The Mishicot High School Interrogation of Brendan Dassey
In early 2006, the case against Steven Avery for the murder of Teresa Halbach was in trouble, despite a highly publicized and costly investigation. Steven Avery’s blood had been identified as present in the Halbach vehicle. But, a vial of his blood was discovered, unsealed and easily accessible, at the Manitowoc County Courthouse. The Sheriff’s department evidence custodian claimed he did not oversee the storage or transfer of evidence at the courthouse. The specter of tampered evidence arose.
There was no evidence placing Halbach in the Steven Avery home or garage. Bones were discovered in plain sight after several days of searching the area and after finding burned parts of electronics in the same area.
A key, presumably the key to the Halbach RAV4 was discovered in Avery’s bedroom, but this was discovered only after several searches and by Manitowoc County deputies who should not have been involved. DNA from Avery was identified on this key, but that could have been transfer DNA. And mysteriously, no other DNA and no fingerprints were found on the key.
At this point, the State had too much time and expense allocated to take a fresh look at the evidence. And there appeared to be a mandate, possibly from the Wisconsin Department of Justice, to get Steven Avery, the symbol for false convictions, for the crime. The desired outcome was cast in stone. Wisconsin Special Investigator Tom Fassbender even demanded that Wisconsin Crime Lab DNA Analyst Sherry Culhane place Teresa Halbach inside an Avery buildings.
At least one crucial evidentiary item had been apparently overlooked by Wisconsin crime lab technicians. They opened the hood of the Halbach RAV4 to discover a disconnected battery but did not check the hood latch for evidence.
Lead investigators, Wisconsin Special Agent Tom Fassbender and Calumet County Investigator Mark Wiegert, focused on Brendan Dassey as means to solidify their case. He was the only person who did not have an alibi for that evening as far as they knew. Plus, his version of events of the evening of 31 October, 2005 was contrary to what the State wanted. They wanted to place Teresa Halbach in the Avery residence or garage. Dassey did not do that.
Wiegert’s testimony at trial was that Dassey was not a suspect at the time of the 27 February, 2006 interviews. But, earlier statements by Fassbender and Wiegert claimed that Dassey was suspected because he was crying at night and had lost weight. Fassbender claimed in a court filing that this information came from family members. The family members were never identified. The investigators did not offer any medical proof that Dassey was depressed beyond normal teenage episodes, and they did not demonstrate that Dassey had lost enough weight to cause a health concern. Certainly, Dassey did not appear to be morbidly underweight. At the outset of this interrogation, he was not evasive. He did not show signs of remorse or guilt. He attempted to cooperate with the investigators, but these attempts were dismissed or ignored.
Contrary to sworn testimony by Fassbender and Wiegert, the Mishicot interview was an interrogation rather than an interview. In this interrogation, the investigators constantly stated that Dassey was feeling bad and that Teresa Halbach’s body was in the fire. About one‑third through the session, they also stated that Halbach’s RAV4 was in Avery’s Garage. These two started from the beginning claiming that Dassey felt bad because he had seen Teresa Halbach in the bonfire of 31 October, 2005.
For the first half‑hour of the interrogation, Dassey attempted cooperation. The investigators refused his information and fed Dassey their own information.
The session began with lengthy monologs by Fassbender stating that Dassey had things that were bothering him and all Dassey had to do was to state what the problems were, and he would feel better.
When Dassey explained that he was concerned about his uncle in jail and had girlfriend problems, the investigators did not let up. They continually stated that Dassey felt bad and that Halbach’s body was in the fire. When Dassey volunteered information, they told him they didn’t want to hear his statements.
Dassey told them he helped Steven Avery with the fire. The two had picked up debris and trash to place on the fire. They also put garbage bags from the Avery garage in the fire.
At one point, Tom Fassbender asked Dassey about Avery’s Suzuki. Dassey explained he helped Avery push it into Avery’s garage. Fassbender wanted to know what else was in the garage and Dassey told him; snowmobile, moped, and lawnmower. After a pause, Fassbender changed the subject.
During this time, the interrogators said things like the fire pit was where Halbach was “cooked,” and her hair, bones, foot, head, hand was visible in the fire.
In the first half ‑hour of the interview, Fassbender and Wiegert stated, either directly or framed in a question, something was bothering Dassey, or Dassey’s involvement in the Halbach murder was bothering him at least eleven times. Six times during this period, the investigators stated that there was a body or specific body parts in the fire. These statements were often the point of long speeches by Fassbender. These speeches contained the details, but at the end changed to other matters.
Even so, Dassey was still unable to satisfy Fassbender and Wiegert. His offering of information was ignored or undermined. Instead, these investigators were nagging him, insisting on information he didn’t have.
At this point, the interrogators found a wedge. Dassey had told them about the garbage bags of trash that he placed in the fire. Dassey also told them he threw some clothes in the fire. In response to an unintelligible statement by Fassbender, Brendan responded with “…some clothes like a blue shirt, some pants…”
Fassbender asked if her car was still in the garage although Dassey had stated earlier that Avery’s van, moped, and snowmobile were in the garage. Dassey didn’t respond.
After this diversion, Wiegert asked and repeated was there blood on the clothes? Dassey responded “A little bit.”
After a brief detour into the plans Avery had for the fire pit, Wiegert and Fassbender returned to the clothes. Again, either in statement or framed in a question, they began telling Dassey what they wanted to hear. These included, the clothes were girls clothes; the pants were blue jeans; the shirt was button‑down. Fassbender reiterated that there was blood on the shirt. Wiegert asked twice in quick succession, about the location of the blood.
Dassey’s response was inaudible, but likely noncommittal since the investigators quickly switched to questions about Avery. Dassey again didn’t rise to their bait, but stated that Avery got a shovel from the garage.
Fassbender launched another monolog claiming that Dassey felt bad and that Dassey saw flesh and body parts in the fire.
Due to poor recording procedure, some of the statements are inaudible. But, Dassey stated he saw toes. Fassbender suggested parts of arms, legs, and head as well as a skull.
After more leading, Dassey stated that the body parts were located underneath the burning tires, but there was no odor. But, apparently so far Dassey had not moved beyond the toes because Fassbender told him that he had to see a skull, face, or head.
Dassey replied “…somewhat.” When pressed he said he saw her forehead. Fassbender asked if it was white bone or “was there flesh.” Brendan replied, “…a little bit of flesh.” Earlier, Fassbender had stated, “We know you saw some flesh.”
This was common throughout this interrogation. The interrogators would suggest things and Dassey would reply using their words rather than his own.
The next step was to have Dassey describe the sequence. He repeated his earlier scenario of collecting items for the fire and said nothing about a body. The investigators had to prompt Dassey prior to each statement about a body or body parts. Dassey said he saw the body after Avery put a car seat in the fire.
The investigators still had to place the Halbach RAV4 in the Avery garage. Remember, that they needed to retest the hood latch and they needed to place the body in the Avery house or garage so they could get new search warrants.
They turned to the Halbach vehicle again. Wiegert asked what Avery said about the truck. Fassbender insisted that Dassey saw her “car or “RAV4”. They didn’t want to consider the statement that Avery’s Suzuki was in the Avery garage.
Brendan said he saw it parked on the other side of the street when he got home from school. Fassbender pressed to place the SUV in Avery’s garage. He didn’t get what he wanted and then changed the subject again. Wiegert turned again to the “truck.” He wanted the RAV4 location at 9:00 P.M. but didn’t get it.
Finally, the two insisted that Avery told Dassey what he did and how he did it. In essence, they were using Dassey as a proxy investigator.
Brendan mentioned something about a car or a jeep (the tape problem again).
Subsequently the investigators referred to the SUV as a car, a truck, or a jeep until they instructed Dassey what to put in his written confession. These are three distinct vehicles. They did not refer to RAV4 again nor did they ever refer to an SUV or a van.
To me, a jeep conjures up the vision of an army jeep or a boxy vehicle. A truck has a truck bed. A car can never be mistaken for an SUV. Dassey used the terms car or jeep until told to do otherwise. What was Dassey talking about when he replied? The investigators never clarified what he meant.
Dassey told the investigators that Avery had stabbed Halbach and left the knife under the seat and Avery drove the jeep to the pit.
Investigators attempted to get statements about Avery shooting Halbach but were unsuccessful. This is important since the investigators knew the fragments found in the fire pit showed evidence of a gunshot. The lack of evidence in the Avery home and garage was contrary to claims by the investigators, and they needed a way to explain.
First, Fassbender asked if Avery said he had a gun immediately followed by Wiegert, “Did you ask him about a gun?” Thus at this interrogation, investigators told Dassey that they expected a gun.
Fassbender attempted, not for the last time, to implicate Chuck Avery.
This portion is bizarre since they were asking Dassey for Avery’s account of the crime as if Avery had given a detailed explanation to his nephew. They even asked Dassey if he had asked certain specific questions as if he were the investigator.
At one point in the interrogation, Dassey was unresponsive and Wiegert demanded, “Can you say yes or no Brendan?” Brendan answered yes to that question rather than the prior question from Fassbender, “You saw her body in there?” The interrogators continued as if he answered the Fassbender question.
The two stated that “We know …” and “We heard…” which included what they wanted from Dassey many times in this session.
Also throughout this interrogation, they told Dassey that they were there to help him and they would stand behind him. At the end, they called him Bud and Wiegert offered Dassey his cell phone number if Dassey needed to talk about anything at all.
After a break, Fassbender and Wiegert returned to get the confession in writing.
by Brian McCorkle
in category Brendan Dassey
