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What Happened To Lynn Hartman, Steven Avery's Second Fiancée?
Lynn Hartman once called Steven Avery of "Making A Murderer" a teddy bear. Later, she told "Dr. Phil" she was scared of him.
The second season of Netflix’s hit docu-series “Making a Murderer” revealed that Steven Avery and his one-time fiancée Sandra Greenman split up since her appearance in the show's first season.
The pair dated for years, but as Avery explained in the second season, their religious differences, plus Greenman's health issues, ultimately led to her very publicly announcing that they had broken off the engagement on “Dr. Phil.”
But Avery soon hopped into another relationship with a one-time fan named Lynn Hartman.
“With Lynn it’s different,” he gushes. “Lynn is my new girlfriend.”
Unfortunately for Avery, it wasn’t all that different.
Just like with Greenman, his new beau (not to be confused with Phil Hartman's ex-wife who killed both the comedian and herself in a murder-suicide) ended up bad-mouthing him on “Dr. Phil.”
Hartman told the host that she reached out to him after watching the first season of the show. After her daughter turned her onto the series, she said she was hooked, and like many others felt that Avery was set up.
The first season of the show, released in 2015, raised questions about the convictions of Avery and Brendan Dassey, who were both sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for the death of photographer Teresa Halbach two years earlier. The documentary suggested that police might have planted evidence on Avery’s property, and that investigators took advantage of Dassey’s limited intellect in order to coax him into confessing.
Hartman, who works as a paralegal in the Las Vegas area, said the show made her feel like she knew Avery, according to a 2016 Las Vegas Review-Journal report, adding that she wrote him to say that she had just gotten divorced.
“Then I wrote her back and made her feel better [about the divorce] and it’s been like that ever since,” Avery says during the second episode of the latest season. “I got pictures of her on the wall. I had other women up there and I had to take the other women down because it didn’t feel right. She’s just stuck in me.”
She called Avery a teddy bear — at least, at first.
“When I first met him, he looked like the sweetest little teddy bear I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said on “Dr. Phil.” “It was like magic.”
She revealed that she and Avery just cried when they met at Avery’s prison.
She started calling him “Teddy Bear,” and it didn’t take long for Avery to tell her that he wanted her to be his wife, according to her appearance on the talk show. Soon enough, they were engaged.
So, what happened since that “Dr. Phil” appearance and the taping of the latest "Making a Murderer"?
She claimed Avery threatened her over being on 'Dr. Phil'
"After appearing on the Dr. Phil show last year, I received threatening calls and letters from Steven Avery,” Hartman wrote in a statement obtained by Bustle earlier this month, adding her claim that she had to block calls from Avery and ask his correctional institution to issue a no-contact order against him.” The threatening letters were so graphic and evil, that I no longer believed Mr. Avery was innocent of the crimes he was convicted of, so I ended the relationship Oct. 1, 2016."
She then went on "Dr. Phil" to talk about Avery once again again. During that segment, she said that she became scared of him; Avery, meanwhile, responded to Hartman's appearance in the most recent season, saying her appearance on the program felt like a setup.
She hinted that she thinks he’s guilty
In her statement to Bustle, Hartman wrote: “I would like to add that I was fooled by MAM Season 1, like many others, and felt very sorry for Steven Avery and genuinely wanted to help him, and was at a vulnerable time in my own life, which I believe was the perfect scenario for Avery as he is a predator for vulnerable women.”
She also alleged in an interview Avery was manipulative in an interview with InTouch magazine.
She accused the show's producers of bias
“They did not want the letters Avery wrote to me, getting out,” Hartman said in her statement, referencing the series' producers. “They did not want me to disclose what Avery said to me on the phone, and did not want me to prove that they are lying, and that I believe and know that, Steven Avery is a violent criminal who is right where he belongs.”
Avery’s prior fiancée accused her of only seeking fame
In a statement posted to Twitter and attributed to Greenman in 2016 accused Hartman of being "in this relationship for money and publicity. His eyes are finally opened!!! Lynn received at least 5000.00 dollars from Dr Phil, and he thinks more. ... His words — she is a golddigger."
She's out of the public eye
Since the drama, she has kept a relatively low-profile. Hartman does not appear to have a social media presence either.
[Photo Credit: Getty]
