Where is Michael Peterson now? HBO's gripping true-crime saga ‘The Staircase’ finds a new streaming home
In the annals of true crime-based documentaries and fiction series, the name Michael Peterson bears special significance. Peterson's trial for the murder of his wife, Kathleen, and his subsequent conviction presented a case so harrowing and protracted that the truth was buried somewhere amongst several layers of lies and retelling. Collider recently reported that the famed eight-part true crime series 'The Staircase', which previously had a glorious run on HBO Max in 2022, will now be available for streaming on Netflix.
As per People magazine, Peterson is a former military veteran turned columnist and novelist. Although he married his first wife, Patricia Sue, while serving overseas in West Germany in 1968, they eventually ended up going their separate ways. Peterson went on to tie the knot with his second wife, Kathleen Atwater, a telecom executive, in 1997. On a cold night on December 9, 2001, a panic-stricken Peterson informed the 9-1-1 emergency dispatch that his wife lay unconscious in a pool of blood at the bottom of the staircase at their Durham, North Carolina, residence. She was ultimately declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
Peterson, since he was the only one home at the time of the murder, naturally came under suspicion. He initially offered to clear his name by going on the record and stating that Kathleen had tripped and fallen after consuming too much alcohol, coupled with Valium. Nevertheless, medical examiners revealed that Kathleen had succumbed to blunt force trauma to her head, and the dried blood on her scalp suggested that her body had been lying still for quite a while before paramedics arrived on the scene, according to Newsweek.
Peterson was convicted of his wife's murder as the jury found him to be guilty on October 10, 2003. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. More than seven years later, in 2011, a retrial was ordered after it was discovered that the blood splatter analyst had previously advanced false and misleading information. Peterson submitted an Alford plea to voluntary manslaughter in 2017 and walked out of prison soon after. ABC11 News reports that he has since then been residing in Durham, North Carolina, after selling his previous residence, which was the site of Kathleen's death. He is 82 years old now and has extensively written about his experiences in prison.
Oxygen carried a follow-up piece that quoted Peterson's defence attorney, David Rudolf, as saying, "He's (Peterson) in a ground-floor apartment with no stairs—that was a really important accommodation." It has also been reported that Peterson reunited with his first wife and continued to live together until her death from a heart attack. 'The Staircase' stars Academy Award winner Colin Firth as Peterson and Emmy winner Toni Collette as his wife Kathleen. All the episodes are available for streaming exclusively on Netflix.
