License plates were recovered from a car on the Avery’s Auto Salvage property. The license plates were taken off of the victim's vehicle that was found elsewhere on the yard. The license plates’ number was SWH-582.
Description[]
License plates from Teresa's RAV4 with the license plate number SWH-582. The license plates have some bending on them due to them being found curled up.
Discovery[]
On Tuesday 8 November, 3 days since the discovery of the RAV4, a volunteer searcher from Brillion Fire Department was inspecting vehicles stored next to the long road (the dirt road to Avery's and the Dassey's residences). In one of them he noticed something that was curled up and upon closer inspection it appeared to be license plates.
Forensic examination[]
The license plates were delivered to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab and examined by forensic scientist Sherry Culhane. Culhane observed "male DNA" on the license plates but said the "levels (...) were insufficient for autosomal DNA/STR typing", meaning she couldn't obtain a DNA profile from the plates.
Use at trial and appeals[]
2007 Steven Avery trial[]
2016 - 2022 Kathleen Zellner appeals[]
In January 2016 postconviction attorney Kathleen Zellner took Steven Avery's case following its portrayal in the Netflix series Making a Murderer. Throughout her representation Zellner has been very vocal on social media about the case, spending many tweets on the case, the people (allegedly) involved and the evidence. Contrary to pretty much all the other pieces of evidence, Zellner never spent a tweet on the license plates.
In August 2016 Zellner filed her Motion for Post-conviction Scientific Testing, requesting numerous items of evidence so she could subject them to modern forensic science. Items Item AJ and Item AK, the front and rear license plates, were not among them.[2]
In a September 2017 meeting between Zellner and State prosecutors, the State agreed to make additional pieces of evidence available to Zellner. Among them were two license plates. Zellner never informed the judge of this agreement, thereby failing to make the agreement official.
Photos[]
.jpg "Trial exhibit 031 (volunteer searcher photo).jpg (2.07 MB)")
.jpg "Trial exhibit 135 (RAV4 rear).jpg (1.72 MB)")
