Unanswered questions from Teresa Halbach's murder 20 years since she went missing on Halloween
Two decades on from her murder, there are still a host of unanswered questions surrounding what happened to Teresa Halbach.
The photographer's brutal death was the subject of the award-winning Netflix series, Making a Murderer, and it prompted questions about whether police had prosecuted the right people.
The two-part documentary, released in 2015, gave the complex case worldwide exposure, and inevitably, social media sleuths began digging into it themselves.
Armchair detectives have their own theories about what may have really happened to Halbach, but ultimately, Steven Avery and his nephew, Bobby Dassey, were convicted of her murder.
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The pair have previously suggested that other individuals might have been behind the murder, including their own relatives, while Avery also pointed the finger at one of Halbach's former boyfriends.
Meanwhile, others believe that both men were framed.
Murder of Teresa Halbach
On 31 October 2005, Halbach was sent out to take snaps of a minivan for Auto Trader Magazine at a salvage yard in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin.
The 25-year-old freelance photographer was never seen alive again after setting foot on the 40-acre property.
The salvage yard belonged to Steven Avery, a man who had been released from prison two years previously after spending 18 years banged up for a crime he didn't commit.
He was exonerated in 2003 after being wrongfully convicted of the rape and attempted murder of a woman, and had subsequently launched a $36 million lawsuit against authorities.
A court heard how Avery had called Halbach three times on the day of her disappearance and had disguised his phone number on two of these occasions, according to the Post-Crescent.
It was claimed that he had 'specifically requested' her to photograph the vehicle he was putting up for sale.
Halbach's mother reported her missing on 3 November 2005, after being unable to contact her daughter.
Exact cause of death and location she went missing
After her mum raised the alarm, police began searching for Halbach and ended up tracking down her Toyota RAV4 on Avery's land.
It was found with a disconnected battery and concealed among a myriad of branches on 5 November 2005, before officers found more clues the following day.
Remnants of the photographer's camera and mobile phone were discovered in a burn barrel at the salvage yard, before charred bone fragments belonging to Halbach were found several days later.
Her official cause of death was listed as 'homicide'.
Halbach was stabbed, strangled and shot around ten times with a .22-calibre rifle before her body was burned, according to the Post-Crescent.
Forensic pathologist Jeffrey Jentzen testified that bevelled fragments of the victim's skull were consistent with possible entry points for gunshots, but could not confirm that this was the cause of her death.
Forensic anthropologist Leslie Eisenberg also told the court that Halbach's body was burned to the point that no complete bones were left, as per the Journal Sentinel.
The key evidence
After police scoured his family's salvage yard, Avery was arrested and charged with possessing firearms as a felon on 9 November 2005, after cops found two guns in his trailer.
Six days later, he was then charged with first-degree intentional homicide and mutilating a corpse in relation to Halbach's Halloween murder - although he insisted he was being wrongfully prosecuted once again.
He alleged that Manitowoc County officials were leading a witch hunt against him due to the $36 million lawsuit he had filed, which was eventually settled for $400,000 in February 2006.
Avery was convicted of Halbach's murder and felony firearm possession in March 2007, with a judge sentencing him to a life sentence without parole.
One of the most compelling pieces of evidence presented at his trial was the bloodstains found inside the victim's Toyota RAV4 that were a match for him.
Avery's legal team argued that this could have been planted there, as LegalClarity.org notes that the defence 'questioned the origin and placement' of the blood. His fingerprints were not found in the car.
As well as this, a bullet fragment found in Avery's garage reportedly had Halbach's DNA on it - but there were suggestions that this again could have been tampered with.
"The absence of garage dust on the bullet, despite the dusty environment, has also been raised as a point of contention," Legal Clarity explains.
A key to Halbach's car was also discovered during a search of Avery's trailer, which was apparently missed during multiple other sweeps, which again led the defence to question if it had been 'planted' there.
Brendan Dassey's confession
Shockingly, in March 2006, Avery's nephew Brendan Dassey confessed that he had also played a part in the killing of Halbach.
The then-16-year-old told investigators that he had raped and murdered the photographer with his uncle before burning her corpse, although he later retracted this statement.
He was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse and second-degree sexual assault in a separate trial from Avery, which took place in 2007.
Dassey told the court that he had lied during his supposed confession, but didn't offer an explanation as to why - and Legal Clarity points out that he had 'cognitive limitations and was interrogated multiple times without a parent or attorney present'.
"His legal team has consistently argued that his confession was coerced and involuntary, citing deceptive interrogation tactics used by investigators," it adds.
There was a lack of physical evidence linking him to the crime, but a jury still ended up convicting him.
What has happened to Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey since?
Both of the men locked up for Halbach's murder maintain their innocence and have made multiple bids for freedom since their convictions.
Avery, now 63, made another appeal earlier this year - but the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected it.
His lawyer Kathleen Zellner shared a post on X at the time, as per Fox11, saying: "Two things are certain at this point: (1) Steven Avery will never give up on proving his actual innocence.
"(2) Steven Avery's legal team is more dedicated to winning his freedom than ever before."
Meanwhile, Dassey's conviction was overturned in August 2016 after it was ruled that his confession had been obtained illegally.
But the state then challenged the decision, and his conviction was then upheld by a panel of judges from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in December 2017, who found that his admission about Halbach's murder was voluntary.
Halbach's family are sure of Avery's guilt, with her aunt telling People that she thinks he is '100% guilty', adding: "No doubt about it."
Dassey and his uncle continue to serve life sentences for the murder.
Topics: Crime, True Crime, US News, Making A Murderer, Netflix, Halloween
Olivia Burke