
The Staircase: The Murder of Kathleen Peterson
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Don Kline
-
By:
-
RJ Parker
About this listen
On December 9, 2001, the bloody body of Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in the North Carolina home she shared with her husband and novelist Michael Peterson.
"My wife had an accident," Peterson says on the 911 call. "She's still breathing. She fell down the stairs." However, blood-splattered evidence and a missing fireplace poker suggested it was a cold-blooded murder. Within two years, Michael Peterson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Because a key witness, a blood-splatter expert, in fact, whose testimony was discredited, Michael Peterson's conviction was overturned.
The trial that followed was full of interpretations and cockamamie theories; blaming the death on everything from an owl attack to connecting it to a second death similar in nature, that of his once neighbor Elizabeth Ratliff, who also was found dead at the bottom of stairs.
Was the 911 call all an act?
What about the owl theory?
What was the motive?
What happened to the murder weapon?
Was there an accomplice who got rid of the weapon?
What really happened on The Staircase?
RJ Parker is the best-selling author of several true crime books including The Basement, Abducted, Parents Who Killed Their Children, and Serial Killers Encyclopedia.
©2018 RJ Parker (P)2018 RJ ParkerListeners also enjoyed...
-
Behind the Staircase
- Michael Peterson Murder Case
- By: Michael Peterson
- Narrated by: Roberto Scarlato
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Follow Michael’s depiction of the tragic events leading up to his conviction and incarceration for his wife’s death and the next eight years of his imprisonment for her alleged murder. Upon his release, Peterson shares in his memoir, Behind the Staircase, his perspective on what happened to his loving wife, the misleading evidence of the trial, and the years that he spent behind bars with criminals, murderers, and rapists.
-
-
Could not stop listening
- By daniel d. on 02-20-21
By: Michael Peterson
-
Written in Blood
- A True Story of Murder and a Deadly 16-Year-Old Secret That Tore a Family Apart
- By: Diane Fanning
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An army brat-turned-marine, Michael Peterson saw combat in Vietnam, and returned a decorated soldier. An avid reader, his dreams of being an acclaimed novelist came true. His desire to find love was fulfilled when he married brilliant executive Kathleen Atwater, the first female student accepted at Duke University's School of Engineering. The Petersons seemed the ideal academic couple - well-respected, prosperous, and happy. All that came crashing down in December of 2001, when Kathleen apparently fell to her death in their secluded home in an exclusive area of Durham, North Carolina.
-
-
Could not be more biased
- By Brenda on 05-30-22
By: Diane Fanning
-
The Delphi Murders
- The Quest to Find ‘The Man on the Bridge’
- By: Nic Edwards, Brian Whitney
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On February 13, 2017, two Indiana teenagers, Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, went for a walk in the woods near the abandoned Monon High Bridge. They never returned home.
-
-
Huge disappointment
- By Aleshia L. Hunley on 04-23-23
By: Nic Edwards, and others
-
Cruel Deception
- The True Story of Multiple Murder and Two Devastated Families (St. Martin's True Crime Library)
- By: Gregg Olsen
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In and out of hospitals since birth, angelic nine-month-old Morgan Reid finally succumbed to what appeared to be sudden infant death syndrome. Morgan's Texas-born mother, Tanya, a nurse and devoted wife, pulled up stakes with her grieving husband, Jim, and moved on. It was the best way to put the past behind them. Until their son, Michael, a boy who by all accounts was terrified of his mother, began showing signs of the same affliction that stole the life of his baby sister....
-
-
Deadly Mystery
- By Judy on 06-07-22
By: Gregg Olsen
-
What the Dead Know
- Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator
- By: Barbara Butcher
- Narrated by: Barbara Butcher
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barbara Butcher was early in her recovery from alcoholism when she found an unexpected lifeline: a job at the Medical Examiner’s Office in New York City. The second woman ever hired for the role of Death Investigator in Manhattan, she was the first to last more than three months. The work was gritty, demanding, morbid, and sometimes dangerous—and she loved it. In What the Dead Know, she writes with the kind of New York attitude and bravado you might expect from decades in the field, investigating more than 5,500 death scenes, 680 of which were homicides.
-
-
Didn’t Want The Book To End
- By Becky Sullivan on 06-29-23
By: Barbara Butcher
-
Imperfect Justice
- Prosecuting Casey Anthony
- By: Jeff Ashton
- Narrated by: Jeff Ashton
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was the trial that stunned America, the verdict that shocked us all. On July 5, 2011, nearly three years after her initial arrest, Casey Anthony walked away, virtually scot-free, from one of the most sensational murder trials of all time. She'd been accused of killing her daughter, Caylee, but the trial only left behind more questions: Was she actually innocent? What really happened to Caylee? Was this what justice really looked like?
-
-
Surprisingly Compelling -
- By Dave on 03-20-12
By: Jeff Ashton
-
Behind the Staircase
- Michael Peterson Murder Case
- By: Michael Peterson
- Narrated by: Roberto Scarlato
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Follow Michael’s depiction of the tragic events leading up to his conviction and incarceration for his wife’s death and the next eight years of his imprisonment for her alleged murder. Upon his release, Peterson shares in his memoir, Behind the Staircase, his perspective on what happened to his loving wife, the misleading evidence of the trial, and the years that he spent behind bars with criminals, murderers, and rapists.
-
-
Could not stop listening
- By daniel d. on 02-20-21
By: Michael Peterson
-
Written in Blood
- A True Story of Murder and a Deadly 16-Year-Old Secret That Tore a Family Apart
- By: Diane Fanning
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An army brat-turned-marine, Michael Peterson saw combat in Vietnam, and returned a decorated soldier. An avid reader, his dreams of being an acclaimed novelist came true. His desire to find love was fulfilled when he married brilliant executive Kathleen Atwater, the first female student accepted at Duke University's School of Engineering. The Petersons seemed the ideal academic couple - well-respected, prosperous, and happy. All that came crashing down in December of 2001, when Kathleen apparently fell to her death in their secluded home in an exclusive area of Durham, North Carolina.
-
-
Could not be more biased
- By Brenda on 05-30-22
By: Diane Fanning
-
The Delphi Murders
- The Quest to Find ‘The Man on the Bridge’
- By: Nic Edwards, Brian Whitney
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On February 13, 2017, two Indiana teenagers, Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, went for a walk in the woods near the abandoned Monon High Bridge. They never returned home.
-
-
Huge disappointment
- By Aleshia L. Hunley on 04-23-23
By: Nic Edwards, and others
-
Cruel Deception
- The True Story of Multiple Murder and Two Devastated Families (St. Martin's True Crime Library)
- By: Gregg Olsen
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In and out of hospitals since birth, angelic nine-month-old Morgan Reid finally succumbed to what appeared to be sudden infant death syndrome. Morgan's Texas-born mother, Tanya, a nurse and devoted wife, pulled up stakes with her grieving husband, Jim, and moved on. It was the best way to put the past behind them. Until their son, Michael, a boy who by all accounts was terrified of his mother, began showing signs of the same affliction that stole the life of his baby sister....
-
-
Deadly Mystery
- By Judy on 06-07-22
By: Gregg Olsen
-
What the Dead Know
- Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator
- By: Barbara Butcher
- Narrated by: Barbara Butcher
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barbara Butcher was early in her recovery from alcoholism when she found an unexpected lifeline: a job at the Medical Examiner’s Office in New York City. The second woman ever hired for the role of Death Investigator in Manhattan, she was the first to last more than three months. The work was gritty, demanding, morbid, and sometimes dangerous—and she loved it. In What the Dead Know, she writes with the kind of New York attitude and bravado you might expect from decades in the field, investigating more than 5,500 death scenes, 680 of which were homicides.
-
-
Didn’t Want The Book To End
- By Becky Sullivan on 06-29-23
By: Barbara Butcher
-
Imperfect Justice
- Prosecuting Casey Anthony
- By: Jeff Ashton
- Narrated by: Jeff Ashton
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was the trial that stunned America, the verdict that shocked us all. On July 5, 2011, nearly three years after her initial arrest, Casey Anthony walked away, virtually scot-free, from one of the most sensational murder trials of all time. She'd been accused of killing her daughter, Caylee, but the trial only left behind more questions: Was she actually innocent? What really happened to Caylee? Was this what justice really looked like?
-
-
Surprisingly Compelling -
- By Dave on 03-20-12
By: Jeff Ashton
-
The I-5 Killer
- By: Ann Rule, Andy Stack
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all; he was a star athlete with good looks and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.
-
-
Ann Rule always delivers
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-19
By: Ann Rule, and others
-
Adnan's Story
- The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial
- By: Rabia Chaudry
- Narrated by: Rabia Chaudry
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In early 2000, Adnan Syed was convicted and sentenced to life plus thirty years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, a high school senior in Baltimore, Maryland. Syed has maintained his innocence, and Rabia Chaudry, a family friend, has always believed him. By 2013, after almost all appeals had been exhausted, Rabia contacted Sarah Koenig, a producer at This American Life, in hopes of finding a journalist who could shed light on Adnan’s story. In 2014, Koenig's investigation turned into Serial, a Peabody Award-winning podcast with more than 500 million international listeners.
-
-
Fascinating. Heartbreaking. Informative.
- By Angela on 08-11-16
By: Rabia Chaudry
-
Bone Deep
- Untangling the Betsy Faria Case
- By: Charles Bosworth, Joel Schwartz
- Narrated by: Gary Bennett
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two days after Christmas, 2011, Russel Faria returned to his Troy, Missouri, home to find his wife, Betsy, dead, a knife still lodged in her neck. She had been stabbed 55 times in a brutal murder that would set off a chain of events leading to one man's wrongful conviction and imprisonment, another man's death, the revelation of a diabolical scheme, and an astounding miscarriage of justice left unresolved for another 10 years.
-
-
One of the Best
- By V. Orner on 03-01-22
By: Charles Bosworth, and others
-
American Predator
- The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century
- By: Maureen Callahan
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The names of notorious serial killers are usually well-known; they echo in the news and in public consciousness. But most people have never heard of Israel Keyes, one of the most ambitious and terrifying serial killers in modern history American Predator is the ambitious culmination of years of interviews with key figures in law enforcement and in Keyes's life, and research uncovered from classified FBI files. Callahan takes us on a journey into the chilling, nightmarish mind of a relentless killer, and to the limitations of traditional law enforcement.
-
-
Why you shouldn’t listen to Reviews
- By jofi00 on 10-23-19
By: Maureen Callahan
-
Extreme Punishment
- The Chilling True Story of Acclaimed Law Professor Dan Markel’s Murder
- By: Steven B. Epstein
- Narrated by: Eddie Frierson
- Length: 23 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the morning of July 18, 2014, 41-year-old Florida State law professor Dan Markel dropped his boys off at preschool, hit the gym, and headed home to his quiet, tree-canopied neighborhood. Within seconds of pulling into his garage, two .38-caliber bullets fired from point-blank range were lodged in his brain. His brutal slaying defied explanation.
-
-
Good book. Guys voice awful
- By Anonymous User on 12-17-23
-
Evidence of Love
- A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs
- By: John Bloom, Jim Atkinson
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore had a lot in common: They sang together in the Methodist church choir, their daughters were best friends, and their husbands had good jobs working for technology companies in the North Dallas suburbs known as Silicon Prairie. But beneath the placid surface of their seemingly perfect lives, both women simmered with unspoken frustrations and unanswered desires. On a hot summer day in 1980, the secret passions and jealousies that linked Candy and Betty exploded into murderous rage.
-
-
FINALLY!!!
- By leelee8888 on 01-30-19
By: John Bloom, and others
-
Mindhunter
- Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
- By: John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker
- Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bonus material! Includes an excerpt from John Douglas and Mark Olshaker’s Obsession! Discover the classic behind-the-scenes chronicle of John E. Douglas’ 25-year career in the FBI Investigative Support Unit, where he used psychological profiling to delve into the minds of the country’s most notorious serial killers and criminals - the basis for the upcoming Netflix original series.
-
-
I have purchased every book J.E.D. Has made available
- By leelee8888 on 10-29-17
By: John E. Douglas, and others
-
Every Breath You Take
- A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder
- By: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 20 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although happily ensconced in a loving second marriage and a new family of quadruplets, Sheila Blackthorne Bellush never truly escaped the enslavement of her ex-husband, multimillionaire Allen Blackthorne, a handsome charmer - and a violent, controlling sociopath who terrorized her for a decade after their divorce. When Sheila was slain in her home, in the presence of her four toddlers, authorities raced to link the crime to Blackthorne, the man who vowed to monitor Sheila's every move in his obsessive quest for power and revenge.
-
-
reader
- By Ronda on 12-28-20
By: Ann Rule
-
Predator
- By: Jack Olsen
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An account of the life and crimes of psychopath Mac Smith that describes how Seattle police, eager to make an arrest in the murders of the city's women, arrested the wrong man for Smith's crimes.
-
-
What a way to be introduced to True Crime!
- By EasyReader on 05-28-15
By: Jack Olsen
-
Whoever Fights Monsters
- My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI
- By: Robert K. Ressler, Tom Shachtman
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Face-to-face with some of America's most terrifying killers, FBI veteran and ex-Army CID colonel Robert Ressler learned from them how to identify the unknown monsters who walk among us - and put them behind bars. Now the man who coined the phrase "serial killer" and advised Thomas Harris on The Silence of the Lambs shows how he has tracked down some of the nation's most brutal murderers. Join Ressler as he takes you on the hunt for America's most dangerous psychopaths. It is a terrifying journey you will not forget.
-
-
Murderino checking in
- By Sarah R Bongiovanni on 06-16-17
By: Robert K. Ressler, and others
-
The Cases That Haunt Us
- From Jack the Ripper to JonBenet Ramsey, the FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Sheds Light on the Mysteries That Won't Go Away
- By: John Douglas, Mark Olshaker
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Did Lizzie Borden murder her own father and stepmother? Was Jack the Ripper actually the Duke of Clarence? Who killed JonBenet Ramsey? America's foremost expert on criminal profiling and 25-year FBI veteran John Douglas, along with author and filmmaker Mark Olshaker, explores those tantalizing questions and more in this mesmerizing work of detection. With uniquely gripping analysis, the authors reexamine and reinterpret the accepted facts, evidence, and victimology of the most notorious murder cases in the history of crime.
-
-
John Douglas is AMAZING
- By Amazon Customer on 12-17-16
By: John Douglas, and others
-
Devil’s Knot
- The True Story of the West Memphis Three
- By: Mara Leveritt
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Free the West Memphis Three!” - maybe you’ve heard the phrase, but do you know why their story is so alarming? Do you know the facts? The guilty verdicts handed out to three Arkansas teens in a horrific capital murder case were popular in their home state - even upheld on appeal. But after two HBO documentaries called attention to the witch-hunt atmosphere at the trials, artists and other supporters raised concerns about the accompanying lack of evidence.
-
-
Surprisingly disappointing
- By La Becket on 12-05-12
By: Mara Leveritt
What listeners say about The Staircase: The Murder of Kathleen Peterson
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Angela
- 09-30-23
Staircase
I'm sorry, I couldn't stand to listen to the narrator voice, only got through a little of it, there were no feelings in his voice for me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amanda Bailey
- 10-29-18
Don't waste your money or time.
This book is extremely biased and snide. The author inserts his own views on Kathleen Petersons death and takes them for fact. he talks about alternative theories and suspects as if they are a joke and takes seriously people on Reddit, who obviously know all. If you believe 100% that Michael Peterson killed Kathleen then this book is for you. If you're someone looking for the facts and an unbiased account of what happened, keep looking. And the narration is horrible. The guy is so monotone and dull.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
11 people found this helpful