Steven Avery’s fiancee Jodi Stachowski was an ardent supporter of her former lover in Making a Murderer, but she tells a much different story in an interview on HLN’s Nancy Grace.
In this new interview, Stachowski now claims that the relationship was “abusive” and even goes so far as to describe Avery as a “monster.”
When Stachowski is asked if she believes Avery is guilty of the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach she replies without hesitation, “Yes I do.” She justified her opinion because “he threatened to kill me and my family and a friend of mine.” When she was then asked why he had threatened, she replies “because he was sick.”
Stachowski claims Avery is guilty of murdering Halbach, “I want people to know the truth,” she says. “What a monster he is. He’s not innocent.”
“He told me once, excuse my language, all bitches owe him, because the one that sent him to prison the first time,” referring to Avery’s wrongful conviction for sexual assault in 1985 that he served 18 years. “We all owed him and he could do whatever he wanted. Steven’s the one person I can’t trust … he’s a monster.”
Stachowski also said that Avery sent her a letter from prison, threatening to report her to the police and asking her for money.
She claimed that she was never in love with Avery, whom she dated for two years. Stachowski said that there was multiple occasions of Avery physically abusing her, which police reports confirm. Things apparently got so bad the she “ate two boxes of rat poison just so I could go to the hospital to get away from him and ask them to get the police to help me.”
In the documentary she said investigators had “put a lot of pressure on her to turn against Steven,” but now she disagrees with that statement, and states that “they were just trying to get to the truth.”
Stachowski said that Avery gave her directions to make him look good in Making A Murderer. She states that when the directors contacted her for a follow-up interview last year, she declined and asked to be removed entirely from the documentary chronicling the murder trial that happened 10 years ago. Stachowski said that she hasn’t watched the 10-part docu-series herself.
Because the documentary has gotten so much attention and there are thousands of people petitioning to get Avery a retrial made her want to speak out now. She goes so far as saying that the “documentary is full of a bunch of lies” and her support of Avery “was all an act.”
Let’s not forget, Stachowski is no angel herself with a lengthy arrest record and bouts with alcoholism.
On Tuesday, Avery filed new appeal papers asking for his conviction in the murder of Halbach to be thrown out. Avery, who submitted the filing on his own behalf, claims a number of grievances, including an improper warrant, inadequate legal representation and a juror who had it out to get Avery who tainted the rest of the jury.
Now I’m warning you, this interview is hard to watch. Not because its graphic or disturbing, but because its horribly done. The camera focuses on HLN Senior Producer Natisha Lance instead of Stachowski who was answering the questions and crying at times. The reporter is in another location, unprepared at times, shuffling through her papers, asking the same questions more than once. It comes off more like episode of Between Two Ferns instead of a semi-major news outlet.
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