19 Things Making A Murderer Covered Up About The Steven Avery Case

5. The Time Avery Greeted Halbach At His Home In A Towel

Further information from Ken Kratz seems to have been rather carelessly ignored. In the same interview with People, he revealed that on October 10th 2005, Halbach visited the Avery property for a photoshoot, and was greeted by Avery at his door "just wearing a towel":

"She was creeped out ... She said she would not go back because she was scared of him."

It's curious that the documentary wouldn't take the time to address that moment. Especially when Dean Strang responded to the missing evidence during an interview with Huffington Post that confirmed that the incident was "blown out of proportion." He said that two of her former Auto Trader coworkers testified as witnesses and said Halbach's reaction to Avery was more "ew" than fear, a fact backed up by an Associated Press story from Feb. 14, 2007:

"She had stated to me that he had come out in a towel," Pliszka said while the jury was outside of the courtroom. "I just said, 'Really?' and then she said, 'Yeah,' and laughed and said kinda 'Ew.'"

The AP article said the judge would not allow the testimony to be heard by the jury "because the date wasn't clear and few details were known about the alleged encounter."

Strang said "This is a good example of less significant prosecution evidence omitted and defense evidence omitted," but surely in light of the reactions to the incident not being included in the documentary, it should have been?

4. He Bought Shackles 3 Weeks Before The Murder

Pretty much all of the evidence presented in the documentary raised some doubts over the legitimacy of the case against Avery, which made for good TV, obviously, but there was a fairly sizeable missing exhibit that might have turned a few heads.

According to the criminal complaint, authorities "located items of restraints within Steven Avery's residence including hand cuffs and leg irons."

So the idea that Halbach was shackled to the bed wasn't entirely fabricated out of thin air. Some handcuffs were also found in Brendan Dassey's mother's home.

Avery apparently claimed the shackles belonged to him - "I bought them. I wanted to try out something different with Jodi (his girlfriend)" - and no DNA belonging to Avery or Dassey was found on them. So even if the documentary had mentioned them, they had a counter-argument ready made, which makes the decision not to include them all the more confusing.

Maybe he was just a fan of off-kilter sexual activity? They did also confiscate pornography in the search of his home.

3. Brendan Dassey Told His Mother He Had Allegedly Been Molested By Avery

In one recorded telephone conversation between Brendan Dassey and his mother, which was only partially included in the show, the young man told his mother that Avery had touched him and other family members inappropriately in the past. Stunningly, she seemed at least partly aware of the behaviour, though not of the sinister implications:

Mom. That Steven made you do it. You know he made you do a lot of things.

Brendan. Ya, I told them that. I even told them about Steven touching me and that.

M. What do you mean touching you?

B. He would grab me somewhere where I was uncomfortable.

M. Brendan I am your mother.

B. Ya.

M. Why didn't you come to me? Why didn't you tell me? Was this all befo.re this happened?

B. What do you mean?

M. All before this happened, did he touch you before all this stuff happened to you.

B. Ya.

M. Why didn't you come to me, because then he would have been gone then and this wouldn't have happened.

B. Ya ..

M. Yes, and you would still be here with me.

B. Yes, Well you know I did it.

M. Huh

B. You know he always touched us and that.

M. I didn't think there. He used to horse around with you guys.

B. Ya, but you remember he would always do stuff to Brian and that.

M. What do you mean.

B. Well he would like fake pumping him

M. Goofing around

B. Ya but, like that one time when he was going with what's her name Jessica .. s sister.

M. Teresa?

B. Ya. That one day when she was over, Steven and Blaine and Brian and I was downstairs and Steven was touching her and that.

That sounds pretty damning, even if it was part of the confession that was said to be coerced from Dassey. That confession was supposed to be thrown out, but the prosecution used segments of it, and it seems odd that the show-makers wouldn't include that snippet either to show the extent of the confession that was coerced from Brendan, or to show more of the complexities of the case.

The issue of the allegation that Dassey sold crack was also noticeably absent, strangely.

2. Avery's Odd Behaviour Towards Halbach

Beyond the time he appeared in a towel - which could be nothing if it was in any other context, of course - some of Avery's behaviour around Halbach was suspiciously odd to say the least. Of the details missing from the docu-series, the following are arguably the most important:

On the day of the murder, according to Auto Trader receptionist Dawn Pliszka, Avery called her on Oct. 31, 2005 "to request the photographer who had been out to the property previously." In other words, Halbach. Avery called Halbach's phone three times that day, twice using the Star-67 feature to hide his number. On the day of Halbach's appointment, prosecutors said that "Avery lured Halbach to the family salvage yard by booking an appointment with the magazine, using the name of his sister Barb Janda, to take a picture of a red minivan that Janda wanted to sell."

There's an explanation to the last one - as it was his sister's car that Halbach was due to photograph, but together with the other points, it looks like the kind of information an impartial investigation of the case might bring up.

1. Jodi Thinks Steven Is A Guilty Monster

In the series, Jodi Stachowski simply fades into the background: her involvement removed from the show when she ends her relationship with Avery in order to stop the police "messing with her".

That's nowhere near the full story, and she know asserts both that she was never in love with him (an inconsequential revelation to the case) and that she believes he's guilty.

In an interview that aired on Nancy Grace, Stachowski called Avery a monster behind closed doors, and accused him of violent abuse which led to a desperate attempt to get away from him:

"I ate two boxes of rat poison just so I could go to the hospital and get away from him and ask them to get the police to help me."

The extent of the frictions in their relationship were glossed over by the show, which seemed to paint the image of a doting girlfriend, but Stachowski now claims the directors asked her to behave in a way that "made him look good". Ultimately she declined further participation when the pair split (though she did get a threatening letter from Steven in prison), and actually asked to be removed from the show entirely. That much was never revealed either.

She has said she was compelled to speak out becausethe show is "full of a bunch of lies."

What else have you found that was missing from Making A Murderer? Share your finds, reactions and analysis below in the comments thread.