Road Map to Murder

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There's office, make yourselves going. No, we're just on cross-base. This is a dark, creepy space you've got to be ready for anything. Absolutely. The clock was taking, we needed to find them.

The steepest stairs have ever seen. All their sins are gone. They're missing. What do you mean, I'm missing? I can't even comprehend what that means. The story is, a couple came and picked them up and took them to the cabin.

And nobody knew who that couple was. There was a concern that Barton Christa had been kidnapped. By this couple that picked him up early that morning. There were all these questions for each answer. You get there 17 more questions.

What's going on in the household? You know, what aren't we discovering? This case really highlighted how social media tracks everything.

And that became so crucial.

It was like, "Hey, where are you at?" Like, you're not responding to me on Snapchat. You've got to get to that cabin. Right now to figure out what happened. The mind goes to did the worst happen.

So what happens next? He kind of had the craziest phone call that I had in my law enforcement career. He couldn't say much, but I should probably watch the news the next day. Holy shit. I don't really have words for it to be honest.

[music] Fourth of July. It's a day when people come together to celebrate our independence and the spirit of America.

“And that's what you'll see in Madison, Wisconsin.”

Fourth of July celebrations have been going on all weekend. But of course, Americans are going all out today. The lakes are really core to the identity of Madison. Just being around water, being around nature is really big to a lot of people here. [music]

Madison is Wisconsin's gorgeous capital city. Built on a strip of land connecting Lake's Manona and Mendoza. Generations of families have come here to lay roots. But as residents of a small town, just north of here would come to know. Secrets, lies, and betrayal don't stop at these shores.

[music] Barton Crystal Halderson lived in a community called Windsor, just north of Madison. Everyone who knew the Halderson's loved them. Who used to have a horseshoe league.

Barton Crystal were on a horseshoe team. We competed against them two, three times a year. And just being neighbors, they were just people at ran into all the time. Absolutely, salt to the earth people were Barton Crystal.

Their house always looked good.

It was well manicured, it was well molded. It was always taken care of. There were competitions in the neighborhood about who had the best lawn and who cared the most about their yards and Barton cared about his yard. Crystal isn't administrative assistant for a local auto shop

and Barton is an accountant. Barton Crystal, they weren't rich, but they were comfortable. Yeah, they were just regular people trying to do their best. [music] She was the youngest cousin, right right here.

She was the baby of the family. Barbie Townsend grew up in Southern California, but would often visit her younger cousin, Crystal, the family's rustic cabin in northern Wisconsin. Crystal was fun, energetic, creative. She just was very exuberant, very outgoing.

Happy person, it's very happy. Yeah, loved her lot in life.

“And now you've got to know Bart a little bit later, but what was he like?”

I was happy for her that she found her person. And they were a really good team. They complimented each other. Definitely, definitely. You know, he would have his strengths and she would have her strengths,

but they always worked together.

Barbie told me that nothing matters more to Crystal and Bart than their two sons, Mitchell and Chandler. They poured themselves into their children. They did family nights, game nights.

In Frank, 2021, Crystal had sent a picture of them all standing together.

She was so proud of them.

“Mitchell had been with his girlfriend at that time about seven years,”

and Chandler had been with Kat maybe two years on and off. Mitchell, the oldest works in IT and he lives with his fiance, not far from his parents home. And Chandler and Eagle Scout is a young man on the rise. He's working part-time for an insurance company,

living at home while finishing his college degree. And that's not all. Chandler had told his family about this great job opportunity he had been given with SpaceX. He would move to Florida.

And actually, he would bring his girlfriend with him. Everything was going well for everyone. I don't know any family who wouldn't want to be in the situation. The Haldersense were in.

But in June of 2021, the Haldersense Good Fortune takes a turn.

Their eldest son, Mitchell, was diagnosed with diabetes. And then right after that, their younger son Chandler fell down the flight of stairs at the Haldersense home. He was taken to the hospital.

“And he was diagnosed with a head injury.”

In that picture, on Father's Day of 2021, standing next to Bart, he's got the brace on. His neck was injured. It was going to affect his ability to walk. He might have it claws to me bag.

He couldn't fly. So he couldn't go back to Florida for the job. Like his whole life was going to change because he had this fall. I know once he was in that neck brace, his job situation with SpaceX was kind of pushed on the back burner.

It seemed like he would not be able to take the job at SpaceX. He wouldn't be able to help around the house. He wasn't even able to walk properly. And after that, Chandler required help. His mother would assist him going up and down stairs, would bring him meals.

Although Krista doted on her sons in their time of need, she rarely missed a day of work. So on Friday morning July 2nd, when she fails to show up at her job, co-workers are concerned.

Krista was one of these people who was always at work.

And she always let people know what her plans were. It's a Friday right before the 4th of July holiday, but she hadn't asked off. She hadn't told anyone. She wasn't going to be there.

It was really unusual for her to not show up for work. She'd never done it before. She wasn't answering her phone. The coworker decided to go over to the house and make sure she was okay.

When he looked in the garage, both of the Halderson's cars were there. The Halderson's aren't here. The cars are here. We're the Halderson's.

Now, the Halderson's have a family cab, and they love to go to one weekend. And initially, there's some speculation that this is where Bart and Krista are, but none of the neighbors saw them leave.

As far as we know, no one saw the Halderson's that day. They told their neighbors when they were going up to the cabin, who they were going to be with, where they were going to be. So for there to be so many unknowns about what happened

that weekend was a little unusual. And when Krista fails to make a medical appointment on Monday, it really raises red flags. She was recovering from some skin cancer

“and so this was an important appointment for her.”

Is it like her to just miss that appointment or not tell anybody she was going to do? Krista's not the person that would just not show up. Everyone who knows her says she wouldn't have missed that appointment. She was planning to be there, and then she wasn't.

And that's when people really start to get concerned because no one knows where Bart and Krista are. All of the sudden, my wife comes in the bedroom. She says the Halderson's are gone. They're missing. My mind went to the bad spot like that is not right.

It was just kind of disturbing for somebody that I know that well to suddenly be gone. What's going to your mind? Something's really wrong. I don't know what and why and how but something's really well.

The strange disappearance of Bart and Krista Halderson is a mystery captivating local Wisconsiners. We're rolling down. Including a pair of podcasters. I'm Jill.

And I'm Richard. And we do the true crime veripodcast. We're very fascinated with true crime. And just loved to really figure out what's going on behind the scenes. Ready?

So you know we've been talking more and more about these cases.

Mixes suds.

“We pick a beer from the area the crime occurred.”

Which sleuthy. Today we're covering a case from Wisconsin. And have I got a beer for you? I feel like it brings together the personality of the city where the crime happened.

Bart and Krista Halderson. They are just everybody's neighbor. Everybody's family member. Just working hard. Trying to take care of their children.

Trying to provide the best for their family. Bart and Krista just loved the fourth of July.

You can always catch them at the parade.

It was probably their favorite holiday. But that weekend in July 2021. Strangely, the couple are nowhere to be found. Bart and Krista had not told anyone that they had a plan to go away for 4th of July weekend.

There's no explanation. 4th coming is to why they're not there. So the only time people heard from Bart and Krista over the 4th of July weekend was when Krista texted Chandler on July 4th. The text who are sung Chandler says they arrived at the family cabin 3 hours north.

It read made it safely. Love you lots. Their friends learned that she had reached out to him. Which made sense. She was a mom who talked to her kids all the time.

This is where we hung out and collected rocks and played games. So this is early on. It's my dad. And that's the cabin in the background. And that's Krista, right?

This is Krista. This is Krista.

I can always tell Krista by that shock of red hair.

Shock, I mean fiery red hair. And she was the youngest. The cabin has been in Barbie and Krista's family since the 1940s. But it was built by their grandfather. That was like the heart and soul of our extended family.

The cabin was our way to get back together and be together. There was no phone, no indoor plumbing. Very rustic. Sounds like this was a place where you and Krista really bonded. The cabin was where we would reunite.

Chandler had told family members. He knew his parents were going to the cabin for the weekend. But he was expecting them home by Tuesday the 6th. Now Tuesday's coming gone. And the couple seems to have vanished.

How did you learn that Barton Krista were missing? I got an email from my cousin that said, "Please pray, Barton Krista are missing."

“And I remember thinking, "What do you mean they're missing?”

I can't even comprehend what that means." And so we started calling cousins, you know, like, "What's happening?" On July 7th, six days after Barton Krista were last seen, Chandler heads the day in County Sheriff's office to report his parents' missing. Chandler says, "I haven't seen my parents.

We need to start looking for them." Detective Sabrina Sims and Brian Shunk will lead the investigation. And they meet with Chandler later that day at the Hulderson home in Windsor. At that point, you're here just trying to figure out what happened. Yeah, just to ask more follow-up questions and trying to get the timeline of events.

His parents left around 5 a.m.

Basically left without a peep.

For everything that you knew about Barton Krista. Was that the kind of thing they'd do? No, we were learning from friends and family that that's completely out of character for them to not tell people where they were going. Chandler tells detectives that his parents plan to fix a water pump

and a fire pit up at the cabin. And then both were damaged in a recent storm. So he says he helped them pack supplies, including a pipe wrench, a hatchet, and gas cans for a chainsaw. He also said that they brought alcohol and cash with them.

He mentioned they were maybe going to a casino to go gambling. We learned that it's out of character for them to go gambling and that the Hulderson's, especially Barton, was pretty frugal with his money. When investigators inspect the Hulderson home, they see both Bart and Krista's cars are still in the garage.

Both their cars are still there. What's going on with that? Chandler says, well, they went with this other couple. I don't know who they are, but they took the other couple's car. Chandler tells detectives that his parents left in an unknown vehicle

and when detectives review neighbor's home security cameras, they spot a white van driving down the Hulderson street. In the early morning hours on Friday, July 2,

“could this van be the vehicle driven by that mystery couple?”

We were looking for a van. It was an unknown vehicle, and then we saw it on surveillance camera. Hoping he might know who the couple is, investigators speak to Chandler's older brother Mitchell, who lives close by. But he says as far as he knows, none of his parents' friends went with them to the cabin.

Nobody knew who that couple was.

I mean, for them to drive up to the cabin with somebody that nobody even knew who they were, that was very odd. Where's the other couple? That was the other thing. Where's the other couple?

Because no one's heard from them, whoever they are. They're gone. The cars are here. What are you thinking?

“I think at that point we decided we need to send a team up to the cabin.”

You've got to get to that cabin right now to figure out what happened. Yeah. I have to imagine your mind starts going at terrible places. Yeah, your mind starts thinking all kinds of things.

And when investigators finally reach the cabin in the woods?

They're supposed to make themselves known. What or who will be lurking in the shadows? What's called cross-base? I'm Bill Kalner. I'm a member of the Wolf River Fire Department and Rescue in Lang Lake County,

Northeast Wisconsin. With all the recreation we've got here and we've got a big area. People do get turned around, they go missing. And then that's usually then when we get called out. The Wolf River area is really a nice area.

Very lightly populated, but we've got a lot of great recreation. We've got the Wolf River, a very popular fishing stream. Lots of recreational opportunities.

“We've got the ramparts on the river, go up to class three.”

We've got heavily-witted area. Much of our township is in the Shwamagan Nicolay National Forest. And Wolf River is the area where Barton Christal Alderson had their family cabin. And where they were supposed to spend the 4th of July weekend. It's a beautiful place, but it can be a dangerous place, like anywhere,

that's completely natural and completely wild. There are pitfalls to that. A river can easily become someplace you drown. The woods can easily become someplace you're lost. And so it's not unheard of for people to go missing in this area.

Now back in July of 21, our trip got a call from one of the Langley County deputies. And said that we may be needed. Cell service isn't fantastic out here either.

Whether always seems to change, but crime never does.

I'm Detective Sergeant Grows of Langley. I received a call to assist the day in County Sheriff's office with a search of the holders and cabin. As an investigator, I was assigned a body camera, which was activated. When we arrived at the property. What's your relation?

You're there, son. Okay. All right. So this footage we're looking at here. It's recorded by your body camera.

That's correct. Okay. And who are you speaking to here?

“This was Mitchell Holderson and his fiance.”

One week after his parents mysteriously vanished. Mitchell tells investigators that he's so concerned about his parents' well-being. That he and his fiance make the three-hour drive north to the cabin. They seem concerned and also as perplexed as we were of old Barton Christal. Holderson's whereabouts.

Maybe we could just take a walk around and see you. So at that point, we took a walk around the exterior of the property. We noticed that the grass and the weeds had not been kept up. In some places it was waste or even chest-high. But it looked like the cabin had been used.

It certainly didn't look like it had been used any time recently. They start walking around. And everything still locked up. The grass is really tall.

It's first struck me when they were walking.

That's like that's our cabin. That's our family cabin. Was there a sense of urgency at this point? With the information we had and things not really making sense, our possibilities were googling it.

I was starting to just wonder what we were going to find next. But I was worried they were going to be inside. That's what I thought. Something went horribly wrong. Yeah, that was very disturbing.

Fairstop is anybody inside? There was a concern that Barton Christa had been kidnapped. By this couple that picked him up early that morning, and something had been done to them by them. Now it's present to make yourselves known.

I think the police were very concerned that they were going to find two dead people there. But once inside, despite everyone's worst fears, the cabin appears empty to police. It was dark so you could tell nobody had been there for a while.

Every single indication shows that this cabin has been empty. The steepest stairs have ever seen.

he spots a door to the cellar.

So right about here, you draw your gun. Why?

“Yeah, whenever we go into an unknown space,”

that's something that we would do just in our own safety. So for an outside of this is a dark creepy space. You gotta be ready for anything. Absolutely. But nothing there either.

Nobody inside and nothing looks like it's disturbed. So after searching the cabin, investigators make their way down to the lake to check on the shed. Just all these out buildings, boat houses and sheds and all these little tiny buildings

that could offer places for people to be. My thought was a crystal was in being held at one of those. That's what I thought. It was really concerned that they might have been held captive in a place like this or an held against their will.

Well, with the padlocks on the outside, it is something that we definitely considered. They break the padlock on the boat house. A Barton crystal, nowhere to be found. I don't know what ton of details about everything

that's gone on. You're filming Mitchell. What are you hearing from him at this point? Mitchell seemed concerned. And I feel as we went further into the search

and we weren't finding any signs of Barton crystal. His concern became more and more greater than the search for property. He said his brother texted them that they didn't make it safely. I don't like reading back for his stuff.

They just said, "We're going out north."

“So at this point, for you, is this a mystery, right?”

This is definitely a mystery. We don't know who Barton crystal are believed to be with. There are no signs of Barton crystal being at this property. Do you know where did they have any theories? Might as long that they're traveling.

I don't have to think that they came up to someone else's service but I don't think so. Really nowhere for us to even suggest looking next at this point. We didn't have anywhere to go. We didn't have a name.

We didn't have a vehicle. We didn't have a location. Truly looking for a needle in a 900 square mile high stack. And then the question is, "Okay, if they're not at the cabin, where are they?"

There were no bodies, there was no anything. So we didn't know what happened, but of course, your mind goes to did the worst happen. Our Barton crystal still alive. As investigators of volunteers prepare to scour the county

and search for the missing couple, news is spreading about Barton crystal's disappearance. We have seen Carver John these breaking developments. Barton Haller sent in his wife, Chris, they have not been seen since July 1.

What happened next? He had the craziest phone call that I had in my law enforcement career. He said that our services were really no longer needed at that point. And then said that he couldn't say much, but I should probably watch the news the next day.

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My wife is pretty shook up too.

I mean, they're very nice couple, very nice family. It's been a week since Barton Christ the Haldors symbol last seen. And while Mitchell Haldors soon is up at the family cabin searching for his parents, his younger brother Chandler is back home in Windsor, canvassing the neighbors.

He's seen on the neighbor's home security camera footage obtained by investigators.

“What are you seeing on the home security footage later?”

Chandler was going around to neighbors. He would see that they had ring cameras or some type of security cameras in the outside of their homes. So he was going and asking them, you know, if they had reviewed the video footage.

Remember, one of those neighbor's home security cameras captured this mysterious white van, but it led investigators to a dead end. And yet Chandler presses on. Chandler is recorded on one ring camera,

asking a neighbor about the security system. And there's one house where they have more of a professional surveillance system on the other hand.

He's going from neighbor to neighbor,

asking them, hey, this camera I see. It does a point at the road. Does it see or drive way? What does this see? Take care of things, right?

Chandler approaches another neighbor's house, it waves to the camera. My name is Chandler Haldorson, and I live just down the road. Oh, yeah.

And there's one house where they have more of a professional surveillance system on the home. So he speaks to the woman there. If you're able to capture the road or my apartment. They discuss camera angles

and whether their camera has night vision. He discovers that one is a wide angled camera. He looks to see what part of the street that would cover.

Yeah, no, they capture anything on.

We don't know. You can see he's really slew thing, trying to uncover whatever evidence these neighbors may have. He was asking questions such as, "Can you see the road?

Can you see vehicles, drive by?" He's out trying to figure out if anything was seen on the outside of his home. At that point, you know, from when his parents went missing. He asks, could there be any footage of my parents

“being driven away early in the morning on the second?”

Do you have any footage? It would be maybe helpful to the investigation to see what kind of car picked them up, of course. One household actually told him that police had already collected the video.

The police actually came in and downloaded everything they had. So they were here. Thanks for, like, night of class last night, and downloaded all the video she's got. Chandler walks up to yet another neighbor's house

and brings their bill. The neighbor, a retired detective with the Madison Police Department, tells Chandler to meet him in the garage so that they can talk. Okay.

The neighbor says he had a gut feeling that he should record the conversation, which he would later turn over to police. Sorry, I'm almost going on. What it is.

But I was wondering if you'd do it in the camera. He's going to have it right now. Does it kick off the road? Some of those.

“Would you have any notifications from Friday morning”

to early before 6.15? Well, we can check. That's not a problem. Chandler's quest doesn't end there. Bart and Krista Halderson of Windsor had plans for the fourth.

He heads to WKW and ABC News Station in Madison, which has been broadcasting Bart and Krista's photo. At this point, Chandler, he talks to reporters. But Chandler says he's reticent to go on camera saying he fears retaliation

from whoever may have taken his parents. He thinks people might be targeting him. He says is someone out to get my family, I don't want to be on camera. But I want people to hear from me. I want people to know I'm looking for my parents.

And so he does an interview with a reporter from our station. There's some Chandler Halderson who asked to be off camera says whoever his parents were traveling with from this neighborhood were to do the driving. He says he received a text from his mother.

She got back to me. They made it safely. Their plans were going up with their friends and do some minor repairs on a cabin. Did you literally see them pulling out of the driveway

heading out? No. With the town now buzzing about the missing couple, Chandler's back at home. And he notices a different kind of activity

outside his window. Chandler sees this up check and police activity outside his house. So he calls Detective Shump to find out what's happening. That phone call was recorded.

He was asking if everything was okay. He was asking why there was so many police in his neighborhood. He was confused. I got two squads parked right outside my house. Everything alright.

And I had to explain to him

Yeah, I mean, well, they're probably doing reports.

Okay. Then he news on your hand at all.

“Have you got any phone calls, text messages?”

Yeah. Well, keep you posted if I hear anything. Yeah. Yeah. Later that night, Chandler comes voluntarily

into the Dane County Sheriff's Office. We're investigators bring him into this room and see him in this chair. So if you just want to have a seat right there, perfect.

Thank you so much. This. Sure, that's fine. He's wearing a baseball cap, sweatshirt, and a furrow brow. Yes, you know, I'm going to record stuff.

Okay. In that police interview, Chandler talks about the last meal he had with his parents on July 1st. Right before they left for the cabin. That's where they told me while they were eating it.

They were going to go with their friends. And then they said they were going to the cabin. Yeah.

The problem is we're going up north.

That's crazy. Chandler says that by the next morning,

“his parents had left never to be heard from again,”

except for that one reassuring text from his mother. Nothing else. Yeah. So that's that's fishy to me. But investigators are skeptical too.

And here's why they know something Chandler does. I can't tell you what we know. But we know you're not telling us the truth. Investigators have asked Chandler holders and to come in for an interview.

And they've also asked for his girlfriend, Catmalenzer, to come in as well. Both agreed to come in voluntarily, and they're in separate rooms, while police act on a new tip that's come to their attention.

A farmer in Cottage Grove, a town about 20 miles away from the Halderson home in Windsor, reports a suspicious sighting earlier in the week. That's when they find something that really changes this entire investigation.

One of the residents at the farm said that Chandler had come over to the house on July 5th with a vehicle and backed it up against some wooded property and saw him walking from the wooded area and found that to be unusual.

You start searching the farm. You notice something overhead. What was that? One of the detectives noticed what he believed to be turkey vultures flying around over the wooded portion.

What is a turkey vulture? Turkey vultures are large birds that feed off typically dead animals or scavengers. What is that trigger in your mind? He said that from his past professional experience,

it's kind of indicates that there's something dead in the area.

“Was this in the area or similar area where Chandler's car in the park?”

Yes, so the detectives ended up walking the path that he believed that Chandler was on. They started to look a little bit closer. They go into the woods and they see a pile that doesn't look normal.

There are a midst-matted grass investigators discover what appears to be the torso of an unidentified male body. It was determined that the individual was shot dismembered after they were killed.

Hidden inside an oil drum near the body, investigators find a pair of scissors, a saw blade, and bolt cutters. But even with this grizzly discovery, investigators will have to wait for the medical examiner

to confirm that it is indeed Bart Holerson. I mean, things at that point really changed for everybody in the case. So right there at that moment, this goes from a missing person's case to a homicide.

Yes.

But here's what else has investigators intrigued.

That farm has a link to someone very close to the Holerson's. So the farm and cottage grove, it's Chandler's girlfriend's family. They're there over a fourth of July weekend, they're celebrating. While you have Chandler,

you have Kat in another room. Oh, there's a poo bear! All right, you can play with it if you don't like it. Kat draws a smiley face on a sequin pillow and clutches a witty of the poo bear.

A detective offers Kat a cookie to help put her at ease. I can't eat well when I'm nervous. Okay. Can I move the cookie? Yeah.

Maybe steps? Sure, sure. Yeah. Please don't try to poison me. No, we're not.

So tell me about what's happening here. We just wanted to hear her side of the story as she's the one that was closest to Chandler. Yeah.

that Chandler visited the farm on the fourth of July with her.

But the next day, he returns to the farm alone, unannounced. No one really knew he was coming. He came there alone. Chandler went to farm. Because my mom's fiance let some walk in the pool

because it helps stretch out his legs. Make him feel better. Except he wasn't using the pool. Kat's mom and her fiance say they saw his car parked on the property but no sign of Chandler.

Until when they're in the pool, they look up and they see Chandler now walking. He doesn't have his shirt on.

“He comes in the pool, says hey, can I get in the pool too?”

He was supposed to be their swimming in the family pool because he needed to swim for some therapy he needed to do. He was not swimming. She saw him coming from the wooded area and found that to be unusual.

Oh, okay.

So what struck her is while he was supposed to maybe be there

to swim for his therapy, he was not swimming. Correct. What I find interesting is you ask her would anybody want to harm the holder since. Any friend or relatives that they've been having problems

with what they can think of? No. No. I just can't see someone killing them. Like, that's the thing.

Like, I thought maybe they got into a car accident like maybe the cars on the side of the road like, I even thought like maybe that happened and someone took them to the hospital and they're just Jane and John Doe.

Like, if someone killed them would have to be someone they didn't know. She seems generally like, are you kidding me? No. Not to him.

Not to him. What do you make of that? What do you make of her response to whether or not somebody would want to harm her?

“I think that she's telling an accurate story”

there, talking to friends and family members no one would want to hurt the holder since. Did you get the sense that she thought that Chandler had anything to do with this? You don't think anything to do with his mom and dad being.

I'm not hurt from him. No. I just, no. No. All my friends I've talked to are like,

no. Not Chandler. No. Like, that'd be crazy. I just don't see him killing

Miss Hermes with Holerson. Like, he had SpaceX. Like, why would he jeopardize something he, like, would dream of? I don't think she thought he had anything to do with it.

Not even suspicions. Not even maybe. Just nothing to do with it. Couldn't be Chandler. No.

Remember, detectives in that interview room haven't told Chandler about any of these discoveries they've made. But that's about to change. How does he not knowing about that human torso

“affect the way you interview him, the way you talk to him?”

Chandler, how are you doing? So the way we wanted to interview him initially was to have him lay out the story

of what he was telling us from the first night.

So, I think it's time we start talking about what happened to your parents. I think that's a truthful version. Okay. So at that point, after we let him tell his entire story,

we confront him and say that we know more than what he believes. We told him to come clean, basically not using those words, and we told him to tell us the truth.

Listen to me. This is only Chandler going to have to tell us the truth. Okay. That's when investigators lower the boot on Chandler. This is your chance to tell us why.

Okay. I'm not BSN yet. Okay. So can we do that? Now, it's time for the really hard questions.

There's still another half of this couple that's missing. If this turns out to be Bart's body, where is Christa Holders? So, your mind starts thinking, well, what about Christa?

You know, where is she? What happened to her? No one's seen Christa. No one knows where Christa is, but they also haven't found a body.

So, the question is, is Christa still alive? If she is where is she? And this all leads some to be asking, is Chandler covering up for his mom? Could she have had something to do with Bart's disappearance?

This wasn't a normal disappearance. This wasn't a normal homicide. Every new detail made the case stranger. The human remains found Thursday are connected

a Holderson, and Christa Holderson. You have search teams up there. You have dogs. So, now, where is Christa? Could it be that she was also involved in Bart's murder?

Is she going to be held hostage as she being tortured?

“Time is of the essence. You have to find Christa.”

Yes.

This second time with the search warrant,

we have crime scene investigators that are in the home going through everything. We're in the basement. What did you find down here? Down here, we found traces of blood on both sides of the basement.

I don't really have words for it to be honest. I just don't know how somebody could do that to somebody else. Some cameras all around, and know that Bart went into that home, and never came out. Everything seems so evil.

Chilling. Unbelievable. It's July 8th in Madison, Wisconsin. It's been a week since Bart and Christa Holderson were last seen.

It can really feel warm there in the summer,

even when you're not under the microscopic lens of the police. Bart and Christa Holderson's youngest son, Chandler, is being interviewed by police. But he hasn't yet been charged in their disappearance. Now, police are playing coy with him.

They haven't yet revealed the discovery of a body at that farm in Cottage Grove. Listen, I can't tell you what we know, but we know you're not telling this to sure. We know your parents are no longer with us. Okay, and we know the reason why.

So far, nothing Chandler's told police has paned out. He told them, and everyone else, his parents went up to the cabin for the fourth of July weekend with some other couple, and nobody knows who they are. A search of the cabin clearly showed no one recently had been there.

“You need to tell the truth about what happened,”

and just tell us why it happened. Okay, if something happened, if you were defending yourself, or if you just fed up with stuff, you need to tell us the truth. Okay, this is your chance to tell us why. Okay, I'm not BSN, yeah.

Okay, so can we do that? Okay, okay, I don't know where. All right, saving the channel, lawyer. Okay. Chandler asking for a lawyer effectively ends the interview on the spot.

Tell me what you're taking from all this as trained investigators who have to question people like this.

The first thing that really stood out in my mind

is when Detective Henderson told Chandler that his parents are no longer with us. We know your parents are no longer with us. Okay, and we know the reason why.

“When the huge shock reaction that I believe most people”

would display. At this point, Chandler's not charged with murder, but he is charged with something else. Tell me about that. Yeah, Chandler was charged with providing false information

in a missing person's case. He was telling us that his parents had gone to a cabin of north when in all reality we found that his parents didn't go anywhere at all. Their son Chandler was arrested Thursday for allegedly providing false information

to investigators. Four days after Chandler's arrest, the autopsy results on the remains found at the farm come back. The Dean County Medical Examiner confirms the human remains found last Thursday

are those of 50-year-old Bart Holderson, a preliminary autopsy indicates he was murdered. It was determined that the individual was shot, dismembered after they were killed, and was positively identified as Bart Holderson.

Okay, so what did you think when you got those results back? It confirmed our suspicions of who it was, but now we had more evidence that we could charge Chandler with the homicide. When I found out that Bart was dead,

it was anger, it was, wow, this is real life. And there was just this big void of Bart being gone and no idea where Christ was. A big question remained in our mind where is Christa Holderson?

Could it be that she was also involved

in Bart's murder? There were a few people that I communicated with or maybe Christa's involved. One theory was this an incident where Christa killed her husband, but her son lives with them.

“He loves his mom, was he covering for her, was she responsible?”

There were all these questions. Again, it was one of those things. One layer gets pulled back, you get one answer, but for each answer you get there, 17 more questions.

You're asking the question of where's Christa? There was some talk in the community about perhaps maybe in some way. Once the murder charges are out there, Christa had some sort of involvement in what happened with Bart.

Did you pursue that theory? No, I mean, we did not believe that she would have anything to do with it. Of course, as time is going on and days are passing, we're learning more information about there were abouts we had surveillance video we were reviewing,

trying to get a timeline from July 1st to July 7. And so what we were learning did not suggest that Christa had any involvement at all. Because I knew Christa and I knew her personality, I knew Christa was not involved.

It seemed like something you read about, not happening to our family. Somebody else, you read about that,

“something happening somewhere else to somebody else,”

and that was happening to our family. What are you thinking about? We had this tiny little hope that she was alive somewhere. Authorities are holding out hope too, and ask the public for help to somehow find Christa alive.

We are optimistic and required stuff, where it pops, and where she's at. We will let the evidence of this investigation tell us otherwise. Perhaps the most troubling question authorities are left with. Why?

This was a loving family. Why would Chandler or anyone else for that matter? What either of the holders and dads? It didn't seem to add up. I was starting to have that like sinking feeling

in my stomach, like something went wrong in the family. I don't know what. Facing at least one murder charge, Chandler is loyal to and not talking. But someone very close to him is.

She had her cell phone back and had found something

“in her cell phone that she wanted to provide to us.”

It's from Snapchat. I don't know if you use that. And you know how Snapchat messages disappear? One of Chandler's didn't. One online predator unleashed hell on his targets.

An internet terrorist. For the young female gamers he's hunting, there's no getting away. It was unrelenting. The cops need to figure out who he is

and stop him before it's too late. How is he doing all of this? From Sony Music Entertainment and novel, this is you are next. Available now on the binge.

Search for you are next. Wherever you get your podcast, to start listening today. You know when you're locked in. Focus and fearless.

Welcome to the WNBA. Your vision narrows. You can't look away. Every assists. Every stop.

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All season long. The man accused of killing his father. Now being held in jail on a tentative charge,

a first degree intentional homicide,

hiding a corpse and mutilating a corpse. Sheriff's personnel tonight remain at the Holderson home in Windsor. Investigators are leaving no stone unturned in the search for Crystal Holderson.

But with Chandler now in custody, hope is fading fast. Every minute that passes, becomes more crucial. And there was just this big void

of Bart being gone and no idea where Crystal was. I'm hoping she's alive. A big question remained in our mind. Where's Crystal Holderson? The things are about to take a dramatic turn.

When police first spoke to Chandler's girlfriend, Kat Melender, she voluntarily gave them her cell phone. And on it, they found a vital clue to their investigation.

By the time Kat comes in for a second interview,

both she and police realized how important it can be.

She comes to the realization that she didn't tell us everything

and that she had something on her phone that could be helpful and valuable to finding the Allersons. And it wasn't something that she intentionally would help from us. Tell me what you find on Kat's cell phone.

During the review of Kat's cell phone, we found numerous clues and treasures that I don't even know she knew she had. We found all of their message history, and we also found a screenshot of a snapshot

of a location that she had had. That screenshot saved on Kat's phone, shows Chandler's avatar labeled "Hubby" on the banks of the Wisconsin River. Snapchat is a social media app,

specifically designed to share photos that disappear. Once you open a message, you'll only have a few seconds to take a screenshot before that picture is gone for good. In 2017, Snapchat added the feature Snap Map,

which also lets you share your location with friends in real time.

“And why did she have him on Snapchat in the first place?”

They had a time in their relationship where he had cheated on her. She had his location services on for Snapchat. It was an agreement they had.

She wanted to be able to know his whereabouts. With her lawyer present and her cell phone in hand, she voluntarily talks police through what she now realizes

could be critical evidence,

a technological smoking gun. It's from Snapchat. I don't know if you use that, but that's him by the Wisconsin River off of Golf Road.

Okay. And that's the time to stay on it. Okay. In the morning, and then my phone always tells me what date

is on July 30th, 5 p.m. The continued presence of sheriff's personnel at the Holderson home has become almost background for this neighborhood here. Christopher Holderson remains missing.

With the case in the news, Katner lawyer decided this information could be useful to police and to Kat. Right before Kat goes back for that second interview, we're getting updates from law enforcement

and one of those comes in the form of a press briefing. And a reporter asks,

"Is the girlfriend suspect in the sheriff didn't answer?"

And that freaked Kat out. Is there any way you guys can change the narrative to indicate that she's not the girlfriends and not a suspect in that she's not somehow somebody who's suspecting?

How early did you clear Kat Melender? Pretty early on, once we started looking at her phone and finding out other information about Chandler. But there were different investigators

in the command post that had different theories. You know, was she in the circle, was she out of the circle? And we just had to do our job

and let the evidence lead us to the conclusion and she was not involved whatsoever. Law enforcement was very clear. They don't think Kat had anything to do with these murders. Why do you think she was so eager

to offer all this information?

“I think because she wanted to clear herself.”

Why did she do a screenshot of a snap map on Chandler that time? She had left Chandler's house that morning on Saturday and he was supposed to go to do some chores

and then she later looked at his location and saw that he was up by the Wisconsin River. She goes, this is where he was

middle of the morning on Saturday after his parents were missing. He told me he was going to be doing chores at his house and then he wasn't answering

and I checked Snapchat and he's in this random area right along the river. She didn't know why he was there so she started questioning

him about his location and what he was doing there. I was like, hey, where are you at? Where are you at? Like, you're not responding to me on Snapchat and like,

we ended up calling and he just said, like, he was going to dead zone. Kat knows this area. It's a swimming hole. She's been with Chandler.

They've been that summer. How have you been to that spot? Do you know? I don't know if it's that specific spot but we used to swim on the Wisconsin River.

And like, it's one of the spots we would just go to and like, I've only been there like maybe three times but he's gone swimming there a couple times. In fact, other friends told police that was Chandler's favorite swimming spot.

A year earlier an ex-girlfriend receives this picture which he gave the police of Chandler in that area posing with a tree in a knife in his hand. This case really highlighted how social media tracks everything

“and that became so crucial in this case.”

But as enlightening as this Snapchat evidence is a treasure trove of text messages between Kat and Chandler is even more intriguing. Investigators zero in on a couple of erratic texts from Chandler the morning Barton Christ of Vanish

which sound ominous.

Stuff hasn't really been going well for me lately so I'm trying to plan for the next thing to explode of me over. Yeah, I just had a great future plan and it's falling apart.

Kat replies, "No, it's not. You're going to be okay." With suspicions of Chandler now high as ever investigators obtain a search warrant and go back to the Halverson home.

They go back to the nexus of this case, the Halverson's home and Windsor. Investigators start walking through. And if I know a lot in that house, a lot that tells us what happened.

The Dane County Sheriff's office now considers this to be a homicide investigation. That's because they found the remains of Barthalters in late last week in a rule area of the town of Katage Grove. On July 11th, a judge authorizes a search warrant

of the Halverson home and Windsor. It's where they were living with Chandler and the last place we know Bart and Christopher when investigators start walking through. Investigators are familiar with the home

as they'd been there just a few days earlier. To step back a little bit,

“this isn't the first time you've been to the house, right?”

Right. Okay, so what did you do?

The first time when you were in the house,

what did you find? When we were in the house, the first night on July 7th, Chandler did walk us around after we interviewed him and showed us what he wanted us to see around the home.

As the investigators entered the Dane on that initial search, they noticed the fireplace looked not quite right. It has a glass front, four glass panels, or they're supposed to be four, but one of them is missing.

There was a glass panel that was broken out in the fireplace and he had the skulls that to deputies and to us the first night we were in there and explained it that he was playing ball with one of the dogs and the dogs broke the glass fireplace.

And so that was his story. Dog broke a panel. There was broken glass ever. I was cleaning up. I cut my foot.

I got some blood everywhere. Chandler saying there's broken glass and there was a lot of blood, but it's not related at all to this case. It was my dogs.

And when they look at his foot, they realize it's not a huge cutting and slashed the bottom of his foot open. Looks kind of more like a pin prick. Not necessarily something that seems

like it would come from glass being all over the floor. It found his blood,

“but did that line up with what he said about cutting his foot?”

And that's why that blood was there? Well, was it that you might've gotten a sense that it was something different? It could mean that Chandler had cut his toe near the fire place, but it wouldn't explain

my Bart and Chris's blood would be in the same area.

And on that second search of the home,

Luminol testing would reveal traces of blood belonging to Bart and Chris the Halderson in the living room. Leading investigators to believe they've both been murdered. But as they continue their search, they find more ominous evidence.

During the search warrant, we did find two cell phones and Bart and Chris as drivers licensees, wrapped in tinfoil and a shoe in the garage. What does that tell you?

That told us that Bart and Chris didn't go anywhere. And how does that poke holes in what Chandler told you? Chandler told us that he was messaging back and forth with his mother, Chris the Sunday and that Chris was messaging him that they made it.

And if they were going to be watching the fireworks in the parade, we found that that was not true. How could she be texting him if her phone is sitting right there wrapped up in aluminum foil? Yes. The phone proved that Bart and Chris didn't ever left their house.

They never went to the cabin.

The only other person who was home was Chandler. Give me a sense of why they were wrapped in aluminum foil.

“I think Chandler thought that would protect them from cell phone towers.”

Detectives also did an extensive search of Chandler Halderson's bedroom, resembling something like an armory. So when Chandler is bedroom, we actually located a case of approximately 480 SKS rifle rounds. So we're in the basement now.

What did you find down here? Down here, we found traces of blood on both sides of the basement. We had the shell case in that we had located over here. There was some other blood evidence on different items down here. Okay, so you have the blood, the shell casing.

Did this tell you, along with the other evidence, where Bart and Chris still were killed?

They were killed down here.

“So you had the shell casing, you had the ammo,”

but you didn't have the murder weapon. Where was that recovered? The rifle was recovered at the farm and cottage grove. The weapon was found hidden in a barn on the farm's property. No one had any idea was there.

Chandler really liked first person shooter video games.

In in those games, you can choose what weapon you use. Any like to try a variety, you know, wasn't a single gun type person, but he liked the SKS rifle in those video games. He used it a lot. Now you have a link between the shell caseings and the ammo

and this gun at the farm. Yes. The picture that we were seeing at that point is that Chandler had murdered Bart and Chris Allerson in the home and went through extensive work

to dispose of their bodies. What was the reason for it? All in all, they were a loving family from what we were told by everybody. Those questions prosecutor's promise

are about to be answered. The lawyers will now make opening statements. I got a GPS on the phone. It's from Snapchat. I don't know if you use that.

But that's incredible as well.

I don't know if that's specific spot, but we used to swim on the sponsor river. Investigators already have the snap map from Chandler Halderson's girlfriend placing them at the Wisconsin River.

But it's a second tip of a random sight that peaks their interest. We had sent a detective up to the Wisconsin River area. One of the neighbors happened to come over to that detective and tell him that she had seen

a stranger suspect male in that area the week prior. We arranged for a larger team of detectives to go up to the area and we want to do a land search of that property. They go where Chandler was.

It's a dense, vegetative area wild state land in between, you know, a road in the river.

You have search teams up there, you have dogs.

What's going through your mind? We were hopeful that we would find something.

“Time is of the essence, you have to find Christa.”

Yes. As they're walking around, some of the people searching start to smell something. And then they walk a little bit further

and they see something. What did you find at that location? In close proximity to each other, there were dismembered body parts. The Dan County Medical Examiner's office

working in partnership with the Wisconsin State Crime Lab has confirmed the DNA obtained from part of the dismembered human remains as matching 53-year-old Christa Palderson. I was just angered.

I was shocked. Felt sick to my stomach. I mean, these are honest to goodness friends. It's just so graphic. I don't really have words for it to be honest.

I see you thinking about it and it's almost, it brings about some emotion in you. For sure. I just don't know how somebody could do that to somebody else. Especially if it's their parents, right?

We go to homicides all the time. We go to murders all the time. And a lot of that stuff is in the heat of the moment. This is just a whole, another level of emotion. The location where Christa's remains are found

seems familiar to at least one detective. And then it clicks. When he sees a unique tree trunk, the same one and that photograph given to police by Chandler's ex,

showing Chandler near his favorite swimming spot. Chandler Halderson is now officially charged in the death of both of his parents. Chandler Halderson pleads not guilty to all the charges.

Everything seems so evil. And... chilling and unbelievable. It was just uncomprehensible. Why would anybody do that?

Did he not like them?

“Was there something else that we didn't know that was going on?”

I just personally could not think of a reason why this wonderful kid did something so dastardly. From what we were told by everybody, all in all, if they were a loving family, what was the reason for it?

And just a couple of months later, prosecutors set out to answer those questions as Chandler goes to trial. Thanks, you can be seated everybody. Thank you. Good morning.

The city of Madison was constant

cocktails, and a double murder trial. Prosecutors set out to prove Chandler killed Barton Christa Halderson. And a big part of their strategy is to prove their theory as to why.

Drurries always want to understand

why someone would commit a murder. Why would you kill your parents? And if prosecutors don't explain it, it's kind of a hole in their case.

“The lawyers will now make opening statements.”

Turn you brown. Thank you. Chandler Halderson murder just parents. Just remember their bodies and hid them around southern Wisconsin. How does this happen?

How does this kid? With everything in the world going form, promising new job, school, a girlfriend that loves it, willing to move across the country form.

How does this happen?

The jury hears about Chandler Halderson's

IT degree, studies in renewable energy, a dream job at SpaceX, and a new life with his girlfriend in Florida. He was about to embark on a career that people in the IT field can only dream up.

But they also hear about what prosecutors say was a concoction, a total fabrication of the events leading up to Barton Christ's disappearance.

“He gives this bizarre story of his parents leaving”

in an unknown car going to a cabin with an unknown couple with an unknown amount of money for really an unknown reason. Attorney Darl. The defense should be demonstrating

why they say there's reasonable doubt in this case. Why, maybe he didn't do it. Chandler Halderson did not murder his parents. He is not guilty of those crimes. And he lived peacefully in his parents' home.

He was just a normal kid. The defense comes out at the beginning, opening statements, and admits their client is a liar. Chandler Halderson is a liar.

But they say that doesn't make him a killer. When someone is on trial for a very the most serious crime possible, and every little thing they do, every little lie they might have told

is blown up and thrown against someone. That's when proof beyond the reasonable doubt matters. And that's actually an excellent strategy because you want to let the jury know from the beginning all of the bad facts about your case.

And as prosecutors begin to call witnesses, there's one who has a haunting story. My name is Omar Jo, O-M-A-R-J-O-B. About a phone call he receives just before the murders.

A conversation not only revealing, but stunning. The evidence is set to match winner. The evidence is set to match winner. The evidence is set to match winner.

And the evidence is set to match winner. And the evidence is set to match winner. So, now the evidence is set to match winner. But only at 18.7. It is the one that sticks with me.

Please, zero in on a suspect, and put a man behind bars. I don't know what the hell you guys want. Do you think we'd be wasted in our time,

“and wasted in your time if we didn't think you're involved?”

But as the years pass, doubts emerge about whether the real killer was ever caught, that's when Angie's own mother embarks on a decades-long mission to uncover the truth.

Twenty-three years, I've been trying to put this puzzle together. The letters missing.

I've always been told the truth will come out.

You can't hide the truth. Listen to the snare. A new series from ABC Audio. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app,

and add free on Amazon Music. The trial continues for Chandler Holderson, who's accused of killing and dismembering his parents, Bart and Crystal Holderson. Chandler Holderson is on trial

for the murder of both his parents, and from jump, prosecutors promised the jury they'd hear the reason why. And in their opening statements, prosecutors told the jury it all started

because that promising future Chandler supposedly had was a morage. Paul to the witness stand, Omar Job, a maddest in college and Roman officer,

It's a call he says he won't soon forget. Was that call recorded? Yes.

Okay, let's do a first name.

Chandler's C-H-A-M-D-L-E-R. The last name is H-A-L-D-A-V-D-R-S-L-M. It's a normal phone call that we receive every day. This person was trying to request a transcribe. Trying to get an appointment scheduled

to meet with somebody to meet and get a copy of the transcript. On this call, Job is hearing a complaint from Chandler that for months now, he hasn't received his college transcripts. Okay, so it looks like you owe a balance.

“So that's the way that's why you can't request it.”

Hello? The jury listens as Omar Job then tries to confirm what classes Chandler has taken. You were taking IT classes, right? I don't see that you were in a program.

But prior to the IT, it was a solar program too. Yeah, but I don't see that. The IT degree is in there, right? No, those are just classes.

I found Chandler was taking classes at Madison College for a couple of semesters. And then he stopped.

But here's the thing about that phone call.

It's not at all what it appears to be. At that time, it didn't register in my mind. On the other line, it is a holdersan, but it's not Chandler. It's actually Bart holdersan pretending to be his son.

Prosecutors play it during trial. The jury got to hear what Bart sounded like as he figured out his son was lying to him.

“Bart has been trying unsuccessfully for months”

to get the transcripts from Chandler. And he was beginning to get suspicious. According to prosecutors, the phone call was a ruse by Bart to see if his son was actually enrolled in college.

And it turns out he wasn't. He failed out. Prosecutors also alleged that Chandler had set up fake email accounts and attempted to deceive his father about why his transcripts weren't coming.

Chandler was looping Bart in on some of these emails with medicine college, just trying to show Bart that this is why I'm not getting my transcripts.

But the problem is, according to detectives,

they're fake too. He acts me two people's names that walk in advising because they were trying to set up something with them. Do you know, do you have an elicit

brand that works in that area? There are anywhere in campus. You said the poster is elicit. Alissa? Yeah.

A-L-Y-S-S-A. No. Today is an elicit. Do things by still work there? No.

“Chandler had made up fake emails with fake school employees”

to email back and forth about the transcript issue. I ask you, what is the end part of every email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on?

“Do you have an email that you've been working on?”

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on?

Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Do you have an email that you've been working on? Not long after that, Chandler asked his mom to stop at the gas station and pick up soda.

Chandler's text says, "Dad's phone died."

Text her call me and get soda on your way home. I have an extra hour of work. Crystal replies, "K, I can't smiley face." That would be the last text from Crystal Holderson. As if the alleged motive wasn't already shocking enough,

there was Chandler's whole history of a debilitating head injury, which prosecutors say was also untrue. Late June early July 2021. Chandler just fallen down the stairs. He had this injury that he said could cause lifelong side effects.

By all accounts, the fall stopped Chandler's life. Prosecutors entered this photo into evidence of trial to support their theory that Chandler's fall is part of an alleged web of lies. Prosecutors call the ER doctor to dispel that move. I'm an emergency physician at the University of Wisconsin hospital in clinics.

“What, in this case, did you diagnose Mr. Holler some more?”

I believe he was diagnosed as having a mild concussion. The patient had some residual neck pain, so he was given a collar to go home with for support. The defense pushes back on the prosecution's claims cross-examining the ER doctor about Chandler's injury.

You did diagnose Chandler Holders and with a mild concussion, right? That's correct. You didn't give him a set number of days to where the collar is that right? I don't believe so, no. In that picture, on Father's Day of 2021, standing next to Bart,

he's got the brace on because he did go to the ER. That Father's Day brunch photo, which is shown to the jury by prosecutors, is just weeks before the murder. But then there's surveillance video of Chandler, the night of July 1st, out in nearby quick trip,

carrying two bags of ice. 10 pound bags of ice. But prosecutors also point out, conspicuously missing on this quick trip surveillance video, Chandler's neck brace.

And they claim it's the same story when he visits a local store. He's at Fleet Farm. Again, no neck brace. Just normal 23-year-old dude, walking into Fleet Farm, to buy a tarm.

And that tarm, prosecutors say, is part of what Chandler used to dispose of his parents' remains. The prosecution calls one last star witness. Chandler's ex-girlfriend, Kat Melender,

who testifies about the impact of sharing the snap map discovery on her phone.

“Why was it important to you to cooperate at that time?”

Because I just believed parents were missing. And I just want them to be found. And later, she recalls something else she noticed during the initial search for Barton Christo.

When you first saw in the house that day,

did you notice anything off? There was smokey smell. That smokey smell, a neighbor security camera, and a flickering light,

about to reveal another dark secret inside the home. It turns out, prosecutors say, Chandler has one more big thing to hide. It's day seven in Chandler Holderson's trial. As he stands accused of the murder of his own parents,

and what prosecutors say was a desperate attempt to conceal a secret web of lies. But what the jury hears next is some of the most disturbing evidence yet. We had a grand total of 230 bones fragmented bones

that were found again inside the fireplace on the grate, and also on the ash disposal area. So we found video footage from one of the neighbors that actually watched the backside of the house

and through a forensic analysis of that video. Our examiner was able to determine that the glow in certain windows of this home was indeed the fireplace. What was the most disturbing moment of the trial for you?

when he was trying to cremate the skulls of his parents. I almost got sick. Watching that.

“The defense didn't challenge Dr. Figaroa Soto's testimony.”

After eight days of testimony, it's the defenses term. Everyone's wondering what Chandler's case is going to be. But in a surprise move, the defense rests without calling a single witness.

Attorney Dorel will other witnesses being called this morning. No, you're on her. Watching this trial, it was so one-sided.

There were eight full days of testimony from the prosecution. They had so much evidence. The defense was the opposite. This time I will invite the state to present its closing argument.

In closing arguments, the prosecution urges the jury to look at this image of Barton Christa, likening the pieces of evidence to that of a jigsaw. The solving a case and thinking about whether or not a person is guilty or not guilty

is like putting together a puzzle. And as your job is the jury to put that puzzle together, it's not a who-done-it. We know that Barton Christa went into that home

and never came out that least as full of people.

“Attorney Dorel, would you please present the defense closing?”

Thank you. While the defense says all the state was able to prove was that Chandler's a liar, not a killer. Can't lie to their parents all the time.

Motive does not mean intense. Do you know if it was an awful accident? Do you know if it was intentional? Do you know if there was someone else involved? You don't.

And that's a problem. Just after three p.m. news breaks, the jury has reached a verdict. Breaking news in just about a little over two hours the jury has reached a verdict in the Chandler Halders in case.

When we found out that the verdict was in, it had been two hours. No one knew what was going on. People were waiting on pens and needles to figure out what that was. We the jury find the defendant Chandler M. Halderson,

guilty of first degree intentional homicide.

Chandler Halderson is found guilty on all eight charges. So what was your reaction to the verdict? I would like to say it was relief. It really wasn't because it's still sad. It's still the grotesque, everything about it.

There was some closure for the family. To me it was just unfair. In March of 2022, it sentencing Chandler breaks his silence for the first time. Your Honor, I want to take this opportunity to state my intent to appeal my convictions.

If there are any lawyers listening and willing to take on my appeal, take a moment to please reach out to me. It's not that I do not have feelings. It's that I was warned to not show them due to the scrutiny of this case.

Thank you. No remorse, no empathy, no love to his parents. Chandler is sentenced to life and prison without the possibility of parole. Still leaving his family and friends with far more questions and answers as to why he murdered his mother and father.

The Halderson's and I were friends for about 25, 26 years

and there was never a crossword.

They were just good people if they were more Barton Christ's in the world, it would be a better world. If Chandler would have just asked for help, what do you think Barton Christa would have done? They would have given everything anything to help and they would have been there. That's the kind of people they were.

If you could talk to Christa one more time,

“if you just had one more moment to say something to her, what would it be?”

I would say you were a great mom. A beautiful sentiment about a mother whose murder still leaves so many unanswered questions David. In April of 2023, two of Chandler's convictions for hiding his parents remains were vacated. His other convictions and sentence still stands tonight and his most recent appeal was denied.

That's our program for tonight. Thank you for watching. I'm David New York.

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