December 9, 2001, Christmas Eve.
Durham County, North Carolina, USA.
At 2:40 a.m., the police received an alarm call.
At the end of the phone, the man shouted in panic as his wife fell down the stairs and was still breathing.
Five minutes later, the man called again and said his wife was no longer breathing. (This was also a suspicious point that later became controversial))
By the time the police arrived at the scene of the crime, a woman under the stairs had collapsed in a pool of blood, and had long since lost her breath...
This bloody clip that needs to be coded is from HBO's new drama -
Between the Stairs
The Staircase
Director: Antonio Campos / Lyn Janieque
Writers: Antonio Campos / Maggie Cohen
Starring: Colin Firth / Toni Collette / Michael Stubba / Parker Posey / Juliet Binoche
Genre: Drama / Suspense / Thriller / Biography / Crime
Premiere: 2022-05-05 (USA)
Episodes: 8
Episode length: 65 minutes
It is worth mentioning that "Uncle Face" Colin Firth in "Pride and Prejudice", "BJ's Single Diary" and "Ace Agent" plays the male protagonist.
As a return to the small screen again, Uncle Face's superb acting skills have also brought a lot of attention to this drama.
This drama is based on a true story, at the beginning of this century, North America was a sensation, and the "Simpson wife murder case" is the same as the unsolved case - "Novelist Wife Murder Case".
The novelist's wife was killed, and the husband claimed to have fallen down the stairs. But the police found that the death of his wife was not an accident, but a murder!
"Warm" restructured family
The reason why this is one of the most famous unsolved cases at the beginning of this century is to start from the male protagonist.
The man who called the police at the beginning of the article is the male protagonist of this case, Mike.
His resume is not simple, he has served as a soldier, written novels, and also ran for mayor.
And the woman who died tragically at the top of the stairs, that is, Mike's wife, the heroine of the case - Catherine.
Their family relationships are even more complicated.
Mike and Catherine are second married, and the restructured family has a total of 5 children.
The eldest and second sons were born to Mike and his ex-wife, and of the 3 daughters: two were his adopted daughters (the children of deceased friends) and one was the daughter of Catherine and her ex-husband.
And this reorganized family seems to be happy.
With Catherine's sudden and tragic death, everything began to fall apart.
Motives for killing
Inclination?
As the investigation unfolds, the police discover a shocking secret in Mike's computer!
There were a large number of explicit photos of men on the computer, as well as mail exchanges between male prostitutes.
Mike is bisexual!
However, he claims that he loves his wife Catherine very much.
Because when he was with his ex-wife, he would mess with men, but after being with Catherine, he only had sex with men.
What？？？
Not only that, but he claims that his wife, Catherine, knows her sexuality and is tolerant of herself.
This is also a suspicious point in this case.
After these documents were exposed, the intimate children were shocked! Loving parents, how can this be?
Catherine's own daughter is also very confused, the mother was hurt by the love of the previous marriage, in this marriage, can forgive the husband's cheating?
And will Catherine die tragically after an argument with Mike after suddenly knowing the truth?
Property?
Although Mike is a novelist, the breadwinner of the family is his wife, Catherine.
But the economic situation in 2001 was not good, and Mike already had a debt crisis.
Running for mayor yourself requires money.
The children in the family are also money shredders: the eldest is in school, and he is imprisoned for four years for committing crimes; The second, running a website, failing to start a business; The remaining 3 daughters are still in college, not to mention.
And if Catherine finds out that her husband is cheating, she decides to divorce. When Mike is angry, will he have the evil idea of killing his wife and cheating on insurance?
Accident or murder?
Complex injuries
The police determined it was murder because Catherine's autopsy report showed that the injuries were complex.
Catherine had 35 cuts and bruises on her body, 7 lacerations on the back of her head, and lacerations on the cartilage of her neck.
These scars were not caused by falls, they should have been caused by blunt objects!
So what is the murder weapon?
Catherine's sister had given each family a burning stick, but Catherine's family was missing.
The police search was unsuccessful.
However, the eldest son found a burning stick in the garage, and there was no blood on it!
Was it dropped, or was the stick not a murder weapon?
Moreover, Mike defended that if it was attacked with a blunt object, should not the skull be fractured?
Catherine's skull showed no signs of a fracture.
Therefore, the scars are not only caused by falls, but they are not enough to prove that the deceased was severely beaten before his death.
Blood stains at the scene
There was excessive blood loss at the crime scene, and the blood on Mike's clothes was also suspicious.
Documentary "Staircase Unsolved Case"
Interestingly, Mike Fang invited the detective at that time, Li Changyu, a Chinese-American.
According to his deduction, the large amount of blood at the scene was caused by Catherine coughing up blood and shaking her head after falling, and walking around, rather than being injured by a blunt object.
But his account does not explain the origin of other scars.
The "coincidence" of 20 years ago
Even more bizarre, more than 20 years ago, there was a similar incident.
The mother of his two adopted daughters, Ratliff, is a close friend of Mike and his ex-wife.
Her husband died on the battlefield and herself died of an aneurysm.
What surprised people was that in order to find out the truth, the police dug up the grave and re-examined the body.
The deceased was found to have no signs of aneurysms and scars on the hindbrain!
Ratliff's nanny later recalled that Mrs. had met Mike before she died and that there was a lot of blood at the scene of the crime.
Was it all an accident? That's a coincidence!
In the end, although the real murder weapon was not found, the jury still found guilty and Mike was jailed.
Catch the horse reversal of the follow-up
Controversial documentary
In 2004, the case was launched as a documentary film, "The Staircase Unsolved Case".
There was an uproar in the whole country, once again pushing this case to the cusp of the storm!
But more drama is yet to come!
Later, during the investigation, it was found that Susan, the editor of the documentary, had an affair with Mike and lived together after being released from prison.
And this layer of relationship also leads to the bias of the documentary position.
Many details of the case against Mike have been brushed over.
As a result, many viewers, after watching the documentary, complained about Mike.
Documentary commentary
To its credit, this drama has added a branch line of documentary filming.
Recreate the unsolved case from the three perspectives of Mike, the police and the documentary team.
The longest pending case
In 2011, under the pressure of public opinion, Mike was released from prison and imprisoned at home for 6 years.
In May 2017, it was decided to retry.
However, in February of that year, Mike signed the "Alford Reply" and made a "confession". (A U.S. legal term that refers to a confession made by a defendant who does not admit guilt but admits that there is sufficient evidence to prove his guilt.) ）
After 16 years, it is also one of the longest unsolved cases.
All the while, Mike didn't admit to killing his wife!
Mike
And what the truth is, no one can know.
Many of the unknown details of the case, such as police perjury, owl attacks, and later wonderful reversals, are presented in the show.
Wife-killing, bisexuality, elites, conspiracies, private affairs, all kinds of labels have put a mysterious cloak on this unsolved case.
And what the truth is, I am afraid that only the parties concerned know.
And do you think Mike is innocent?