If you’re like me, you binge-watched Netflix’s new true crime documentary Making a Murderer in two or three sittings, and then hit the internet to verify the people behind the documentary weren’t leaving out any major evidence that Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey were guilty. The case for their innocence holds up pretty well, even in the face of a few extra details put forward by prosecutor Ken Kratz.
That included Steven Avery phoning Teresa Halbach three times on the day of her murder, and Kratz claiming the bullet with Halbach’s DNA was traced back to Steven Avery’s rifle. These are significant claims, ones that have put doubt back into the minds of many who watched the show. But if you’re going to talk about damning evidence that was left out of the 10+ hour documentary, what about more evidence that Avery and Dassey were innocent?
Reddit users over at the /r/MakingaMurderer subreddit went ahead and made their own compilation of extra evidence, and it’s pretty compelling. Their claims include, but aren’t limited to:
- Contradicting Kratz’s most recent statement, a gun expert with the Wisconsin State Crime Lab said he couldn’t conclusively link the bullet found in Avery’s garage to the .22 rifle in Avery’s bedroom. He could only confirm the bullet was fired by a .22 rifle.
- There were little drops of deer blood all over Steven Avery’s garage, proving that the garage hadn’t been washed clean with bleach after the murder of Halbach as the prosecutors claimed.
- A forensic anthropologist testified for the defense that an open fire couldn’t have generated enough heat to burn a body and destroy bones the way Halbach’s remains were found.
- The leg irons and handcuffs found in Avery’s home had the DNA of Steven Avery and at least one other unidentified person. Teresa Halbach’s DNA was not found on them.
- One of the investigators that found DNA under the hood of Halbach’s RAV4 admitted to not changing gloves after handling evidence inside the vehicle.
- Forensic scientist Sherry Culhane was involved in Steven Avery’s 1985 rape case and testified that one of Steven Avery’s hairs was found on victim Penny Beerntsen’s shirt.
- Avery’s lawyers also contend that Culhane delayed processing the DNA test that proved Steven’s innocence in the 1985 rape for an entire year.
- So many problematic jurors were removed by Avery’s defense team that they hit the legal limit of dismissals. They still ended up with a man whose son was a Manitowoc sheriff and a county clerk’s husband.
The list is only growing as Making a Murderer turns more viewers into amateur sleuths willing to go over the case’s documentation with a fine tooth comb. Now if only the show could generate the same sort of interest amongst scientists who might be able to figure out a reliable test for detecting EDTA in blood samples.
As we’ve mentioned before, proving that the blood found in Teresa Halbach’s RAV4 was planted by sheriffs using preserved blood from their evidence locker is the best surefire way to re-open the case and potentially get Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey out of jail. Other than that, all this extra evidence we’re talking about now is just more fodder for fans of the show to debate over.
(Via Reddit)
