After first watching Netflix’s Making a Murderer, it’s pretty easy to jump on the “Steven Avery is innocent” bandwagon, but does the popular documentary give viewers the full story? The first season came under a lot of criticism for omitting important bits of evidence, but the creators of the show claimed that it would have been impossible to add every single detail — it “wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.” The question is, should viewers take their word for it or do a little digging themselves? There’s always more to a story than what meets the eye, particularly when there’s money involved. Here are 10 key pieces of evidence that the show left out.
10. Avery’s Strange Purchases
While investigating Teresa Halbach’s disappearance, authorities “located items of restraints within Steven Avery’s resident including handcuffs and leg irons,” which are exactly the items specifically described in Brendan Dassey’s confession. Avery admitted that the handcuffs and leg irons were his, claiming that he had used them on his girlfriend at the time. It’s important to note that Teresa Halbach’s DNA was not found on either of the items, but how would Dassey have known about them if it was just used between Avery and his girlfriend? Strange.
9. Hours Of Dassey’s Confession
Brendan Dassey’s supposed “forced” confession is shown in short clips on Making A Murderer, so viewers never really got to hear all the chilling details that came out of his mouth. The reality is, Brendan’s confession lasted for hours, and new portions of the transcripts have surfaced that are very specific and equally disturbing. Details of these transcripts include how many shots were fired into Halbach’s head, and how the entire murder was premeditated because she “looked good and was pretty nice.”
8. Allegations Of Child Molestation
While the Netflix documentary makes Steven Avery out to be a pretty harmless guy, it seems like he might be anything but, especially around children. One particular phone conversation between Brendan Dassey and his mother was cut from the documentary completely. So, what were they trying to keep hidden? According to transcripts of the conversation, Dassey told his mother, “I even told them about Steven touching me,” then mentioned his brothers had been touched by Steven Avery as well.
7. Dassey’s Failed Polygraph Test
Although the official results of Brendan Dassey’s polygraph test were listed as “inconclusive,” it turns out they were anything but. According to the records of Dassey’s session with investigator Mike O’Kelley, the polygraph concluded there was a 98% chance of deception. To be fair, although polygraph results are overwhelmingly accurate in scientific testing, many studies in the 1970s proved that both juveniles and low-intelligence individuals (Dassey) may have less accurate polygraph results.
6. Avery Called Halbach Three Times That Day
Despite whether or not you believe in Steven Avery’s innocence, his call records on the day of Teresa Halbach’s disappearance are pretty creepy. Cellular company workers Bobby Dohrwardt and Laura Schadrie testified that “Avery’s cell phone made three calls to Halbach’s cell, and he twice used *67 feature to hide his identity.” According to an Associated Press article, the third call lasted 13 seconds, and the phone company worker “couldn’t tell if it was answered or went into voicemail.”
This begs the question: why would he want to hide his identity if he was just calling in regards to his sister’s minivan?
5. Unidentified Prints
Both the prosecution and Steven Avery’s defense team agreed that Steven Avery’s blood was found in Halbach’s car, but the question is, how did it get there? Avery’s defense claims that all the blood evidence was planted, but if so, someone else climbed in the car. Are there any fingerprints NOT belonging to Halbach, Steven, or Dassey? Apparently, there are, according to a new tweet by Steven Avery’s lawyer, Kathleen Zellner.
“There were eight sets of latent prints that were unidentified. However, the prints ruled out Steven and Brendan.” Interestingly, the documentary failed to mention that the car had been tested for fingerprints at all.
4. Serious Red Flags
Vicious killers don’t usually just pop out of nowhere, so were there any red flags that would lead someone to believe that Steven Avery was capable of that kind of violence? Yes, there were. While he was in prison, Steven Avery planned the torture and killing of a young woman, and fellow prisoners who served time with Avery before Halbach’s death also claimed that Avery talked about and drew diagrams of a torture chamber he planned to build upon his release. The Appleton Post Crescent also included statements from two women who claimed they were raped by Avery, with an affidavit saying that Avery admitted his guilt to his fiancé.
3. Previous Animal Cruelty
While Making a Murderer briefly touches on Steven Avery’s crime against a cat many years ago, the details are much worse than the documentary lets on. In the very first episode, Steven says he had been “fooling around with a cat,” and “tossed him over a fire,” blaming it on youthful recklessness. According to an article by Madison.com, “he poured gas and oil on a cat, threw it in a bonfire and watched it die.” It’s important to note that violence against animals is a pretty strong indicator of future violence towards people; but even if that’s not the case, it was a pretty cruel and unimaginable thing to do.
2. The Matching Bullet
Although the DNA-laden bullet is definitely mentioned in the series, it’s NOT revealed that the bullet was forensically tied to Steven Avery’s gun. According to Dassey’s confession, the bullet, which was found months later after initial searches, came from a specific gun in the garage that hung on Avery’s wall. After some forensic testing, the bullets from that particular gun actually matched the bullet that had Teresa’s DNA on it. In other words, the bullet that killed Teresa Halbach came from the same gun that Brendan Dassey had described (in great detail). The question is, why had initial searches not revealed the bullet? Was it planted? Who knows.
1. Avery And Halbach’s Past Interactions
In the documentary, Teresa Halbach is said to have had an appointment with Steven Avery on October 31st so she could photograph his sister’s minivan. Sounds like a pretty limited interaction, right? What the series doesn’t reveal is that Teresa had photographed multiple vehicles for Steven Avery, and Avery had actually requested Teresa for that last appointment. Not only that, but according to People, Teresa had become concerned when Avery answered the door during one of her visits “wearing just a towel.”
“She was worried about that. She said, ‘I am not going back to the Averys,’” the source states.
