Here Are The Most Important Updates + Conspiracy Theories About The Making A Murderer' Case
-By Frank Donovan
Making a Murderer quietly dropped and quickly gripped the nation for the latter half of December last year. We collectively came up for air and declared our outrage in a petition to the White House, our love for defense attorneys Dean Strang and Jerry Buting (#StrangCore), and considered buying some wild merch.
Now that a month has passed since MaM mania, we’ve collected the most compelling updates and theories on the case that have surfaced in the weeks since.
Evidence that would have helped the prosecution
Prosecutor Ken Kratz quickly became the most hated man in America after MaM was released, and he doesn’t blame you. He said he would feel the same given the way the series portrays him—with omitted evidence against Steven Avery. Kratz has come forward in various media outlets to fill us in on alleged missing details, including evidence of Avery’s sweat found under the hood of Halbach’s car, *67 calls that Avery made to Halbach, and Avery’s intent expressed to a fellow inmate to build a torture chamber once released from prison.
Jodi said what?
It’s only January but we can confidently say that the 180 of the Year Award goes to Avery’s ex, Jodi Stachowski. In MaM, we saw Stachowski supporting and defending Avery through his painful ordeal. Now she’s come out to claim he is guilty of Halbach’s murder and that he was an abusive partner in a shocking interview with HLN.
Evidence that would have helped the defense
Oh, you know Reddit is uncovering what MaM left on the cutting room floor. Some highlights: According to cutie pie defense attorney Dean Strang, the investigator who touched the hood of Halbach’s car admitted to not changing gloves after handling evidence from inside the vehicle; Strang also said Manitowoc and Calumet county officials called the coroner and told her not to investigate the murder; and, an anonymous letter mailed to the Mantowoc county sherriff’s department stating that a body had been burned in a smelter in the wee hours Friday.
Juror described a “compromise,” recanted guilty vote
In what the documentarian duo Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi called a “significant revelation,” a juror approached them after the documentary was released to say that she believed Avery was indeed framed by police and that there was vote trading taking place in the deliberation room. Pressured to vote guilty, the juror said she feared for her safety otherwise.
If not Avery, who killed Theresa Halbach?
There is a theory taking off (yes, on Reddit) that does a pretty good job of fitting the pieces of the puzzle neatly together. The gist: Scott Tadych (Brendan’s mom’s then-boyfriend) and Bobby Dassey (Brendan’s brother) raped and killed Halbach, and framed Steven Avery for it. Halbach’s brother Mike and ex-boyfriend Ryan Hillegas suspected Avery from the get-go since she was at Avery’s property taking photos the day she disappeared. They trespassed and found her car there, called in Sergeant Andrew Colborn who came to the scene, thereby breaking protocol (that explains Colborn calling in her plate number). The state was sure Avery did it, just as Scott Tadych and Bobby Dassey had hoped.
What does Avery have to say?
How strange to think that Avery himself hasn’t seen the documentary series that made him a household name? He recently spoke out in the form of a letter to a Milwaukee reporter. In addition to reiterating his innocence, he scoffs at his ex’s changing her tune: “How much money Jodi get to talk bad!” And Avery is not giving up hope. In fact, he’s hired a new attorney, Kathleen Zellner, who specializes in overturning wrongful convictions.
And now for something completely different . . .
FBI cold case worker John Cameron has put forth a theory that Halbach was killed by known serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards. Who?? Apparently, before his death in 2011, Edwards was notorious for framing innocent people for murders he’d commit (which he often did on Halloween), and lived about an hour away from Avery at the time of the murder. Ok, now we’re spooked.