Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Couple Heads to Mountain Cabin, Goes Missing. Human Torso Just Found.

Episode Date: July 14, 2021

Bart Halderson, 50, and his wife Krista Halderson, 53, have been missing since before the 4th of July holiday. Their son, 23-year-old Chandler Halderson, reported them missing after they didn’t return from what he said was a planned weekend trip to their cabin in Langlade County. Chandler Halderson has since been arrested on suspicion of providing a false report in a kidnapping investigation. Investigators found human remains and a bloody tarp in a wooded area in a remote part of Dane County. An autopsy confirmed that father Bart Halderson died from homicidal violence including firearm injury. Krista Halderson is still missing. Chandler Halderson has not yet been charged with murder in his father’s death. A judge ordered him held on a $10,000 bond for the false report charge, despite the prosecutor’s request for a $1 million bond.Joining Nancy Grace Today: Wendy Patrick - California prosecutor, Author: “Red Flags” www.wendypatrickphd.com 'Today with Dr. Wendy' on KCBQ in San Diego Dr. Jeff Gardere - Board Certified Clinical Psychologist, Prof of Behavioral Medicine at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine www.drjeffgardere.com, Author: 'The Causes of Autism” @drjeffgardere  Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet", Featured on "The Piketon Massacre: Return to Pike County" on iHeartRadio Nicole Partin - Crimeonline.com Investigative reporter TIPLINE: Dane County Sheriff’s Office [phone] Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A mom and dad set out for a mountain cabin and seemingly vanish into thin air. Where are Bart and Crystal Holderson? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. That sounds very uncommon for the mom and dad to leave to their cabin. They've gone there many, many times in the mountains, but then to suddenly just drop off the face of the earth. Take a listen to this. We got picked up and they all went up there by like another couple. Picked up here? Yeah, here at my house.

Okay. Before I woke up, they had everything packed up. Jeez. And you don't know who they're with? No. Jeez. That's, I mean, that has happened before where they just kind of head out before I leave or I wake up, you know, I'm a heavy

sleeper. I'm on a schedule. I wake up at six to feed the dogs and they they were out before 6 to beat the rush to get to the north. Okay, you are hearing their son Chandler talking to 3 News Now, Adam's Duxter. And this is what we know. The son there in the home, heavy sleeper, gets up at 6 a.m. Mom and dad already gone. They had packed everything the night before to head off for a weekend at their mountain cabin. But then seemingly they disappear into thin air.

Well, they're not magicians. So where are they? With me, an all-star panel to make sense of it. California prosecutor, author of Red Flags on Amazon. You can find her at Wendyendypatrickphd.com. And the host of today with Dr. Wendy, KCBQ San Diego, Wendy Patrick with us, Dr. Jeff Gardier, board certified clinical psychologist, professor, behavioral medicine at Touro College. You can find him at drjeffgardier.com. Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, and star of a brand new hit podcast feature on iHeart, The Piketon Massacre.

But first, I want to go out to CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Nicole Parton. So, you know, for instance, Nicole, Jackie thinks I'm crazy, but this morning, this is even early for me. I got up at four. Okay. But typically I'm up between five and six and my children sleep through everything I do. I mean, I take great precautions not to wake them up, but they sleep straight through it. So this couple was getting up, mom and dad, Bart and Krista Halderson, to go to their mountain cabin. Where is their home and where is their mountain cabin? So their mountain cabin is in White Lake, and that is about a 45-minute drive from their home. And apparently this was a common thing for them. They had the cabin

there. They went out. They had made plans to go up and spend the Fourth of July holiday. And so this wasn't uncommon for them. It wasn't uncommon for them to get up and pack away the car and leave early and head up there to explore and have a good time. But what you're saying is concerning me on many, many levels. I understand that they would go to their place at White Lake. It's in Wisconsin. They live in Windsor, Wisconsin. Often they spend a lot of weekends up there.

But now that you're clarifying for me that it's only a 45-minute drive, how do you just drop off the map on a 45-minute drive? Of course, it has happened, Joe Scott Morgan. Hey, listen, it's my experience. People just don't simply vanish into thin air. You know, maybe one person does, but you're talking about two people that would simply vanish into thin air? I think that that's highly unlikely, Nancy. You know, we hear about it all the time. And Joe Scott Morgan, a death investigator, brings up a really good point.

He's a forensics expert. And if you look at history, and I learned a lot from studying method and assessment of homicide and suicide. One person disappearing, yeah, that happens all the time. Two people disappearing, that does not happens all the time. Two people disappearing, that does not happen all the time. Jackie, remember recently we covered the case of a husband and wife were RVing, and they were RVing across the country. I think they were heading down to Florida at the tail end of their trip, and they were supposed to be on FaceTime with their granddaughter. She's like one year old. And they didn't make it to the birthday party on FaceTime. And that's when everybody realized they vanished. So when you hear of a couple vanishing, and it brings to mind a case I handled, well, I was part of it, very early on.

I watched and observed and monitored the trial, did a little grunt work for it, of a kindergarten teacher, maybe even been pre-K, and she taught music and movement. And her name was Julie Love. She went out for a jog and never came home. Her body was, she had one glass eye. Nobody knew it. But her glass eye was found near a dumpster months and months and months later. So it does happen. Even statistically, Wendy Patrick, people do go out for a normal reason and they're never seen again.

That's true. But we're talking about a short span of time comparatively. If it takes 45 minutes to cross the distance and it was some sort of a natural, explainable, like an accident, you would have found the car, you would have found both bodies. But to have this type of a disappearance in a well-known area where there's obviously a thoroughfare, even if they were driving it early in the morning, to have that kind of a disappearance, that would indicate foul play. Now, I don't know that there was a big thoroughfare, Nicole Parton. Nicole, now, aren't you joining me from Tennessee? I am joining you from Florida, Nancy.

Okay. You're a hard one to pin down, aren't you? Tennessee is home, so I'm familiar with those windy mountain roads. So what I'm saying is a major thoroughfare. Not every, if you're going up to the Lake Cabin, that suggests to me it's kind of remote. It's off the beaten path. So I don't know that there was a major thoroughfare between Windsor, Wisconsin and White Lake. I mean, I don't know that much about White Lake, Wisconsin. What can you tell me about the cabin where they were? How long did they have it? Do they go up every weekend?

They didn't travel up there every weekend, but they went quite often. Their neighbors, some of their friends had been up there with them before and spent some holidays and some weekends. And it is off the beaten path. I wouldn't say it's extreme camping out into the wilderness, but it's certainly out of town. Let me tell you what I've learned about White Lake. It is not referred to as a town. It's referred to as a village in Langlade County, Wisconsin, and the population at last census was 363. 363. That is remote. In my mind, that's remote, and I grew up in a very rural area.

So what was different about this trip, this weekend, other than it was the July 4th weekend? Take a listen to our friends over at 3 News Now. So my last message I got from them, they were going to White Lake for the 4th of July. There's some festivities that go around there, better drink prices at the bars stuff like that for um yeah white lake wisconsin

and that their plan or from to my knowledge they're going to langland county to a cabin their cabin um along the way they could have stopped many places. I wouldn't know all of them. But it's about three hours north of Madison or Dane County. Now, he said three hours. And I'm wondering if, well, if you look at it as the crow flies, it looks like 45 minutes. But going up and down windy mountain roads, it turns into three hours now. He says also there are a lot of places to stop. I doubt they're stopping at a bar at 6 a.m.

They're with another couple. So what happened? And who's the other couple? Take a listen to our friend Tony Galley, WKOW 27 News. Bart and Krista Halderson of Windsor had plans for the 4th. Their plans were going up with their friends and do some minor repairs on a cabin. That cabin is some three hours away from Windsor on a lake in a small community in Langlade County. Did you literally see them pulling out of the driveway heading out? No. Their son, Chandler Halderson, who asked to be off camera, says whoever his parents were traveling with from this neighborhood were to do the driving.

He says he received a text from his mother. She got back to me on Sunday, said they made it safely. That's the blast he's heard from his parents. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, a couple seemingly just disappears into thin air on the way to their lake cabin. We also are learning they were going to go and do repairs. What kind of repairs and why? Take a listen to the Sun speaking to 3 News now. So that would have been the 2nd of July when they left. And that's the last you'd heard of them? Yes, it is.

And then was it yesterday that you called the sheriff's office or someone with your family called the sheriff's office just to... I go back on that. I actually got a text them on sunday telling me they were going to white lake okay i don't know when the text was sent because of reception issues that they would have and they usually turn their phone off because of pay for roaming yeah um we they it could have been whenever they sent that message that they made it safely, and they're going to White Lake for the fourth. Now, we're also learning from Adam Duxter at 3 News Now that there was a problem with the roaming on their cell phones,

and we've all gone through that when you go to, and I just went through it with my children going to scout camp up in the mountains. It's very hard to call out. It happens. These two are going up into a remote area. Take a listen to Adam Duxton. Chandler says he assumed his parents had turned off their phones to avoid roaming charges. And it wasn't until after the holiday weekend ended that he got nervous. Because this weekend it was packed. I get that. Packed. Maybe the weather wasn't great for messaging. Tonight, Dane County Sheriff's Office says there are too many unanswered questions to say anything.

Well, Langlade County Sheriff's Office wouldn't confirm they're helping in a search. Police instead spending today interviewing neighbors like Brett Schuster himself. I'm shocked. I mean, it's odd though. Everything that seems, you know, it's odd and shocking that, you know, you never expect or anticipate seeing something like especially that close to your house. I hope everything works out. It's just a misunderstanding with communication and comes pulling in the driveway any minute. And Chandler Halderson says for his parents to leave, even with another person, does happen from time to time. But he tells me another family member went to that cabin to check out cell service and was able to get through.

So that tells me the cell service worked in that area. You know, I didn't realize, did Dr. Jeff Gardier, there's still roaming charges on cell phones? You know, so funny you should say that. I was thinking, I think we found a way to get on WhatsApp and other sorts of services. And people really don't use roaming as much anymore. And if there is roaming, perhaps the charges are not as repressive as they once were. Are there still roaming charges, Wendy, Joe Scott, Nicole? I thought that they were over. You know, that really threw me for a loop.

I can't remember the last time that I was hit with a roaming charge. And, you know, like you, Nancy, I camp and do interesting things in remote areas. And, you know, learning that this was a remote area, one of the first things that struck me is they would know their neighbors. And they'd know the people that worked at the local grocery store and all the rest of it. So it becomes even more suspicious. You know, I just can't figure this out because they left with another couple. Nobody actually saw them leave. But they left that morning before 6 a.m. when the sun gets up. But who's the other couple?

I mean, let me go to you. Dr. Jeff Gardier, you and I have talked many, many times about routine evidence, and I think that's a bad title for it, but that's what it's called. It's evidence of routine. In other words, if I do not see my executive producer, Jackie Howard, fly by about an hour and a half before we go to air, something is wrong, very wrong. That's her routine. Every day I say, you want a cup of coffee?

She goes, no way am I drinking your coffee. It's like that every day. Now, my parents, Dr. Jeff Gardier, would go out every Friday night with Sanders and Jeanette Johnson for years. Every Friday night, they'd go to the same place, the Green Jacket, in Macon, Georgia, every Friday night without deviation. I don't even remember them going to a different restaurant. And then they'd be home by about 9 o'clock. So who were they? I mean, I knew who they were with.

Who are these people that nobody can identify that they left with for the weekend? And what makes it even stranger is that these are folks that supposedly live in their neighborhood. So why isn't anyone in the neighborhood asking what happened to the other couple? Or if that couple did come back, why aren't they saying anything? So, of course, that makes things extremely strange. So, Wendy Patchett, what do you make of so-called routine evidence, evidence of routine? Now, a good defense attorney will argue that means nothing. Oh, I think... There's no playbook for how you're going to live your life, but that's BS. People are creatures of habit. We like a certain thing and we do it over and over. I mean,

I don't know about you guys, but I sit at the same spot every night at the dinner table. Lucy's on my left, John David's on my right and my husband David's in front of me. We just like those seats and we don't change. I think you've characterized dinner tables across the country because there's a reason we call ourselves creatures of habit. And the evidence code picks that up and allows us to introduce exactly that type of evidence. And there's no indication that these parents are any different than the rest of us, which is why it is so odd that this weekend just seems so out of character and out of their usual procedure and practice. So yes, I think that'll be just dynamite evidence, one way or another, to try to figure out how in the world did they happen to disappear this

particular weekend. Well, even the neighbors know something is very, very wrong. Take a listen to Tony Galley, KWKOW 27. Neighbor Brett Schuster's reaction to the Halderson's disappearance. Wow. Wow. You know, my wife is pretty shook up, too. I mean, they're a very nice couple, very nice family. Detectives now go door to door here. While sheriff's personnel here in Dane County are checking for any and all information, the missing couple's son says law enforcement in Langlade County has checked on the family's

cabin there, and he says that visit only adds to the mystery. The sheriff said it looked like there wasn't anyone home. Family and friends hope the Halderson's unexpected extended time away is just that and not a sign they're in trouble. Away but not a sign they're in trouble. You know, Joe Scott Morgan with the advent of very common use of cell phones. It's very hard for me to take in that this couple, this married couple with a grown son living at home, just disappear and nobody can find them. With the advent of cell phone usage, it just doesn't even make sense to me. No, it doesn't to me either, Nancy. And, you know, like I said earlier, one person, OK, I'll buy into it. You got two people that are missing. And also, where's their car, you know, or where's this couple's car? I'm sure that probably knowing how thorough that I do personally, how thorough the state police are in Wisconsin, they would have driven both of these corridors. And there are actually two corridors to get up there. One is a more rural route that goes through. Wisconsin's absolutely beautiful going through this area,

through Oshkosh and all these areas. That route takes a little bit longer, and you're on a little bit of interstate. The other route takes interstate almost all the way to this location. So, yeah, you're going on a vacation. You're going to visit your cabin. Wouldn't you want to get out into the bucolic beauty of the countryside up there? Maybe they did that. But along the way, you would see some evidence that the car is missing because I think that wherever they are, the vehicle would be there, too.

So is there evidence that a vehicle has run off the road? Well, remember, didn't they say they were going up with the other couple? Yeah, but, you know, there has to be some kind of conveyance. So their car is not going to be missing. Well, yeah, but we don't know who this other couple is. So are we going to say that, you know, these two folks that are missing are just placed out on the side of the road? They're just out there in the wilderness, just kind of walking along, and they can't figure out how to get back. It leads me to believe that something very nefarious is happening.

Let me ask you this. Go ahead and jump in. I'm trying to figure out what detectives need to do first in a case like that. Was that you, Nicole, or Wendy? No, that was me. You know, don't we know our parents' friends, at least friends that are close enough to spend the weekend with? Like Jeanette and Sanders.

Yeah. I mean, just to have a mystery couple on the scene that happens to have been driving, that nobody saw, that left before dawn with no car that was been recovered. I mean, now we've got four people presumably missing and no vehicle. There's more and more indications that it wasn't a natural accident, that it wasn't back south. I guess just, Morgan, the first thing. Go ahead. Yeah. that it wasn't back south. I guess just, Morgan, the first thing, go ahead. Yeah, by the time you get to the point in life where they are in middle age, you've got a set group of friends.

It's not like you're in your 20s. I don't know what you're talking about, 50 being middle age. Well, hey, listen, you've had time enough to vet everybody that you want, and your circle's getting smaller and smaller. These are the people I want to spend time with. It's not like you're just going out and finding random strangers. These are the people I feel comfortable with. These are the people that I want to sit time with. It's not like you're just going out and finding random strangers. These are the people I feel comfortable with. These are the people that I want to sit around.

That you want to be trapped in a car for three hours with? Yeah, that I would choose to of my own volition. You're not just going to, this isn't going to be a randomized event. I agree. I think what you're saying, let me decipher that stream of consciousness, is that to be trapped in a car with another couple for three hours, it's got to be somebody you know very well and that you choose to be with. Or you could just take your own car and therefore we should know who their inner circle is. So let's take a recap of what do we know.

Take a listen to our friends at News 3 Now. Chandler Halderson lives with his parents in the village of Windsor and says another unknown couple picked them up early Friday morning before he was awake. And tonight we're left to wonder what happened to Bart and Krista Halderson. Brett Schuster says his usually quiet street is busier than ever since last night. I pulled in. There was a couple of sheriffs out there. Then two hours later, there's three, four detectives there. As we saw the detectives under the house, that's where we knew there was something going on inside Bart's house. Shortly after, the Dane County Sheriff's Office shared this photo of Bart and Krista Halderson. Police say the couple had planned to go to their cabin in Langlade County.

Their son, Chandler, asked not to be shown on camera, but he told us he didn't see his parents leave. It added they didn't drive themselves. They were picked up by their friends who I never got the name of, and I assumed it was someone I was aware of. The close neighbors of theirs up the street or their best friends down on the east side. So that's what what I assumed I never really asked any further crime stories with Nancy grace guys we were talking about the disappearance of a couple well-known in their community that simply drive, hop, skip, and jump away to their mountain cabin and are never seen again. Bart and Krista Halderson.

And then comes a break in the case. Take a listen to the Dane County Sheriff, Calvin Barrett. The Dane County Sheriff's office immediately began the investigation and got in contact with the Landlake County Sheriff's office to make contact with their cabin in White Lake, Wisconsin. The deputies reported that there was no signs of immediate activity at that location. An investigation progressed and detectives interviewed friends, family, and neighbors of the missing couple, which resulted in detectives finding unknown or unidentifiable remains at this time. A search warrant was obtained of the property and deputies are continuing to look at the area for additional evidence in regards to this investigation.

Okay, straight out to you, Nicole Parton, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Where were the remains of this lovely couple found? neighbor who had reported some suspicion of some property, really remote area in the same county as the home, not very far, but yet remote out of town, out of sight. And it's when the authorities went to that property that they found a bloody tarp that they located human remains in. Those human remains had been really, really horrible sight, chopped up, dismembered, and partial remains, not an entire body was found. Dr. Jeff Gardier, board-certified psychologist, professor of behavioral medicine at Truro College. Dr. Gardier, you and I have discussed this before. There's such a thing as a murder, of course. But it's a whole other scenario to dismember a human body.

The mindset required for that. And you've got, to my understanding, one or both of the bodies have been found. What we're talking here is right. Not just a murder, but rage and depravity. And therefore, this is a situation that now speaks to who is guilty of this. And if we suspect, you know, we work within that orbit. Right now, there is conflicting evidence. And if we suspect, you know, we work within that orbit. Right now, there is conflicting evidence.

We are learning that one body, a male, has been found. That, we believe, is Bart A. Halderson. Now, his wife, Krista, according to prosecutors, is still missing. Now, that is a very unusual scenario. But to Dr. Jeff Gardier, regarding the dismemberment of a body, that's a whole other mindset. Absolutely. What we're looking at is not just possibly intent, but depravity and rage. You know, to have rage, Wendy Patrick, it could mean either you know the person very well and you have rage toward them, or it could be misguided rage. Let me just cite the Long Island jogger.

Remember, the perp in that case, the victim, Karina Vetrano, the perp in that case had never met her before, but he violently assaulted her and beat her, knocking out her teeth, strangled her. It was misguided rage on her. So while we think this was a rage killing and a rage dismemberment, I don't know how much that really helps us in identifying the killer. Yeah, it's true. You know, you do have that just raw emotion. But you know, one other thing about dismemberment is it takes time. This isn't a, you know, a bullet in the head that can kill instantly. Dismemberment is a process.

And if you combine that with rage, you're really looking at a strategy because you have to have the right tools and you have to think it through and you have to decide how you're going to do it and where and when. So this actually seems more like something that involves more planning in addition to, as you mentioned, the requisite emotion, regardless of the source. Take a listen to more from the Dane County Sheriff Calvin Barrett. When and where were these remains found that you're talking about? They were found approximately July 8th. Do you know where? Yeah, in rural Wisconsin, rural Dane County. What community, Sheriff? It was in a rural area of Dane County. You can't say more specifically than that?

No, again, this is an ongoing investigation. We don't want to interrupt what we have going on right now. We want to ensure that the investigation is done thoroughly and is completed to the best of our abilities. Okay, you know, the more we ask, the less we're hearing. So, Nicole Parton, where is this location? You said it was near the home. Are you talking about the residence or the lake house?

Near the residence. So, in the same county as the residence. So, they never made it anywhere close to the lake house, correct? Right, right. That's right. Okay, in my mind, that really changes things. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. For those of you just joining us, we were talking about the very unusual disappearance of a lovely couple,

by all accounts, Bart and Krista Halderson, who leave early in the morning. They're all packed the night before to head out to their lake cabin, and they never make it. Days pass. The Sun reports them missing. Now we're understanding that human remains have been found. But there's more. Take a listen to this. There's obvious worry tonight here in Windsor over the possibility the human remains found Thursday are connected to the missing couple Bart Halderson and Krista Halderson. Their son Chandler was arrested Thursday for allegedly providing false information to investigators.

Before his arrest, I was out here with Chandler Halderson and spoke to him about his parents' disappearance. They're probably at a casino. Their phone's off, no reception somewhere. Maybe they're on a boat having some fun with their friends. But Dane County Sheriff Calvin Barrett says there's no indication the missing couple went north to their Langlade County lakeside cabin, as Chandler Halderson claimed. As sheriff's personnel searched near the Halderson home, the sheriff says they are also searching separately where the human remains were found in rural Dane County.

We interviewed friends, family, and neighbors and were able to get that information and that location based off of the information provided by those who we interviewed throughout the investigation. Let me let this sink in. You were just listening to our friends at WKOW 27 News. That was Tony Galley speaking. Just pause just for a moment. You know, I don't know about the rest of you to you, Wendy Patrick, Dr. Jeff Gardier, Joe Scott Morgan, Nicole Parton, and our rush to solve a case, to report a case,

to figure out a case, to go through the scene forensically, Joe Scott. The minute details, let me let this sink in. Authorities searched the area and found remains later identified as a human torso. So at the very beginning, they couldn't even identify what they had found. They didn't know what it was. That's how much the husband, Bart Halderson, had been butchered.

It was a human torso. No legs, no arms, no neck, no head. Just the torso, so degraded and so butchered that when it was first found, they didn't even know what they had found. They knew they found something, but they didn't even know what. Later identified

as a human torso. Okay, Joe Scott, do your work. You know, Nancy, the thing about dismemberment, as Wendy had mentioned, it does require tools, but you know what else it requires? It requires privacy. It requires access to the tools and it requires seclusion. The beauty of cases where you have an individual that has butchered somebody is that there is going to be a huge, I mean, a trove of physical evidence in this case. You're going to have blood evidence. You're going to have tool mark evidence. You're going to actually have evidence in this particular case, because from what I'm hearing, they're actually saying that the dad has been shot, that there is an evidence that he had sustained a gunshot wound. So that's going to be an additional tieback. Then you've got transportative evidence, which if,

let's just think about this just for a second, you decide that you're going to butcher somebody. How are you going to get them from their home to the location where the remains, these mutilated remains are actually found. That means there has to be some conveyance. They're not saying that it's like in the backyard, it's some distance, it's near the home, but it's some distance. Somebody just didn't put them on the back. They had to physically transport them there. So you're talking about a tremendous amount of blood evidence that's

going to be left behind in the conveyance that they use additionally. So you've got the primary crime scene where they were killed, the secondary crime scene where they were butchered. The tertiary crime scene, the transport to hide the remains. Unless the dad was butchered out there in the middle of nowhere. And then the fourth crime scene would be the disposal. Yeah, and you have to think about you know what kind of what kind of items were used i heard a tarp had been used but why is the body so mutilated uh this gives me an indication at least if i were to see the remains

which obviously i haven't but there was confusion maybe there was an inability to understand uh the technical ramifications of dismembering a body, which by the way, is very, very difficult to do if you don't have the appropriate tools, like we have in the morgue, like scalpels and bone saws and all these sorts of things. At best, you're using rudimentary hardware, stuff you can buy at a local hardware store. It makes it very, very difficult. So how are you going to cover all that up? There's so many, you know, people think that they're going to get away with crimes if they try to, you know, pull the body apart and take it apart. What folks don't realize, you're creating

more evidence. You're actually creating more evidence. You're right. The more you try to conceal, the more evidence you're creating. But right now, the son is only suspected of lying. Take a listen to our cut 18. This is the deputy district attorney, William Brown. Listen. So back on July 7th, Mr. Halderson made contact with the Dane County Sheriff's Department reporting that his parents were missing. In that contact, Mr. Halverson made a great deal of statements indicating where he thought his parents were, sending police essentially on a wild goose chase

throughout the state of Wisconsin, looking for them. With an unidentified couple, he essentially told the police a web of lies regarding things they were packing, items they were taking or not taking, even indicating that there were messages between him and his parents while they were gone. That all, he alleged, occurred on the 2nd of July. Eventually, Mr. Halverson, obviously on the 7th, then reports his parents missing after they've been gone for five days at that point, and an investigation is started. Well, there's more. When we're talking about a wild goose chase, it reminds me, I don't know if you remember these facts,

but in Top Mom, Casey Anthony, when everyone was frantically looking for her little two-year-old girl, Kelly, she put up one story after the next, after the next, after she's at the beach. She's here. She's there. Oh, she's with her nanny and the nanny won't bring her home. There was a full month of wild goose chase where the grandmother, Cindy Anthony, tried to find Kelly. Here we're seeing a similar wild goose chase led by the victim's son. Take a listen to our cut 19. Again, this is the Deputy District Attorney. What led authorities to this very remote area where the body was found? Listen.

Working on that investigation, police made contact with a great deal of people who had contact with Mr. Halderson in that time period between the 2nd of July, which is the last known time anyone has seen Mr. Halderson's parents in through the day that they were making that contact. A witness that personally knows Mr. Halderson and has seen him on many occasions who lives in rural Dane County reported seeing Mr. Halderson's vehicle with him in it parked in a kind of an odd location near a wood line on their rural property. She did report that to police when they were speaking to her. That reported date that Mr. Halderson was at her property was on July 5th,

so three days after his parents reportedly had left for this cabin. And not only was he in a field near some woods. Lived at home, Chandler Halderson lived with his parents, was observed in his car driving in reverse with the rear hatch open. I think, Joe Scott Morgan, that we've got a pretty good idea about the transport of the bodies or the body. Yeah, yeah, I think that we do. And the fact that you're mentioning a vehicle with a rear hatch, that gives us an indication if the police are following this case up. I guarantee you this. His car is somewhere in a police evidence garage, and they're going over this thing with a fine-tooth comb. And they will. They can take as much time as they want to right now, okay? And they can go over everything. They're going to be looking for blood evidence. They'll probably be looking for bone evidence, maybe from bone dust

that was created. And not to mention anything else that's left behind, tools. There's just things that people forget in these frenzied moments, particularly somebody that's not used to being around a lot of blood and gore, particularly when it involves, let's say, for instance, your own parents' body. You know, speaking of your own parents, the mother officially is still a missing person. And believe it or not, this son, this 23-year-old son, Chandler Halderson, is only charged with lying to police. What about the dismembered body and the torso we just found?

What about your car driving in reverse with the hatch open out in the woods? And if you could look at this guy, Dr. Jeff Gardere, you're the psychologist, you're the professor at Truro. To look at this guy, he looks like he should have been working with me in the back of the library when I worked in the back processing books at Mercer University. This looks like a bookworm. You know, there's an old saying, the one who will only break one plate is the one who will break a thousand. And psychologically, I've actually never heard that. And it's a good one because it does tell us sometimes the people who are the most quiet are the ones who may in many ways sit on a lot of emotion, sit on a lot of anger, and it just builds up over time. Nancy, I'm

interested into, will they look into, were there ever any calls to the police, domestic violence in the home, any issues with this young man as far as some mental health issues or outbursts towards the parents oh here you go it never ends with you does it guard dear somebody's always mentally ill how about just he's the devil and he killed his parents the mother is not missing the mother's dead that. That's what I'm saying. I don't care what they're saying. She's dead and he killed her. Okay. If you know, or even think you know anything about the Halderson's disappearance and death, please dial 608-284-6900. 608-284-6900. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.