December 2021 Marks The Six Year Anniversary of the Netflix Award Winning Documentary "Making a Murderer"

On December 18, 2015 Making A Murderer debuted on Netflix to a world wide audience. Overnight everyone was talking about this case, Manitowoc County and if Steven and Brendan were innocent. Social media instantly had FaceBook groups, YouTube channels, Reddit subs and Tweets discussing the case. Millions watched and thousands were so impacted by the documentary that they needed to know more. Websites were created and court and police documents requested and scores of people around the world began a deep dive into the trial transcripts, police reports evidence photos, test results and any other piece of evidence that could be acquired. Six years and hundreds of records requests later what do we know about what actually occurred in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin?

Making a Murderer caught the attention of highly sought after post conviction attorney Kathleen Zellner from Chicago. She has exonerated more than twenty wrongfully convicted inmates. A difficult accomplishment in the US criminal justice system. She took on Steven's case in January of 2016 and has been fighting to get the case back into court ever since. The Wisconsin judiciary has made it clear that they have no interest in reexamining the case from the start when circuit court Judge Angela Sutkiewicz denied a post conviction motion spanning over 1,300 pages filled with new and compelling evidence including post conviction testing that revealed that the bullet fragment Item FL that the state alleged contained Teresa's DNA was shot into wood and not into a human being. The testing of the fragment also found red paint like droplets (pictures of Steven's garage show it is half painted red) as well. The PCR motion also included evidence that there were multiple cut human bone fragments found miles away in the Manitowoc County owned County Quarry and not in Steven Avery's burn pit as the prosecution claimed at trial among many other troubling issues. The circuit court decision denying the motion was full of grammatical errors, inaccurate conclusions and many assumptions of facts that were not admitted into evidence and quite frankly are irrational.

The Court of Appeals decisions denying the motions are written much the same way which some believe is an intentional ignorance by the judges. Each and every absurd decision written as this case slowly advances through Wisconsin's corrupt criminal justice system leaves many genuinely appalled and in disbelief at their disinterest in finding the truth and in making sure that a man has not been wrongfully convicted twice and an innocent woman's murderer left free to harm others just as Gregory Allen ultimately did when Avery was wrongfully convicted in 1985. The state of Wisconsin it appears is not willing to allow Kathleen Zellner an evidentiary hearing to re-open this case. Something that the pursuit of justice and in the interest of truth must occur.

The fact that the attorney generals and district attorneys who speak in the media regarding the case pretend that all of the compelling and troubling issues are non-existent speaks to the "integrity" of the original investigation and the confidence that they have in retrying the case. If, as the state of Wisconsin wants the world to believe- that there exists lots of evidence that MaM left out (they still haven't provided any) that shows Steven is guilty and that Teresa Halbach never left the Avery property on October 31, 2005 and that they would retry and secure a conviction easily in a retrial-why not just put your money where your mouth is and do it? This investigation and the trials were billed as the most expensive murder case in Wisconsin. The cost to taxpayers was around $2 million dollars. Yet the reality is this was a bare bones, sloppily and deceptively ran investigation and the prosecution focused on one goal and that was securing convictions. The truth about what happened to Teresa Halbach was not a concern. What is troublesome is that two prosecutors involved in the Avery saga as well as one of his defense attorneys have authored books about the Avery/Halbach case yet there is very little factual information to be found between them regarding the crime against Teresa Halbach.

The reality is that there is substantial evidence that shows Teresa was gone an hour before Brendan Dassey and his younger brother Blaine arrived home at 3:45pm. Just like Blaine and Brendan's original statements said. Just like Steven Avery has stated from the beginning. From Brendan's first interview in Crivitz, WI officers saw how easily Brendan could be manipulated into saying whatever officers wanted him to say-even if it wasn't true and most importantly even if it implicated him in a horrific crime. The evidence shows that the crime occurred somewhere other than Steven Avery's property.

Many interesting pieces of evidence have been uncovered that show just how false the prosecutions stories of the crime are. Ken Kratz and Norm Gahn told the jury and the media that Steven Avery planned this crime. That Steven "lured" Teresa to the property for the purpose of assaulting and killing her. Yet if that was true why would Steven and Barbs sons have spent the time and effort working on the van getting it repaired to be sold that week? Also that Monday morning Steven and Bobby jump started the van to let the battery charge. Now if Steven's intent was to trick the photographer into coming to the property so he could kill her-why would he work on the the van and get it running? Why would he have told people that Teresa was coming to take pictures of the van? It wasn't like Teresa was going to test drive the vehicle before snapping the pictures.

Also Kratz and Gahn told the jury that Steven pressured Barb into wanting to sell the van. That also has been proven false. Recently a researcher on Twitter by the name of AveryWave discovered that Barb Dassey-Steven's sister and Brendan's mom had placed newspaper ads in January 2005 trying to sell the van. Kind of dispels the Steven forced Barb to sell the van story used at trial as a motive doesn't it?

The preponderance of evidence (most of which was not presented to the jury) indicates that Teresa Halbach left the Avery property that day just like Steven Avery has always stated occurred. Dozens of biological samples were collected from Steven's trailer, garage and across the 40 acres of the salvage yard. There was not one drop of Teresa Halbach DNA found anywhere except for in the back of her RAV. There also was not one speck of Brendan Dassey's DNA found anywhere in the RAV or at Steven's property either. Luminal testing also revealed no blood spatter patterns or massive clean up occurred.

The RAV it appears from the evidence found was discovered by Manitowoc County's Sheriffs Department the first day Teresa was reported missing. Manitowoc County Sheriff Sgt Andrew Colborn called in Teresa's plates on November 3, 2005 at 9:22pm SEVEN minutes after he was asked by Detective Dave Remiker if he knew who those plates came back to yet and he responded "negative." This well sourced document about Manitowoc County Sheriffs Department activities prior to and following the call provides supporting evidence that Manitowoc County was likely in contact with Teresa Halbach's RAV that first day she was reported missing and THREE DAYS before it would be "officially" found by Teresa's aunt Pam Sturm at the Avery Salvage Yard. Sturm testified that she was the only searcher to receive a map, camera and a direct phone number to Sheriff Jerry Pagel.

At the heart of this of course is Teresa Halbach. A twenty five year old woman who is now gone. The fact is that the stories of how she disappeared and died that Ken Kratz, Norm Gahn, Tom Fallon and the officers who participated in the investigation have told and want the public to believe happened to Teresa is factually not how this murder transpired. What is concerning is how the state of Wisconsin is quick to reference Teresa's memory when in need of an excuse for all the troubling evidence and questionable actions that demand this case be reopened and that all the different murder tales told by the district attorneys in the court room, in front of a journalist or written in books about the case are not what factually happened to Teresa. The Halbach family has remained silent-understandably so. What a betrayal it must be to know that the people you trust to solve your loved one's murder have instead at minimum taken advantage of your tragedy and used your family member in such a horrific way.

Evidence not presented to the jury shows that officers set up roadblocks and crime scene logs miles away. There are hundreds of photos of an investigation and evidence collection occurring in the Manitowoc County owned county quarry as well as at the Radandt Quarry/Deer Camp property that took place over several days. Yet there is very little about the multiple days of investigation or evidence collected by officers is written in the police reports. From reports, testimony, radio transmissions and dispatch calls we know that a K9 cadaver dog hit on a burial site. Officers were plotting GPS coordinates, performing 3-D scans of buildings and trailers, An ambulance was at the Kuss Road cul-de-sac, the Manitowoc county owned ambulance was requested to respond there and only specific officers were allowed at the Kuss Road site. Again these properties are quite a distance away from Steven Avery's residence. If the crime scene was miles away how can it be possible that Steven Avery is the murderer? There were several people (10-12) who were either had face to face contact or phone contact with Steven Avery on October 31, 2005 at the Avery property. His cell phone and landline activity confirm what he has maintained from day one. That he had nothing to do with Teresa Halbach's disappearance.

Investigators used utilized coded site locations as well as deceptively labeled evidence location descriptions such as "Avery property south of red trailer" that in reality are locations on an 80 acre piece of property owned by the county he was embroiled in a $36,000,000,00 civil suit with that was not going well for them. Property owned by Manitowoc County. Several researchers have succeeded in tracking the evidence tags through the ledgers-no small feat- to find that many burned debris piles were collected into evidence. These were sifted and produced lots of cut human bones. Experts have all confirmed that all the human bones in this case are of a female and burned to the same degree.

On November 9, 2005 a Calumet County officer by the name of Kelly Sippel is recorded on the phone with his boss talking about all the human bones found off the Avery property yet writes nothing about this in his reports about his activities that day.

On November 10, 2005 Calumet County Coroner Mike Klaeser visits the Manitowoc County owned county quarry and while there he pronounced Teresa Halbach deceased. Klaeser never visited the Avery property. No coroner went to the Avery property at all. Now Kratz is on the record saying in a interview from the yet to be released documentary marketed as "Convicting a Murderer" and now being called "Convicting" that a coroner was only needed to "kick the body" -if that is the case-what was the Coroner of Calumet County Mike Klaeser "kicking" in the Manitowoc County Quarry on December 10, 2005?

The above photo shows what Steven's burn pit looked like when investigators arrived on the property on November 5, 2005. Now over 7000 photos were taken by officers during this investigation in addition at least five videos were shot of the area from the ground as well as aerial footage obtained by state troopers then there is all media footage from the ground and above. Not one image captured the collection of debris from the burn pit occurring. Not one image of this brown tarp-assigned evidence tag #7923 and labeled burn pit debris was taken until December of 2005 at Calumet County Sheriffs Department garage area. The sifting of this tarp produced the human bone fragments used at both Steven and Brendan's trials. There is not one image or photo showing any debris being collected from the burn pit or of the brown tarp anywhere on the Avery property.

Steven Averys garage was the setting for the death scene in both trials. In Steven Avery's trial Teresa was shot at least twice and in Brendan's trial IIRC the prosecution goes with the ten or more shots were fired. People were in and out of the Avery Salvage Yard and spoke with Steven that day and night of Halloween. No one heard a gun shot. No one saw a body being lugged around the property. No one saw the RAV being driven back and forth from Steven's trailer to the other end of the junkyard and back to his property again and then back across the salvage yard yet again. (Its really outrageous when you sit and actually think about the stories told by Kratz and Gahn to the media, public and the jury about this murder). This would be a bad Hollywood comedy script if only a young woman wasn't dead and two men rotting away innocent in prison because of it.

A search warrant issued in March 2006 as a result of Brendan Dassey's confession allowed investigators access to Steven's property for an additional two days of plundering around. They will "find" a bullet fragment under the green compressor that the prosecution will state testing found a partial DNA match to Teresa Halbach. Yet in photos above taken by officers in November 2005 no fragment is visible.

At the trials prosecutors elicited testimony and made statements to the jury implying that this bullet was the Cause of Death and was shot through her head by the gun hanging above Steven's bed. Testing by the state used up all the sample and the test was also contaminated with the analyst Sherry Culhanes DNA. This should have automatically nullified the results and made the test inconclusive. Instead Culhane deviated from protocol and then failed to have her lab supervisor sign off-she got approval from another lab-so the contaminated test with a partial match was allowed to be included as evidence. This is the only item linking Steven to Teresa and a crime. Post conviction testing of this fragment revealed that the bullet fragment was shot through wood and not a human being. The testing performed by MicroTrace scientist Christopher Palenik would also find drops of a red paint like substance in addition to other trace elements that do not make sense given the prosecutions narratives regarding item FL. Even more troubling is the fact that once post conviction testing was completed and the results released prosecutors and the judges now take the stance that the prosecution never said the bullet was shot through Teresa Halbach's skull. Yet reviewing testimony finds that this is misleading if not entirely inaccurate. Milwaukee Coroner Jentzen testified that the bullet fragment picked up the DNA by passing through the victims brain.

As of December 2021 both men remain imprisonedh in separate facilities in Wisconsin. Brendan Dasseys attorneys Laura Nrider and Steve Drizen amassed most recently collected two hundred and fifty signatures from some of the words leading experts, legal minds, movie stars and others in a petition seeking clemency for Brendan. In December 2019 the Governors' office issued an unsigned letter denying the request. It is clear from that letter that the Governor of Wisconsin wants no part in this case.

A recent tweet from Sandy Greenman a close friend and supporter of Steven Avery remains optimistic about Steven's chances at justice.

Brendan Dassey still maintains a positive outlook as well. Brendan was a low IQ emotionally challenged teen who was tricked into repeating a outlandish fictional story that everyone who has examined the evidence knows is not what happened to Teresa Halbach. His conviction was obtained because of words recorded that he said. Words that officers fed him and then had him repeat. No evidence exists that connects him to any crime committed because he didn't commit any crime that day. Teresa Halbach had finished her appointment and left prior to Brendan arriving home from school at 3:45.

Kathleen Zellner has made a compelling argument with several witnesses who have given sworn affidavits that point at Brendan's older brother Bobby Dassey as the person responsible for Teresa Halbach's death. Then there is the Dassey computer - a computer seized from Bobby Dassey's bedroom and examined by officers after Avery had mentioned to his attorneys they may want to look at it. A report was written by an expert-Officer Velie that was not disclosed to the defense. Instead DCI S/A Fassbender wrote a vague report about the contents minimizing what was found and he and prosecutors would label the computer as Brendan's PC or the Dassey PC. Kratz deceptively told the defense that there "wasn't much of evidentiary value" on it.

Zellner had the computer re-examined and her expert has found additional information. That there are several images of women being tortured-many whom bare a striking resemblance to Teresa Halbach. Also found was internet searches for child pornographic images. The analysis of the computer also found that Bobby Dassey had not testified truthfully about his activities on the day Teresa Halbach disappeared. There are multiple internet searches that day during a period of time when Bobby testified he was the only one home. If the defense would have had this information during the trials they could have impeached Bobby's testimony and likely made a compelling argument that Bobby Dassey was the actual perpetrator. After all Bobby is one of the last people to have seen Teresa Halbach. He has made several statements outside of court that Steven couldn't have killed her because he saw her leave. Why did he not state this at trial? Did investigators threaten prosecution for the computer content in order to convince him to commit perjury? Or does he have more culpability in the crimes committed against Teresa Halbach? In a 2017 interview of Bobby Dassey conducted by the Wisconsin DCI Bobby was less than truthful about the computer contents and his use of the computer. Why would Bobby want to be dishonest about the computer location and his access to the internet? It is clear that Bobby has lied about everything he did that day Teresa came to the Avery property.

More than what is listed here is wrong in this case. There is not one credible piece of evidence left against Steven Avery. There never was a piece of evidence linking Brendan to a crime. The best the prosecutors had was some bleach stained jeans. Steven and Brendan now wait for their cases to land on the desk of a judge interested in justice and the truth to re-open the case. Teresa Halbach waits as well for the truth to be told.

threaten prosecution for the computer content in order to convince him to commit perjury? Or does he have more culpability in the crimes committed against Teresa Halbach? In a 2017 interview of Bobby Dassey conducted by the Wisconsin DCI Bobby was less than truthful about the computer contents and his use of the computer. Why would Bobby want to be dishonest about the computer location and his access to the internet? It is clear that Bobby has lied about everything he did that day Teresa came to the Avery property.

More than what is listed here is wrong in this case. There is not one credible piece of evidence left against Steven Avery. There never was a piece of evidence linking Brendan to a crime. The best the prosecutors had was some bleach stained jeans. Steven and Brendan now wait for their cases to land on the desk of a judge interested in justice and the truth to re-open the case. Teresa Halbach waits as well for the truth to be told.

Making a Murderer informed those who watched about the disappearance and death of Teresa Halbach and the wrongful convictions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey. Since then years of research has shown that Manitowoc County and the State of Wisconsin have no interest in finding out the truth so it is up to those who feel compelled to do so to search for the answers and try to correct this injustice.