The Staircase (Netflix True Crime Spoilers Allowed)

[MrStarkIDontFeelSoGood]

I've nearly finished this now, a 13 part series about one man, Michael Peterson and whether or not he murdered his wife Kathleen or she accidentally fell down the stairs.

It felt like to me that though the documentary makers seem to be skewing the narrative in favour of his innocence I still really felt he was guilty and felt their was too much weirdness around the whole family, add in "the Germany situation" and I just really felt lightning couldn't strike twice

I think the other injuries were telling ie Kathleen had bruises on her hands and arms; her thyoid was crushed which was in keeping with someone trying to strangle her; she had a bloody footprint on the back of her trousers, etc.
The documentary glossed over all of those because they didn't fit the fall down the stairs theory.

I watched it when it first came out several years ago. Haven't seen the updated version yet.

I was convinced he was innocent (albeit a bit creepy). I watched a repeat a couple of years later and wasn't sure if he was guilty or not, but I strongly felt that his lifestyle, especially in a rather conservative area, played as big a part as any evidence in the case against him. .

I'd be interested to see if the updated version changes my opinion.

About halfway through this I was wondering out loud to DH how it was going to eek out for another 6 episodes when MP was so obviously guilty. He was giving him the benefit of the doubt and I asked him how many people did he know of that have died from a domestic fall, never mind from a fall down the stairs?

Just too much of a coincidence. Those poor kids.

To be fair, I've known two people who have died due to a fall down stairs, a man and a woman, both alcoholics, about 5 years apart 20 years ago.

I hadn't been with either the night before though...

The theory of him sneaking out is interesting. imo Michael was definitely lying* about what happened that night so that could be one reason why he lied.

*body language and language point to him lying

Gosh, this series had me torn throughout. Based on the images alone I'd have definitely been thinking guilty. However, the documentary did a great job of showing that this eccentric, unconventional man was given an unfair trial in front of a Conservative and conventional jury (this aspect reminded me of the documentary about the West Memphis 3).

As someone else mentioned, myself and my family are the type to laugh in all situations, including where some would deem it inappropriate, so I didn't think twice about the family's humour.

In terms of what I think now that I've finished all 13 episodes, it doesn't make sense to me that Michael murdered Kathleen, but equally her simply falling down seems highly unlikely also. This is the problem though, isn't it. Highly unlikely things can and do happen. So I tried to keep that in mind.

As for theories on details that he kept quiet about, I can't imagine what would be more important than proving his innocence. But I agree with others, it certainly feels like there is more to this case than anyone will ever know.

r/TheStaircase on Reddit is a great place to find out more about this case.

Things that bothered me about this case....firstly time of death. Neither the prosecution or defence seem to put any emphasis on this despite the first responders all reporting the blood was dry.

No one asked Mike how long it was between Kathleen going in the house to when he went in. Was it 5m, 10m an hour? More? If it was a short time then surely the fact the blood was dry meant she had been there a fair while? Masses amounts of blood like that would take a few hours to dry at least. This must be indicative of a lie if Mike says he followed her in the house in any time less than that (assuming he called 911 immediately). Establishing a time of death seemed critical to me yet it was never mentioned.

Second, early on in the process Mike strongly implied Kathleen knew about his bisexuality and was ok with it. Yet in the recent ones he outright said she didn’t know but ‘thought she would be fine with it’.

Next, the fact Kathleen had a fractured windpipe (strongly indicating strangulation) was NEVER mentioned in the early program edits. This was only heard in the later ones. Whereas the lacerations on her head could POSSIBLY be accountable by a stair fall, how can could the windpipe damage occur? The fact this was so obviously edited out to show Mike in a better light to the viewer and it annoyed me a lot...and made me more suspicious.

Yes the prosecution case was pretty poor and incorrect suppositions were made but if I was on the jury then the throat injury would have probably been enough for me to return the guilty verdict.

Mike admitted he had a temper and I think they had a fight which resulted in her accidental death (threw her by the neck at the wall in the stairwell)which he then tried to cover up. I think he spent several hours thinking about what to do before he called 911 hence the dried blood. I also think there was so much blood because he tried her in different positions to make it look more like a fall.

But we shall never know what really happened to that poor woman.

yy the lack of a time of death annoyed me too. I imagine it's one of the factors that swayed the jury and that the documentary edited out the courtroom discussions about it.Michael changed his story. At first he said he followed her in after 5 mins then he said he didn't follow her in until much later.

He didn't say Kathleen knew about his bisexuality in the earlier episode. He chose his words very carefully and implied that he thought she knew because he hoped people wouldn't listen too closely. But if you do listen, he stops short of saying he told Kathleen or that he discussed it with her. He says she made jokes about soldiers being gay. He says he took that to mean she was aware of his double life. But by the time he has taken the Alford, he doesn't bother trying to fudge it anymore.

I've just finished the series and just now read this (sorry for a daily fail link)
www-dailymail-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5884153/amp/Michael-Peterson-believes-Netflixs-Staircase-helped-overturn-murder-conviction.html?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-5884153%2FMichael-Peterson-believes-Netflixs-Staircase-helped-overturn-murder-conviction.html

Sorry, posted too soon. If half of the things listed are true, then definitely guilty but the documentary seemed, to me, to swerve around episode 3/4 to make it seem like he was guilty. The scenes with the escort especially seemed edited to portray the prosecution as homophobic and old fashioned, forcing the facts to suit them because they didn't approve of his bisexuality.

I maintain that Peterson is innocent of killing Kathleen in the way described by the prosecution. He may not even have had a direct hand in her death, but something beyond what he’s made public happened that night.

I read somewhere- I think on Reddit- that there’s a theory he snuck out to meet an escort when he thought she was asleep and either a) she had an accident and died while he was out and he came back many hours later to the scene (hence the time confusion and dried blood), b)!was killed by the hand of a third person (unlikely as no third person DNA ever showed up) or c) she woke to find him missing and when he returned, a fight ensued (probably the most likely scenario). That theory, in whatever incarnation, makes the most sense to me.

I'd love to know how much time there was between Kathleen reading her work email on Michael's computer and her estimated time of death (based on the blood congealing rather than Michael's story).

That’s another point that bothered me...you can tell what time a file is opened on a computer SO if Kathleen had stumbled across Mike’s gay porn stash / escort emails there should be plenty of evidence.

Why did neither the defence or prosecution not follow up on this? If there was no evidence of her finding them then the defence could have argued Mike had no (obvious) motive to kill her. It would certainly helped the ‘reasonable doubt’ scenario. Likewise if the prosecution had evidence she did access them before her death, it gives their case a huge boost.

Considering David Rudolf is supposedly an expensive hot shot lawyer, he seemed to miss some very obvious points.

Apparently the emails were printed out in the desk drawer. So she could have read them but there wouldn't be an electronic trail because they were hard copies.
I didn't think Rudolf was very good.

Hmm interesting - surely those hard copy emails could’ve been tested for her fingerprints though? If they only had Mike’s on them then that would have given the defence a real boost.

I am mostly all the way through - MP has just been released to house arrest.

As a juror, who should only debate the 'facts' given and not the emotional side, I could not have in all conscience found MP guilty with the evidence provided (obviously with heavy editing from the production company). I felt the defence did show reasonable doubt.

Without knowing that Deaver was going to have his work investigated I still did not believe him on the stand. There was something about his demeanour which didn't sit right with me; the pauses when answering, the experiments shown, etc.

With emotion chucked in, I really took a dislike to Redisch (sp?).

Do I think MP is guilty of something? Probably but I don't think it's murder.

Apparently the emails were printed out in the desk drawer. So she could have read them but there wouldn't be an electronic trail because they were hard copies.

Sorry, is it possible to print them out without accessing them?

I listened to the podcast episode with Michael yesterday. He said that there was proof that the emails had not been accessed, or maybe he said that there was proof his laptop had not been logged into?

Anyone with a better memory of this? I was listening while doing something else.

Sorry, is it possible to print them out without accessing them?

No you would be able to easily find an electronic trail on this. The document would either either have a last accessed time & date stamp or you could check browser history. If he had deleted both then I would have check when the IP address of that computer last accessed the network on the night in question. Alternatively a good forensic computer expert would have nailed it in minutes. Suspect this is another piece of evidence that wasn't collected.

Personally I think he was guilty but it wasn't premeditated.

Suspect she found out about his extra marital activities and threatened to leave him. Given that she held all the wealth he went into panic mode. They had an arguement maybe at the top of the stairs. She fell. He saw an opportunity to finish her off, hence why both theories are possible because both happened.

I think there was delay in him calling emergency services because he got rid of the weapon.

I don't think he killed the Liz in Germany but I think he saw how he could use the same scenario to cover up murder.

I also thought the dynamic in the family was very strange.

MP seems to be extremely narcissistic, he loved the fawning attention he got from the children. I felt so sorry for Martha and Margaret. So much loss in their lives and then for the one central figure in their life to be accused of murder was awful to watch. There was no ability to think objectively because they literally have no one else.

What genuinely puzzled me was if they were all so supportive and 'cool' with him being bisexual then why didn't he come out to his family earlier? I would argue he didn't because his wife didn't know and he knew it would cost him his marriage if he did. There is protecting your private life but this goes beyond that in to hiding who you really are and hiding the fact you are using prostitutes. No woman would be okay with that in an idyllic marriage!

I think the way they handled the bisexual angle in court was wrong. It was immaterial whether he was having affairs with a man or woman, it was only directly relevant to challenging the idyllic marriage argument and was relevant to motive. Handled badly by the prosecution imho

Laughing at the Aunt's distress was awful.

The owl definitely did it. Birds are evil.

I suspect he might have done it but I don't think it was proven beyond reasonable doubt.

I find it interesting that apparently the film crew were initially following the prosecution of the case for the first 4 months and then they stopped it. (Did they know at this stage they were barking up the wrong tree and were going to have to make it fit? Were they already aware that the warrant to disclose the emails re bisexuality should have been inadmissible and thus ruin their motive theory?

I binged on this over a week or so and, for me, the only thing MP said which sounded sincere in the whole thing was in one of the update episodes, when he said that he didn't believe he would be convicted.

I felt so sorry for the daughters, two mothers dying in apparently the same way is horrific. And I definitely felt the younger one was having doubts about his innocence.