| Key Dates |
Dec. 9, 2001
2:45 a.m. |
Michael Peterson calls 911 and reports finding his 48-year-old wife, Kathleen, injured at the bottom of a flight of stairs inside their Durham, N.C., home. She is dead by the time emergency workers arrive at the scene.
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Dec. 10, 2001
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Durham police call Kathleen Peterson's death "suspicious." Authorities obtain a warrant to search the Peterson's home in the affluent neighborhood of Forest Hills.
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Dec. 11-12, 2001 |
Investigators search the Peterson home and reportedly seize 66 items of evidence, including computers and data.
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Dec. 17, 2001 |
While police continue their investigation, Michael Peterson hires David Rudolf — a high-profile attorney whose clients include former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth — to represent him.
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Dec. 21, 2001 |
A judge denies bail for Peterson pending a decision by prosecutors on whether they will pursue the death penalty.
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Jan. 14, 2002 |
Following a decision by prosecutors not to seek the death penalty, Michael Peterson is released from the Durham County Jail after posting $850,000 bond.
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Oct. 20, 2002 | Durham County District Attorney Jim Harding tells local media he wants to exhume the body of Elizabeth Ratliff, a friend of the Petersons whose 1985 death in Germany, prosecutors believe, bears similarities to the death of Kathleen Peterson. Michael Peterson reportedly walked Ratliff home after dinner the night of her death.
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Oct. 29, 2002
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Michael Peterson is sued by his wife's estate. The lawsuit, filed by Kathleen Peterson's daughter, Caitlin Atwater, alleges Michael Peterson was responsible for Kathleen Peterson's death.
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April 14, 2003
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Elizabeth Ratliff's body is exhumed in Texas and transported to North Carolina to undergo an autopsy.
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April 28, 2003
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An autopsy concludes Elizabeth Ratliff was the victim of homicide, not a stroke as German authorities concluded in 1985 as her cause of death.
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May 5, 2003 |
Jury selection begins for Peterson's first-degree murder trial, which is expected to take at least eight weeks from opening statements to verdict.
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