Shortly before Elizabeth passed away, George died of a heart attack during the US invasion of Grenada. DURHAM, North Carolina (Court TV) -- Author Michael Peterson is charged with killing his wife in their home here 18 months ago, but it was the death of a neighbor in Germany 18 years ago that took center stage at Peterson's first-degree murder trial Monday. Investigators exhumed her grave in Bay City, TX. To begin with, he said that the scene where he was introduced to Michael Peterson (played by Colin Firth) in a diner while eating pastrami did not happen in real life. At the time, the German police ruled her death an accident, and an autopsy concluded that she died of a brain hemorrhage. So Im sure there is some emotion heard in the 911 call, Im sure he did love Kathleen and Elizabeth. As HBOs hit limited series The Staircase comes to a close, it is time to take a look back and assess what we just witnessed. Odessa Young and Sophie Turner as Elizabeth Ratliff's daughters Martha and Margaret. Con Girl: Where is Samantha Azzopardi now? ", Her death was eventually ruled a homicide. In 2017, Michael is contemplating taking the Alford plea, in which he would have to plead guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter for a reduced sentence, but he could not be retried. At the age of 43, Elizabeth Liz Ratliff had created a good life for herself as a teacher for military children, signifying that she often got the chance to travel across the globe for work. As seen on The Staircase, both girls publicly supported Peterson during his trial and became inconsolable when he was convicted. Its construction of the case emphasized prejudicial aspects, like the judge allowing evidence of Ratliff's death, which a state medical examiner also deemed a homicide, and the prosecution exposing Peterson's sex life so as to use jurors' potentially anti-gay attitudes against him. So why would you? Above, the real David Rudolf (R) and Michael Peterson (L) appear in court. And you can quote me on that. All external sites will open in a new browser. The series takes great inspiration from de Lestrade's documentary and even includes the director (played by Vincent Vermingon) and his documentary team. In her opinion, the seven lacerations on her head indicated blunt force trauma. Both the German officials as well as the United States military police conducted investigations into Elizabeths case, and their autopsy ruled her manner of death an accident. Shed reportedly died from an intracerebral hemorrhage, secondary to a blood clot disorder. However, he maintains adamantly that Kathleens death was an accident. "I could not give her what she really needed and deserved, and that would be a full-time partner living with her in Paris. At the time, her death was investigated by the U.S. military police in Germany and an autopsy concluded she had died from an intracerebral hemorrhage. Since his guilty conviction, much has happened in Michael Peterson's case, from a retrial in 2011 to being officially released from prison in 2017 after entering an Alford Plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter. It also includes imagined dialogue for dramatic purposes but stays grounded in court documents, meticulous research by the team behind the show, and of course, content from Lestrade's 13-part documentary. Upon examination, forensic pathologist Deborah Radisch, who also worked on Kathleen's case, said that Elizabeth's injuries were inconsistent with an accident. We charge Michael a fee for the trial. They call him "Dad" and have supported him without wavering since the second woman they called "Mom"--Kathleen Peterson--was found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs. First, her death was ruled natural After her death, German officials concluded that Ratliff died of a cerebral hemorrhage which led to her falling down the stairs. Story goes there was a lot of blood at the scene of Liz's death, according to the three women who testified at the trial A friend of Elizabeth Ratliff's also testified about a bloody death scene. Regardless, Rudolf believes the damage has been done, describing it as "defamation" towards Brunet and de Lestrade. The pair "had a loving, almost familial relationship," Patty described. The defence countered these claims, arguing that half of Elizabeth's brain was missing during the new autopsy and pushing against the idea that Michael was the last person to see her alive. Under no circumstances would they have had a sexual relationship.". However, things changed once her embalmed body was exhumed nearly two decades later, in April 2003. It is true that Peterson and Brunet did date, with Peterson confirming to The News and Observer they went their separate ways in 2017. The prosecution calls Kathleen's sister Candace to the stand, and she tears Michael a new one again. I couldn't afford to live in Paris and my children, and grandchildren were in America," he said. In 1985, a few years after George Ratliff's death, Elizabeth was found at the bottom of the stairs by the nanny, Barbara Malagnino. In The Staircase, Patty recalls how they would all eat together and how Michael would regularly stay behind to help Elizabeth clean up and put her daughters to bed. Patricia Peterson and Elizabeth Ratliff had worked together at an elementary school on a U.S. Air Base and lived close by with their families in the town of Graefenhausen. Elizabeth Ratliff's Time of Death According to David Rudolf, the biggest flaw in the prosecution's theory regarding ER's death is the timeline and moreover that no one observed rigor mortis when they arrived on the scene. "I was sitting here directly observing when the German medical examiner took the spinal tap and held the contents up so that he could view [it]," said Patty. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! I talked to the witnesses, I got the German police report and the DA's file. With The Staircase's true-crime drama available to watch on HBO Max now and the original The Staircase documentary streaming on Netflix, it is ultimately up to viewers to form their own opinion on what they believe happened on the evening Kathleen Peterson died. Authorities in Germany had determined that Ratliff's death was the result of a fatal stroke that sent her toppling down the stairs. . I don't speak French. document.write('Tuesday, August 19, 2003 Posted: 1440 GMT
<\/span>'); I can't live in Paris. Repeating testimonythe judgeheardThursday and Friday without the jury being present, witness Peter "Duane" Deaver said he concluded that Kathleen Peterson was beaten with a blunt object and was struck a minimum of four times. However, things changed once her embalmed body was exhumed nearly two decades later, in April 2003. Michael Peterson is believed to have been the last person to see her alive. It was a unanimous decision by all 12 jury members. German police arrived at the scene and quickly deemed Elizabeth's fall an accident. Then I went and realized, no, I can't. Appel-Schumacher will return to the stand for more questions from the defense when the hearing continues Wednesday at 3 p.m. Elizabeth Ratliff's daughters continue to believe Mike Peterson. "Prosecutors spent thousands of dollars transporting her boy 12,000 miles from Bay City, Texas to Chapel Hill," Defense AttorneyDavid Rudolf said on "The Staircase." Wouldnt it make more sense to leave them with a relative.unless Elizabeth wanted Michael to know and raise his daughter along were her sister together. What happened to Elizabeth Ratliff? Colin Firth & Toni Collette on 'The Staircase' and What They Hope Audiences Take Away From It. In the end, Lestrade and Brunet won and the scene with Clayton Peterson was included in the documentary instead. But if he lied about something that big what else did he lie about? At the time of the exhumation, Michael Peterson's lawyer, David Rudolf, requested that a "neutral" pathologist from Texas carry out the second autopsy. In the first three episodes of The Staircase on HBO Max, there have been subtle mentions of a woman named Elizabeth Ratliff, and in Episode 4, audiences learn a little bit more about her. by Lindsay Kimble A few people have suspected an affair between Michael and Elizabeth turning sour as his motive for murder, but the novelists former wife Patricia has always vehemently backed him up. But the autopsies were enough to convince Kathleen Peterson's daughter Caitlin to change her mind about her stepfather. Please select the topics you're interested in: Would you like to turn on POPSUGAR desktop notifications to get breaking news ASAP? Michael struggles with life outside of prison and sees his children are struggling as well. "Once the trial started, they hired [film editor] Scott Stevenson to edit the trial footage. For example, when prosecutor Jim Hardin is presenting his case to the grand jury ahead of the trial, Rudolf is seen standing in the same grand jury room, something that he said would never happen in a U.S. courtroom. He did meet with Michael Stuhlbarg who portrayed him in the series and even lent him his real glasses to wear during the film. You know, I mean, all you have to do is watch the documentary to know that that's not true. document.write('Tuesday, August 19, 2003 Posted: 1440 GMT (10:40 PM HKT)
<\/span>'); He continued: "In other words, by that point, Michael didn't have any assets and the court appointed us to represent him on appeal and paid U.S. court-appointed rates. Peterson subsequently ended up raising Ratliff's young. Lawyer David Rudolf (L) and Michael Peterson (R) address reporters after his court hearing in Durham, North Carolina, on February 24, 2017. Elizabeth's Ratliff's sudden death in November 1985 became of great significance in the case against Michael Peterson during his trial for the murder of his second wife, Kathleen Peterson. The prosecution shockingly reveals to the jury that, at age 43, Ratliff turned up dead at the bottom of her stairs in 1985, some 16 years earlier. George and Elizabeth's daughters, Margaret and Martha - now orphaned - were taken in by Michael and Patty, and the expanded family continued as normal until the parents split the following year. I do not think that the girls could mentally handle it if they allowed their minds to go to the place of believing he did it. Liz Ratliff also died under mysterious circumstances. Just four days before her death, she was complaining of severe headaches. She filed a . The prosecutors have also hypothesized that Elizabeths perplexing 1985 passing inspired Michael to fake Kathleens accident in 2001, yet there has never been any direct evidence to back it up. According to the second autopsy, seven deep lacerations on Elizabeth's head - just like those found on Kathleen's - were concluded to have been sustained as a result of blunt force trauma. Netflixs new series The Staircase chronicles the trial of author Michael Peterson, whose wife Kathleen was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her Durham, North Carolina home in November 2001. Sign up for our Celebrity & Entertainment newsletter. On the prosecution side, Durham County District Attorney Jim Hardin (Cullen Moss) and Assistant District Attorney, Freda Black (Parker Posey) take on the case. During Michael's trial, Cheryl Appel-Schumacher, one of the late schoolteacher's friends, recalled that Elizabeth had severe headaches a few days before she was found dead. Now, if you wish to learn more about this nearly four-decade-old matter, including the undeniable suspicions surrounding the same, dont worry; weve got all the essential details for you. 11 hours ago, by Monica Sisavat Michael and his ex-wife, Patty (Trini Alvarado), had become the legal guardians of Margaret and Martha after both of their parents died. Bush: Prosecutor taking up Schiavo inquiry. He and Patty later adopted two young daughters, Martha and Margaret Ratliff, after their mother, Elizabeth Ratliff (a Peterson family friend), died in Germany in 1985. Her husband, George Ratliff, died shortly before her in a secret military operation overseas in 1983, according to CourtTV. Firth portrayed Peterson for eight episodes of the HBO Max drama based on the documentary of the same name. Todd, who has always been the responsible one, starts to unravel under the pressure of the trial. After Vietnam, retired Marine Captain Michael joined Patty in Germany and the couple quickly became good friends with Elizabeth Ratliff and her husband George, also a Captain in the military. This meant he admitted the evidence against him would likely lead to a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt but he did not have to admit he committed the crime. Ratliff's two young daughters ended up living with Michael Peterson, and he raised them in North Carolina with his two sons from his first marriage. The critically acclaimed documentary of the same name came out in 2004 a few years after the trial and is now available to stream on Netflix, while this fictionalized version tells the tale of The Staircase through flashbacks to the Petersons' lives before the murder, the night of the murder, the times leading up to the trial, the trial, and beyond. What are the side effects of antidepressants? Although she died in 1985, the death of Elizabeth Ratliff played a key role in Michael Peterson's trial after he was accused of murdering his wife Kathleen Peterson on December 9, 2001. The autopsy report found that Elizabeth Ratliff had died in 1985 from &#8220;blunt force trauma to the head&#8221; by a &#8220;homicidal attack,&#8221; rather than of a brain hemorrhage while . When the prosecution learned of Elizabeth's death and identified the coincidence that she, too, had died as a result of falling down the stairs, they called for her body to be exhumed from the grave in Texas where she was buried. Tragedy struck, however, in 1983, when Elizabeth's husband George was killed in a secret military operation overseas. Like Peterson, Ratliff was found at the bottom of her stairs with injuries to her head. On November 25, 1985, Elizbeth Ratliff was found dead at the bottom of her staircase in an eerily similar way to the way Kathleen Peterson was found on December 9, 2001. But I didn't say to her, 'You know, yeah, that works fine for me.'". That was then confirmed by another doctor and the military police. Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's The Staircase alludes to the haunting centre of novelist Michael Peterson's infamous murder case. "So to create the impression that somehow I'm this greedy lawyer, who's forcing my client to sell his furniture in order to write me checks to do his appealI mean that is sort of offensive to me. Fear of this realization getting out, Michael possibly grabbed and shook Liz, his anger finally caused him to push her hard and she fell down the stairs to her demise. } else if ( host.indexOf("edition.") Prosecutors say the similarities are too many to be coincidental. The nanny who found Elizabeth Ratliff's body in 1985 also took to the stand at Michael Peterson's murder trial and testified to witnesses about a large amount of blood at the scene. Peterson and friends maintained that their friendship was purely platonic. Both declined to comment directly on Rudolf's statements. And she said to me, 'So you're going to be content just being an old grandfather?' Jean and Sophie dont know what to think anymore. I feel here is where things took a turn. That is f***ing defamation because Sophie was off the project," Rudolf said. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! She refuses to binge-watch anything. As both their families grew, so did the bonds between them. They argued to keep the clip showing Peterson interacting with his son, Clayton Peterson (Dane DeHaan), whereas their producer wanted to include a scene that covered evidence presented at Peterson's trial that Kathleen Peterson may have been strangled. An autopsy concluded Elizabeth died from a. She was very happy while planning a party she threw for Appel-Schumacher and her new husband two nights before she died, the witness recalled. Warning: This article contains spoilers about The Staircase on HBO Max. He was sentenced to time already served and freed from prison. Newsweek reached out to HBO and director Antonio Campos's representatives. At the time, the German police ruled her death an accident and an autopsy concluded that she died of a brain hemorrhage. Inside, he and Kathleen have quite a makeup session after their own argument the night before at dinner. Where is Morgan from the Murdaugh Murders now? Elizabeth Ratliff's children Margaret (Ratliff) Blakemore and Martha Ratliff. The medical examiner rules that the cause of death was blunt force trauma. Either of these scenarios give him time, time in which the blood to dry to the point it did when the EMTs got there and noticed it was not wet as it should be, had it just happened. As it came to light that Kathleen was not the first woman associated with Michael to be found dead at the bottom of the staircase, Elizabeths remains were exhumed for more information. Elizabeth had been complaining of severe headaches in the weeks before her death, and it was believed she suffered the haemorrhage while on the staircase, causing her to fall. Elizabeth's updated autopsy report indicated that she died from homicidal assault. He was sentenced to time already served and freed from prison. He hires David Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg) whose price tag is as big as his reputation. The Staircase addresses both of those theories, and just like the documentary of the same name by Oscar-winning filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade on which the show is based, whether you believe Michael Peterson is a killer is your own decision to make. Occasionally wiping tears from her eyes, Appel-Schumacher testified about the large amount of blood she and her husband cleaned up after Ratliff's body was moved. In 2001, Kathleen calls Candace to apologize for their argument over Thanksgiving and Michael notices a bunch of owls above their home. Peterson lived next door to Ratliff when she died. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. Investigators exhumed her grave in Bay City, Texas. They wanted to reassess her injuries, to make sure her death really was the tragic accident it had been accepted as for 17 years. And no questions were raised when her close friend Michael Peterson adopted her daughters, Margaret and Martha. The critically acclaimed documentary of the same name came out in 2004 a few years after the trial and is now available to stream on Netflix, while this fictionalized version tells the tale of The. We didn't get paid anything for the appeal. "What's the fucking grounds?" Meanwhile, Michael's defense attorneys hire their own blood spatter experts, who testify that the blood patterns are just not consistent with a brutal strike to the head. Michael Stuhlbarg portrayed Peterson's lawyer David Rudolf in the series. "There was nothing out of place, except that she was no longer living," she recalled almost two decades later. She edited the scenes of us in the house, you know, meeting with experts, that sort of thing," he continued. Together, Elizabeth and George Ratliff had two daughters, Margaret and Martha Ratliff, who Michael Peterson would adopt following their deaths. "Her injuries are indicative of multiple blunt force impacts". The similar nature of Elizabeth's and Kathleen's deaths was enough to leave the jury serving on Michael's trial in Durham significantly suspicious. "We made plans to live in Paris. It's believed that Michael was the last. On November 25, 1985, Elizbeth Ratliff was found dead at the bottom of her staircase, in an eerily similar way to the way Michael Peterson's wife, Kathleen Peterson was found on December 1, 2001. Later, Jean-Xavier shows Sophie the latest footage of his chat with Michael, where he explains his bisexuality. The coroner determined that she fell down the stairs after the brain bleed caused her immediate demise. Peterson has to hire a high-powered defense team for his trial. 1987-United States-Michael and Patty have now since divorced (funny how so soon after this all happened) And in the divorce, the Petersons boys went with Patty while the Ratliff girls remained with Michael. Michael is having a rough time in prison. That's number one. At their request, Ratliff's body was exhumed in Texas in April. There was a substantial amount of blood around the staircase, Witness Cheryl Appel-Schumacher testified during Petersons 2003 trial that the blood reached all the way up the staircase. But, in February, just months before the scheduled retrial, Peterson submitted an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter. When watching The Staircase, it might be hard to keep track of the complicated Peterson family tree. During Michael's trial, Cheryl Appel-Schumacher, one of the late schoolteacher's friends, recalled that Elizabeth had severe headaches a few days before she was found dead. 1 day ago, by Njera Perkins It was after she left the project that she first sent him a letter. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. Peterson agreed to an Alford plea, which enables him to maintain his innocence in the death of his wife Kathleen Peterson in 2001. Shortly after Michael and Patty married, Michael went to fight in Vietnam while Patty headed to the Rhein-Main Air Base near Frankfurt, where she worked as a second-grade teacher. Elizabeth Ratliff and her husband, George Ratliff, were close friends of Peterson and his first wife, Patricia Peterson, when they lived in Germany in the 1980s. ), I believe Michael and Elizabeth were upstairs in her home, possibly having a romantic interlude, when the conversation turned more serious as Elizabeth asked Michael to leave his wife (Patty) at the time. "It is further my opinion that these injuries were incurred while Mrs. Ratliff was alive and are of sufficient severity to have caused her death.". The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans. he spits. The widow grew even closer with the Peterson family. Michael Peterson and his first wife, Patricia Peterson, were among the many people who filled the foyer that Monday morning 18 years ago, the witness testified. Peterson was the. ", Speaking separately to Vanity Fair about the scenes in the fifth episode of HBO Max's The Staircase, Lestrade said: "We gave [Campos] all the access he wanted, and I really trusted the man. Peterson's lawyers took issue with the examiner's assessment. So you know, I'm sorry that I have to say this, but I think Antonio Campos [The Staircase on HBO Max director] went way beyond what was ethical for him as a filmmaker to do just in order to either sell this film, or to pump its ratings, and that in my judgment is despicable. After receiving permission from Elizabeth's mother and sister, authorities went ahead with the exhumation. Just like with Petersons wife Kathleen, she suffered lacerations to the head which were attributed to her fall. 15 hours ago, by Chandler Plante The two families were close friends while living in Germany, and Michael was the last person who'd seen Elizabeth alive following dinner at the Ratliff home one night, Michael offered to stay behind and help Elizabeth put her girls to bed. His analysis of the crime scene suggested that most of the blood splatter on the . Elizabeth now feeling frustrated and not wanting to continue being alone with 2 small children told him she was going to go tell his wife that her daughter Margaret was Michael's daughter (as you can see the incredible similarities between she and Michael as well as his boys Todd & Clayton with Patty) https://flic.kr/p/JR7p1K Both Peterson and his wife raised his two daughters, Margaret and Martha,as if they were their own. Candace makes an impassioned plea for a dismissal, but the judge overrules her. Right about the time the trial ended, they didn't start putting the cuts together," Rudolph explained. Ok so here is my theory for the Michael Peterson case-while I do not think he is a serial killer who always plans to kill women by the same method of throwing them down the stairs, I do think he has the personality of flying into a rage which ended with the deaths of 2 women and here is how I think it happened: 1985-Germany-Michael was carrying on an affair with family friend, Elizabeth Ratliff (he claims they never did but then he did look elsewhere who knows how many times during his marriages for other partners to satisfy his sexual desires, and as we cannot ask Elizabeth, I would say his ability to lie and tell stories, definitely does not add anything to his credibility. if ( host.indexOf("europe.cnn.com") != -1 ) { Now at this time a few things couldve happened-whatever he struck her with at the front door, he now needed to get rid of, so as she lay dying at the bottom of the stairs, he changed out of any bloodied clothes and got rid of them with the item he struck her with. Margaret and Martha lived with Michael Peterson but were never adopted by him. With two young children (Martha, the youngest, was just months old when her father passed away), Elizabeth relied on Michael and Patty's support more than ever. "First of all, Sophie didn't edit any of the courtroom scenes. Although the original autopsy concluded Ratliff died of a brain aneurysm, the coincidence of Peterson being the last known person to see two different women alive before they both wound up dead. Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. His only respite is his new relationship with Sophie, the documentary editor, and her letters. Elizabeth Ratliff, a family friend of Michael Peterson and his first wife, Patricia, died in 1985, just two years after her husband, George. It is only natural that a mother want custody of her children, but why not the girls as their mother was supposedly her best or very close friend?? They argued as he would not agree to this. The defense countered these claims, arguing that half of Elizabeth's brain was missing during the new autopsy and pushing against the idea that Michael was the last person to see her alive. Stuhlbarg is seen above with Tim Guinee and Colin Firth in a scene from "The Staircase" in which the men prepare for Peterson's trial. Although Ratliff lost a lot of weight and mourned her husband's death deeply, Appel-Schumacher said Ratliff's mood lifted during 1985. Michael, a Vietnam War vet, bonded with Elizabeth's husband, George, who was a captain in the military. 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Judge Orlando Hudson Jr. will rule on whether the similarities between Ratliff's death and Kathleen Peterson's are sufficiently similar that jurors should hear the evidence. The similarities between the deaths of Elizabeth Ratliff and Kathleen Peterson raised eyebrows among the Durham authorities. We never charge him another cent and the appeal was done on a court-appointed basis.". And then when the appeal was over, for the next, whatever, eight years, I represent them for free, and never charge them a penny, I paid my own expenses. Patricia has always vehemently backed him up. As Peterson was being investigated for the staircase death of his wife in the early 2000s, Ratliffs body was exhumed in Texas in 2003. He also has the option of pleading not guilty and again facing a new trial in front of a jury. Who was Elizabeth Ratliff, and how did her 1985 death become part of Michael Peterson's trial? Now as both Elizabeth and her husband were both deceased, the girls Margaret and Martha would surely be left in the care of one of their relatives? 13 hours ago, by Njera Perkins Michael had two biological sons, Todd and Clayton, with his first wife, Patty. She was the first woman in Michael Peterson's life found dead at the bottom of a staircase, and featured in the aptly titled Netflix series "The Staircase.". At least, until tragedy struck. The two were buried side by side after Ratlitt died. From Rudolf's perspective, in HBO Max's The Staircase, it is implied Rudolf found out about Ratliff only a few weeks before the trial. But two years after George's death, as if the Ratliff family hadn't suffered enough trauma, Elizabeth too was found dead - at the bottom of the staircase at her home in Germany. It is unknown if their disagreement happened in real life. When he separated from his wife, he brought his sons and the Ratliff children to the United States. 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Desktop notifications to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news ASAP inside, he and Kathleen quite! Access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and an autopsy concluded that she died a... The real David Rudolf ( Michael Stuhlbarg ) whose price tag is as big as his.. Clot disorder, Im sure there is some emotion heard in the of. Reportedly died from an intracerebral hemorrhage, secondary to a blood clot disorder n't actively dating if... 'S representatives have had a loving, almost familial relationship, '' Rudolf said he brought his sons the., died shortly before her in a new one again head indicated blunt force impacts.! L ) appear in court sentenced to time already served and freed from prison was Elizabeth Ratliff children... 'S children Margaret ( Ratliff ) Blakemore and Martha Ratliff, who Michael Peterson would following... Her mind about her stepfather reduced charge of manslaughter DA 's file the pressure the! 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