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'Notable' Convict Says He Killed ‘Making A Murderer’ Victim Teresa Halbach, Not Steve Avery, According To Filmmaker
A man working on a new documentary says another inmate has confessed to the the infamous murder that has landed Steve Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey behind bars for life, but Avery's lawyer urges caution.
A documentary filmmaker claims a convicted murderer in Wisconsin has confessed to killing Teresa Halbach, the victim at the center of the popular docu-series “Making a Murderer.”
Halbach, a photographer, was killed in 2005 and her last known whereabouts were at the property of Steven Avery, who had been released from prison just two years prior after being exonerated in a rape case. Suspicion quickly fell on Avery in Halbach's death and he and his nephew Brendan Dassey were convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2007.
The first season of "Making a Murderer," released in 2015, recounts Avery's initial wrongful conviction and raises questions about his and Dassey's involvement in Halbach's murder. The documentary suggested that police may have planted evidence on Avery’s property, and that investigators took advantage of Dassey’s limited intellect in order to coax him into confessing.
Wisconsin authorities stand by their conclusion that Avery murdered Halbach and burned her body on his property.
Shawn Rech, director of an upcoming documentary “Convicting a Murderer,” which is not affiliated with “Making a Murderer,” told Newsweek that while filming his documentary, an inmate confessed to killing Halbach. The inmate has not been named, though Rech said he has given the recorded confession over to investigators.
"We haven't confirmed the legitimacy of the confession, but seeing as it was given by a notable convicted murderer from Wisconsin, we feel responsible to deliver any and all possible evidence to law enforcement and legal teams," Rech told Newsweek. "Having been in production for 20 months, we've uncovered an unfathomable amount of information and evidence that is leading us to the truth. Our investigation does not end here."
Rech did confirm that the recorded confession did not come from either Avery or Dassey.
Avery’s post-conviction lawyer Kathleen Zellner seems to have some doubts about the credibility of the confession, however.
“We received the handwritten confession on Saturday,” she tweeted Monday. “It is worthless unless it is corroborated.” She added the hashtags #WorkingOnIt and #NotsoFast.
The second season of “Making a Murderer” focused primarily on the efforts of Zellner, and how she is fighting to free her client.
Rech said he wants his docu-series to be a sequel of sorts to the “Making a Murderer” series.
