GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Next month marks 18 years since Teresa Halbach’s disappearance and death.
Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, are both serving life sentences for the young woman’s murder. Their cases gained worldwide attention after the 2015 release of “Making a Murderer.”
A new series on DailyWire+ is aimed at setting the record straight about the case.
“I’m not going to make the same mistake that the filmmakers did,” strong words from conservative political commentator, author and activist Candance Owens, in the trailer for “Convicting a Murderer.” Six years in the making, the series, now available on streaming service DailyWire+.
According to producer, Shawn Rech,”This is not a political piece of work. You’re watching a clinical investigation that was painstakingly executed and we’ll take any heat we get if we make any mistakes.”
Instead, it’s the antithesis of “Making a Murderer” the viral true crime series from Netflix that examined the Steve Avery case.
“The purpose of the series is to fill in the blanks that were left out by “Making a Murderer. We decided to tell the whole story and somewhat repair the reputations of the people who were left in the wake of this docu-series that came out in 2015.”
One of those people is Tom Fassbender. A retired DCI agent with State of Wisconsin’s Department of Justice, Fassbender was one of the main investigators on the Avery/Dassey case.
While Fassbender knows the juries, that found Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey guilty, brought justice to Teresa Halbach, he also believes “Making a Murderer” revictimized her family and many others.
Refusing to stay silent, he’s one of the voices in Convicting a Murderer.
“The reason I wanted, to see something or wanted it to happen is for the real victims in this whole case and that’s the Halbachs and justice for Teresa,” said Fassbender. “Secondary, all the law enforcement agencies and non-law enforcement agencies that came together and did a unbelievable job on this case. It’s ludicrous to think that their theory, their narrative is factual.”
Fassbender and producers say the 10-part series they’ve created is factual. It includes interviews with Avery’s family.
“We never imagined we’d have access to. We never imagined we’d be able to film on the Avery salvage yard. We never imagined they’d give us trunks of videos and family photos and they did. So, even they cooperated,” said Rech.
The series also looks at Avery’s extensive criminal history, incidents and crimes “Making a Murderer” omitted.
Fassbender is hesitant to call it a redemption piece, because he doesn’t think anyone needs to be redeemed, saying those who worked on the case got convictions and did everything by the book. He just hopes those who bought into the narrative of “Making a Murderer” will give “Convicting a Murderer” a chance.
“My hope is that they’ll see this show that shows everything “Making a Murderer” didn’t show, the other side and the truth of the matter and they’ll expose some of those edits that people should find alarming and some of the mistruths spoken the producers about their objectivity,” adds Fassbender.
While the first episode of “Convicting a Murderer” is free to watch on X, formerly known as Twitter, viewers will have to subscribe to DailyWire+ to see the series in its entirety.
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