Crime Weekly - Bart & Krista Halderson | The Final Days of Chandler Halderson’s Elaborate Lie (Part 4)

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

By the Summer of 2021, Bart and Krista Halderson were living the quintessential Midwestern life. They owned a beautiful home in Windsor, Wisconsin, and a rustic family cabin up north in White Lake, where they loved spending time together. They were also preparing to cross the finish line of parenting. Their oldest son Mitchell was a successful tech professional, engaged and in the process of buying a house. Their youngest son Chandler was days away from moving to Florida to work for SpaceX. But on July 7th, 2021, the dream shattered. Chandler went to the police station to report his parents missing. Bart and Krista had gone up north to the family cabin for the Fourth of July weekend with an unknown couple. They never came back. Try our coffee! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: https://www.AbsorbMore.com - Use Code CRIMEWEEKLY for 35% off! https://www.Chime.com/CrimeWeekly - Join fee-free banking with Chime! https://www.FactorMeals.com/CrimeWeekly50Off - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY50OFF for 50% off and FREE daily greens! https://www.BollAndBranch.com/CrimeWeekly - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for 20% off! https://www.TryFum.com/CrimeWeekly - Start a Good Habit today! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow. And I'm Derek LaVascer. So today we are diving into the fourth and final part of the Bart and Krista Halterson case. What a roller coaster of events it's been. What a roller coaster. I agree. A lot of people in the comments from last episode. That was a difficult episode because of the details associated with it, especially the disposal of Bart and Krista. But necessary, necessary to fully understand the case. And I was saying in a. in Crime Weekly News earlier this week that there are a lot of people who were familiar with this case were not the first to cover it. And yet they're discovering things about this investigation that they had never heard before. So good job by you. I mean, I think that people, they're like, why are you covering this? We've heard this. In the first episode, they were like, so many people have covered this. And it's like, but you don't understand when I cover it, the reason that and people get annoyed with me,

like, especially Derek, because he's like, how many parts is it going to be? And I'm like, I don't know. The reason that I find things is because I go so deep and I like leave no stone. unturned for my own. That's the, that's the only way I can do it. So, yeah, there's going to be things that come up that, that weren't. Now, this case is horrific. This is, this is a bad one. The only thing that I left last week's episode, it was something that still bothers me and I don't think we'll ever truly have the answer. And the testimony from Chandler-Halderson's friend. And I apologize, I can't remember his name, the person who gave him the SKS rifle. Oh, yeah, the Army guy. That whole thing bothers me. And I'll tell you why. And this is anecdotal. That's an expensive gun.

I know. And I have a lot of people who are gun owners in my life, and I can't tell you a single person who's given up a gun that expensive for free, just to give it as a gift. When they weren't really that close. I mean, they've been friends for a few years. They talked every day. So, I mean, I guess like. There's probably nothing to it, but I just, it was just something that I'm not going to make any accusations, but just something was odd about it to me. It just bothered me. I don't even know why completely. But it was just something that if I were working this case, I might have. have dug a little deeper into that transaction. I don't know if it would have uncovered anything, but I would have dug deeper into it. I would have pulled on that thread a little bit more. Yeah, like how much, because that means so much of their conversations happened over the game. So there's any way to track that electronically. Right. And I don't want to be speculative, but I do wonder what conversations had happened and if there was. If there was any thought in his mind that this kid might use this gun for something that he shouldn't. Because, I mean, Chandler sent off red flags for a lot of people who knew him even growing up. So did he not send off red flags?

flags for this guy. Yeah. I don't know. And I mean, he even acknowledged that the gun was hidden in the basement. So there was no dispute that he knew his parents didn't want the gun in the house and yet he still gave it to him. So I don't know. It just bothered me.

I don't know what to think of it. But something now in hindsight, maybe not as important. But if I were working the case to make sure we got everybody who could be potentially connected to this, that is something that I would have dug a little deeper into. Maybe they didn't. It just never came out at trial because it would. They didn't find anything. Yeah, or maybe it was like, yeah, in this case, maybe not an issue, but maybe in general this guy might be an issue.

Yeah. Not to go off on a tangent. Just something that I was left thinking about on my drive home from like I often do when we have like a two hour episode. Well, when we left off last week, Chandler's girlfriend, Kat, had clocked him in a weird place on July 3, 2021 by the Wisconsin River. She'd seen him at this location on Snapchat. And this was the very same location where the partial remains of his mother, Krista Hall. Alderson would be recovered on July 14th, 2021. Now, remember, Kat had left Chandler's home early that morning, very early, because he told her he had chores to do, and then Chandler left the house

in his father's Subaru at 7.48 a.m., at which point he was unresponsive to Katz text messages between 8 a.m. and 9.m. And then at 9.31 a.m., Chandler returned home in the Subaru, but left again at 1009 a.m. to head to Kat's mother's house where he and Kat had lunch and finished watching a show on Netflix that they'd started the night before when she spent the night at Chandler's house. Kat said on this day Chandler seemed exhausted, which obviously dude's not sleeping because he's running around town, having fires for multiple hours at night. But he seemed exhausted. And although they'd planned to hang out that night and watch fireworks together, Chandler had to leave early to go home and take care of the dogs. So we see Chandler and his father, Subaru, return to the Halterson home at 307 p.m. because he's got to take

care of the dogs and he's exhausted. But then he left again at 10.08 p.m. Now, between 1037 p.m. and 11.03m., Chandler's cell phone tower records, they placed him in the area of Portage by the Wisconsin River. Authorities did attempt to search this area, believing that this late night trip was Chandler disposing of more evidence and probably human remains in the river, but they were unable to find anything. The Wisconsin River near Portage has swift, deceptively dangerous currents. The river flows southwest. directly into the Mississippi River and eventually all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. So besides the remains of Bart Holderson found on the farm and the remains of Krista Halterson found in Roxbury, no other remains were ever found from these two people. We know that some were

burned. And yes, Chandler more than likely disposed of quite a bit of the remains in the Wisconsin River. I'm going to talk about this later, but it's like, why would you leave some of the remains where you left them and then dispose of others in the river when the river, when the river is probably the better option. Yeah, I would agree. We always talk about these things and like the basic answer is these guys aren't that bright, Chandler specifically, but it also could have been an evolution where the original plan was the fireplace, but you talked about all the complications that he had with the fireplace. And so he called an audible. He changed it up and said, man, this is going to take forever. Not only is it going to take forever, but it's leaving behind

a lot of forensic evidence that can be used against me later. That I have to clean up, yeah. And so the easier route, which I should have done in the first place, would be to dispose of the bodies in a body of water. That was something that was decided after trying the fire, which he thought originally was the way to go. I also think he was like, man, this was a lot of work to clean this up. But I always wondered, why go to the family farm of someone so associated with your girlfriend and leave the torso just back out there in the woods? Yeah, I think he thought that there wouldn't be a lot of investigation. It was an area that he was familiar with. It was a private property. So unless they had probable cause to be there, they wouldn't. But I think one thing he didn't account for is the family members being in the

pool at the exact time when he went back there. That was something that really helped law enforcement. Those witnesses were critical in this case, his behaviors and the things that he did upon returning back to the pool. So I think in his mind, he thought he could go back there, dump the body. Nobody would ever even know he was there. Unfortunately for him, that's not how it played out. But he knows that there's people there. Like they can say, yeah, I think you're right. I think he was like, I'm going to report my parents missing. Yeah, and nobody's going to look into it. I don't think he ever intended to report them missing. It's just that everyone around him was like, hey, you should do this. Yeah, yeah. So we probably did it sooner than he wanted to. But I don't think he thought that anyone was ever

going to be like, there's more to the story than what you're telling us. Then we have the following day. That's July 4th. This is the day that Chandler and Kat would hang out with her family on Cress's farm property. And this is also the day that Chandler turned on his mother's cell phone to send himself a message pretending to be Krista. Afterwards, Chandler and Kat went to her mother's house, but they would both end up back at the Halterson home that night. Kat said that they went to her mom's house, and then he left right away because he had to get home to feed the dogs. And neighborhood surveillance showed Chandler in the Subaru arriving back at 7.29 p.m. And then Kat arrived shortly after at 7.52 p.m. And she spends the night again. So this is the second time during this week where Kat is spending the night

at the Halterson home. Yeah. Now, the next morning, July 5th, Kat left early again, but this time it's because it's Monday. She had to go to work, so she left around 7.46 a.m. At 8.47 a.m., Chandler took the garbage

and recycling bins out to the end of the driveway. Now, remember that Bart and Christa's blood would be found on the handle and inside the garbage bin. And it's believed that Chandler used this bin to dispose of at least his cleanup material, if not small portions of remains. I agree.

I think it would be almost impossible not to have some small particles of the remains mixed up in all of that. The garbage and recycling men, the waste management ones, so we're talking about the garbage that you have, you pay somebody to come and get, right? Like commercial garbage disposal. Yeah. They sat at the end of the driveway for a few days after he brought them down. And there's going to be video of him sometimes stopping at the end of the driveway. And you can't really see what he's doing. But I think he's throwing more stuff in there.

So at this point, those garbage bins would have been considered abandoned material. And the police could have gone in and taken anything out at any time without a warrant. You have no right to that trash once it hits the road. It is now abandoned property and the expectation of privacy is gone. And he just left it out there. This is the difference between someone, I don't even want to call them a professional, but someone who's done the research. Done the research, yeah.

And a novice because not to give anybody ideas, but this is not going to be some new revelation for you, Stephanie, with all the cases you've covered. But you wouldn't want to put anything in your garbage cans because you wouldn't No, detectives could forensically analyze those trash cans later. What you would do is placing into trash bags and dump it at a public dumpster somewhere completely unconnected to you or directly to the landfill where it's going to be a needle and a haystack. Again, Chandler really didn't think this one out. And I think it goes back to what we've been talking about.

Well, he tried to go to the dump, remember? But it was closed because the holiday weekend. Yeah. Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. He did. I still think it goes back to what we talked about a lot last episode where he may have had thoughts about killing his parents over an extended period of.

time. There wasn't a large window of opportunity between when he finally decided to do it and when he actually did it. He ran out of options in his mind. And so it wasn't a very well thought out plan. And you can see that in the aftermath of how he executed everything, just terribly done. Yeah, I think he didn't think it through. He probably thought the fireplace was going to work the whole time. I think he killed Bart and then was like, what do I do now? So the authorities would eventually search the waste management landfill outside Johnson Creek, but they didn't find anything. Because as we know, that kind of search is literally a needle in a haystack search. They were unable to find anything.

They brought cadaver dogs. They brought scent dogs. I don't think people will realize how massive these landfills are. Everything, all the garbage from all these areas, a cumulative amount of areas are going there. And there's going to be a ton of stuff that cadaver dogs and scent dogs are going to hit on, basically, in these landfills. Over 300 sensors and sensory cells in their nose. It would be overwhelming for them. It's going to be overwhelming for them and there's going to be other flesh materials in there, whether it's human or animal.

Blood, fecal matter. Yeah. And they should be able to differentiate between the two, but think about how difficult that would be. You're going to have to have a really top-notch dog. And again, know what you're looking for and where it is. It's very difficult. Almost, I would say, impossible. Almost impossible.

Yeah, I agree. At 1133 a.m. that day, this is July 5th. Cat was texting Chandler from work complaining about her job. and how unhappy she was there, Chandler texted back, quote, don't piss them off till we know for sure we are moving, end quote, because as of now, Kat is still under the impression that Chandler's working for SpaceX. He never did, but he still hasn't even told her that he's, quote, unquote, lost the job.

That comes later. She then starts texting Chandler about methods of transportation to get to Titusville, Florida. Because remember, Chandler, he had injuries from his fall down the stairs that were so extensive that his doctors had told him he couldn't fly. So I think Chandler was also using this ball as a way to kind of set up the news that he wasn't going to be able to go to Florida and work for SpaceX. Because how can he get there if he can't fly? You know, it's in a completely different state. Not easy to get there.

He doesn't even have a car, by the way. So Kat was looking for alternatives for him to get to Florida because she's going to follow him later. She wants to look at alternatives that don't include a commercial airline. So at 1146am, she said, quote, Greyhound isn't too expensive for a trip to Titusville. no pressure just saying, end quote. And Chandler responded, quote, nope, 870 for a straight shot to Orlando, end quote. He then told Kat and, you know, $870 to Orlando, it's going to be another $200 to take an Uber from Orlando to Titusville. That's going to put the cost of the trip at over a thousand

bucks. And then I'm not even going to be able to bring a lot of my stuff. And Kat was like, what are you talking about? I'm looking at the Greyhound website currently as we speak. And they even pulled it up in court that at the time she was sending this, she was screenshoting the Greyhound website. So she said, I'm looking at the Greyhound website. It's only $240 to go straight to Titusville. So what the hell are you looking at? What are you talking about? And Chandler wrote back, quote, WTF, where am I looking? End quote. And Kat wrote back, quote, you're very off, end quote. She didn't know how significant that statement was. Yeah, you're very off Chandler. So many layers. She doesn't even understand yet. Doesn't get much more off than that.

Yeah. Now, Chandler had also told Kat that he had a doctor's appointment that afternoon at the UW clinic for his injuries. And she'd been trying to leave work early that day so that she could take him, but she'd been unable to get off of work. So at 1.31 p.m., Kat texted Chandler to let her know when he got to his appointment. And he responded back, yes, dear. Now, she's saying, tell me when you get to your appointment, because it's not necessarily a short drive. And he's not supposed to be driving at all, according to his doctor's recommendations. So that's why she was trying to drive him, but he didn't want her to, obviously. So at 140 p.m., Kat wrote to Chandler, quote, I love you, it's going to be okay.

End quote. A minute later, Chandler texted back, quote, either way, you and me are going to be happy, end quote. At 209 p.m., Chandler texted Kat that he had, quote, made it a bit ago and checked in, end quote. Then he texted her BRB. At 219 p.m., Cat asked Chandler if she was picking him up later and told him she got out of work at 5. At 222 p.m., Chandler texted Kat and told her he had terrible reception.

And Kat was like, why? Doesn't the clinic have Wi-Fi? So Kat, who worked in the health care field and had been to these clinics before, she understood and knew that all UW health clinics had free Wi-Fi. So she told Chandler, well, if you don't have reception on your phone, which that's weird, but if you don't have reception on your phone, then hook up to Wi-Fi and then we can message through Snapchat. So at 2.23 p.m., Chandler wrote, quote, no connection to even load Snapchat and no Wi-Fi, but I can still get your eye messages, end quote. Now, at this point, Kat is heavily suspicious. Even if she wasn't saying that to Chandler, and even if she wouldn't admit that now, I know as a woman that she's heavily suspicious. Not suspicious that Chandler had killed his parents, but suspicious that he was lying to her about something because he was claiming he didn't have connection and no Wi-Fi because this removed Kat's ability to see his location on Snapchat.

Yeah. Well, we already know you said it a couple episodes ago that he cheated on her. There were already trust issues. Yeah, there's already trust issues. and the way that she keeps tabs on him is through Snapchat because she's messaging him on Snapchat. And then if he doesn't message her back on Snapchat, she tells him to message her on Snapchat because as soon as you open that app, it updates your location. It updates your location. So she can see where he's at.

And this is maybe something he'd forgotten the day before was that she was able to see his location at any time through Snapchat. And now he'd learned his lesson. So he's not opening Snapchat. And he has to say he can't open Snapchat because he has no reception and no Wi-Fi. He's saying, I have no service and no Wi-Fi. And he's like, but I'm still getting your eye messages. Well, that's Wi-Fi. That doesn't make any sense.

Exactly. That is Wi-Fi. Although I would argue it is, it also can be L-T. He's not getting any reception and he has no Wi-Fi. Right, right. Well, that's where he tripped up. Yeah, I'm probably not going to be able to talk to you right now because I'm not getting any reception and I have no Wi-Fi.

And if those bubbles are coming over blue, you're cooked. Yeah, and Kat's like, that's weird. You need an active Wi-Fi or cellular data connection to receive an I-Message. I-Message relies entirely on the Internet rather than standard cellular channel. So if you didn't have data, it would go. through as a regular text message. So Cat wrote back to Chandler, quote, weird. They all have it, but maybe it's your carrier. End quote. She's suspicious. In fact, Chandler was lying to Kat the entire time because the entire time he's telling her he's at the clinic. He was at his house. He never

left his house. And he needs her to think he's at the clinic because he's got this huge doctor's appointment that's super important. But he never went to anywhere. He didn't leave the house. She's lucky she didn't go by. Well, because she's at work and he knows. He knows she's at work. He's lucky. She didn't say I'm about to take a long lunch and drive by. I say she's lucky because, again, something that you mentioned last episode with Chandler, this is someone who doesn't have a lot of emotion and anybody who's not with him is against him. And I do think you were right in your assessment where if she had gone down to the basement or if she had come by unexpectedly and seen something that she wasn't supposed to, I think he might have killed her as well. So I think it would have taken a lot longer and a lot more

with Kat because it seems that she was very eager to believe everything he told her. Yeah, he was manipulating her left and right, probably gaslighting her to believe that she's the problem and that she's just looking into things too deeply. Or he makes himself a victim, right? So like with his parents, they were safe as long as they were allowing him to lie to them and not questioning him. So if Kat had stopped by, why aren't you at the clinic? He could have been like, you know, Kat, I know this looks bad, but it's because I knew how

bad the news was going to be and I just can't take anymore. My parents are missing. And she would have been like, oh, poor baby Chandler. Let mommy make it better for you. I'm so sorry. Can I help you to the couch? You know, like... Yeah, let's have sex, but then you have to leave. Yeah. Let's have sex with it. You can't spend the night. You can't spend the night. So I think with Kat, like, she pushes back a little. He gives her an explanation. She believes it because it's easier than the alternative, which is he's lying to. At 3.25 p.m., Chandler wrote to Kat that he was heading home. And he told her they had taken an x-ray and a cat scan. And he said, quote, nothing bad on the x-ray. End quote. Kat wrote back, quote, hey, Florida. End quote.

Hey, that's what they do with the Gen Z people. Hey, Florida. And then she's still incredibly suspicious, though. And I know that because her next message said, quote, let me see face, end quote. Yep. So during the trial, Kat was asked, what does that mean? What did you mean when you texted him, let me see face? And she said, well, this is something that they would say to each other when they missed each other.

And they would then send each other snaps of each other's faces. And I think this is Kat, once again, not trusting Chandler, that he was where he said he was. No doubt. and that he was doing what he said he was doing. She's saying, let me see face. That means you got to open up Snapchat and I will see your location. No doubt. I mean, that's not even like a question.

He just told you something positive and now it's like, well, I want to see your face. Yeah, I missed you. I miss you. So I want to see your face. Like she forgot what that goofy look like. Literally was just with him the night before. But okay. Chandler changed the subject.

He replied, quote, CT scan, hon, end quote. Now, if I'm cat, I'm going to be like, what the hell does they have to do with anything? What the hell does a CT scan you had earlier have to do with you showing me your face. You better open Snapchat right now. But he didn't. He changed the subject. And Kat was like, well, what was on the scan? Because now she's worried because she's a good person and she cares. And Chandler replied, quote, they haven't determined anything. But with my legs like they were and all, I got to wait to hear what they determined. End quote. So really, you just changed the subject and you just didn't want to send her your face. At 3.29 p.m. Chandler told Kat not to be worried

and asked if she wanted to FaceTime when she was done with work. She wrote back asking, quote, so we're not worried, end quote. And Chandler wrote back, quote, I am. End quote. Kat's next message to Chandler said, quote, snap me back. End quote. She's sending him Snapchats. He's not opening it.

Yeah, she's being very direct now. Listen, snap me back. Open Snapchat, dude. Which it's so obvious. I mean, she's communicating with him through text message. And yet she's basically indirectly telling him, I want to see where you currently are. And he knows that. And she knows he knows that.

Yeah, for sure. And she tried to play it off at first. And now she's like, no bit. Let me see where you are. It's getting awkward now. It's getting a little uncomfortable because he doesn't even respond to this text message. I'm going to pretend I didn't see this one. Yep.

You know? So at 358 p.m., cat texted again. Once again, no response. At 4.09 p.m., she texted again. No response. Chandler does not want to open Snapchat because he knows that if he does, they will show that he's at home and he's been at home. At 4.16 p.m., Chandler texted Kat, sorry. And then a few minutes later, he texted her that he was going to contact her mother's partner,

a Cress because he needed some time at the water, meaning he was going to call Cress and see if he could swim in the pool. Kat explains this during her police interview and she's like, he found out that that swimming in the pool was really good physical therapy for his legs. And they were like, well, had he ever swam in the pool before that day he randomly called Cress and asked to go in the pool? And she's like, no. And they're like, so he really only did this once and he found out that was good physical therapy for his legs. And she's like, yeah, then he was going to go again, but then no one was home. Once again, even during the police interview, Kat is still kind of like, buying what Chandler is telling her and trying to protect him. Oh, you could tell from that interview that she was in hook, line, and sinker. And listen, young, impressionable in love, wants to believe the best in someone. I know we gave her a little bit of shit during that first interview, but overall, she was naive. Chandler was definitely taking advantage of that. And I'm not going to say that on this day, Chandler wasn't like, I'm going to go to

cross his farm. He didn't want to go in the pool. We know that's code for Chandler wanting to go someplace where he could get rid of his father's remains, right? Because this is the day after the 4th of July. This is the day that Crest says he called her and he's like, I want to swim in the pool. And then, you know, it kind of continues on with that. But let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by the absorption company. And I feel like right now everyone is talking about GLP ones. Yeah, everyone. I couldn't agree more. It has fully entered the group chat. It really has. But I will

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your first order. That's absorb more.com, A-B-S-O-R-B-More.com, and enter Crime Weekly at checkout for 35% off your first order. All right, so we're back. What was Chandler doing all day when he was supposedly at the clinic getting x-rays and CT scans? In my opinion, we don't know, once again. We don't know for sure. But in my opinion, based on everything that happened before, everything that happened after, he was most likely preparing Bart's torso to be transported to Cress's farm. And they never set any of this during the trial, but I think, based on this timeline and the evidence found we can piece together what happened. So I did some math. I really went deep with this. Bart's torso probably weighed about 100 pounds. And the torso, it had been in the freezer for a few days. So it would take approximately 24 to 48 hours for the torso, that amount of human flesh to freeze in the freezer. So by the time Chandler was ready to move, Bart's torso on July 5th, he would have been dealing with a pretty well-frozen 100-pound mass.

So I believe he used the rope from the garage to tie around Bart's torso. Remember? Because the torso's found with the rope tied around it from the garage. I think he used the rope from the garage to tie around the torso so he could hoist it out of the freezer and get it into the tarp that he had also purchased. He then wrapped the torso in the tarp. He pulled it up the basement stairs through the house and into the garage where he was able to load it into the trunk of Barthor's.

Barts Subaru. There's a garbage can involved here, too. We're going to talk about that in a second, and I want to ask you what you think. But forensics on both BART and Krista's vehicles did come back negative for blood. So his defense would try to use that as like, how did he get the torso to the farm? Like, his car was parked at the farm where the torso was found. Come on. He definitely did. So I guess our question would be, how did he get it there without, you know, any forensic evidence coming off in BART's car? I think that's because the torso was so frozen. so the blood would be as well, and solidly frozen blood can't flow or drip, especially if the torso was taped up inside of a tarp,

which we know it was because there was tape found on the tarp from the Halterson garage, and if Chandler was able to ensure there were no gaps or rips, and if that torso and that tarp were in another receptacle like a garbage can, which we'll talk about in a second. At 4.31 p.m., neighborhood surveillance showed Chandler leaving his home for the first time that day in Bart's Subaru. He pulled the car to the end of the driveway. He sat there for a few minutes. It kind of looks like he got out.

He went back into the house through the front door, not the garage this time. Then he went back out to the car, stood outside the car for a bit. It seems like he's throwing something into the garbage can that he'd already brought to the end of the driveway. He then drove away and headed to Prairie Dusac, where Crestes Farm was located. This is the same location where the all-way hand saw was located, the handsaw that had Bart's blood on the teeth of the saw. During the trial, Dane County Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Rogaleska testified that the wounds on Bart's shoulders and legs were consistent with the blade that was on the Alway saw. The handle of that saw was also found to have a mixture of blood

belonging to both Bart and Krista, meaning that Chandler was using this saw on both of the bodies at once, right? Or at least he had Krista's blood on his hand when he grabbed the handle of that saw. So he's taking their bodies apart at the same time, essentially. A broken hacksaw blade that matched the saw in the Halterson garage was found with Bart's blood on it, and this was once again found at the farm, and the ME determined that the fourth cervical vertebrae in Bart's neck had been cut with a blade consistent to that broken hacksaw blade. There were also a pair of kitchen scissors found at the farm with both Bart and Krista's blood on them, a pair of pruning shears that had both Bart and Krista's blood on the handle, but only Bart's blood on the head of the shears.

Now remember that there was a black rolling garbage can found at the farm as well. outside the tree line, not far from where Bart's body was in the woods. And inside the garbage can was the tarp and the tape and all of those things that connected that tarp and tape to the Halterson garage. So not only did that garbage can match a lid that the police found in an upstairs bathroom of the Halterson home. Because remember, they're doing renovation. So this upstairs bathroom was under renovation. Nobody was using it. But there was a lid, a black garbage can lid. And that lid belonged to that garbage can found on Cress's property. It's such a plethora of evidence in this case. It was so poorly done. I can't even excuse just like the quick planning, like someone who appeared to be on the surface intelligent. There's always mistakes, right? But there's just like it's almost like he wanted to get caught. If I didn't know better, I would say he wanted to be apprehended for this. I know that's not true, but it's it feels that way. I wonder if his reasoning was like, yeah, it's, it's normal if stuff from my house is found on this property because I know these people. Like maybe was that his reasoning somehow?

I think something you said earlier, Stephanie, although it sounds like an oversimplification, is the right answer. I think you're right. I truly just believe that he thought, because he's always been the victim in his own mind, that law enforcement would never even turn an eye toward him when he reported his parents missing if he did. And that he thought he would always be perceived as a victim in this case. And he didn't really have to cover his tracks because he never even considered the possibility that he would be looked at as a suspect. I wonder if, like, his parents and his girlfriend in a way enabled him to have that false sense. He's a perpetual victim.

Because they kind of allowed that. For sure. And he thought law enforcement would be patting him on the back. You're so brave. You're so courageous. Rubbing his tummy, making sure you're okay. He lived in that bubble where he never considered the possibility he would be put under the light. And he would have to answer for some of these things.

And they would do their due diligence and investigate him thoroughly. That his lies would be looked into because he was dealing with people who didn't know. him, had no care towards him, and had no bias. Yeah, and saw him for who he was. I really would love to have this guy be given some sort of truth serum and just, like, go through what his thought process was because you know when he's telling Kat, I'm at the clinic at a doctor's appointment, I don't have reception. Yes, he didn't want her to know he was home, but he's also home trying to get this

freaking torso out of the freezer, which he can't because he's just this, I mean, even without a neck injury. He's not like a strong person. And he's going to have to reach deep into this freezer and pull out this frozen solid torso that's 100 pounds already. He has no leverage. That's when he's like, I got to figure this out. I got to get some rope. I got to, you know, do all this.

He's going through the process as he's doing it. There was no thought put into it. But yeah, I mean, this does sound like a person who, and this is nothing against Bart and Krista, but they enabled a lot of the behavior leading up to it. No, a lot of parents do that. Yeah. But here's the thing. The first time that they decided to push back.

against him and actually hold him accountable is when this happened. And I will say he's already thinking about this on July 4th when he's at the farm because he's telling Cress, hey, can I have your number? Maybe I feel like going swimming sometime. He has now already thought about this on July 4th. He's thinking, oh, shh, I got a torso in the freezer. He's got to dump it somewhere. I got to do something with it.

Yeah. Don't want to dump it on his property. That's too close. So he's already thinking about this. He's already planning it out. And it was July 5th when he woke up and he's like, well, I got to figure out a way to hoist this torso out of the freezer. Maybe he even tried at first to, like, pull it out with his hands, and he was like, oh, I forgot I'm weak.

And this is not the most ergonomic sort of situation here. You know, I don't have even the benefit of being able to lift with my legs because I'm reaching down. The top of the garbage can is found at the Halters and Home. Inside the garbage can is the tarp that we have Chandler's purchasing on surveillance. It's got Krista and Bart's blood on it. We also have the yellow tape that he used to, you know, tape the tarp up. that matched the roll of tape found in the Halderson garage, but that tape also had the fingerprint of Chandler Halderson on it.

And the tarp had prints of his shoes, prints of his shoes, the same shoes that had the blood of his parents on them, the same shoes that we see him wearing in the surveillance video when he's buying the tarp. So it seems that Chandler, along with his father's torso in the tarp, had either transported the black garbage can separately or had put his father's torso in the black garbage can and then put the black garbage can into the car. I don't know if the Subaru would be able to fit that.

I kind of was trying to get your opinion on it. It's not a huge garbage can. I mean, I'd have to know, like, if it's a 40-gallon, 60-gallon garbage can, I would imagine it would fit because if it's like a rubber made-style trash can, what you could do. It is. It's like a rubber-made style one, yeah. If you have the ability to do it,

you can kind of collapse the top of it and wedge it in there. You know, so with a little bit of elbow grease, if it's close and it's not a high trash can, it's a smaller trash can, which you do see a lot in construction where the guys bring in the rubber made style buckets and, you know, you could collapse that top part and shove it in there if you really tried to. Yeah. Yeah, so I wanted to be clear, this is not the waste management garbage can that we already

talked about. That's at the end of the driveway. Right. The big hard ones that are picked up by the trash trucks. That would not be collapsed, correct? a separate garbage can that Bart had purchased to do the renovations. And that's what I'm thinking. I think the torso and the tarp went inside the garbage can, which then went inside the car. Because I looked at the distance between Chandler's house and Cress's farm. And it was a good like 30-something minute drive. So the torso may have started thawing. And then you would risk maybe some fluids leaking out and then being found in the car. But there was nothing found in the car. So I think in a brief moment of foresight, Chandler was like, let me put. put the tarp and the torso into something where nothing will come out in the car. Well, it would also be easier to transport, right?

Like even through the house, if you think about it, for all the reasons you discussed about carrying a human torso. Yeah, it was a rolling one. Oh, if it had wheels even easier. But if it didn't, if it just had handles, you know, you could pick it up, go up a couple stairs, drag it through the garage. There's things you can do that you wouldn't be able to do if you were carrying it. And then just the obvious reason, if you're walking outside with a large object wrapped

in a tarp in a neighbor or something. someone sees you, that could be something that's questioned later. But if you're bringing a trash can out, well, you may just be dumping some extra material from the renovation at a dump site, right? You can explain that a lot easier. Yeah, well, he was parked in the garage, so you wouldn't have to explain that. That's true. That's true. I think, like, genuinely, this is one time he was smart, he was like, I don't want this body to start thawing and blood to start dripping out because, yeah, he's taped up in a tarp, but how solid of a receptacle is that? Right. And the trash can's not going to be porous, as long as there's no breakage in it. So you can bring that out. And you can,

And you could contain any type of forensic evidence from being left behind if you use the trash can. Yeah. Because now he's got to take the torso out of the trunk when he's at the farm. One bright thing he did the entire time. Obviously, much too late. But, you know, we'll give him a little bit here. Now, there was also another tarp found on Cress's property in the barn. This was an older tarp that had been at the Halterson home.

And we know this because there's a picture of Bart, I think, with this tarp, like while he was doing renovations. and this tarp was found in the barn kind of rolled up and thrown like in an area where it might look like it belonged there. It also had Bart and Krista's blood on it. And according to the police, they collected this older tarp during an extensive search of that barn. However, months later in October of 2021, something else would be found in that barn that was missed during this first search. Well, I was organizing along the wall, you know, like I say, I was cleaning out my shed. and I wanted to go through these like garden tools because I, you know, making sure I still use them

where they broke and I was going to throw them away. So I would, and then I was organizing putting lumber where the lumber goes, the recycling, where the recycling goes. And so I lifted up a board and I saw a barrel of a gun. And I thought, huh, right away, I thought, what's my dad? What the heck is he got his pellet gun over here? So I picked it off by the barrel and looked at it. And I right away recognized it wasn't a gun that I'd ever saw or seen ever before.

Yes, it was behind us. A bunch of, there was like maybe four or five different boards there. Well, the first thing is I just felt sort of this sick feeling. And I set it back down. And then I went to ask my father just to make sure that he didn't know about any gun in the shed. And I went and asked, and he said, well, what does it look like or whatever? And I said, well, Dad, I'm just going to call the police. And then I called Krista, the head of the investigation.

She left mere number. Lieutenant Jessamy Torres testified and said that she'd overseen the initial search of that barn on July 12th. And missing the rifle was described as an oversight and human error. But this is the gun that Chandler used to at least kill his father. That's what we know. It's clear that Chandler not only brought his father's remains to that farm on July 5th, but several other tools he'd used to dismember his parents as well as the weapon he'd used to kill them, or at least we can say for sure, like I said, to kill Bart.

He really didn't think that detectives would ever say, hmm, I wonder if his girlfriend's property could somehow be connected to this. Yeah, it's very weird. Never, never considered that fact. And that really was on top of Kat's family being observative and being responsive to law enforcement and being proactive, right? Like finding it, calling law enforcement, all that good stuff, right? Maybe he didn't realize how weird he came off to other people, you know? Yeah, self-awareness. You're telling me that Chandler Holderson lacked self-awareness.

Yeah, I think that we can all check that box off. I think that we're good on that one. But yeah, this was something where I think in his mind, he didn't think he was going to be questioned a lot. And even if he did, it would be just a very basic preliminary investigation and they would move on. But they would never, ever consider his associates or counterparts or people he was close to as possible locations. where there may be incriminating evidence. Maybe there's enough degree of separation because it's not cat's mother's property. It's cat's mother's partner's property, right?

Like, you have to wonder, you're throwing stuff in the river, but you're leaving tools with blood on them. Yeah. Just sitting out in the open, right? Why wouldn't you throw those in the water? Because at least maybe the blood would be like, you know, like, I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. Watch too many movies. I think he was like, oh, let me leave pieces of evidence everywhere so that they can't be connected to one another.

This is a lot of evidence in one area, though. Yeah. I mean, in hindsight, Stephanie, I'm sure if he had to do it over, he would have made some different choices. This is where the majority of the forensic evidence was found. So you have a body, a piece of a body, along with the tools used to dismember the body and the weapon. And the weapon, which can be compared to the torso. All in on the same property. And then you're going to be able to, by the way, track that zero number. As you had said in the last episode, there was an FFL transfer of that paperwork. So basically, that gun was now in Chandler's name legally. So if you find the gun and you compare the

ballistics of that gun to said torso, then you can reverse engineer the serial number to quickly figure out who currently owns that firearm. This is like basic investigation. I have to wonder, though, if Chandler didn't realize that there was something legally happening, if maybe his friend was just like, hey, let me see the serial number in your license, like just for my own record purposes. And Chandler didn't realize this was being filed somewhere where law enforcement could actually track it, because this is sloppy. It is. It is. It's so sloppy, but it could just come down to stupidity. But the whole gun thing, that isn't an area where I had mentioned at the top of the show, that just the whole thing is odd to me. But is it somehow connected anywhere here? Probably not.

But it could be as simple as what you just said as well, where Chandler thought the gun was a gift and never thought there was any actual paperwork. Legal paperwork, a paper trail. Yeah, paper trail to come back to him. And he was thinking, well, even if they find the gun, it's not going to come back to me. It's going to come back to my buddy. Who doesn't even live in the state? Right. Right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by Chime, and I feel like most of us choose a bank when we're basically children or it's chosen for us by our parents. And then we just kind of stayed there. Yeah, exactly. You open your first bank account when you're 16, you get your debit card, you finally feel like an adult, and then you never question it again. Because you didn't know you didn't know there was really many differences in banks. Meanwhile, years later, you're looking at your account like, why am I being charged a fee for having money, not having enough money, moving money, touching money, thinking about money. Why is there a fee for everything?

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No minimum balance required. Checking account ranking based on a JD Power survey published October 20, 2025. For more information on APY rates, my pay, spot me and travel perks, go to chime. com slash disclosures. Okay, we're back. So now we remember that when Chandler was awkwardly in the pool with Dolce and Cress, Dolce was like, what are you doing now? And he's like, oh, I'm going over to your place, actually.

Kat's making me dinner. And Dolce was like, what's she making you? And he was like, McDonald's. My favorite meal, my favorite meal. I do love McDonald's, but, you know. I mean, yeah, the French fries are really second to none. I'm just going to say that right now. As far as fast food, the French fries are second to none.

French fries, chicken nuggets. You know what I love it? McDonald's, I don't want it. We're talking about something serious here. But you're going to think I'm demented when I mention this. The apple pie? I mean, the apple pie is ridiculous. The filet of fish sandwich.

Yeah. With tartar sauce and cheese. I know. Fish from McDonald's. I mean, chicken from McDonald's also. It's all good. See, you just prove my point. McDonald's is...

It's all a little suspect. I'm not going to question its origins. Probably that is Chandler's favorite meal. I mean, honestly, it would be, it'd probably be worse than the evidence around this case, but we've reverse engineered that, but let's not do that. Yeah, fake chicken nugget, remember. Crime Weekly episode coming in the future, the origins of McDonald's. The expose.

So he's going to Kat's mom's place to have McDonald's. And Kat testified that Chandler arrived to her mom's place. a little after 7 p.m., where they ate McDonald's, and this is when Chandler told her he had lost his job with SpaceX, right? This is when he breaks the news finally. So he claimed that after his injury, they'd found errors in the work that he was doing. Because remember, he's already allegedly working remotely for SpaceX,

but now he has these injuries. That's not his fault that he sucks at his job, his fake job. Even in his fake job, it is not his fault that he's making errors during his fake workday. So it's his injury, they found errors, and they'd let him go. And Kat said he seemed down and sad after this, like kind of a big thing for him and she understood why he was really upset about it. So on this night, Chandler also told Kat that his parents had not returned home yet and they were still probably at the cabin. So at 8.54 p.m., neighborhood security cameras showed Chandler and his father, Subaru, returned back to the Halterson home. Early in the hours of July 6th, these same security cameras showed the light in the Halterson garage turned on seven different times for an average.

of six minutes each time between the hours of one and four a.m. Now, what is Chandler doing in the garage back and forth for three hours? Let's see what happens after. Maybe we can put this together because I genuinely don't know. At 4.31 a.m., Chandler and the Subaru left home and returned about an hour later at 533 a.m. So based on Chandler's cell phone tower records, he spent an hour driving around Madison. But law enforcement does not know what he was doing. They just know where he was. They believe he was likely disposing of more evidence in the lakes around Madison. Makes total sense. Driving by, rolling down the window, throwing it out.

And apparently, I didn't know this about the area, but Chandler would have been familiar with the area as he'd lived there for a while and gone to school there for a short time. But Madison City Center is built directly on a narrow strip of land that's between two massive bodies of water. So the city and its surrounding metro area are actually shaped by a chain of five major lakes. and Madison features over 15,000 acres of water surfaces. So a lot of water there. And that's why he went there instead of where he lived in Windsor with his parents.

He went to Madison because he was aware. There's lots of places. You might, like you said, just be driving by down the highway and there's water there. Over a bridge. There's no doubt in my mind. And I thought this even before this little disclosure here. And this is with a lot of cases that it's disturbing. But there are pieces of evidence connected to this case out there right now in bodies of water that have

not been found. There's no doubt about it. Oh, yeah. No doubt about it. I cringe to think about it, actually. There's no doubt that they may never be found. Now, like I said, I'm not sure what Chandler's doing in the garage for those three hours before leaving the house for an hour to do what we believe he was doing. I wonder maybe getting bags. Oh, for sure, more clean up. Removing any remnants that might suggest a crime had occurred. It's a lot of work. I think bringing things to and from the Subaru that's in the garage because he knows he's about to drive away. So he's a lot of like putting stuff in a bag, clean up, maybe body parts, putting stuff in bags, tying them up, trying to make sure they're kind of airtight. Airtight. Yeah, liquid tight. And then putting them in the car before going back in and doing more of that stuff. Maybe going through the house and thinking, what should I not have here? What did I possibly miss? Just doing last minute, like, clean up stuff. You talked about the secret compartment in the basement where there was a freezer now and certain place. Like all of that takes time to do, especially when you're by yourself. Not to be too detailed here, but there's a lot of cleanup with this. There's going to be spillage. There's going to be bodily fluids. You got to get through the cracks and crevices anywhere where it could be found.

And he believed he got it all. Which he didn't do a good job of you. He didn't do a great job, but it probably wasn't for lack of effort. It's just think about it. Liquid going in between the crack of a basement, you know, concrete floor. You're not going to get that. But he probably tried his best. Yeah, but it makes me wonder, why did Chandler bring so many things to the farm?

So many incriminating items, the most incriminating items, you would say, to the farm earlier in the day on the fifth. if he was just going to drive around later, throwing things into the water because there's more things. Whatever Chandler threw into the water has never been found. I think it could be as simple as a bag containing paper towels from the cleanup, something more minuscule to him, not the main evidence that he was concerned about. But as he's doing this cleanup, he's realizing this can't be found in the household. So he's dumping it in these different bodies of water.

I also think he knows tomorrow I'm going to report my parents missing to the police because he's been getting pressure from his parents' friends and his brother and even cats. And he's like, I have to fix this. And I wonder if he was moving the freezer in the basement around. Because remember when the police said they came on July 7th, they didn't see the freezer in the basement. So he didn't want it there. He's this little scrawny kid, once again, moving stuff around the house. It's pretty heavy.

Like, where did he put that freezer? I'd be curious to know because it was back by the time police came and processed the scene later. Also could have been an oversight. They might have missed it. They missed a gun, right? And they at least, to their credit, acknowledged it. Well, they missed the gun in the barn that was hidden, but this is like a freezer right out in the open. And they saw the other freezer.

And they noted the other freezer. And that smaller freezer would have been kind of kitty corner to that other freezer. So, yeah, they definitely don't think it was there. It could be something deeper. It also could have just been an oversight. You know, it wouldn't be the first time that you and I were to learn that they just missed something. You know, that was in a different part of the basement and didn't document it properly. Yeah.

They did a great job with this case, but it doesn't mean mistakes weren't made. Well, it could have been in another part of the basement, but I don't think it was where it was when they came later. No, I agree. I agree. But it could have been something where, again, they were focused on certain things and missed that it was underneath the stairs or something. Who knows? Well, later that morning, Chandler's girlfriend, Kat, she went back to work, and at 9.05 a.m., she texted Chandler and she asked if his parents were back yet. He replied simply, no. Kat then told Chandler to text his brother, Mitchell. She said at this point, she's starting to get really worried because Chandler's mother, Krista, was constantly in touch with them, all of them, even her. Krista was always texting to ask what they were doing or what they were planning on doing or sending the pictures or telling them what she was doing. Like it was, you know, even Mitchell said like, yeah, my mother was kind of a helicopter parent, but because she cared. But it was not normal for Krista to not want to know what her sons were up to on any given day.

At this point, Kat's like, I'm worried, this is not normal behavior. And the fact that Bart and Krista weren't home and no one had received any messages from them was highly unusual. So at 5.53 p.m., Chandler left his house in his father, Subaru again, he could. got dinner with Kat and her mother at Buffalo Wild Wings. He returned home at 8.52 p.m. Then on the morning of July 7th, Chandler and the Subaru left the house at 9.36 a.m. And at 1012, Kat texted him asking where he was going because she's watching his location. She's on it. She's on it, man. Four minutes later, Chandler replied that he was going back to the farm. But he said, quote, no one is here so leaving. End quote. Now, it's believed that this is when he dumped

off the Target bag with Kat's name on it containing the bloody rags in the garbage can at Kress's farm. Now, Kat told Chandler, yeah, it doesn't matter if no one's there. You can still swim if you need to. You know where the pool's at. You know, if it's good for your legs, do it. And he's like, no, I felt weird. And then he apologized for being stressed. Chandler returned home at 1049 a.m. But he left again at 11.19 a.m. And this time he texted Kat, you know, ahead of her asking where the hell he's going. He texted her and he said, I'm going to report my parents missing. And for once, was not a lie, because that is exactly what Chandler went and did. But he also texted Cat at 1122 a.m. saying, quote, can I have $5 for chips and soda? End quote. This freaking leech. This leech. Holy shit. I hate him so much.

Like, you are a grown-ass man. You are a grown-ass man. And you're asking your mother to pick up soda before she comes home and you know you're going to kill her. And you're a grown-ass man asking your girlfriend. Can I have money for chips and soda? It's bad. It's a bad look. Cat wrote back, like, I don't have $5 for chips and soda. Yeah, it's gross. I mean, of all the things he's done, not the worst look, but it's just one of those things where it's like, add insult to injury. You had nothing to offer anybody. You suck. So Katz said that it had been decided by all of them, including Mitchell, that Krista and Bart should be reported missing at this time because Krista hadn't shown up to a very important doctor's appointment for her skin cancer. So that night, Jane Higendorf's daughters went to visit Chan. And you remember Jane Hildendorff from episode one or part one of the series, she was Christa's friend. And she said right from the gas. She was like, yeah, Chandler's weird, man. He's saying they're bringing money. They don't gamble.

He's saying they're bringing alcohol. Krista doesn't drink. And then we went to the cabin. Remember Jane and her husband went to the cabin? And Jane was like, nobody's been here, Chandler. What's going on? And Chandler was like, do you see any bullet remnants? And Jane was like the whole thing was weird.

And remember that Jane and her family had been. incredibly close to Krista and her family, including their kids who are around the same age. So Jane's twin daughters went to visit Chandler and offer him comfort in these troubling times of his parents being missing. Do you have any interactions with Chandler? Yes, he greets us at the door and gives us a side hug. He gave you a side hug? Is that how we normally greeted you? No. We're hugging family. We all hug each other, full arms, straight on. other than the side hug, how would you describe Chandler's demeanor? Did you and Chandler discuss anything of note?

The thing that stuck out to me most was about the text messages. So we were like sitting down. We were just like talking in general, like asking how he was doing. And he said he was fine. He's hanging in there. He's just trying to figure out what's going on. And that was my only red flag looking back when he said they asked me for text messages. the detectives did and you never have to give them your phone.

You can just send screenshots because they got everything they need. I wonder how Kat felt about the Hilgendorf girls being at Chandler's house with him. I'm sure she wasn't happy about it. That's for sure. So that brings us to the morning of Thursday, July 8th, 2021. And that morning, Kat went to work and remember she was very stressed and upset about Bart and Krista being missing. She was talking to the detectives because this is also the day that she goes into, the police station and talks to the police for the first time. She was emotional. She felt sick.

She only stayed at work about 30 minutes before she asked her boss if she could leave early. And she said she wanted to go to Chandler's house and like be there for him because now he's already reported Bart and Krista missing. The police are involved. It's like very stressful for everyone, even though she doesn't realize that it's been incredibly stressful for Chandler this whole time. It has been. Yeah. Meanwhile, Chandler was at home doing some Google searches. Now, something that's very interesting is that when Chandler's phone was taken into police custody on July 8th, they found Google searches from that day, but no other search history from any day before. And during the prosecution talking about this, they're like, well, either Chandler has never Google

searched anything ever before July 8th or he erased the Google search activity, right? They're not saying he erased the Google search activity because they can't necessarily prove that, but they're like, The only other option is that he has never used to Google search at any other time before July 8th. This means that Chandler had been clearing his search history from every single day, probably the end of every single day. But on July 8th, remember, Chandler was arrested and he didn't have a chance to delete his search history. Now, what's interesting is the kinds of searches he made, which once again are going to be very telling based on the timeline of everything. And we're going to talk about that when we come back from our next break. This episode is brought to you by Factor, and I don't know about you, but the last couple of months have completely thrown off my routine.

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and dinner becomes whatever you can assemble while standing up, usually late because it stays light out longer. And so you think you have more time, but then it's 9 o'clock. Between travel, events, recording, work, and everything else, eating well gets way harder than it should be. And now that things are finally settling down a little bit, I'm knocking on wood when I say that, I'm trying to get back into eating real food, but I still need to be realistic. Yeah, because real food is great. Real food plus grocery shopping, plus prepping, plus cooking, plus cleaning is where people start to lose the plot. That's right.

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get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until 1031, 2026. That's code Crime Weekly 50 off at factory meals.com. Crime Weekly 50 off at factor meals.com. See website for more details. Okay, so like I said, Chandler, he goes into the police station on July 8th, just like Kat. And he's talked to by the police. They eventually arrest him, not for murder or anything like that but for filing a false police report. The morning of July 8th and into the afternoon of July 8th, Chandler's making a bunch of searches that he doesn't have a chance to delete because he doesn't think he's going to be arrested for some reason.

Me, I'm going to probably delete my search history before I go in and talk to the police, even if I don't think I'm going to be arrested, but not Chandler. Oh, it's hubris, too. I truly still think he believes that he's smarter than law enforcement and they're never going to look at him. He thinks everyone's going to see him the way that his parents and cats saw him. With these Google searches, we can see a huge nervousness rising in Chandler because July 8th is when things start to move. This is when Bart's torso is found on the farm.

Not right away, but Bart's torso is found on the farm and things just aren't adding up. So there's kind of a heavier police presence happening. And Chandler feels like they're onto him. I think he was nervous and paranoid from the second he talked to the police. And we can see this paranoia because at 9.44 a.m. He starts his Google searches. Body found, Wisconsin. Woman's body found in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin dismembered body found. Body found in River, 2021. He also looked up State v. Peter T. Capusa. While all of his other searches indicated Chandler was trying to find out or figure out if his crimes have been detected, this specific search was significant. This was a Wisconsin murder case involving the 1999 killing and dismemberment of a 25, year old college student living in Madison, Wisconsin. Peter Capusa, her older first cousin, was ultimately convicted of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse with the intent to conceal a crime. So on July 30th and 31st of 1999, human remains, specifically a torso, were discovered

near the shore of the Wisconsin River in Sock County. Additional body parts, including the head, arms, and legs were subsequently found in plastic bags along the riverbank. Now, it was noted that the remains had been altered in a way to make identification difficult. The skin had been removed from much of the skull and face, and the feet were never recovered. The medical examiner determined that the victim had not died of natural causes, but the condition of her remains made it difficult to determine a specific cause of death. And this is exactly what happened with Krista Haltersson, as far as having difficulty determining a specific cause of death. This was what the medical examiner said. We know she did not die accidentally or of natural causes. But we can't tell you,

Was she strangled? Was she shot? Was she stabbed with a knife? We don't know. So Peter Capusa had told the police that his cousin had taken a Greyhound bus to Iowa with $1,500 he'd given her for travel expenses. And in Iowa, she was meeting up with a man named Shadrack. She then planned to travel with this man to Tanzania, and Peter claimed he had spoken to his uncle in Tanzania, who had confirmed his cousin had arrived safely. So once again, we have Chandler saying, my parents left with an unknown couple. And this is where they were going. So it's a very similar set of circumstances. And this also makes me wonder with this case, Peter Capusa, with the person being found, the victim being found, with their facial features and things intentionally being like distorted and altered. Is that what Chandler was doing with the fire? Did he burn a lot of things in the fire and then take all of that stuff out and put it in the river, hoping that even if it was found, it couldn't be traced back to Krista and Bart? Was Chandler concerned because in Peter Capuza's case, the remains were found in the river and on the riverbanks because of, you know, changing tides and things, was Chandler concerned that the same thing had happened in his case with his parents? And does that kind of really give further evidence of, yeah, Chandler probably did get rid of a lot of these remains in the water because he's Googling like dismembered body found in river, a woman's body found in river. Because remember, we only found Krista's legs, basically. So was most of Krista's body disposed of in the Wisconsin River? And that's why he's Googling these things. things and he took a page out of Peter Capuzza's playbook. Yeah, he was trying to learn from those

mistakes and improve on what had been done prior to him. And yeah, I don't think it's a stretch to say that more than likely more time was put towards identifiable body parts like the face, fingers, anything dental records, things that could be matched to someone in his mind. He probably didn't put as much thought into things like the torso because that alone would make it difficult to match to a person. Even though Chandler's parents are missing and the torso's found on the property of someone Chandler knows. Yeah, I think he, in his mind, one, assume the body would never be found, assume the torso

would never be located. But if it had... Or maybe animals would get to it or something. Predation many years later would not be connected to what's currently going on. I don't think he anticipated it being found that fast. I agree. And we don't know because we don't have his prior Google history. but I think Chandler was already familiar with the Peter Capuza case.

And he intentionally did the things to the remains he did because of that. And I think he was pulling the case back up because he didn't just Google it. He went in and read like the court stuff. No doubt. I think he's thinking, okay, Peter Capuza was eventually caught. Yeah. What's going to happen to him illegally if I, too, am caught? I mean, this was a local case.

So this is something that he was familiar with may have been inspired by. I think this is something that was in the back of his mind. I'm sure. Cases like this don't happen all the time. Happening so close to him, I'm sure that he had an interest in it when it occurred. A lot of people were probably talking about it locally. And it was in Madison where he was living that year it happened. Yeah.

That's what I'm saying. So he was very familiar with it. And then when the thought crossed his mind to do it with his own parents, I'm sure he said, hmm, I remember the Peter Capuzza case and I remember he got caught. Maybe I should take a look at how they caught him and try to prevent that from happening to me. Spoiler alert. He didn't do a good job. How they caught him.

Yeah, or what the defense put up legally as far as, you know, yeah. And then what were the techniques used by law enforcement? And what was the smoking gun? Like all these different things where you can say, okay, we know what happened in this one. How did it happen? Let me try to reverse engineering and sure it doesn't happen in my case. So here's another thing. Chandler's getting real panicky here.

He's getting real panic. He's getting real stress. So he's Googling all this stuff in the morning and throughout the afternoon. And then at 10, 15 a.m. that day, Chandler called Richard Bennett. Now, this was a detective with Dane County. Chandler left a voicemail. And he was like, I haven't heard anything about my parents, but I heard that everyone's been talking to my brother Mitchell. And you're not talking to me. And so I would like to be called back and told something. Now, Bennett did call back and he told Chandler that he didn't have any additional updates.

And when he testified, Detective Bennett said that at this time, to his knowledge, as far as he knew, Chandler was not a suspect because Chandler's defense team is trying to make it seem like they were lying to Chandler, which even if they did, so what? Who cares? Yeah, who freaking cares. Yeah, they didn't read him as rights or anything like that. Yeah. They don't have to tell him anything. This detective was like, no, like we hadn't found Bart Halterson's remains by the time this phone call happened. So as far as I knew, I didn't have any updates. And there was nothing to report to Chandler. And I was not told he was a suspect. But then at 1130 a.m., Chandler called Detective Schunk, who remember, Detective Schunk is one of the

the main detectives assigned to this case and one of the detectives who came to his house on July 7th and took the missing persons report. So Detective Shunk and Chandler spoke briefly and Chandler told him that he'd spoken to the media. So Chandler gave some like weird press conference outside his house talking to the media that day. So weird. At 1.30 p.m. Chandler called Detective Shunk again. And this was after he had traveled around the neighborhood asking people about their security camera footage. Oh yeah. The infamous security footage. Yeah. And so Chandler told Detective Shunk, you know, I found some keys in my father's nightstand. I think they could be for the cabin. I know that the county where the cabin is, those law enforcement people are going there. They're meeting my brother Mitchell

there. So I gave the keys to my brother so that they have a way to get in and law enforcement can look around. Once again, Detective Schunk said at this time, Chandler was not a suspect. But then Chandler's going to call again. He's going to call a third time. So between Chandler calling the second time and the third time to Detective Schunk, something did happen. At 3 p.m., Bart Holderson's torso was found. And so when Chandler called Detective Shunk again at 3.30 p.m., this call was recorded. This is going to be good. And the defense team is like, why did you record this call, but not that call? And he's like, well, because by the time he called this third time, we found his father's remains and he was telling us all that his father went to the cabin. So now he is a suspect. Um, two squads parked right outside my house and they're not really canvassing. They're just kind of sitting there. Is everything all right? Yeah, I mean, they're in the area doing canvassing and they're also probably doing a shift change right now getting our second shift crew on around 3.3.30.

Oh, there's four now. Something going on that we need to know. Well, they're probably doing reports. They're probably doing shift change. You know, they've been going around trying to get all the neighbors so I'm wondering if they're in the area trying to catch people now that they're coming home from work I'm not sure I haven't talked to any of them in just a little while any news I have my brother I haven't heard from him no as far as I know they're still on their way up north a couple hour drive so he's probably halfway into it right those about yeah any news on your end at all have you gotten any phone calls text messages gotten any on my nail

Okay Is that normal? No, we don't put a hold on people's mail I've never heard of that happening before There's a hold on my mail There's a mail held at the station Okay Yeah, nothing done by us, that's for sure

Not that I'm aware of Who's there? Are you at home still right now, obviously? Because you're saying they're outside Who's there with you? They're not with me, they're just... Okay, who was just talking in the background, Kat? Oh, okay. Okay.

No, I mean, I can definitely give you a call or message you, I guess, depending. What time are you planning on going to dinner? Okay. Pretty soon here. Is it cool to call you? Is it cool to call you at dinner? Okay. Anytime.

Okay. Well, keep you posted if I hear anything. I mean, obviously with the mail, that has nothing to do with us at all. I've never heard of a detective or law enforcement agency holding somebody's mail. You know, and then as far as everybody in the area, you know, you kind of had to to figure we were going to be in the area all day today. Yeah. The blue house with the big cameras.

Is that the one across the street? A newer house. I haven't talked to... I stopped by the house. Yeah, I have a detective that's getting footage from the area. I don't know exactly which houses he's gotten video from that. But yeah, there's... Oh, okay.

So he's probably reviewing it now. Yeah, it takes time to go through those things. You figure you can only fast forward so much. Okay. All right, well, I'll give you a holler if anything pops up. You know, and I'll give a call around and just kind of get a briefing from people up in the area. Okay. Thanks, Chandler.

Thank you. Bye. Yeah, I mean, what do I say here, right? Like, doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he's extremely nervous. And the things that he's concerned about doesn't even really make sense. Like, he's trying to put it off as, like, he's frustrated that law enforcement is not searching for his parents and instead is, sitting in his driveway, but then he's asking questions that are more indicative of him believing that he's a suspect. That he's a suspect. And nobody at this point has suggested that to him.

So I think he's thinking, especially when he gives us a little bit more of an insight into where his mind is, he's wondering to himself, holy shit, did they already look at the video that I know exists, that I already went by and confirmed is going to have an angle on the house. And they're able to see that I've been lying. And now these cars are here because they're going to be picking me up soon. There's no doubt that's what he's thinking. He thinks they're moving into place. Correct. And, you know, they were pretty much. You know what, Chandler? For once, you were right. They actually were doing exactly what you thought they were doing. They wanted to make sure he wasn't going to go anywhere. And if he did go somewhere, then they could branch off and follow him. But he's like,

oh, there's two. Wait, there's four now. Well, the detective knows that this is a murder investigation, right? And primary suspect is going to be the last person to see them alive and or at least see Bart alive at this point. So they know. I would imagine at this point, Stephanie, they had already looked at that video. Of course, they have already looked at the video. Yeah. Yeah, they already know he's, he's not telling the truth. Shunk did a great job here. He's keeping him calm. He doesn't want to raise his, his level of sensitivity toward it. He also knows this is a officer safety issue, right? You don't want to tip Chandler off that he's a suspect because you have four patrolmen outside.

the residence right now that he could get the drop on. So there's a lot of things at play here. And something else, just a little inside baseball. You know that right now there is chaos going on within the police department. Oh, you could hear his phone ringing, his beeping. Yes, chaos. There you go. There's so many things going on. You hear the radio. You hear the phone. This just went from something simple, like maybe just a miscommunication amongst family members to now they know they have a murder investigation and they're trying to juggle multiple things at one time. And you can see that Shunk remains calm, doesn't get very cool, calm collected. But in the background, you can hear the chaos going on at that agency. And you can hear his his phone itself is beeping, beeping,

maybe someone's calling him. Then his desk phone starts ringing because it sounds so close. And he never seems to to lose his cool at all, which is great. Very cool. Continues to be a friend to him. Can I call you any time? Oh, is that cat in the background? Keeps it very personal. I will say the one thing about the mail, that could have been law enforcement, but I've never heard of that either, actually. So it wasn't. We actually found out. Yeah, I was going to say, I've never done that. De Stachia Schunk was like, that was the one thing that I was genuinely like. Yeah, I was sitting here like, have I ever done something like that? What would the mail do for me? So what happened is the post office put a hold on the mail because they had found out through the community that Bart and Krista were missing. So they put a hold on the mail and they found that out after. But Chandler is so paranoid right now.

Yeah, he knows the walls are closing in on him. To a normal person, my parents are missing. I just reported them missing yesterday. I'm not even thinking about the mail. But he's looking for every little thing that could possibly mean he's being suspected or looked into or investigated. And so right there, that whole like worrying about the mail thing and questioning them, that was weird. That should have set off some red flags if Chandler wasn't already suspected because Detective Shunk said that, yes, at this point, he knew something it happened. And Chandler was suspected, but he didn't want to tip him off.

And he was also trying to figure out a way to get Chandler downtown so they could interview him as well as cat. And so that's why he was like, is that cat there? Where are you guys going? What time are you going to dinner? Like he wanted to make sure at this moment, they are both together at the house. let's move in, let's bring them in now. I don't know how they did this, but the move here would be to coordinate where Chandler and Kat are going to dinner.

So they're outside the residents. Well, the police are already there. They don't even want them to leave. He's just making small talk, but he's about to call the police that are outside and be like, all right, go get them. Go get them. Yeah. And so maybe they did go inside.

But what I would have been thinking here is, hey, when they come out to go to dinner and they're between the residents and the vehicle, that's when you grab them. Because now they can't use the vehicle as a weapon. They can't grab a weapon from the home. Even if they have something on them, you have the element of surprise. I don't know what was done here, but that's something I would be considering where I'm talking to my guys as soon as I hang up. And I'm saying, hey, they're planning on going to dinner. It's going to be two parties.

Grab them as soon as they get to the car. Don't let him get in the vehicle. Well, they went inside because remember one of the first things Chandler says during his police interview is he's like, hey, they like had us come down to the station. But then they went inside my house. Like, are they allowed to do that without a warrant? That's interesting. Did they grab him when he came outside and then they went in? or did they go right in?

They just basically knocked on the door and they were like, hey, we want to talk to you and Kat. Like, we just have some questions and, you know. Well, it worked out. Thank God. Nobody got hurt. Now, let's take our last break

and we'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by Bull and Branch, and I need to talk about the summer sleep struggle because there is nothing peaceful about getting into bed and immediately realizing your sheets have betrayed you. Wait, sheets can portray you?

That's a new one. This actually happened last night. You climb into bed thinking you're about to relax and then suddenly everything feels hot, sticky, clingy, personally offensive. I know where you're talking about now and that's where the pillow flipping starts coming in. I had changed my sheets earlier that day and I put on old sheets and they were not comfortable. I'm flipping the pillow. I'm kicking one leg out. I'm pulling the blanket on, taking it off. I'm lowering the thermostat, putting the fan on. I'm questioning every decision that led to this moment.

Yeah, and after all of that, you're supposed to wake up rested. Good luck. I'm very grumpy this morning and because it was too late by the time I realized and I wanted to go back and put my bull and branch sheets on. but sometimes we blame the room, the mattress, the weather, the person next to us breathing too warmly, the, you know, three dogs taking up all the space. But a lot of the time the bedding is actually the real problem, which I found out last night. Wrong sheets can trap heat. That's why I love Bowling Branch so much because their summer betting is lightweight. It's breathable. It's designed to help you stay cool at night. Yeah, and it's not that chemical cooling stuff either, which is important. No, no. See, I would never, I would never. Their sheets are made from not polyester, not a

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Crime Weekly to get a free gift with your journey pack. Head to tryfume.com. That's t-R-Y-F-U-M.com. And use code Crime Weekly to claim your free gift today. Okay, we're back. So as we know, and we've already talked about, both Chandler and Kat were interviewed by police on this day, which ended with Chandler being arrested and the police determining eventually that Kat had no rule in what happened to Bart and Krista. Although I guarantee you there was a point where they were considering her as well, for sure. We talked about that as well.

Oh, they definitely did. Yeah, they definitely did. This next clip we're going to look at, it says that not even maybe privately were they thinking that, but maybe publicly they were thinking that. No doubt. Based on the dynamics of that relationship, it wouldn't be hard, especially because she had been staying there to think that she wasn't just some blind witness. She was actually participating in the cover up.

Yeah, because she was there. She was with him a lot of the time. during these these times. It would be fair to assume that she was assisting. So on July 16th, Kat went back into the police station for another conversation, but this time she was with a lawyer. Do it okay? A lot of the last few days, that is not. Yeah. In a week since last time I sat in here. No, a week and a day. Day's Friday, right? Oh, it is Friday. It is Friday. It is been a week a day. And just so you know that it's not lost on us, how hard it's probably been for you and a lot of other people too. So we're very appreciative of that. Can I ask one thing up front?

Sure. Is there any way you guys can change the narrative and the sheriff even if it may not be fully true to indicate that she's not, the girlfriend's not a suspect and that she's not somehow somebody you suspect, unless you're going to tell me we do suspect that because it's just hard. I mean, she's 20 years old, two years out of high school, and her phone's just blowing up. I've told her and I think she's followed my advice to shut down Facebook. to shut down everything that's a social platform, which is getting all kinds of friends of, oh my gosh, I saw what happened with Chandler,

what can I do to help you, let me come talk to you, let me come spend time with you in those things. So it got worse yesterday after the sheriff had the press conference, and the last question you took was, is the girlfriend somebody that you're pursuing? You didn't really answer the question. Well, he kind of dodged the question, which I watched it. And that's why I'm saying.

just for her benefit, if the answer could be at this time, she's not. I don't care if she, well, I do care if she is, but to answer that, but just not to leave that suspicion out there. Sure. So is something you want to tell us right away? So when we met yesterday, when, because I have been keeping up with the media, I haven't been watching any of the trials for my own mental health. And he was catching me up, and, like, when the Wisconsin River was my mother,

And I like we were mulling over it. I was. And I recalled like taking a screenshot of him near the Scotch Rover because we share Snapchat locations with each other. And he like wasn't responding to me. He wasn't responding to me. He always snaps me. And so I just have it putting him there at July 3rd at like in the morning.

Okay. Bingo. We'll take that little Snapchat. Do you have there that little screenshot? Not that's incredible. But yes, yeah, you can see it right here. And I know that that's not the full clip, but I would love to have seen their response to that because they're acknowledging that the sheriff did exactly what the lawyers alleging,

which is like kind of left it open-ended. Yeah, he kind of dodged it, actually. He didn't leave it open-ended. He kind of just like intentionally didn't answer, which looks more suspicious than him answering. Well, it looks like there was a splice there in that interview. So I don't know if like the detective said, well, I can't, you know, what he said is what he said. I'm assuming he said, well, here's where we're at. Is there anything you need to tell us?

You know, but who knows? But based on Kat's behavior, which could just be her, the way she responded to stressful situations, but also her whereabouts, I'm sure they've narrowed down the timeline in which the parents were killed, they're believing there's a possibility at minimum. She assisted in the destruction of evidence, right? So that's probably what they're trying to determine at this point. Aiding and abetting, was she somehow, yeah. Right, no doubt.

Right. She might not have killed him, but then if he was going to confide in any, it would have been cat. And at that point, based on the dynamics of the relationship, it would be reasonable to ask the question, would she have assisted? Would she, if she loved him, would she have helped out? Would she had tried to cover things up for him to keep him out of prison? If they hadn't done that, we would be criticizing them for it. Yep. So, yeah, of course they're going to keep her right now. She's giving them the Snapchat. She's giving them what they need. She's completely cooperating. She's got it all. And then while he was in jail waiting for like his trial and

everything. Chandler talked to both Kat and her mother, Dulce. Now, at this time, he was in isolation and he had restricted phone privileges because they were afraid he was going to hurt himself, because he's a victim forever. I appreciate you worrying about me and caring for me. I know. Yeah, the news has made it sound very bad, but just talking to my lawyers and everything, it's not, It's much different. The news has putting a very bad spin on everything. I know. I hope you know that.

I'm good. How are you? I'm all right. I'm good. I miss you. I miss you, too. Yeah, just remember my brother's going to have his own opinion of everything. I was supposed to get my discovery, you know, after court on whatever day I had court last week. I think it was Wednesday. and I'm supposed to get my discovery so I could read it while I was on a three-day weekend because my lawyers aren't working.

But I never got it. Your lawyer already had the discovery, though, right? No. What? Well, maybe they haven't. But they didn't give it to me, and they're supposed to give it to me. I think they're delaying everything as much as they can so we don't have time to prepare. So obviously at this point, Kat is not calling Chandler to tell.

him. She loves him and misses him. Out of the goodness of her heart, she's working in cooperation with the prosecution. They're trying to see if Chandler would say something on these phone calls. But as always, he's the eternal victim of his circumstances. And just like him not getting paid from his pretend job and him not getting his transcripts from his pretend degree, the world is out to get him. And his legal team isn't getting the discovery in a timely fashion. And if they have it, well, they haven't given it to him. So he can't properly prepare for his own trial, right? And if he loses this case, it'll be because of the discovery, not getting to him quick enough. It won't be because he's actually guilty and left evidence all over the place. He minimized everything. You heard him. My lawyers are

optimistic. It's not what it looks like. The media is making it seem worse than it is. So what was Chandler's legal defense? What happened when he goes to trial, the prosecution's putting up this pretty airtight case against him? And his defense team gets up and they're like, all right, it's our turn. This is our moment. It was something else. man. Like, I had so much fun watching this defense lawyer. I guess we can say the lawyers tried to do something. A for effort is what you're saying? The best they could. I don't know. I really don't know what the goal was. If the goal was to be incredibly condescending, make the jury feel stupid, isolate them, and kind of be like, I can see why Chandler picked this

lawyer. They achieved it. The first thing I want to address is sort of the obvious. Chandler lies. He told a lot of lies. Not only does he lie, but he goes to extreme lengths, if he will, to keep those lies going or to perhaps cover up those lies. I guarantee you, every single one in this, every single person in this room has told a lie, has either covered up that lie or has done something to keep that lie going. You're not on trial, so your lies are not exaggerated and highlighted right now. And the important part is that Chandler is not charged with lying to his girlfriend or to his parents. There's one charge that has to deal, one per parent, that has to deal with lying. Everything else is something that the state told you to try to feed you a theory, a motive.

and to essentially taint your view on Chandler, because at the end of the day, there's only one lie that really does matter, and that's the one that he said about his parents missing. But I want you to think about another thing. When Attorney Raymond did her closing, two phrases, if you will, really caught on. Several times she said, we know X, Y, and Z happened. We know that this happened. Pay attention to the times where she said, we don't know. We don't know.

I can't tell you how she was killed. We don't know whatever. And it was always in the parts that had to do with the homicides. If you're charging people with crimes, you should know. That's a choice. We're not done. We're not done. Because listen, it's hilarious to me because she's like,

We've all lied. Every single person in this room. room has lied. And the only lie that matters is the one where he said they went to the cabin. And what does that have to do with anything, right? Other than the fact that they were found dead shortly after that. She's like, what do we not know? And she's like, they said, we don't know how she died.

We don't know whatever. Because she had no other examples. I mean, just disregard the fact that my client took measures to make sure they wouldn't be able to determine how they died. But, you know, put that aside for a second. It's just so ridiculous. So she said, let's talk about the cabin. Bart and Crystal went to the cabin at least two or three times a year. Is it possible that they could have gone to the cabin that weekend?

It's possible. In fact, you don't even know what their weekend plans were. Another thing the prosecution doesn't know. No one knew what their weekend plans were that weekend. The only reason the prosecution made a big deal about it was because Chandler said something to Kat about his parents going to the cabin so they wanted to grab onto a preempt. Remeditation. Okay, so that's what she's making this big, like, TV attorney performance. She was like, there's not even any evidence that Bart and Kristen knew about this alleged SpaceX job.

So that's not a lie on this House of Cards that they claim was crashing down around him. You also don't have any evidence that they knew about the scuba team. So that's not a lie that was crashing down around him. And she's saying all of this in a very condescending manner. She even tells the jury at one point, you're allowed. to use your common sense. Okay? She then says that the two lies that the prosecution zoned in on,

MATC and the American Family Insurance Job, and the fact that they made a big deal out of this when it wasn't even that big of a deal. She said that Bart was on to Chandler in October of 2020 when he told Krista that the guy from MATC sounded just like Chaz on the phone. And Bart knew. He was onto it.

He says he sounds just like Chaz on the phone. Use your common sense. These email exchanges are from people with a dotgmail.com address, official school people using a dotgmail.com address. Both Bart and Krista are college educated. You want to tell me that they honestly thought that this was legit? Or maybe they knew that their child was lying and they were just going to carry on the lie. and what does it matter? Here's what you need to ask yourself, what does it matter?

Because according to them, that's motive. That's the reason why he did what he did. This house of cards, built of lies, was crashing down, and he had nothing. He couldn't do anything, but he had to murder these people. Why? Why? You don't know why.

You were never told that they were going to kick him out of the house. You were never told that they were going to disown him. You were never told, anything about why it matters. If this is going to be motive, if this is the reason you're intentionally killing someone, it better matter. There better be consequences.

He's complaining to his girlfriend the morning of about everything being fucked up and crashing down. You do that. That's what significant others are for. You honestly think that he's complaining about things crashing down and his mind is going straight to, well, now I'm just going to murder them. There was another motive that was mentioned very briefly, but it was mentioned, so I'll talk about it.

When Mitchell testified, the very last question was about a life insurance policy. And I believe he said that the payout may have been about a million dollars. And he acted confused. He didn't really know about it. It could very well be that the only reason he knows that number, that value is because of things that are happening now. I don't doubt that kids know about parents having life insurance policies. I don't doubt that. But ask yourself this. Does everyone know how much the policy is worth? Probably not. Do you think you're going to get a million dollars from your parents? Probably not. And there was no

evidence that was provided to show that Chandler knew that there was a policy in place and he knew the value, knew enough of that value to do something very drastic to get that money. There was no evidence that he needed money. Yes, he didn't have a job, but nothing came out that he needed money. You know, what's so interesting about this is as I'm sitting here and I'm putting myself in the shoes of the jury member, she is actually giving you the exact motive as to why this would happen. Like, let's really just dissect this for a second. She's referring to this House of Cards.

Yeah. While anybody with a brain knows that a House of Cards, its one card gets removed and the whole thing crashes down. And so what she explains, I think is completely accurate. There was a point where Bart and Krista were enabling Chandler and they had maybe looked the other way on numerous things where... Yes, of course. Like parents do. When they knew something didn't smell right. But this part here where Bart was finally starting to push back against Chandler was the first indication to Chandler that they were done and they had enough.

And they were going to start to ask questions and call him out on his bullshit. And he knew, Chandler knew, that this was just the first card to fall. And that once Bart looked into this, he was going to look into other things. And yes, the House of Cards would come crashing down in all of his lies that he was already aware of would be exposed. Hence the motive to kill them before that happened. Thank you for explaining that to us, Mrs. Defense Attorney. And she's like, a life insurance policy is a motive? I mean, there's no proof he even needed money.

Yeah, he didn't have a job. Yeah, he didn't have a job. He didn't have money. He's asking his girlfriend to give him $5 so he can get a soda and chips. He has no money. So yes, the life insurance policy is a motive, you idiot. And on top of that, like, Mitchell's confused. Well, Mitchell is not a little baby big boy and doesn't live with his parents,

doesn't have access to conversations between his parents or paperwork that his parents would have at the home showing that there's a life insurance. policy. You idiot. Like you should not have even mentioned the life insurance policy during that closing statement. You shouldn't have done that. And she's just so condescending. Like you said too, though, just she tried, but there's something that we always talk about in these trials. And it's unfortunate or a fortunate aspect of these big cases. Take it how you want. But there's an element of showmanship. And the attorneys on both sides, their personalities become part of the decision-making process. They shouldn't, but they do. And the way. you present something and your mannerisms and the tone you use, it matters. That delivery

is important. And her delivery here was very flippant, very dismissive to the whole thing. Condescending. Yeah, just totally. And when you think about people from Wisconsin and their values and how they were going to respond to this, it doesn't seem like something they would gravitate toward. They're like, why are you talking to me like I'm stupid? On top of that, the prosecution does not have to prove motive. So if they say, we don't know Chandler's motive, but we know because of A, B, C, D, E, G, E, F, all of these reasons that he committed the crime, it doesn't matter. We don't need to understand the motive. And Chandler, somebody like him, who knows, his motive might not seem as valid to a normal sane person, but to him, it may have been plenty of motive. It made sense. But we know he did it. And here's why. And she's like, forget all the

evidence that says he did it. You don't even know Bart and Krista were planning to do that weekend. And that's something you should know. If you're going to accuse somebody of doing something, then you should know why. And she kept saying like, when I was in law school, my professor said, you should know why if you're going to try. And then the prosecution came up after and they were like, well, thankfully we're not in law school anymore because we don't need to show you motive. We don't need to prove that. So thanks for wasting our time. I do want to quickly read some comments from the comment section.

And I highly suggest you go on YouTube and you listen to the entire defense's closing statements because it's hilarious. I couldn't play the whole thing. It's just great quality content here. So one of the comments says, this is the lawyer equivalent of waiting until the last minute to do your school project that's worth half your grade and failing miserably as a result. Another said this isn't a closing argument in a high profile murder case. This was Gilda, my sophomore year debate partner, practicing her debate the night before a match after drinking three large sangrias and three hits off my bong. Bless your heart, end quote. Oh my God. This attorney called Bart Brett a few times during her closing statements. She used the victim's wrong name, which I'm sure the jury wasn't happy about after hearing everything they heard. She glared at the jury. You know, there was these long pauses where she would say something like she thought was impactful. Like Reese Witherspoon illegally blonde and then she'd look at the jury like, let that sink in.

Let that sink in, guys. She clicked her tongue at them a bunch. She said, no one knows what happened here. You idiots don't know what happened here, even if you think you've made up your mind. But understand this. The defense put up no case. They called zero witnesses. They presented zero pieces of evidence and Chandler declined to testify in his own defense. So really all they were doing was wasting everyone's time. And so the jury really only had the prosecution's case to go on, which we can say was a strong case, despite this defense attorney trying to make us feel stupid for recognizing that the prosecution had a strong case. The jury deliberated for just two hours and returned with unanimous guilty verdicts on all counts. So what you're saying is it didn't work. It didn't work. I think, in fact, it hurt. I would say it hurt. Close.

Two months later, Chandler Halderson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The judge made sure to emphasize that Chandler had executed his parents in cold blood. He then systematically dismembered their bodies to try and cover his dark deeds. And he did all of this with a total lack of remorse or empathy. Now, of course, we know Chandler likes to waste people's time and money and he tried every appeal. even though his appellate attorney filed a no merit, meaning that his appellate attorney had looked through the entire trial record and found absolutely no grounds to support an appeal. Chandler appealed anyway. He claimed he was denied a fair trial due to ineffective assistance from his trial lawyers, which I can't even argue with that at that point. He said insufficient evidence also, which no, and potential jury bias. If anything biased the jury, it was your entire personality in life that caused bias to absolutely hate you because you saw. So when that didn't work, Chandler went to the Supreme Court and they officially denied his petition for review and this effectively ended his entire appeals process. And now Chandler Halterson lives full time at the Dodge Correctional Facility with no Wi-Fi, no video games, no privacy, no sweet girlfriend that he doesn't deserve and no remaining legal avenues to overturn his life sentence.

And honestly, if Wisconsin had the death penalty, he probably would have gotten it, but they don't. So he's lucky for that. but he's there for the long haul. And that's where we are. So I guess there's some justice here. But overall, Bart and Krista are gone. Mitchell lost both of his parents because of his brother. Kat's forever traumatized.

I don't think she'll ever trust another person because I wouldn't. Nobody wins, not even Chandler. And I mean, we're happy that Chandler doesn't win, but we're not happy that everybody else lost so much. Yeah, the only silver lining here is that Chandler is off the streets and he won't be able to hurt anyone else. That is important, but it doesn't change what happened here. And we've dissected this case over these last four episodes. We're probably close to eight, nine hours on this one, maybe more.

Great job by law enforcement, dotted their eyes, crossed their teas. Seems like they got the right guy and everyone else was vetted as well to make sure they got everyone involved with what happened to Bart and Krista. You know, whenever you think about parents being killed by their own children, it's just, it's something that's difficult for anybody to process, but we can always learn from these cases. And I think there's opportunities here to see that even if you have children living in the home with you, you raised them, you think that things are okay. You have to treat them like everybody else. You got to try to look for those warning signs.

But I don't think anybody can prepare for something like this. No. You trust your children. You're going to let your guard down in your own home. And there's really no way to defend this. If it happens, it's just an unfortunate circumstance. And there's nothing that Bart or Krista could have done to prevent this. Yeah, you could say they could have been harder on him.

but anybody who's a parent knows that you don't, you know, you give your kid a good life, you think they're going to grow to be a good person. You don't think you have to be hard on them because you raise them, right? So you think that when they're acting like a victim or when they're saying that they're being disenfranchised in someone, you think that's genuine because you didn't raise them to be this person. And I cannot for the life of me understand why the defense didn't go for some sort of like mental illness or defect defense. I think that would have been better bring in some experts and have them analyze Chandler and show that he is like not right in the head. Like there is some sociopathic thing happening there or psychopathic thing happening there.

I don't think it would have made a difference as far as him being found guilty. But maybe he could have at least gotten some help or some therapy or some sort of assistance in prison. Like I don't know why they didn't go with a mental defect kind of defense because clearly this person is not right. he's not a normal person. Well, I can tell you this. I don't know why. They had a whole defense team with him, but as far as I believe the woman's name in that video is Crystal Vera.

And I was just looking her up. She was part of the state public defender from 2017 to 2006, but she's now moved on to working for the Department of Children and Family Services. Oh, that's great. She's not a defense attorney anymore. So hopefully she's found her calling because as a defense trial lawyer, at least in that example, wasn't a great look for her. But maybe she turned it around.

Maybe she learned from her mistakes. She didn't do well in the trial. Yeah, guys, let us know what you think about this case. What are your thoughts on the overall investigation, the trial itself? Is there anything you think that we missed or that there's more to the story than we know? I think it was covered pretty thoroughly. And for anybody who's just joining us because of the series, we have a lot of new viewers coming to the channel. If you want to support some of the things that Stephanie and I are working on, there's a bunch of stuff.

You can go on Patreon. You can go on YouTube memberships. but also you can go to our coffee, which is criminal coffeecofco.com. We sell coffee and merchandise and we use a portion of the profits to fund cold cases. We've already solved two using those funds and we're in the process of donating to other organizations and causes and also trying to fund new cases. So if you want to be part of that community and help make a difference on cases that are not getting the coverage or justice they deserve, you can go check us out over there.

As always, we appreciate you being here. We're going to be back next week. But until then, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you soon. Bye.