A Death in Durham

1. The Call
36 sec.
At 2:43 in the morning, Michael Peterson, 58, calls 911 to say his wife fell down the stairs and is still breathing. He's a novelist; she's a telecom executive — a happy second marriage and a blended family of five raised under one roof. Earlier they'd been drinking wine by the pool; by his account she went in to bed and he stayed out, then found her at the bottom of the back staircase. Blood pooled across the steps, streaked up the walls. The officers had seen people fall down stairs before. It had never looked like this.
1. The Call
2. Crime Scene
23 sec.
By the time police arrive, some of the blood has already dried. Michael is covered in it — hands, shirt, shorts — and an officer stops his hand when he reaches to wash it off. Within hours the stairwell isn't the site of a fall; it's a crime scene, numbered evidence tents beside every drop. Medical examiner Dr. Deborah Radisch counts seven deep gashes across the back of Kathleen's scalp. A fall can't explain them, she rules. Homicide.
2. Crime Scene
3. The Novelist
32 sec.
Eleven days after the 911 call, the man who reported his wife's fall is charged with her murder. To understand the case, you had to understand who he'd told everyone he was — a celebrated novelist, a decorated Marine, a war hero who'd bled for his country. Then people checked the record: the medals, the combat wounds. They weren't real — his injuries hadn't come from battle at all. The war hero had invented the war hero, and investigators wanted to know what else he was hiding.
3. The Novelist
4. The Secret Life
36 sec.
They started with his computer — deleted, then recovered: emails to a male escort and hundreds of images he'd kept hidden. The prosecution built a motive around it: a double life, a wife who found out, and a life insurance policy worth $1.5 million. Their story — Kathleen discovered the secret, a fight erupted, and it ended at the bottom of the stairs. But the escort testified they'd never even met, and that Michael spoke only warmly of his wife. There was no proof Kathleen ever knew. All the prosecution had was a story.
4. The Secret Life

1. The Call

2. Crime Scene

3. The Novelist

4. The Secret Life