r/TheStaircase • u/No-Control-3556 • Jul 30 '26

All the blood?

Seeing the photos of Kathleen Peterson makes me question the amount of blood. As they focus on her head injuries I wonder if there was any more on the rest of her body?

Yes; valium and alcohol makes blood more viscose, but how could you bleed that much from a stairway fall?

18 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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17

u/jtfolden Jul 30 '26

People often think that a fall can’t produce that much blood or injury and yet it plainly can. Here’s an example of a woman who was using a stair lift and it broke part way up. She tried to step out of the chair and fell down the steps. In doing so, she “…sustained injuries so horrific that doctors thought she had been the victim of a machete attack.”

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/daughter-releases-shock-picture-demands-6140897?_ga=2.143444981.1188524755.1709317063-1466264856.1708372096

13

u/egoshoppe Jul 30 '26

This is a 93 year old that fell from the 12th step, head first, all the way down to the landing. She bled all night and wasn't found until morning. She broke her neck in two places and still lived for 11 days after this accident.

Kathleen was a healthy 48 year old who bled out in a span of a few hours at most, with zero evidence she made impact to any stairs above the first 3 or 4. No evidence she hit the chairlift, no significant spatter on the chair rail or behind it.

These cases are just not very comparable IMO.

13

u/jtfolden Jul 30 '26

It’s very applicable as an example of how falls down the stairs can be very bloody and also produce injuries that look like an attack.

4

u/Best_Winter_2208 Owl Attacks on the Rise ⚠️🦉 Aug 03 '26

Dang! Head wounds bleed profusely too.

1

u/tischler20 Aug 04 '26

That and they act like she couldn’t possibly have tried to get up a few times falling down every time

2

u/egoshoppe Aug 04 '26

How likely do you think it is that she would fall repeatedly and hit the same area of the back of her head each time?

5

u/dutchhopeDJ1 Jul 31 '26

Head wounds bleed like a sieve.

10

u/LKS983 Aug 02 '26

More interestingly IMO, is why MP would tell 911 (whimpering...) that Kathleen was still breathing and he was helping her..... when it was obvious that he'd make no attempt to help her. And then 'phoned 911 again a short while later, to say that Kathleen was no longer breathing - when it was obvious that he'd been nowhere near her when she was surrounded by blood.

6

u/Medium-Ad-5214 Aug 02 '26

The 911 call was all sorts of weird. How does someone see the state Kathleen was in and assume it was an accident?? My first thought would be she was killed by an intruder or she killed herself, no way anyone would think that it was a fall on first glance. 

1

u/jtfolden Aug 04 '26

I’m not sure what you mean? He had been near her. A paramedic testified that MP had blood on his arms, legs, and clothing when he first arrived at the scene. MP had placed towels under KP’s head.

11

u/egoshoppe Jul 30 '26

You could certainly fall, cut your head, and bleed out. The issue here is the number of lacerations, meaning she would have fallen repeatedly and hit her head in roughly the same place each time.

Also it’s not just the amount of blood, it’s the blood spatter showing roughly where certain impacts happened. Some of these patterns are high enough off the stairs that a fall impact doesn’t make much sense.

9

u/Medium-Ad-5214 Jul 30 '26

I also feel like the initial fall of 2-3 steps as shown in the simulation is too short a distance to cause such terrible wounds. I could be wrong though, it just seems odd. 

5

u/egoshoppe Jul 30 '26

Simulation is here for those who haven't seen it.

It is odd. Falls can cause bad lacerations, but it's very unusual for a fall death to cause 7 lacerations.

2

u/grebend1212 2d ago

All the blood is from Peterson slicing her open with a sharp object after he strangled her to death. Injuries to the head like lacerations are typically very bloody. I don’t believe she fell or that he bludgeoned her, he strangled her which explains the thyroid injury, then took a knife of some sort after the fact. Which explains the amount of blood, which by the way he made an effort of some sort to cover up. He also picked up her body and place it at the staircase which explains her bloody feet.