Making a Murderer: The Journalists who covered Steven Avery

Join the Minnesota SPJ Chapter for a conversation with reporters who covered the case of Steven Avery, the Wisconsin man whose exoneration of sexual assault, release from prison and subsequent murder conviction were chronicled in the Netflix documentary “Making a Murderer.”

When: 6:30 p.m., Feb. 29.

Where: Brit’s Pub, 1110 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis.

Cost: Free for SPJ members, $5 for non-members. Join SPJ today.

Registration: Strongly encouraged. If the event fills up, registered attendees will have priority.

The panelists:

Tom Kertscher is a PolitiFact Wisconsin reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  He has covered the Steven Avery case since breaking the story in 2003 that new DNA evidence would exonerate Avery of a sexual assault after 18 years in prison.  Kertscher, who has more than 30 years of reporting experience, also covered Avery’s 2007 murder trial.

Find Kertscher’s coverage of the Avery case here and his reflections on the case here.

As a reporter for WLUK-TV in Green Bay, Jay Olstad interviewed Avery several times and covered his exoneration and release from prison in 2003, as well as family and community reaction during Avery’s murder trial in 2007.  He is a reporter at KARE-TV.

Jessica Olstad worked at WLUK-TV’s Fox Valley bureau from 2005 to 2007, when she went by the name Lauren Cook.  She was one of the lead reporters who covered the Avery and Dassey cases and trials.  Her interview with Ken Peterson, outgoing Manitowoc County Sheriff at the time of Halbach’s murder, was featured in “Making a Murderer.”  She is now an account director at Kohnstamm Communications.

Jay and Jessica Olstad discuss their experience covering the case here..

Get tickets today.