Michael placed two 911 calls, and emergency services attended the scene soon after. 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. Elizabeth Ratliff's daughter, Martha and Margaret Ratliff stood by Michael Peterson and believed him to be innocent. The Scene of Her Death. 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. Michael Peterson is believed to have been the last person to see her alive. "Once the trial started, they hired [film editor] Scott Stevenson to edit the trial footage. He explained that he first met Peterson at this house in Durham, North Carolina, and holding a meeting in a diner with a client would just never happen. Tragedy struck, however, in 1983, when Elizabeth's husband George was killed in a secret military operation overseas. Do any of us? "She wasn't actively dating, if that's the question," Appel-Schumacher said. A quick recap for those who arent familiar with the case: He wasconvicted of first-degree murder in 2003 and spent nearly a decade behind bars. His only respite is his new relationship with Sophie, the documentary editor, and her letters. 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. Meanwhile, in France, two filmmakers are searching for their next project. Her husband, George Ratliff, died shortly before her in a secret military operation overseas in 1983, according to CourtTV. All Rights Reserved. 11 hours ago, by Monica Sisavat Both Peterson and his wife raised his two daughters, Margaret and Martha,as if they were their own. Authorities ruled Ratliff's death to be of natural causes, concluding that a cerebral hemorrhage caused her to fall and strike her head. "My opinion is that this is the scene of a beating, that this scene is not unlike many scenes I've been to," Deaver concluded. The widow grew even closer with the Peterson family. "There are many things in the first five episodes, which I've seen that are inaccurate, misleading, and outright false," Rudolph told Newsweek. And then when the appeal was over, for the next, whatever, eight years, I represent them for free, and never charge them a penny, I paid my own expenses. The deceased's injuries were "inconsistent with a fall down a set of stairs", state pathologist wrote in her report. In response, Michael Peterson's lawyer, David Rudolf, argued he had never seen such inflammatory wording used in an autopsy before. As Peterson was being investigated for the staircase death of his wife in the early 2000s, Ratliffs body was exhumed in Texas in 2003. He was granted a new trial in 2011, which was scheduled to begin in May 2017. But I didn't say to her, 'You know, yeah, that works fine for me.'". The Netflix series, originally a documentary produced by a French company, examines his original trial. Editor Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche) finds herself so entranced with Peterson she begins reaching out to him via letters to prison. Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's The Staircase alludes to the haunting center of novelist Michael Peterson's infamous murder case. Jennifer McHugh is a Los Angeles-based writer. The family gathers in the courtroom for the retrial hearing. Michael, a Vietnam War vet, bonded with Elizabeth's husband George, who was a captain in the military. Michael is convinced that the DA is on a witch hunt since Michael had written critical columns on the DA in the past. Michael Peterson took charge of all the details, and friends of Elizabeth Ratliff were grateful that he did, she said. Get the daily inside scoop right in your inbox. Seeing Margaret everyday no doubt caused her much stress and probably was the reason for many arguments that eventually led to the divorce. 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?? Whether the evidence about Elizabeth Ratliff's death had a particularly swaying influence on the jury or not is impossible to know - but Michael Peterson was convicted of murdering Kathleen Peterson in October 2003. Period. Fear of this realization getting out, Michael possibly grabbed and shook Liz, his anger finally caused him to push her hard and she fell down the stairs to her demise. But .