Making a Murderer

Brendan watches Steven Avery take a butcher knife from the kitchen

and stab Teresa Halbach in the stomach.

What Steven Avery does then...

while Teresa is still begging for her life...

is he hands the knife to the 16-year-old boy

and instructs him to cut her throat.

Sixteen-year-old Brendan, under the instruction of Steven Avery...

cuts Teresa Halbach's throat,

but she still doesn't die.

There's additional information

which includes manual strangulation and gunshot wounds.

After obtaining the information that was obtained from Brendan,

we felt that there might be areas

that we needed to recheck for blood evidence,

for items used in the commission of these crimes.

And we are searching his residence and searching the garage near his residence

because we now know that the garage was part of the crime scene.

Is there any DNA evidence backing up the kid's story?

Yeah, we're not gonna comment on... on that.

We obviously have a lot of evidence and I guess we can say that

there is a substantial amount of physical evidence that now makes sense.

The hardest thing about this case is trying to figure out,

now that we've gotten Brendan Dassey out of the case, we think,

unless they decide to call him on rebuttal or something,

how do we deal with the fact that the jurors already know it all?

It's a clever move by them to not call Brendan in their case in chief.

- He's not a good witness. - Which we predicted months ago.

He's, you know... even...

once he starts incriminating himself and Steve, he can't do that consistently.

I mean, the story is changing dramatically every time he tells it.

So... they put it out there in news conferences.

The public knows about it. They believe it.

Um, they think it's the last nail in Steven's coffin.

And now the State leaves us in a position

- of shadowboxing. Um... - Right.

By not putting it in.

I think... our best option

out of a lot of not so great options is...

is to work in ways to disprove this story as we go, without putting the story in.

I got 18:26.

After we had made entry into the garage,

I had done initial overall photography.

We then spent some time just kind of walking around the garage, looking.

Did you and other investigators

- begin moving items within this garage? - Yes.

We basically started in the northeast corner of the garage

and began to remove items to see if there was any obvious sign

of potential trace evidence on them or biological evidence.

Are you telling this jury that every one of those items

was handled by law enforcement and examined?

Virtually every item, yes.

Next, item 266.

Did you find anything near that compressor that you thought was interesting?

As we reached this area, I was on...

I had to get onto my hands and my knees

and utilized a flashlight to look under the compressor.

And I saw what appeared to be a flattened or... a flattened bullet.

I've actually zoomed in to that area.

Tell the jury what we're looking at here, please.

The bullet right between the tent and the scale.

Let's look at exhibit number 2-7-0, please.

Tell us what we're looking at here.

This is a medium view photograph of what was ultimately identified

with marker number 23: the bullet that was found under the compressor.

Can you identify the individual in this photograph, please?

Detective Dave Remiker from Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department.

November 6.

I think that's the first time you actually searched the garage

rather than... simply sweeping through it to look for Ms. Halbach?

Yes, I believe so.

You folks found some empty shell casings

for what looked like .22 caliber rounds?

- Yes. - Ten of these? Something like that?

- I think 11. - Eleven?

- I believe so. - On the floor?

Yes.

Uh, where there are shell casings, there may be bullets?

- We found shell casings. - Were you looking for bullets?

We were looking for everything.

Found no bullets

in the search on November 6 of the garage.

Correct.

Found no bullets any other time in Steven Avery's garage

any time in November 2005.

Correct.

It was March 2, 2006...

and you were present when one bullet fragment was found in that garage.

Correct.

Again, March 1 and 2, you were physically present both days.

Yes.

Did you see Lieutenant Lenk there on site at the Averys' on either day?

- In March? - Yes.

March 1 and March 2.

Yeah, he was there. He was, um...

- Yeah, he was there. - Both days?

I believe so. Yes.

By March, why do you need any of the Manitowoc people?

You've got two people charged with this.

You're searching one garage and one trailer.

That's it. Uh...

And you have a well-established team of people outside Manitowoc County

who now are intimately familiar with this investigation.

You need Manitowoc County investigators for what?

For what?

On March 1st and March 2nd.

"Lieutenant Lenk."

Is that his name logged in on the second to the last line?

Correct.

Now, this search is the search

where a couple of bullet fragments were discovered, right?

- Yes. - Five months after the previous searches.

Four months. I keep...

My math's bad, I guess.

- Four months? - Yes.

OK. What was it,

five entries to his garage the week of November 5th to the 12th?

Correct.

At that time, though, none of the investigators knew

that there would be evidence that suggested that perhaps...

Teresa Halbach had actually been shot in the head.

- That information came later. - Correct.

Shortly before this March 1st and March 2nd search.

I don't know. I'm not sure when that information came.

What I'm talking about here is by March 1st and March 2nd of 2006,

which are important dates in this investigation. You know that, right?

Yes.

Additional search warrants were issued, right?

Yes.

And by that time, through all of your investigation,

you had found no physical evidence

linking Teresa Halbach to Mr. Avery's trailer or garage...

right up to February 28th.

I don't believe that's accurate.

What'd you find?

We found shell casings in the garage

that did match up to a rifle in the house.

I mean, you found shells all over the place.

Forty acres, right?

- Oh, certainly, yes. - A junkyard.

These people were sighting rifles, you knew that. Shooting rabbits.

The mere existence of shells without a link to a particular body

doesn't prove anything, does it?

It could've been. You know, we just... No. We didn't know.

OK, so in short, then, by March 1st and March 2nd...

when those search warrants were issued...

four months of investigation had found not one shred

of Teresa Halbach's DNA anywhere

in Mr. Avery's trailer or garage.

Correct.

Thank you.

Do you remember on that first search

a note with Ms. Halbach's phone number being seized

- from Mr. Avery's computer table? - Yes, I do.

You recall now that that was seized on November 5th?

- Yes. - Would you say that that is some evidence

- that is obviously linked to Ms. Halbach? - Yes.

Also found on Mr. Avery's computer table was a bill of sale.

You recall that now being seized on the 5th of November, don't you?

- Yes, I do. - Let me ask you, Mr. Fassbender,

do you know how many items of physical evidence

were seized in this case alone, the Avery homicide investigation?

Upwards of 970.

Can you remember all 970 items of evidence that were seized?

No, I can't.

None of those exhibits ever show

that Teresa was inside the trailer, do they?

No.

Thank you. That's all I have.

That's evidence that Bobby provided, isn't that right?

- That's correct. - That's all I've got. Thank you, Judge.

I object. Move to strike the question and the answer

'cause it's not the testimony.

Bobby Dassey never said he saw her in the trailer.

I'm gonna sustain the objection.

I think that's beyond the scope of redirect.

- How's it going? - Real good.

- How you doing? - Great.

- Huh? - They just started. The judge is in.

Oh, yeah?

Want me to hang your coat? I can take your coat.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

- Allan. Right here. - Wrong door.

Court is already in session so you need to be real quiet.

Thank you.

This is the top of the left eye socket,

the top of the right eye socket, the left nasal bone.

We also have the entire right cheek bone,

as well as a portion of the left cheek bone

and a portion of bone that continues over and above the opening for the left ear.

And the next photograph?

This is exhibit 3-8-4.

A sampling of skull fragments, two fragments in particular,

showed defects or unnatural openings.

This semi-circular defect here

that has another smaller unnatural opening here.

Was there anything else about this defect that was unusual?

The cranial bones were taken for x-ray

and what I'd like to call your attention to

are these flecks, called radio opaque particles.