Ever since the Netflix true crime documentary Making A Murderer came out last December and became a surprise massive hit, there have been untold number of internet sleuths going over every piece of evidence from the case looking for something new. There have been a number of potential discoveries made by this group, some pointing towards Steven Avery’s innocence in the murder of Teresa Halbach, and others indicting him.
Now they’ve discovered something new that could be very relevant to Avery’s current attempt to overturn his conviction by proving evidence against him was planted by law enforcement. User hos_gotta_eat_too on Reddit’s TickTockManitowoc sub discovered photos that seem to imply blood smears visible in crime photos of Teresa Halbach’s RAV4 vehicle weren’t there when the vehicle was initially discovered in the Avery salvage yard.
Here’s a picture taken by Pam Sturm, who was the person who searched the Avery Salvage Yard and found Halbach’s RAV4:
Now here’s a picture taken of the RAV4 once it’s in the crime lab.
If you zoom in closely, you can see small traces of blood on the rear door handle in the crime lab photo. But those same blood traces seem to be missing in Pam’s photo taken when the car was initially discovered.
What does the trial paperwork have to say about this blood? Interestingly enough, while state forensic scientist Sherry Culhane has the blood listed as collected off the ‘rear exterior handle of the cargo door,’ the testing done on it came back as ‘unaccounted for.’ That means it wasn’t Steven Avery’s or Teresa Halbach’s. It may shock you to hear that there was blood in the case that was unaccounted for, but out of 14 blood stains tested in the RAV4, seven came back as unaccounted for. Four returned as Avery’s, two as Halbach’s, and one had no DNA test done.
Those who believe there is a conspiracy within local law enforcement to frame Steven Avery for Halbach’s death think the discrepancy between crime scene and crime lab photos may have been noticed, leading them to ditch plans to claim the blood was Avery’s. But that’s some pretty big supposition. The photos themselves seem to raise some more compelling questions that something amiss may have gone on regarding the RAV4’s testing.
Or it could just be a less than perfect photo on a grey day not catching the red on black. One thing is for certain: if there’s something here, we’ll be hearing about it in Avery lawyer Kathleen Zellner’s upcoming brief on the case. She’s already touting some big discoveries in that regard…
https://twitter.com/ZellnerLaw/status/805591758138642432
With Avery’s alleged accomplice Brendan Dassey also in a close fight to have his conviction overturned, season two of Making A Murderer sure will be interesting.