Making a Murderer’s Kathleen Zellner has revealed who she thinks is the main alternative murder suspect after the latest Netflix show held a spotlight to other potential suspects in the case.
In a new interview with The Daily Star, Zellner, who is the new defence lawyer for Steven Avery, has said that Bobby Dassey might be the main alternative suspect and that his mother “has to know more.” Bobby has previously denied any involvement with the murder during the course of the investigation.
The series, which debuted in 2015, follows the trial and conviction of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey for the murder of Teresa Halbach over a decade earlier. The most recent episodes followed the several developments since the first part of Making a Murderer aired and introduce Avery’s new lawyer Kathleen Zellner.
Zellner says she was inspired to take on the case after watching the first season of the show. After starting her own law firm in 1991, Zellner has gone on to have one of the highest success rates for overturning wrongful convictions in the United States.
So far, she’s overturned the convictions of 19 men, including a man called Joseph Burrows who had been sentenced to death for the murder of farmer William E. Dulan. Zellner overturned the sentencing after convincing the real killer to confess.
Zellner said: “Bobby has testified at trial that Teresa Halbach has walked towards Steven’s trailer and that was the last he saw her. Amazingly on facebook, (and we put this in our plea), Barb [Bobby and Brendan Dassey’s mother] said she talked to Bobby and he said, ‘I had seen her on the property but I never saw her walk towards Steven’s.”
Zellner also alleges that Dassey’s mother erased pornographic material from the Dassey family computer, of which Bobby was allegedly the main user.
Zellner added: “I think she has to know more for this reason – so right now, of the Dassey brothers – there are five of them – there’s a half brother Brad – we have an affidavit from him that Barb told him she hired someone to delete the pornography off the computer.
“She had talked to him because he had some computer knowledge; and of course he didn’t want to get involved with it. We have an affidavit from the older brother Brian saying that bobby’s trail testimony was false and that he did see Teresa leave the property.”
She continued: “And then we have an affidavit from Blaine saying that Bobby lied when he testified at trial when he said that Steven had burned a trash bag in his burn battle where they found the remnants of the phone and all that.”
Zellner also claims that blood allegedly found in Steven’s sink was removed by “the real killer”. She added: “The person I think removed the blood is the killer. It’s not the police. If the police had gone into the trailer and seen that blood… and there’s no question there was blood in the sink because even the person who wiped the blood off left blood drops there that were recovered and photographed by the police.
“If the police had gone in and seen that blood they would not have removed it because they would not know that that was not Teresa’s blood, they would have thought, ‘Oh my God there’s blood in the sink that could be Teresa’s all we’ve got to do is test it and if it’s hers the case is over. You never would have removed the blood – only the killer knows that’s not Teresa’s blood and that’s why they removed it.
“At that point Avery’s cut was almost two weeks old but it split open moving the Dassey trailer and the only person that saw that was Bobby Dassey and the other brother – I don’t know – it was Brendan I think, but they went on the errand with Steven and his other brother Chuck.
“So the only person left there was Bobby Dassey and that’s the night the blood was removed and the Dasseys had a key to Steven’s trailer and Steven saw the taillights once he was exiting the property – you could not have got another vehicle up there other than the Dassey vehicle which was right next door. So he has to have removed the blood and I think because he did that he’s got to be involved in the murder.”
Earlier this week, Zellner took to Twitter to outline why she believed Avery was innocent in 20 steps. Zenner wrote: “Making A Murderer watchers, listen up. I’m going to walk you through what I’ve learned through my investigation that you didn’t see in the show.”