Hi!

So I finished the series today and I have so many thoughts that I had to join this page!

Obviously the Netflix show was shot over MANY years, but what shocked me was Michaels’ attitude! It felt like the show was shot all at once because he did not change in the slightest! He mentioned Kathleen more after his prison sentence but always found a way to bring it back to himself.

Secondly, the children that stood by him seemed completely and utterly out of touch with their mother’s death! I know trauma affects people differently but it just didn’t sit right with me!

And thirdly, the song Micheal chose in the last episode “Everybody Knows” just seems absolutely crazy!!!!!!!! The way he looked at the camera too.

He 100% did it! And I stand by this. He is so narcissistic and I feel for Kathleen’s Family!

I recently rewatched and noticed that there were small cuts all around her eyebrow and eyes. I re read the autopsy and it confirmed this. Does anyone have any theories as to how these cuts happened??

I know this is the Netflix Group page but I just tossed Hulu and and there's a 3 part series from 2018 I believe it said.

Diving in for a different look.

Sorry if this has been said before I'm not very Reddit savvy. I did check for it's own group.

1. What caused Kathleen to die? Heart failure, trauma,etc.

2. At last count, Michael’s then legal fees were at least $1 mil correct? That was in long ago dollars. Any final tally?

3. Where did he get money from to pay fees- was it a family trust his brother managed?

4. Mike and the producer of The Staircase were canoodling correct?

Ty! And Happy 🦃 Day!

1. Motive:

• Financial: if the motive was financial, why kill Kathleen right after getting an offer for a movie deal? It would’ve made more sense for him to kill her when they were in more dire straits rather than days after there was hope on the horizon.

• If the motive was because Kathleen discovered his gay affairs on his computer, why didn’t he delete the gay porn files? He only deleted the financial information files. Imagine you just killed your wife because she found your gay porn, isn’t the first thing you’re going to delete…your gay porn??

2. Red Neurons can appear in as little as 30 minutes, especially if oxygen content in the brain increases for a brief time before death.

3. Why would Michael kill Kathleen knowing Todd was returning to the house soon?

4. All the shady things the prosecution had to do in order to convict Michael.

• refused to have an impartial autopsy done on Elizabeth
• Medical Examiner admits she first believed Elizabeth’s injury’s could not be from blunt force trauma, but her Chief ME told her she had to change her ruling.
• Duane Deaver and the plethora of other experts who disagreed with his findings. (Enough said)
• etcetera (I could go on and on)

5. No murder weapon. Prosecution had to conceal evidence of Blowpokes existence from the start just to make their case.

6. How do you explain the statistical rarity of blunt force trauma deaths without brain injury?

7. No spatter on Michael’s shirt. Sure he could’ve changed shirts, but where’s the one with spatter? One could argue didn’t have enough time to conceal it well enough for nobody to EVER find it before the police came.

8. People who rely on the “bUt tHeReS TwO StAirCaSe DeATHs”. I don’t think you’re doing very much critical thinking at all. It’s a very surface level statement. They are very different cases and the German police said it was due to brain hemorrhaging. You truly believe the proven biased Durham medical examiner over an impartial one from the original scene? Ok??

Listen, Michael is not a likable person. He comes across as narcissistic, uses self effacing language to seem humble, and is painfully unfunny. But those things do not make him a murderer. There is more than enough reasonable doubt that he is LEGALLY not guilty, but I’d even go as far as to say he didn’t do it period.

If this was premeditated at all, it seems highly unlikely that he would do this with the knowledge that his son would be home soon.

I may have missed an explanation, but why the hell did they leave the blood on the walls in the staircase for years. When they took the jury to see the staircase, and the blood was still there, I was so surprised. She died in 2001, and the trial didn't start until 2003. How could he live in the house like that for so long?

It just doesn’t seem possible. Like his defense attorney said, at the time of the trial there were ZERO cases of bludgeoning without the presence of fractures. There’s not even contusions, no BRUISES even. I don’t like Mike. He comes across as a self effacing narcissist. I want to think he’s guilty, but I cannot get past this.

Watching this for the dozenth time because it's something I put on when I go to sleep and just had some new things stick out:

• When the legal team went to Germany, his exwife had nothing but good things to say about him. They were like two peas in a pod. Also those stairs in Germany were GNARLY death stairs.

• The Escort. When the laywer was on the phone with him or a phone call after talking to him, he was flipping through those pictures. They made it seem like one was Michael and I was thinking they can't disprove that, the judge will let the Bisexuality slide (which I agree the jury probably would have snubbed him) but the pictures weren't him they never got together? And it was evidence anyway.

• Kathleen's Headstone. Anyone else feel like the family had some money and they "cheaped out" on the headstone?

Did anyone else get the feeling that Martha wanted to ask Michael something after they visited Kathleen's grave? They were standing outside the car holding roses. It's a very well shot, poignant scene.

I've felt the whole time that Martha has more doubts than the other children (besides Caitlin). Remember in one of the first episodes when Martha and Margaret were in the kitchen with a local friend who started questioning things? Margaret shut her down but Martha still looked unsure. Anyone else have the same intuition about her?

From the very first scene, when Michael is filmed by the pool going over the evening before Kathleen’s death, every fiber in my body SCREAMED that this is a guilty man, and that was before I had even learned what happened later. His body language, the way he talked, the way he made, or rather didn’t make, eye contact, the unnecessary details in his story, his demeanor, all told me that this is a man lying through his teeth. I felt like I was watching a predator.

After finishing the documentary, I feel like I’ve never actually seen a more guilty man in any documentary that’s supposed to be about someone wrongfully convicted.

After learning that there are additional evidence that the series didn’t bring up, such as the strangulation, the hairs found in Kathleen’s hands, I’m even more convinced. I am sure he did this to the family friend in Germany too. Two women can’t end up dead at the foot of a staircase and it’s a coincidence.

When browsing this sub I found the owl theory. Does anyone know where the theory comes from, and what, if any, evidence points in that direction?

I’m also wondering how people can think that’s more likely than Michael Peterson dunking two women’s heads on staircases? Statistically speaking, there is absolutely 0 chance of that being that case if you look at how many women fall victims at the hands of their own husbands every year.

To be honest I’m a bit surprised at how people can actually think it’s more plausible that an owl did this, than this man who’s had two women close to him both fall down two different sets of stairs, in two different countries, and die. What are your thoughts? What might I be missing?

This is a descriptor of him I see constantly and was used by Candace to describe him based on the fact that he kept a large amount of personal writing and such since a young age.

I believe MP is self-centered and very fascinated with his own mind-- most artists and writers are if we're being honest. You have to enjoy digging deep within your own mind and experiences and views of the world to consistently create art and make it your livelihood (even if you don't make much money from it.)

His self-centeredness is also present in his cheating on Kathleen; I half expected him to break down talking about how she died before she knew that side of him, that she died with a secret kept from her about him that now everyone else knows...but I can't judge how a 70+ year old closeted man with a dead ex-wife should feel about that, or how he should express it to a camera crew.

I did not grow up with narcissistic parents but I have close friends who have, which means I'm aware of the hallmark patterns of them but have not experienced it myself so therefore I am not nearly as skilled with clocking a narcissist based on subtle things.

Can someone explain, whether from the Staircase docuseries or other media on the case, what makes you believe he has narcissistic personality disorder and doesn't just have vaguely narcissistic/ self-indulgent tendencies?

His kids (most of them) seem to truly love him and enjoy his presence, and the one daughter was really open about her therapy and how she's learning to cope with what happened and how it's impacted her and Michael seemed really encouraging for her to keep making progress and find her peace. He didn't seem manipulative or intimidating to them, but that's me.

I'm usually not a true crime person, but for some reason The Staircase had me hooked and I don't know why. I am quite the sucker for early 2000s period pieces so it was neat looking into a window of the past, but I think just the general mystery surrounding the case is what has me fascinated.

If you were to ask me after watching the drama? I think he did indeed kill Kathleen, I was a follower of the owl theory until the penultimate episode showed the thing about the man who was killed in the robbery gone wrong having the same lascerations that Kathleen did. So what I think happened is the two were already in a rough patch relationship wise, Kathleen didn't like how shady he was being about his personal email that she needed to access for work purposes and he was paranoid about her learning his bi-sexual nature/the men he was sleeping with and either the two got into a heated argument and he hit her in the back of the head with something, or he did it while she wasn't looking but in both scenarios he made it look like she had fallen down the stairs and lied about having no involvement

I have new thoughts after watching again.

I didn’t hear a mention of footprints in blood around the house. Wouldn’t Michael have gotten blood on the bottom of his sneakers and left prints throughout the house after checking on her? I think the paramedics observed the blood was dried by the time they got there.

How long between the time Kathleen went into the house and when MP found her?

Blood spatter”expert” Dr Henry Lee never questioned the Deaver “experiments”. I don’t think that would fly today.

Todd seemed fine when MP was released. How long after that did Todd go off the rails?

Look at that motherfucking menace! Look at what he’s doing to that deer! Look at the way his murder talons are going for it — without hesitation!

You all don’t think one of these things could mistake a human for a deer after a night of heavy drinking and hooting?

The owl theory becomes clearer by the day.

One day, I will be avenged. I WILL BE AVENGED!!!!!!!

Do you have any theory?

They look identical!!

they were sitting beside each other on the bench during court and they look like they could be twins!

Is Michael Peterson her biological father?

I don't want to spoil the ending (for those who haven't seen the documentary) but one thing that never really sat well with me was the song that Michael Peterson claimed was one of his favorite songs. I think the lyrics could have two different meanings pertaining to this documentary. The one I personally believe in is that deep down he knows he had something to do with his wifes death and that "Everybody knows". Another theory would be that he could be using it as a metaphor to how corrupt the justice system is and that "everybody knows".

It could be a long stretch but that ending just never sat well with me. I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on it though. :)

You have absolutely no grounds to be forming an opinion based solely on the docuseries, which is heavily edited by Peterson's then lover and is only filmed from the defenses point of view.

You can easily view the entire trial by heading to the CourtTV website and you will find the trial in their archive section.

Watch the entire trial then come and tell me he's innocent. It is pure hubris and arrogance to be so dogmatic if you haven't even bothered to watch the full trial!

I estimate that less than 5% in the innocent camp have actually watched the full trial.

Anyone know where I can find the original edit of the documentary? Not the one from Netflix. I heard there are extra parts that the Netflix edit left out

Hi! I was wondering anyone knew if/where any footage of the bond hearing is? In the documentary they only showed a small clip like Todd getting in trouble with the judge. I kinda want to see how he was acting to get in trouble like that.

But at least in the docu series it appeared to be there was no physical evidence that would absolutely with 100% certainty prove that Mike did such crime.

I am not saying i am sure he didn’t do but there was just nothing for us to convict him. But Jury seemed very confident that he was guilty.

Any thoughts?

This documentary has been such a roller coaster. I am an avid watcher to true crimes and before you all come at me, I am not claiming MP is guilty or innocent because I have just watched the documentary and done no research.

My first impression when MP and everyone else described their relationship was that no way he did it. Then I saw the crime scene and I could not believe that the defense really went with the accident defense. I thought this would be an intruder type situation because no way there would be so much blood everywhere after a fall.

The family’s support really tipped me towards MP and the fact that she was drunk could definitely attribute to you losing your sense of balance (according to to the documentary atleast)

I also could not find a motive?? Why would he do this? Why was the Ratliff death brought up? The Deaver situation too… all just seemed like confirmation bias.

I live in Germany and trust me their justice system is not flawed as the US. Not to that degree atleast and they would not let it go that easily if it was a homicide.

Do I believe it was an accident? Probably not Is MP guilty BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT? I don’t think so.

There is ALOT of mishandling of evidence and corruption at play here from prosecution and it is their burden to probe MP guilty beyond any doubts.

I know most of you think MP is guilty and I want to believe that too. Can someone give me the best resources to look into and actually learn about the other side? The Staircase seemed very one sided