Chapter 177 Section 26

"We may never know what really led to this case, or the immediate cause. Money? Job? 'Brad'? But whatever the defendant's motives, once the attack on Catherine started, he didn't think To keep her alive." The prosecutor again held up the photo of Catherine's head wound: "This photo tells us a fact about this case." He also raised a photo of the bloody scene in the stairwell: "This photo tells us about this case." Catherine is speaking to us, the blood in the stairwell is telling us, Catherine is speaking to us through the blood in the stairwell, calling to us—calling for truth and justice.”

"They say it's an accident, we say it's a murder," said Attorney General Janemond Harding, repeating a line he'd said more than once in his opening remarks, but this time, praying Tone, "And you, will send back a verdict. Thank you." The jury deliberated for four days and returned a "guilty" verdict on Friday morning, October 10. Judge Orlando Hudson announced in court that Mike Evel Peterson was sentenced to life imprisonment. After the trial, the Peterson children went their separate ways. On October 23, 2003, Mike Peterson spent his 60th birthday alone in a 9-by-8-foot cell at North Carolina State Prison in Nashville.

By June 2004, after all the properties and items of the Peterson family were auctioned off, they were still in debt of more than 100,000 US dollars.Because of the "haunted house" suspicion, 1810 Seaside Street only sold for half of the original price, $640,000. It is said that even today, Mike Peterson still does not lose his true colors. He mainly reads books every day in prison, and occasionally writes something, mostly diary letters and the like.There is a small library in the prison, and the prisoners can still use the computer there. Although it is not connected to the Internet, it is equipped with various software including word processing.

Some reporters speculated that if Mike Peterson continued to write, his next novel would be about the courtroom—the second battlefield he experienced in his life.And, at least for Mike Peterson, a battle of life and death.