Teen details woman's horrific last hours

CNN ^ | March 3, 2006

[iPod Shuffle]

MANITOWOC, Wisconsin (AP) -- A 16-year-old boy detailed the final horrific hours of a young photographer, telling investigators he and his uncle raped and killed her when she came to a salvage lot last Halloween on a photo assignment, a criminal complaint says.

Brendan Dassey was charged Thursday with being party to homicide, mutilation of a corpse and sexual assault of Teresa Halbach.

Dassey is a nephew of 43-year-old Steven Avery, who was charged in November with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and possession of firearms by a felon in Halbach's death.

He had been released from prison in 2003 after serving 18 years for rape before being exonerated by DNA evidence.

Dassey said Halbach, 25, was shackled naked to a bed, begging for help as she was stabbed and her throat slit, according to the complaint.

[iPod Shuffle]

He had been released from prison in 2003 after serving 18 years for rape before being exonerated by DNA evidence.

I wonder if "DNA evidence" is as infallible as some make it out to be...

[Theodore R.]

I wonder about DNA evidence too. Didn't the liberals tell us that it didn't matter in the case of the popular O.J. Simpson?

[r9etb]

eesh.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

And now what? Hundreds of comments on what should be done, what should have been done, what will be done. And, nothing suitable will be done. Another day, same garbage.

[SJSAMPLE]

Exactly.
The only thing that mattered was THAT MOMENT.
Had she been armed ...

[clawrence3]

I've wondered that too, but after serving 18 years in prison getting raped yourself for a crime you didn't commit, I could understand even a formerly innocent person going crazy - I wish there were easy answers.

[Question_Assumptions]

A false DNA test is not necessarily evidence of innocense. A handful of unusual people are what is called a "chimara". They are their own twin, fused together in the womb. Think of a Saimese Twin that doesn't duplicate anything, though the cells can be mixed in other ways (e.g., inside and outside). Two women found out they were chimeras when tests showed that they were not the mother of their own children, who they knew they gave birth two. Both women had reproductive organs with different DNA than the vast majority of their blood (only a careful search would turn up the second set of DNA in the blood). If this can happen with women, it can happen with men and their semen could have different DNA than the majority of their blood. I repeat that this is incredibly rare but entirely possible, and it does make me wonder if some of the people getting off the hook are chimeras.

On the other hand, it's possible that years of false imprisonment did a job on this guys mind and also possible that he was always a potential rapist or even rapist but just didn't commit the actual rape he was convicted and imprisoned for.

[glorgau]

Yep, I could see the possibility of becoming bitter and twisted after 18 years of false imprisonment.

[Vaquero]

probably was a known sex offender....the LEO's pinned his crime it on him, a known dirt bag and pervert, but the DNA acquited him of the one charge, but he was guilty of plenty more. Or thats my one theory.....

either that or being assigned wife duty in prison made him nuts.

[Barb4Bush]

There's bad blood in that family. The eyes on that boy are so dead and frightening. There is not one ounce of humanity in him. I hope neither of them are ever free again.

[stuartcr]

That was a good one on CSI.

[downtownconservative]

Is this the guy that some university justice group help to set free? Whoever it was that came to his rescue is certainly complicit in this horrendous and sickening crime. Maybe after they beg the forgiveness of this woman's family, they should not so quietly dissolve their little social beneficient DNA-get-out-of-jail club.

[clawrence3]

I agree, not that it is an excuse - take a look at the family's web site for Teresa - it just breaks your heart:

http://www.teresahalbach.com/

[Question_Assumptions]

I don't watch CSI. I'm talking about a documentary on one of the educational cable channels and articles I've read. In many ways, it's stranger than most fiction.

[stuartcr]

The Chimara story was on CSI a couple of years ago.

[Age of Reason]

Might the mixed-up genes of chimeras make chimeras prone to violent behavior?

If so, there would be a higher percentage of chimeras in the prison population.

This would explain why the DNA of so many prisoners does not match DNA found at crime scenes.

[pawdoggie]

probably was a known sex offender....the LEO's pinned his crime it on him, a known dirt bag and pervert, but the DNA acquited him of the one charge, but he was guilty of plenty more. Or thats my one theory.....

My first guess, too. It's also possible that he may have had an accomplice (as in the Halbach case) who wasn't as fastidious about cleaning up after himself.

[iPod Shuffle]

Sad sad sad.

[threeleftsmakearight]

Now I can't help but think about the girl.
She's trying to make a living with her photography, just going about her business and she gets set up by this animal.
I don't care what happened in his past, he's subhuman, and his nephew can now continue on the path he was on, which is to contribute nothing to society...at least now he can contribute nothing from jail. Put the uncle down like a rabid dog and let the kid rot forever.