
00:32:20
prosecutor asked after you contacted him to apologize for not showing up did you
00:32:24
have further communication with him Brad no ma'am Brad testified that he and Peterson had never met until they were
00:32:33
in court together for the prosecutor the bran up episode was to show that the marriage was anything but Rock Solid and
00:32:43
the trail of email messages that became the quote trigger that the state talked about I want to throw out something a
00:32:51
little strange that I I noticed during the documentary one Brad is very Charming on the stand
00:32:59
it's telling jokes he's smart yeah and uh and a good looking guy and at some point Michael Peterson's daughters are
00:33:08
are listening to his testimony and one of the daughters is kind of glowing and the way a girl would be listening to an
00:33:15
attractive guy talk and be Charming you know she's kind of being spending by him
00:33:20
if that makes any sense and then and then and then he says something to basically remind the courtroom that he's
00:33:29
a gay man and her face like shrivels up well I I hate to say this but it's Durham North Carolina
00:33:37
um this is tough for some people in the audience to identify with let's say let's continue
00:33:45
on with with some of the things that Brad said um what do I mean by that I mean exactly
00:33:51
what I said it's Durham North Carolina this testimony uh the thought of a bisexual married man going outside of
00:34:00
his marriage is going to be tough for people in that audience to identify with now the defense was asked was that an
00:34:07
unusual occurrence for you to have or plan to have sexual relations with them with married men right Brad stated to
00:34:16
the contrary married men are in the majority of most of the clients that I saw when I was an escort the defense
00:34:24
with regards to the kinds of men that you tended to have escort relationships with can you give us some indication as
00:34:34
to their professions for example Brad answered sure usually they are professionals because my fees are quite
00:34:41
High I saw doctor attorneys and one judge and the judge says not this judge right
00:34:50
and it was noted it was noted in the court transcript the defense then asked did a number of the men the married men
00:34:59
that you had sexual relations with have wives that knew they were bisexual Brad stated I believe most of them did from
00:35:08
my experience yeah the defense asked in your experience was it unusual for a wife married to a bisexual man to know
00:35:17
that he was bisexual Brad's answer was not at all the defense asked was it unusual for a
00:35:24
bisexual man using your services to be in a happy marriage Brad answered not at all most of the men who would see me
00:35:33
would have their time with me and then go back to their happy healthy lives It's Not Unusual to be loved by anyone
00:35:42
the defense asked was there any kind of personal relationship involved between you and Michael Peterson Brad stated no
00:35:48
sir I believe in one of the emails it was very explicit that there would be no emotions involved no personal
00:35:55
relationships involved and it would be strictly physical yeah I mean I think he also stated he loved his wife and they
00:36:03
had a really good marriage you're you're exactly right the defense asks did Michael Peterson ever do or say anything
00:36:10
either on the phone or by email to indicate that he was not in love with Kathleen Peterson Brad answered to the
00:36:18
contrary in his emails unlike most of my clients he indicated that he had a great
00:36:23
relationship most clients don't want to say anything about their relationship he
00:36:29
said he had a warm relationship with his wife and nothing would ever destroy that
00:36:33
the defense showed the jury Peterson's own words and an email to Brad which stated quote I am married very happily
00:36:42
married with a dynamite wife yeah the prosecution alleged that Kathleen would have been infuriated by learning that
00:36:50
her husband was having an extramarital relationship not with another woman but a man their statement that once she
00:36:59
learned this information that an argument ensued and then a homicide occurred the defense argued that
00:37:07
Kathleen accepted Michael's bisexuality and that the marriage was very happy a position supported by Michael and
00:37:15
Kathleen's children and other friends and Associates now we do know that Caitlyn so Caitlyn is technically
00:37:23
Kathleen's daughter from her first marriage Caitlyn stopped supporting Michael Peterson when this information
00:37:30
was to close disclosed so let's jump back to the children shall we we have children of Michael Peterson from his
00:37:38
first marriage that's Clayton and Todd his two sons and they support him correct and then we have children of
00:37:46
George and Elizabeth Ratliff who are both deceased but were raised by Michael Peterson this is Margaret and
00:37:53
Martha yeah they both support him as well correct then we have the daughter of Kathleen Peterson uh Caitlin Atwater
00:38:02
she initially proclaimed Michael's innocence and publicly supported him but after learning of Peterson's bisexuality
00:38:09
and after reading her mother's autopsy report right she broke off from the rest of the family this motive is kind of
00:38:17
hard to decide if it could even work as a motive because you don't know if his wife knew
00:38:24
about his bisexual yeah I agree Captain for me it kind of like you know I I fancy myself a pretty open-minded dude
00:38:32
and for me it really just kind of put me at the top of the fence you know where I
00:38:36
could see one side and see the other side and mainly practically agree with both sides you
00:38:43
know I think what they did here is I think the prosecution made a strong case that this could be a motive I think the
00:38:51
defense did a good job of stating maybe this is no motive at all right because if she knew and she and that was the
00:38:58
arrangement that their marriage had where and even Brad the escort said that he felt that most of his clients were
00:39:07
mainly heterosexual with some homosexual tendencies and so it was just kind of you know maybe a percentage well they're
00:39:17
80 percent uh straight uh 20 gay or whatever it is and and so if that's the arrangement that
00:39:25
their marriage had then who are we to say how they should live their life or or how they should conduct their
00:39:31
marriage right that's on them but the issue here then becomes as far as like the children go
00:39:39
did you have any knowledge of this did you did you even have a thought process that
00:39:45
your father was doing this so that would be so I can see why this children are supportive I can see why they would not
00:39:52
be and because I also think it if you didn't know and now they're saying that your your mom knew but you had no proof
00:40:02
well again we have him lying about his War record now he was not you know not lying but not
00:40:11
telling the full truth to his children about his sexuality so so I don't question that so much
00:40:17
because I don't know that I don't know that if I had children if I would share you know the things that I'm into with
00:40:25
them I don't think there's that's a weird conversation to have this podcast no so I I don't I I don't know what I
00:40:32
mean is that they might feel like it was another way of being lied to is what I'm saying
00:40:39
no I agree with that but what I'm stating is that I don't find the children not knowing to be weird right
00:40:46
you know I I I don't of course if they knew then obviously I'd be convinced that there was no problem with this
00:40:53
thing but if they didn't know that doesn't to me suggest that there is a problem and actually furthermore you
00:40:59
know somebody was talking to said hey so really the sole question regarding the state's case is did Kathleen know or did
00:41:07
she not know and I said well I see what you're saying there but however it's not
00:41:12
necessarily did she know or did she not know it's was she okay with it if she did know right and they're trying to
00:41:18
present a motive the problem with this is especially in a marriage there could be thousands of different
00:41:26
motives that we would never know because there could be hundreds of conversations
00:41:31
that they had in private that nobody even knew about so I mean so it's like they're just trying to establish a
00:41:39
motive and like you said they do a good job prosecution does of presenting it defense does a great job of deflecting
00:41:47
it and so yeah it kind of puts you on the the center of the post yeah and I think what they did was they both
00:41:52
present their side and then it's left up to the members of the jury to figure out
00:41:58
what side they fall to and what they believe actually occurred one thing though that I do question here is his
00:42:07
defense was very good I thought it was a good team a smart group of people they questioned a lot of things they defended
00:42:15
him very well the thing that that did not happen and I know it doesn't exist because I know
00:42:22
that they were smart enough that they would have presented this at trial was they couldn't prove that Kathleen
00:42:28
Peterson knew that Michael was bisexual right they couldn't prove that Kathleen was okay with it so you know that a
00:42:36
conversation took place between the the head defense attorney and Michael Peterson that there's a sit down in a
00:42:43
closed room where he says to Michael Michael is there anything anywhere any proof that you can show me that Kathleen
00:42:51
knew and that she was okay with it or right was there any proof that you can show me that she at least knew that gets
00:42:57
us over one speed bump right and so that didn't exist and when you have Michael Peterson who talks about this
00:43:06
he's a little vague too don't you wouldn't you agree he says yeah she knew uh did you guys talk about it no it
00:43:12
wasn't really something we spoke about but again but this is a this is a tricky thing because these are conversations
00:43:19
behind closed doors and could it be a situation where she's like okay I understand that I mean they could have
00:43:26
been you know they develop into a relationship and he says to her I have this side of me that I like to explore
00:43:33
and she might have said that's fine with me don't want to hear about it right you know just as long as
00:43:40
you're not being with other women right that could have been the agreement who knows I mean uh and that's
00:43:47
I don't know it's it's it's very tricky and again though I stick by what I said where it's less important that Kathleen
00:43:55
knew it's more important that she was either okay with it or not okay well let's start with the idea of the should
00:44:03
this even be been been allowed in the courtroom and I believe the judge said later that he almost wishes that he
00:44:11
would have just said no we can't talk about this and the reason why was because he was afraid
00:44:17
you know it's in the South would it be present prejudicial basically right basically if you bring up that this guy
00:44:26
is is bisexual would there just be one or two people on the jury that would just
00:44:31
find him guilty because he's bisexual right and I think for me if I were the judge or the prosecutor my argument that
00:44:41
it would would it be in the trial and I understand don't send a weird email that
00:44:48
I'm claiming that the judge and prosecutor work together right I understand the way the system works but
00:44:54
what I mean by this is it's a part of the state's case right the state's case is that Kathleen Peterson that night
00:45:01
stumbled upon information she found on his computer that suggested that this kind of activity was going on therefore
00:45:09
she confronted him about that that night they got into an argument and he beat her to death right that's the state's
00:45:16
case yeah but that's because the other motive wasn't going to stick so well so when they found this I think it was more
00:45:23
about let's make this a part of our motive so we can bring up the fact that he has almost this double life and and I
00:45:32
because I do think that shows something if she didn't know about the double life
00:45:35
and his kids didn't know about the double life and it seemed like nobody nobody knew
00:45:40
about the double life then it's like then what is HE capable of you don't know because you don't really know the
00:45:46
real person I agree with that but what I mean by it goes with the state's cases if you
00:45:51
follow the timeline of events of known events that night not what Michael Peterson says but what others state
00:45:57
right is that Kathleen Peterson was using his computer that night to receive information from her work we know that
00:46:06
from her co-worker who says I overheard Kathleen asking him for his email address and we have the password being
00:46:15
accessing the computer and so the state's case would be this was a computer that she didn't often use or
00:46:22
didn't regularly use maybe used it for the first time who knows and discovers this information there that night and
00:46:30
when confronting Michael about it it turns into an argument that leads to him killing her yeah I think the other thing
00:46:37
too about this is we have some kind of record that he's trying to use software to clean the computer so
00:46:46
what did the prosecution find what did the investigation find on his computer afterwards and was that supposed to been
00:46:54
cleaned off of his computer and wasn't well there was I mean there was at least all of those pornographic pictures of
00:47:02
men right were they were they supposed to be wiped away I don't I don't know what his intent I
00:47:09
don't know who we can't say for certain who who applied that computer scrubbing software to the computer we can't say
00:47:18
for certain all we can say is that it was used and so if we can't say who was using it it's tough to gauge the uh
00:47:26
intentions of the user I think the thing here too is that sometimes when people hear the wife finds out that he's having
00:47:34
affairs with men and they start thinking well well why would he kill her because of that it's
00:47:41
like well no because that's going to lead to divorce that could lead to separation that could lead to I mean
00:47:49
he's not making a lot of money or even he just lost it in the Heat of the Moment right and the thing that I
00:47:55
think for embarrassment maybe he didn't want people to know the thing that's interesting here though I I differ from
00:48:01
you where I think that the the the secret life that the state claims he was hiding from his wife I think that if
00:48:10
we're going to look at the state's case as a cake I look at that to be the cake and that the money motive would have
00:48:19
just been icing on the cake it would have been another another example another reason why but what's
00:48:26
interesting is and I didn't see anybody point this out during the portions of the trial that I was able to view
00:48:33
was the defense I think I would have attacked that as the defense because on one end you're saying wait one motive is
00:48:41
money well then that would be premeditated that would be me sitting here realizing we have money problems
00:48:47
how can I fix it oh I'm gonna kill my wife right the other is she finds my gay pornography that I'm a big huge fan of
00:48:56
that I'm I'm I'm enjoying that while she's at work I guess I'm gonna edit that out of the show and and then she
00:49:05
she confronts me we get into some kind of argument and then I kill my wife well that's two different things that's all
00:49:12
one's in In the Heat of the Moment I lost it and I killed my wife the other is premeditated right so can one the
00:49:20
state never Brill builds a bridge to connect the I'm sitting at home planning on how I'm going to kill her to I lost
00:49:28
it erupted one night and killed her yeah and one's with a boner one's without there you go well that is a good segue
00:49:35
into the possible murder weapon the prosecution said that the murder was most likely committed with a custom-made
00:49:43
fireplace poker called a blowpoke it had been a gift to the Petersons from Kathleen's sister but was missing quote
00:49:53
unquote missing from the house at the time of the murder investigation and Kathleen's sister actually gave a bunch
00:49:59
of people in their family these blow pokers yeah I think she gave it to her her parents and to some other people in
00:50:05
the family um her sister Candace Kathleen Peter's sister Candace when asked about the
00:50:12
blowpoke said yes it was always in the kitchen stating that she had used it and had observed Kathleen using it and that
00:50:20
it was always located in the kitchen wall it's a big house so we have a kitchen that's connected to a little room and
00:50:28
there's a little fireplace by that so anytime you see like home video footage you'll see a little
00:50:34
kitchen and you pan and you'll see a fireplace and it's normally it was sitting there and you actually see at
00:50:40
one point in the documentary one of the daughters going back through old like Christmas footage to try to find out
00:50:46
when the poker disappeared well you have the prosecution which would tell the jury that you've got to realize he
00:50:55
meaning Michael Peterson had several hours that he could clean up and in the prosecution's opinion they think that
00:51:03
that is when the blowpoke was removed from the property now the problem with that as the defense would later point
00:51:10
out the defense claimed that the blowpoke was later found inside the home covered with cobwebs and dead insects
00:51:18
implying that police and everyone else had just simply overlooked it it was not hidden said the defense because it was
00:51:27
never used it was not the murder weapon in the first place forensic tests revealed that the blowpoke had been
00:51:35
untouched and unremoved I'm sorry unmoved for far too long to have been used in the murder yeah and people ask
00:51:43
well how did they not find this well they had a garage like in the basement part of the basement had a garage door
00:51:51
and he had some car he was working on it was kind of hidden in the corner like not hidden on person purpose but
00:51:58
probably what happened was he was messing with the fire one day was working on his car went downstairs
00:52:03
working on his car and put the poker beside it and then because there's other tools and other pipes and stuff around
00:52:10
cops just probably just didn't see it they probably also didn't look that hard I also think that at least that night
00:52:16
and the following day they didn't realize that that would be a potential murder weapon right you know so even if
00:52:23
you saw it that night or the next day you don't care because it's not of significance at that time I actually
00:52:28
think that what probably happened is it was an item that went unused up near the
00:52:35
fireplace itself and at some point you know that's where things in the basement in the garage that's how they get there
00:52:41
sometimes they're things that are just not used and you go I'll put it out in the garage I'll put it out in the
00:52:46
basement and like you said things start to pile up and collect around it and then it may appear years later to have
00:52:52
been hidden but rather it's just simply placed there well the pointed poker end was missing
00:52:58
and the round in that the poker would go into was bent and so I wonder if he's working on this old car and he has an
00:53:07
old Jack and he's not able to jack it up with the Crowbar if he went and grabbed
00:53:11
this poker to use it to jack up the car that's an interesting thought they they don't really present any of that though
00:53:18
at at trial yeah but this guy the other problem with Michael Peterson look we all like to drink it's a good time the
00:53:27
problem is it makes your memory do you a little blurry that's interesting you say
00:53:31
that I was just going to ask you do you find him to be a forgetful person or is he conveniently forgetful
00:53:40
no I think I mean I just I think he's gonna he was getting older and I think he didn't remember a bunch of stuff like
00:53:47
he's like when they find the poker he's even like I don't know I don't know why I would be there right or how it got
00:53:53
there and it's like maybe it was from you maybe it was from one of your kids that's the other here's the other issue
00:53:59
here we don't have little kids we have adult adults so they're doing a lot of stuff in the you know when you're a kid
00:54:07
if there was something if there was a hammer misplaced in the garage and you're five years old it's it's from
00:54:13
your father was misplacing the hammer chances are you weren't messing with the hammer but when you're 20 years old
00:54:20
and you're messing with cars and who knows what happened one of them might have used it then they forget I just
00:54:25
think he's also he's getting up there in age and he has some effects from that so I think
00:54:32
a couple of things here regarding his memory first I'm gonna go back to the wine drinking I
00:54:39
I actually think Michael Peterson probably like to indulge in quite a bit of wine drinking I think him saying that
00:54:47
they had two bottles of wine that night might have been conservative I think he might have had two bottles of wine that
00:54:53
night and she helped drink some other bottles of wine well yeah but isn't that what you do I mean if you're hanging out
00:54:59
with your wife or you're hanging out with some friends it's like you don't count drinks you just drink and talk and
00:55:04
have a good time yeah I mean when you're a kid you count drinks when you're 20 you're going I'm up to 10 beers all
00:55:10
right when you're adult you actually go less I've only had six you know you had ten
00:55:17
you know what I mean that's well I I think the com a combination of a few things one this guy has seen wartime so
00:55:24
there could be some uh PTSD from that the effects of that very difficult war time I think as well is there's probably
00:55:33
been a history of Knight's consecutive nights of drinking wine or maybe even a lot of wine or alcohol and once he puts
00:55:41
on those fake medals he got I mean he they're probably weigh him down a little bit and he probably trips and falls a
00:55:47
lot because of it he's getting older so I think a combination of those three things lends to him being forgetful and
00:55:55
maybe not so much conveniently forgetful right the other Vibe too and I have no proof of this this is just a gut feeling
00:56:03
that I got when watching the his children and the way that they spoke about their household and the family and
00:56:12
one thing I do want to point out here is it seemed to be a very close family even
00:56:16
though it was a bit of a patch work quilt it was a close family to the extent that I hear his children
00:56:24
Michael's children referring to Kathleen as mom over and over again and I also hear her daughter refer to Michael as
00:56:34
Dad yeah so the the two adopted kids they call their mom their real mom their birth mom they call Kathleen their mom
00:56:44
mom yeah they they took away the whole stepmom or whatever right and I think and who knows maybe there was a
00:56:51
conversation about it but you know that that's also us them showing respect to her
00:56:58
she is uh made them a part of her life she treated them exactly like daughters we're going to treat you just like a
00:57:06
mother I think that's and also you got he's very well-rounded smart intelligent kids they seem well adjusted
00:57:14
oh yeah yeah and they seem well adjusted and they have all this craziness that's
00:57:20
going on with their lives you know what I mean like you would expect them to be like okay
00:57:25
maybe maybe our mom died accidentally maybe our father murdered her we're not for sure you would think that the hinges
00:57:34
you know the hinges would come off and they're not and that's a sign of how you were raised and how your race is
00:57:42
not always the lessons that you were taught it's the actions that you were shown
00:57:48
right so meaning and then again every friend every family member says they had a
00:57:55
loving marriage that that means something all right Captain we have so much stuff to get to do we have enough
00:58:02
time you think to get into some of the blood experts that testified during the trial yes okay so the state's blood
00:58:10
spatter expert told the jury that he was certain Kathleen Peterson was beaten to
00:58:17
death because the droplet patterns of blood and spray on the steps and walls of the stairwell were just what he
00:58:26
expected to see if you imagine a weapon Rising striking Rising casting off blood
00:58:33
up the wall with each new blow right and blood found on the inside lower leg of Michael Peterson's shorts confirms his
00:58:44
theory he said he saw evidence of an attempt to clean up some of the blood on the
00:58:50
stairwell of course his his testimony was much longer and lengthier than this that's
00:58:57
the team Nick simplified version yeah but it's also he's stating that she's hit with a blunt
00:59:05
object that's what's creating these marks on Kathleen's head but there is no cast off
00:59:14
like if she was hit in the head there would be a cast off meaning blood is coming from an object there'd be a cast
00:59:21
off normally that would hit the ceiling okay from her height [Music] so he he's saying that there was cast
00:59:30
off on the wall with each new blow and that he expected to see um yeah and during his testimony he's
00:59:37
going to show you a bunch of experiments he did to try to get these to recreate these patterns and so
00:59:46
it's basically that that she gets hit one time Kathleen then Falls and then all the rest of the hits would happen
00:59:54
while she's on the ground making the spot from the inside of his shorts makes sense right because he would be on top
01:00:02
of her um or standing over her and that would be the reason there'd be no cast off
01:00:08
on the ceiling so it's it's almost like he has this picture now he has to figure
01:00:15
out how we got there right right if that makes sense and well in in a way though the defense is going
01:00:22
to have to do the same thing or try to do the same thing right when they put on a celebrity expert witness Dr Henry Lee
01:00:30
now I'm sure most of our listeners are familiar with Henry Lee he's been in several of the more well-known cases
01:00:38
including uh he was involved in the O.J Simpson case now Lee explained that the blood spatter uh he explained it in a
01:00:46
theatrical manner he swigged a small amount of ketchup took a deep breath and then spit it out replicating he said the
01:00:56
victim of the Fall coughing up blood staggering about the stairwell yeah the result he says blood spatter up the wall
01:01:06
of the staircase and on the inside leg of Peterson shorts as he tended to her Dr Lee told the jury that the copious
01:01:16
blood spatter on the back staircase convinced him Kathleen Peterson had died of a fall not a beating so if you're
01:01:24
trying to forgive me if you're trying to picture this at home what he's talking about is
01:01:30
he's saying she fell and as she's laying there she's coughing up blood she's breathing blood and that is what is
01:01:37
projecting that blood onto the wall behind her right and they also believe at some point she tried to get up
01:01:44
which will explain the blood that's on the bottom of her feet but also explain like if she did try to get up and she
01:01:51
slipped that her body would have moved so she's more outside of the door her head's still inside the doorway
01:01:59
again once she then continues to cough up blood at that position would account for some of the rest of
01:02:05
the blood splatter yeah to help the jurors imagine how a woman would fall and end up like this that they're
01:02:13
indicating you know keep in mind Kathleen was in flip-flops she was medicated with Valium she might be tipsy
01:02:20
with having drinking wine that night no no not not might be tipsy I mean one of the things that people really should
01:02:26
look up is the effects of Valium the effects of a Valium are pretty much the same effects
01:02:33
as far as alcohol is concerned but once you mix both of them times it by 10 let's say right so one of
01:02:42
the major effects is dizziness a loss of balance um and so you're talking about a very
01:02:48
odd staircasing I almost argued that that staircasing should have been made where you just go into
01:02:56
a little square room turn to the right and then you go up the steps so there would be no initial stairs directly in
01:03:03
front of you so the stairs basically if you walked into this into this uh stairwell it's almost like a mini spiral
01:03:10
staircase it looks like a staircase like a closet that you're walking into almost
01:03:14
right and you take a couple of steps and then you turn to your right and you go up the rest of the stairs and the stairs
01:03:21
to your right there's quite a bit more stairs there than what would be at the bottom straight ahead of you now like
01:03:27
the captain pointed out you're right it would have been a safer situation to just have that be a flat Landing there
01:03:34
as if you are walking into a closet turn to your right and then go directly up the stairs without turning so the other
01:03:42
thing too is this would be would you call this like um you know how they have some older homes they have
01:03:49
like servant quarters and and right that's you know that's probably what it is probably what this is is a second
01:03:55
staircase for people to work behind the scenes of a big house like that it's been referred to as a mansion I I think
01:04:03
you could call it that I think that's somewhat of an accurate description it's a big house but here here's what's weird
01:04:08
though too is because you have this weird landing at the bottom and you have these steps that actually curve
01:04:15
whether you fall by accident whether you fall by again push whether you fall because you got pulled down whether you
01:04:21
fall because you got hit by something once you're in that area you're on multiple levels
01:04:27
that aren't level and so by trying to get up by trying to move you're then going to be pushed if there's any blood
01:04:36
you're going to be pushing A lot of blood around you there's it's very possible that you could make a big mess
01:04:42
in this small area because of the the floor not being level not only that the turn and how narrow this space is on a
01:04:51
normal staircase you might not be able to spit or cough that much blood onto the wall because you would be more
01:04:58
centered you would be more away from the wall right and it's man when you see the
01:05:04
scene the the pictures of the scene you're like a lot of blood it's a lot it's a it's enough blood to the point
01:05:09
where you're like did he beat her head against the wall for an hour like it I mean the blood is
01:05:17
um I mean it's traumatic to see it and and I can see how the state and how the investigators jump to
01:05:26
this is a murder this is not an accident there's too much blood here I mean when
01:05:30
you see the initial photos the first thought is this is not an accident right but then it then it becomes odd too
01:05:38
because you you have her feet covered and blood and you just wonder if she tried to get up again that does not
01:05:48
blood on her feet does not determine whether she was hit pushed or she fell well in the state is going to try to
01:05:55
point out to the jurors that a woman in flip-flops medicated with Valium had been drinking
01:06:02
all of this could have been a combination that might have led to a fall and the the body motion expert
01:06:10
showed in an animation that Kathleen climbs the stairs to go to bed she suddenly loses her balance Falls
01:06:17
backwards from the fourth step hitting her head on the molding cutting open a nasty wound to her scalp yeah which was
01:06:26
in roughly a v-shape and she stunned she tries to get up but she slips in a puddle of her own blood falls again and
01:06:35
then now she's doomed to lay there and bleed out but we also have impact points on the molding in the staircase and one
01:06:44
of the impact points they basically it's it's science the you know this oh I don't remember what he was called bio
01:06:55
um I don't know I can't remember it was but we're with you Captain the what he did was they they basically made a model
01:07:01
of her her height her weight if she fell at this point then she would have hit that frame that likely would have hit
01:07:09
here right she would hit here about this height well we have matching impact points
01:07:17
based off the the sides they did so I don't know I mean they try to discredit this guy I thought he was very
01:07:25
credible but I think the problem with this guy is the prosecution should have pushed more
01:07:32
okay this is true if she fell from the third step or the fourth step or whatever but all these
01:07:40
things are also true if she got pulled down at that step correct or pushed down at that step so again
01:07:48
I believe I think what he is stating happened or is most likely what happened okay but
01:07:56
I think that doesn't prove if somebody helped her or not and that doesn't prove other theories whether those are true or
01:08:04
not either we'll get to those later a couple of things though here regarding what you just stated was
01:08:10
you know I didn't count the stairs the number of steps it's it's 15 to 20. is what I think he says in the 9-1-1 call
01:08:18
but so let's let's use that as as the general math right let's say it's 15 Steps
01:08:24
what what I think you point out here which is interesting is that the prosecution once they hear hey she felt
01:08:31
this guy says she fell from the fourth step and this is how where she hit and this explains her injuries
01:08:37
where the prosecution failed then was they said they could have said well that's one out of 15 Steps
01:08:44
mathematically it's less likely that she fell from that exact step than any of these you know what I mean right she she
01:08:51
likely could have fallen from another step and therefore those impact points don't match up with your theory
01:08:58
the other thing that you pointed out that's interesting is they never bothered to present the idea that maybe
01:09:05
she was pushed down the stairs right that she was at a different location and pushed down the stairs they stuck with
01:09:13
the she was struck with the blunt object and the Beat to Death and the blunt object let's just cover that real quick
01:09:20
the issue with her being struck with a blunt object is going to be that there is no brain swelling there's no brain
01:09:27
there's no fractures there's no fractures to the skull and there's no um brain bruising either which sometimes
01:09:35
you won't get a fracture but you have a brain bruise underneath and none of those three three things
01:09:41
happen so you'd have to basically hit so lightly that you don't cause any fracture yeah so for those of
01:09:52
you that have not seen the staircase or are unfamiliar with this case picture this most people are familiar
01:10:00
with a fire poker that you would have at any normal fireplace okay it's it's I've
01:10:06
never had a hollowed one though so that's the only that's really the only difference between a blow poke and a
01:10:12
fire poker right is that it's hollowed so that when you poke at the fire you can blow adding air that would then
01:10:19
spread the Sparks or spread the fire uh inside your fireplace right it's like stoking the fire
01:10:26
um so the only difference here is that this item would be we can assume that it's lighter than a traditional fire
01:10:33
poker because it's Hollow right but it still has that Jagged Edge that end right and what the captain's trying to
01:10:40
point out is the thing that I can't get over is if somebody is attacking somebody with a weapon or an object
01:10:46
shaped like that that how in the hell are you going to be able to strike the skin of the skull
01:10:55
with enough Force to create these lacerations and these are Big gashes but be precise enough or
01:11:04
or get I guess lucky enough that in the process of creating those lacerations you didn't fracture the skull at all it
01:11:11
seems inconceivable to me well then right but then everybody believes that she had to be
01:11:17
clawed with something maybe fingernails or maybe she was clawed by um the the poker in right
01:11:27
um because she has these lacerations again they're getting up in age your your skin becomes thinner it is possible
01:11:35
that you could bump into something hard enough that would not create brain bleed
01:11:42
brain bruising or a fracture but still puncture the skin and therefore creating you know a massive amount of blood and
01:11:52
basically the defense is not going to deny that these injuries occurred that these lacerations to her scalp occurred
01:11:59
right but they're basically their answer is stating look she had several points of impact where her head would have
01:12:06
impacted with something else and it didn't necessarily tear the skin open some of that is this the skin splitting
01:12:14
hit you know once you hit upon impact that it's a cut as well as the skin splitting it created these strange
01:12:22
shaped lacerations her the back of her head right the analogy they were using is if you take like a watermelon or
01:12:30
pretty much any melon and you drop it on the ground it's not going to just it's not going to just have one point of
01:12:38
impact it's going to actually split so is it possible that she hit her head against the frame the framing of the
01:12:46
wall and that caused one split or possibly two splits I mean it's it's possible I mean and and that's what
01:12:55
um the one eyewitness that did the bio whatever it was called uh test that that they proved that it was possible
01:13:05
some circumstantial evidence Captain the officers uh called by the prosecution noted that the husband Michael Peterson
01:13:14
his sneakers and bloody socks they noted this and stated that this is odd because
01:13:19
Michael was barefoot upon paramedics arrival to the home and they asked the question how did one of those same
01:13:27
sneakers leave a bloody footprint on the back side of his dead wife's sweatpants
01:13:33
the side facing the floor there was testimony from other prosecution witnesses that Peterson had tried to
01:13:42
clean a large stain of blood off of the front of his shorts now some other details on the kitchen counter police
01:13:50
saw well hold on let's stay with his shorts for a second his shorts were soaked in blood right and so again
01:13:57
wasn't you trying to clean off a section or was he wiping his hands off because his hands were covered in blood too so
01:14:06
that's where it gets tricky with some of this stuff it's like there's a lot of blood if he was trying
01:14:12
to help her if he picked her up up and got blood all over his hands then he tried to wipe that on his pants
01:14:18
wiping that on your pants is going to look the same as if you're trying to wipe it off your pants some other
01:14:22
details on the kitchen counter police saw a bottle of wine and two glasses neatly arranged
01:14:29
implying perhaps the couple had passed a relaxing evening at home sipping wine together the problem with that cozy
01:14:38
image though according to the prosecution is that his dead wife's fingerprints weren't on either glass the
01:14:46
prosecutor argued that Peterson had prominently set out the bottle and glasses to suggest that Kathleen had too
01:14:55
much to drink and had tumbled down the stairs inebriated the defense presented the idea that the police may have had it
01:15:03
in for the husband once they realized he was the same Michael Peterson taking regular pot shots at them in his new
01:15:11
space paper column accusing them of only solving a small fraction of crimes and not getting a handle on drug trafficking
01:15:20
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good be kind and don't listen foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]