One of the many strange revelations that came out during Netflix’s Making a Murderer, the riveting docu-series about the trial of Steven Avery and the murder of Teresa Halbach, was that no other suspects were considered.
Everyone was convinced that Steven Avery did it, to the point that special prosecutor Ken Kratz and the law enforcement officials investigating the disappearance and death of Teresa Halbach didn’t so much as kick the tires on any other possible guilty parties. Maybe they did and it wasn’t made clear in the series, but I seem to recall one of the investigators (Tom Fassbender, I believe) affirming that no other suspects were considered.
That’s crazy to me and is even tougher to swallow given the questionable information present in the series.
Admittedly, this series was filmed and presented from Avery’s side of the story and not all the evidence that was presented in the trial was rolled out in the 10-part series that has everyone – literally everyone – talking these days.
Having said that, if you sat through all 10 episodes and didn’t have some questions about what really happened and why there were so many seemingly fortunate discoveries that pointed to Avery’s guilt made by Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department personnel that were not supposed to be involved in the case – and came after several previous searches of his home and property yielded no such discoveries – you have fewer conspiratorial leanings than me… and most other people that have watched this series.
I say all of this because it seems to me that now might be a real good time for another law enforcement office to take another look into the case because while the series was created to present doubts about Steven Avery’s guilt (and it did that), there remains a young woman that was murdered and taken from her family and determining once and for all – beyond all doubts – how it happened and by whom should be something all sides involved in this case want.
Of course, the prosecution thinks they have their man and the Halbach family seems convinced that Avery is guilty as well, at least from the interviews you see in the series with the deceased’s brother, Mike, though they declined to participate in the docu-series.
Maybe they do – maybe Avery and Brendan Dassey did, in fact, murder Teresa Halbach. If they did, a new, third-party look at all the evidence and exploration of all possible angles would likely support the conviction that has already been obtained, but if Avery and Dassey didn’t do it, finding out who actually committed this crime seems like something everyone involved might want to do.
Because as much as it may be hard to fathom an officer of the law (or two) working together to frame Steven Avery and get him locked up for a crime he didn’t commit, remember that he had already spent 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, one the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department was convinced he committed and were subsequently being sued for when the Halbach murder took place.
Maybe I’m just wrapped up in having watched the series and all the chatter going on about Making A Murderer right now, but to me, there are too many question marks and “yeah, that just doesn’t sit right” pieces here to not think somebody should take a long, hard, detailed look into this case again and see if they can’t put all the pieces together once and for all.
