00:00:00
[Music] My name is Adam Dexter. I am a local news reporter and in the summer of 2021,
00:00:19
I was working as a multimedia journalist for WISC News3. News3 now in Madison, Wisconsin.
00:00:26
Madison is not New York City. It's not LA where there's news happening all the time. A missing person, especially a
00:00:36
husband and wife, that would be news. The Dane County Sheriff's Office shared this photo of Bart and Christa Helerson.
00:00:43
Instead, spending today interviewing neighbors. There are too many unanswered questions. You know, cars go off the
00:00:49
road. Um, things happen. You know, there's a storm or there's a crash or XYZ. You just don't know.
00:00:56
My boss was calling her or emailing her or texting her. I was doing the same. I was texting Bart and there was just
00:01:02
never any response. I met Christa through work at Zimre Body Shop and then I met her husband through her obviously
00:01:09
and then um you know they just did anything for anybody like even people they didn't know. So I'm on the Christa
00:01:17
side. We related through my dad's side of the family and we mostly saw each other in Wisconsin at our family cottage
00:01:26
cabin during summers and family reunions. They both gave 100% to raising their boys. Mitchell was a little more
00:01:36
outgoing, very easygoing. Uh Chandler was a little more sensitive, a little quieter. Her whole goal for her being a
00:01:45
mom was, and I'm quoting her, she said, "I want my children to be the best men they can be. The biggest concern for me
00:01:55
is just figuring out where they are." Police say the couple had planned to go to their cabin in Langlaid County. Our
00:02:01
investigation began on July 7th when Chandler reported his parents missing. We knew exactly what Chandler had told
00:02:09
us. We knew that his two parents were gone. Uh they had left for the Fourth of July
00:02:15
weekend supposedly to go to their cabin in northern Wisconsin. I've never been assigned to a
00:02:22
case where a couple is gone. We ask even more questions to try to get a story and
00:02:29
get a timeline of when did the Haldersons go missing? And everything was just happening so fast in those
00:02:35
first couple of days. When we first got the email saying that Bart and Christa were missing, it didn't compute. Like,
00:02:42
what do you mean they're missing? Like they went up to the cabin and then it didn't come back. Huh? Did you think
00:02:47
possibly they had been in a car accident and just hadn't been found? I thought about that. Or I did think about the
00:02:54
boat. Did something happen out on the lake? All these stories are swirling around and not making any sense. And
00:03:02
it's, you know, taking weirder and weirder turns. and we needed to search this area um
00:03:09
because of how remote it is and wooded it is and the access to water to see if we could find any evidence. No way I
00:03:16
would have ever ever guessed what was about to be revealed. Never. Nobody saw this coming.
00:03:23
[Music] [Music] Bart and Christa Halderson had everything a couple could want. A
00:04:13
beautiful home in Windsor, Wisconsin, and two sons they adored. 24year-old Mitchell, who worked in tech, and
00:04:22
23-year-old Chandler, a college student living at home. Chandler had big ambitions. He talked of getting his IT
00:04:30
degree of his promising internship at an insurance company and was especially excited about a new job he landed at
00:04:39
SpaceX, founded by one of the richest people in the world, Elon Musk. Everything seemed to be going well
00:04:47
for the Haldersons. So on Friday morning, July 2nd, when Christa just didn't show up at the office, Dan
00:04:54
Croninger remembers becoming concerned. How unusual was it for number one, for Kristen not to show up for
00:05:02
work, not to call and just not show up? How unusual? Extremely unusual. Dan and Kristen not only worked together, they
00:05:10
were close friends. So when she hadn't said anything to me, I was like, "Well, that's kind of weird." It wasn't
00:05:14
something that she would ever do. Dan says he texted and called her several times but got no
00:05:22
response. Later that afternoon, he and his girlfriend drove over to the Halderson home. A neighbor's security
00:05:31
camera shows them arriving. You know, knocked on the door, didn't hear anything. Peered through the
00:05:36
window. The only thing that seemed weird was there was a coffee table on its side. You looked through the door. It
00:05:41
was kind of off to the right over by they had a fireplace over there. Then Dan says he walked over to the garage
00:05:48
window. I looked in, both cars were there. I was like, "Why are both cars here?" And I was starting to go around
00:05:54
the back of the house and then Chandler came out the side door and he came out in a towel saying, "Oh, I just got out
00:06:00
of the shower, you know, hey, what's going on?" I was like, "Oh, we're just looking for Bart and Christa." And he
00:06:04
said, "Oh, yeah. They went had to go up north this morning for an emergency up at the cabin." Dan says he was relieved
00:06:11
to know that Bart and Christa were at the family cabin over the holiday weekend. He kept in touch with Chandler
00:06:18
to see if he had heard from his mom and dad. But he said, "Yeah, they don't have
00:06:23
very good service up there, so you kind of have to wait till the clouds clear before they get a message." On Sunday,
00:06:28
July 4th, Dan says Chandler called him and said he was bored and needed something to do. So Dan invited him over
00:06:36
to watch the fireworks and asked Chandler about his parents. He mentioned that he talked to them and they're going
00:06:42
to be back Monday. All right. When he said that he had talked to them, did he say he talked to both his parents or
00:06:49
just his mom? What did he say? Do you remember? I don't think he was specific. I mean, I was asking about his mom
00:06:55
because I knew she had a doctor's appointment coming up that she was really wanted to be at. I think it had
00:07:00
been rescheduled before. But Christa didn't show up for work on Monday and again on Tuesday. By Wednesday, July
00:07:08
7th, when there was still no word, Dan knew something was wrong. And now she's missed her appointment. So now it's all
00:07:16
out concern. Right. You know, something's happened to her. Right. Right. Dan pushed Chandler to file a
00:07:22
missing person's report that morning. Chandler Halderson walked into one of our precincts to report his parents
00:07:31
missing. Detectives Sabrina Sims and Brian Shunk with the Dayne County Sheriff's Office would lead the team to
00:07:38
track down the missing couple. We had a lot of detectives assisting us with the with the case load.
00:07:46
[Music] Their first stop, the Halderson home on Oak Springs Circle Drive. So, when you
00:07:58
first got there, who was home? It was just Chandler. We're inside the house with him and detectives are getting
00:08:04
information outside. And so, we're either getting, you know, phone calls or text messages of, you know, hey, maybe
00:08:09
ask about this. We're walking around the house with him. He's pointing out things at
00:08:16
the house, things that were missing that his parents took when they traveled to the cabin. While deputies began
00:08:21
interviewing neighbors and friends, Barbie Townsen, Chris's first cousin, who lives in Southern California, knew
00:08:28
only what she had seen on the news, that the Halderson's 23-year-old son, Chandler, had gone to the police telling
00:08:35
them his parents were missing. What does that mean? What does missing mean? and that they had gone up to our cabin,
00:08:42
family cottage, and didn't return. Bart and Chrissa had not mentioned to co-workers or their older son Mitchell
00:08:49
that they had been planning to go to the cabin that weekend. But according to Chandler, another couple who he didn't
00:08:55
know, picked up his parents and drove them there. The cabin was a remote rustic lakeside retreat and a treasured family
00:09:05
heirloom. Barbie and Chris's grandparents built it in the 1940s. You know, you start to think of crazy
00:09:12
things because our cabin's up in the woods. And so that's we were worried that are they being held hostage
00:09:18
somewhere? Are they tied up somewhere? The day after Chandler reported them missing, his brother Mitchell and his
00:09:26
fiance drove three hours up north to see if he could find any sign of his parents. Why would they not call? Why
00:09:33
wouldn't there be a text or something? You know, your mind just starts to go down really murky trails because you're
00:09:41
trying to figure out what's going on. Hi there. Hi there. Are you guys um the Halderson? You okay? You are affiliated
00:09:48
with them? Yes. The police met Mitchell and his fiance at the cabin. Maybe we could just take a walk around and see.
00:09:54
You would know the property probably better than we would. Prepared for the worst.
00:10:01
Sheriff's office. Anybody inside? Now it's your presents. Make yourselves [Music]
00:10:17
[Music] known. When the Haldersons disappeared, it stunned everyone who knew them.
00:10:25
Barbie Townsen said neither her cousin Christa nor her husband Bart would just leave on a whim. He was more structured.
00:10:32
She was the more nurturing, you know, indulging mom. It was a wonderful combination. She worked as a customer
00:10:39
service representative for an auto body shop and loved art projects. He was a managing director for an international
00:10:47
accounting firm and enjoyed woodworking. They were 100% about the family. He was
00:10:54
very involved in the scouting and all the things they did. The Haldersons worked together on Father's Day in June
00:11:02
2021, less than a month before Bart disappeared. Mitchell is smiling, and Chandler, who had a mild concussion from
00:11:09
a fall, is wearing a neck brace. Investigators anxious to find out what had happened to Bart and Christa
00:11:19
Halderson asked deputies from the Langlay County Sheriff's Office to help Mitchell, who brought along his fiance,
00:11:26
searched the family's cabin, a three-hour drive north of the family home. When they got inside, it was dark.
00:11:38
There were no signs of Christa and Bart. They also checked a shed. The canoe was
00:11:44
there. It was obvious no one had been to the cabin in a very long time. They're believed to be with another couple.
00:11:53
Someone else at least. Okay. When Mitchell was with the police searching the family's cabin, Chandler was on his
00:12:00
own hunt throughout the neighborhood. Here he is seen on video doorbell cameras going door todo asking
00:12:11
homeowners if they had seen or heard from his parents. It's kind of difficult to track him down.
00:12:22
Adam Duer, now with the CBS station WCCCO in Minneapolis, worked in Madison, Wisconsin at the time. He immediately
00:12:30
started calling his sources. So, waiting to hear back from the sheriff's office and um my boss at the time, he um was
00:12:40
like, "Well, you can't just sit around, you know, you got to got to go start shooting something and so packed my gear
00:12:46
in my car and drove out there to their street in Windsor." He knocked on the Halderson's front door. The missing
00:12:53
couple's son, Chandler, answered. And so, I'm like, "If you'd be willing, I'd love
00:12:59
to do a quick interview." and he was like, "Yeah, I'll do that, but I don't want you to film me. I don't want to be
00:13:06
shown, but you can record my voice." So, my last uh message I got from them, they
00:13:12
were going to White Lake for the 4th of July. And then that their plan or from to my knowledge, they were going to
00:13:20
Langlade County to a cabin, their cabin. At the time, I got this sense like he was in shock. This is someone who's
00:13:29
roughly my age. And so I'm thinking like, yeah, if my parents just went missing, he probably hasn't slept, he's
00:13:35
probably really nervous. Alex Gravat knew Chandler well. I was roommates with Chandler for a little while. I called
00:13:42
him Chaz. The two friends shared an apartment from 2019 to 2020. We grew up together and we played soccer together,
00:13:52
did Cub Scouts together, um, and just hung out together. He was a great swimmer, so I know that the swim team
00:13:59
really got along with him. Alex says his friend Chandler, who went by the name Chaz, could be a playful guy. He was a a
00:14:07
goon, a hooligan in a lot of senses. What do you mean by that? Yeah, I mean, he would so he would play pranks and he
00:14:13
would make lots of jokes or poke fun at people. Alex described Chaz as popular with women. College student Katherine
00:14:22
Malander, known as Cat, was his longtime girlfriend. He was a relatively attractive guy. I
00:14:28
mean, he he looked good. He had great hair. He kept up on appearances. According to Alex, when they were
00:14:34
roommates, Chaz often bragged to friends about hooking up with different women behind Cat's back when she found out
00:14:41
about it. She grilled him. She was like, "Are you seeing other people?" And he just kept denying it. But Cat remained
00:14:48
suspicious and began tracking her boyfriend on social media. Alex says Chaz became more secretive and moved
00:14:56
back home with his parents and now those parents were missing. Detective Shunk and Sims began follow-up interviews. At
00:15:05
that point, you know, what do we really have? We don't know what we have. Then they got a tip they desperately
00:15:14
needed from the owner of a farm outside town. We received information from someone that yes, Chandler had been out
00:15:22
to my property over Fourth of July weekend. The owner was a friend of Chandler's girlfriend, Cat. The owner
00:15:29
said she was with the couple at her farm on July 4th. She told deputies she was surprised to see Chandler again the very
00:15:37
next day, and this time he was alone. And I saw him coming from the wood line. His car was parked backed up to the
00:15:46
field. So, of course, right from that interview, um, well, we want to go search that property. As deputies began
00:15:54
searching, detectives wanted to know why Chandler had never mentioned he had gone
00:15:58
back to the farm by himself. Police picked up Chandler and took him to the station.
00:16:05
What's going on? Detective Brian Shunk asked him to once again describe the last time he had seen his parents. It's
00:16:14
Thursday morning. I wake you up. What time is it? 6. Chandler said his dad, Bart, was at home
00:16:23
working and that later he had dinner with both parents. That's where they told me while we were
00:16:30
eating at they they were going to go with their friends and I was like, "Oh, cool." Um,
00:16:38
and they said they were going to cabin. Yeah. We're going up north. While detectives questioned Chandler, deputies
00:16:46
were out searching the farm and made a discovery that quickly changed the tone of the interview. Listen to me. This is
00:16:54
the only chance you're going to have to tell us the truth. Okay? Okay. What we Listen, listen. I'm I can't tell you
00:17:01
what we know, but we know you're not telling us the truth. You need to tell the truth. There's Listen, listen. You
00:17:08
need to tell the truth about what happened and just tell us why it happened. I'm not BSing you. Okay.
00:17:19
So, can we do that? Okay, they're okay. Um, Chandler's request for a lawyer ended
00:17:26
that interview. Detective Sims remembers the moment she learned what deputies told her they had found near that field.
00:17:34
You know, Brian and I were in the command post together and I said, "Um, what did you say?" You know, I just
00:17:40
couldn't believe what I was hearing. They had discovered human remains. On Thursday, July 8th,
00:18:02
2021 in the village of Windsor, Wisconsin, the community struggled to make sense of the disturbing news.
00:18:14
The remains of an adult male have been found on a farm 20 miles from Bard and Christa Halderson's home.
00:18:23
At this point, it's very early in our investigation. Dne County Sheriff Calvin Barrett warned residents not to jump to
00:18:31
conclusions. I don't want to make any uh un corroborated speculations at this time.
00:18:38
The gruesome discovery was made the day after Bart and Christa had been reported
00:18:43
missing by their son, and it was something detectives Brian Chunk and Sabrina Sims had never encountered. The
00:18:52
grass had been matted down, and they followed it to a trail which led to um the discovery of a male
00:19:01
torso that was um concealed with sticks and twigs. That was really the moment, right? It was huge. I think of other
00:19:11
death investigations or homicide cases we've worked and I don't remember a time that I've worked a dismemberment case.
00:19:18
And what other evidence was found out there? We found um some cutting instruments,
00:19:24
some um that were hidden in a an old oil drum, um some scissors, um pruning shears, uh a broken bow saw, and it was
00:19:35
all in the same wooded area where the Halderson's son, Chandler, had been seen earlier in the week. Detective Sims had
00:19:43
a pretty good idea who the victim was. knowing in my gut that that um was most likely Bart Halderson and his son was
00:19:52
seen in that area. Police turned their full attention to Chandler Halderson. He was now a person of
00:20:01
interest and the prime suspect. While tests were being done to confirm the victim's identity, detectives arrested
00:20:09
Chandler and charged him with lying to them. The arrest was based on him providing false information in regards
00:20:16
to a missing person. Christa Holderson's cousin, Barbie Townsen. What did you think? They arrested him for giving
00:20:24
false information about a missing person. That was the first day that I started to suspect foul play
00:20:33
from their own son. I checked my phone and I saw that and it was that he had been arrested and it was pretty wild.
00:20:45
Alex Cvat, his childhood friend, learned about it on social media. My eyes got wide. I I kind of just sat there for a
00:20:53
second reading it. My first thought was if he's being arrested for giving misinformation to the police, I didn't
00:20:58
think that there was really much of a chance that he wasn't involved somehow. But there's someone who had a hard time
00:21:06
imagining Chandler was involved. His girlfriend Cat. She spoke to police just before his arrest. You don't think he
00:21:14
had anything to do with his mom and dad being unheard from? No. I just No. That'd be
00:21:23
crazy. But I just don't see him killing Mr. and Mrs. Holderson. Like he had SpaceX. Like why would he jeopardize
00:21:31
something he like would dream of, you know? Yeah. Like they're his parents. For Christmas, they got him and
00:21:38
his brother matching tool sets. Like come on. Okay. He cooks dinner for them. They
00:21:45
have root beer floats together. They play Mario Kart whenever his parents want to.
00:21:54
But on Saturday, July 10th, 2021, the victim found in the woods was identified as Bart Halderson.
00:22:06
It just changed everything. Like, that moment changed everything. Preliminary autopsy results would reveal Bart had
00:22:13
been shot at least two times in the back. And there was still the troubling question, where was Christa? Christa
00:22:23
Holderson remains a missing person and we continue to ask for citizen involvement.
00:22:29
Christa's coworker Dan Cronier ran through all the different possibilities. Did you at that moment wonder like maybe
00:22:37
Chris was involved in this too? It had definitely crossed my mind start to wonder, well why is Chandler lying? Is
00:22:44
he covering for himself or is he covering for perhaps his mother? Is she involved?
00:22:49
But the more investigators looked, it seemed the only person Chandler Halderson was covering
00:22:57
for was himself. You know, he just lied to everybody. And in his lies, police started to believe they found a motive
00:23:06
for murder. For months, he had been telling everyone, including his childhood friend, Alex Gravat, that he
00:23:13
was enrolled at Madison College during the 2021 spring semester. Did you have any idea he had flunked
00:23:22
out? He didn't tell you? No. It was surprising. Detectives believe his parents had no idea he wasn't in
00:23:30
school. They say when his parents questioned him about his transcripts. The computer savvy Chandler Halderson
00:23:37
crafted a chain of emails that seem to come from the college. Chandler creates people that work for Madison College and
00:23:45
communicates via email with them. You know, Bart's on some of those as well, talking to who he believes is employees
00:23:52
of the school. And do any of those people actually exist? No. In June 2021, Bart Halderson called
00:24:01
Madison College pretending to be Chandler and got an answer he wasn't expecting. Said, "I don't see that you
00:24:08
were admitted in any program." You said they were, you know, the IT degree is in
00:24:14
there, right? No, those are just classes. You might have just took the classes but not be in the program. Bart
00:24:22
learned that not only had his son been lying about that IT degree, but there was no internship with an insurance
00:24:30
company either. And remember that big job with SpaceX. Turns out that was just another elaborate lie. today.
00:24:39
The delusional reality that he concocted that is shocking to me. According to detectives, Bart was
00:24:50
planning to meet at the college with his son on Thursday, July 1st. Around 200 p.m., Bart, who was
00:24:58
working from home, sent his son this text. I'm ready whenever you are. That text is believed to be the last message
00:25:07
Bart sent. Seven days later, Bart's remains were found. Investigators got a search
00:25:15
warrant for the Halderson home. No weapon was found there, but a shell casing was discovered in the
00:25:24
basement and several areas inside the house tested positive for blood. Chandler, middle initial M, last name
00:25:34
Halderson, age 23 of Windsor, is now being charged with firstdegree homicide, hiding a corpse, and mutilating a
00:25:42
corpse. [Music] On July 15th, 2021, Chandler Halderson was formally charged with his father's
00:25:52
murder. Chandler is currently being held in the Dayne County Jail. I mean, I I don't
00:25:59
know what else to say. like how how could you do that to your father? But where was his mother? Christa
00:26:08
Chandler Halderson had lawyered up and wasn't talking, but someone very close to him was. She had communicated with
00:26:17
him that whole weekend. That loyal girlfriend, Katherine Malander, had a potentially damning piece of evidence
00:26:24
about her boyfriend on the social media app Snapchat. She actually consented to a download of her phone. So that was a
00:26:32
breakthrough. How do you feel about allowing people to track you on social media apps? Join the
00:26:41
conversation now on social media. [Music] Chandler Halderson was charged with his
00:26:53
father's murder, but his mother's whereabouts were still unknown. Lead detectives Sabrina Sims and Brian
00:27:02
Chunk knew if Christa was alive, they needed to find her fast. At that point, we were hoping for
00:27:10
the best. It was one of those things where we just needed to to push on. Detectives turned to Halderson's
00:27:16
girlfriend for help. She had given them permission to download information from her phone. Chandler had lied to her
00:27:24
before and had cheated on her before. And so she um you know would track his location. Cat had convinced Halderson to
00:27:32
let her track his movements using Snapchat, the popular social media app, which allows users to send messages and
00:27:42
share their location in real time. Um and that was an agreement that yes, you will have your locations on so I can see
00:27:49
where you're going. Detectives were most intrigued by messages posted early on the morning of July 1st, the day
00:27:57
Chandler Halderson and his father were supposed to meet with Madison College officials. Halderson, whose online name
00:28:04
was Chazled Dazzle, messaged Cat at 7:30 a.m. I hardly slept. I'm sorry, Be. Why?
00:28:13
I don't know. stuff hasn't really been going well for me lately. So, I'm trying to plan for the next thing to
00:28:19
exploitative me over B. It's going to be okay. Yeah, I just had a great future planned and it's falling
00:28:30
apart. According to detectives, the tone of those messages worried Cat. So, two days later, when Cat checked Snapchat
00:28:39
and noticed her boyfriend's avatar, that's hubby on her screen, indicated that he was nearly 25 miles from home.
00:28:48
Cat saved the image to her phone. It was a Snapchat screenshot um of Chandler almost 9 in the morning um out by the
00:28:58
Wisconsin River. Detectives Sims and Chunk took us to that location on the river where they
00:29:05
had hoped to find Christa. So, where are we exactly? What would you call this area? It's the Wisconsin State lower
00:29:14
riverway. And it's a familiar place to the former high school swimmer Chandler Halderson,
00:29:21
close to his favorite swimming hole. This is him at the same place in a photo taken a year earlier holding a large
00:29:33
knife. Law enforcement throughout Dayne County searched the wooded area. And how
00:29:39
long was he here? 45 minutes, I believe. Just keep in mind in July, but it's definitely far thicker
00:29:47
than what you're seeing here now. Still no sign of Christa Halderson, but search teams refused to give up. Let's
00:29:56
go hit one more area. And that was where they ended up discovering the remains. And what exactly did they find there?
00:30:03
They ended up finding two legs cut into different sections. DNA tests confirmed it was Christa Halderson. The concerned
00:30:13
son, who had reported his mom and dad missing, was now charged with both of their murders. Christa's cousins were
00:30:23
horrified. You couldn't write this. It just wasn't um anything that you could possibly come up with in your head. How
00:30:33
do you make sense of it? We don't. And that's the hard part. We don't have a why.
00:30:41
In January of 2022 at the Dayne County Courthouse, Chandler Halderson went on trial for the murder of his parents. All
00:30:50
right, for the jury. He was also facing charges for lying to the police and for mutilating and hiding their bodies. Our
00:30:59
job is to over the course of the next couple of weeks present evidence to show you the path of what we believe
00:31:06
happened. Assistant District Attorney William Brown that Chandler Halderson killed his
00:31:13
parents, dismembered their bodies, and hid them around southern Wisconsin. Prosecutors laid out a motive. They say
00:31:23
Chandler murdered his parents when his lies were about to be exposed and that for months he had been trying to hide
00:31:30
the truth from them. Among the evidence, those fake email accounts he created. No
00:31:37
one uses a Gmail account as their official Madison College email. No. And his fictitious internship with an
00:31:45
insurance company. I found no record of that person working for American Family.
00:31:53
Investigators believe the murder weapon was a semi-automatic rifle that had been
00:31:57
hidden in a barn at that farm where Bart's remains were discovered. Good afternoon, sir. Could you please state
00:32:04
your name and then spell it out? Andrew Smith. And how do you spell it? Alpha, November, Delta, Romeo, Echo, Whiskey.
00:32:11
The rifle came from this man, Andrew Smith, who testified that he was in the military when he met Halderson online.
00:32:19
How did you meet Chandler Halderson? Playing video games while I was stationed in Germany. Sir, Halderson had
00:32:24
wanted a gun. Smith testified he had no idea what Halderson wanted to do with the weapon. And in June 2021, he gave
00:32:33
him that semi-automatic rifle as a gift. I'm going to give it to someone who might actually appreciate this weapon
00:32:38
and take care of it. And nearly 480 rounds of ammunition. How did Chandler react when you gave him the gun? Oh, he
00:32:46
was happy. What do you mean about how do you know he was happy or how do you how
00:32:49
do you know that? Cuz he had a big smile on his face when I had given it to him as a gift.
00:32:54
But the most anticipated witness in this trial, good morning. Would be Halderson's girlfriend. Did you verbally
00:33:02
answer yes to the oath? Yes. Who gave police that Snapchat screenshot? What is that screenshot of Chandler by the
00:33:10
Wisconsin River? What do you make of the prosecution's case against Chandler Halderson? See
00:33:18
more evidence at 48 hours.com. [Music] Could you please state and spell your name for us? Uh, Katherine Melander. For
00:33:33
3 hours, Cat Melander sat on the stand telling the jury about the young man she thought she knew, Chandler Halderson.
00:33:42
Did you go on a lot of dates together? Uh, yeah. We would um grab dinners, um have movie dates, just sit at home and
00:33:50
watch movies, go on walks quite often. Cat told the jury that she was working on July 1st when authorities
00:33:59
believe the murders happened and didn't see her boyfriend in person that day. But you weren't with him. I was not with
00:34:06
him. Did you know that Bart and Crystal Halderson had died? No. According to investigators, Alderson
00:34:16
asked Cat to bring a few cleaning supplies to his home the following day. He told her he had stepped on some
00:34:23
broken glass from the fireplace. She brought him a Swiffer mop and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. Kath, did you have
00:34:31
absolutely anything to do with cleaning anything up or their disappearance? No. Investigators say there's no evidence
00:34:41
that Cat had any involvement in the murders. They believe Chandler Halderson acted
00:34:48
alone. Prosecutors showed the jury police video from inside the Halderson home. These walkthrough videos will
00:34:55
document the home as is. At first glance, it seemed neat and clean, but test results revealed what appeared to
00:35:04
be blood. Is that all blood that it's reacting to? This could be blood that it's reacting to. Yes. And that appears
00:35:12
that there's been some wiping or cleanup. For Barbie Townson, the most disturbing part was when the jury was
00:35:19
shown a view of the Halderson home from a neighbor's security camera. I was talking to one of my cousins. We said
00:35:26
one of the images that is going to be seared in our minds is when they showed that video of
00:35:33
the window flickering window from July 2nd and it was the flickering glow from the fireplace for like hours. That is
00:35:43
haunting knowing what was happening. A forensic expert testified that more than 200 bone fragments were
00:35:53
discovered in the fireplace. There's a white area in the middle of that burnt. Based on my training
00:35:59
experience, that appeared to be bone. Halderson's defense attorney, Katherine Durl, did not address the bone and blood
00:36:06
evidence found in the home, but insisted that did not mean her client was the killer. Chandler
00:36:14
Halderson did not murder his parents. He is not guilty of those crimes. She reminded the jury there were too
00:36:24
many unanswered questions. What happened to the Haldersons? What happened in that
00:36:31
Halderson's home? You just aren't going to know what happened. Chandler Halderson himself didn't
00:36:39
testify and his defense didn't call any witnesses. you have to go back and look at everything. Instead, attorney Crystal
00:36:50
Vera closed the case and urged jury to find reasonable doubt. She admits Halderson told a lot of lies, but she
00:36:59
argues there isn't enough direct evidence to tie him to the murders. I guarantee you that the 12 of you that
00:37:06
are going to go back and deliberate are all going to have 12 different theories on what happened. And that's a problem.
00:37:13
I'm asking you to find him not guilty of firstdegree intentional homicide. Prosecutors had the final word. This is
00:37:24
a first-degree intentional homicide. You cannot shoot someone in the back. You cannot chop them up. You
00:37:31
cannot scatter their remains and come to any other conclusion. And there is only one
00:37:37
person who did those things here and that is Chandler Halderson. We're asking you to find him guilty. Thank you. It
00:37:46
didn't take long for the jury to decide. Breaking news. In just about a little over two hours, a jury has reached a
00:37:58
verdict in the Chandler Halderson case. We the jury find the defendant Chandler M. Halderson guilty of firstdegree
00:38:08
intentional homicide as to Barde Halderson. Guilty of providing false information. Guilty of mutilating a
00:38:14
corpse. Guilty of firstdegree intentional homicide. Of mutilating a guilty of hiding a corpse.
00:38:20
Guilty on all eight charges. I think it was just overwhelming from all the work that we put in on it.
00:38:30
In March 2022, at his sentencing hearing, "Good afternoon," Halderson, who had been silent during his trial,
00:38:37
surprised everyone by indicating he finally had something to say. Mr. Halderson wishes to make a statement.
00:38:46
Your honor, I want to take this opportunity to state my intent to appeal my convictions. If there are any lawyers
00:38:52
listening and willing to take on my appeal, take a moment to please reach out to me.
00:38:59
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
00:39:08
you. What was your reaction when he had the chance to speak and all he did was ask
00:39:13
for a lawyer to take an appeal. What was your I was actually disgusted. I just couldn't believe it. Like you can't even
00:39:21
say I'm sorry. We are journed. Thank you. Halderson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of
00:39:29
parole. When do you miss him? Oh, I think about him just about every day. Really? Yeah.
00:39:41
We're building a pond in our backyard. You know, they would love to see that and love to be a part of it.
00:39:49
Mitchell Halderson, Bart and Christa's oldest son, is now living with an unimaginable loss. Barbie shared a text
00:39:58
and this photo that Christa sent to the family just three months before she died. Happy Easter. Yes, the boys and
00:40:07
their women. Mitchell is still at Epic Systems and will turn 25 this year. Yikes. Chandler is currently interning
00:40:14
with American Family Insurance as an IT administrator, but his other degree, sustainability management, has given him
00:40:21
an edge. You see in her text how proud she was of her boys and how 100% completely believing Chantler. She can't
00:40:34
help but wonder what would have happened if Halderson had just been honest with everyone. If he had just gone and thrown
00:40:43
himself at the mercy of his parents, what do you think Chris and Bart would have done? They would have helped him.
00:40:48
They definitely would have confronted him on it. But after the confrontation and the truthtelling would have come the
00:40:56
grace, how do we go forward? How do we help you? How do we get your life back on track? They would have helped him.
00:41:04
[Music] CBS next Saturday. 48 Hours brings you backtoback episodes all summer long.
00:41:28
Next week, Vanished. She disappears without a trace. We thought we might have taken her here. How many miles did
00:41:34
you cover? It was hundreds of miles. 48 hours crime time double feature next Saturday on CBS and streaming on
00:41:40
Paramount Plus. [Music]