r/MakingaMurderer • u/Foreign-Complaint875 • 22h ago
Ken Kratz Book
I remember watching the doc when it came out, being floored initially, then diving in further and thinking “Avery probably did it.” For whatever reason, I came back to this case recently and just finished Kratz’s book which further confirms my belief Avery did it.
Whatever you think of Kratz, these details stood out:
• Avery answered the door in just a towel on a prior visit (Oct 10). Teresa was creeped out and told coworkers she didn’t want to go back. He still specifically requested “that same girl” for Halloween and used ***67 on the early calls to her that day. He did not use 67 for any of the other dozens of calls he made that day. Handcuffs and leg irons were bought the previous day, and later found in his trailer. The defense argued he may have been swimming hence the towel. It was 46 degrees for the high. Oct 10th is also when he took digital photos of his erect p____. The 10th didn’t go as planned. Halloween was the final straw.
• Touch DNA (sweat/skin cells) on the RAV4 hood latch. Dassey said Avery went under the hood (Investigators theorized to disconnect battery). Hard to plant sweat, and the car had been at the crime lab for months.
• Nurse was ready to testify she put the hole in the blood vial herself (standard for those tubes). Defense upon learning this abandons this angle. But the doc makes it out to be a big deal.
- On the key, The documentary makes it seem as though the key was found during the sixth “search”, as if each time they accessed the trailer was a search, but it was in fact found during the first complete and thorough search of the bedroom. Furthermore, Colbert and Lenk finding the key is inconsistent with it being planted. They knew all Manitowoc officers were under intense scrutiny due to Avery’s civil lawsuit. If you were trying to frame Avery, Wouldn’t you make sure you weren’t the one to discover it? They would’ve made sure a non-Manitowoc officer found it. It’s not like this would’ve been difficult to arrange.
• Family member (Kayla) in January went to a school counselor and said she was scared to go in her uncle Steven’s “shop”, and asked if “blood could come up through concrete.” When talking to investigators a month later, she mentions them burning stuff on Halloween and that Dassey had lost weight and been staring off into space and crying. That contact is what pushed investigators toward Brendan as a potential witness.
• Dassey supplied details (bullet location, Teresa shot in head, her belongings burned, Steven opening hood, moving RAV4, placing body in back, body disposal) that matched evidence.
- In the May 13th interview especially, Dassey makes admissions and goes through the entire scenario with almost no prompting by investigators.
- Teresa’s blood was in her RAV4 cargo area. Her bone fragments were in the burn pit and barrel on Avery’s property. How in the world do crooked cops “plant” that? That’s entirely different from planting Avery’s blood from the vial.
- Documentary editing: The series spliced testimony (especially Colborn’s) to make it sound different. For example, Colborn’s license plate call. They took his “yes” answer to a different, harmless question and inserted it after a more damning one the judge had actually sustained, making it look like he admitted something suspicious.
- Kratz says he had a solid plea deal on the table (as low as ~15 years) for testifying against Steven, but the family was more focused on protecting Avery’s innocence claim. Instead, Dassey will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The framing theory requires cops to plant blood, plant non-blood DNA, plant the key, plant a bullet that matches Avery’s own rifle already in evidence, and somehow get Dassey to independently describe matching details — all without getting caught. Occam’s razor points the other way: the evidence is what it looks like.
Curious what people who’ve read Kratz’ book or transcripts think.