Bizarre Defense, Did Man Kill Wife Or Was It Really An Owl
BANFIELD: I am going to ask you a very strange question. Could an owl kill a woman at her home and leave behind such a bloody scene like this that police thought she`d actually been beaten to death? And if that -- if that sounds weird, then it actually is the question on the mind of a lot of people right now, who are binge watching a program called the "Staircase." That is the newest series on Netflix to tackle a dark mystery years in the making, very much like "Making a murder." And the owl question is a question that is maybe has come too late. Because Kathleen Peterson`s husband was already serving time for the murder of Kathleen Peterson. Michael had been home with his wife that night saying that they had been out by the pool having some wine before Kathleen decided to head back towards the house to get herself ready for bed. That is also when he told police she must have fallen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Durham 911, what is your emergency?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1810 Cedar Street. Please.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is wrong?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife had an accident, she is still breathing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What kind of accident.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She fell down the stairs. She is still breathing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is she conscious?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: is she conscious?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, she is not conscious. Please.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many stairs did she fall down?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? Huh?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many stairs?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stairs.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many stairs? Calm down, sir. Calm down.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, god, 15, 20, I don`t know. Please, get somebody here right away. She; still breathing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody dispatching the ambulance while I ask you questions. It`s in Forest Hill, OK, please, please.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, sir, somebody is dispatching the ambulance. Is she awake now? Hello. Hello.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, god.</s>BANFIELD: When authorities got to the house, the staircase was a mess. It was covered with blood. Walls covered with blood. And I do need to warn you before I show you the pictures that the scene was brutal, but it is critical in terms of the forensics and the facts. The scene was actually too brutal, the experts claimed, to be a fall. So Michael instead was accused of killing her. And there were reasons to suspect him. Like his debt to his alleged attraction to men. To the death of yet another female friend on another staircase years before, but tonight, over 16 years since Kathleen`s death, there is something else, an owl, a theory that an owl did it. A theory that, pardon the pun, is really taking flight. It`s a theory that could maybe have cleared the name of the man who was actually blamed instead for her murder at one time. I want to bring in Virginia Bridges, reporter for the News and Observer. And Herald (inaudible), she was in the courtroom for Michael Peterson`s trial. Larry Pollard is a former neighbor of Michael and Kathleen Peterson and he developed this owl theory. Also with us tonight, animal planet`s wildlife expert Dave Selmoni. And certified death investigator professor of forensics at Jacksonville state University, Joseph Scott Morgan, is here. Defense attorney Kenya Johnson is also here. All right. A lot of guests and a lot to get to. So, first and foremost, Virginia, how did this owl theory all of a sudden become front and center in this case?</s>VIRGINIA BRIDGES, REPORTER, THE NEWS AND OBESERVER: Well, here in Durham, I mean, we`ve been talking about the owl theory for some time. It`s been, you know, discussed at least since 2010. There`s been motions. There`s been wanted photos of the owl in the courthouse at times, but it`s nothing that ever really took off legally, or appeared to influence the case.</s>BANFIELD: And yet now since Netflix has come out with the program "The staircase," it`s got everybody really wound up and taking a look at this, at this story, at this crime, and at this whole sort of two- decade-long case. Let me play, if I can, just the beginning. Because I have this feeling if I play you just the beginning of this, it`s a 13-part series, I believe, you may just get hooked on this. Have a look.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know we were drinking two bottles that night. It was a nice night. I guess it was 55, 60 degrees. Very nice night. And I`d gone outside. And we were talking here for a fair amount of time. And then what we would usually do on a nice night, we would go down to the pool, which I always think is about the nicest place on the property. The dogs would come over. And they`d -- we were just talking and finishing our drinks. And then she said I`ve got to go in because I`ve got the conference call in the morning. And she started walking out that way. And I stayed right here. Don`t think I said anything special to her, certainly not thinking this is the last time I`m going to see her. I said good night. I`ll be up a little bit later and stayed here. And she walked. And the last I saw her was when I was there, and she was just walking here. That is it. That was the last I saw Kathleen. Alive.</s>BANFIELD: So the theory here, and Larry Pollard, as the neighbor, and also as the person who has now postulated this owl theory, the idea would be that Kathleen left that spot where Michael just mentioned it was the last spot he saw her, he stayed behind at the pool, she made her way back up to the house. Sometime between that spot and making it to the house in the dark late at night the owl comes in and strafes her head and gets tangled in her hair. She presumably, being terribly injured, it is not unlike this diagram, is getting her own hair in her hands trying to fight off this owl and becomes terribly bloody and goes in the house. I guess the question I have for you is, wouldn`t she be screaming like hell? And wouldn`t Michael hear that since they`re both outside?</s>LARRY POLLARD, PETERSON`S NEIGHBOR: Is that a question for me?</s>BANFIELD: Yes, it`s for Larry.</s>POLLARD: No. Michael would not have heard her, because the swimming pool is on the other side of the house. In addition, there was a fountain in the swimming pool that was sprinkling water everywhere. Now, where she was hit was completely on the different side of the house, a long way away from where he was, and was in a recessed area from the driveway down into a portion like a courtyard before the front door. And that is where she was struck.</s>BANFIELD: OK. And you`re saying she would have left the pool and made her way all the way around the house to the front door and therefore there`s now the pool and the fountain that is noisy --</s>POLLARD: No, I would say that -- I would clearly say that she left Michael at the pool. She walked down the terrace on the Cedar Street side of the pool -- of the house, excuse me, and she went walking by the newly decorated Christmas tree in the living room window. Most people, when they decorate their tree, they want to look at it. And I think that she would be no different, because it was beautiful in that window. She walked down the terrace and went back in to the kitchen door. And when she went into the kitchen door she put her glass down on the counter and washed it out first and then put it on the counter to air dry before she put it back into the cabinet. She then decided to take the boxes that were pasta boxes from dinner out to the trash and she walked around to the backside of the house that being the 10th Street side, out to where the trash cans were, and discarded them. She came walking back to the house and was adjusting some of the Christmas decorative yard art that was out there. White reindeer. They`re in all of the pictures taken of the crime scene the next morning. At that time she was attacked by a wild owl in the back of her head. She received seven to eight lacerations that went down to the scalp -- through the scalp.</s>BANFIELD: OK. I`m going to get to the medical stuff, I am going to the medical stuff, Larry -</s>POLLARD: Sure.</s>BANFIELD: But that helps me to understand where the theory of being attacked by the owl comes from.</s>POLLARD: Right.</s>BANFIELD: But I think what`s critical here is to talk to Dave Salmoni about the possibility of this happening at all with regard to wildlife. You`ve had a look at this, you`ve heard the postulation that there she is, outside, arranging the Christmas decorations and bam, the owl comes at her. Is it possible?</s>DAVE SALMONI, WILDLIFE EXPERT, ANIMAL PLANET: It`s possible. She wouldn`t be the first person attacked by an owl. It is very, very rare to get attacked by owls. When I say very rare, I bet you if a story came up once a year, I wouldn`t be shocked by it. These are big predators. They are protective predators. They have aggressive tendencies when they`re scared or when they`re territorial. So can it happen? Absolutely. Would it -- you know, would it end up in lacerations in the head? That`s exactly where they attack. There`s a lot of similarities from what I`ve seen on TV and from what I`ve read online that would lead me to believe that it`s very possible, or at least it would look like this.</s>BANFIELD: So it is possible. Just when you say they`re very big, I have heard two different theories. I want you to answer quickly. I`ve heard that they`re all of like a pound or two or three pounds to, oh my god, they`re super human, they can carry a small child away. What is it?</s>SALMONI: They are very big for birds. And particularly when you`re talking about a great horned owl, which is absolutely in this area, which is more of the more aggressive ones who do often are the culprits in human attacks, a horned owl can take away a baby deer.</s>BANFIELD: OK, what about barred owl? The theory here is that it is a barred owl?</s>SALMONI: Also quite big, not quite as big, not quite as aggressive. It would be the same medium size in the bird territory. So, you would expect the feet to be, you know, four inches apart, five inches apart as an adult. They would hit with some impact, not great impact. There wouldn`t be any bone breaks. There wouldn`t be -- it wouldn`t be the blow, it would be the sharp talons that would dig in when the animal is that size. But certainly would never in any situation you would be thinking that they were going to try to kill the person. It was likely going to defend itself or defend something. That`s why the birds are always attacking from behind. They feel very safe there. When an owl attacks something, they`re worried about getting --</s>BANFIELD: OK. So what I`m getting here is that it is quite possible that Michael wouldn`t hear a thing. Number two, it is quite possible that an owl could have struck her out there in the dark while she`s rearranging the Christmas decorations and making her way back to the house. My next question -- and we are going to have to answer this after the break, so I am going to ask you all to stay put, then what? If she gets attacked by an owl and she`s that destroyed and that bloodied and that injured, how on earth did the staircase end up looking the way it looked? Because that is a whole mystery in its own right. Blood all over the walls, blood all over the staircase, blood all over her feet, all over her belly, all over her head. That is the scene. Is it possible from owl injuries? That`s next.