Teresa Halbach was a photographer for Autotrader magazine. She was scheduled to take photographs of a van at the Avery salvage yard on October 31, 2005. It was her last scheduled stop for the day. On November 3, 2005, Halbach was reported missing by her family.
This page details the prosecution’s theory of the crime. When looking at the actual facts of the case, it is easy to see that their theory is wrong. There is no evidence of any kind to suggest that Brendan Dassey had anything whatsoever to do with the murder of Teresa Halbach, regardless of any theory put forth about her death. When reading the prosecution’s theory, you will see that their entire case is built on the faulty information they extracted from Brendan’s coerced false confession.
Steven Avery was arrested and charged with the murder of Teresa Halbach based on evidence allegedly found on the Avery property and also inside Steven’s trailer. Halbach’s Toyota Rav4 was found on the Avery property, the key to the vehicle was found in Avery’s trailer, and bone fragments belonging to Teresa Halbach were found in a burn pit on the property. This evidence, and how it ended up where it was eventually found, has been highly contested by Avery, his defense, and his supporters.
The case against Brendan Dassey is not based on physical evidence of any kind. The prosecution instead worked to build a case against Brendan based on information extracted from his coerced false confession. Investigators had originally set out to build their case against Steven Avery, as a result, they ended up dragging an innocent teenager into the mix.
According to the prosecution, Brendan came home from school at 3:45 PM on October 31, 2005. Brendan lived on the Avery property where several family members had residences. He retrieved the mail from the roadside mailbox which included a letter for his uncle Steven. Brendan headed over to his uncle’s trailer to drop off the mail, and upon arrival, he heard screams coming from inside the trailer. According to the prosecutor, Brendan knocked three times on the trailer door before Steven Avery finally answered. Steven greeted his nephew at the door and brought him inside the trailer and into his bedroom. When Branden arrived in the bedroom, he saw Teresa Halback completely naked and tied to Steven’s bed. Teresa immediately begins to beg Brendan for her life. Instead of helping Teresa, Brendan rapes her, after being invited to do so from his uncle. After the rape, Steven cuts Teresa’s throat in Steven’s bedroom, but Teresa does not die in the bedroom. Steven and Brendan take Teresa out to Steven’s garage and proceed to shoot her in the head.
The prosecution describes a horrific rape and murder which they claim took place in Steven’s trailer and his garage. The problem is that evidence clearly shows that it is virtually impossible for those events to have occurred in the locations as described. Not one shred of evidence in Steven’s bedroom would lead anyone to think that a vicious rape had occurred, and there was absolutely no blood evidence to support the theory that Brendon slashed Halbach’s throat in that room. There is no blood trail leading to the garage and no blood or tissue evidence of any kind in the garage to support the theory that Halbach was shot in the head in that location.
It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for trained experts to remove every trace of evidence from Steven’s bedroom and garage, based on the theory put forth by the prosecution. Are we really supposed to believe that Steven and Brendan were able accomplish the task?