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RAV4 Planted On The Avery Salvage Yard
This is one of the many posts that I’ve saved from Reddit user Needless_Things because they’re very detailed and informative posts that would be a lot of hard work down the drain if they were to ever get deleted from Reddit. I think anybody who is interested in this case, should give his posts a read. This one was titled: Detailing Kathleen Zellner’s Post Conviction Theory: RAV4 Planted On The Avery Salvage Yard (I had to shorten up the title to make it fit here!)
This post will consist of the relevant excerpts from Zellner’s Post Conviction Motion For Scientific Testinginterspersed with additional excerpts from the Pre Trial and Jury Trial – the excerpts from the Trials will relate to the aforementioned date in Zellner’s motion.
TL;DR in comment section
Making A Theory
From Kathleen Zellner’s (2016) Motion:
- Mr. Avery asserts he is innocent and that additional scientific testing can, once again, prove he did not commit the crime for which he has been convicted. Mr. Avery will bear the cost of any testing performed.
- The defense (2007) claims the motive for the frame up was retaliation because Mr. Avery had sued the Manitowoc Police Department for a previous wrongful conviction and wrongful imprisonment.
- Ms. Halbach disappeared after she completed her assignment and left the Avery salvage yard.
November 3, 2005 (Finding The RAV)
- On November 3, 2005, Officer Colborn discovered the victim’s vehicle and called dispatch, on a personal line, to confirm the victim’s license plate number.
Dean Strang – Cross Examination of James Lenk – (Concerning AC’s Nov 3 call)
Lenk: It sounds like a license plate check. Uh, it sounded like it was over the telephone.
Strang: Okay. Not over the radio?
JL: No, sir.
DS: Okay. Now, if — if it’s over the telephone, this is, in a sense, private from anybody with a police scanner?
JL: Yes, sir.
- On November 3, 2005, according to the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department reports, Ms. Halbach’s vehicle was seized.
- Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department Summary Report (page 3)
Dean Strang – Cross Examination of Andrew Colborn – (Concerning his November 3 calling in of TH RAV4 plates.)
Strang: So as you sit here today, Sergeant Colborn, you don’t recall whether Investigator Wiegert gave you Ms. Halbach’s license plate number when he called you on November 3?
Colborn: No, I just don’t remember the exact content of our conversation then.
Strang: But —
AC: He had to have given it to me, because I wouldn’t have had the number any other way.
DS: Well, and 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; from listening to that tape, you can understand why someone might think that, can’t you?
November 4, 2005 (Moving The RAV)
- Ms. Halbach’s vehicle was moved to the southeast corner of the Avery property on the evening of November 4, 2005 after Calumet County Sheriff Jerry Pagel and Investigator Wendy Baldwin conducted a flyover of the Avery Salvage Yard.
Dean Strang – Cross Examination of C. Drumm – (Pilot for flyover of Avery property)
DS: And, obviously, you were piloting the plane?
CD: Yes.
DS: Any videotaping going on on November 4th?
CD: I’m sorry, I don’t recall that.
DS: Fair enough —
CD: I was looking out the front window.
DS: I understand.
Dean Strang – Pre Trial Examination of Jerry Pagel CASO Sheriff
DS: You also took some other steps that would be publicly visible but controlled. I mean, for example, did you — did you rent an airplane or make arrangements for an airplane at some point?
JP: Yes, that was done on November 4th. That was basically a search to try and to locate her vehicle. We knew that her vehicle was missing. And we were trying to locate her vehicle — or anythingwhich could be of assistance in the missing person investigation.
DS: Okay. So, is that why you only used the plane on Friday, November 4?
JP: Yes.
Dean Strang – Cross Examination of C. DrummPilot for flyover of Avery property
DS: You went up again on November — or no, on Saturday, November 5, or no?
CD: Not with law enforcement.
DS: Not with law enforcement?
CD: No, I made other flights, subsequent, once it became apparent what was going on, but not with any law enforcement.
- After the flyover on November 4, 2005, Ms. Halbach’s vehicle was moved from the Fred Radandt Sons, Inc. quarry to the Avery property using the conveyor road that led onto the Avery property from the quarry.
Dean Strang – Cross Examination of Andrew Colborn – (Concerning Colborn’s whereabouts onNovember 4, 2005.)
DS: You know, as a law enforcement officer, that it’s important, if one speaks to another — to a police officer, to give accurate information to the officer?
AC: Yes, sir.
DS: You know, in fact, that it’s a crime in the state of Wisconsin, intentionally to give false information to a police officer?
AC: Yes, sir.
DS: And on January 11, 2007, you recall Investigator Steier asking you if you could recall what you had done on Friday, November 4, 2005, your day off; do you recall him asking you that?
AC: Yes.
DS: And what you told him was, that you could not recall what you had done on your off day; that’s what you told Investigator Steier?
AC: Yes, at that precise second that he asked me, I could not recall everything that I had done on that day.
DS: You recalled later?
AC: Yes.
DS: And when, sir, when did you call up Investigator Steier and say, I’m sorry, I was wrong, I now remember what I did on my day off, Friday, November 4, 2005?
AC: I didn’t call Investigator Steier.
Finally, to finish off the events on November 4, 2005:
- Individual B received approximately 22 calls from law enforcement on November 4, 2005, prior to the victim’s vehcile being moved to the property.
November 5, 2005 (Finding The RAV: Part 2)
- On November 5, 2005 the same individual who received 22 calls from LE on Nov 4, organizes a citizen search effort.
Recall from the Documentary:
- On November 5th, 2005, before the RAV4 is found Wiegert (Calumet) Calls Remiker (Manitowoc):
Wiegert: Hey, um — kind of a change of plans here.
Remiker: Okay?
Wiegert: The boss has got — something he wants us to do.
Remiker: Okay.
Wiegert: He wants us to go back over and re-interview Avery again. And the search party is out there and he wants to ask them if they would allow us to have the search party come on the property and go through the junkyard.
Remiker: Okay.
Wiegert: So if it’s Okay with you, we’ll meet you over at your sheriff’s department.
Remiker: Okay.
Wiegert: If you don’t mind? Help us out today? Stop over.
Remiker: Yup. That’s fine.
Ken Kratz – Direct Examination of Ryan Hillegas – (Concerning November 5, 2005)
KK: Let me ask you something, Mr. Hillegas, why would you center or why would you direct some of your search efforts around the Avery property?
RH: Well, mostly for the fact that, you know, the media had covered so much of it. You know, all you heard about was around the Avery property. And I believe at that point we had known that, you know, her last kind of whereabouts were in that neck of the woods.
Ken Kratz – Direct Examination of Pam of God – (Concerning her LE contacts or lack thereof)
KK: Ms. Sturm, were you familiar with the Avery salvage property?
POG: No, I’m not — I wasn’t at all. All I knew, it was a 40-acre plot salvage yard for vehicles.
KK: Now, Ms. Sturm, prior to your arrival at that location, had you had any contact or direction from any law enforcement officials?
POG: No, sir, we didn’t.
- On the morning of November 5, 2005, the group of searches leave to begin looking for TH. Ryan does not leave.
- Pagel (CASO Sheriff) shows up at Halbach’s house at 8:30 am on November 5, 2005. (CASO – Page 56) He is there to check if the fax number they had on record did indeed come from Halbach’s residence. I suppose it is very important that the CASO Sheriff personally take this duty of confirming Teresa’s fax number.
- Coincidentally, Pam Sturm testifies she showed up at Halbach’s home to meet Ryan and Scott at 9:00 am on November 5, 2005. (Trial – Day 2)
So … on the morning of November 5, 2005, Pagel and Pam both separately show up at Teresa’s shortly after the other volunteers depart. Very shortly after that, Pam gets permission directly from Earl to search for
Teresathe RAV. She has a camera hid under her jacket, a map of where to look and a direct phone line to Pagel.And she didn’t have any direction from Law Enforcement?
Jerry Buting’s Cross Examination of Ryan Hillegas – (Concerning the citizen search on November 5, 2005)
Buting: He (SB) didn’t give everyone of those members, Saturday morning, a camera, did he?
Ryan: No.
JB: He just gave it to Pam Sturm, who he knew was going to go out to the Avery Salvage Yard?
RH: That’s correct.
JB: The only person he gave a camera to, right?
RH: Yes.
Ken Kratz – Direct Examination of POG – (Concerning her finding the RAV on November 5, 2005.)
Kratz: Looking at it now, do you think you got lucky?
POG: Yeah. Well, not lucky, God showed us the way; I do believe that.
Also on November 5, 2005
- November 5, 2005, Detective Remiker of Manitowoc County was the first officer on the scene after Pam called in the RAV4.
- At 11:30am on November 5, 2005 Remiker calls into dispatch:
REMIKER: You need to get a hold of the Crime Lab for their evidence response team to start responding at this location.
DISPATCH: 10-4, Crime Lab out of Madison, Milwaukee, where?
REMIKER: Madison response team.
JACOBS: Okay. Other than the car do we have anything else?
REMIKER: Not yet.
JACOBS: Is he in custody?
DETECTIVE REMIKER: Not yet. Nothing happening.
Dean Strang – Cross Examination of Mark Wiegert – (Concerning the affidavit / search warrant)
DS: So you are saying that you believe that, based upon Teresa’s lack of contact with her employer and family members, and her vehicle being abandoned at the Avery Auto Salvage Yard, that Teresa Halbach is the victim of a crime, including, but not limited to, and then you start with homicide?
MW: Are you asking me, that’s what it says?
DS: I am.
MW: That’s what it says.
Jerry Buting – Pre Trial Examination of Mark Wiegert: – (Concerning the affidavit / search warrant)
Buting (to Wiegert): Okay. And he (Remiker) was with you when you prepared this affidavit?
MW: That’s correct.
JB: Did you ask him whether he had consent to be in the — that portion of the Avery property where he was making his observations of the RAV 4 vehicle?
MW: I did not ask him if he had permission to be there.
JB: And he (Remiker) never told you if he had permission to be there?
MW: I never asked him.
JB: That’s not my question. Did he ever tell you?
MW: No, not specifically.
Dean Strang – Cross Examination of David Remiker – (Concerning what they expected to find.)
DS: You were present when the application for that search warrant was sworn out?
DR: Yes.
DS: The search warrant application declared — and you heard this — under oath that you folks expected to find evidence of a homicide?
DR: Yes.
DS: Among other potential offenses?
DR: Correct.
On November 5, 2005 Weigert and Remiker submitted to a judge an affidavit which stated what they expected to find upon searching the Avery Salvage yard
- Your affiant (Wiegert) believes that based upon Teresa’s lack of contact with her employer and family members and her vehicle being abandoned at the Avery Auto Salvage yard, that Teresa Halbach is the victim of a crime including but not limited to, homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and theft.
Also on November 5, 2005, contained within the affidavit is a list of items Wiegert expects to find. He says he believes the below items may have been used in the commission of a crime:
- Women’s clothing
- Camera, Film, Photography Equipment, Electronic Storage Devices
- Blood, Hair, Saliva, Semen
- Instruments capable of taking a human life including, but not limited to: firearms, ammunition, knives, cutting instruments, ropes, and ligatures
Allow Dean to summarize:
Dean Strang (To Willis – Pre Trial Hearing): On November 5th, at approximately 2:00 p.m … Mr. Kratz, and Wiegert, and Remiker, and I believe also the D.A. Rohrer, were all over, at the same time, at Judge Fox’s home in Two Rivers, I believe, presenting an affidavit in which they swore, under oath, that they believed they would find evidence of a homicide if permitted to search the Avery property.
Dean Strang – Cross Examination of David Remiker:
DS: At the time that search warrant was sworn out before Judge Fox, all you had recovered was the Toyota?
DR: Yes.
DS: Your testimony is that no one had even opened a door to the Toyota?
DR: I know the officers there did not open a door. Correct.
Questions
What evidence did they even have when they signed that affidavit? If they didn’t open the car, they had nothing to suggest much of anything. As many have pointed out, with everything they did expect to find, why didn’t they expect to find her purse along with whatever storage devices and photography equipment they thought would be there? Surely for a missing or kidnapped woman that would be considered common procedure, to include her purse in the list of items you expect to find.
The affidavit says they expect to find evidence of a horrific bloody scene, all ‘based on Teresa’s lack of contact with her employer and family members, as well as her vehicle being abandoned at the Avery Auto Salvage Yard.’
If no one had even opened a door to the Toyota, why on earth did they expect to find a bloody scene with instruments of death on the Avery property? Firearms, ammunition, knives, cutting instruments? Ropes, and ligatures???
Very specific, right?
I don’t like it. Not one bit.
Significant Amounts of Unidentified DNA / Latents
So, now that the planting timeline is out of the way, below is a summary of the evidence found on / in the RAV that does not point to Steven Avery or Brendan Dassey.
Number 1.)
- Eight unidentified fingerprints
Jerry Buting (Closing Statement): Besides, we know that there are eight unidentified fingerprints, at this moment, that were found on that vehicle, including some very incriminating locations. Dr. — Mr. Riddle, I asked him, well, you took the fingerprint standards of Lieutenant Lenk and Sergeant Colborn. You know what the defense here is. You know what we have been accusing them of for the last month or more.
Buting: Did they ask him to compare these unidentified latents that were found on Teresa Halbach’s vehicle with Sergeant Colborn or Lieutenant Lenk’s standards, to see if you could rule them out, or match. The answer, no. Why? because they don’t want you to know.
Buting: You cannot open this vehicle without touching that latch. And this is where he said he found them, the fingerprints. There, there, and there. Riddle also found them on the hood. Isn’t that interesting. He says the lifting up of the hood has been a big part of the State’s case. No one has compared those to Lenk and Colborn.
Number 2.)
Item B2:
blood on TH’s center console in the RAV4. This was a mixture with the major contributor listed as Avery. However the additional DNA did not match any of the other Avery’s/Dassey’s or even TH. The secondary contributor is unknown, and I am not advanced enough in my sleuthing to tell what sex the profile is. If it is female, it is not Teresa’s.
Items DD1 and DD2:
DD1 (trigger guard swab) Human DNA detected. It was a partial profile and presumably could not be matched to SA, BD or TH.
Item A23 (Swab of exterior cargo door handle)
Human DNA detected. Another partial profile. Again, it presumably could not be matched to SA, BD or TH.
Number 3.)
- Foreign MALE DNA
Item AJ and AK (Swab of license plates)
Human Male DNA detected. Levels insufficient for DNA/STR typing. No profile recorded.
And the biggest one of them all…
Item CX:
blood found in the quarry next to a pile of burnt insulation. SC was able to develop a full male profile. It did not match Avery or Dassey or anyone from the family. To this day we have no idea who that blood belongs too.
Remember of course, according to Zellner the RAV was moved from the quarry via the conveyor road on November 4, 2005.
They should have been testing and comparing every single one of TH’s known male associates to said profile in order to exclude them as the source of that blood. This did not happen.
I expect we will be learning a lot about Item CX come Season 2.
Hopefully Kathleen has had some of her people dumpster diving for her 😉
FYI: I am slowly sourcing this as I go. Pardon all of the edits.
Edit: Done editing.
See, this is why I can’t let his posts get deleted! They’re really thought out and make a lot of sense. There are a few other posts that I’ll be posting (it takes a while to format them, clean up some areas!)
Unfortantely, Steven and Brendan won’t be spending Christmas at home again this year, lets hope they are next year!
-TID
theinspiringdad.com
