Chapter 155 Section 4

Next, the police know what to do: take a statement, draft a search warrant, call a medical examiner, call a police photographer, call a crime scene lab... The questioning of Kristina and Sissel went smoothly, but the investigators had a hard time with the three men.Mike and Ted Peterson refused to answer any questions, and Benjamin Menard had probably drunk too much at a party a few hours earlier and was unconscious. As the temperature outside cooled, the police sent the three men back indoors and stayed in the small study with the two girls for a while, and because Ted kept talking to people, they had to isolate them again to Mike Peterson. private study.Naturally, everyone's actions are subject to some restrictions.For example, if Sissel wants to go to the toilet, she must be followed by the police; for example, the T-shirt and shorts that Mr. Peterson changed must be handed over to a special person to put them in the "evidence bag".The others were fine. Kristina, Sissel, and Benjamin curled up on the sofa or in a corner of the room with all their clothes on, and soon fell asleep.As Mr Peterson turned on his computer and was online, he was heard muttering "an email from Katherine's colleague about a meeting".Only Ted Peterson was out of breath. He repeatedly emphasized to the investigators that Catherine must have been drunk before the incident, slipped and slipped down the stairs because she couldn't control her actions, They chattered and asked all kinds of questions and questions, suspected that the police had placed them under house arrest, and suspected that the police had violated their rights enshrined in the Constitution.

Ted made a long-distance call to his uncle, Bill Peterson, a civil attorney in Reno, Nevada. "Uncle Bill, Catherine's dead." Ted heard Bill's microphone drop to the ground.After Uncle fumbled to pick up the microphone, Ted continued, "Calm down first, I need to ask you a few questions." Ted said on the phone that the investigators interrogated them upside down, that the two ladies were not allowed to go to the toilet, that yellow cordons were stretched everywhere, and that one policeman was very rude and treated them like criminal suspects. "Does this seem normal to you?"

"Of course not," Bill Peterson said. "Then what should we do?" "First, tell your father to keep silent." "However, a policeman was talking to him. Specifically, the policeman was putting his arm around his shoulders." "Go and tell that cop right now," Bill Peterson ordered to his nephew, "tell him that your father has hired a lawyer, that his lawyer is on the phone, and tell him to stop talking right now. And, turn the phone over to To the lead detective on the scene." A few minutes later, Ted Peterson was back on the phone, saying that he had passed on his uncle's message to his father, but no police personnel on the scene were willing to take the call.

After 6 o'clock, Lieutenant Art Holland returned to the Peterson family mansion with a search warrant signed by the judge. He had been officially assigned to preside over the investigation and detection of the case.Arriving at the same time as Lieutenant Holland was coroner Dr. Kenneth Snell. Careful to avoid pools of blood surrounding the body, Dr. Snell examined all of Katherine Peterson's exposed body parts: feet, hands, neck and head. A longitudinal wound about four inches long. "If she hadn't fallen down the stairs," Dr. Snell stood up slowly, rubbing his numb knee, and said to Lieutenant Art Holland, "you should look for a rod-shaped or club-shaped murder weapon."

When Kaitlyn Alvart returned to her dorm room at Cornell after brunch on Sunday morning, she saw a message from the dean of women's divisions on her desk.Cornell University is located in Ethaka, New York, about 600 miles north of Durham and six states away. Caitlin walks into the director's office with the note in hand, only to find her friend and roommate Becca there.Becca's red eyes made Caitlin's heart tremble: "What's the matter, Becca?" Becca didn't answer her question, but instead comforted her and said, "Caitlin, sit down first. Don't worry, the director will be here soon." Just now when Caitlin was going out, it was Becca who received a call from Mike Peterson long distance.

"No, Becca," Caitlin panicked, "tell me what's going on first." Becca couldn't resist, so she had to say, "Caitlin, it's about your mother." Becca paused, struggling to find the right word.But in the end, what came out of her tongue was the most direct and concise sentence, "She, she is dead." "Dead?" Caitlin didn't understand, "What does it mean to be dead?" In her short life of 19 years, Caitlin only experienced the death of a family member once, and that was her 104-year-old great-grandfather when she was 10 years old. End of life.However, her mother, Catherine, is only 48 years old.impossible!

Caitlin doesn't remember what the director of the girls' department told her, or how she got back to the dormitory. She only knows that when she woke up the next morning, her bedside table was covered with flowers and flowers from her classmates. Plush toys, and ice cream in the half fridge.Her biological father, Katherine Peterson's ex-husband Fred Alvart also drove from Philadelphia to his daughter. Also on Sunday morning, Mike Peterson also notified two other children from other places, Margaret Ratley, a sophomore at Tulane University in New Orleans, and Margaret's younger sister, a first-year student at the University of San Francisco. Grade Martha.

Later, Mr. Peterson called the home of Catherine's brother, Steven Hunter, in Tennessee, who he knew was in Puerto Rico on business.Sure enough, Cynthia, Mrs. Hunter, answered the phone. "What's the matter, Mike?" Cynthia could hear Mike Peterson sobbing. "Catherine is dead." "What happened?" "She fell down the stairs." "You are the only one at home?" Cynthia used the present tense.