ON WISCONSIN : JS ONLINE : NEWS : WISCONSIN : E-MAIL | PRINT THIS STORY Missing woman's car found in junk lot Salvage yard belongs to family of freed prisoner By LEE BERGQUIST

Posted: Nov. 6, 2005 Mishicot - As police searched for clues into the disappearance of Teresa Halbach, a small group of family members and friends discovered her car Saturday in a salvage yard owned by relatives of a man who served 18 years in prison on sexual assault charges before being exonerated. Missing Photographer Photo/Butch Jorgenson Law enforcement officials are conducting an extensive search for Teresa Halbach in the Avery family’s 40-acre auto salvage yard near Mishicot, where Halbach’s car was found Saturday. Teresa Halbach Related Coverage Video: TMJ4 Coverage

Recent Coverage 11/05/05: Missing woman, freed prisoner crossed paths

11/05/05: TMJ4 Coverage - 10 p.m. newscast

Search Area Graphic/Journal Sentinel Click to enlarge Steven Avery Timeline Dec. 14, 1985: Convicted of sexually assaulting a 36-year-old Manitowoc woman on July 29, 1985.

Sept. 11, 2003: Freed from prison after 18 years when judge rules that DNA tests prove Avery did not commit the crime.

Oct. 12, 2004: Sues Manitowoc County over his wrongful conviction. Case is pending in federal court.

March 2, 2005: Pleads no contest to disorderly conduct, a municipal violation, in a Manitowoc County incident that occurred Sept. 9, 2004.

Saturday: Investigators searching for a missing photographer, 25-year-old Teresa Halbach of Hilbert, search the Avery family salvage yard in Two Rivers where Avery works. Investigators believe Avery, who saw Halbach on Monday at his home near the salvage yard, was among the last people to see her before she was reported missing Thursday.


The discovery sent about 100 police, firefighters and other emergency personnel with search warrants into the Manitowoc County salvage yard owned by the family of Steven Avery for the rest of the weekend. Officials searched through hundreds of vehicles on the sprawling, remote property about four miles west of Mishicot. At a Sunday news conference, Calumet County Sheriff Gerald Pagel said authorities were treating the disappearance of the 25-year-old photographer as a missing person case. Heavy rains and thunderstorms on Saturday had slowed the task of inspecting each vehicle, Pagel said. Helping local police and firefighters were canine units from the state Division of Criminal Investigation. In addition, divers from the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department were looking for clues in three ponds in an adjoining gravel pit. Pagel and a representative of the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department emphasized that, despite the discovery of Halbach's car, a Toyota Rav4, on the Avery family's property, Steven Avery is no more a subject in the investigation than anyone else. Authorities said they were not limiting their investigation solely to the Avery salvage yard property, where Steven Avery has a home. Halbach was last seen Oct. 31, the same day she had an appointment to shoot a photograph of a vehicle Avery was trying to sell. In an interview Sunday, Avery reiterated that he believes Manitowoc County authorities are trying to implicate him in the disappearance of the woman. "I got a hunch the sheriff's department is trying to put something on me," said Avery, who had driven Saturday to his family's cabin near Crivitz in Marinette County to butcher chickens during the weekend. But authorities denied that they are interested only in Avery. "If Avery is feeling that way, he's mistaken," Pagel said. "It's just not true," responded Robert C. Hermann, an inspector at the sheriff's department in Manitowoc County. Calumet County is the lead agency in the case because Halbach was first reported missing from her home in Hilbert in Calumet County. Avery's lawyer, Walter Kelly, said he is confident that his client had nothing to do with the woman's disappearance. But he said it is understandable that he would be concerned about the investigation. "It's pretty clear now that Steven has no involvement in this woman's disappearance and that he has been highly cooperative with the police," Kelly said Sunday. "He is understandably concerned about the Manitowoc Sheriff's Department, and that may be part of the reason why the lead investigatory agency is the Calumet Sheriff's Department," Kelly said. "He was severely and badly mistreated by the Manitowoc Sheriff's Department in 1985, so he has an understandable concern about their attitude toward him now," he said. Avery was released from prison Sept. 11, 2003, after DNA evidence and an investigation by the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School showed that he did not commit the crime. Avery has sued Manitowoc County over the case. On Saturday, as scores of friends and family searched for Halbach as far north as Brown County, a small group stopped at the salvage yard, got permission from an Avery family member to look around and found the car, Pagel said. The car and its contents are being analyzed by the State Crime Laboratory. Prior to the discovery, Pagel said, his department did not have probable cause to search the 40-acre salvage yard. In addition to junk vehicles, the property has heavy equipment, including a compactor, he said. Pagel said Avery has been cooperative with authorities. Avery said he has been interviewed in Manitowoc County, and again for hours in Marinette County by the sheriff's department there and the state Division of Criminal Investigation. "I've got nothing to hide," he said. Mike Halbach, the brother of Teresa Halbach, said the family remains hopeful that she will be found. But he also said his sister has never been gone before for so long without letting someone know where she is. Dan Benson of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report from Milwaukee.

From the Nov. 7, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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