From what I understand, this all started for Brendan on November 6, 2005. The day prior, his bus driver had met with police at the boundary of the salvage yard to share what she knew. It doesn't seem that they took an official statement on the spot, which is strange, because I think they did with Bobby that same day, November 5, 2005. I cannot find the statement, and in testimony on day 19, she says that she was told to return November 7th to make the actual statement.
Barring having a November 5th statement, we can only guess from Brendan's roadside interview what she told them. The officers tell Brendan:
And you were dropped off. It's such an event that someone's standing in your field taking a picture of that van, that you remember that, too, don't you? The bus driver remembers it, the kids on the school bus remember it. The girl taking pictures, you remember that?
http://www.stevenaverycase.org/wp-c...dan-Dassey-Interview-Transcript-2005Nov06.pdf
So either they are exaggerating, or she told him that the whole bus was watching TH take pics "in a field." They were very aggressive with Brendan about it, and I wonder if they questioned Blaine that way.
I think that at this point, Brendan knew about her being missing. He knew SA was upset about it. It's apparent that the family had discussed people being on the property with the headlights. Steven was probably afraid he was going back to jail, and Brendan expresses that sentiment in the interview when he says the police want to take Steven away from him. Steven mentioned in a tv interview, I believe, that TH could have run off with friends. It was also apparently attributed to SA in the "joke" about Steve having her in a closet. Brendan also brings up rape, and I think that because Steven went to jail for that before, it might be why Brendan assumes rape was involved. But heck, even I assumed that.
Much of what Brendan volunteers seems to be things the family said or could have discussed after TH came up missing. What he said that I felt was new as of 11/6/05:
They were at the northern cabin to get wood for a bonfire. Brendan said he was helping Chuckie get it, but he also said that his mother got mad at Steve and said they couldn't have the bonfire. From what I understand of what Brendan was trying to say -- they were at the cabin the weekend of 11/5 to gather wood for a bonfire the upcoming Thursday, but then it sounded like he was saying the bonfire was supposed to be 11/3, but it got canceled. So why is Brendan helping chuckie get wood for a canceled bonfire? Was it really a rescheduled bonfire?
Later, page 34, brendan said they were at the cabin to gather wood for hunting. So which is it? For Hunting or for a bonfire?
Brendan also volunteered that Steven came over and asked for help with pushing the Suzuki into the garage. So was the jeep really not always in the garage? that was 7 or 8pm. There is nothing about cleaning. Nothing about a fire that night. I'm kind of amazed they were not interested in talking to Brendan again until February 2006.
He also mentioned Bobby goes Geese hunting every day. I did not get that it was a daily activity, did you guys?
My take right now is that Brendan might have thought if he agreed to seeing Teresa and seeing Teresa leave, then the police might back off and leave the family alone. But once he started answering the questions, he might have felt he had to find the answers to the questions that followed. That's my first opinion about this interview. He probably believed SA that she left and so he went ahead and confirmed it to help Steven.
But correct me if I'm wrong about the information they got from Brendan being new information as of 11/6.