An unnamed Wisconsin inmate has reportedly confessed to killing Teresa Halbach, the victim at the center of the Netflix docu-series Making a Murderer. The man reportedly told filmmakers of the upcoming follow-up series Convicting a Murderer that he was the real killer. The two men currently in prison for Halbach’s death are Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey, both of whom maintain their innocence. Dassey’s appeal for a new trial was denied by the Supreme Court while Avery is still in the appeals process.
The director of Convicting a Murderer, Shawn Rech, told Newsweek that he was given the confession by a convicted murderer. Wisconsin authorities won’t release the inmate’s name until they’ve had a chance to review the confession themselves.
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“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 says he was inspired to create a follow-up to Making a Murderer because he felt misled after watching the series.
“I watched Making a Murderer, like tens of millions of others,” he told Newsweek. “After watching the series I was angry with law enforcement and even embarrassed as an American because of what appeared to have happened to Steven and Brendan. But after doing a little bit of follow-up research I learned that not only did I not have the whole story, but I was misled by the series.”
Avery was already exonerated once in the state of Wisconsin after being wrongly convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder in 1985. He served 18 years of that sentence before DNA evidence proved he was innocent. In 2007, he was found guilty of the Halbach murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Convicting a Murderer is an sequel to the Netflix 2016 series, although it is not sanctioned by the team behind Making a Murderer or Netflix. It will include aspects of the case Making a Murderer that were originally left out. It is in post-production now and will be a 10-part series. According to Rech, Convicting a Murderer should hit an undetermined streaming service in March of 2020.
