Eighteen Years Lost

**“Eighteen Years Lost”** is the first episode of the first season of *Making a Murderer*. It was written and directed by Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi. The title of the episode is a reference to the 18 years Steven Avery spent in jail for a crime he did not commit.

## Synopsis

When Steven Avery is freed from a wrongful conviction, his search for justice raises questions about the authorities who put him behind bars.

## Recap

The episode kicks off with some privately shot footage of a car driving towards Avery’s Auto Salvage. A man, who sounds a bit like Chuck, can be heard saying "Here they come... after 18 years". In the corner of the footage the time and date of the recording can be seen. It was 9 minutes past 4 in the afternoon on 9 september 2003.

In the next shot we see Steven Avery, the season's main "character", step out of the car. He has a shaved head and a long beard and he is smiling from ear to ear. He is asked how it feels and he says it feels wonderful. Many people emotionally hug him.

"*We knew he was innocent. We KNEW he was innocent*", says a woman to an interviewer. Some newspaper snippets are shown that mention how Avery was released, like so many other wrongfully convicted people, due to DNA science. Little did he know at that time that it would be DNA evidence that would send him back to prison again only few years later.

Avery's post-conviction attorney Stephen Glynn is then heard saying "*Law enforcement despised Steven Avery. Steven Avery was a shiny example of their inadequacies, their... misconduct.*

   Some old footage of an interview of the former sheriff of Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department, Tom Kocourek, is shown. He says "*Nobody intended to do anyone any harm by this, eh, we firmly believed that we had the, eh, guilty party at the time.*"

"*This was one of the biggest miscarriages of justice I ever saw in 20 years of being a defense lawyer and thousands of cases*" says Steven Avery's 1985 attorney Reesa Evans.

   As more footage of a happy Steven hugged by friends and family is shown we hear Steven's aunt Kim Ducat say "*I did tell him be careful. There is just something I felt that said Manitowoc County's not done with you. They're not even close to being finished with you.*" This quote really set up the narrative that producers Demos and Ricciardi had in store for their viewers. Then, the ominous, powerful, opening theme by the great Argentinian composer Gustavo Santaolalla begins to play.

### Civil lawsuit

Fast forward about one year later (12 October 2004) we see Steven Avery, now with a girlfriend, and his post-conviction attorney Walter Kelly walking to the United States District Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Kelly explains they're filing a lawsuit and the defendants are Manitowoc County (not the Sheriff's Department, but the County!), the former sheriff Thomas Kocourek, and Denis Vogel, the former District Attorney of Manitowoc County. They're seeking compensation for the loss of Avery's freedom and punitive damages "for the reckless or indifferent behaviour of the defendants".

In the next shot, which seems like a recorded phone call between Avery and the producers, Avery claims Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department (MTSO from hereon) actually had evidence of his innocence (he doesn't say what it is) and he has no idea why the sheriff would pick on him like that. But then he says... "*the only thing I can think of is I ran my cousin off the road*".

    Okay that's not a minor thing. That cousin would be a certain Sandra Morris, and she was also related to someone within the MTSO. Morris herself, in a deposition video (under oath) says when she drove by a prepared Avery would run out to the road and expose himself to her and "do his thing" in front of her car. Morris was handed a police report which says that Morris back in 1985 said that Avery and his wife would have sex in the yard and the neighbours would be able to see it. Morris now says she never said such a thing and when Walter Kelly asks her how that story had gotten into the report she says she has no idea. When asked if she disliked Steven Avery, she said she did.

### Steven and the Avery's

Next we get to meet another cousin of Steven, Kim Ducat, and she has some nice things to say about Steve:

"*The people that were close to Steve knew he was harmless. He was always happy, happy, happy, always laughing, always wanted to make other people laugh.*"

"*I think the people on the outside community... viewed him as an Avery. Y'know, viewed him as... troublemaker. Y'know 'there goes another Avery they're all trouble'*".

Steve's 1985 appointed lawyer Reesa Evans then gets some time to say some things about Steven and the Avery's. She basically describes them as misfits, but that the Avery's were fine with that. They had their own business, and each other. She thinks it never even occurred to them to venture outside their own community.

Avery said he had a nice childhood growing up on a salvage yard, running around among the cars and trying to fix them.

Judge Fred Hazlewood basically confirms what Evans said, and adds that the Avery's did their fair share of good stuff, but also got into trouble from time to time. He adds that that trouble was nothing like the sort of trouble Steven Avery got himself into.

    Steven Avery seems to disagree and speaks about his record being not that bad. He mentions some burglaries and says he threw the family cat over a fire and it accidentally lit up. He blames "hanging around with the wrong people" for this.

Then Kim Ducat continues her story about Steven: "*Steven did do a lot of things, but he always, always owned up to everything he did wrong. He never said no it wasn't me. He said 'yeah it was me, I did it', paid his fines and jail and whatever it was and it was no big deal. Let's get on with life then.*"

Okay, first time I watched this whole show I remember these words stuck to me. Not just because of Ducat's words, but also because *Making a Murderer* shows a police report with the option "no contest" checked.

*Making a Murderer* continues with Avery meeting Lori Mathiesen in 1982, at age 19. Lori was a single mother of son Jason. The father didn't want anything to do with Jason and Avery fancied his chances. Only months later on 24 July 1982 Avery and Mathiesen were married. Soon their first child, Rachel, was born. Avery wasn't there when she was born because he was incarcerated for "the cat incident", which "kinda sucks", he says. Later Lori gave birth to Jenny and this time Avery was present. Avery reminisces he had a good life, that is 'til all the trouble started.

Allan Avery, Steve's father, explains Sandra Morris and Bill Morris (Sandra's husband) were always picking on Steven, saying stuff about Steven that wasn't true and Steven didn't like that. He told Steven to let it go.

We get to hear some footage from 3 January 1985... a recording by Larry Conrad of MTSO who was interviewing Avery but the Sandra Morris incident. Avery says it was four-thirty to a quarter to five and he was about to walk the dog when he saw Morris drive by. He followed her and pulled alongside of her and he hit her and she went into a little skid. Once Steven stopped the car he went out, grabbed a gun and she asked him what he was doing. According to Steven the gun was not loaded, the shells were at his home. He says his motivation for doing so were the stories that Morris told about him, which he states were lies. He felt that by taking this sort of action against Morris he hoped he could stop her from spreading lies.

## Appearances

### Notable people

* Steven Avery
* Stephen Glynn
* Walter Kelly
* Michael Griesbach