Teresa Halbach’s “day planner”

**Teresa Halbach’s “day planner”** was a printed piece of paper containing Halbach's schedule for the week of 31 October 2005. Though Zellner refers to it as a day planner, the schedule was probably made in calendar-type software such as Microsoft Outlook or Halbach’s PDA and thus part of a larger agenda.

## Description

The schedule appears to be a partial printout of a much larger agenda, such as a Microsoft Outlook Agenda. In this application, when clicking on the Print feature, there is an option to select just one week of the agenda so that only one week will be printed. The day planner shows the week of 31 October to 6 November 2005. It may also be possible that the schedule came from her PDA.

On the bottom right corner the day planner has a time stamp "10/30/2005 10:29 PM", which is probably the time it was printed, assuming the time on her computer was set correctly.

The day planner has several handwritten notes on it that were added to the planner after it was printed. For Monday 31 October it shows

* 2:30 PM Get Sarah's stuff from mom

* 4:30 PM Biz paperwork

* 6:00 PM Mom-B-day gift

* 7:00 PM call Denise

* 7:30 PM call Dani (sp?)

At the bottom of the paper there seems to be some space for notes for the whole week. In there Halbach wrote a note about a customer:

* "Steve Sheboygan
Mon
---unintelligible--- moving truck
920-540-XXXX
2 vehicles"

## Discovery

On Thursday 3 November 2005, 4:30 ~ 5:00 PM Ryan Hillegas and several other friends and family members of Teresa were at Teresa Halbach's residence. Hillegas told Halbach's friend Kelly Pitzen that he had found "a schedule of Halbach's for the week of October 31 to November 6." Hillegas and Halbach's roommate Scott Bloedorn used the day planner to learn more about Halbach's known whereabouts, by calling the phone numbers on the day planner.

## Forensic examination

The "day planner" has not been forensically examined.

## At trial

### Steven Avery trial

The "day planner" was not used at Steven Avery's trial.

### Brendan Dassey trial

The "day planner" was not used at Brendan Dassey's trial.

### 2016-2022 Kathleen Zellner investigation

Zellner claims that Teresa's friend and former boyfriend Ryan Hillegas had taken the day planner from Halbach's vehicle *after* the murder had occurred. Thus, according to her, Hillegas knew more about the murder, or had committed the murder himself.

There is no direct evidence (i.e. an eye witness) of Hillegas having possession of the day planner after the murder and outside Halbach's residence. There is only evidence of Hillegas having it when inside the residence with friends and family of Halbach. Instead, Zellner pieces this probability together using five key pieces of evidence:

1. Phone conversation with customer Denise Coakley.
Coakley said Teresa was driving her car and while doing so had to "jot down" something. This suggests the day planner was with her in her car at that time. The conversation took place at 11:30 PM.
2. Phone conversation with customer Steve Speckman.
Speckman also said that Teresa was driving her car and made a comment about making a note. Additionally, Speckman said Halbach was in Sheboygan, several miles away from her residence.
3. The time of Steve Speckman's call at 12:44 PM
4. Halbach leaving a handwritten note about Speckman on her day planner.
5. Halbach arriving at her next appointment at 1:30 PM in New Holstein.

According to Zellner these five points establish that Halbach was in Sheboygan at 12:44 PM with her car and the day planner. Zellner claims that Halbach would not have had the time make a stop at home, drop the day planner there, and then go to New Holstein and arrive there at 1:30 PM. Conclusion: the day planner was still with her then, and when she was murdered. Question: how did Ryan Hillegas get a hold of it?

## Notes

* Former prosecutor Ken Kratz disagrees with Zellner that the “day planner” was taken out of Halbach’s vehicle. He believes it was recovered from Halbach’s home and that she did not have it with her when she visited Avery.
* Halbach’s landline phone records are available and show ingoing and outgoing phone activity and fax activity on the morning and early afternoon on the day of her disappearance, contradicting Zellner’s theory that she was gone all day and not in a position to leave the “day planner” at her home.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Making a Murderer*, part 2, episode 9
2. ↑ Kratz, K., *Avery*, chapter on Making a Murderer 2