ID Tech Dan George knocked on the closed side door and was told to come in. From the kitchen, he observed the victim from a distance of four or five feet. He saw large quantities of blood all over the floor, the wall and the victim’s hands and feet. He realized that the blood on the floor was congealed and what was on the wall was smeared and dried. To his experienced eye, the evidence did not appear to point to an accidental fall. He left the house to contact the criminal investigation division (CID).
As he exited, he saw a drop of blood on the slate porch. He went to his car to get a flashlight and continued his search for more blood. He found a trace on the mortar between the bricks of the sidewalk about six feet away from where he saw the first drop. He put small pieces of paper by the blood and moved a planter into the path to avoid inadvertent trampling of the evidence.
Todd Peterson came out of the house to move his car. McDowell asked him, “Is the victim handicapped?”
“No,” Todd said. “She drinks a lot and did a lot of drinking four hours earlier.”
When she asked him who was in the house at the time, he told her that only his dad and his stepmother were at home.
Ben Maynor stumbled out of the house. He reeked of alcohol and his speech was slurred alerting police that he was too intoxicated to be moving vehicles out of the way as he planned. He was sent back inside. The presence of Todd’s drunken friend added a layer of chaos to a complicated scene filled with dozens of officers and first responders who were trying to do their jobs.
Sergeant Terry Wilkins arrived and took charge of the scene. He spotted the lower half of a body at the foot of the back stairs. He continued foward until he saw the large area of blood outside the staircase in the hallway. He stopped moving—he realized the scene needed to be secured with more crime-scene tape.
Wilkins noted a large spot of blood outside the staircase in the hallway near the front of the door. It had a glazed surface with no sheen of wetness. It was then that he got his first look at Michael Peterson—he was covered with blood and in an apparent state of shock. Wilkins said nothing to Peterson at the time. He was too focused on analyzing and securing the scene.
Peterson went into the kitchen and stood in front of the sink. He turned on the water and put his hands under its flow. Wilkins ordered Peterson to stop and he complied. Mike and Todd Peterson and Ben Maynor were then sent out onto the patio with an officer. Between the door and a table, they walked past a splash of spilled liquid and a silver tea kettle—an odd location for an item that seldom escaped the kitchen.
Wilkins sent home the neighbors who had been drawn to the house by the flashing lights. A few minutes later, Wilkins saw Christina Tomasetti again. She had attended a party with Todd earlier that evening and was now in the foyer area by the foot of the spiral stairs with Heather Whitson. He directed them into the den. He advised them not to talk to each other so that the perceptions each one had were not tainted by the memory of the other one.
At 3:09, Investigator Art Holland stirred from his sleep at the sound of the page from CID Sergeant Fran Borden, who was on the scene but had not yet entered the house. With his many years of experience in criminal investigation, it was not unusual for him to receive a call in the middle of the night. He was a committed officer and loved working homicide. Some cases were hard to believe, some were hard to solve, but he welcomed the challenge and relished the added knowledge that every case brought to him.
He thought this call to the wealthy, older community of Forest Hills would be a routine matter. To the best of his knowledge, an elderly woman fell down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair—a tragic accident, but nothing more. He figured he’d make a brief appearance, assess the situation and return home to his bed. He told his wife that he’d probably be back in an hour. It would be twenty hours before he saw her again.
When Sergeant Borden entered the residence, he observed smeared blood on a kitchen drawer and on the glass-front cabinet above. That was the first red flag for this seasoned investigator—the first indication that things were not as they seemed.
When he observed Kathleen’s body, he was surprised by its position—it was in a straight line, her neck in complete alignment with her spinal cord. That was the second red flag.
Then he noticed that the blood coating her body—the massive amount around her waist area, in particular—had a discoloration that indicated it had begun to dry. That was the third red flag.
He was now convinced that the scene was not consistent with any other accident, in his experience, where a victim had fallen down the stairs. This was a suspicious death. This stairway was a crime scene. He exited the house to await the arrival of detectives. Borden made the official crime scene declaration at 3:40 A.M.
Outside, the cool, damp night air grew chillier. Michael Peterson complained about the cold and attempted to enter the home several times to get a change of clothing. Wilkins tried to locate the sweatshirt and pants Peterson requested, but could not find them. He allowed Mike to go into the house and get them from a linen room off the kitchen. When Mike returned to the patio, he did not change clothes, but continued to complain.
Just before 4 A.M., Detective Holland of homicide and a domestic violence detective arrived at the house. Something clicked in Holland’s head at first sight—too much blood. It did not look like a fall. He and Borden conferred outside and decided a search warrant was needed before they re-entered the premises. Holland went to headquarters to draw up the necessary paperwork and obtain the signature of a magistrate.
Canine Officer Trent Hall was on Durham Freeway near route 15/501 at a traffic stop when he heard the call over the radio. Half-listening, he heard something about officers responding to 1810 Cedar Street. Immediately, he thought of someone he knew and liked, Mike Peterson, but could not recall his exact address. From the number of officers being called to the scene, he knew this was not routine and he was worried about his friend.
When he could not get details over the radio, Hall went to the scene to make sure it wasn’t the Peterson house and that Mike was okay. He parked in front of the gate, blocking the entry of other cars. He was told about Kathleen’s death and asked if he could be of any assistance. When he was told he was not needed at this time, he strung crime-scene tape across the entrance to the driveway and left the scene.