Full Story: Did Steven Avery do it? Ask a Wisconsinite

Steven Avery was framed, right? That’s the certainty of millions who have watched the hit Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer.

That unshakable confidence in Avery’s innocence, however, isn’t so widespread in northeast Wisconsin, where Teresa Halbach, Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey are real people with families and friends and a shared history that has indelibly marked the communities they called home.

The gulf between the documentary’s version of events and prosecutors’ version nearly a decade ago couldn’t be wider. It’s disconcerting for me and my colleagues who have covered this case from the beginning.

I led a coverage team of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin journalists who witnessed every second of the Steven Avery trial, and this is what I’m certain about: Three families were torn apart by Teresa’s terrible death and none of them will ever be made whole again no matter what happens in the justice system.

The uncertainties of the case are legion, and they’re heartbreaking. There are the police agencies that are at best tone-deaf to public perception and at worst terrifyingly corrupt. There is the smug and now-disgraced district attorney who seemed to relish the media attention more than the pursuit of truth. There are the families — Teresa’s and Steven’s and Brendan’s — desperately trying to hold on to their versions of the truth because the alternatives are too horrifying to consider.

Steven Avery of 'Making a Murderer' files motions for release

The facts of Teresa’s murder, if they haven’t already been revealed, might never be. The truth is that the case is far more complex than the black-and-white versions presented in 2007 by prosecutors in a courtroom in Chilton, Wis., and today by filmmakers in a Netflix documentary.

That uncertainty isn’t satisfying, but it’s true to the tragedy of Teresa Halbach’s murder.

Joel Christopher is the vice president of news for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. On Twitter: @j_christo

Hear Joel and colleague Terry Lipshetz discuss the Avery case — their remembrances, their perspective on the community's mood and their approach in presenting information to satisfy a broader audience's sudden interest — on The Full Story, USA TODAY Network's new podcast about journalism, hosted by Jim Lenahan and Shannon Rae Green.

Stream or download the episode here: