Every Town - The Halderson Case: Unraveling The Mystery Behind The Tragic End

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

For all of us Life has its ups and downs …when things are off it can feel like we’ll never get back on track again…. and when everything is hunky dory, it’s inevitable that at some point a problem will arise. But we never know when and we never know how bad it will be…For Bart and Krista Halderson, things went from great to terrible real fast and it happened from an unexpected source...💥 Watch On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries🎧 Our Other Podcast: https://scarymysteries.buzzsprout.com💥 Exclusive Podcasts: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579/subscribe 💀 Follow Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 💀 Follow Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg👁 Follow Our TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald💥 Follow Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial🗣 Business Inquiries: [e-mail] Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine, because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between. With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime. Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every town has a dark side. For all of us, life has its ups and downs. When things are off, it can feel like we'll never get back on track again. When everything's hunky-dory, it's inevitable that at some point a problem will arise. But we never know when, and we never know how bad it will be. For Bart and Krista Halterson, things went from great to terrible real fast, and it happened from an unexpected source. I'm Andrew, and welcome to this week's episode of Everytown Guys, where we're headed to the Midwest for this one, Windsor, Wisconsin, to dive into a very strange murder mystery.

A happy and successful family, a cabin in the woods, missing parents and Snapchat all play a part. So, let's get to know the Halderson's. In 2021, the Halderson couple had a lot to be thankful for. 50-year-old Bart and 53-year-old Kristo were childhoodsweighards living a nice, quiet life in Wisconsin. And they got married in July of 1994. They eventually settled down in Windsor, where they raised their two sons. 24-year-old Mitchell, who worked in tech, and 23-year-old Chandler, who was finishing his IT degree while still living with his folks. Bart himself worked as an accountant, and Krista was an administrative assistant for an automotive company.

The couple was active in their communities, supporting multiple organizations and local businesses. One of their favorite things to do was attend local football games. So by all accounts, the beloved couple was living the dream in Windsor and life was good. During the summer of that year, youngest brother Chandler was working at the family home for an insurance company. It was the pandemic, so he was working remotely and was applying for other jobs looking, looking, for some new opportunities. He had a serious girlfriend of two years, Kat Melander, Anne was ready to get his own place with her

and really started living his own life. So when he was offered a job at Space X, he was beyond excited, and his parents, of course, were too. Their youngest would be working for the richest man in the world at a prestigious company. One more could two loving parents ask for. This job is down in Florida, so Kat and Chandler were making plans for the move,

until a terrible accident happened. Chandler slipped and fell down a flight of stairs, he was seriously injured. He had a brain bleed, hematoma, and spinal damage. It was severe enough where he needed a neck brace, but even worse, he had nerve damage that affected his legs, making him unable to drive or fly, and so the dream of moving down to Florida had to be put on hold.

And Chandler had to pass on that job at SpaceX and spend time recuperating at home being cared for. As devoted parents, on July 2, 2021, Krista didn't show up for work at the auto company, which was very unlike her. But the fact that she didn't call in was a bit worrisome. Daniel Kroninger was her friend and coworker called her several times, but she never picked up. He knew her son was having to recover, but what if something had happened to her and she needed help? He went over to the Haltersons to do a welfare check, through the garage window,

he could see two cars in there. Recalling what happened next, Daniel said, I was starting to go around the back of the house, and then Chandler came out beside door, and he came out in a towel saying, oh, I just got out of the shower, what's going on? I told him, we're just looking for Bart and Krista. And he said, oh yeah?

They went, had to go up north this morning for an emergency up at the cabin. Chandler further said, yeah, they don't have very good service up there, so you kind of have to wait till the clouds clear before they get a message. Chandler continued on that his folks had left the day before to spend the July 4th weekend at their cabin in the northern part of Wisconsin. And while it was out of character for Krista, not to tell work, she wasn't coming in. It wasn't the weirdest thing to ever happen. Maybe she planned a call on the way up and lost her phone or, like her son said. said, just didn't have service. Daniel was of course relieved that there haven't been an accident at the home. Over the holiday weekend, he kept in touch with Chandler to see if he had heard from

his parents. On that Sunday, July 4th, Chandler called Daniel, saying that he was bored and needing something to do. The family friend invited him over to watch the fireworks. While there, Chandler mentioned that he talked to both Bard and Krista that they'd be back on Monday. But come that Monday. Guess who didn't show up for work again? In Tuesday, Krista was a no-show. By Wednesday, when there was still no word, Daniel knew something was wrong. But he pushed Chandler to file a missing persons report that morning, so that's what he did. The Dane County Sheriff's Office put Brian Schunk and Detective Sabrina Sims on the case. They started at the Halterson's primary home on Oak Spring Circle Drive.

And there they met up with Chandler, who took them around. He showed them where luggage and clothes would have been, things that were missing since they were with his parents up at the cabin. In regards to both their cars being there, he said it was another couple who had picked them up. He thought they were friends of theirs from work because he didn't really recognize him. Officers began interviewing neighbors and friends

to see if maybe they had heard from them or were told what their plans were. Christ's first cousin Barbie Townsend, California, knew only what she had heard in the news. A Chandler had filed a missing person's report. Neither Bart nor Christie had mentioned anything to their co-workers about going to the cabin. Mitchell, their oldest son, hadn't been told anything, which was odd as well. This was a strange and time-sensitive situation. Clearly something was wrong, but what happened?

Barbie started a fear that maybe Bart and Krista were being held haunted, Or maybe they veered off the road on the way to the cabin. But they needed to search up there for sure. So Mitchell and his fiancé, along with deputies and the Langlade County Sheriff's Office, drove the three hours north to see if they could find any sign of the two. When they finally got up to the cabin, there was no sign of anybody anywhere. There was no friend's car, no luggage. In fact, it didn't look like anyone had been there for a while.

It wasn't a single light on as if they hadn't even opened it up. up for the summer. They checked the shed, but the canoe was there, so they weren't out on the water, so it was all very strange. Back at home, Chandler was playing the good son. It was combing, the neighborhood, talking with everyone he could, asking if they had seen or heard anything. Later on that day, he talked with several reporters, one of which was Adam Duxter, who showed up to the Halterson residence asking Chandler for an interview to which he agreed. Only he didn't want to be videotaped, but said it was okay if they recorded it on audio. In that interview, Chandler explained that the last message he got from his parents was that they were going to White Lake for the 4th of

July. Other than that, their plan at least as far as he could tell would be to hang out at the cabin. Something wasn't adding up, though, and the last person to be with them was Chandler and so investigators needed to know more about this young man. The authorities got in touch with Alex grab it. Chandler's good friend since childhood. Alex knew a lot about Chandler and his family, as well as a lot of details about the relationship he had with his girlfriend, Kat. The Chandler had cheated on her, and ever since then, she tracked his movement using Snapchat to see where he was at all times. Cat allowed investigators to download data from her phone. They found that early on July 3rd, Kat had opened the app because it alerted her that Chandler was at one

his favorite places to swim near the Wisconsin River. Only, he was there during the dead of night. Cat thought maybe he had taken another girl out there, so she took a screenshot of it to confront him later. Snapchat now plays Chandler at that location during the time his parents were missing. The authorities headed out there unsure exactly of what to expect. As they scoured the area, they discovered human remains.

They would later be examined and then discovered to belong to Krista. Chandler was brought in for questioning. News outlets covering the story, had his face plastered all across the local news stations. That's when a farmer who lived about 20 miles away from the Haldersons then called the police to report that she had seen the young man on her property.

She remembered him because of how strange it was to see him walking out from her woods along her property line. She wondered what he must have been doing there. When police sat out and searched the area, there they found a torso. They'd been shot twice in the back, and after a few days, it was confirmed to belong to Bart. And Chandler was quickly charged with the murder of his parents.

He was also charged with dismembering them and falsely reporting a missing person. But the big question was, why? Why would his son from a good family just kill his loving mother and father? Well, it all came down to a whole bunch of lies. In January of 2022, Chandler's trial began. Prosecutors presented evidence that he had flunked out of college, but never told his parents. Also, he never seemed to have any money as corroborated by those who knew him despite living at home, not paying rent, and having a full-time job. Well, that job, as it turns out, at the insurance company, wasn't real.

In SpaceX calling? Not a chance. It was all made up. Even his injury he sustained falling down the stairs was faked and exaggerated, just so he wouldn't have to move. Lie after lie, they built up the pressure on Chandler. The prosecutor said that on the day Chandler murdered his parents, his father had scheduled a meeting for the two of them to meet at the college he claimed he was attending. Prosecutors also showed in court a video from the neighbor's security camera captured on the day they believe Bart and Crystal were killed. In it, you could see a flickering light coming from one of the windows in the Halterson home. They said the flickering light was from the Halterson's fireplace, but why would someone be using that in the middle of summer?

A forensics expert then testified to finding more than 200 human bone fragments mixed in with the ashes of that fireplace. Chandler's defense team argued there simply wasn't enough hard evidence to prove their case. They claimed no one really knew what happened inside the home or how. how Bart and Krista were killed. However, after just a two-hour deliberation, the jury came back into the courtroom with a guilty verdict, and Chandler was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He does have a new lawyer and plans to appeal, but there's no telling when exactly that will happen, if ever. And Paraside is one of the more stranger things that can

occur in the world of true crime. And the very child, the parent brought into this world, then takes them out. It's understandable under abusive circumstances, but when the parents are caring, like Bart and Krista were, it's hard to comprehend. You have to wonder what was going through Chandler's head when instead of just telling them the truth about his college career and his jobs, he chose instead to commit murder. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Hope you guys liked it. Go check out this episode in video form over on our YouTube channel called scary mysteries. And for more podcasts from us, check out the Scary Mysteries podcast. Thanks for tuning in today. And remember to come back next week for another episode filled

with scary, strange, and mysterious stories. Because you never know. Maybe your town will be next. Convierte your passion in a business with Shopify and bathe records of with the way of the form of the market with the

world. Has I've heard good. The best conversion of the

world. The incredible system of free and the website

on your website, in the social and in whatever that that's

music for your music for your good, you know,

your period of product for a year for a

year at bar records.