The Staircase’s ‘owl theory’: could an owl be guilty of the 17-year-old murder of a woman and not her ‘bisexual’ husband?
IT’s like a scene from a horror movie. The body of Kathleen Hunt Atwater Peterson lies in a pool of blood at the bottom of an old wooden staircase at her mansion in Durham, North Carolina.
Blood splatters the walls and the police called to the scene immediately begin to suspect foul play. But was it a murder, an accident, or an attack by a crazed OWL?
American Murder Mystery: The Staircase is a riveting new Netflix mini-series which tells the true story of how celebrity writer Michael Peterson, now 73, was originally convicted for his wife's murder.
He was sentenced to life without parole in 2003, and served eight years before being granted a new trial in 2011 - a development which is charted in the documentary about his case.
In February 2017, he was released by a judge on appeal after a plea bargain to the reduced charge of manslaughter... but fans of the show now think he may not have had anything to do with the case at all.
Instead, the "owl theory" - which isn't covered in the doc - claims a violent bird of prey could have attacked Kathleen, explaining the unusual patterns of her wounds and supporting Michael's claims of innocence.
New evidence
The doc may not look at the owl theory, but it does consider a series of other explanations which were raised in court.
There's an interview with Brent Wolgamott, the former male escort who testified that he had a brief email relationship with Michael and while they never met, their exchange was supposed to lead to a sexual encounter.
There’s also an interview with Kathleen’s sister Candace Zamperini who after arriving at the house, said in a TV clip that a police officer told her it was a crime scene.
“He was like, ‘Well, there’s a lot of blood.’ He must have said eight to 10 times, ‘There’s a lot of blood,’ like, ‘You need to prepare yourself.”
In court, she said: "All the evils of my sister's death leaped into my eyes. The horrors of my sister's beating. Kathleen did not die slowly, but a three-hour death."
History repeating itself?
The TV series also looks into another key piece of the prosecution case.
The death of Elizabeth Ratliff, a family friend and mother of Michael’s two adopted daughters Martha and Margaret, whose body had been found at the bottom of a staircase in Germany in 1985.
Michael was the last person to see her alive.
During Michael’s trial Elizabeth’s body was exhumed and a second autopsy conducted.
Results of this postmortem, together with new witness statements, led the prosecution to state at the trial that Michael knew how to "fake" Kathleen's accident.
During the case, both Martha and Margaret as well as Clayton and Todd Peterson, his two biological sons with his first wife Patricia, support their father and believe his innocence.
The new Making A Murderer
The Netflix series follows all the twists and turns in the case which has fascinated America for years and includes exclusive interviews with people involved with the case.
Like Netflix’s Making a Murderer, the multi award-winning real crime series, The Staircase is set to become one of was the most talked about real life crime stories in TV history.
Making a Murderer followed the story of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey, a teenager with learning difficulties, who were arrested and convicted for the murder and sexual assault of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach.
Meanwhile American Murder Mystery: The Staircase tells how Michael stated that on that fateful night he’d come in from being outside by the pool to find Kathleen, his second wife dead and claimed that she’d been drinking and taken Valium.
In a statement, TV exec Henry Schleiff said: "There are so many pieces to this puzzle — from Michael's salacious secrets to investigator misconduct to the odd owl theory.
"We are eager to bring our viewers the first complete look at this fascinating crime and subsequent trial."
Michael has maintained his innocence throughout. When he walked free, his attorney David Rudolf said: "The bottom line here is that Mr Peterson is not guilty. He was never guilty."
The Staircase is available on Netflix.