In 2001, Michael Peterson made a panicked 911 call, saying that he’d found his wife, Kathleen, dead on their kitchen floor. Though he alleged that she’d fallen down the stairs, Peterson began to face mounting evidence against him — and was soon charged with her murder. The 2022 drama The Staircase follows the Peterson family as they grapple with the circumstances surrounding Kathleen’s death and everything that came after: a prolonged legal battle, constant media scrutiny, and mounting suspicion within their community and the family itself. Created by Antonio Campos (The Devil All the Time) and based on the Netflix true crime docuseries of the same name, the series stars Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Parker Posey, and more.
The Peterson family leads a seemingly idyllic life in a quiet neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina. Michael (Firth), a United States Marine Corps veteran and novelist with political aspirations, lives with his second wife, Kathleen (Collette). Their blended family — Michael; Kathleen; Michael’s two biological sons, Clayton (DeHaan) and Todd (Schwarzenegger); his two adopted daughters, Margaret (Turner) and Martha (Young); and Kathleen’s biological daughter, Caitlin (DeJonge) — appear incredibly close, sharing meals and celebrating milestones together. But that all comes crashing down one night in 2001, when Kathleen is found dead in their home after what appears to have been a horrible accident — or a brutal murder.
Authorities arrive on the scene and are quickly followed by Todd, who returns home to find his grieving father — the only other person in the house at the time of Kathleen’s death. As the family struggles to deal with the emotional fallout, investigators start poking holes in Michael’s story — in relation both to what happened that night and to his past — and he becomes the key suspect when his wife’s autopsy report shows evidence of blunt-force trauma. His arrest soon catches the interest of a French documentary crew, who begin filming the family as they wrestle over whether to support Michael.
Yes. The series is based on the real-life circumstances surrounding Michael Peterson and his second wife, Kathleen Peterson, whom he was accused of murdering in 2001. Director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade created an 8-episode docuseries about the events — also titled The Staircase and available to watch on Netflix — which premiered in 2005 and was updated in 2013 and 2018 with new episodes and information as Michael’s case unfolded.
On Dec. 9, 2001, the couple was spending a quiet night at home — according to Michael, who claimed to have been sitting in the backyard by the pool. But the evening suddenly turned to chaos when, Michael said, he found his wife unresponsive inside their home. He called authorities, reporting that Kathleen had apparently fallen down the stairs. But after an autopsy report indicated Kathleen suffered severe head trauma, Michael turned himself in on Dec. 20. He was arrested and charged with her murder, though he maintained his innocence.
Without an apparent murder weapon from the scene to implicate Michael, prosecutors built their case, in part, around Michael’s past, which included an alleged affair, inconsistencies in his military record, and reports that he had also been the last person to see another woman alive — family friend Elizabeth Ratliff — before her death in 1985. Ratliff was also found dead after suffering head injuries and falling down a staircase in Germany. Michael later adopted her two daughters, Margaret and Martha.
In 2003, Michael was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a 14-week trial. He appealed the verdict repeatedly, and his case gained renewed media attention in 2008 when attorney Larry Pollard proposed the “Owl Theory,” which posited that Kathleen’s injuries could’ve been caused by an owl attack. Pollard argued that Kathleen’s wounds — as well as the microscopic feathers found in her hair — were consistent with a possible attack by a barred owl, which were common in the Petersons’ neighborhood.
In 2011, Michael was released from prison on bond and placed under house arrest after key testimony from the trial was called into question — a Superior Court judge ruled that State Bureau of Investigation analyst Duane Deaver’s blood splatter analysis had misled jurors. Before the planned retrial occurred, however, Michael and his attorney entered an Alford plea (under which a defendant can maintain their innocence while acknowledging prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction) to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter. The plea was successful: Michael was sentenced to a maximum of 86 months in prison and released in February 2017 with credit for time served.
The Staircase consists of eight hour-long episodes.
The series takes place in Durham, North Carolina, where the real events occurred.
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