John Ferak

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

MANITOWOC - After Teresa Halbach's Toyota RAV4 was found in 2005 on the Avery family property, authorities established a mobile command center post while squad cars blocked public access on several nearby roads.

Customers of the Avery salvage business, the Avery family and television news trucks were restricted from the site by Manitowoc and Calumet County sheriff's deputies.

Nothing out of the ordinary there. They were standard measures to protect the integrity of the crime scene.

But what happened next wasn't normal or typical.

Authorities inexplicably opened their crime scene fortress to a few outsiders — the same people whose conduct and whereabouts around the time of Halbach's disappearance was overlooked by law enforcement. As a result, records reviewed by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin revealed, Detective Lt. James Lenk and Sgt. Andrew Colborn of the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department made Steven Avery the sole focus of the investigation, at the expense of other viable suspects.

Crime scene logs kept at the search site on the Avery property identified at least seven confirmed visits inside the crime scene perimeter by a handful of people who ordinarily wouldn't be privy to an open murder investigation.

At about 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 5, volunteer searcher Pam Sturm discovered Halbach's vehicle, prompting an eight-day evidence search that ended Nov. 12, 2005. Halbach disappeared without a trace on Halloween — five days before her vehicle was found. Her mother reported her missing on Nov. 3.

"Non-law enforcement individuals were ... allowed to enter the property after the property was closed to the general public," Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, stated In court documents filed Aug. 26 in Manitowoc County in support of her motion for detailed scientific testing of evidence in the Halbach murder. "Two of those individuals were untruthful in their police interviews."

The repeat visitors arrived at and left the walled-off crime scene along Avery Road before several noteworthy clues surfaced at the 40-acre property. They were items of evidence that prosecutors needed to cement Avery's arrest and eventual first-degree murder conviction in 2007.

The clues included:

Missing license plates for Halbach's RAV4.

A spare ignition key.

Remnants of a burnt cell phone and camera.

Rivets for Daisy Fuentes women's jeans.

Fragments of teeth.

A number of charred human bones.

However, police reports compiled by Manitowoc and Calumet County offer little insight into why Joshua Radandt, Scott Bloedorn and Ryan Hillegas were regularly coming and going from the secured crime scene during the days that led up to Avery's arrest on Nov. 9, 2005.

"In this case ... it's going to raise questions for the police, 'What was their function?'" George Schiro, a nationally recognized forensic scientist, told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. "Non-essential people should be kept out of the scene. It just keeps the questions from being raised about the integrity of the crime scene."

At the time of Halbach's disappearance, Radandt, then 31, operated the large quarry behind Avery Salvage. Hillegas, then 25, was the missing woman's ex-boyfriend. Bloedorn, then 26, was a close friend of Hillegas who lived with Halbach in rural Calumet County.

"Sometimes you do have legitimate reasons for allowing civilians into the crime scene, but it's an absolute must to make sure someone else in law enforcement is always there, to make sure that no one is tampering with the evidence," said Schiro, who runs Scales Biological Laboratory in Brandon, Mississippi.

Here's a deeper look at several events preceding Avery's arrest that coincided with the outsiders' admittance into the crime scene.

Nov. 5, 2005

When: 5:25 p.m. to 5:35 p.m.

Circumstances: Hours after volunteer searcher Pam Sturm of De Pere alerted authorities to Halbach's vehicle covered with tree branches on the outer edge of Avery Salvage, Radandt, the adjacent quarry's owner, signed into the crime scene log. At 5:30 p.m. reports reflect, Radandt wrote the following statement: "On Oct. 31 at approximately 4:30 p.m. I drove up to my 'deer camp' off of Kuss Road (through) my gravel pit and observed a fire going in the proximity of Steve Avery's home or on Avery property. The fire appeared to be contained to a 55 (gallon) drum." Although Radandt did not testify at Avery's trial, his statement supports special prosecutor Ken Kratz's narrative that Avery incinerated Halbach's body after raping and murdering her that afternoon.

Zellner filing: "Subsequent investigation has determined that (Radandt's) statement is contrary to the facts; Mr. Avery's burn barrel was never behind his trailer or garage and it was impossible for (Radandt) to observe Mr. Avery's backyard as he described because of the elevation of the quarry from where he was allegedly making his observations."

Nov. 6

When: 5:08 p.m. to 5:28 p.m.

Circumstances: During daylight, hundreds of police and volunteer firefighters canvassed approximately 4,000 junked vehicles, but Halbach's body, her clothes and her vehicle's missing license plates were nowhere to be found. By the time Radandt returned to the Avery property, it was dark. Most of the police officers had left for the day. However, a number of Manitowoc deputies remained on site, including Deputy Inspector Gregg Schetter, Colborn, Lenk and Dave Remiker, sign-in logs show.

Zellner filing: Contends there is a tie between Colborn, Lenk and the Manitowoc County quarry operator in this case. "Officer Colborn seized the victim's car on November 3, two days prior to it being planted on the Avery property ... Ms. Halbach's vehicle was moved to the southeast corner of the Avery property on the evening of November 4, 2005 after Calumet County Sheriff Jerry Pagel and Investigator Wendy Baldwin conducted a flyover of the Avery Salvage Yard. Ms. Halbach's vehicle was moved from the Fred Radandt Sons, Inc. quarry to the Avery property using the conveyor road that led onto the Avery property from the quarry."

Nov. 7

When: 6:59 a.m. until 7:10 a.m.

Circumstances: Radandt's third consecutive day of visiting the secured crime scene. Schetter, third in command at the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department, was one of the highest-ranking officials at the scene when Radandt came by. Minutes after the quarry operator left, a large contingent of Manitowoc sheriff's deputies arrived for their shift, including Lenk, Colborn, Detective Dennis Jacobs, Lt. Todd Hermann, and Schetter's predecessor, Mike Bushman, who had recently retired but remained as a part-time reserve deputy.

Zellner filing: Radandt "accessed the property from the quarry four times, for some unknown reason, after it had been closed to the public. (Radandt) accessed the property within minutes of Officers Colborn and Lenk on Nov. 5 and twice on November 7 ... Mr. Avery is requesting DNA testing on the burnt material found at the Radandt deer hunting camp west of the Avery Salvage Yard to determine whether there are any items of evidentiary value at the deer camp."

When: 9:03 a.m. to 9:53 a.m.

Circumstances: Hillegas and Bloedorn, who came from 40 minutes away, spent nearly an hour at the secured scene. That morning, Bushman agreed to lead a four-member evidence search party of fellow Manitowoc sheriff's deputies. Deputy Dave Siders later testified he came across Avery's burn barrel and removed a heavy metal tire rim from inside. Remnants of a Motorola emblem for a cellphone and debris from a camera were identified. Authorities insisted the charred debris was Halbach's camera and cellphone.

Zellner filing: "There are conflicting dates (Nov. 5 and Nov. 7) about law enforcement's discovery of the remnants of Ms. Halbach's Motorola Razr cell phone, Palm Pilot and camera in a burn barrel in Mr. Avery's yard. No mention was made at trial about the second Motorola cell phone taken from Ms. Halbach's home on November 3, 2005 ... Mr. Avery is requesting to examine items described as a Motorola Razr phone and box from the victim's dining room ... The inability of the State to produce the Motorola phone located in the victim's residence would demonstrate that it was the phone placed in the burn barrel by law enforcement."

When: 11:51 a.m. until 12:29 p.m.

Circumstances: Radandt returned to the crime scene for the second time that morning. He came by shortly after Colborn, Lenk and Calumet Sgt. Bill Tyson finished walking through the sprawling salvage yard, apparently to check for vehicles that were overlooked the day before.

When: Time unknown until 4:28 p.m.

Circumstances: Hillegas and Bloedorn both signed out at 4:28 p.m., but there was no sign-in log for either of them. Their continued presence around Avery Road preceded some of the biggest developments in the investigation. The next morning, Nov. 8, Halbach's license plates were discovered inside a junked Mercury station wagon that had broken windows; and Colborn and Lenk rechecked Avery's bedroom and produced a spare key for Halbach's vehicle. Sheriff's Sgt. Jason Jost found a large vertebrae and another human bone near Avery's burn pile pit.

Zellner's filing: Has accused Hillegas of using a false name that day to help authorities search near one of the gravel pits. Zellner furnished a notebook sheet written and signed by the "Ryan Kilgus Group." Zellner also revealed Hillegas "received approximately 22 calls from law enforcement on Nov. 4, 2005 prior to the victim's vehicle being moved onto the property."

Nov. 8

When: 6:41 p.m. until 7:07 p.m.

Circumstances: Hours after Jost noticed the human bones near Avery's burn pit, Hillegas and Bloedorn were back at the crime scene after dark. Logs show they stayed nearly a half-hour. Meanwhile, authorities decided not to summon Manitowoc County Coroner Deb Kakatsch. No crime-scene photos or videos were taken to document the discovery of the human bones. The following day, Avery was arrested. His $36 million wrongful conviction lawsuit against Manitowoc County and ex-sheriff Tom Kocourek imploded.

Zellner filing: Points out that most of Halbach's bones and 29 of her teeth were absent from Avery's burn pit — raising doubt about how and where Halbach actually died. Zellner has asked for DNA testing on the human pelvic bones that were recovered that week from one of the adjacent quarries. They were clues that Kratz chose to downplay at Avery's murder trial.

Nov. 9-12, 2005

After Avery's arrest, Radandt, Hillegas and Bloedorn made no more visits to the secured crime scene, sign-in logs indicate.

John Ferak of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin: 920-993-7115 or jferak@gannett.com; on Twitter @johnferak