Criminology - Bart and Krista Halderson

Episode Date: June 4, 2023

In July 2021, 50 yr old Bart Halderson and his 53 yr old wife Krista Halderson of Windsor, Wisconsin, disappeared. They were later found murdered. People who knew them were shocked that anyone would want to hurt the couple. But they were even more shocked to find out who was responsible. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the murders of Bart and Krista Halderson. Together they had two adult sons who both seemed to be on the right path in life. But their youngest son Chandler was hiding behind a series of lies. He told everyone that he was in college and had a great new job with SpaceX. When Chandler could no longer keep up the charade, he did the unthinkable. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for moms and mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit.

We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to moms and mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 260 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford.

How you doing this week, buddy? I'm doing great. Kids are out of school now, and, you know, we're settling into the summer routine. How about you? Yeah, my wife, who's a teacher, is done. my kids who are in college or getting ready to start college, they're working their summer job. So there's a lot going on, even though school is out. We just came off the Memorial Day weekend, which was great, got to spend a lot of family time together.

So it's a good time. Yeah. And you, I talk before we hit the record button. It's a little bit of a challenge to get off that holiday mode and get back into working. But here we are. Yeah, I'm sure it is for everybody. You know, when you get kind of an extra day, it seems like the, the next four days are a little tough. For some reason, even though you're only doing four instead of five, but it's always been like that for me.

All right, let's go ahead and do our Patreon shoutouts. We only had one, but it was from Susan Warren, and that's great support. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you so much, Susan, for that support. It means a lot. And for anyone else that would like to support the show, you can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. All right. Morph, it's time to jump into this episode. And we are covering a case that has made the news recently. There have been some headlines because of some recent developments. We're talking about the July 2021 disappearance and murders of 50-year-old Bart Holderson and his 53-year-old wife, Krista Holderson, of Windsor,

They were a well-liked couple with two sons, and when they vanished, people who knew them were shocked. But they'd be even more shocked when it came to light just exactly what happened to them, and who was responsible. Windsor, Wisconsin is about 80 miles west of Milwaukee. The village of Windsor has a population of about 9,000 people. It's a quiet middle-class area with a relatively low crime rate. It was here on Oak Springs Circle that Bart and Crystal lived along with their two. two adult sons, Mitchell, who was 24, and Chandler, who was 23. Bart and Krista got married in 1994, and by 1996, Mitchell had come along.

And two years later, in 1998, Chandler was born. Bart was a successful accountant, and Krista was a stay-at-home mom who had focused on raising her sons. Once they graduated high school, Krista took a job at an automotive company in the administration department. In 2021, Mitchell was working in the tech. industry and was planning to marry his fiance and Chandler was studying IT at Madison College. By June, Chandler, who was still living at home with his parents, had lined up a job with SpaceX and he

was really happy about it. It was an exciting time for Bart and Krista and they were looking forward to Mitchell's upcoming marriage, the start of his own family, and for Chandler's new very promising job. Just before Chandler was set to move the floor to start the new position at SpaceX, his brother Mitchell ended up in the hospital. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, but he recovered. Chandler put his plans on hold briefly to stay with Mitchell, since they didn't know what was going on at the time with his illness. This was a close family, and they supported each other. But sadly, soon after Mitchell's hospital stay, Chandler suffered a concussion after falling down the stairs and had to wear a neck brace while recovering.

After this, his work started to suffer because he was experiencing issues with concentration and memory and having lingering symptoms like headaches and weakness. So, Morve, have you ever had a concussion? I played a lot of sports and I banged my head a lot of time, so it's possible, but never one that I was diagnosed with. Yeah, me neither. I know, you know, we go back away. So in our sports playing days, concussions weren't as big a thing, is obviously,

they are today. So it's possible that both of us could have had them, but we wouldn't have probably been diagnosed with them. I do have a family member who has a serious issue with concussions. And, you know, this person has really been at times debilitated by them. They're nasty. Oh, yeah. There's no doubt they're serious. I mean, you're talking a bruising on your brain. So it can lead to a lot of issues and a lot of problems for someone. on Friday, July 2nd, 2021, Krista Halterson didn't show up for work at the automotive shop. This was completely unlike her, and it didn't go unnoticed.

One of her coworkers, Daniel Kroninger, was so worried about Krista after she didn't answer her phone that he went to the Halterson home to check on her around 4.30 that afternoon. Only Chandler Halterson was home. But he informed Daniel that his parents had gone to their cabin to get away. way on a property about three hours north of Windsor. Chandler said they had left earlier that morning due to a plumbing emergency at the cabin and decided to stay there to celebrate the 4th of July weekend. Now reportedly there was not great reception in the secluded area due to the clouds.

So it was possible that Krista hadn't seen any of Daniel's calls. Daniel Kroninger was relieved to hear that Krista was okay, but he still had an odd feeling. In his mind, he and Krista weren't just coworkers. They were close friends. And she hadn't said anything to him about ditching work for a plumbing emergency. Even if it was kind of a last minute thing or, you know, this emergency, she would have normally at least sent him a text. He also noticed that both cars were in the garage and that a coffee table in the living room had been tipped over near the fireplace. When Daniel asked Chandler about both of his parents,

cars being there, Chandler explained that another couple had picked up his parents and they all went to the cabin together. But he claimed he didn't know who the couple was. According to Chandler, they had been gone since he had woke up that morning around 6 a.m. Daniel Croninger left the Hollerson home since Chandler said all was well, and he continued to check up on Krista throughout the weekend, but she didn't call or text him back. Eventually, Chandler told Daniel that he had spoken with his parents, and they were planning to be back on Monday, July 5th. According to Chandler, he had received the text message from Krista on July 4th that read, Made it Safely, Can't get anything through, and yes, it's packed, going to White Lake

today for the parade, and will be home Monday night or Tuesday early. Love you lots. The mention of a parade was alluding to the White Lake Parade. Daniel felt better after hearing this, but by Tuesday, July 6th, Krista still hadn't returned to work, and hadn't gotten. in touch with Daniel, who continued to worry. Both Daniel Kroninger and Chandler's girlfriend, Kat Melander, encouraged Chandler to report his parents missing because it wasn't like them to be gone and not say anything.

So we have this story by Chandler that, you know, his parents have gone to this secluded cabin. They've reached out to him, but reception's not great and they have a hard time, you know, getting messages through. But then they don't come back when they're supposed to. Krista doesn't show up to work. Obviously, Daniel's been worried this whole time because it seems to me morph as though he just believes something's not right here, something's off. And now you have Chandler's girlfriend kind of getting worried as well.

At what point does Chandler get worried? Because, you know, I'm thinking about this as a parent. I'm in constant communication with my kids. Now, I get it. It's a secluded cabin. Let's say cell phone service isn't great. But if I said I was going to be home at a certain time, a certain day, and then I knew that was not going to happen, I can tell you right now, I would find somewhere where

there was service. So I could get a hold of my kids and say, hey, you know, we're going to be an extra day. We're going to be this time. It just, you know, these parts of the stories that we, you know, these parts of the stories that we do. Right off the bat, they just seem to be illogical to me. Like, they really stand out as something that most people wouldn't do. It's one thing for them to go away. As you mentioned, not have reception. Okay, maybe they can't stay in constant contact, but to not show up at home to work when they're supposed to return, it just didn't seem like there was any urgency on Chandler's part,

more so on his girlfriend's part and Daniel's part. They're the ones suggesting he contact the police. So, you know, that's I think what led him to ultimately do that. Yeah, we talk about in a lot of cases, at what point does the worry meter, you know, get there, where you need to reach out to authorities. And I got the sense here that it really didn't get there. For Chandler, it was almost as if he only reached out and reported them missing because Daniel and Kat were kind of on him saying, you know what, you should really do this.

On Wednesday, July 7, 2021, Chandler filed a missing persons report with the Dane County Sheriff's Office for both Bart and Krista. By then, calls to their phones were going straight to voicemail. After filing the report, Chandler went door to door to the neighbors to see if anyone who, had spotted his parents or if they may have surveillance cameras that could have captured images of them in the area. Krista hadn't just missed work. She had missed an important medical appointment regarding her cancer treatment. She had recently been diagnosed with skin cancer and wanted to get it taken care of as soon as possible. It was a three-hour drive from the cabin and it was possible that Bart and Krista could have gotten into an accident on the way home. Perhaps this meant that

there also may have been a second couple in need of help if something bad had happened, the couple that had supposedly gone to the cabin with them. Inside the Holderson home, a note on a whiteboard on the fridge from Krista to Chandler, let him know that her friend Pam was available at any time if he needed anything. She didn't like to leave him alone for long periods of time due to his recent head injury. So she was worried about Chandler needing something over the weekend and being unable to help. This is just another reason. It was clear Krista would have returned home if she could have.

On July 8th, Mitchell Halterson and his fiancé drove up to the cabin to look for any signs of his parents. Police officers met them there to assist in a search. It looked like no one had been to the cabin in quite some time. A big log was blocking off the entrance to the property, and the driveway was full of tall grass. An officer forced entry into the cabin with Mitchell's permission. There were padlocks on some of the doors and no movement inside. Looking through the cabin, there was no food in the fridge. It was clear to police that no one had been inside the cabin in a long time.

So now Mitchell's involved, you know, obviously he's worried, his fiancee is worried. And they take this step of going to the cabin with police officers. And it's apparent to everyone that his parents have not been at the cabin. Nobody's been there in quite some time. So where does your mind go? Okay. Supposedly they were going to this cabin with another couple. They never made it there.

So did something happen to them along the way? And if so, at what point? Because, you know, it's a three hour drive. Yeah, I think that really makes a big timeline now that police have to consider because they've got to go back to not only the time when they were supposed to be coming back, at the time when they were heading up there and figure out what happened to them and did something happen along the way that they weren't able to make it to the cabin. The same day of the search in the woods near Chandler's girlfriend's family's farm in

Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, a male torso was found. When officers arrived on scene, they noticed vultures circling overhead. The body had been dismembered while still clothed. The body was still wearing a belt, underwear, and the very top part of some pants. There were multiple gunshot wounds in the person's back. Because the rest of the body was missing and there was no ID near the torso, the victim could not immediately be identified. Inside a large container, like an oil drum near the body, was a pair of scissors, a saw, and tree tremors. There were traces of blood on all of the tools. Later, this blood would be identified as belonging to Bart and Krista Holderson. On the side of the barn, hidden behind a pile of lumber was a rifle.

Later that day, Chandler Holderson was taken into custody for providing false information. So I think at the very least more, if you would have to say this was a very troubling development. Two days later, on July 10th, the body found in the woods near the farm was confirmed to be that of Bart Holder. He was the victim of a homicide, but Krista was still missing. Word quickly got out, and there was shock as people wondered if Krista had somehow been involved with Bart's murder and taken off. Those who knew her well knew this was not possible, and that she would never hurt her husband. But if she wasn't with Bart, where was she? Inside the Halterson home, police found evidence of a crime and a subsequent cleanup. Luminol or Blue Star reaction showed possible blood in the basement and near the fireplace that had been cleaned and was no longer visible to the naked eye. There was a spent shell casing in the basement, and there appeared to be bone fragments inside the fireplace. Technicians found 230 human bone fragments and teeth,

and carefully collected them into evidence. So now things are coming a little bit more into view. I think based on what we just said, there's no doubt that something horrible happened inside that house. Then you think about that number, 230 human bone fragments and teeth, it kind of sends a little bit of a chill down your spine. Yeah, it definitely paints a picture of something gruesome that happened there in that house.

And as we've seen time and time again, you know, people mistakenly think that they can clean up a bunch of blood. And it just never seems to be possible. The luminal or Blue Star, which I think is a newer version, we're hearing that name a lot lately, just kind of seems to show the true picture. And to me, I just think about, you know, messes that I've had in my own home, not even blood, but just spills. Okay, often very hard to clean up. But think about how much blood is in the human body and how hard blood is to clean up.

And I think a lot of people believe that, well, okay, I've sprayed it. I've, whatever they did to try to get rid of it, they can't see it anymore. But that luminal or blue star, man, it just, it lights it up like a Christmas tree. Yeah. And the bone fragments and the teeth inside the fireplace, I imagine that would be hard to get that stuff out of there. So even if you thought you were disposing of a body and burning it and breaking it down in the fireplace, unless you physically take all of the debris and embers and soot and everything else that was in there and take that and remove that, that stuff still leaves remnants.

And thankfully, these technicians were able to find and collect those remnants. Police suspected that the Halversons had both died at the hands of their youngest son, Chandler. They looked into his movements leading up to when his parents were last seen. At 7.21 a.m. on July 1st, Chandler Holder, was caught on camera, buying a tarp at a store called Fleet Farm. That evening, he also bought about 20 pounds of ice. The Halterson home had no air conditioning, and that summer was hot. So it was surprising when surveillance camera footage from a neighbor who lived behind the Halterson showed that

there was a glow of a fire in the window near the fireplace for most of the night of July 1st, leading into July 2nd with a notable event around 3 a.m. While Chandler claimed he had been sleeping. The glow in the window gets very bright and the kitchen light goes on and then the glow in the window becomes a glow in multiple windows and then all of the lights go out. It would later be revealed in court that the fire had been getting out of control. So Chandler went to the kitchen to get water which he threw on the fire. This caused the glass in front of the fireplace to burst in a small explosion.

It was the belief of investigators that Chandler had killed his parents in their home, and it seems he decided to keep the bodies on ice while he was dismembering and burning parts of them in the fireplace. He realized that the burning wasn't going so well, and actually Googled how to make a fire burn hotter, and learned that the answer was by adding oxygen to it. He set up a box fan near the fireplace, which is what caused the glow in the window to grow, and keep growing until finally he rushed to the kitchen to get water.

When originally questioned about this broken glass in front of the fireplace, Chandler told police that he had broken it when roughhousing with his dog. Police believed he had actually broken it while trying to burn the remains of his parents. And this always fascinates me more. You have someone who is suspected of doing something. Police are questioning them. Well, the police have certain things that they want explained. and the fascinating part to me is always how people try to set about explaining these different things.

Okay, we have this broken glass. What happened? Oh, it was rough housing with the dog, right? It's all these things that a person, if they ultimately turn out to be guilty, have to try to explain a way. Yeah, there's a possibility that there's probably glass experts out there that can determine that the fire, is the heat of the fire burning out of control is what broke it and not roughhousing. So these stories, although they sound good when you're saying them possibly in Chandler's case here, there's a possibility that could be proven to not be the case later on.

Well, and isn't that why the authorities ask so many questions? Okay. They want to see what your answers are. They want them recorded. And they may ask the essentially the same question, multiple ways just to, you know, a person who has nothing to hide or is being truthful should have no problem answering the questions, but someone who has to try to cover up, right? You better have your story straight. And, you know, like you said, do you know all that's possible

with science and forensics that you're not going to trip yourself up by saying something that can later be proven to be false. And I think that's where a lot of people really mess up. They don't have that knowledge. And we're not saying there was a glass expert in this case. It's just your point is valid in that experts are able to prove certain things. And it may go against what you said. Hey, criminology fans, Morph and I want to tell you about our friends, Lindsay and Jen over at the True Crime podcast, Corpus Delect Act. Jen and Lindsay started their podcast right around the same time we did, and they have almost 250 episodes available to binge on.

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For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Killers. They've even done a deep die into the case of a likely innocent man who sits. on Alabama's death row and the numerous pitfalls in his case that will open your eyes to the cracks in the justice system. Corpus Delecti has a brand new series that just came out titled Do No Harm, which focuses on doctors and other medical professionals who take advantage of their position to kill or otherwise harm patients.

Be sure to check out corpus delecti today. It's available everywhere you listen to podcasts. Chandler's girlfriend, Kat, was interviewed by detective. She was incredibly cooperative, handing over her phone willingly and going through every minute of the weekend that she could remember. Her interview was recorded and it's actually available out on YouTube to watch. Kat and Chandler met in August 2019 through a mutual friend. They spent a lot of time during their relationship, watching movies together and going on walks after Chandler's parents disappeared. They did more of the same. She was at the

Halterson home multiple times and was in contact with Chandler the whole weekend. Cat had no idea. Anything was amiss. She like everyone else was fooled about basically everything. The information she gave, though, filled in a lot of blanks for investigators. It soon became clear to detectives that Chandler was lying to his family and to Cat about his job, about school, about SpaceX, and about his head injuries. He hadn't been attending Madison College, it turns out. He had dropped out or failed his classes. He created fake class schedules to send a cat and his parents. He pretended to be doing coursework when he was really just passing time online. When he didn't graduate, he stalled as long as he could and said there was an issue with his transcripts trying to put off the

inevitable. He had never worked for the insurance company he claimed to have worked for him home for. He didn't have any job at all, in fact. He pretended to have work meetings with people, but he was really playing video games online. One of the people he played games with was Andrew Smith, an American in the U.S. military, who was stationed in Germany in 2021. Smith wasn't just an online friend, though. He actually met in person with Chandler in June 2021 when Smith visited Chandler at his home in Wisconsin. During this trip, Andrew gave Chandler a gun, a 20-inch SKS rifle as a present because he knew he would appreciate it. He also gave him 500 rounds of ammo. It was this gun that Chandler carried out his crime with, the same gun that was found near his dad's remains.

So, I mean, some of this information, I mean, it's like a bombshell. I mean, essentially, it turns out that Chandler was lying just about almost everything in his life. And the one thing that really jumped out of me was the hoops that he had to jump through to kind of keep up the charade. In my mind, I was thinking, you know, it was almost like it was as much work to to keep up the ruse as it would have been to just do the actual college work or, you know, whatever it was. And not only that, but he does, he's telling people he's got a job, he doesn't have a job, he's doing fake meetings. It just seems like so much work to keep all of that going.

And, you know, what was the reason? Because he didn't want to let his parents down? Because he wanted to be this successful person or project that image. And I think once you start lying and then lying to cover up that lie, it just gets out of control. I don't know how someone like this keeps all of those lies in check and remembers what. what lie he told them before. And some people are just good at lying.

I think we've all met somebody that when they are talking, their lips are moving, or they're lying, because their stories are so out there or unbelievable. And, you know, a lot of times I think maybe we laugh them off and say, okay, that's just him being himself telling these tall tales. But in this case, a lot of this had to do with the ultimate. outcome of here of what happened. Well, and I think we have to talk about this Andrew Smith, right?

So these guys become friends. They meet in person when Andrew comes to Chandler's home and he gives him a rifle and a bunch of ammunition. And like you said, this rifle would ultimately turn out to be a murder weapon. What went through my head was that probably not a great idea to give a dangerous weapon as a present to someone that you kind of know. I mean, this is the first time they'd met in person. I'm not blaming this Andrew Smith at all. I'm just kind of saying probably not a great idea. Yeah. And it's not unusual for people to gift something to somebody when they're meeting them.

You know, they've had this online friendship and now they're meeting in person. It's like, hey, you know, I bought you some chocolates or I bought you some something from, Germany, you know, just as a little memento, but here it's a rifle that he brings him. It's definitely strange. Chandler also lied about his injuries from the fall in June claiming to have headaches, sensitivity to light, numbness, and tingling in his legs and lightheadedness.

He also claimed that his doctor advised him not to travel, delaying his acceptance of the SpaceX job that would require him to relocate to Florida. ultimately he said he lost the job due to being unable to get to headquarters as well as a decline in the quality of his work after the concussion the stories of his injuries also kept getting more serious and wild soon he was going to need a hole drilled in his head it would undergo surgery to put in a colostomy back the lies chanelor told to people sound unbelievable hearing them now. But, you know, as we kind of mentioned earlier, Chandler went to great lengths to back up

some of his lies with fake documentation. So we said very early on that Chandler, you know, made claims about having a concussion. And now, you know, you kind of start to find out that maybe things weren't as serious as he claimed. He was making some of these things up. But, you know, some of these stories got pretty unbelievable, right? They were going to have to drill a hole in his head. And he was going to have to have a claustomy back. Some of these seemed very strange for having a concussion or a series of concussions or whatever it was said to have been.

Yeah, and I'm no medical expert by any stretch, but if somebody told me they needed to have a hole drilled in their head, to me that sounds almost like brain surgery. It's very serious. And as you mentioned, a claustomy bag, what does they have to do with a concussion? Maybe there's somebody out there listening that's in the medical field that will set straight and tell us there is a result from a concussion that leads to a claustomy bag. But I'm failing to see what that would be.

I am interested to know when these doctors examined Chandler, if they saw signs of concussions because I know sometimes football players, for example, they get a concussion. They don't want to come out of the game. They'll say, oh, I'm fine. I'm perfectly fine. Meanwhile, they're wobbling. The doctors are looking in their eyes with lights and stuff like that, and they say, nope, you're not going back in there.

So there might be a way they doctors can tell if someone actually has a concussion. I'm wondering what the doctors thought when they examined Chandler. Well, there's definitely testing that they do now and can do with definitely professional athletes. But my understanding is it involves like baseline. testing, right? Everybody undergoes baseline testing. And then that way, if they later do a test, they can see how they differ. I don't know what a doctor would do in this scenario. We're not talking about a professional athlete. Obviously, Chandler would not have a baseline test to compare to. And I would think you're mostly going off of what the patient says as far as what their symptoms are. And

And so if he goes in and lies and says, okay, I've got massive headaches, sensitive delight, I have numbness and tingling in my limbs. I think a doctor could reasonably conclude that, you know, he did suffer some type of concussion if he's saying that. You know, maybe it's like soft tissue damage when somebody says they have back pain in soft tissue, it's hard to dispute that, you know, it's not something you can really x-ray usually or find and determine that they're not being honest about. But I really want to hammer home on this fake documentation. I mean, he is spending a lot of

time and energy on trying to sell his lives, whether it's, you know, making up fake class schedules to send to people or some type of fake documentation for. from a medical professional. He's really spending a lot of time and effort on this. Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head earlier when you said the amount of work he's doing, he might as well have done the actual work and, you know, toughed it out and gotten through his work and schooling. People eventually began to catch on and to question Chandler's stories.

Despite claiming to have been working for an insurance company, Chandler never had any money. Bart, an accountant, was rightfully suspicious about why his son never had any money. And Chandler told him there's a payroll error. Then he said he was misclassified as hourly instead of salaried. Then, by the time it was straightened out, he was owed $60,000, and it was too large for the bank to process. Chandler always had an excuse. Chandler's girlfriend Kat also seemed to have suspicions about him.

Kat kept tabs on Chandler, and even though he supposedly could not drive far alone, he was doing just that. During her police interview on July 8, Kat revealed to investigators that, At 8.50 a.m. on July 3, Chandler was not where he had claimed to be. He hadn't turned off his location sharing on Snapchat. And Kat had seen him up near the Wisconsin River, which was odd, especially since he told her he was going to be doing household chores. She asked him about this, and he said he was buying CBD for pain, which he wanted to keep a secret because he was afraid of receiving judgment for it. At the time she noticed him in an odd location, she took a screenshot of the snap map, which later became a crucial clue for authorities. It gave a definite identity to a suspicious person reported

by someone else. A witness had spotted Chandler walking away from the Wisconsin River on July 3rd. She didn't know Chandler, but she saw a man who she would later learn fit his description, behaving strangely in that area. The man she saw who was wearing a backpack walked away from his car and headed towards the highway. When the man saw this witness, he turned around and headed back to his car almost like he didn't want to be seen there. On July 10th, after the case made the news and she saw Chandler's face.

She came forward and told investigators that Chandler was the suspicious man. She saw that day acting strangers. On July 14th, investigators searched the area shown on the map in Kat's screenshot, and near where the witness saw a man walking away from the river, and they found some of Krista Haltersson's remains. The remains consisted of just one leg and the foot from the other leg. The medical examiner wasn't able to determine her cause of death due to the state of her remains, and it would take weeks to officially identify the remains as hers. Kat's cooperation was key to tying everything together. Her interview also gave them the location of the family's

farm where Bart's torso was found, and her words placed Chandler there too. On July 5th, Chandler asked if he could go swimming in the pool there. Even though Kat's mom wasn't going to be home during the day, she said Chandler could use the pool whenever he wanted. When Kat's mom arrived home that day, she noticed that Chandler's SUV was parked in the back of the property, with the back hatch open, but he wasn't swimming. Her partner said that Chandler got there around 5.30 p.m. and hadn't taken the cover off the pool. He came out of a wooded area in the rear of the property after about an hour and a half and then got in the pool but only got his arms and legs wet. He didn't actually swim. Investigators were able to search Kat's property before the trash was collected,

unlike the trash outside the Holderson home, which they were unable to recover after it was picked up and taken to a landfill inside of garbage bins at the farm were bags from Kat's Target shopping trip on July 1st, 2021, they were labeled with her first initial and last name, as well as the date. There's no doubt that these bags were new and could not have been placed there at any time before July 1st, 2021. Kat had dropped these very bags off at the Holderson's Windsor home with Chandler.

Now they were back in her trash cans. Inside the Target bag, there were bloody rags. There was a bloody tarp inside the trash as well. So, you know, really, I think what these bags did was help clarify the tight timeline for the murders and the cleanup. So more if we've talked about a number of things that Chandler had said, things that he had done, that didn't seem to make a lot of sense. Well, you know, here you have him supposedly placing some of the items used in the

the murders and the cleanup into these target bags. And I guess he didn't realize that his girlfriend's name and the date was on them. Or he did and he just thought, I'm taking them out to her place. Police would never find them there. It just seemed like a really odd thing to do to me. Yeah, it doesn't seem like Chandler's a master criminal. I mean, on one hand, he said, okay, I can't have these at my house. So I've got to put them someplace else.

so he brought them to Kat's house, but, you know, had he dumped them anywhere along the way in a dumpster or trash bin someplace, they probably would have never been found. But here they are back at her house, and I think it's pretty damning evidence. Back at the Halterson home, Christ's phone was found wrapped in foil and placed in a shoe. Barts was as well. Her driver's license was with it. Investigators learned that the White Lake Parade was on July 3rd that year, not July 4th, and they had found a July 4th text on Christa's phone, which indicated she was going to the parade that day. GPS data from Christ's phone showed that the text about coming home on Monday was sent from the Halterson home, not from White Lake.

Chandler had been using his mom's phone to text himself. He did a good job impersonating her, using two exclamation points after Love You Lots, like she often did when she texted him. So it was clear to police, based on everything that they learned, everything we discussed, that Chandler was responsible for his parents' murders and the attempted cover-up of them. But the big question is, what was his motive? It seems as if Chandler's lives were catching up with him, and he wasn't seeing any other way out of them. He had lied to his parents about almost every detail of his life and felt as though he needed to kill them,

despite everyone who knew Kristen Bart agreeing that if he would have just been honest, and come clean with them that they would have helped their son get his life back on track. They wouldn't have disowned him or thrown him out. They loved him and they wanted the best for him. And this goes back to something that I think I said earlier more, which was why the need for all the lives? You hear that a lot of people in Krista and Bart's life said that they would have helped Chandler, get his life back on track. It seemed as though, you know, it was kind of falling apart a little bit.

What happened to get to the point where, you know, yes, you've told so many lies. And there's probably going to be some disappointment, some disbelief, but your solution is to kill your parents rather than own up to the lies that you've told. I mean, it's almost unimaginable. I always think about in these kinds of cases, what do these people that commit these crimes? What are they thinking? It seems like there's no real clear plan and they're just not thinking straight. I mean, why do that to your parents that love you that you've always had a good relationship with? Why not just start over and come clean and sit down with them and say, you know, I messed up. I didn't want to disappoint you.

I think you mentioned it. Sure, there will be some disappointment. But at the end of the day, you can start. over. You can ask your parents to help you get on the right track. Now, maybe some people might think that his concussions caused him to not think clearly. And normally he wouldn't have done this. And they might blame that. But at the end of the day, we don't even know if his concussions were real. We talked about how he may have been faking that. So that might not really be an out to even explain this. Well, I do think it is possible that some people with severe concussions or repeat,

to concussions, you know, have frontal lobe damage. And that, that can play a factor into things that they do, decisions that they make. But like you said, Morph, we're not even sure if that part of his stories are real because he lied about so many things. It's tough to, to really know what's true and what's not true. At 3 p.m. on July 1st, Barton Chandler had been scheduled to meet with advisors from Madison College to get his transcripts. This meeting was apparently the breaking point, when Chandler knew his lies would be uncovered. The emails that Chandler had faked between himself and various college personnel were astounding. It's clear that Chandler... Fresh air, longer days, a chance to reset. This season let therapy be part of your spring cleaning. Clearing mental

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Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. Or had been using fake email accounts to keep his parents at bay, basically. For example, an email to an advisor about his college transcripts would be met with the need for an appointment. Once the appointment was scheduled, his parents couldn't just request the transcripts until that date because they already knew he couldn't do anything without the appointment.

But as time ran out and the appointment date got closer, something would happen. COVID, family emergencies, database errors, and the appointment would need to be rescheduled. On June 17th, the day that Chandler fell down the stairs and received these supposed long-lasting injuries. He had an appointment with the advisor. A fake email he sent to himself from someone he called Alyssa Brand, mentioned a very long wait list if he missed this appointment. If he was in the hospital, well, then he wasn't just skipping the appointment and would be put on the wait list through no fault of his own.

Once again, putting off the date, his lies would need to end. Bart finally got tired of all these wild stories and the back and forth after an entire year of being strung along with these emails. And he finally called the school directly, pretending to be Chandler. He learned that none of the advisors, Chandler had mentioned work there. Bart also learned that Chandler owed the school $2,000 for his tuition

and hadn't attended since fall 2020. So I think this was the point where his lies started to unravel. On June 29th, Bart texted Chandler, letting him know that he had spoken to Omar Job, someone who actually really did work at the college. This set the events in motion because for Chandler, this was the end. He would not be held accountable for his lives. He felt as though he'd rather murder his parents than deal with the truth. On the morning of July 1st, 2021, Chandler texted Cat about how his future was ruined. He hadn't slept on night until Cat he was waiting for the next thing to fuck him over.

He also wrote, I had a great future plan, and it's falling apart. Kat thought that he was just down about his injuries from the fall. It had really limited his opportunities and caused him a lot of pain. Many people with chronic pain or physical disabilities can become depressed about the loss of the future they plan for her, and Kat was worried about this happening with Chandler. She had no idea that Chandler was upset over finally being caught over his lies. Later that day at 2.15 p.m., Bart texted his son, Chandler, saying, I'm ready when you are. It was time for them to head out to the college.

Between three and five that day, Chandler killed Bart and waited for Krista to get home, even texting her to get soda at the store on her way, buying him more time to clean up. She texted him back, K, I can, with a smiley face emoji. She was happy to do it on her son. Around 5.12 p.m. when Krista got back home, he killed her too. And to me more of this part of it is sickening. You know, we cover a lot of cases and a lot of them are nasty and the details are hard to swallow sometimes. I'm thinking about this mother and father.

Were they perfect? No, I'm sure not. No parents are perfect. But it's obvious to me that they cared for their son. Krista is happy to stop and get him some soda at the store, even adding in the smiley face emoji. She has no idea that her husband has already been killed by her son. And her son wants her to get drinks so that he has more time to clean up before she gets home when he's ultimately going to kill her as well.

Yeah, I think it's clear there's no remorse. I mean, if he had killed his father, he had time to think about it, he could have said to himself, okay, I've done something terrible. He has a chance to back out of doing the same thing to his mom. Instead, he baited her right into coming home and, you know, laid in wait for her. Yeah, and to me that really says something. This wasn't a heat of the moment argument with his parents that spiraled out of control. There was some thought here.

there was some planning. Kat's police interview revealed more of the lies Chandler told to cover up what he had done. She was planning to come over on July 2nd and spend the night while his parents were out of town since they would have a little more freedom. But that morning, he had told her he needed to clean up the house and do his chores. Since he was unable to work and pay rent at home, something that apparently he resented that his parents wanted him to do, he told her he was supposed to do weekly tasks around the home to earn his keep. He texted her, don't rush. He also asked her to bring him some hydrogen peroxide because he cut his foot and to also bring over a swiffer. He knew her mom had because he had bled on the floor. He claimed he had been playing fetch with the dogs inside

and accidentally shattered the glass pane of the fireplace, adding one more thing. He needed to clean up that weekend before his parents returned. Chandler also changed the plans that he and Kat had made, telling Kat that they could have dinner together that night, and that she could come back early the next morning instead of spending the night because he still needed to get his chores done. He never specified what the chores were, and Kat didn't ask. She knew it was a sore subject for him.

She figured he had been assigned chores by Bart and Krista and wanted to focus on spending time with him and sharing him up. Some people discussing this case online feel that Kat knew a lot more and she led on because she did a lot of work to keep tabs on Chandler's location and create alibis for herself. But I think to many people, Kat's explanations make total sense. She was able to give detectives exact times down to the minute for many things because she has a large digital footprint. She took a Snapchat photo of her dog and that's timestamp. She took a screenshot of her receipt because she had found herself without a receipt to fix an issue with

an order in the past and she wasn't going to let it happen again. She took the screenshot of Chandler's location near the Wisconsin River. And she didn't really explain this part, but it seems like she may have wanted to confront him later about saying he needed to be home only to find out that, you know, he went out without her. Maybe Kat was suspicious of Chandler, perhaps thinking he was cheating on her and wanted to use the screenshot to confront him. Chandler told Kat he would be unavailable on July 5th due to a doctor's appointment related to his fall. In reality, Chandler had no doctor's appointment that day. But, you know, the one thing I really want to kind of hone in on here is that in any case, the principal players

are going to be looked at by, you know, armchair detectives, people, you know, on the outside looking in. And sometimes that means that people are going to be scrutinized when they really had nothing to do with what ultimately happened. So you have some people looking at these actions by cat, you know, taking a picture of the receipt, you know, some of these things that maybe a lot of us don't do as potentially, creating an alibi. But her explanations for these things seem valid to me. If you had an issue where you needed a receipt and didn't have it, well, maybe in the future you start taking pictures of them for certain items because you know you're going to lose it and you want to have a backup. I do that all the time, but the way. So I've had issues in the past. And now anytime I do like an online transaction and take a screenshot of it just so I know, okay, I've got proof here of when this order

was placed with the order number, was that kind of thing. Obviously, I don't think it's ever going to come up in some kind of investigation, but in this case, you know, Kat had done something that later on helped police out immensely. But also made her look to some as though she was trying to, you know, cover her tracks when in reality, I don't think that's the case at all. On July 15, 2021, Chandler was officially charged with the murder of his father, Barrett Halderson. On August 25th, he was charged with the murder of his mother, Krista. In September 2021, he pleaded not guilty and went to trial just four months later. For nine days, the prosecution presented witnesses.

Immediately after the state rested their case, the defense rested without presenting any witness testimony. They relied only on their opening and closing statements, hoping the jury would not believe the evidence presented. to them by the state. On January 20, 22, after a jury deliberated for just two hours, Chandler-Halderson was found guilty on all eight charges. Two counts of murder, two counts of mutilating a corpse, two counts of hiding a corpse, and two counts of false reporting. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders, as well as seven years and six months for the charges of mutilating a corpse, seven years and six months for the charges of hiding a corpse and an additional three years for reporting false information, all to be served concurrently.

At his sentencing hearing, he used his opportunity to speak to announce that he would appeal the verdict and asked any attorneys listening to take on his case. In April 2023, two of the convictions against Chandler Holderson were vacated. It turned out that under the law, you can only convict someone of hiding a corpse if you can't prove they mutilated a corpse. Basically, to mutilate a corpse, you're also hiding it, so you can't be charged with both. It should have been an or charge, and the jury should not have had the option to find him guilty on both at the same time.

Despite vacating the two charges for hiding a corpse, Chandler remained guilty on all of the six other more serious charges, and the life sentence without the possibility of parole remained. He's still in custody at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin. So, you know, to me, these were all set to be served concurrently. So vacating those two doesn't seem to be that big a deal. This Wapun, though, isn't that where the guy from making a murderer was? Yeah, I think he was. That sounds familiar.

It seems we know the why in this case, the motive. Chandler didn't kill his parents for. financial gain. It wasn't in the heat of an argument. He wasn't high on drugs at the time. He simply wanted to avoid them learning the truth about his lies. It seems possible that Chandler didn't expect Daniel Kroninger to notice that his mom was missing so quickly. And he definitely didn't think he would push him to file a missing person's report so soon. His girlfriend, Kat, also urged him to follow missing persons report. Had Chandler had the proper time to clean up all the clues that pointed to him to get his story straight, could he have gotten away with his parents' murder?

it's possible, but he didn't get away. And now he'll have the rest of his life to think about what he's done. And I always wonder in these cases, yes, these people are going to spend presumably the rest of their life in prison. They have all the time in the world to think about what they did, but do they, will they? Do they have remorse? Is it something that weighs on them when their head hits the

pillow at night, is it the first thing they think about when they wake up in the morning? Or do they not think about it at all? I always wonder that, and I know it varies from person to person. I do think there are a lot of killers who just genuinely have no remorse whatsoever for any of the horrible things that they've done. I'm not sure that's the case here with Chandler Holderson. We're not talking about a serial killer. We're not talking about, you know, a person who had 15, 20, 30 years worth of victims.

Obviously, what he did was horrible. And to me, the reason why he killed his parents is just mind-blowing. Because he didn't want his lies to be exposed. And his lies were what? The fact that he wasn't really attending school. he really didn't have, you know, this great job lined up. Kids and young adults lie about things. You know, older people lie too. But you know what I'm saying more. We've all experienced our kids lying to us. It's just a part of life. This to me is not the end of the world type stuff. But obviously, to change.

Handler, it must have felt like it was for him to take, you know, such a drastic step to murder his parents. He must have thought that this was kind of the end of everything if they found out. Yeah, it almost seems like he was a child, just not thinking things through, not thinking about consequences, thinking that this was a much bigger issue than it was. I mean, we mentioned his parents would be disappointed. They'd have to be. have to help him get right on the right track, but most parents are going to support their kids through, you know, bad times and mistakes and help them get on the right path. And from people that knew his parents, they said that they would have stood by him and helped him get back

on track. So to not think about his actions ahead of time and what he was doing, it just seems very, it seems almost child like that's something that wasn't thought through, something we would see more than a younger person, but he was obviously an adult. And as far as remorse, that's one thing that really hasn't been reported in this case. There's not instances of him regretting things and saying, I wish this didn't happen and, you know, reflecting on it and saying, oh my gosh, what did I do? We don't see that. So I wonder if there is any remorse there, or if, you know, maybe in the time that he's behind bars, will there be in the future? And maybe there is, but he hasn't given an interview about it.

Who knows? You know, it's hard to tell. I think what is definite to me, you know, as we wrap this case up, to kill your parents is unimaginable. So no matter what the reason is, it's really tough. But the reasons in this case, they just leave me scratching my head because I get it. You lied about some stuff. You told people, you know, you were better off than what you were or you were doing things

that you weren't doing. You were puffing yourself up to make yourself look better than what you really were. But when you boil it all down, it just seems so trivial. You know, it's not like he had killed a bunch of people. He was a serial killer and he was afraid that his parents were going to find out. He had lied about school and he had lied about a job. and possibly, you know, some injuries that he had in connection with the other lies that he had told. In the grand scheme of things, it seems like such small stuff compared to the murder of your parents.

But in his mind, I have to believe that to him, it was like the end of the world. He had to have thought that in order to take this drastic step. of making the decision to kill his parents before they found out. Yeah, and the one thing I think of at the end of all this is whether his parents saw it coming, because that's got to be frightening to think about, you know, his parents seeing him coming at them with a gun. What are they thinking to see a child that you brought into the world is about to do this to you? It's got to be a horrifying thing to witness if they did.

And we don't know if they, you know, the detail. of whether they were killed when they weren't looking if he shot them and they never saw it coming, but it's frightening to think that they did see it coming and who was responsible. Yeah, that is a frightening thought. But that's it for our episode on Chandler Holderson. It's just, just tragic. Absolutely tragic. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, give us a rating, leave a review.

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But Morp and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike. And Morf. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.