The exhumation of Elizabeth Ratliff. 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. The Staircase: For Michael Peterson and Daughter Margaret, the Who was Elizabeth Ratliff, and how did her 1985 death become part of Michael Peterson's trial? [5], Peterson and his first wife Patricia lived in Germany for some time. Upon examination, forensic pathologist Deborah Radisch, who also worked on Kathleen's case, said that Elizabeth's injuries were inconsistent with an accident. Nearly two decades before Michael Peterson found his wife at the bottom of a staircase, a close friend of his in Germany, Elizabeth Ratliff, had also died after a fall down a staircase. I believe they had been around Michael long enough to possibly take on his ability of telling stories, the more they told themselves he did not do it or that he could not have done it, the more they believed it. After Michael and Patricia divorced in 1987, Clayton and Todd lived with Patricia, and Margaret and Martha stayed with Michael, who then moved to Durham, North Carolina. The SBI cited the bloodstain analysis given in the fourth case as the reason for firing Deaver. While his clothes were bloody from cradling his wife, Peterson had insufficient blood spattering on his clothes to support an attack. The Netflix series, originally a documentary produced by a French company, examines his original trial. Netflix's 'The Staircase': How did Elizabeth Ratliff really die? In her opinion, the seven lacerations on her head indicated blunt force trauma. But, in February, just months before the scheduled retrial, Peterson submitted an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter. Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's The Staircase alludes to the haunting centre of novelist Michael Peterson's infamous murder case. Scan this QR code to download the app now. On November 25, 1985, Elizbeth Ratliff was found dead at the bottom of her staircase in an eerily similar way to the way Kathleen Peterson was found on December 9, 2001. His release on bond followed a judicial order for a new trial after Judge Hudson found that Deaver had given "materially misleading" and "deliberately false" testimony about bloodstain evidence, and had exaggerated his training, experience, and expertise. The similarities between the deaths of Elizabeth Ratliff and Kathleen Peterson raised eyebrows among the Durham authorities. Just four days before her death, she was complaining of severe headaches. She was found by her children's nanny, Barbara Malagnino, who sought help from Patty shortly after making the grim discovery.. Pollard subsequently filed affidavits[23] to support a motion that Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson order the state Medical Examiner's Office to turn over all documentation related to Kathleen's autopsy to Peterson's attorneys. An autopsy on the body of Elizabeth Ann McKee Ratliff, 43, was performed by the state medical examiner's office April 16 at the request of Durham District Attorney Jim Hardin, who contends that. He was granted a new trial in 2011, which was scheduled to begin in May 2017. The defence countered these claims, arguing that half of Elizabeth's brain was missing during the new autopsy and pushing against the idea that Michael was the last person to see her alive. "I was sitting here directly observing when the German medical examiner took the spinal tap and held the contents up so that he could view [it]," said Patty. The News & Observer, Durham's local news outlet, reported how "Margaret and Martha Ratliff wrapped their arms around each other and mourned" upon hearing their father's guilty verdict.