Authors: Diane Fanning
Written in Blood (10 page)
Cheryl AppelâSchumacher was not at home when Amybeth talked to Tom, because she had already left to go to work at about the same time that Barbara O'Hara entered Liz's house. Cheryl taught a fourthgrade special education group at the same Department of Defense Overseas School where Liz and Patty were teachers.
When she arrived in the classroom, she posted all the week's assignments on the chalkboard. Her students filled in and took their seats at 8:10. It was a short week because of Thanksgiving, and the few days were crammed with work. She was explaining it all to her kids when the school counselor walked in and pulled her aside. She told Cheryl that Tom was waiting in the counseling office with some very bad news.
A puzzled Cheryl went to meet her husband, worrying about possible scenarios as she walked down the hall. “You have to sit down,” he said as he led her to a chair. Gently, Tom broke the news. “It's hard to believe, but Liz is dead. She had a hemorrhage. She fell down the stairs. And she is dead.”
They left the school and went to Liz's home. The
foyer was crowded with peopleâAmybeth and Bruce Bemer, Barbara O'Hara, cab driver Salvatore Malagnino, Patty and Mike Peterson and the German emergency medical teamâwhen they arrived at about 9 o'clock. Cheryl saw part of Liz at the foot of the stairway, her upper body covered with a coat and her legs and yellow boots sticking out. She turned away. Amy Beth greeted Cheryl with a mournful hug.
foyer was crowded with peopleâAmybeth and Bruce Bemer, Barbara O'Hara, cab driver Salvatore Malagnino, Patty and Mike Peterson and the German emergency medical teamâwhen they arrived at about 9 o'clock. Cheryl saw part of Liz at the foot of the stairway, her upper body covered with a coat and her legs and yellow boots sticking out. She turned away. Amy Beth greeted Cheryl with a mournful hug.
Barbara was near hysteriaâcrying, sobbing, shaking and talking in a loud voice. The cries and sobs of other voices joined in her chorus of grief.
The German police arrived on the scene soon after Cheryl and Tom. As the officials examined Liz's body, Amybeth noted the blood-soaked hair and a cut above her left eye. She translated for her gathered friends that the Germans were trying to decide if Liz died before she hit the floor. She watched as a doctor used a syringe to remove fluid from Liz's spine.
Although his German was spotty, Michael Peterson asserted himself as the man in charge of the situation. He communicated as best he could to both the German police and the medical professionals with a mix of English, German and hand signals.
Mike also called the American military to inform them that a Department of Defense employee was deceased. At noon, Steven Lyons, a special agent for the U.S. Army Command walked through the door with an interpreter in tow. Lyons' role was to assist the German police and report back to the Defense Department.
Lyons did not examine the body. He made a cursory exploration of the stairs, looking for anything that would contradict the story Michael Peterson had told him. He
found nothing. Except for the pool of blood at the bottom, he did not notice any of the blood running along the length of the stairs. The only American he talked to was the one he described as “the dominating male on the scene,” Michael Peterson.
found nothing. Except for the pool of blood at the bottom, he did not notice any of the blood running along the length of the stairs. The only American he talked to was the one he described as “the dominating male on the scene,” Michael Peterson.
Cheryl avoided the stairs as much as she could. Her first sight of Liz's body seared like a brand into her brain. She did not want the image to penetrate any deeper. She also did not want that image placed in the minds of others. She blocked the door and would not allow any other teachers or neighbors to enter. Patty Peterson spent the whole morning sitting in the kitchen. She heard nothing. She said nothing. She stared wide-eyed out into space.
Cheryl was appalled when she realized that the military were going to leave without Liz's body. She wanted to clean up the blood before Martha and Margaret returned home, but she knew she could not begin while Liz lay there abandoned in that crimson pool. She pleaded with Mike to do something.
When he questioned the departing men he was told they would have to wait for the mortuary people to come from Frankfurt. The military did, however, grant permission to move the body.
Amybeth laid garbage bags on the floor next to the body. Tom and Mike grabbed the rug beneath Liz and lifted it up and set it down on the bags, hoping to prevent the creation of a blood trail.
They placed Liz on the bed in Barbara's room. Tom placed the dripping, blood-soaked rug in a plastic bag and later took it to the cleaners.
In the house, the friends talked about what had happened. Mike said, “She had a cerebral hemorrhage
and fell down the stairs. She was dead before she hit the bottom.”
and fell down the stairs. She was dead before she hit the bottom.”
“I don't believe it,” Barbara snapped.
And she was not alone in her skepticism. With the body moved, Amybeth took a hard look at the wall by the stairs. She was nearly six feet tall and yet, at the top of the steps, blood was higher on the wall than she could reach.
Barbara was antsy and could not wait to leave the house. When the decision was reached that Amybeth, in the middle of another high-risk pregnancy, should not be cleaning up, Barbara went with her and Bruce to their home.
Cheryl looked at the profusion of blood all the way down the wall by the staircase, the small spatter across the room and the endless lake of it on the floor. She wanted to flee. She wanted to forget. Instead she focused on the two baby girls. She did not want that bloodâtheir mother's bloodâto be part of their memory.
She got a bowl of water and the leather chamois that Liz used to wash dishes in lieu of a sponge. She trudged up to the top of the stairs.
The rough stucco-like texture of the walls made cleaning a challenge. Soon, she discovered that small circular motions were the most efficient method. Up above the light switch the spray of blood was so tiny, she had to peer at it to make sure she got every drop.
At times, she would think about what she was doing and her eyes would well with tears, making it impossible to see. She would take a break and regain her composure. She forced herself to think of this blood as just another mess and got back to work again.
Rubbing and rubbing. Rinsing the chamois in the bowl until the water became too pink to clean the cloth. Dump the water out. Refill the bowl. Rub and rinse again. She emptied that bowl more times than she could remember.
Tom cleaned the areas alongside the staircase that Cheryl could not reach. He focused his energies, though, at the foot of the stairs where Liz was discovered. Massive quantities of blood had leaked through and around the rug underneath her body. By now, it had thickened to a jelly-like consistency. The congealed substance clung to the surface. When he wiped at it, the blood moved around in smears. When he did absorb some with the rag, dark blobs hung pregnant on the edges.
The worst part for Tom was listening to the moans that escaped unbidden through Cheryl's lips. When tears rolled down his face in response, he wanted to wipe them away, but his hands were covered in too much blood.
Around 2 o'clock that afternoon, the mortuary service arrived to take away the body of Elizabeth Ratliff. Mike Peterson directed the removal of the body. He did not help with the cleaning, but was busy nonetheless. Then he worked the phones calling the different military offices and government agencies that handle the details surrounding the death of a government employee overseas.
Time and again, Cheryl and Tom thought they were done with their onerous chore. They'd step back to examine their work and one of them would notice more blood. They got back to work cleaning stray spots on
the refrigerator, off the trunk beneath the stairs, off the steps. They hunted down every drop of blood, not wanting to leave the smallest bit of evidence for the girls to see.
the refrigerator, off the trunk beneath the stairs, off the steps. They hunted down every drop of blood, not wanting to leave the smallest bit of evidence for the girls to see.
At 5 o'clock that afternoon, Mike placed a call to Liz's sister, Margaret Blair, in Rhode Island. He told her there had been an accidentâLiz had fallen down the stairs and died. When Margaret asked for a further description, he told her it was peacefulâthat “there was only a little blood behind her ear.”
After hanging up, Margaret called her other sister, Rosemary, and shared the news with her. Then she called a family friend who was a nurse. She asked the woman to meet her at her mother's house. Margaret had serious concerns about the physical impact on her mother when she and her husband, Jim, delivered the news of Liz's death. It was November 25, 1985. Their father had died on November 25, 1975. Margaret shuddered at the coincidence. This November 25 would be the most difficult day of her life.
When Cheryl and Tom were satisfied that every trace of blood was gone, they went up to the Petersons' house and retrieved Margaret and Martha. The week Liz died, Barbara O'Hara was too spooked to return to the house to care for them. The Schumachers stayed in the home and cared for the girls through Thanksgiving week.
The day after Liz died, second-grader Amy Carlson came home from Rhein Main Elementary School in
tears. She sobbed as she told her mother, Donna, that her teacher was deadâMs. Ratliff, the teacher whom Amy loved and talked about every day.
tears. She sobbed as she told her mother, Donna, that her teacher was deadâMs. Ratliff, the teacher whom Amy loved and talked about every day.
Amy said that Ms. Ratliff committed suicide. She was full of sorrowful questions. How could she do this? How could she leave us? How could this happen on stairs? How can you kill yourself by throwing yourself down stairs?
Amy knew something was wrong with the story she heard, but at her young age, could not understand what. The questions about Ms. Ratliff stayed with her for years. Donna had never met Amy's teacher. The school sent no information home. Down the street was another mother who hadn't known Liz. She, too, had heard it was a suicide.
Was the story about Liz killing herself merely an idle rumor that ran through the community, creating a life of its own? Or was it a story planted with malice? Or one circulated to protect someone from suspicion? No one knows the truth of its origin; nonetheless, the suicide story left a deep scar on Amy's heartâone that she carried with her to the end of her short, tragic life.
When Pat Finn heard the news of Liz's death, she flashed back to her friend Patty and her husband Michael. She had learned first-hand that Patty's fantasy image of Michael Peterson was divorced from any connection with reality. She remembered the constant negative comments Mike made about Liz. She remembered thinking that he was obsessed with talking about her.
She called the Criminal Investigation Division of the Military Police. She told them of her suspicions that Michael Peterson was involved in the death of Elizabeth Ratliff. They did not follow up on her call. To Pat, the military seemed determined to whitewash the incident and avoid scandal at all cost.
Liz's body was transported to the 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt for an autopsy under Army auspices. The base there had four staff pathologists in 1985ânot one of them was a forensic pathologist.
Dr. Larry Barnes, a graduate of Kansas City College of Osteopathic Medicine, was assigned to perform Liz Ratliff's autopsy. He was in his third year of his tour of duty in Germany. Trained in pathology at an Army school at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, he was well equipped to handle the typical general pathology work like tissue pathology on a removed appendix or the clinical pathology of blood analysis.
He did not have much experience in autopsies, however. In fact, this was only his fifth one. The other four had all been on the victims of vehicular trauma. He had never conducted an autopsy on a person whose death was the result of foul playâhe had never seen the results of blunt force trauma, gunshots or knife wounds. He had no significant training in forensic pathology.
He followed medicalânot forensicâprotocol during the two-hour procedure. He did not have equipment to weigh the organs or to take height measurements. He
made eyeball estimates and noted them on the chart. No photographs were taken of the external examination. No diagram was made of Liz's wounds.
made eyeball estimates and noted them on the chart. No photographs were taken of the external examination. No diagram was made of Liz's wounds.
He found 100ml of blood in her skull. There should not have been any there. He noted a hemorrhage at the junction of the brain and the brain stem with blood extending down into the spinal cord.
He did not take a skull x-ray. He conducted a visual search for signs of a depressed skull fracture, but did not find any. Barnes made one slide of an area of the brain he thought exhibited vascular malformation, which caused both the hemorrhage and tissue degeneration. He made one slide of a liver section.
The report Barnes submitted indicated Liz's death was caused by a “cerebellar hemorrhage.” An initial view of the document by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology stated that the slide of the brain tissue demonstrated a vascular malformation, a finding that supported Barnes' stated cause of death.
A neuropathology consultation by Dr. Andrew Parisi in April concluded that no final determination could be made. He did not find a vascular malformation. This finding contradicted Dr. Barnes' conclusion. On the back of the report, he left the following note: “There is nothing diagnostic of von Willebrand's disease in these actions. This is not a typical demise.”
The final report from the director of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, however, stated that Elizabeth Ratliff's demise was a “sudden unsuspected death due to a spontaneous intercranial hemorrhage, complicating von Willebrand's disease; natural.”
Barbara did not believe this was true. She told
everyone that she knew there was something more to Liz's deathâthere was too much blood. By the time she let it go, she was certain everyone thought she was crazy.
everyone that she knew there was something more to Liz's deathâthere was too much blood. By the time she let it go, she was certain everyone thought she was crazy.
Michael Peterson accompanied Liz's body back to the States. Patty Peterson did not attend the funeral of her best friend. On December 2, 1985, Liz's sister, Margaret, delivered the eulogy for her sister in the service at Holy Cross Catholic Church. The funeral procession crawled through Bay City. On the side of the roads, men stopped, pulled off their hats and held them to their hearts. Others bowed their heads or flashed through the blessings of the cross. Margaret Blair was surprised at these signs of respect and found a warm place in her heart for the people of Texas. Liz was laid to rest beside her husband, George, in Cedarvale Cemeteryâa pair of flat gray granite stones with bronze plaques marked the spot where they were reunited.
With calculating insight, Michael Peterson remembered to bring Liz's will with him to Texas. He filed the last will and testament of Elizabeth Ratliff at the Matagorda County Courthouse on December 4, 1985. The fate and future of Margaret and Martha Ratliff now rested in the hands of Patty and Michael Peterson. With this responsibility came an estate valued at $44,000 and a monthly check from the government for the two orphans.
There were questions, though, about the official evaluation of the estate. Liz's BMW was not on the personal property list. Nor was the court in Texas aware of the tapestry Liz and George purchased at a bargain for
$20,000 when they honeymooned. Also not listed were the Polish antiques from the midâto late-eighteenth century or the hand-carved swan cradle, the French pots, and the rugs from Afghanistan. And what had happened to the money from George's life insurance policy that Liz had set aside for her girls' future? Years later, when the contents of the document were revealed, suspicion arose that someone had lied to the Texas courts.
$20,000 when they honeymooned. Also not listed were the Polish antiques from the midâto late-eighteenth century or the hand-carved swan cradle, the French pots, and the rugs from Afghanistan. And what had happened to the money from George's life insurance policy that Liz had set aside for her girls' future? Years later, when the contents of the document were revealed, suspicion arose that someone had lied to the Texas courts.
In Texas, Margaret Blair learned about the provision in Liz's will for the guardianship of the two girls. She was not surprised. She knew her sister had a close relationship with Patty Peterson for some time.
After the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Barbara moved back into Liz's house to care for Margaret and Martha. Mike took care of all the household financial affairs and gave Barbara a raise.
Barbara did not feel safe in the house. At night, she often heard sounds, as if someone were prowling around. She knew an unknown person had been in the house when she noticed items shuffled on George's desk as if someone were looking for something. On another morning, she awoke to find the living room door leading to the garden standing wide open. She spoke to Mike about it and he promised to check on things when he was out for his late evening rambles and every morning when he walked the dog.
Barbara got to know the Peterson family more intimately during these months. Their house, she said, was a disasterâvery untidy and very dirty. Patty had no interest in housework and Michael had no clue. From
time to time, Barbara cleaned their house for them. Barbara and the Petersons also worked out a mutual baby-sitting agreement that served both families well.
time to time, Barbara cleaned their house for them. Barbara and the Petersons also worked out a mutual baby-sitting agreement that served both families well.
As a rule, Patty stayed late at school to do all her paperwork and preparation for the next day instead of bringing it home. That meant Mike had to feed Clayton and Todd. The evening meals for the little boys were TV dinners more often than not.
Barbara thought the two Peterson children were lovely boys, although they often wore unkempt clothing. Todd was an affectionate child. When she read to him or told him stories, he snuggled up as close as he could and looked up at her with big, gorgeous eyes. He could listen to her for hours.
Clayton, on the other hand, was more reserved. He could not sit still for anything. He preferred telling her what was wrong with a story rather than sitting down and enjoying it.
Barbara saw a change in Mikeâa more violent, aggressive side of him emerged. He became mean and impatient. She had suspicions about the cause, but he was her employer and she kept her thoughts to herself.
Mike displayed a clear favoritism for Margaret, who was a friendly, outgoing and intelligent girl. Martha was more shy and sensitive. She developed a fear of Mike, hiding behind Barbara whenever he came to the house. Martha came home from the Peterson's on a number of occasions with black-and-blue marks on her body, but Barbara overlooked itâchildren often get bruised in play.
Then, Barbara went away for a week and left the girls with the Petersons. When she returned, Martha had two
black eyes and blue marks behind her ears. This time, Barbara confronted Mike about what had happened. He said that Martha was a “bad, bad girl” and she needed “to learn manners.” Barbara swore Mike's voice was filled with glee when he told her that he had rubbed Martha's nose in the carpet like a dog when she'd wet the floor.
black eyes and blue marks behind her ears. This time, Barbara confronted Mike about what had happened. He said that Martha was a “bad, bad girl” and she needed “to learn manners.” Barbara swore Mike's voice was filled with glee when he told her that he had rubbed Martha's nose in the carpet like a dog when she'd wet the floor.
Soon after that incident, Mike Peterson moved back to the States, taking Margaret and Martha with him. After six months of being a mother to the girls, Barbara missed them. It tore at her heart. But how much more, she wondered, did the little girls suffer?
Barbara helped the packers crate up Liz's things. Then she cleaned the house one last time, locked the door and walked away. Leaving that house of death brought her a strong sense of relief.
Margaret and Martha, having lost their mother and father, were now separated from their nanny. The path of their days was definedâa life that was a long litany of loss.
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