They wanted to reassess her injuries, to make sure her death really was the tragic accident it had been accepted as for 17 years. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. She was found by her children's nanny, Barbara Malagnino, who sought help from Patty shortly after making the grim discovery. When producer Denis Poncet (Frank Feys) and director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (Vincent Vermignon) come across the Peterson story, they wonder if there is a story there. 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. Killen ordered attack on civil rights worker, jury hears, Father convicted of murdering 9 of his children, Gov. The best face wash for every single skin type. What's eerily coincidental is the nature of her death: Elizabeth was found at the bottom of a staircase in her home with severe injuries to her head. But I didn't say to her, 'You know, yeah, that works fine for me.'". As per reports, Elizabeth often had dinner with the Petersons, and Michael would stay back to clean up or tuck her little girls to bed, which is precisely what they unwittingly did on her last evening alive. Did Michael Peterson Kill Elizabeth Ratliff? document.write('Tuesday, August 19, 2003 Posted: 10:40 PM HKT (1440 GMT)
<\/span>'); Noticing the uncanny similarities with Kathleen's case, prosecutors took a closer look at Elizabeth's death in 2003. She also remembered the copious amounts of blood near the staircase at the scene of Elizabeth's death. Period. Michael and Patty had two sons while living over in Germany - Clayton and Todd - while Elizabeth and George had two daughters, Margaret and Martha. 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. The two were buried side by side after Ratlitt died. 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? The family is ecstatic but quickly learns that not everybody is thrilled and accepting of his release, with public scrutiny at an all-time high. Since her husband's death, Peterson would come over to visit her every evening after dinner, according to "The Staircase." Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. 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. Despite speculation that Peterson may have killed Elizabeth Ratliff 16 years before Kathleen's death, something he has always strongly denied, the prosecution in Michael Peterson's trial didn't accuse Peterson of being responsible for Elizabeth Ratliff's death. 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. She often ate dinner with the Petersons, and Michael would help her clean up and tuck in her children at bedtime. 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 two adorable daughters into their lives Margaret and Martha Ratliff. And no questions were raised when her close friend Michael Peterson adopted her daughters, Margaret and Martha. On April 16, 2003, the state medical examiner's office carried out a second autopsy on Elizabeth Ratliff's body. The 43-year-old died in 1985 in Germany, found at the bottom of her stairs by her children's nanny Barbara Malagnino. The Staircase is the latest true-crime drama to land on HBO Max and viewers are still trying to process the jaw-dropping story of Michael Peterson who, in 2003, was found guilty of killing his wife Kathleen Peterson at their home on December 9, 2001. } Amongst them is the 1985 death of Elizabeth Ratliff, primarily because of the way she was found and how her two orphaned daughters soon ended up being adopted by the Petersons. Investigators exhumed her grave in Bay City, Texas. 17 hours ago, by Monica Sisavat In 2017, he entered an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter, meaning 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. 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. 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. He was released on bond in 2011 pending a retrial. After receiving permission from Elizabeth's mother and sister, authorities went ahead with the exhumation. A second autopsy, conducted by Durham, North Carolina officials this time, revealed sufficient evidence to suspect the manner of death being clear homicide. With that said, no charges against Michael have ever been brought in connection to this matter, and he maintains his innocence. Elizabeth Ratliff's children Margaret (Ratliff) Blakemore and Martha Ratliff. Warning: This article contains spoilers about The Staircase on HBO Max. Kathleen even has a brief run-in with Freda Black. Rudolf calls witnesses including the lead investigator from The Innocence Project and manages to convince the judge that Deaver lied about his qualifications on the stand. "Once the trial started, they hired [film editor] Scott Stevenson to edit the trial footage. Rudolf first took issue with some of the smaller details in the series. "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. Despite the evidence submitted during the trial, Elizabeth Ratliff's daughters, Margaret and Martha - who had been brought up by Michael and Kathleen - stood by their adoptive father and continued to protest his innocence. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Editor Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche) finds herself so entranced with Peterson she begins reaching out to him via letters to prison. Peterson's lawyers took issue with the examiner's assessment. In HBO Max's The Staircase, Brunet (played by Juliette Binoche) appears throughout the series, at first working to edit the documentary film released in 2004 and later as Peterson's romantic partner. It is true that Peterson and Brunet did date, with Peterson confirming to The News and Observer they went their separate ways in 2017. However, things changed once her embalmed body was exhumed nearly two decades later, in April 2003. When the Petersons resided in Germany, Elizabeth had worked in the same school as Michael's then wife Patty. Like Peterson, Ratliff was found at the bottom of her stairs with injuries to her head. Despite a large amount of blood, witness Cheryl Appel-Schumacher testified Monday, Ratliff's death didn't pique the interest of German and U.S. investigators, and they left the house without the body and without taking any photographs. Exposing Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's tendentious film, the Peterson murder documentary: Death on the Stairacse. 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. But as Michael, again could not have this harmful information that could ruin his reputation get out, he flew into a rage again striking Kathleen as she was headed out the door, thus leaving the drops of blood on the porch which was what initially led to the owl theory (an owl latched onto Kathleens head with its sharp talons-crazy I know). However, back in Germany Michael Peterson's BFF Elizabeth Ratliff also happened to die in another "freak staircase accident" in 1995. 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. He was granted a new trial in 2011, which was scheduled to begin in May 2017. So. 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. 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. Candace makes an impassioned plea for a dismissal, but the judge overrules her. But if he lied about something that big what else did he lie about? 2023 Vox Media, LLC. by Lindsay Kimble Elizabeth's death was initially ruled an accident, but when her body was exhumed during the trial for a second autopsy in April 2003, the coroner found sufficient evidence to categorize it as a homicide. David Rudolf represented Michael Peterson in the real-life murder trial depicted in the HBO Max series "The Staircase." We never charge him another cent and the appeal was done on a court-appointed basis.". 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 shock of what just transpired, Michael returned home where he would await news of Liz being found dead.