Dolores Avery, the Mother of Steven Avery, Has Tragically Died Aged 83
Published July 9 2021, 12:53 p.m. ET
The 83-year-old Dolores Avery passed away at 6"50 a.m. on Thursday, July 8, 2021, a tweet by an attorney named Kathleen Zellner revealed. She was featured in the 2015 Netflix documentary, Making a Murderer, which reassesses her son, Steven Avery's, crimes and convictions. Here's what you should know about Dolores's cause of death.
"I lost the person I most wanted to take care of," Steven Avery said.
Dolores's passing likely comes as a crushing blow for Steven Avery, who served 18 years in prison for a wrongful conviction before being arrested again in November 2005. Steven Avery spent the majority of his adult years in jail as a result of what some believe to be a series of oversights on behalf of the state. Here's what you should know about Dolores's cause of death.
"Update: Fate dealt another cruel blow to Steven Avery today right before his birthday tomorrow, his mother Dolores Avery passed away at 6.50 a.m.," Kathleen tweeted. "He needs your support now more than ever. R.I.P. Ma Avery."
"Sweet Dolores Avery always had a kind word for us. Loved her family, lived for the day Steven was freed, never stopped believing in him and his innocence," Kathleen wrote in a separate tweet. "Her spirit and devotion will sustain us. Steven knows she is watching over him."
"Losing my parents before I got out has always been my worst nightmare. Now it has happened," Avery told TMZ. "I worry my Dad will not live to see me as a free man. Today I lost the person I most wanted to take care of and give a better life when I am freed. I cannot put in words the pain of losing my mom."
It's understood that Dolores died of dementia. As her son Earl told TMZ, she spent her last weeks in hospice.
Steven Avery served 18 years in prison for a wrongful conviction before being sent back to jail in the 2000s.
Steven Avery was sentenced to 32 years in prison for the 1985 rape of Penny Beerntsen. He was freed in September 2003, after the Wisconsin Innocence Project successfully petitioned for another round of DNA testing to be carried out.
As the DNA test had shown, the 13 hairs recovered belonged to Gregory Allen, a rapist who by then was serving a 60-year prison sentence for another crime committed in 1995.
But Steven Avery's days as a free man were numbered.
A 25-year-old photographer named Teresa Halbach was reported missing in November 2005. She was last seen at the Avery's Auto Salvage, a salvage yard in Wisconsin.
Avery was arrested in November 2005 for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was found guilty of intentional homicide and being a felon in possession of a firearm on March 18, 2007, per The Post-Crescent.
He received a life sentence without parole on June 1, 2007. He is held at the Waupun Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wis.