Andy Colborn's Calls to Dispatch About the Teresa Halbach Case

Transcripts of MTSO dispatch calls on November 3, 2005 from 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A5Edehh8tDIvt_HKk4XsKddiqUInZnZhz7_7bSgTx7A/edit#gid=221014473

Transcripts of MTSO dispatch calls on November 5, 2005:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fw8mgNGuNV-J5hE6XyFtzQAc3dMz9NkhgyfCBea6tKw/edit#gid=775050838

Andy Colborn inquires about a 25-year-old found dead in her apartment, and asks if this is Teresa M Halbach. He is told that it is not: this person is Carmen Boutwell, who died of an overdose. MTSO offered to assist with arrangements for cremation (the conversation started before her body was removed from her apartment). The family placed her coffin into the back of the hearse immediately after her open-casket funeral with the understanding she was being taken away for cremation, and it was weeks later before family received her cremains back. [Source]

Dennis Jacobs requests a criminal history to be run on George B. Zipperer (he has a record for disorderly misconduct). While dispatch is looking it up, the caller can be heard talking to someone else, saying: "He said she was taking pictures of his son's car. I don't know the son's first name, though." Also, at the 25:48 mark, is a call about a dog and a bracelet and a burn pile.

Carmen Boutwell was found dead in her apartment from a drug overdose on the morning of November 3, 2005, the same day Teresa was reported missing. Her mother is a recovering alcoholic. Did her mother have money for a funeral? … Probably not … And there is no obituary. So, there is a deceased 25-year-old woman taken to the county morgue … to be cremated? Perhaps a town that says to her mother: “No worries, we’ll take care of her remains.” And what happens to them? They end up in Steven’s fire pit?

See Reddit discussion at:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MakingaMurderer/comments/4a9qha/i_dont_understand_colborns_interaction_with/

Teresa's missing person flyers weren't produced until November 4th. Lenk testified that he and Remiker didn't have the plate information before they went to Avery's on November 4th, yet they had both spoken to Wiegert at least twice. Why would Wiegert give the plate informatio to Colborn and not the other two detectives?



When Teresa Halbach's car was found on November 5th at Avery Auto Salvage, it had no plates on it. A day earlier, on November 4th, Andy Colborn, using his cell phone rather than his police radio, called dispatch to run Teresa's plates. He was unaware that the call was being recorded. The defense was able to get a CD of calls coming into dispatch that were not over police radios.

Colborn's call about the license plates was indeed during dispatcher Lynn’s normal shift of 2-10 PM on November 4th, one of Colborn's "scheduled days off."

Various comments on YouTube for the video above:

You can clearly hear a woman say "the car's here" in the background. I may be crazy but it sounds like the lady, Pam Sturm, who found the RAV4 at Avery salvage.

Listen at 58 seconds; use headphones; what do you all hear in background? Then if it's what I think I hear, why was that not questioned?

In the background someone with Colborn says "the car's here" at the 1:02 range

I hear "the car is here" over the phone call with the officer. Anyone else?

You can hear in the background a female voice saying 'the car is here.' Therefore they are standing in front of the car calling in the plates to dispatch. You can here the voice at 0:57-0:58 behind dispatch saying Teresa Halbach's name. You may need headphones!

Does anyone else notice a voice from the background. It sounds like someone said "cars HERE". Put on your ear buds and tell me you don't here something.

At 1:02 in the recording you can clearly hear a woman say "the car is here" in the background. Sounded almost like the lady who found the RAV4 at the salvage yard.

0.57-0.58 - "The car's here". The officer had the plates and Rav4 in front of him !!!!

During the recorded phone call you can hear someone in the background say "we found the car". Proof they found it before hand and possibly planted it on the salvage yard.

At 0:57 you can hear someone in the background.

mursieftw wrote at Reddit:

I found Colborn's statement regarding the dispatch call on the plates very telling: Please check here regarding statement analysis. That article goes into detail regarding Avery's statement when he was convicted. But after reading that, check out Colborn's statement on the plates. He says, “I should not have been and I was not looking at the license plates.”

Under statement analysis, I believe this would actually indicate guilt. The "should not have been" is not a reliable denial and presents his conscious recognizing the reality of what happened "that he shouldn't be looking at her Rav4 on 11/4 but in fact was."

Colborn Email: No Steven Avery evidence planted: detective

amileah wrote at Reddit:

I find it disturbing that Andy is the "...head of his agency's detective bureau." Really??

You would think that as the "head" he would be able to spell people's name correctly; especially pertaining to the most important case of his career! "Weigert" should be Wiegert, "Theresa" should be Teresa, "Brenndan" should be Brendan. I know that these are the least of Andy's mistakes, but come on, if you can't get these simple details correct...

Instead of being arrested and charged with perjury, evidence tampering, and obstruction of justice, Fassbender, Wiegert, Lenk and Colborn were honored for the work on the Halbach case.

Colborn's November 3, 2005 Timeline

6:37pm: Gets phone call being notified of Teresa and drives to Avery's Auto Salvage.

7:20pm: Arrives at Avery Auto Salvage.

7:26pm: Leaves Avery's according to the dispatch log (dispatch calls are to the operator/dispatch transmission are between two officers).

7:55pm: Arrives at MTSO and joins Dedering, Remiker, Lenk and Jacobs for a meeting.

8pm: Meets Dedering as he arrives at MTSO at 8pm, an hour later than Dedering's report says. An 8pm arrival corroborates with Colborn being finished at Steven Avery's and back at MTSO.

8:23pm: Calls in George Zipperer's criminal history at the request of Dedering.

8:45-8:55pm: Drives to Zipperer residence.

9:15pm: Waiting, by himself, across the street from the Zipperer residence.

9:40pm: Dedering and Remiker arrive at the Zipperer residence.

The defense received audio evidence, 10 months after the disappearance of Teresa Halbach, from a department that was being accused of framing Steven Avery. The audio was in a format that is not standard to CAD systems. This leaves room for error in witness testimony, police reports, and putting pieces together at a later date. It also allows for the story to change over the years if holes are poked into the theory, as we see happened.

If MTSO wasn't trying to alter the perception of when these calls were made, WHY were they recorded to a different audio format and the timestamps stripped?

Lynn starts her shift for MTSO dispatch at 2pm. It has been said by a reliable source this time, 2pm, is very close to the time that Rahmlow notified Colborn. It has also been said by that same reliable source that Mr William Siebert, the man who saw the RAV4 being driven with a white jeep, saw these cars around 4pm on 11/4.

It is very unlikely that the flyover from 2-6PM on 11/4, concentrated for the majority of the time west of Mishicot and Avery Auto Salvage, would have interfered with MTSO Andy Colborn planting the RAV4 with an accomplice. By 4pm, as Mr Siebert estimates, the plane was already well west, over Calumet County.

There are only two times when Colborn can logically make this call to fit with chronology and all other facts: (1) On his way to the Zipperer residence on 11/3 when he tells Remiker "negative" on knowing who the license plates come back to; or (2) After being notified of the RAV4 by Rahmlow midday on 11/4.

Colborn lied about when the call was made....WHY lie??? Only ONE reason and ONE reason only: he HAD to lie about the call because he WAS looking at the car at the time he called in the plates.

Colborn made the call at approximately 3:15pm on 11/4 into their Spanish speaking line from his cell phone. This could be verified by dispatch logs and Colborn's cell records.

'Making a Murderer' case tainted, experts say
John Ferak, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
January 26, 2016

There was one simple way to avoid the allegations that Steven Avery was framed, say national law enforcement experts, and that was to keep Manitowoc County Sheriff's officers away from the investigation.

Authorities assured the public from the start of the investigation into the murder of Teresa Halbach in early November 2005 that Manitowoc County wouldn't be involved because of a pending $36 million wrongful conviction lawsuit Avery had filed against the county over his mistaken rape conviction in 1985. Calumet County took over the Halbach investigation and prosecution.

"The Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department’s role in this investigation was to provide resources for us when they were needed,” then-Calumet County Sheriff Jerry Pagel told the media in 2005. “As we needed items on the property to conduct searches, they provided that piece of equipment and that’s their role and their only role in this investigation."

Special prosecutor Ken Kratz echoed Pagel’s remarks, saying “the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement community was very sensitive to any appearance at all of conflict."

In mid-October 2005 — less than a month before Halbach was killed — Avery’s civil lawyers, Walt Kelly and Stephen Glynn, asserted that Avery could have been exonerated eight years earlier than he was if Manitowoc County Sheriff's Sgt. Andrew Colborn hadn't disregarded information a Brown County detective gave him in a 1995 phone call that pointed the finger at another suspect in the 1985 rape. Avery's lawyers also said Lt. James Lenk learned about the call but did nothing.

Once it was known that Halbach had gone missing, Lenk and Colborn disregarded their obvious conflict of interest, experts said. The detectives volunteered to play an active role in the murder investigation that focused from the outset on Avery, their court testimony reflects. Colborn testified he drove out to the Avery Salvage Yard to interview Avery.

“By acknowledging a conflict right at the start, you have to walk the walk and live by that,” said Gregg McCrary, a prominent retired FBI agent who teaches policing at Marymount University in Arlington, Va. “It’s not just something to say, but something to do. The one overriding issue is the integrity of this investigation. You can’t compromise that. This goes to public perception of law enforcement.”

Lenk testified at Avery’s trial that he never disclosed to Pagel nor to either of the lead investigators, Mark Wiegert of Calumet County and Tom Fassbender of the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, that Lenk was embroiled in Avery’s eight-figure lawsuit against his employer.

In the days leading up to Avery’s arrest on murder charges, Lenk made Avery's bedroom his obsession, testimony from the Avery trial reflects. Lenk sought to find sufficient evidence to tie Avery to Halbach’s disappearance to secure Avery's arrest. Lenk inspected Avery’s bedroom a handful of times between Nov. 5-8, 2005 — all while the public and press were under the impression Manitowoc County was not gathering evidence against Avery.

“Everybody gets tainted when this goes on,” McCrary said. “Both Manitowoc and Calumet County Sheriff’s Offices are now stained by this. It’s a big problem. They just created this huge problem for themselves for this case. Here, it was unusual to have officers involved in a civil lawsuit also actively investigating the crime, when local authorities announced they would not play a role. Nobody can throw stones or make any allegations if you’re not involved in this case. They opened this door for conspiracy theories themselves."

“Initially, it was quite appropriate for them to recuse themselves from the case,” said Jim Trainum, a nationally recognized crime consultant and former homicide detective in Washington, D.C. “However, it appears they were more interested in the public perception than the reality of it.”

Pagel, who retired as the Calumet sheriff in 2010, did not return messages seeking comment.

The events of Nov. 8, 2005 were a watershed moment for both the Avery murder investigation and the fate of Avery’s $36 million civil lawsuit against Manitowoc County.

In the days leading up to Nov. 8, Sgt. Bill Tyson of Calumet County acted like a pit bull at the Avery property. He made sure no Manitowoc County officers wandered around the Avery property alone.

But he saw Colborn, Lenk and fellow Manitowoc County detective Dave Remiker at the scene. “It was told to me that no Manitowoc County deputy should be alone on the property,” Tyson later testified.

Tyson was not on duty at the Avery property on Nov. 8. That day, Calumet County deputy Dan Kucharski was assigned to the Avery trailer.

Colborn and Lenk showed up yet again. Kucharski testified that nobody told him Colborn and Lenk were not to be left alone. “I was doing other things. I was taking photographs. I was searching the night stand,” Kucharski testified.

Colborn and Lenk remained preoccupied with Avery's bedroom. When Kucharski turned away, the two Manitowoc County detectives converged near Avery’s bed and a small bookcase. Suddenly, Lenk made a startling discovery.

“Lt. Lenk said something to the effect of, ‘There is a key on the floor here,’” Colborn testified.

The next day, Avery was arrested. By Nov. 11, Kratz declared that Avery would be charged with first-degree intentional homicide. “The key located in the bedroom of Steve Avery’s residence was successfully used in the ignition of the Toyota RAV4 owned by Teresa M. Halbach,” the criminal complaint stated.

The two Manitowoc County detectives had found a critical piece of evidence, and under highly suspicious circumstances. The key contained Avery’s DNA. But the blue lanyard and lone ignition key on a black plastic clasp didn’t contain Halbach’s DNA.

Kucharski testified he previously searched the bedroom carpet and didn’t see the key.

Once Avery was jailed on a murder charge, Avery's $36 million civil lawsuit was effectively ruined. Two of the last remaining depositions, against former sheriff Tom Kocourek, and former prosecutor Denis Vogel, were canceled.

While in jail, Avery settled his lawsuit against Manitowoc County for $400,000. Avery’s cut of the settlement was needed to hire top-notch criminal defense lawyers Jerome Buting and Dean Strang.

"It was unusual to have officers involved in civil lawsuits also actively investigating the (Halbach) crime, especially when local authorities announced they would not play a role at all," said Lisa Kern Griffin, a professor at Duke Law School and a former federal prosecutor in Chicago. "It was an extraordinary situation because of the pending lawsuit. There should have been stronger measures in place to make sure the conflict did not impact the investigation or appear to."

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin made numerous attempts to reach Colborn and Lenk for comment for this story. Colborn did not return multiple phone messages left at his office seeking comment. On Jan. 19, Colborn sent an email to the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin stating "all these allegations against Mr. Lenk, myself and our agency are totally false. ..."

By March 1, 2006, Calumet County's Wiegert had obtained a spoon-fed confession from Avery’s mentally challenged 16-year-old nephew, Brendan Dassey. On March 1 and 2, police swarmed the Avery Salvage Yard property again. Authorities previously did an intensive eight-day-long search of the property in early November.

Back then, multiple shotgun shells were scattered across the concrete floor of Avery's garage, yet none were found to contain any blood, DNA or trace evidence from the murder victim.

This time, the investigators weren’t just from Calumet County and the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation.

Manitowoc County’s top detective, Lenk, was back on the Avery property, court testimony showed.

This time, bullet fragments and a nearly intact bullet were found. A state crime lab technician later testified that ammunition contained Halbach's DNA.

Lenk and Colborn did not realize their recurring presence at the Avery crime scene would prompt Avery's lawyers, Buting and Strang, to spin a courtroom narrative accusing them of planting blood and manufacturing false evidence, national experts said.

Consider this:

It was the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office — not Calumet County — that initially took control of the Avery junkyard and Halbach's Toyota RAV4 at 10:54 a.m. Nov. 5, 2005. This was about 30 minutes after Halbach's cousin, Pamela Sturm, a longtime former private investigator, reported she located the Toyota RAV4 shortly after obtaining permission to search Avery's expansive 40-acre scrapyard, which contained about 3,800 vehicles.

Court documents show Lenk put himself on duty around noon after being made aware of the vehicle's discovery that Saturday.

But his activities and movements cast a shadow of suspicion when he took the stand during Avery's trial. Lenk's behavior was highlighted in last month's blockbuster Netflix documentary, "Making A Murderer."

At a pretrial deposition, Lenk testified he didn't arrive at the Avery property until after dark, probably 6:30 or 7 p.m. At the trial, he testified he arrived closer to 2 p.m. Outside agencies began keeping a log of police officers coming and going around 2:30 p.m. The log shows no entry for Lenk, but showed Lenk, Colborn and Remiker signed out together shortly after 10:40 p.m.

Court documents indicate Calumet County took control of Halbach's SUV from Manitowoc County at about 3:05 p.m. Remiker was one of the first deputies to observe the discovery of Halbach's SUV. He stayed on the property and searched Avery's trailer and detached garage the next day.

Manitowoc County would have had roughly four hours to plant evidence within Halbach's vehicle before Calumet County officially took control of the RAV4 — and possibly many more hours than that if Manitowoc County detectives already knew about the existence of Halbach's SUV before it was officially found.

Colborn arrived at the Avery property shortly after 5 p.m. on Nov. 5, court documents reflect.

Lenk had access to Avery's blood vial that had been stored in a box at the Manitowoc County Courthouse because he wrote a report in 2002 submitting the package to the crime lab in Madison for DNA testing.

After Halbach's vehicle was hauled off the Avery property, a tiny amount of Avery's blood turned up near the key ignition.

Lenk and Colborn's decision to put themselves into the center of the Halbach murder investigation made it easy for Avery's defense lawyers to suspect them of fabricating evidence and planting blood to frame Avery, the experts said.

“Having full knowledge of the lawsuit by Avery against them, they should have avoided participating in the investigation, giving up all  authority to another agency,” said James Adcock, a forensic consultant on homicides with the Center for the Resolution of Unresolved Crime, in Memphis, Tenn.

“If that had happened, we would not have seen the two main detectives in the search or for that matter anywhere near the case. I do not feel the detectives planted evidence but their mere presence, while under the lawsuit cloud, gives the appearance of improprieties and that is all that is needed as a conflict of interest,” Adcock said. “Without that appearance, there was no case for the defense.”

At trial, Colborn was forced to explain why he methodically called in the license plate and the model and year of Halbach's vehicle to one of his sheriff's dispatchers on Nov. 3, 2005 while out on road patrol — two days before Halbach's SUV was located.

"Lynn, can you run Sam-William-Henry 582?" Colborn asks.

"OK, it shows she's a missing person. And it lists it to Teresa Halbach."

"OK," Colborn responded.

"That's what your looking for, Andy?"

"Oh, '99 Toyota?" Colborn followed up.

"Yep."

"OK, thank you."

When Halbach's vehicle was discovered two days later, its plates were missing. Police found the plates thrown into another junked vehicle at the Avery property.

"Were you looking at these plates when you called them in?" Strang asked Colborn during the murder trial.

"No, sir," Colborn testified. "... I should not have been and I was not looking at the license plate."

Trainum said Manitowoc County deputies could have remained on the outer perimeter of the Avery property, just like the media or curious spectators gather near a taped-off crime scene.

It would have been acceptable for sheriff's detectives to remain at their offices in downtown Manitowoc to field calls as consultants. They could have given advice to Calumet County including useful background information surrounding Avery, his acquaintances or their knowledge of the Avery Salvage Yard, Trainum said.

By not doing any of that, Colborn and Lenk cast suspicion upon themselves by finding the first significant clue located inside of Avery's bedroom — the Halbach ignition key also containing Avery's DNA within days of Pagel declaring Manitowoc County would not be directly involved.

Furthermore, it was revealed during Avery's trial that Colborn’s written reports of his involvement in the Halbach case were less than a half of a sheet of paper. Colborn chose not to mention in his written reports that he was present when he and Lenk found the spare ignition key under questionable circumstances.

"By them physically being there when there was no reason to be and nothing to contribute at that point, it raises eyebrows," said Trainum, the criminal case review consultant in Washington, D.C. "As cops, we start to look for evidence to confirm our theory rather than evidence to test that theory. That brings so much doubt to me on the verdict itself. They opened the door for that, so shame on them.”

"Making A Murderer" also shows Colborn escorting prisoner Dassey back to the courtroom on the night of jury verdict. As the guilty verdict is being read, Colborn has a front row seat in the courtroom, overlooking Dassey's shoulder.

Colborn, who lost in the 2006 election to become Manitowoc County's Sheriff, is now the lieutenant in charge of his agency's detective bureau. He was promoted after Lenk retired a few years ago.

Trainum said the Halbach investigation makes a compelling case study for other police professionals to analyze whether the murder investigation “was done fairly.”

“There’s doubt and a lot of doubt, so how can we learn in the future to prevent this from happening again?” he asked. “Other people allowed these things to happen. Where were both of the sheriffs? Where was the (investigation’s) supervisors? Shame on them. They should have all said, ‘Sorry, guys, I’m not going to let you in.'”

Awards:

• Lenk, Colborn honored for work on Avery case
• Fassbender Receives Award for Investigative Work
• Wiegert's work on Halbach case leads to top police honor