‘Making a Murderer’: Steven Avery’s Relative Believes Family Member Framed Him

Steven Avery may have been framed for the 2005 murder of Theresa Halbach, a crime and trial that became the center of Netflix‘s Making a Murderer, by another family member, according to one relative.

Brad Dassey, the half-brother of Brendan Dassey, who was also convicted of the crime and is currently serving a life sentence, told The Blast that he believes Brendan’s brother, Bobby Dassey, could be responsible for the crime.

“There’s been speculation that another male in northern Wisconsin was involved in a crime matching the same description as Bobby with the same description of the tattoo he has. So after hearing that, it’s really interesting,” Dassey told the outlet.

The idea of Avery possibly being framed by Bobby was first penned by Avery’s criminal attorney, Kathleen Zellner, who pointed to several key factors in the case that led to her theory.

In a series of tweets, Zellner noted that her client and Bobby were the only people who saw Halbach at the Avery Salvage Yard on the day that she was murdered, and that the suspect followed her after she left, eventually getting her to pull over. Avery was still in his trailer at the time.

“Suspect knew Steven’s finger re-bled on 11/3/05 because he observed it. Suspect had access to Steven’s trailer to remove blood from the sink. Only our suspect knew the blood in the sink was Steven’s and not TH’s (this rules out the police),” she continued, referencing the trace amounts of blood that have become a focal point of the case. “The killer is the person who had the access and opportunity to plant Steven Avery‘s fresh blood in Teresa Halbach’s car.”

Zellner went on to state that a CD that was used as evidence in the case, allegedly containing thousands of images of sexual violence, was gathered when Bobby had access to Brendan’s computer, which she believes could show that Bobby has a history with sexual violence.

Although Bobby acted as the state’s star witness during Avery’s trial and was never considered a suspect, Dassey believes Zellner’s theory to be “incredibly interesting all around and could be possible.” Dassey, who released a song in 2016 about Dassey and Avery titled “They Didn’t Do It,” added that he was “very impressed” and that the theory is “a very good hypothesis about what happened.”

Both Avery and Brandon remain in prison serving life sentences. Their attempts to have their convictions appealed have consistently been turned down.

Making a Murderer Season 1 and Season 2, which explore the murder, initial trial and Zellner’s investigation, are currently available for streaming.