Making a Murderer

Well, if they framed Steven Avery...

the question is, is Brendan's case a whole charade too?

I mean, that's ultimately gonna be the question.

Is his jury gonna believe that he confessed to a crime

he never even commit... a murder he never committed?

The two questions that the State is gonna ask you to answer are these.

Number one: Was he there?

And number two: Did he help?

Was he there and did he help?

Now, you're gonna hear in this case that there was nothing unique

about the March 1st interrogation of Brendan Dassey.

We're gonna show you start to finish the entire admission.

I think it's about four hours long.

And some of the details may be disturbing.

Now we have to give you those details.

We have to play the entire statement for you.

Your job at the end of this case will decide

whether that statement ought to be believed.

We're gonna briefly go through what Brendan Dassey says on March 1st.

Brendan's version of what happened to Teresa Halbach.

Brendan Dassey, in again, sometimes graphic detail,

will talk about approaching Uncle Steve's trailer.

And before he even knocks on the door, he hears screaming.

Brendan actually sees Teresa shackled with handcuffs and leg irons to the bed.

And by force and by violence, he has sexual intercourse with Teresa Halbach.

After the rape, Steven Avery praises his nephew and says, "That's how you do it."

Then Steven and Brendan discuss

if they should and how they should kill Teresa Halbach.

Steven Avery stabs the victim.

Brendan Dassey, handed the knife by Uncle Steve, cuts Teresa Halbach's throat.

We're gonna be able to prove to you in this case things the public didn't know,

things the police didn't know

were provided by a young man who was at the scene.

Was he there? Absolutely.

Did he help? Absolutely.

It is important to remember who is on trial.

You'll hear days and days of evidence about Steven Avery,

his DNA, his blood found in the SUV,

the bullet fragment found in his garage,

the ignition key found in his bedroom.

You won't hear the same evidence involving Brendan Dassey.

There won't be any DNA. No blood.

No saliva.

No sweat.

No hair. Nothing.

No science that's gonna point you to Brendan Dassey.

This is Brendan Dassey's trial, not Steven's trial.

It's about a 16-year-old high school student

with below-average cognitive abilities...

a fourth-grade reading level.

It's about a shy introvert,

socially inept, suggestible child.

You'll learn that Brendan will meet two highly-trained, intelligent,

adult police officers.

At times they cozy up to Brendan to get the answer they want.

At times they pull back from Brendan

when he's not giving them the answer they want and they expect.

It's like a new puppy dog.

When he does what he's supposed to do, he gets his pat on the head and a treat.

"Good job, Brendan. Good job. Good boy."

But when it's not what they want, "We're leaving, Brendan.

Until you tell us what we want to hear."

When you watch the videos carefully, they'll be exposed for what they are.

And I think they're just garbage.

Love you, Brendan!

This first statement that you're gonna hear is going to be from an officer

who was up in Marinette and spoke to Brendan in...

somewhere between November 4th and November 10th.

They actually spoke to him twice so they may have both statements.

One was written, one was actually audiotaped.

Last Monday, do you remember seeing this girl at all?

- I was at school. - OK.

After school you come home.

You ever see this girl before?

I just knew about it on Thursday because my mom called me

and told me to turn on channel 11.

- OK. - She was missing.

And you're dropped off, it's such an event

that someone's standing in your field

taking a picture of that van... that you remember that too, don't you?

The bus driver remembers it, the kids on the school bus remember it,

the girl taking pictures, you remember that?

- Well, I wasn't looking at the... - Huh?

I wasn't looking in the field.

It's either a yes or no, I mean I'm not putting nothing in your mind.

Now, tell us generally about Mr. Dassey's demeanor

during the course of your interview with him.

Um... I interview a lot of people and...

Mr. Dassey's demeanor was, uh... different.

When it came to specifics regarding Teresa Halbach, Steven Avery,

what happened on that day, he'd sit there, head down, withdrawn, motionless.

It was a demeanor that I felt from all the years of training experience

that I've had in dealing with people,

an inner struggle, a conflict, he was hiding something.

It was not gonna be a ten-minute interview as to what he saw.

There was something more.

Detective, I guess you would agree with me that you...

you have no degrees of any sort,

education or training,

to evaluate why an individual may react to you in the way they do.

Is that a fair statement? You're not a psychologist.

- I'm not a psychologist, that's correct. - OK.

And certainly not a child psychologist.

I am not a child psychologist, that's correct.

OK. You had never been around this young man before, had you?

- No. - You had no idea what he acted like

when he was dealing with a teacher, for example.

- No. - You had no idea what he acted like

when he was dealing with a person like yourself, an authoritative figure.

- Prior to our conversation, no. - OK.

You had no idea whether you were dealing with

what you might typically call an average teenager

or a teenager with any type of limitations. Is that a fair statement?

- Yes. - OK.

And you acknowledge there's nothing at all in your report about his demeanor.

No.

So you're having to rely entirely upon your memory

- when you describe his demeanor. - Yes.

OK, and that's about 16 months ago, right?

- Yes. - OK.

I think he's doing a damn good job. Really good job.

Directing your attention to February 20th, 2006,

what plans, if any, did you investigators have

relative to speaking with other members of the Avery family?

In order to do a thorough investigation,

we needed to go back and talk to everybody who had access

- or who lived on that property. - All right.

Now who was the first one of the family members to be re-interviewed?

By my recollection, it was probably Kayla, most likely.

The interview started out about Steve Avery

and Kayla was talking about her relationship with Steve Avery.

And just about at the end of that interview,

Kayla, out of the blue, basically came out and told us that, uh,

she had a cousin by the name of Brendan

and that Brendan was, quote, "acting up lately."

Brendan would just start crying uncontrollably.

She also told us that Brendan had lost what she estimated to be about 40 pounds.

Now, based on this information, what did you decide to do?

We decided that, um, we needed to talk to Brendan again.

And when did you talk to Brendan again?

On February 27th of 2006.

Myself and Agent Fassbender had went to the Mishicot school system

and that's where we met with Mr. Dassey.

Brendan, we know that on Halloween,

you were with him and helped him tend to a fire.

What did you see in the fire?

Some branches, I saw a cabinet and some tires.

See any body parts?

Well, some garbage bags on there.

Mark and I, yeah, we're cops.

But I'm not right now.

I'm a father that has a kid your age, too.

There's nothing I'd like more than to come over and give you a hug

'cause I know you're hurting.

'Cause I gotta believe you did see something in the fire.

Talk about it.

I promise, I will not leave you high and dry.

I'll stand behind you.

The burn pit, Brendan, was no bigger than this table.

I find it quite difficult to believe that if there was a body in there

that you wouldn't have seen something, a hand, a foot, a head, hair, something.

You saw some body parts. Tell us what you saw.

- It's OK to tell us. - It's OK.

Tell us what you saw.

Toes.

After this interview, we contacted District Attorney Kratz

to inform him of what we had learned from that interview.

Mr. Kratz requested that we memorialize this interview in a better fashion,

so at that point we made arrangements to go to Two Rivers Police Department

where there would be a videotape interview done.

Where was the defendant's mother, Barb Janda, at that time?

We had spoke to Barb prior to doing the interview

and indicated she had every right to be in the interview if she wished to be.

At that time she declined.

She waited in a outer waiting area of the police department

while we conducted the interview.

All right. Now at that...

After those, um, two interviews that particular day,

did you think that he was a suspect at that particular point?

Well, at that time, that's the first time Brendan places himself at the crime scene,

places himself at the fire.

In my thinking at that point, he's still a witness,

a witness to something horrific.

He tells us that he sees body parts in a fire. I mean...

So, we're thinking he's a witness to something at that point, yeah.

Earlier we heard from Special Agent Fassbender

that the defendant and his mother

were put up at the Fox Hills Hotel in Mishicot.

How did that come to pass?

First and foremost, on any law enforcement's mind is safety.

I mean, our job is to protect people. That's bottom line.

Because of the information he told us,

if there was somebody else that lived out there on the Avery property

that would've found out and may have also been involved,

we were worried for his safety,

that they would somehow get to him and maybe harm him.

So we thought, to be on the safe side,

we needed to put him up somewhere off of that property.

Did you have any feeling as to whether or not the defendant

had told you everything that he knew at that time?