morbidology:

I found The Staircase to be exceptionally bias and they just skimmed over a lot of evidence against Michael Peterson or just completely left it out. I think there was a lot of evidence that points towards him being guilty.

When authorities arrived, Kathleen’s blood was completely dry meaning she had been dead for a while. However, Michael had claimed that she was still breathing when he called 911 and that she died in his arms. Moreover, Kathleen’s brain had numerous red neurons. These indicate that oxygen failed to reach the brain and also indicate that Kathleen was dying for at least 2 hours. Neuropathologist Dr. Thomas Bouldin also testified that Kathleen had been dead for hours. What motivation would he have to lie about the time frame unless he killed her? The ludicrous owl theory also doesn’t fit with the time frame.

State Medical Examiner Dr. Deborah Radisch testified that Kathleen had numerous defensive wounds on her hands and arms which indicated she attempted to defend herself. Defensive wounds such as that are not consistent with a fall down the stairs. Furthermore, she had numerous contusions and abrasions on her face as well as the lacerations that killed her. Kathleen’s thyroid cartilage had been crushed indicating she had been manually strangled. There was blood spatter found on Michael’s pants and his defence tried to argue that it could have come from Kathleen coughing on him as she died, however, there was no blood found in her mouth, nose or nasal passage at autopsy so how else could blood spatter have gotten there? The crime scene was consistent with a brutal murder as opposed to anything else; the wounds to her head could not have been caused by simply falling down the stairs.

The crime scene was also staged by Michael. There was a bottle of wine and two wine glasses placed on the table. However, Kathleen’s fingerprints weren’t on either glass. The defence tried to suggest that Kathleen had too much to drink that night and stumbled down the stairs yet her blood alcohol level was extremely low; so low in fact that she wasn’t over the drink driving limit. Her body had most likely been staged too. She was found lying on her back yet there was a bloody footprint that matched Michael’s shoes on the back of her leg implying that at some point, he had stood on her or stomped on her. Luminol also indicated that some of the blood at the scene had been cleaned up.

There was circumstantial evidence against him too.

For example, Michael had deleted hundreds of files the day before Kathleen died; some emails that were retrieved were about the family’s financial difficulties. One email to his ex-wife read: “I am worried sick about them. It is simply not possible for me to discuss this with Kathleen.” The Peterson family was in extreme debt and I believe this was the motivation behind her murder. Michael was failing as an author and Kathleen was the sole provider for the family at the time of her death. Furthermore, Kathleen had a life insurance policy for $1.4 million with Michael being the beneficiary.

Michael was also having extra-marital affairs with men. He claimed Kathleen knew about them and was okay with it. However, Michael didn’t even tell his defence lawyers about this. How are we supposed to believe he told Kathleen when he couldn’t even tell his defence lawyers. I also think it’s too much of a coincidence that his friend, Elizabeth Ratliff, died under similar circumstances; she “fell” down the stairs and Michael was the last person to have seen her alive the night before. Her death was ruled an accident but after her body was exhumed, her death was ruled a homicide. The day she was found, Michael was seen running from her home but that piece of eyewitness testimony was just ignored.