After her death, German officials concluded that Ratliff died of a cerebral hemorrhage which led to her falling down the stairs. He also said thatthe person wearing apair of bloody shorts and bloody sneakers--both belonging to Michael Peterson--had to be present in the stairwell or just outside when Kathleen Peterson's head or a pool of her blood were hit with great force. "She wasn't actively dating, if that's the question," Appel-Schumacher said. Elizabeth was just 43 years old when she died on November 27, 1985. I believe that Kathleen excused herself to go get ready for a meeting the next morning. David Rudolf represented Michael Peterson in the real-life murder trial depicted in the HBO Max series "The Staircase." Michael and his ex-wife, Patty (Trini Alvarado), had become the legal guardians of Margaret and Martha after both of their parents died. During her testimony, Appel-Schumacher told Hudson that Ratliff was happily married to George Ratliff, who died in a secret military operation overseas in 1983, and was devastated when he died. 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. 10 votes, 25 comments. 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. The Scene of Her Death The 43-year-old died in 1985 in Germany and was found at the bottom of her stairs by her children's nanny, Barbara Malagnino. Elizabeth Ratliff, a 43-year-old widow who taught second grade at a U.S. Department of Defense School, was found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs on November 25, 1985. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. He was released on bond in 2011 pending a retrial. Although Ratliff lost a lot of weight and mourned her husband's death deeply, Appel-Schumacher said Ratliff's mood lifted during 1985. And you can quote me on that. Sam Smith is going to be in And Just Like That s2! Her life was thus incredibly different from her Rhode Island farm upbringing, especially as shed eventually found herself working at an elementary school at the Rhein-Main Air Force Base in West Germany. His children, who all decided not to attend the hearing, see the news break on television but decide to keep their distance to try and maintain normalcy in their own lives. 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. Together, they go to the Durham Herald Christmas Ball. Newsweek reached out to HBO and director Antonio Campos's representatives. } The Staircase is streaming on HBO Max now. Rudolf first took issue with some of the smaller details in the series. In her opinion, the seven lacerations on her head indicated blunt force trauma. Please select the topics you're interested in: Would you like to turn on POPSUGAR desktop notifications to get breaking news ASAP? , Awesome, Youre All Set! 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. (We'll get back to that.). He was granted a new trial in 2011, which was scheduled to begin in May 2017. Lestrade appears throughout the series, filming Michael in the most mundane and dramatic of moments, capturing his family and his entire trial, appeal, and release. The author's ex-wife Patty maintains that their relationship was platonic and that her ex-husband is innocent. Or anyone else for that matter-NO ONE knows exactly what someone has in their home-their own or someone elses) he then went into self-preservation mode-his mind took him back to what happened with Elizabeth Ratliff and so he carried Kathleen or even helped guide her up the stairs, if she was still conscious, telling her he would help her and not to worry, however after climbing a certain amount of stairs, he then ended up heaving her down the stairs. All external sites will open in a new browser. 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 Michael Peterson is believed to have been the last person to see her alive. Do any of us? Im also sure as he is a master storyteller, that he convinced himself the story he told was the truth and his mind believed it, thus giving his consciousness the ability to feel he was innocent and then able to act the part of the victim as well. In 2003, Michael Peterson was convicted of killing his wife Kathleen Peterson after she was found dead in a pool of blood at the bottom of the staircase in their home on December 9, 2001. His appeal is rejected, but the documentary is a huge hit and renews interest in his case. She continued: "Rather, they are indicative of multiple blunt force impacts, either from blows to the head caused by a blunt object or by the head being forcibly struck against a hard surface. The 43-year-old died in 1985 in Germany, found at the bottom of her stairs by her children's nanny Barbara Malagnino. Michael struggles with life outside of prison and sees his children are struggling as well. (We dont know if this is factual or just a dramatized coincidence.) 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. 1 week ago, by Joely Chilcott "For another year, she was gone. The real-life Rudolph is seen above. 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. Earlier Monday,jurors heard testimony froma blood spatter expertwho examined blood stains in the stairwell where Kathleen Peterson died. Elizabeth Ratliff and her husband, George Ratliff, were close friends of Michael Peterson and his first wife Patricia Peterson when they lived in Germany in the 1980s. The Staircase airs Thursdays on HBO Max and Sky Atlantic. However as Kathleen was not having any of it, I believe she decided to storm out and go to a relatives house or even a hotel, just to get out as some people do in the onset of a huge argument-just need to get out even to go for a drive. She also remembered the copious amounts of blood near the staircase at the scene of Elizabeth's death. The next morning, the nanny, Barbara, discovered Elizabeth's body. Just four days before her death, she was complaining of severe headaches. The medical examiner rules that the cause of death was blunt force trauma. "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.". Authorities ruled Ratliff's death to be of natural causes, concluding that a cerebral hemorrhage caused her to fall and strike her head. Peterson subsequently ended up raising Ratliff's young. Appel-Schumacher recalled that Ratliff had a severe headache four days before she died, severe enough that she made an appointment to see a doctor the following week. 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. At least, until tragedy struck. Michael and Patty had two sons while living over in Germany - Clayton and Todd - while Elizabeth and George had two daughters, Margaret and Martha. 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. Her name was Elizabeth Ratliff (shown above in the blue shirt) and she died at the age of 43. You know, I mean, all you have to do is watch the documentary to know that that's not true. Click Here to try 4 Free Trial Issues of Time! They believe their adopted father is innocent of killing both of their moms, according to the documentary. Noticing the uncanny similarities with Kathleen's case, prosecutors took a closer look at Elizabeth's death in 2003. Additionally, at the beginning of each episode, there is a disclaimer stating the show is "a dramatization based on certain facts. Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's The Staircase alludes to the haunting center of novelist Michael Peterson's infamous murder case. 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. 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. Just like with Peterson's wife Kathleen, she suffered lacerations to the head which were attributed to her fall. More importantly, both Margaret and Martha Ratliff, whose custody was awarded to the Petersons as per their biological mothers final will, also support their father through and through. 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. Nearly two decades before Michael's wife, Kathleen, was found lifeless at the bottom of a staircase, there was a woman named Elizabeth Ratliff, whose death would become crucial to the prosecution's story. At the hearing for the Alford plea, the courtroom is noticeably less full. Viewers new to The Staircase story may have been surprised to learn Peterson dated Sophie Brunet, the editor of Lestrade's first documentary. It wasn't until after Kathleen's death in December 2001 that the circumstances surrounding Elizabeth Ratliff's fall and subsequent death were re-evaluated. As Peterson was being investigated for the staircase death of his wife in the early 2000s, Ratliffs body was exhumed in Texas in 2003. Editor Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche) finds herself so entranced with Peterson she begins reaching out to him via letters to prison. It's believed that Michael was the last. However, things changed once her embalmed body was exhumed nearly two decades later, in April 2003. 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. Whether or not Michael Peterson killed Elizabeth Ratliff remains unknown. Elizabeth was just 43 years old when she died on November 27, 1985. Great, Click the Allow Button Above A friend of Elizabeth Ratliff's also testified about a bloody death scene. Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. So that's why today I'm very uncomfortable because I feel that I've been betrayed in a way.". The Scene of Her Death. The 43-year-old died in 1985 in Germany, found at the bottom of her stairs by her children's nanny Barbara Malagnino. The prosecution used the evidence to draw parallels in court, but never formally charged Michael with Elizabeth's death. Then I went and realized, no, I can't. After receiving permission from Elizabeth's mother and sister, authorities went ahead with the exhumation. Both Peterson and his wife raised his two daughters, Margaret and Martha,as if they were their own. ), 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. In the end, Michael Peterson was convicted of murdering Kathleen Peterson. In 1985, a few years after George Ratliff's death, Elizabeth was found at the bottom of the stairs by the nanny, Barbara Malagnino. It's all in the documentary, it's there. Odessa Young and Sophie Turner as Elizabeth Ratliff's daughters Martha and Margaret. 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. When the Petersons resided in Germany, Elizabeth worked in the same school as Michael's then-wife, Patty. Now fast forward to 2001-the night Michaels second wife, Kathleen dies. 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 . 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. The autopsy report found that Elizabeth Ratliff had died in 1985 from “blunt force trauma to the head” by a “homicidal attack,” rather than of a brain hemorrhage while . 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'm too old. As seen on The Staircase, both girls publicly supported Peterson during his trial and became inconsolable when he was convicted. He hires David Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg) whose price tag is as big as his reputation. Lawyer David Rudolf (L) and Michael Peterson (R) address reporters after his court hearing in Durham, North Carolina, on February 24, 2017. 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. Tragedy struck, however, in 1983, when Elizabeth's husband George was killed in a secret military operation overseas. She often ate dinner with the Petersons, and Michael would help her clean up and tuck in her children at bedtime. Margaret and Martha would be raised by Michael and his second wife, Kathleen Atwater, whom he met in 1986. Michael had also been caught in a lie in the press when he claimed he won a Purple Heart in Vietnam when he had not. 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. Just like with Petersons wife Kathleen, she suffered lacerations to the head which were attributed to her fall. "I could not give her what she really needed and deserved, and that would be a full-time partner living with her in Paris. 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. She was found by her children's nanny, Barbara Malagnino, who sought help from Patty shortly after making the grim discovery. Cat is Cosmopolitan UK's features editor covering women's issues, health and current affairs. 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?? Con Girl: Where is Samantha Azzopardi now? Michael is convinced that the DA is on a witch hunt since Michael had written critical columns on the DA in the past. I completely feel for his family, especially the kids. And she said to me, 'So you're going to be content just being an old grandfather?' It is unknown if their disagreement happened in real life. 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