Who is Steven Avery’s ex-girlfriend, Lynn Hartman?
STEVEN Avery is serving a life sentence after being convicted of first-degree intentional homicide 20 years after being wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder.
With the September 2023 release of The Daily Wire's Convicting a Murderer about Avery's case, people want to know more about his relationship with Lynn Hartman.
Who is Lynn Hartman?
While in jail, Avery had a relationship with pen pal turned fiancée Lynn Hartman, but the two have since parted ways.
Hartman was born in Las Vegas, .
She is a former legal secretary and retired paralegal who was engaged to convicted killer Avery.
Hartman and Avery sprung up an unlikely romance in February 2016, after her daughter, Kamilia Woolsey, told her mom - who was then going through a difficult divorce - to watch the Netflix documentary Making a Murderer.
"I was affected by it, I felt sorry for him, so I typed a letter. He responded and we swapped a few letters, but it felt he wanted it to escalate immediately, he wanted handwritten notes, not typed, and wanted personal things I wasn't comfortable with," Hartman told The Sun.
"In one of our first calls, I ran to answer the phone and he said: 'There's my vagina'. His nickname would be vagina or he'd say: 'There's my p***y'.
"I laid down the marker and said it is not going to happen, that's not how you are going to refer to me, but that's where he wanted to take the conversation - down a sexual route."
However, the phone calls and letters escalated and, by July, Avery had split with his then-fiancée, Sandra Greenman.
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Hartman added: "He told me that the reason he wanted to stop seeing his current girlfriend Sandy is that she wouldn't be able to keep up with his sex drive when he's released, as it would require someone who could give him continuous sex four hours a day.
"He'd say things like that, which would knock me off my chair, but I'd still make excuses for him. I thought he had no social etiquette as he had been in prison so long. And I felt special as he was speaking to me out of all the women writing to him.
"He would go straight into things like: 'You need to send me a picture of a white shirt with no bra.'
"He'd say in the letters: 'Honey, you got nice B cups'. The longer it went on, the more I made excuses for his behaviour [sic]. I had to continue convincing myself that he's ok, as I'd gone so far."
How did she meet Steven Avery?
Hartman first wrote a letter to Avery after watching the Netflix docuseries Making a Murderer.
Avery was serving a life sentence after he was arrested and convicted for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach in October 2005, alongside his nephew Brendan Dassey.
In 2015, Netflix released Making a Murderer, a ten-episode original docuseries that explores Avery and Dassey's investigation and trial on the murder of Halbach.
Netflix released a second season of the show on October 19, 2018.
During her first visit with Avery, Hartman asked him about Halbach's murder and why just a few days after her death, police investigators went into Avery's trailer and could smell bleach and the carpet appeared freshly cleaned.
"I said - half joking, as I believed he was innocent at the time: 'People say the only reason there was no evidence in your trailer was because you had three days to clean it up,'" Hartman revealed.
"He leaned back in his chair, I'll never forget it, his eyes constricted to the point that they looked almost white, and he said: 'No, I had five days to clean it up,' he said it grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
"The hairs raised up on the back of my neck and there were goosebumps on my body. Out of all the things to say in the world, that's the last thing you'd say. Why wouldn't you say: 'I didn't need to clean anything up'?
"Even though this was a big red flag, I'd gone this far and I just felt I couldn't get out of the situation and really wanted to believe that Steven was not guilty."
When did they get engaged?
After back-and-forth letters and frequent visits, the pair eventually got engaged in September 2016.
However, one month later, Hartman said she ended their relationship because she "saw signs that concerned her," claiming Avery was manipulative and that she became afraid of him.
Is Steven Avery getting a new trial?
While Avery was innocent the first time he was convicted, many people believe he is now guilty of the murder.
Just weeks after his mother died at the age of 83, in July 2021, Avery was denied a new trial despite his nephew, Brad, believing that both he and Dassey were innocent.
Back in July, Brad, Dassey's half-brother, told The Sun Online that his stepmom Barb Tadych allegedly destroyed evidence by wiping pornography on the family's computer that belonged to another relative.
Avery had been trying to get a new trial but was denied by the Wisconsin Court of Appeal after they determined he didn't have enough evidence to deserve another trial.
reported that in late January 2023, Avery filed another post-conviction motion brief in which his attorney, Kathleen Zellner, requested an evidentiary hearing.
However, prosecutors opposed the request, per the outlet.
In May 2023, a letter was sent to the courts, "complaining about a lack of a decision in the case."
Avery apologized days later and said he didn’t consult with his attorneys, referring to the submission as "improper and inappropriate," per Fox 11.
In August 2023, however, Avery filed a three-page letter with the Court of Appeals in which he "again criticizes Sheboygan County Judge Angela Sutkiewicz for not issuing a ruling in what he argues is a 90-day deadline.
"He asks the appeals court to take action."
The outlet reported that as with the May 2023 letter, it is not signed by or sent by Avery's attorney.
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Prosecutors have not responded to the August 2023 letter, and no hearings are scheduled, per Fox 11.
