AVERYDASSEY FUND

Defense and investigation fund

Aug. 2, 1983: Gregory Allen suddenly comes up over the sand dunes along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Two Rivers and starts stalking a woman walking in front of him. He pulls his shorts down, begins masturbating and then lunges at the woman —who gets away. Allen later calls the woman twice at her home and asks her to drop the charges against him. The prosecutor against Allen is Denis Vogel. The charges were reduced from indecent exposure to disorderly conduct.

July 17, 1985: The City of Manitowoc Police Department assigns officers to conduct daily surveillance on Allen. He was identified as a suspect in several complaints of prowling, window peeping, indecent exposure and sexual assault dating back to January of 1985 through July 14. "He is a dangerous individual with a potential for violence," a police report stated.

July 29, 1985: On a hot summer day with temperatures in the mid 80s, Penny Ann Beernsten is attacked around 3:50 p.m.while jogging alone along the Lake Michigan shoreline north of Two Rivers by a scraggly haired man in a leather jacket. The man pulled out a knife and forced her into a wooded area. He sexually assaulted her, beat her and left her bloodied. At the hospital, Beernsten described her rapist. Deputy Sheriff Judy Dvorak made a comment that the attacker sounded like Avery. Because of this statement, Manitowoc County Sheriff Tom Kocourek asks for Avery's photo to be included in a photo lineup.

From her hospital bed, the victim reviews nine photos. Avery's photo was in the middle. After she identifies Avery, the sheriff tells her he was going to arrest him. (The photo line up did not include her attacker Gregory Allen.) Three days later, Avery is identified a second time in a live photo lineup of suspects. (Allen, the real rapist, is not included in this lineup.)

Dec. 14, 1985: Avery maintains his innocence. At trial, he produces 16 alibi witnesses. Receipts and employees at the ShopKo store in Green Bay confirmed Avery was inside the store at 5:13 p.m., — 75 minutes after the rape occurred. Still, Vogel and Kocourek were convinced Avery raped the victim. The jury finds Avery guilty of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree sexual assault and false imprisonment.

March 10, 1986: Manitowoc County Circuit Judge Fred Hazlewood sentences Avery to 32 years in prison.

Aug. 5, 1987: A Wisconsin appeals court rejects Avery's bid to overturn his convictions.

Sept. 23, 1996: Hazlewood denies Avery's bid for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence that show scrapings taken from under the rape victim's fingernails did not contain Avery's DNA.

Aug. 5, 1997: An appeals court upholds Hazlewood's 1996 decision.

April 3, 2002: Hazlewood grants the Wisconsin Innocence Project permission to conduct new DNA testing, citing scientific advances made in DNA testing.

Sept. 10, 2003: The state crime lab tests 13 hairs recovered from the victim back in 1985. None match Avery. One matches Allen, who is now serving a 60-year prison sentence in Green Bay for a rape that occurred in Brown County. The criminal complaint against Allen for the Aug. 2, 1983 beach incident was contained in Vogel's file for the 1985 case against Avery.

Sept. 11, 2003: Avery is freed from prison after spending 18 years locked away for a rape he did not commit. Back in society, Avery moves into a trailer in rural Manitowoc County with a new girlfriend. He also works at his family's local salvage yard.

Sept. 19, 2003: Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager assigns the Wisconsin Department of Justice to investigate the Avery case.

Dec. 19, 2003: A DOJ report finds no basic for bringing criminal charges or ethics violations against those Manitowoc County Sheriff's officials and prosecutors involved in securing Avery's wrongful conviction.

Oct. 12, 2004: Attorney Walt Kelley, of Milwaukee, files a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of Avery. The suit seeks $36 million from Manitowoc County, Kocourek and Vogel (both are no longer in office).

Oct. 31, 2005: Freelance photographer Teresa Halbach, of St. John in Calumet County, vanishes. That day, she had three appointments to photograph vehicles for sale for Auto Trader magazine. The Avery Auto Salvage was slated to be her last stop of the day.

Nov. 3, 2005: Tom and Karen Halbach report their 25-year-old daughter missing.

Nov. 5, 2005: Volunteer searchers discover Halbach's SUV inside the Avery Auto Salvage yard, which was operated by Avery's brothers, Earl and Charles. Police impound Halbach's vehicle and take it to the Wisconsin crime lab.

Nov. 6: As many as 200 police officers comb the Avery salvage yard.

Nov. 9: Authorities arrest Avery for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Nov. 10: Calumet County Sheriff Jerry Pagel announces that Halbach was murdered at the salvage yard. Bone fragments, teeth and camera and cellphone pieces are found in a burn pit near Avery's trailer.

Nov. 15: Calumet County special prosecutor Ken Kratz charges Avery with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse and possession of firearms by a felon. Kratz announces that Avery's blood was found inside of Halbach's vehicle and that Avery was the last person to see her alive.

Jan. 17, 2006: Avery pleads not guilty and insists he is innocent.

Jan. 19, 2006: An FBI laboratory determines that the remains found at the Avery salvage yard are Halbach.

March 3, 2006: Four months after Halbach vanished, authorities arrest Avery's 16-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey as a co-conspirator. Dassey, the son of Avery's sister, is charged with being party first-degree intentional homicide, sexual assault and mutilating a corpse. Dassey had lived on the Avery family property near Mishicot.

March 8, 2006: Special prosecutor Kratz also charges Avery with kidnapping, false imprisonment and sexual assault with a dangerous weapon.

Dec. 20, 2006: Avery's defense attorneys Dean Strang, of Madison, and Jerome Buting, of Brookfield, find an 11-year-old vial of Steven Avery's blood inside an unsecured area of the Manitowoc County Clerk of Courts office. The downtown courthouse is next to the sheriff's office. The vial was not sealed. It was inside an unsealed Styrofoam box, inside an unsealed cardboard box.

Jan. 29, 2007: As part a pretrial ruling, Manitowoc County Circuit Judge Patrick Willis dismisses two of the criminal charges against Avery, first-degree sexual assault and kidnapping.

Jan. 30, 2007: Willis rules that Avery's lawyers are free to tell the jury about the old vial of Avery's blood.

Feb. 2, 2007: Willis denies a request by Avery's lawyers to delay the trial to allow testing on the 1996 sample of Avery's blood to bolster the defense's theory that Avery is being framed by the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office for Halbach's murder.

Feb. 9, 2007: A jury of Manitowoc County residents hear the Avery jury trial. The trial is held in Chilton at the Calumet County Courthouse. The trial included 19 days of testimony from 59 witnesses. Avery's lawyers contend that Manitowoc County sheriff's officers planted evidence against him in retaliation for a lawsuit Avery filed against the county seeking $36 million for the wrongful conviction. After being charged with murder, Avery settled the $36 million lawsuit for about $400,000. He needed the money to pay for private defense lawyers in Halbach's case.

March 18, 2007: The Manitowoc County jury of six men and six women deliberate for nearly 22 hours over three days. The jury finds Avery guilty of intentional homicide and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The jury acquitted Avery of mutilation of a corpse.

April 25, 2007: A Dane County jury found Dassey, then 17, guilty in the rape, murder and mutilation of Halbach

June 1, 2007: Avery, then 44, is sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance for parole in connection with Halbach's death.

Aug. 2, 2007: Dassey is sentenced to life in prison. He becomes eligible for parole in 2048 after serving 41 years.

Aug. 24, 2011: Avery's murder conviction is upheld by the 2nd District Court of Appeals.

Jan. 30 2013: A state Court of Appeals rejected a request from Dassey, Avery's nephew, to get a new trial.

Aug. 1, 2013: The Wisconsin Supreme Court denied Dassey's bid to review the case.

Dec. 14, 2015: Netflix releases a 10-episode documentary about Steven Avery called, "Making a Murderer."