John Ferak

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Visiting Avery's gives better understanding of key events in Halbach murder case

Since January, I’ve written numerous articles in the wake of the "Making a Murderer" series on Netflix, trying to bring deeper insight into the Teresa Halbach murder case and the events surrounding the convictions of Brendan Dassey and Steven Avery.

As part of my research for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, I’ve made about 10 trips this year from my office at The Post-Crescent in Appleton to Manitowoc.

I've visited the Manitowoc County Courthouse to review court records. Other times, I’ve visited the county's personnel department. There, I've reviewed the employee files of past and current sheriff’s officials who had a vested interest in the prosecution of Avery and Dassey.

But there was one place in Manitowoc County that I hadn’t visited – the Avery Salvage Yard – until last week.

A longtime customer of the Averys made arrangements to let me come out there in hopes of gaining a better understanding of the property at the center of the Halbach case.

While there, I had a chance to meet Steven Avery's brothers, Chuck and Earl, along with their parents Allan and Delores. All told, I spent a few hours at the business. I found the Averys extremely friendly, very nice people. They are hard-working and dedicated to their jobs. They probably know their line of work — the auto salvage business — as well as anybody in Wisconsin.

That morning, Allan Avery worked in his shop, taking apart another motor. He turns 79 this year, he said.

No interviews were conducted; Steven Avery's lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, does not want them making public statements while she continues to probe the case in hopes of winning an exoneration.

Still, spending a good chunk of my day at the Averys was productive and worthwhile. I have a much deeper knowledge of the property, particularly in regard to the questions surrounding suspicions that the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office had a hand in planting several clues to link Steven Avery to Halbach’s murder.

Timeline: History of the Steven Avery case

Here were some of my impressions that I took away from visiting the Avery Salvage Yard:

If, in fact, Halbach was slain elsewhere, somebody could have easily sneaked onto the back of the Avery Salvage Yard to hide her RAV4 there without drawing suspicion from the Averys. There’s a tremendous distance from the spot toward the back of the property where the RAV4 was found missing its license plates and the Avery’s residential properties on the 40-acre parcel. In all likelihood, someone would have driven the back roads around the Radant quarry. If Steven Avery was not the killer, chances are two people had to be involved with placing Halbach’s RAV4 on the property. Two vehicles drive in – one drives out.

The license plates for Halbach's RAV4 were not found anywhere near the RAV4 but rather inside a station wagon along a road not far from Steven Avery’s trailer. What’s interesting: the plates were not found on Sunday, Nov. 6, when a massive team of volunteers firefighters searched the junkyard. Then, Manitowoc County Lt. Detective James Lenk and Sgt. Andrew Colborn spent the following morning, Nov. 7 roaming through the junkyard. That next day, volunteer firefighters were asked to re-process the junkyard again. This time, both of Halbach’s license plates appeared in the back seat of the station wagon and Avery was arrested the next day.



I had a chance to see Avery’s red trailer home from a short distance way. It looks like a shoe box. The notion that you had three or four Manitowoc-Calumet County Sheriff’s officials conducting multiple inspections of the residence without finding the spare key to Halbach's RAV4 until the fourth day searching is suspicious. The detached garage next to Avery’s trailer also is not very big. This was the garage that was searched over several days in November 2005 and no bullet fragments were found on the cement floor. Then, four months later, with Lenk back on the property, these bullet fragments magically appear and they contain the DNA of Halbach.



On the Averys: This family remains committed to proving Steven Avery is innocent of Halbach’s murder and their faith now lies in Zellner, who visited the Avery Salvage Yard a few weeks ago. But the family has been down this road once before – they knew Steven was innocent of the July 1985 rape of the Manitowoc businesswoman. But that time, it took 18 years to win his freedom.

The Averys are extremely thankful to the hard-work of filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi for drawing international interest to the case. The family is especially grateful that Zellner has taken up the cause. They believe she is sincere in her efforts to win Steven's exoneration and that she’s not using Avery’s case for publicity purposes. The family still remains appreciative of the efforts of Dean Strang and Jerry Buting, Steven's trial lawyers.



If Avery is truly innocent, the family hopes Zellner can work her magic sooner than later. Allan and Delores Avery are getting into their late 70s. The belief that their son got railroaded by the Manitowoc County criminal justice a second time and has lost another 11 years of his freedom seems to be an enormous cross to bear. Age is starting to become a factor. It’s becoming harder for Delores to get around. Allan Avery’s hearing is going. The duties of running the family business fall mainly upon the shoulders of Steven’s brothers Chuck and Earl. Like their mom and dad, the brothers share the belief that Steven will be proven innocent yet again, but when that day will come remains anybody’s guess.

Family members have learned not to get their hopes up. They were down this road once before in 1985. In the event that attorney Zellner lives up to the challenge, Steven Avery’s red trailer along Avery Road will still be there waiting for him. But unlike his release from prison in September 2003, I don’t expect him to return there. The family gave me a strong inclination that Steven will move somewhere far away from Manitowoc County this time around. Daily newsletter: Sign up for 'Making a Murderer' updates Related: “Making a Murderer” coverage, archived stories and more

John Ferak: 920-993-7115 or jferak@gannett.com; on Twitter @johnferak