Spoilers from episodes 5/6 below:
For this reason alone the DNA results are as credible to me as the Crimean referendum to join Russia in 2014.
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Ep. 5
This is the one single inconsistency that's been eating at me the most.
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Wrong. Rather, there was no other suspect.
Ep. 5
[Transcripts from http://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org - can't attest to the accurateness of anything I did not quote, as they are the only parts I personally checked. Rough timestamps, formatting and names of the person speaking added by me.]
Ep. 6Deleted voicemails, tampered blood vial, missing license plates being reported by the police prior to knowing what vehicle they were looking for, evidence miraculously appearing in areas previously searched and only by people that shouldn't have been there in the first place, only the searchers going to Avery's being given a camera, missing sign ins at a crime scene, conflicting arrival times, missing reports, coerced confessions, botched DNA sampling yet still being used in court, witnesses admitting they lied, defence lawyers working with prosecutors.... Holy fuck, what a circus.
And the worst part of all of this, iswe still haven't fucking clue who did it or what happened.
@ 19:08
Buting: When we argued, by the way, in last March and filed a motion and said, "We want fair forensic testing. All we want is someone to be there to observe this." They opposed it. They said, "No. We don't want anybody on... Oh, there's so much more potential for contamination." That's what they said. That our person being there would be more risk of contamination when she's contaminated it herself. And used it all up so that we can't retest it.
This is a detail I think got less attention than it deserved.@ 17:06
Culhane: When we begin the extraction, we begin what's called a manipulation control. And it's basically a negative blank control. And it helps us monitor if any unintentional DNA is introduced into the sample. During the extraction procedure, I inadvertently introduced my own DNA into the negative control.
Gahn: Did that have any impact on your interpretation of your results?
Culhane: It did not have any impact as far as the profile from the evidence sample. It's just the fact that I introduced my own DNA into the manipulation control.
Gahn: And how do you think your DNA profile got into that control?
Culhane: I believe my DNA profile was introduced during the extraction procedure when I was talking. I was training two newer analysts, so I was explaining to them what I was doing as I was setting it up. And apparently... I felt as if I was far enough away from my work bench not to introduce my DNA, but apparently I was incorrect.
So, beside the obvious fuck up of the lab technician herself, having observers from the defense to monitor the procedure was a risk, but it's completely OK to allow students there... Yeah.
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The most frustrating thing-even halfway through this-is that it seems unlikely Steven will ever be exonerated, but that no one involved in the coverup will likely ever be punished or held accountable.
Jesus. The license plate call. It's so obvious!!!!!
Ep. 5
This is the one single inconsistency that's been eating at me the most.
For the life of me I can't think of a decent reason Colborn would call in the license plate if he wasn't directly looking at it at the time.
He says he must've got it from Sgt. Wiegert, but if that were true, why would he need approval from dispatch? Someone earlier in the thread posited he could have jotted it down in a notepad and later forgotten what it was. That might make some sense, except...
He says he must've got it from Sgt. Wiegert, but if that were true, why would he need approval from dispatch? Someone earlier in the thread posited he could have jotted it down in a notepad and later forgotten what it was. That might make some sense, except...
@ 14:00
Strang: In 2004, Steven Avery filed a lawsuit seeking some recompense for the hole in his life. The time he had spent as an innocent man for the crimes that Gregory Allen committed. In October 2005, James Lenk and another ranking officer of the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department, Sergeant Andrew Colborn, both were pulled into the lawsuit, questioned about their own activity and conduct with respect to Mr. Avery's imprisonment. It's Thursday evening about 5:00, November three, when Mrs. Halbach reports Teresa missing. That very night, Calumet is calling the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department for a little bit of help. And who do we get? We get Sergeant Andrew Colborn. And he's told, "Look, two places we'd like to sort of check out and see if Teresa Halbach showed up on Monday: the Zipperer residence... and Steven Avery." Well, that's a name that rings a bell. You better believe. Less than three weeks, or about three weeks after his deposition. And it is interesting that of those two places that Sergeant Colborn is asked to check out and inquire after Teresa Halbach... he only goes to one. Goes to Steven Avery's home.
@54:30
Strang: OK. What you're asking the dispatch is to run a plate that's "Sam-William-Henry-582"? Did I hear that correctly?
Colborn: Yes, sir.
Strang: Sam-William-Henry would be S-W-H-5-8-2?
Colborn: Yes.
Strang: This license plate?
Colborn: Yes, sir.
Strang: And the dispatcher tells you that the plate comes back to a missing person or woman.
Colborn: Yes, sir.
Strang: Teresa Halbach.
Colborn: Yes, sir.
Strang: And then you tell the dispatcher, "Oh, '99 Toyota?"
Colborn: No, I thought she told me that.
[Recorded Phone Call]
Lynn (Dispatch): It shows that she's a missing person. And it lists to Teresa Halbach.
Colborn: OK.
Lynn: OK, that's what you're looking for, Andy?
Colborn: Ninety-nine Toyota?
Lynn: Yep.
Colborn: OK, thank you.
Lynn: You're so welcome. Bye-bye.
[/Recorded Phone Call]
Strang: Were you looking at these plates when you called them in?
Colborn: No, sir.
Strang: Do you have any recollection of making that phone call?
Colborn: Yeah, I'm guessing eleven-oh-three-oh-five. Probably after I received a phone call from Investigator Wiegert letting me know that there was a missing person.
Strang: Investigator Wiegert, did he give you the license plate number for Teresa Halbach when he called you?
Colborn: You know, I just don't remember the exact content of our conversation then.
Strang: But you think...
Colborn: He had to have given it to me because I wouldn't have had the number any other way.
Strang: Well, you can understand how someone listening to that might think that you were calling in a license plate that you were looking at on the back end of a 1999 Toyota.
Colborn: Yes.
Strang: But there's no way you should've been looking at Teresa Halbach's license plate on November three on the back end of a 1999 Toyota.
Colborn: I shouldn't have been and I was not looking at the license plate.
Strang: Because you're aware now that the first time that Toyota was reported found was two days later on November five.
Colborn: Yes, sir.
...if that was the case, he managed to forget about a missing person case (involving Steven Bloody Avery) just about 6 hours (11:03-05 PM) after it was even reported (5PM). On the same day he went (on his own, IIRC, but don't quote me on that) to interview SA, someone he shouldn't probably be allowed to see outside of a courtroom considering the ongoing lawsuit.
You can't be serious. Far more of a suspect? There couldn't possibly be a bigger suspect than the man that was assumed to see her last, has her car with his blood/sweat inside of it parked on his property, with her burnt bones and burnt cell phone 20ft from his door.
I'm not saying Avery did it, but he was the ultimate suspect. Whether or not that was all by design, we'll probably never know, but there is no bigger suspect.
Wrong. Rather, there was no other suspect.
Ep. 5
@ 16:03
Strang: November five, Saturday, Pam and Nikole Sturm find the Toyota they suspect, correctly as it turns out, is Teresa's. And folks, from that point forward, before the police say they've even opened the car, before they say they know of any blood of any sort, in or on the car, before anybody even knows whether this young woman has been hurt or killed... the focus is on Steven Avery. Hear it yourself. When Detective Jacobs was calling after the police have arrived at the Avery property, after Teresa's car has been found there.
[Recorded Phone Call]
Katie: Good morning, Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department. Katie speaking.
Jacobs: Katie, just rolled into the parking lot. Can you tell me, do we have a body or anything yet?
Katie: I don't believe so.
Jacobs: Do we have Steven Avery in custody, though?
Katie: I have no idea.
[/Recorded Phone Call]
Strang: This is 30 minutes after they found the car. Indeed, they wouldn't find the first bone fragment for three days. "Do we have Steven Avery in custody, though?" Now, if you're thinking though that the evidence will show you that Manitowoc County bowed out because of the conflict of interest after it turned the investigation over to Calumet County... If you're thinking that, it's reasonable, but you're wrong.
[Transcripts from http://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org - can't attest to the accurateness of anything I did not quote, as they are the only parts I personally checked. Rough timestamps, formatting and names of the person speaking added by me.]