Brother From ‘Making A Murderer’ Claims To Have First-Hand Evidence That Will Prove Avery’s Innocence

The Dateline and Investigation Discovery follow-up specials to Making a Murderer promised a lot but didn’t deliver much. Both series worked well as catch-up guides for new viewers, but many up-to-date fans of the Netflix original series were disappointed. However, as we learned last night, the two specials have indirectly led to a pretty interesting development. Access Hollywood watched the Dateline special with the Avery family, and Steven Avery’s younger brother, Earl, gave his first on-camera interview. The big takeaway? Earl claims that he has first hand evidence about the victim’s car, which will help prove that Avery is innocent.

If you haven’t seen Making a Murderer yet, c’mon. It’s February. The 10-part docu-series follows Wisconsin native, Steven Avery, a man who was imprisoned for sexual assault but exonerated by DNA evidence 18 years later. Avery is only free for a few months before he becomes the lead suspect in the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach. Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, are currently in prison for the crime. The series explores the shady investigation and our biased legal system through Avery’s case. The docu-series poses the question “What if Avery is innocent? And what if the Manitowoc police department planted evidence on Avery?” It’s an argument that’s caused so many questions that President Obama has had to address the case.

This past weekend, Dateline and Investigation Discovery aired two follow-up specials, both promising to unveil new details about the viral case. Both specials were a bit disappointing for die-hard viewers of the case but served as good catch-up guides for what happened during and after the series. Dateline’s special revealed that Avery’s new lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, believes she has enough evidence to free Avery. Meanwhile, Investigation Discovery’s biggest takeaway in Steven Avery: Innocent or Guilty? was that the docu-series downplayed Avery’s disturbing animal abuse charge. Stephanie Bower, a reporter for Access Hollywood, watched the Dateline special with the Avery family and conducted the first on-camera interview from Earl Avery, Steven’s younger brother.

In the interview, Earl doubts the prosecution’s claims that Halbach was murdered in Steven’s garage and that the area was cleaned up effectively. He also offered an eye witness account about one of the biggest parts of this case, Halbach’s car. According to Earl, he was rabbit hunting the night of the 31st:

We drove right through there…where that car was supposed to be. And it wasn’t there.

When asked if he ever told the police about what he saw, Earl said, “They didn’t — I don’t know. They didn’t say nothing about it.”

Steven Avery and his brother have a seemingly complicated relationship. Steven’s brothers are one of the main suspects in fan theories about the crime, and Steven actually accused both of his brothers of Halbach’s murder in January. Earl spoke to his brother for the first time in eight years last week and now claims that Steven is innocent. When asked about Steven’s allegation, Earl said:

He told me that his lawyers told him to say that. And he told me that he was frustrated that we wouldn’t talk to him or go up and see him.

And so the already complicated plot thickens. You can watch the Access Hollywood interview below: