Michael and Kathleen Peterson.Photo: Netflix
The sudden and violent death of Kathleen Peterson stunned the nation in 2001, when it was reported that the successful businesswoman took afatal, late-night falldown the staircase of her $1.8 million home. The story rose to a new level of prominence after police soon arrested her husband, novelistMichael Peterson, and charged him with murder, saying that Kathleen’s injuries were consistent with homicidal assault.
Colin Firth and Toni Collette as the Petersons.Courtesy of HBO Max
Before diving intoThe Staircase’slatest iteration— premiering on HBO Max on Thursday, May 5 — PEOPLE is looking back at its early coverage of the real-life case 20 years ago, when Michaelvowed he was innocentand the public struggled to determine the truth.
Did Kathleen Peterson die in a tragic fall — or did her novelist husband, Michael, script a cunning murder?
Corks were popping at Michael and Kathleen Peterson’s Durham, N.C., mansion on the night of Dec. 8, and not for the usual society bash or arts council fundraiser. Earlier that day, Michael, 58, author of 1990’s popularA Time of War, learned that a Hollywood studio was interested in optioning his latest book, a true WWII-era tale. For his wife, Kathleen, 48, the news was most welcome. As they shared two bottles of champagne, she mused happily about traveling and spending more time together. Just before 2 a.m. she headed inside for bed. “I can’t even remember the last thing I said to her,” says Michael. “I wasn’t thinking, ‘This is the last time I’m going to see her.'”
Michael Peterson could hardly have predicted that 30 minutes later he would find his dying wife at the foot of a stairway, slumped in a pool of blood. Or could he have? That’s a question that has divided members of Durham’s close-knit upper crust ever since police arrested Peterson for his wife’s Dec. 9 murder. The authorities initially considered the death accidental. But in a startling turn of events, based almost wholly on an autopsy report, investigators say Kathleen died not after a fall but after being attacked. “This was not an accident,” says Durham County D.A. Jim Hardin. “There is no question.”
What makes them so certain? The police have not yet said. And among the couple’s many friends, none can imagine a scenario in which Peterson, a doting husband who often surprised his spouse with gifts of valuable jewelry and silk scarves, could have lifted a finger to harm her. “Everything you hear about them loving each other and belonging together is true,” says lawyer Nick Galifianakis, a former congressman who had represented both Petersons. “Where in the world is the motive for this?”
Kathleen and Michael Peterson.Netflix
On the surface at least, they did seem like an ideal pair. Born and raised in Greensboro, N.C., Kathleen was the first woman admitted to Duke University’s school of engineering, from which she went on to jobs with a pharmaceutical company and, more recently, telecommunications giant Nortel, where she rose to the post of vice president. Michael, a Tennessee native who also graduated from Duke, had successfully translated his experiences as a decorated Vietnam War vet into three widely praised novels.
The couple first met in 1986, the year Michael returned with his family from living in Germany, where his first wife, Patty, had been an elementary school teacher at an American military base. Kathleen, also married, with a daughter of her own, would live with Michael for 10 years before their divorces were at last finalized, clearing the way for their wedding in 1997. “She was immensely funny, intelligent, warm and just so quick,” says Peterson. By then Michael was writing an often scathing column about the city leaders forThe Herald-Sunand, soon, running unsuccessfully for city council and mayor in Durham. Kathleen, meanwhile, had fallen in love with the arts. Often after a full day at the office, she turned the couple’s landmark home, valued at $1.8 million, into a setting for gala receptions for local dance and arts groups. “We called her the 48-hour-per-day woman,” says neighbor Maureen Berry, 52. “She lived life to the fullest on four or five hours of sleep a night.”
With a trial scheduled for next May, Peterson — who faces life in prison and is out on $850,000 bond — is living back in the big house that Kathleen Peterson had once made such a hub of activity. He is writing, planning his defense and trying to put the bad memories behind him. “I take a little step forward and then I’m back again,” he says. “Everything in the house is a reminder of Kathleen.”
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source: people.com
