A Perfect Husband (24 page)

Back in the States, another eerie coincidence was making headlines. An award-winning film crew, which had won an Oscar for a documentary called
Murder on a Sunday Morning
, was busy working with David Rudolf and Michael Peterson on developing a documentary for ABC television. The crew, which had flown in from France, told Durham reporters that they'd already spoken to Judge Orlando Hudson Jr., who would be presiding in the Peterson case, as well as DA Jim Hardin. The French crew was asked about the strange connection between the title of their previous film, given the fact that Kathleen Peterson was found dead, allegedly murdered on a Sunday morning. But the film crew found none of that to be amusing.

The award-winning crew, Maha Productions, was given special permission to tape court hearings and the trial proceedings, and were allowed to clip a microphone to David Rudolf. Judge Hudson was in favor of having the documentary made—feeling that it would not compromise the Peterson trial in any way. Having been assured that the documentary would not be aired until after the trial verdict and sentencing, the judge was convinced a documentary would have educational value.

The fact that Kathleen Peterson was alleged to have been murdered on a Sunday morning, turned out to have no particular relevance to the film crew, which would work, almost exclusively, with Michael Peterson and his attorneys, David Rudolf and Thomas Maher. From the outset, it seemed obvious that the documentary filmmakers believed in Rudolf's abilities to convince a jury that there was no real evidence against Michael Peterson. Everyone in the Peterson camp believed strongly in his innocence, and Maha Productions would be given complete access to the accused murderer and his immediate family. They would be allowed to follow Peterson's defense team around for months prior to his trial.

 

 

In late October 2002, with Peterson's trial date of May 2003 still way off in the distance, Caitlin Atwater filed a wrongful-death suit that sought compensation for “the pain and suffering of Kathleen Peterson” caused by Michael Peterson's fatal assault. The civil matter would be pursued separately from Peterson's criminal trial. It alleged that Michael Peterson did intentionally, maliciously, and willfully assault his wife, causing her death.

Peterson publicly responded to the civil suit by stating how “saddened” he was about his family being ripped apart. He told reporters that the Durham police had chosen to provide Caitlin with only part of the evidence, which had resulted in a “predictable” action. Peterson felt sorry for Caitlin's pain, the loss of her mother, and her “precipitous” action. He also felt sorry for his other four children, who, having lost a mother, had now lost a sister as well.

Caitlin Atwater's attorney, Jay Trehy, reported that the wrongful-death lawsuit would remain under seal until Michael Peterson's criminal proceedings were concluded. The attorney said that the suit he filed on Miss Atwater's behalf would show “clear and convincing evidence” of malice and wanton conduct on the part of Michael Peterson. However, to avoid complications, the attorney was not at liberty to discuss any possible motive, or the way in which the alleged murder occurred.

The wrongful-death lawsuit, Caitlin's attorney insisted, was not an attempt to taint the criminal case against Peterson in any way. However, Todd Peterson was publicly enraged by the filing of the civil suit, telling a
Herald-Sun
reporter that Caitlin had been “poisoned” by a one-sided presentation of facts by police and prosecutors.

“If she was interested in the truth,” Todd said of Caitlin, “she would have waited until all the facts had come out at trial before making her mind up about what happened to our mother.”

Todd was quoted as calling Caitlin's lawsuit a “transparent attempt” to prejudice their father's trial, and he felt that Caitlin's legal action was “inexcusable.”

The same day the wrongful-death suit was filed, October 30, 2002, attorney Jay Trehy had knocked on Michael Peterson's front door at 9:00
A.M.
Trehy was at the Cedar Street house to supervise a moving company to collect all of Caitlin Atwater's belongings and remove them from the Peterson home. The move took about two hours, and Caitlin, who was about to enter a Durham County courthouse that afternoon, had decided it best to keep her distance.

She would recall her sadness on that day. Having just turned twenty, Caitlin would normally consult her mother about difficult and trying matters. Caitlin had done a lot of soul-searching before reaching her decision to file suit, and she felt that her mom would have wanted her to take action, that her mom would have wanted her to know the truth.

In terms of Michael and Todd's accusations that she had abandoned her family, Caitlin would remind reporters that Michael had essentially “disowned” her months before, when Peterson stood in a court of law and asserted that Caitlin Atwater deserved no insurance benefits from her mother's Prudential policy.

Caitlin and her attorney, Jay Trehy, were conducting an investigation of their own, looking at financial records, checking in with Durham prosecutors, in order to pursue the case. Because of all the stress, Caitlin had taken a leave of absence from her studies at Cornell.

There were too many questions to be answered.

For one thing, Fred Atwater had discovered that Kathleen's Prudential life insurance policy, which she obtained as an executive at Nortel Networks, still had
his
name listed as the beneficiary. Apparently, Kathleen had never signed the paperwork—filled out by Peterson in 1997 after their wedding—that would officially designate Michael Peterson as the sole beneficiary.

Nobody was sure why Kathleen had failed to sign the papers. There was rumor that a call had been placed to Nortel just months before Kathleen's death—that someone was trying to discover the facts regarding her life insurance. There was some technicality that needed to be figured out, and Fred Atwater had become fully aware of it.

It seems there had been a second policy, which Fred and Kathleen had been paying into for Caitlin's college fund, and the payout of half of that policy was made in late 2000 to Kathleen Peterson. Fred had looked at all the insurance papers at the time—he was trying to advise Caitlin—and was totally against the switch of her assets into a high-tech company. Fred felt his daughter was gambling with her future. But Caitlin had been convinced by Michael and her mother to take half the proceeds that had built up—$40,000—and purchase Nortel Networks stock.

Fred Atwater recalled that he was nervous about the Petersons juggling half of Caitlin's college fund. As it happened, just months after the purchase, Nortel stock plummeted from something like $80 a share to about $2 a share. In the year 2001, Caitlin asked her mom to sell her Nortel stock at that crazy low rate—losing most of her $40,000 investment.

It was not long after Kathleen's death, when Fred Atwater studied Kathleen's life insurance policies, that he realized that Kathleen had failed to sign the paperwork to designate Michael her beneficiary. Fred was usually not a superstitious man, but he felt Kathleen's oversight may have been an omen. In any case, the fact remained that Michael Peterson, while mentioned in the 1997 insurance policy, was not legally designated as the recipient of the $1.45 million dollars.

Paperwork had been filed in 1997, designating Michael Peterson as beneficiary, but the papers were unsigned. While Peterson's attorneys were asserting that it was clear the Michael should get the money, it would become a matter for the courts to rule on, and it would be tabled until after the criminal proceedings were heard.

In the meantime, Caitlin Atwater's attorney would file a separate claim, contending that if Fred Atwater was not named the life insurance beneficiary, then the $1.45 million should go to Caitlin, that she should be the sole beneficiary of her mother's life insurance policy, not Michael Peterson. The claim would mention that under North Carolina's “slayer statute,” if Peterson was to be convicted of killing his wife, he would be prohibited from any economic gain.

It would take months, but eventually Margaret and Martha Ratliff would sign a document allowing Durham prosecutors to exhume the remains of their mother. DA Hardin would ask Art Holland to fly to Bay City, Texas, to oversee the two-hour exhumation process of a woman who had been dead for nearly eighteen years.

Because the medical examiner's office in North Carolina had no way of knowing the size or weight of the coffin, or the condition of the remains, arrangements were made through the Durham DA's travel coordinator, John Hutchinson, to fly Art Holland to Texas, and then have him drive back, following Elizabeth Ratliff's coffin to Chapel Hill.

As it happened, the DA's office was watching every dime, expenses were adding up in the case against Michael Peterson, so the coffin was not placed in a separate trailer. Instead, it was placed in an SUV, driven by an employee from the funeral home in Bay City. In order to maintain the chain of custody of her remains, Art Holland had two members from the Durham police as backup. The casket could not be left alone for a minute. The remains had to be kept under guard throughout the twenty-four-hour period it would take to deliver Elizabeth Ratliff's body to the custody of state medical examiner Dr. Deborah Radisch.

Several weeks of planning had gone into the decision to drive the remains. Hutchinson had originally called all the airlines, hoping the casket could be flown back, but ultimately directions were provided from Texas to Mississippi, where the detective and his men would stay overnight, eventually making their way to North Carolina in a slow procession. David Rudolf had sent an investigator from his defense team down to Bay City, so that Michael Peterson would have representation at the exhumation, and the French crew, Maha Productions, had also tagged along to document the ordeal. Everyone was concerned about what they would find in the casket. No one had any idea what degree of deterioration the body would be in.

When Elizabeth Ratliff was delivered to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner at Chapel Hill on April 16, 2003, Dr. Deborah Radisch was accompanied by a team of medical examiners as the coffin was opened. Among them were Chief Medical Examiner Dr. John Butts and Dr. Aaron Gleckman, both of whom would later testify at the Peterson trial. Also present at the autopsy examination were representatives from the Durham Police Department, the Durham District Attorney's Office, and the law office of David Rudolf.

After the yellow police tape was removed, as the silver-gray metal casket was jarred, everyone stood in amazement. After almost eighteen years, the corpse of Elizabeth Ratliff was entirely intact. Present with her in the casket were several personal items: a white stuffed toy lamb, a metal charm of ballet slippers, a metal unicorn, a seashell, a children's book,
The Little Rabbit
, and a card with a photo of a church in Frankfurt marked “George and Elizabeth Ratliff.” Inside the card was a color photograph of their two small girls.

Her wedding gown had yellowed, but the off-white gauzy cotton dress with lace inserts was still completely preserved. Underneath, Elizabeth was clothed in a white full slip, white knee-high hose, and a matching white lace bra and panties. Once her clothing had been removed, the medical examiners noted that her skin had discolored, but everything about the corpse looked immaculately preserved. Elizabeth's hair, her makeup, and her nail polish were all in place. She lay with a soft smile on her face, looking peaceful and rested. The autopsy examination revealed that the embalmed body was in an excellent state of condition, and with the exception of portions of the brain, her internal body cavities were largely complete. It was hard to imagine her body would have been in such perfect shape. It was as though her corpse was speaking.

It was as though Elizabeth Ratliff had something to say.

It would take two weeks for the findings of the new autopsy report to be made public. The public would be shocked to learn that the medical examiners had noted
seven lacerations
to Elizabeth Ratliff's scalp—the same number of lacerations found on the scalp of Kathleen Peterson. The death was ruled a homicide and Dr. Radisch's diagnosis was confirmed by a neuropathology consultation. Medical examiners Dr. Stephen Smith and Dr. Aaron Gleckman would file a report that stated “the inflicted trauma was clearly from a homicidal assault.”

In addition to the subarachnoid hemorrhages, there were contusions to Elizabeth Ratliff's left hand and left forearm. So, like Kathleen Peterson, she showed signs of defensive wounds, signs of trying to fend off her attacker. And there were unexplainable contusions to her lips and left eyelid.

When Elizabeth Ratliff's death was ruled a homicide, the local media jumped all over it. Reporters wondered how the two Ratliff autopsies could have had such drastically different results. David Rudolf attacked the Chapel Hill medical examiners for making statements concluding that Ratliff was murdered, asking, “Since when do forensic neuropathologists offer gratuitous comments?”

Rudolf told local newspapers that the new autopsy findings were unscientific. He noted that Elizabeth Ratliff's brain tissue had deteriorated, which, he said, was critical, because the original autopsy exam had concluded that Ratliff died of a stroke. The first autopsy exam, Rudolf reminded the press, had been based on an examination of brain tissue that was now missing. The attorney argued that the publishing of the new findings was inflammatory and outrageous.

But the new autopsy report had also revealed a
linear fracture
at the base of Elizabeth Ratliff's skull, which was associated with one of the lacerations on her left posterior scalp. To the team of North Carolina medical experts, the forty-three-year-old woman had suffered a blunt trauma to her head. It was clear that Elizabeth Ratliff had been beaten to death.