Kathleen Zellner Challenges Andrew Colborn to Re-create His Bookcase Allegations From ‘Making a Murderer’

Wrongful convictions attorney Kathleen Zellner challenged former law enforcement official Andrew Colborn to recreate a contentious scene in the case of Steven Avery in a tweet Wednesday. The reenactment involves a bookcase and evidence surrounding a Rav4 key, which was seen on part one of Making A Murderer. Zellner, who is the current attorney for the docuseries subject Steven Avery, said Colborn has 10 days to accept her offer. If he can prove his theory right, she said she will dismiss claims his account is wrong.

Colborn was invited to Zellner’s office in the Chicago suburbs via the tweet. Zellner has already recreated the said situation, she told Newsweek, though it did not appear on Making A Murderer Part 2.

The first part of Making A Murderer explained Teresa Halbach’s car key, a Rav4 key, was found long after the initial police search of the Avery home. It was found lying on the carpet next to a tall bookshelf in Avery's home. Colborn and police alleged the key must have fallen off of the bookcase where they claim it was hidden by Avery.


Zellner recreated the theory with the same key and bookcase, but said she was unable to make the key fall, no matter how hard she shook the bookcase. The docuseries implies the key may have been planted by Manitowoc County law enforcement.

Colborn retired from the police force in early 2018. He filed a lawsuit against the Making A Murderer creators, Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, and Netflix for defamation in December. The lawsuit claims Colborn was intentionally made to look a villain.

The lawsuit states Netflix and creators “omitted, distorted, and falsified material and significant facts in an effort to portray [Colborn] as a corrupt police officer who planted evidence to frame an innocent man,” it reads, according to Rolling Stone. “Defendants did so with actual malice and in order to make the film more profitable and more successful… sacrificing and defining [Colborn’s] character and reputation in the process.”

Zellner was pleased with Colborn’s decision to sue, as it may fare well for her team.

“We are thrilled that Colborn filed this lawsuit [because] he will have to testify under oath about all of the issues that have swirled around him for years,” Zellner told Rolling Stone. “Everything about the first wrongful conviction will be exhaustively explored as well. From having observed the meticulous, painstaking, uncompromisingly ethical work of Ricciardi and Demos for two-and-a-half years they have to be amused but not in the least threatened by this frivolous lawsuit. For us it is an early Christmas present.”

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