MISSOULA -- The "owl theory" won't fly.

Jailbird escapes justice.

Who-who-whodunit?

Kate Davis bristles at the ridicule over an owl's alleged involvement in the sensational death of a socialite in North Carolina -- a human death, that is, not the killing of a rodent or other typical prey of owls.

"Just stupid cliches, but this is a serious case," Davis, executive director of Raptors of the Rockies, a wild bird education organization in Florence, said Friday.

The case involves Mike Peterson, 64, a novelist who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for the death of his wife, Kathleen. She was found with head wounds at the bottom of a staircase in their mansion in Durham, N.C., in 2001.

Last year, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld his 2003 conviction, but Peterson continues to insist his wife died in an accidental fall.

His supporters held a press conference Thursday to call for the case to be reopened based on their theory that a barred owl could have played a role in Kathleen Peterson's death.

The case has all the hallmarks of a thriller allegations of sexual secrets, lies and conspiracy, plus an Academy Award-winning French film crew and a bird feather that could be a crucial clue, but the case also has several ties to western Montana.

Besides Davis, there's University of Montana ornithology professor Dick Hutto; Carla Dove, a Smithsonian Institution research scientist and a UM graduate; and the Missoulian, which reported an owl attack on a boy near Glacier National Park in January.

The Missoulian article is how the western Montana connection to the Peterson case got started.

In January, Davis got a phone message from Sophie Brunet, a member of a Paris-based film crew that released a six-hour documentary in 2004 about the case called "The Staircase," which the New York Times called a "masterpiece" of intrigue. The case also was covered by Court TV and prompted a television film and two books.

The French filmmakers became convinced that Peterson was innocent and took up his cause, including investigating the "owl theory" and looking on the Internet for cases of owl attacks.

The owl theory came from an attorney and neighbor of Peterson's named Larry Pollard, who said one of the neighborhood's many barred owls had possibly caused the bruises and wounds on Kathleen Peterson's face, wrists, arms and scalp. The wounds included two tri-pronged lacerations that might have been made by an owl's razor-sharp talons, Pollard said.

The owl theory has Kathleen Peterson fighting off the owl, stumbling inside, climbing a steep staircase and, under the influence of alcohol and medication, falling down the stairs and bleeding to death at the bottom all the while clutching a tiny feather and clumps of her own bloody hair.

Looking on the Internet, Brunet found the Missoulian story about the owl attack near Glacier Park, which quoted Davis.

Which is how Davis found herself on the phone listening as Brunet related the whole convoluted Peterson case, including allegations of incompetence and a cover-up by police, the medical examiner and prosecutors.

"But she didn't mention the owl theory at first, so I'm thinking she's a nut case and what does this have to do with me?" Davis said. "But then she starts talking about lacerations to the back of the head and all of a sudden I sat up and said, 'What did you say?' "

Davis was immediately intrigued and decided to make some owl talon prints in clay to see if they resembled the wounds on the victim.

First, she dropped one of her great horned owls onto a flat clay surface. Next, she dropped a barred owl onto a rounded clay surface shaped like a human skull. The second set of talon marks resembled the victim's wounds.

"To me, it's very plausible," said Davis, who has become convinced that Peterson is innocent. "I'm just infuriated that people are so stupid that they'd convict someone's who not guilty."

So, Davis called Hutto, her former adviser at UM. He suggested she contact Dove, who also had Hutto for a UM adviser. Dove agreed to analyze a photo of the feather, which Davis said looks similar to the tiny feathers on the bottom of a barred owl's foot.

Hutto, Dove and Brunet could not be reached for comment on Friday.

According to North Carolina media reports, the feather was never considered as evidence and the owl theory was not brought up at trial. Prosecutors didn't establish a clear motive or produce a murder weapon, but said a fireplace blow poke, a hollow poker or similar object was used.

Durham prosecutors have not commented on the owl theory, but the medical examiner and former prosecutor who handled the case said Thursday that the wounds were not consistent with an owl's talons.

Davis said true-crime stories typically don't interest her, but she thinks Peterson was wrongly convicted even if the owl theory has been called preposterous by some people.

"The more I learned about it, the more I thought, 'Oh, my God, I can help get this guy out of prison,' " she said.

Raptors and other birds can become aggressive when defending their territory, nests and hatchlings, although barred owls usually don't attack people, Davis said.

Adult barred owls weigh 2 to 3 pounds, are nearly 2 feet tall and have a wing span of 42 inches. Their range extends across North America, but they are more common in the eastern United States.

"An owl didn't kill anyone, but it certainly could have been involved in this death," Davis said. "It'll be a tough sell to reopen the case, but when you see all of the little bits of evidence, it all points to an owl."