By now most everyone has heard of, if not seen, the Netflix series Making a Murderer. Since its release on December 18, 2015, the 10-part series has taken the world by storm with audiences everywhere raging about the extreme injustices that were committed on the part of the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department. The documentary certainly does an excellent job of detailing the many ways in which the corrupt officers may have planted evidence that ultimately landed the accused, Steven Avery, in prison for the rest of his life. But the inherent flaw with documentaries is that they can be incredibly one-sided, and Making a Murderer is very obviously supporting the defense of Avery, who was wrongfully convicted of rape in 1985 and subsequently spent 18 years of his life behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. And while many thousands who have watched the show proclaim his innocence, so much so that a petition with over 340,000 signatures reached the White House, there’s very likely another side to the story that creators Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi didn’t explore.
What if Steven Avery really did commit the murder of Teresa Halbach? In the mere weeks since its debut plenty of new evidence has been brought to light that indicates Avery may not be as innocent as we were led to believe.
6. Avery Has A History Of Violence
During the documentary it is mentioned by then-prosecutor Ken Kratz that Avery previously had a violent incident involving his cat. The details of this event were glossed over fairly quickly in the episode, but Kratz recently released further information stating that “he soaked his cat in gasoline or oil, and put it on a fire to watch it suffer.”
And violence toward animals is far from the only deplorable acts Avery’s committed. His past criminal activity included threatening a female relative at gunpoint, and just recently his former fiancée Jodi Stachowski sat down with Nancy Grace, an HLN host and legal expert, for an exclusive interview where she described their past relationship as “abusive,” even going so far as to call him a “monster.” She discusses incidents when Avery threatened to kill her and her family, as well as a time when he threatened to throw a blow dryer into the bathtub while she was in it. And according to interviewer Nancy Grace, Avery beat Stachowski “to a bloody pulp on numerous occasions and we have dug and found a police report to document that.” These stories certainly demonstrate that Avery’s aggressive and violent behavior was escalating over time, so murder is certainly not outside the realm of possibility.
5. It Would Have Been Too Much Effort To Frame Avery
We’re certainly not going to deny that the police may have tampered with and/or planted evidence that led to Avery being convicted, but perhaps this was more out of desperation to put the guilty man behind bars when there wasn’t enough discovery evidence to do that job for them? While the officers were certainly facing a tough situation with Avery’s lawsuit against them for wrongful conviction of the 1985 rape, it seems incredibly extreme to suggest that in order to prevent having to pay millions that they premeditated a murder, burned a body and planted evidence throughout his property to ensure he went back to prison, this time for life. As one of the officers states in an episode of the show, would it not have just been easier just to kill Avery himself? That certainly would have been a lot less complex, involved far fewer people, and wouldn’t have left his fate in the hands of 12 members of a jury.
4. Avery’s Blood Wasn’t The Only DNA Evidence Found
We can likely all agree that Avery’s blood that was found in Teresa Halbach’s car could have been planted. Given that his blood evidence from the 1985 rape case was very obviously tampered with, along with the irregular patterns and random placement of the blood in the vehicle, this seems to be a logical conclusion. But Avery’s blood wasn’t the only DNA of his that was discovered in the vehicle.
Former prosecutor Ken Kratz recently told the media that Avery’s sweat was discovered underneath the RAV4’s hood, something that would be nearly impossible to plant, which makes it difficult to believe that he never touched the car. In addition, in one of the statements from Brendan Dassey, Avery’s nephew who is also in prison for the crime, that was presented in court (although omitted from the Netflix series) he tells the officers that he helped Avery move Teresa’s car into the junkyard and that Avery had lifted the hood to remove the battery cable.
3. Avery Was Obsessed With Teresa
As the documentary notes, the day that Teresa Halbach went missing was not her first visit to Avery’s property. In the months leading up to her disappearance Avery had called AutoTrader several times to specifically request her to come and take photos. On one of these occasions when Teresa arrived Avery answered the door wearing only a towel, causing Teresa to complain to her her boss that she didn’t want to go to Avery’s trailer anymore.
The only way he was able to get Teresa back to his property on the day of her disappearance was by using a fake name and fake phone number when he made the appointment with the AutoTrader receptionist, intended to trick Teresa into coming.
On that same day Avery made three calls to Teresa’s cell phone. For the first two, which took place at 2:24pm and 2:35pm before she arrives, Avery used *67 in order to disguise his number so Teresa wouldn’t know it was him calling. The third call, however, takes place at 4:35pm, but this time Avery doesn’t use *67. To establish his alibi, and to support his initial defense that Teresa never showed up for their appointment that day, he needed his identification to appear in her call records.
2. The Bullet With Teresa’s Blood Was Fired From Avery’s Gun
The police’s version of how the crime was committed makes very little sense. With not a drop of Teresa Halbach’s blood anywhere on Avery’s property, it is far-fetched to suggest that she was killed there. But that doesn’t mean Avery, or Dassey, didn’t shoot her. Ballistics indicate that the bullet the police found in Avery’s garage was fired from his gun, which always hung above his bed. This gun was then seized and put into a police evidence locker, so how could the police have gotten a bullet with Teresa’s blood on it to plant in Avery’s garage? As former prosecutor Ken Kratz asks “Did the cops borrow his gun, fire a bullet, recover the bullet before planting the SUV, then hang on to the bullet for 4 months in case they need to plant it 4 months later???” It seems highly unlikely.
1. Avery Purchased Handcuffs and Leg Irons Weeks Before The Murder
In Brendan Dassey’s statements he tells the police that Teresa Halbach was chained to the bed, but the police never found any evidence of scratches and wear marks on the bed frame that would have come from metal wearing against the wood. However, only three weeks before Teresa’s disappearance Avery purchased handcuffs and leg irons like the ones Dassey described. So perhaps it’s not a question of whether this gruesome crime happened, but where?
