Inmate confesses to ‘Making a Murderer’ 2005 killing
By Alexandra Heilbron on September 26, 2019 | 5 Comments
A Wisconsin inmate has reportedly confessed to the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, are serving life sentences in prison for her murder, as seen in the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer.
Steven Avery was convicted in 1985 of rape, despite no physical evidence linking him to the crime and witnesses who swore he was with them when the rape occurred. He was set free after 18 years when another inmate, whose DNA was found at the crime scene, confessed. However, just as Avery was about to get a financial settlement in regards to his wrongful inprisonment, police pinned the murder of Halbach on Avery and his 16-year-old nephew.
Shawn Rech, the director of an upcoming 10-part true-crime documentary series titled Convicting a Murderer, which takes on the case following the events of Making a Murderer, told Newsweek this week that during a taped interview with a prison inmate, the man confessed to killing Halbach. The tape has been given to authorities, who have not released the inmate’s name.
However, one day later, on September 24, Avery’s lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, posted a confession letter from Joseph Evans Jr., 54, who is in prison for murdering his wife. In it, he writes that he accidentally killed Halbach with his car when she stepped in front of it as he arrived at the Avery Salvage Yard in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin.
He wrote: “I then placed the lady in the back cargo area of her Rav Toyota to take her to the hospital, but she was dead already from her head injury. I then panicked and was scared.”
Evans describes the events of that day in great detail, saying he planted evidence pointing to Avery in Halbach’s car, drove her body in her car to a pit behind Avery’s garage and covered her body and belongings with debris before lighting it all on fire. He then moved her car before returning to Avery’s trailer and tossing her keys behind a bookcase.
Both Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey have maintained their innocence over the years. Dassey was scheduled to be freed in 2016 after a judge overturned his conviction, calling it “a profound miscarriage of justice” due to his “involuntary” confession and because no physical evidence linked him to the crime. However, state attorneys asked for a review and Dassey remains in prison to this day, as does Avery. ~Alexandra Heilbron
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I hope this is the truth. But I was under the impression that the cops planted all the evidence found at the scene. They had access to samples of Steven’s blood. They found the keys not the first or second time they searched his trailer, but days later. In the second season of Making a Murderer, it appeared that Steven’s brother-in-law was likely the killer. This guy trying to tie everything together doesn’t really make sense. Having said that, I fully believe Steven and Brendan are innocent. The sooner they’re released, the better, but the corrupt and incompetent members of the Wisconsin police/judicial system seemed determined to keep them behind bars, no matter what. Some of them still insist Steven is guilty of the first rape that he served 18 years for, despite a confession and DNA evidence from the actual rapist. Their ignorance is disgusting and actually, pretty scary. When I watched the show, I was thankful I don’t live in Wisconsin. Or the States, for that matter.
Sad miscarriage of justice, indeed.
Kathleen Zellner and her crew did a lot of hard work to free these men and deserves all the credit for cleaning up this pile of fabricated garbage. Perhaps the fine people of this Wisconsin community will take a long hard look at their legal system. It sickens me to think of all the heart aches of the Halbach and Avery family but now maybe the Clown cops and prosecuting attorneys will get the Pubic relations that they crave and deserve.
If the guy confessing to the murder really did kill her why was there all that evidence pointing to the Averys? #crookedcops
What? You think this stuff happens only in Wisconsin? Some of you don’t travel much outside of the USA. There are many countries where you would have zero recourse to fix your legal problems whatsoever. USA isn’t perfect, for sure, but I’ll take my chances here in the legal system way before many other countries.