The Blood Was Planted in the RAV4 After It Was Removed from Avery Salvage Yard

They planted blood in the RAV4 but maybe it wasn't Steven Avery's blood.

Or perhaps the blood they swabbed in Steven Avery's bathroom was labelled as the blood they found in the RAV4, while also planting blood in the RAV4 from the vial.

Or the swabs and cuttings that purportedly came from the RAV4 could have been swabs and cuttings from Avery's Grand Am. And the Grand Am swabs simply were relabeled as RAV4 swabs.

According to current post-conviction counsel's expert, Dr. Reich, the most common way for forensic evidence to be planted is by re-labeling the forensic swabs. (Affidavit of Dr. Reich, P-C Exhibit 15).

Avery's blood allegedly was found in six places in Teresa Halbach's RAV4 (front driver’s side portion, floor by the console, right of the ignition area, front passenger seat, CD case on front passenger seat, and a metal panel between the backseat and cargo area).

Nick Stahlke, a blood pattern expert from the State Crime Lab, testified the blood pattern was consistent with transfer stains and "passive drops," which are indicative of active bleeding. Similar stains and drops were found in Avery's Grand Am.



Ken Kratz argued that the blood from Steven Avery's bathroom could not have been planted in Avery's vehicle because that blood was collected by Det. Remiker and Sgt. Tyson on November 5, 2005, around 10:00-11:00 p.m. and the RAV4 was already enclosed and locked in a trailer on its way to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab in Madison.   

They waited over eight hours to tow a locked vehicle involved in a missing person case.

WI State Crime Lab Analyst John Ertl was questioned on direct examination by Fallon. Fallon was leading Ertl down the timeframe when he first arrived at Avery Salvage Yard and what he saw. Ertl explained that he got the call at noon and told law enforcement to put a tarp over the vehicle as rain was forthcoming. Ertl did not arrive at the salvage yard until 4 PM. He said “they had removed the tarp just as we arrived.” He testified that when he finally got to the RAV4 after checking in, all the doors were locked and he looked inside shining a flashlight. This is at about 4:30 PM, a big gap of time from when the car was first discovered six hours earlier, at around 10:30 AM.

John Ertl said he then administered the loading of the RAV4 by a wrecker into a covered trailer for transport from the salvage yard to the State Crime Lab at 4626 University Avenue in Madison.

Fassbender testified at Avery's trial that they started loading the RAV4 onto a storage trailer around 7:30 PM on Saturday, November 5th:

Q. What was done with the vehicle, if you know, and were you involved in that?

A. Yes, I was involved in that, to a degree. Probably about 7:30-ish, that evening, with the rain coming down, I was asked to take the wrecker service, Rabas Wrecker Service, down to the area by the car crusher. Another, I guess, wrecker service was also there, Pethan -- Pethan, out of Calumet County. They had an enclosed trailer that could carry vehicles. They were also there, came down to that location. At that point, the Crime Lab personnel that were there accompanied the wrecker operator over to the RAV4 location where they hooked up the RAV4 and towed it back to the location by the car crusher, where the enclosed trailer was waiting, and they backed it into that enclosed trailer and secured it in that enclosed trailer.

[...]

Q. How was it loaded on the vehicle, was it started up or something?

A. No, the wrecker operator backed it into that trailer. There was a ramp set out and the wrecker operator backed it right up into that trailer and then it was secured.

Fassbender also testified that people were signing off from the scene around 10 PM on Saturday, November 5th:

Q. All right. Would you make note of the last page, which is toward the end of the day when people signing off. You said around 10:00 people were knocking off on -- this is the first Friday, November 5th -- I'm sorry, Saturday, November 5th?

A. Yes. 

Q. Most of the investigation detectives were leaving around 10-ish, something like that?

A. Ten, eleven, sure.

Ertl said he left the Avery property at 8:45 p.m. (the driver hauling the RAV4 on an enclosed trailer also left at this time, as did DA Ken Kratz). Ertl said the RAV4 on the enclosed trailer arrived in Madison at 1:15 a.m. on Sunday morning. Ertl said he called a local wrecker to remove the RAV4 from the trailer. Ertl said he finished securing the RAV4 in the crime lab at about 2:00 a.m. Was Kratz with him?

The RAV4, on an enclosed trailer, began its journey to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab, 160 miles from Avery Salvage Yard, at 8:45 PM on Saturday, November 5th. It didn't arrrive until 1:15 AM. The defense never asked any witnesses about why it took four hours for the RAV4 to arrive at the Wisconsin State Crime Lab in Madision when the trip, per Google Maps, should have taken 2 hours and 45 minutes at the latest.
 
Were there stops along the way? If so, was the blood planted then? Or was the blood planted after it was secured at the crime lab at 2 AM on Sunday, November 6th, and before Groffy began his work later that morning?

Interestingly, Ken Kratz left Avery Salvage Yard on November 5th at the exact same time as Nick Mursburger, the man driving the RAV4 to the crime lab on the enclosed trailer.



Everyone reported that all the doors were locked when the RAV4 was found on the Avery property around 10:30 a.m. on November 5th.

When the photographer arrived at the crime lab "mid morning" on November 6th, he found the driver's door of the RAV4 unlocked.

Somehow, someone unlocked the driver's door after it left the Avery property. But the next morning, when the photographer arrived at the crime lab, the driver's door was unlocked when it shouldn't have been.

Cpl. Chris Wendorf of CASO reported that he was given a key to the RAV4 on November 11th, and the key was made in order to enter the RAV4 "as the original key had not been located at the time they had received the vehicle."

"Also given to me by MEIER was a key the WI STATE CRIME LAB had made in order to enter the Toyota RAV4 vehicle as the original vehicle key had not been located at the time they had received the vehicle." [Page 230] 

The key that Lenk and Colborn found in Avery's bedroom on November 8th was the valet key to Teresa's RAV4. Teresa's key chain with her master car keys, house key and studio key was never found.

Here's the photograph of the valet key with its evidence label.

http://www.stevenaverycase.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/exhibit-key-4.jpg


The key found in Steve Avery's trailer was not the master key. It was the valet key.

Source - Reddit / Toyota RAV4 Manual
https://www.reddit.com/r/MakingaMur...s_anyone_have_a_high_resolution_photo_of_the/










Side-by-side comparison of Teresa Halbach’s purported lanyard attached to the key found on Avery's bedroom floor (left) and the key collected into evidence as having been found on the bedroom floor (right)

EXCLUSIVE: NEW STEVEN AVERY VIDEO PROVES HE WAS FRAMED,‘MAKING A MURDERER’ DEFENSE ATTORNEY SAYS (VIDEO AT LINK)

BY JOSH SAUL, NEWSWEEK

December 12, 2017

A never-before-seen video shows that evidence against the subject of the hit documentary Making a Murderer must have been planted or fabricated, defense attorney Kathleen Zellner tells Newsweek.

The video is one of multiple experiments Zellner conducted to show faults in key evidence used to convict Steven Avery of murder in his 2007 trial. Zellner described the videos in court papers she filed this summer as part of his appeal, and she filed the actual videos with the court on Friday.

One of the videos shows an experiment where Zellner tried to re-create the chain of events police and prosecutors said led them to find a key belonging to Avery’s victim near a bookshelf in his bedroom after they had searched the room multiple times. Another of the videos shows a blood spatter experiment, during which Zellner and her team dripped blood on and inside a car to disprove a central prosecutorial theory.

“It shows the case is a complete fraud,” Zellner told Newsweek, referring to the bookshelf experiment. “I don’t know how long this case will take me, but it’s going to fall apart.”

Avery was convicted of murdering Teresa Halbach, a photographer who was killed sometime after driving to the Avery family’s auto salvage yard in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin on Halloween for work in 2005.

This photo was shown at Steven Avery's trial and shows a key that allegedly belongs to murder victim Teresa Halbach where it was found in Avery's bedroom. Defense attorney Kathleen Zellner conducted an experiment she says proves police planted the key there to frame Avery.

The case received international attention in late 2015 with the release of the Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, which led many to believe Avery had been framed. (The documentary also recounted Avery’s wrongful conviction for a 1985 rape in Manitowoc County and how he served 18 years in prison before that conviction was overturned.)

Avery’s bedroom had been searched multiple times before the key to Halbach’s Rav4 was discovered lying next to the bookcase. At the trial, police and prosecutors said the key had been hidden inside the bookcase. They said a police officer put a photo album into the bookcase, knocking the key out onto the floor.

But Zellner says her experiment, carried out with an identical bookcase she purchased at an antique shop, clearly shows the key was planted by police because there’s no possible way it could have ended up in that position after falling out of the bookcase.

“Cases are won on those kinds of details,” Zellner said. “There’s no way with the forces of gravity that it would end up by the slippers.”

Another of the videos Zellner filed with the court is of an experiment she conducted with human blood to show that the spatters inside the Rav4 were definitely planted and could not have been left by Avery—who had earlier cut his hand—without his getting blood on other parts of the vehicle, she said.

Zellner has a long history of success with unorthodox experiments: She once dropped a headless lamb in a creek as part of a successful bid to exonerate a father who had been arrested for murdering his daughter.

A county judge in October denied Avery’s motion for a new trial, but the appeal will now be considered by a Wisconsin appeals court, according to online court records.

She has spent about $233,000 on experts in her drive to prove Avery innocent. Of that, $175,000 was her own money and the rest came from the Midwest Innocence Project, the Avery family and donations.

Although Lenk says he found the key, it was logged in and processed by Kucharski of CCSD and has a CCSD evidence log number. It is item No. 7620 for case report 05-179. Why was it is not listed on the Calumet County Sheriff log? Was it because it was still at the Crime Lab?

WI State Crime Lab Analyst John Ertl testified on direct examination on day 6 (page 20). Kratz didn’t have duties for this witness. Is this because Kratz and Ertl, who left Avery Salvage Yard at the same time as the driver who towed the RAV4 to the crime lab, were at the crime lab together when it arrived at 1:15 a.m. on November 6th?

Instead, it was Fallon asking the questions for the prosecution. Fallon lead Ertl down the timeframe when he first arrived at Avery Salvage Yard and what he saw. Very important to note, during testimony Ertl explains, he got the call at noon and did not arrive at ASY until 4 PM on November 5th. He told LE at noon via phone to put a tarp over the vehicle as rain was forthcoming, and “they had removed the tarp just as we arrived” (page 15). He states when he finally got to the car after checking in, all the doors were locked and he looked inside shining a flashlight. He said there was no blood visible inside the vehicle when at ASY.

WI State Crime Lab Forensic Imaging Specialist Ronald Groffy photographed the car on Sunday, November 6th. The time when he did this work isn’t given specifically at trial. But he was the first person to take pictures at the crime lab, that is known. 

Neither Kratz nor Fallon questioned him at trial. He was questioned by Gahn, who walked him through Exhibits 289 through 305, totally focusing on the blood in the photographs. On cross examination (day 10, page 64), he stated the driver’s door was unlocked when he got there, and all other doors were locked. This contradicts Nicole Sturm's and Ertl's testimony of all doors being locked while at ASY.

WI State Crime Lab Forensic Imaging Specialist Ronald Groffy photographed the RAV4 on Sunday, November 6th. The time he started this work wasn’t given specifically at trial, but it is known that he was the first person to take pictures at the crime lab.

Neither Kratz nor Fallon questioned him at trial. He was questioned by Gahn, who walked him through Exhibits 289 through 305, totally focusing on the blood in the photographs. On cross examination, he stated that when he got there all the doors were locked except for the driver’s door. This contradicts Nicole Sturm's and John Ertl's testimonies that of all the doors were locked while it was at Avery Salvage Yard.

Per witness statements and testimony, there was no blood visible inside the RAV4 at 4:30 PM on Saturday, November 5th, but definitely there was blood in Groffy's photographs taken on Sunday, November 6th.

CASO, Page 230

DATE OF ACTIVITY: 11/11/05
REPORTING OFFICER: Cpl. Chris Wendorf

On 11/11/05 at 1000 hours, I (Cpl. CHRIS WENDORF of the CALUMET COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT) was asked to report to the sheriff's department for a scheduled trip to Madison to retrieve two vehicles with tow units.

At 1045 hours on same date, Lt. JOHN BYRNES of the CALUMET COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT and I did leave from the Chilton area en route with SCOTT'S TOWING's flatbed operated by BRYAN ROEHRIG, and DAN'S TOWING's flatbed operated by DAN BANGART.

At 1300 hours, we did arrive at the WI STATE CRIME LAB on University Avenue in Madison, WI and did take possession of a blue, 4-door, Toyota RAV4 vehicle with the VIN of JT3HP10V5X7113044, and a 1993 Pontiac Grand Am with a VIN of 1G2NW14N9PC726145. This evidence was collected from LUCY A. MEIER, a WI STATE CRIME LAB technician at 1300 hours. Also given to me was the hood of a Rambler vehicle.

The two vehicles were loaded on the flatbed tow trucks. The Toyota RAV4 was loaded on the SCOTT'S TOWING flatbed along with the hood of the Rambler strapped to the flatbed undemeath the Toyota RAV4. The Pontiac Grand Am was loaded onto the DAN'S TOWING flatbed unit.

Also given to me by MEIER was a key the WI STATE CRIME LAB had made in order to enter the Toyota RAV4 vehicle as the original vehicle key had not been located at the time they had received the vehicle.

Also while at the WI STATE CRIME LAB, I had delivered an envelope addressed to the WI STATE CRIME LAB that had been given to me by Deputy HAWKINS that did contain evidence with a Buccal swab from STEVEN AVERY and palm and print cards from CHARLES AVERY, EARL AVERY and BOBBY DASSEY. This evidence package was turned over to SUE E. GITCHEL of the WISCONSIN STATE CRIME LAB and taken by her at 1323 hours on same date. GITCHEL did give me a Receipt of Physical Evidence form, which will be submitted to the Deputy HAWKINS, the evidence custodian.

At 1330 hours, we did depart from the WI STATE CRIME LAB in Madison en route to Chilton storage units. During the return trip, I did have constant visual of the TOYOTA RAV4 and there was no entry made to the vehicle by anyone. The vehicle did not come off the tow unit until 1540 hours when we arrived at the Chilton storage units where the vehicles were stored.

The Toyota RAV4 was stored in unit #7 of the storage units off of Mary Avenue in the City of Chilton. I did personally view the offloading of the vehicle and did utilize the key that had been made to turn the wheels so that it could be placed inside the storage unit. I then did tape the vehicle doors with evidence tape and initial, date and time stamp such evidence tape. The unit was then closed and locked with a fresh, brand new Master Lock key lock that had been removed from its packaging.

Lt. BYRNES did remain with the Pontiac Grand Am and he did evidence tape seal the doors to that vehicle and initial that evidence tape as well. See supplemental report from Lt. BYRNES.

At that point, I did also close the garage door to storage unit I of the same complex and opened a fresh Master Lock key lock from the packaging and used that to secure the garage door.

Evidence tags were filled out and placed under the windshield wipers of the vehicles secured in the storage units. Property Tag No. 8027 belongs to the Toyota RAV4 and Property Tag No. 8028 is for the Pontiac Grand Am.

The vehicles were stored in the storage units off of Mary Avenue and a key copy that was made for the Toyota RAV4 was brought back to the sheriff's department along with keys for the Master Locks used to secure the garage doors.

The following sets of keys were bagged, sealed and labeled for evidence and submitted to the evidence storage area in the evidence room at the CALUMET COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT:

• Bag No. I with Property Tag No. 8037 is a key copy for the Toyota RAV4 that was made by the WI STATE CRIME LAB, collected at 1300 hours, same time vehicles were collected. .
• Bag No. 2 with Properly Tag No. 8038 contains two Master Lock keys for storage unit #7. This storage unit contains the Toyota RAV4 and the hood for the Rambler.
• Bag No. 3 with Property Tag No. 8039 contains two Master Lock keys for storage unit I, which contains the Pontiac Grand Am.

Evidence bags and property tags, along with evidence, were deposited in Locker #1 of the storage area to await the property custodian for proper logging. This was done at approximately 1930 hours after Sgt. TYSON did retum and open the evidence area.

Cpl. Chris Wendorf
Calumet Co. Sheriff s Dept.
CW/bdg

http://www.stevenaverycase.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/exhibit-RAV4-evidence.jpg