The love that burns twice as bright lasts half as long, and that’s apparently how it went with the whirlwind romance between Making A Murderer subject Steven Avery and his now former fiancée, Lynn Hartman. The two had been corresponding via jail mail for a few months and all of a sudden Lynn was announcing their engagement online and appearing on the Dr. Phil show to discuss their love.
But that Dr. Phil episode seems to have changed the way Steven feels about Lynn. Shortly after the show was filmed, he cut all contact with her and rumors abounded that the relationship was over. If Lynn had doubts about whether things were really done, a legal letter from Steven’s new attorney, Kathleen Zellner, surely gave her the closure she needs.
The letter, which can be seen over at InTouch’s website, reads:
Dear Ms. Hartman,
I am writing you at the request of my client Steven Avery. Please let this letter act as formal notice that Mr. Avery terminated his engagement with you effective yesterday, October 2.
As Mr. Avery expressed to you during your relationship with him, he deems his correspondence and communications with you to be confidential. This constitutes an oral agreement with him. You should therefore cease and desist giving interviews of any kind concerning your relationship with him. Aditionally, you should refrain from selling distributing, or otherwise disseminating any letters from, or the substance of any other communications with Mr. Avery. You should also not sell, distribute, or otherwise disseminate any photographs taken of you and Mr. Avery, and you should refrain from otherwise trying to profit from Mr. Avery’s likeness or your relationship with him. Finally, you should not offer any opinions regarding Mr. Avery’s case, or his guilt or innocence.
Although we believe that you have already breached the oral contract, we will not take any legal action against you unless you continue to violate the terms of your agreement with him.
I appreciate your cooperation in these matters.
Sincerely,
Kathllen T. Zellner
That’s a pretty harsh letter indeed, not only terminating the engagement but also basically threatening to sue if Lynn dares to speak about her relationship with Steven over the past several months. Whether such a suit would even work, well, we’ll leave that up to the lawyers. Maybe it’s all a bluff. After all, Kathleen Zellner is in the middle of trying to get evidence from Steven Avery’s Making A Murderer trial retested. Does she really want to be suing one of his ex-fiancées at the same time? That would certainly make season two of the Netflix show look a lot more like a soap opera than a true crime documentary.