Her Last Note

Summary

20/20: "Her Last Note" (ABC News, January 24, 2026)

A True Crime Deep Dive into the Murder of Jesse Blodgett

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Episode Overview

"Her Last Note" explores the chilling murder of 19-year-old Jesse Blodgett, a gifted musician and college student from Hartford, Wisconsin, and the unexpectedly linked attack on Melissa Etzler days earlier in a neighboring town. With emotional first-person accounts, extensive police interviews, and courtroom drama, the episode traces the investigation that shattered a tight-knit community—and revealed a devastating betrayal.

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Main Themes

• The life and spirit of Jesse Blodgett
• The alarming parallel attack on Melissa Etzler
• The community's fear and heartbreak
• The unraveling of the investigation and stunning revelation of the culprit
• Forgiveness, legacy, and resilience following unimaginable loss

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

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1. Jesse Blodgett: A Vibrant Life Lost [03:53–19:10]

• Jesse’s Background & Talents

  • Jesse was deeply involved in music: piano, violin, singing, performing and teaching [03:53–05:09].
  • As the "Fiddler" in a local production of Fiddler on the Roof, she had just enjoyed a landmark weekend and a late cast party.
  • “She started her own business that summer and had 28, mostly kids coming to our house every week for piano, voice and violin lessons.” – Buck Blodgett [05:09]
  • Jesse's parents, Joy and Buck, cherished her as their only child.

• Discovery of the Crime

  • Jesse's mother found her unresponsive and cold in her bed the morning after the cast party [05:52].
  • The community plunged into shock; “When we found out that she had been murdered, there was a panic in Hartford… There was a dangerous person on the loose.” – Friend of Jesse [11:04]
  • Detailed crime scene: no forced entry, no robbery, signs of ligature strangulation, staged to look as if she was sleeping, and unusual detail—her hair and pants were wet, suggesting she was bathed postmortem [06:25–10:49].

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2. The Immediate Aftermath & Search for Answers [12:55–23:38]

• Community Context

  • Small-town Hartford rarely saw violent crime—a population of 16,000 with a strong arts scene and community feel [13:04–13:19].
  • Local spots like Perk Place were tied to Jesse’s everyday life.

• Early Suspects and Leads

  • Investigators checked out tree trimmers who had worked outside Jesse’s window days before, and a restaurant patron who’d acted inappropriately toward her—both cleared quickly [21:07–22:31].
  • Attention shifted to Randy Talley, an older castmate and choreographer who had made Jesse uncomfortable at the cast party. Detectives discovered a diary entry describing her discomfort and anger toward him, naming him specifically [18:49–24:05].

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3. The Parallel Attack on Melissa Etzler [28:04–46:22]

• Melissa’s Survival Story

  • Days before Jesse’s murder, Melissa Etzler was attacked in Richfield Historical Park by a stranger wielding a knife [28:28, 35:14].
  • She bravely fought back, grabbing the blade, and escaped with the knife as the attacker fled [35:52–36:12].
  • Her detailed description and retention of the knife were key in the investigation [36:44, 39:33].

• Police Investigation

  • Initially, officers doubted it could be a true stranger-on-stranger attack given the area’s safety record [37:29].
  • Evidence at the scene included sunglasses, a roll of ventilation tape, and later, the knife—suggesting a planned abduction [44:15–45:11].
  • “He was probably going to bind her up somehow or control her that way. So she really showed a lot of strength and a lot of determination to survive by fighting him off.” – Investigator [45:18]

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4. The Investigation Accelerates: From Suspicion to Breakthroughs [47:01–70:35]

• Breakthrough on Melissa’s Case

  • A routine park patrol weeks earlier had logged a blue minivan’s license plate, traced to a local family; their 20-year-old son, Dan Bartelt, was using it [47:01–47:55].
  • When detectives interviewed Dan, they were shocked—he shared insider details about Jesse’s case (suggesting rape) that had not been made public [48:26–59:07].

• Stunning Double Life

  • Dan Bartelt, a close friend and fellow musician of Jesse’s, who had spent time grieving with her family, became the primary suspect in both cases [49:16–50:13, 59:35–61:18].
  • Dan was a high-achiever with a supposedly squeaky-clean reputation: “He was a straight-A student… gifted violinist… athlete… a fun person to be around.” – Friends and Buck Blodgett [59:47–61:18].

• Evidence Piles Up

  • Investigators found DNA, fingerprints, and personal items (used in the crime) in a Frosted Mini Wheats box discarded at a park—essentially a "kill kit"—containing rope, alcohol wipes, a homemade ball gag, ventilation tape [69:17].
  • Jesse's and Dan's DNA were the only ones found on these items [70:09–70:17].
  • Chilling: A month before the murder, Jesse wrote on Facebook about Dan breaking into her home while she slept. “He walked into my house and then my room while I was still in bed. What a freak.” – Jesse (from Facebook post) [71:27].

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5. Trial, Sentencing, and Healing [72:24–82:20]

• Courtroom Drama

  • Dan denied the murder, even as overwhelming forensic and digital evidence mounted (including searches on serial killers and violent pornography) [73:04, 77:36–78:01].
  • The defense argued lack of motive, tried to sow doubt about evidence, and demonstrated the complicated ties between both families [73:34–75:12].

• Verdict and Sentencing

  • The jury found Dan Bartelt guilty of Jesse’s murder after only three hours of deliberation. He was sentenced to life without parole [78:54–80:11].

• Buck Blodgett’s Powerful Forgiveness

  • At sentencing, Buck addressed Dan directly: “I not only forgive you, I love you… of course, I hate what you did. You are forgiven, but you won't know it, and you won't feel it and experience it until you tell the truth.” [81:26–81:29]
  • Buck channeled grief into action, founding the Love is Greater Than Hate project in Jesse’s honor, aiming to “presence love” to reduce violence [81:55–82:20].

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6. Jesse’s Enduring Legacy [84:01–84:08]

• Scholarships and Community Action
  • The Jesse Blodgett Scholarship supports young musicians pursuing their dreams, as Jesse did [84:01].
  • Melissa Etzler has joined Buck’s mission, stating, “My story is forever tied to Jesse’s. What he’s done is just incredible. Bringing his daughter’s legacy to life.” [83:05]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

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• On the Initial Shock and Grief

  • “I got the phone call that every parent fears.” – Buck Blodgett [07:04]
  • “Nobody saw this coming.” – Buck Blodgett [11:23]
  • “I just can't believe this. I hugged her goodbye last night and now she's gone.” – Buck Blodgett [25:48]

• On Jesse’s Spirit

  • “She was definitely wise beyond her years.” – Friend of Jesse [14:51]
  • “She really thought that she was going to change the world through music. Music was going to be her vehicle.” – Buck Blodgett [17:21]

• On Melissa’s Survival

  • “My body was like, you know what? This is our best bet at survival.” – Melissa Etzler [36:17]
  • “He was probably going to bind her up somehow… she really showed a lot of strength.” – Investigator [45:18]

• On Betrayal

  • “How could he show up to her house after he had just killed her… it was as if he was there so he could get a front seat.” – Friend of Jesse [79:33]

• On Forgiveness & Legacy

  • “I not only forgive you. I love you… You are forgiven. But you won't know it and you won't feel it and experience it until you tell the truth.” – Buck Blodgett [81:26]
  • “The more we presence love, the more we absence violence. That's what we're trying to do.” – Buck Blodgett [82:01]

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Key Timestamps for Major Segments

| Time | Segment | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:53 | Jesse's background introduced by her father | | 05:43 | Discovery of Jesse's body, community’s initial shock | | 13:04 | Exploration of Hartford community and arts scene | | 18:49 | Investigators discover Jesse’s diary and suspect Randy Talley| | 28:28 | Parallel park attack on Melissa Etzler | | 35:14 | Melissa recounts her attack and escape | | 47:01 | Blue minivan lead and police breakthrough | | 59:35 | Revelation that Jesse's friend Dan Bartelt is a suspect | | 69:17 | Discovery of the “kill kit” box with Dan/Jesse DNA | | 72:24 | Trial and sentencing | | 79:05 | Verdict read—Dan found guilty | | 81:26 | Buck Blodgett's statement of forgiveness at sentencing | | 82:01 | Launch of Love is Greater Than Hate project | | 84:01 | Initiation of Jesse Blodgett Scholarship |

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Tone & Language

The episode’s tone is simultaneously factual and heart-wrenching, incorporating firsthand community voices (family, friends, law enforcement) with narrative empathy. Buck Blodgett’s voice resonates throughout, exemplifying resilience and compassion amid tragedy.

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Conclusion

"Her Last Note" is a powerful, devastating chronicle of two intertwined crimes, the devastation wrought by violence from within, and the hopeful efforts to forge meaning in the aftermath. Through its honest portraits and intricate investigation, the episode honors Jesse’s memory, Melissa’s courage, and the power of community response.

Transcript

[Narrator]

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[Reporter]

Yeah, relief's still a couple of days away. John Millan has the complete forecast. Still ahead.

[Melissa Etzler]

July 12th. It was a beautiful day, the sun beating down. I decided to go to the park with my dog, Remy. When I pulled up to the park, there was a van sitting there. I didn't really think anything of it because it's a park. It was very peaceful, very quiet, and it was just me and my dog, which is what I love to do. We walked through the woods a little bit and we were there for about an hour. Once it got really hot, I'm like, okay, let's get back to the car. That's when I noticed the van was still there. I probably got halfway to my car. I heard somebody running from behind me. I did a very quick double take and that's when I saw the knife in his hand. He tackles me on the ground. I thought he was trying to kill me. I was terrified. We fought on the ground. There's just blood everywhere. I think that was like my fight or flight. The police, they wanted to figure out who was this, who did it, how can we find them? And you know, just try to understand what's going on here.

[Narrator]

And as scary as this, this attack was, what was about to happen next to a different young woman in the area would be even more terrifying.

[911 Operator]

Oh my God. Oh my God. 901, what's emergency? My daughter is blue. I went to wake her up and I just got home from for lunch and she won't wake up. How old is your daughter? 19. She's 19. Oh, okay. So is she breathing? I don't think so, no. Oh, not breathing? I don't think so. I just blew. I tried to wake her up and she's not even waking up. Okay, Jessie.

[Buck Blodgett]

Jessie was really bright. She had a ton of energy and passion. I'm Buck Blodgett. I'm Jesse's dad, Jessie. She went to UWM, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She's 19 years old.

[Friend of Jesse]

Jessie was a very talented musician. She could play the piano, she could sing, she could play the violin.

[Buck Blodgett]

Jessie was a performer more than anything. She would find her way to a stage and entertainment.

[Melissa Etzler]

There's nothing like the opening night of a show. It's high energy. Everybody's really excited.

[Director/Community Member]

That energy is infectious and the audience feels that from the moment they come through the outer doors.

[Friend of Jesse]

The first week of Fiddler on the Roof, it was everywhere. It was the talk of the town. Jesse got the role as the fiddler.

[911 Operator]

I'm standing around the room.

[Detective]

Sounds crazy though.

[Friend of Jesse]

She got to play the violin, which is something that she was always extraordinary at.

[Buck Blodgett]

I was so proud of her. She won the title role in her first community theater out of school. And she started her own business that summer and had 28, mostly kids coming to our house every week for piano, voice and violin lessons. The morning of July 15th was Jessie's first morning that summer to sleep in. They just had opening weekend and a late night cast party. So this Monday morning she was pooped.

[Narrator]

It was a typical morning for Jessie's mom. She walked into her room to drop off some laundry before she headed off to work.

[Buck Blodgett]

Joy came home for lunch, called up to Jessie, no answer. She didn't think much of it. She called up to Jesse again, still no answer. And then she looks out the picture window while she's eating a quick lunch and she sees one of Jessie's six year old students and her dad walking up our driveway. And so now she calls upstairs, Jessie, Jesse, your lesson's here. And there's still no answer. So she runs upstairs and goes into Jesse's room. She goes over to her, she reaches out to wake Jessie up and Jessie's cold.

[911 Operator]

She's cold. She's cold. She's cold, she's cold. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. I'm gonna page out Felice, so hang on. I will be with you in just a second.

[Narrator]

You can hear Joy's emotion. It's heartbreaking. Then when she's put on hold, you can still hear her in the background calling out for her daughter.

[911 Operator]

Honey, what happened? Ma', am, I have EM BMS coming, and police will be there shortly. They're on their way. Ma', am, is anyone else with you? What? Is anyone else with you? No.

[Buck Blodgett]

I got the phone call that every parent fears. And Joyce said, honey, it's Jessie. I came home, and she's. She's not responding.

[911 Operator]

No, honey, no.

[Buck Blodgett]

And she said, the EMTs are here. And I said, hon, is she. And then I didn't want to say the word, so I said, gone. Is she gone? She just tailed off into tears. So I hang up the phone and grab my car keys and drive home.

[Friend of Jesse]

We saw a bunch of police cars outside of Jesse's house. We tried calling her, we tried texting her, but we couldn't get a hold of anyone.

[Narrator]

Lieutenant Jim Zywicki was one of the detectives that arrived that day. So we're outside. What was the Blodgett home. You came here to process the scene?

[Detective]

Yes.

[Investigator]

It was a day off for me. My phone rang. It was my captain at the time saying that they had a suspicious death in the city of a young person. I parked, I walked around. I checked doors and windows and checked for anything that looked like forced entry or if there were going to be any problems. I didn't notice any of that. I walk into the house, and I just kind of get an immediate feel of what we have here.

[Narrator]

Where was Jesse found?

[Investigator]

Jesse was found up in her bedroom.

[Narrator]

Upstairs.

[Investigator]

Upstairs.

[Narrator]

So this was Jesse's room?

[Investigator]

This was. This was. We had taken video of her bedroom, and I saw it was a normal young lady's bedroom. When I arrived up here, Jessie was laying in this general direction right here with her feet facing towards the door, her head right about in that direction. I learned subsequently that her mother got her removed from the bed because part of CPR is you want it on a hard surface. So her mother had moved her. I had immediately noticed the way that her head was tilted. You could see a faint ligature mark on the side of her neck. Pressure was applied to her neck via some type of ligature, and there was pressure applied from the back, which is something she couldn't have done. We could also identify some faint bruising on the wrists in the ankle area. Her hands had been bound together. Her ankles possibly bound together as well.

[Narrator]

This was a more intimate murder.

[Investigator]

Yes, I would agree with that someone who strangles, that's someone who is more comfortable, especially if they come into someone else's house, to be able to do that.

[Narrator]

So as Lieutenant Zywicki looks over the room, he's searching everywhere, just anywhere, to see what could have been used as the murder weapon.

[Investigator]

We found extension cords in the room that were used to plug things in. She also had the polling type of shades that you can pull and control that had that rope on them, too.

[Narrator]

None of the items that he was finding in that room matched the marks on her neck. Any other evidence found in this room?

[Investigator]

There was a little bit of blood evidence that was found on the sheets and the pillowcases. There was no signs of a struggle, no ransacking. And actually, when I had first shown up, I went into the breezeway area. She had a piano, and on top of that was some cash from a piano lesson. And that money wasn't taken. This wasn't a robbery.

[Narrator]

Did the scene seem staged?

[Investigator]

Yes, absolutely. The way her mother had found her, she was in bed. She was covered up. Her head was on the pillow as if she was sleeping or as if someone placed her back in bed to make it look like she was sleeping.

[Narrator]

Investigators are talking to Jessie's mother. They're trying to figure out what happened. And in those conversations, Jesse's mother tells detectives something really unusual. That Jesse's hair and pants were wet in bed when she found her daughter.

[Investigator]

It appeared to be that she was bathed. That struck me as extremely odd.

[Narrator]

Now, a mystery surrounded the death of a 19 year old woman in Washington County.

[Reporter]

She died in Hartford.

[Friend of Jesse]

When we found out that she had been murdered, there was a panic in Hartford. We were so scared. There was a dangerous person on the.

[Director/Community Member]

Loose to have an actress killed after the first week of your musical. It was beyond any imagination.

[Friend of Jesse]

Holy cow. Something's happening in our area.

[Buck Blodgett]

Nobody saw this coming.

[Director/Community Member]

Nobody knew who had killed her or what had even happened. This was all just completely a mystery.

[911 Operator]

Ma', am, you stay in line with me. We're going to get EMS out for you. She's cold to the touch and she's blue. She's got. It looks like strangulation marks. There are strangulation marks. That's what it looks like. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on.

[Buck Blodgett]

After talking with Joy and her telling me what she saw on Jesse's neck, we realized somebody had had intentionally taken her life.

[Narrator]

So as part of the investigation, you're canvassing the neighborhood did you get any helpful tips from neighbors?

[Investigator]

We'd gone to each one of the houses in the neighborhood, even in the back neighborhoods. Nobody saw anything and there was nothing that rose anyone's suspicions. We have a killer in our community and it could be anyone.

[Friend of Jesse]

I had no idea who would ever want to hurt her. We were so scared.

[Investigator]

This case absolutely stood out to us. We don't have homicides in the city of Hartford. They're very, very rare.

[Director/Community Member]

Hartford, Wisconsin, is a small town. We're just off the northwest corner of the greater metropolitan Milwaukee area.

[Investigator]

Beautiful community, roughly 16,000 people.

[Friend of Jesse]

There's a lot of art, there's a lot of performing arts.

[Buck Blodgett]

Hartford kind of exemplifies the heartland of America.

[Friend of Jesse]

Perk Place is like a staple in Hartford. It's the local coffee shop. It's where a lot of high school students would go out and hang. If you didn't know where Jessie was, you would probably be able to find her at Perk Place.

[Narrator]

Buck, Stephanie.

[911 Operator]

Hello.

[Randy Talley]

Hello.

[Narrator]

Perk Place, hot spot in town. And that's where I met Jesse's dad in downtown Hartford, Wisconsin.

[Buck Blodgett]

Jesse loved this little shop. Often was in the habit of coming after school with friends. They'd come here and do homework or just hang out and have fun. This is Jessie when she's one day old. And that's a very tired but very present looking Joy who had just had her. It was the most miraculous day of my life.

[Narrator]

Jessie was Joy's and Buck's only child. They only had one daughter. So for Joy, this is still too much. She can't speak about this. It's too heartbreaking for her.

[Buck Blodgett]

It's too painful. We had to leave Hartford so she didn't have to relive the nightmare constantly. Every day. I miss everything about Jesse. Our bond just. It got deeper as the years passed. We talk about everything and my kid, it was never an issue. Trying to pull anything out of Jessie, I couldn't shut her up sometimes she just was free to talk about everything and things that mattered.

[Friend of Jesse]

Sometimes I would get annoyed. I would be like, let's just talk about high school things. But she was definitely wise beyond her years.

[Buck Blodgett]

She was the kid at the high school parties that chastised the smokers and the drinkers. She had great inner strength and belief.

[Friend of Jesse]

Music was so important to Jessie. It was her way to express herself.

[Narrator]

So she started playing piano as a kid.

[Buck Blodgett]

As a kid, first grade, yeah. I took piano with Jessie because I thought I would need to in order for her to stay in it. She was so far Ahead of me and loved it so much. She didn't need me anymore, so I just dropped out.

[Friend of Jesse]

I met Jesse in high school. We heard someone playing piano and singing, and we're like, we don't recognize that voice. Who is that? We convinced her to try out for the concert choir, and she was incredible. Jesse wrote her own music. I think that was what made her unique. That's what made her special, and that's what drew a lot of us to her.

[Buck Blodgett]

Jesse's coming out party as a local musician was the eighth grade talent show. The first song she ever wrote. Joy and I had not heard. We didn't even know about it. She starts to play, and she starts to sing, and I hear what's coming out of my kid, And then the whole place exploded. In standing ovation, and she won the talent show. It was the first time for me. It was the first time I really saw her talent as a musician.

[Narrator]

Super musical. So in college, she auditioned for the University of Wisconsin music program.

[Friend of Jesse]

So you want to do your name.

[Narrator]

And introduce your pieces?

[911 Operator]

Okay.

[Friend of Jesse]

Well, my name is Jesse Blodgett. I'm a freshman at uwm. Right now, I'm in the English education program, hopefully transferring to music ed. After her audition, you know, she called me, and she just was beaming. She made it into the school of music. Well done. Thank you.

[Buck Blodgett]

Her dream and her vision was being a music teacher. She really thought that she was going to change the world through music. Music was going to be her vehicle.

[Director/Community Member]

I took on the directing for the the Fiddler on the Roof production. I first met Jesse at auditions. She stuck out even from that first night of auditions. She had an effervescence and an energy that was infectious, and she could play the fiddle that I had no idea someone was gonna walk through the door and present that way.

[Buck Blodgett]

She came home one day, and she said, I'm the fiddler. She loved the cast. She called them her second family. Jesse's last weekend on earth was opening weekend for the Fiddler on the Roof.

[Investigator]

We talked to the director. Did anyone have a problem with Jesse? Were there any jealousy issues? Were there anything that could potentially lead someone to feel that they needed to harm her? Because my mind started to think that this could have potentially been a target attack. They knew their way around the house. They knew where Jesse's bedroom was, and that's where they went. The crime lab did the rape analysis, where they end up checking for any body fluids. It usually takes time to get results back from any type of sexual assault kit that would be Done. Or any type of evidence that was potentially found on Jesse's body.

[Narrator]

As investigators are waiting for the results to see if Jesse was sexually assaulted, they're trying to piece together a timeline of Jesse's last day.

[Investigator]

We made the determination that she was killed that morning simply by when we got there, the body temperature was still warm. She did not have rigor mortis that had set in.

[Buck Blodgett]

They had performed Friday and Saturday, and then Sunday afternoon matinee. Then they had the cast party, the traditional late night cast party. Jesse came home kind of late and was a little troubled.

[Investigator]

The diary that she had that she was keeping, we found next to her bed.

[Narrator]

Detectives learn that Jesse wrote in her diary just hours before she was murdered. And something that she wrote immediately jumps out at them.

[Investigator]

In a way, I'm furious. There was a subject in the cast that she was furious at who was a little older than her. You might want to find out why she was upset with this person.

[Narrator]

It's a big clue in this investigation. And that diary ends includes a name.

[Investigator]

She was an actress, a musician, and.

[Buck Blodgett]

Also a college student.

[Friend of Jesse]

My name is Jesse Blanchett. I'm a freshman at UWM right now.

[Investigator]

But now 19 year old Jesse is at the center of a bizarre murder mystery.

[Buck Blodgett]

Everyone, everyone wanted answers. Nobody had any.

[Director/Community Member]

It was very much like hearing that your daughter had been killed. I cannot imagine what Buck went through.

[Buck Blodgett]

You know, I was sorry for her dad not being there when she needed him most. And that I would never stop loving her and I would never forget her.

[Investigator]

We did a full workup on Jessie Blodgett. Her friends, who she knew, who they knew, where she worked, what type of person Jessie was. And when we did that, Jessie was an amazing person. She was doing everything in life, right? Everything.

[Friend of Jesse]

Jesse had no enemies that I could think of.

[Buck Blodgett]

The detectives asked us if we had any thoughts about who might have done this. And we did have some thoughts. There was the guys who trimmed our trees who were in the trees literally over Jesse's bedroom trimming big limbs just the week before. And they came in the morning and she was sleeping.

[Investigator]

That is potentially a lead here. The trees that they were working on overlooked her bedroom window.

[Narrator]

Where were those trees? Just right back here.

[Investigator]

Yeah, those trees were right over in this area.

[Narrator]

And that's a window to her room.

[Investigator]

It is.

[Narrator]

It's her bedroom.

[Investigator]

They're here for a day, two days, three days. They're picking up what the routine of the house is. When do mom and dad leave?

[Buck Blodgett]

I just thought, you know, maybe they had thoughts seeing her or thinking about her in her bedroom.

[Investigator]

We interviewed people from the tree cutting place and we were able to determine that none of the tree cutters were involved in this.

[Narrator]

But Buck tells detectives about a concern that Jesse had about another individual.

[Buck Blodgett]

There was an old man in a restaurant where she was a waitress right in our neighborhood. And he had once done an inappropriate thing when she was on the job. He positioned himself in a narrow hall where the waitresses had to come into contact with him, had to rub against him as they passed.

[Narrator]

But detectives are able to determine that that former co worker wasn't even in town when Jesse was murdered. So he's completely cleared.

[Director/Community Member]

There is still no official cause of death.

[Buck Blodgett]

Authorities say they are awaiting toxicology results. According to a police affidavit, Jesse's mother says after coming home from a cast.

[Director/Community Member]

Party about 1am Jessie went to bed alone.

[Melissa Etzler]

The cast party was at a really neat property.

[Director/Community Member]

It was out on a farm. There were llamas out there, this big swimming pool and the kids were swimming and playing.

[Melissa Etzler]

We were having chicken fights.

[Friend of Jesse]

It was just fun.

[Director/Community Member]

Jesse was happy and smiling. I'm actually in that video with Jess sitting next to me chatting. Jess comes up and sits down in the chair next to me and is just bubbly as all get out and tells me how much fun she had had this first weekend being this character. I was thrilled to hear this.

[Buck Blodgett]

Jesse came home from the cast party that night. Joy heard Jesse come in and got up and asked her how was the day and the party. And Jesse was a little troubled.

[Investigator]

She had a talk with her about being uncomfortable at the party with this older male subject who she thought became a little too flirtatious with her. Jesse was uncomfortable enough to write it in her diary and leave it for us as evidence.

[Narrator]

This was her last entry into her diary. This was written the night before she was.

[Investigator]

It was. I think I'm being corrupted. I think certain men are taking what should be platonic love and perverting it into competition. In a way, I'm furious.

[Narrator]

And Jesse writes about just this relationship with an older castmate that she needs to clearly define that relationship. And that castmate's name is Randy Talley.

[Melissa Etzler]

Randy Talley was the choreographer for the show.

[Director/Community Member]

He also played one of the young men with a leading role in it.

[Buck Blodgett]

The Bible clearly teaches us never trust an employee.

[Melissa Etzler]

At the cast party, I did see her sitting in his lap.

[Friend of Jesse]

It was around a fire.

[Investigator]

This was a 46 year old individual and she was 19.

[Melissa Etzler]

I did feel very unsettled seeing her in his lap. I just remember feeling like, is this something that she's okay with? Because if yes, then whatever, that's their business.

[Friend of Jesse]

But if not, I just felt this.

[Melissa Etzler]

Like, what if she's not comfortable?

[Friend of Jesse]

Like, does she need somebody to intervene? It just stuck with me.

[Narrator]

Detectives have seen this entry that talks about an older castmate, Brandy Talley. They've got questions for him now. They call him in for an interview.

[Buck Blodgett]

What happened?

[Randy Talley]

Well, let me get to that.

[Director/Community Member]

He was probably one of the last people to see her. Certainly the police would want to talk to him.

[Randy Talley]

I'm getting the vibe it's like, from me.

[Director/Community Member]

Yeah.

[Randy Talley]

Just that you feel like you got a little more tone.

[Investigator]

That was another one of those red flags for us.

[Buck Blodgett]

I just can't believe this. I hugged her goodbye last night and now she's gone.

[Narrator]

And there's something else. Investigators here don't know yet that just three days earlier, in a town just about 15 minutes away, there had been that other violent attack on a young woman.

[Melissa Etzler]

I saw the knife in his hand. I was terrified.

[Randy Talley]

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[Buck Blodgett]

I'm going to cross the seven continents.

[Reporter]

Because the answ important are out there at the edges of our world. I'm stepping into the unknown. Where are we going to see our planet? This is amazing as it's never been seen before. From pole to pole, Pole to Pole with Will Smith from National Geographic now streaming on Disney and Hulu.

[911 Operator]

Show me the way.

[Reporter]

We are going to begin with the mysterious death of a teenage actress. Her mother discovered her dead in her bedroom the day after a cast party.

[Melissa Etzler]

We were all terrified.

[Friend of Jesse]

Oh my gosh.

[Melissa Etzler]

Is it somebody that we were working with on this show?

[Narrator]

And Jesse had mentioned that someone in the cast had made her feel uncomfortable.

[Investigator]

The subject was identified as Randy Talley. It was a 46 year old individual and she was 19.

[Narrator]

One of Jesse's friends tells investigators they saw Randy pull Jesse onto his lap at one of the cast parties.

[Investigator]

We subsequently were able to have an interview with Randy and determine whether he was our suspect in this homicide.

[Buck Blodgett]

What happened?

[Investigator]

Detective Thickens conducted the interview.

[Randy Talley]

Okay, I can tell you Jesse was found deceased today by your parents. They found her early this afternoon. Okay. So that.

[Buck Blodgett]

Can you tell me anything about the circumstances of finding her?

[Randy Talley]

Well, that's what I'm trying to figure out. It's not real clear right now.

[Investigator]

We tried to get his time frame for that period that she had died.

[Friend of Jesse]

Oh my God.

[Detective]

So horrible.

[Investigator]

And that was a little difficult because he was supposed to be at a certain job.

[Randy Talley]

Did you work this morning?

[Buck Blodgett]

No, I did not.

[Investigator]

So that was another one of those red flags for us.

[Narrator]

Randy says he works a temp job and he didn't get a call that day.

[Buck Blodgett]

They tried to call me, but they had the wrong number or something. They didn't get ahold of me until, you know, almost end of the workday.

[Investigator]

We talked with them about how things went at the cast party, what his interpretation was, what his feelings for Jesse were.

[Randy Talley]

What happened to the party?

[Buck Blodgett]

There was swimming and talking and hanging out. I literally sat right next to Jessie for most of the night.

[Randy Talley]

Were you just like sitting next to her or was she like sitting tight up?

[Buck Blodgett]

We were on a couch with four or five kids. We were about hip to hip.

[Randy Talley]

Okay.

[Buck Blodgett]

I think I probably put my hand on her back a few times. She may have touched my leg a.

[Investigator]

Few times to make.

[Randy Talley]

So you would have had some contact with her? Sure. Impression from her that anything was wrong?

[Detective]

No.

[Randy Talley]

Unkosher.

[Reporter]

No.

[Buck Blodgett]

No. You know, in fact, we had the best night Sunday night.

[Investigator]

We had also learned through our investigation that at another cast party, Jesse was actually sitting on his lap.

[Randy Talley]

One of the things that one comments I got from one of Their people that was at the party was that they seem like you guys are flirting a little bit. One of the things they said was that we had the party on Saturday night. You pulled her on your lap.

[Detective]

I did.

[Friend of Jesse]

Okay.

[Buck Blodgett]

She's one of my favorite people in the cast.

[Randy Talley]

Okay. Did anything more than that happen?

[Buck Blodgett]

Absolutely not. Okay.

[Randy Talley]

I gotta. I mean, I'm not. I don't wanna understand this.

[Buck Blodgett]

I understand the questioning. I understand exactly what you're saying.

[Randy Talley]

Okay.

[Buck Blodgett]

I felt very close to her. I never. I never kissed her.

[Randy Talley]

Okay.

[Buck Blodgett]

Or anything beyond what those people saw.

[Randy Talley]

Like you said, you got.

[Buck Blodgett]

You know, I have a girlfriend. And. Yeah, you know, that probably would.

[Randy Talley]

Probably would repress her a lot.

[Buck Blodgett]

It would not. I mean. But you know what?

[Detective]

I mean?

[Friend of Jesse]

It was.

[Buck Blodgett]

It's not anything I'm ashamed of. You know, I'm a demonstratively affectionate person.

[Investigator]

We had learned that he had a longtime girlfriend. He was in what we would have considered a stable relationship since Randy had physical relationships.

[Narrator]

Contact with Jesse in the last few days. They ask him for a DNA sample and he agrees to it.

[Randy Talley]

Swab it up, back and forth inside of your cheek.

[Investigator]

I would stay in a different room, watch the interview.

[Randy Talley]

I'll be back within 30 seconds.

[Detective]

Okay?

[Randy Talley]

Yeah. Okay.

[Investigator]

And then Detective Thickens would come out. We would confer a little bit.

[Randy Talley]

Do you want anything to drink? I need caffeine.

[Investigator]

And then he would go back in and he would reinitiate the questioning.

[Randy Talley]

Okay. I. I don't want to leave here. I guess with the vibe that there's something more, that maybe you have some more insight. That's what I'm getting. I don't. Okay.

[Buck Blodgett]

I wish. I wish I had some more insight. I can't imagine this.

[Narrator]

Detectives want to know, if you didn't go to work that day, what were you actually doing?

[Randy Talley]

So what did you end up doing today when you were. Did you get a day to sleep in after? What, did you.

[Buck Blodgett]

Yeah, I stayed. I just kind of slept in. I Facebooked some friends. I. I sent out a couple of resumes.

[Detective]

I.

[Buck Blodgett]

You know, I hung around the house, I guess.

[Randy Talley]

Actors. I have a hard time reading sometimes what emotions people have. That's why. I don't know if that's why I'm getting the vibe. It's like I. I mean, the vibe from who?

[Melissa Etzler]

From me.

[Randy Talley]

Just that you feel like you got a little more to tell me. But if you don't know, that's fine.

[Buck Blodgett]

I'm just.

[Director/Community Member]

If there's any.

[Randy Talley]

If there's something. Nothing you can think of.

[911 Operator]

No.

[Buck Blodgett]

I'm just floored, sir.

[Detective]

I'm just.

[Buck Blodgett]

I just can't believe this.

[Friend of Jesse]

Okay?

[Buck Blodgett]

I hugged her goodbye last night, and now she's gone.

[Investigator]

He was asked, did he commit this homicide, and he adamantly denied that he had any involvement in it.

[Director/Community Member]

I didn't know Randy very well, but I never saw anything that caused me to say, oh, wait a minute. I've got a member of my production staff who I feel is unsafe with these young people. That kind of thought never, ever occurred to me.

[Randy Talley]

This is the joy of my job, Coach.

[Buck Blodgett]

Come on.

[Narrator]

But detectives aren't so sure. They want to take a closer look at what Randy was doing the day of the murder. And meanwhile, investigators just a few towns over are working their own disturbing case.

[Reporter]

And got a phone call. There was a alleged attack at the park.

[911 Operator]

I really thought I was gonna die.

[Reporter]

Was like, oh, boy, here.

[Investigator]

We started to wonder if this is something that could be potentially connected.

[Buck Blodgett]

This is unreal.

[Randy Talley]

My fear is that this happened. This is somebody that knew her. He said, you haven't been to her house?

[Detective]

Never.

[Buck Blodgett]

I don't know where she lives.

[Investigator]

What led us to a guy named Randy Talley was Jesse's last entry in her diary, where she speaks of this person that made her feel uncomfortable at the cast party.

[Buck Blodgett]

I'm a hugger. I hug people.

[Randy Talley]

You know her. I mean, you're saying you don't know her a lot?

[Buck Blodgett]

I'm saying that I've known her for six weeks.

[Randy Talley]

Okay.

[Buck Blodgett]

And that I feel very close to her. I'm completely freaking out.

[Randy Talley]

So there weren't any tiffs or hot moments or anything like that?

[911 Operator]

No, not any.

[Narrator]

Detectives want to verify Randy's story, so they pull his phone records.

[Investigator]

We were able to determine his movements. So there was an impossibility that he would have been able to be at the house on that day. Mr. Talley was ruled out as a suspect in this case.

[Narrator]

As all of this is going on just a few towns over, investigators with the Washington county sheriff's office are investigating their own case of a young woman attacked just three days before Jesse Blodgett's murder.

[911 Operator]

We're gonna need probably an ambulance. My son's girlfriend was just attacked in a park by a guy.

[Narrator]

So July 12th, you are here. Yes. Walking your dog.

[Melissa Etzler]

Yep.

[Narrator]

Was there anybody else out here when you first arrived?

[Melissa Etzler]

I remember there being one person here. He was sitting in a van, but I didn't really think anything of it because it's a public park.

[Reporter]

So Melissa said that she ended her walk with the dog, walked Back to her, and she had turned around and there's a guy running towards her.

[Narrator]

When did it hit you that you were in real danger?

[Melissa Etzler]

When I turned around and said, oh, you scared me. And he didn't stop. He just kept coming. And that's when I saw the knife in his hand. He just straight up tackled me. I grabbed the knife and I've got the blade end in my hand and I'm just yelling at him like, what are you doing?

[Narrator]

Did you get the wherewithal to put your hand on the knife blade?

[Melissa Etzler]

My body was like, you know what? This is our best bet at survival. I knew I had a grip on the knife and I was not letting go. My adrenaline just really kicked in and was like, you don't have time to feel pain right now. You need to survive. A lot of people also said, like, why didn't your dog bite him? She just turned a year old. She just was standing there and probably just kind of confused.

[Reporter]

Then he went back, ran back to his van and took off. Then she went to her car, threw the knife into the car and drove home.

[Narrator]

Who was your first call? Joel?

[Melissa Etzler]

We weren't even dating for that long.

[Investigator]

She was just frantic. She said, I just got attacked.

[Buck Blodgett]

I just told her to go to my parents house.

[Investigator]

And I stayed on the phone with.

[Buck Blodgett]

Her the whole time I'm on the.

[Melissa Etzler]

Phone, My hand is ripped open. There's just blood everywhere. I'm so thankful that he was there and he kept me calm because that's. I truly believe that's what helped save my life.

[Narrator]

And then Your dad calls 911.

[911 Operator]

He tackled her, she fought him off and everything in the park. She's got his knife, she's bleeding from the hand, her leg. Okay. Did she know this person?

[Detective]

No.

[Reporter]

In our area, there's very little stranger on stranger crime. You're very cynical at first, right? You're like, it probably is some bs, something manufactured. But that was my initial thought. When I got to the hospital, I introduced myself and talked to Melissa. Okay, this is detective closing July 12th.

[Melissa Etzler]

Yes.

[Reporter]

Menominee Falls Hospital. She was obviously, obviously distraught. She was obviously shook. So what happened?

[Melissa Etzler]

So then he tackled me on the ground. I somehow managed to grab the knife from him. I mean, I really, honestly couldn't tell you how I got it, but I did. I'm just glad that you didn't hurt my dog.

[911 Operator]

I really thought I was gonna die, but I grabbed it and I was like, oh, do that to me.

[Reporter]

So did he ever say anything to you at all?

[911 Operator]

When I was Grabbing it from him.

[Melissa Etzler]

He said, can I go? He was asking me if he could go. And I was like, no, no.

[911 Operator]

And he tried grabbing the knife away from me. And I'm like, if you're gonna go.

[Melissa Etzler]

I'm taking this with me. And he started running back to his car.

[911 Operator]

And then I got out of there as fast as I could.

[Melissa Etzler]

He didn't say a word until, can I just go?

[Narrator]

And what did that sounds like?

[Melissa Etzler]

Weak, scared. It sounded confused. And who asks that anyways? I mean, what a weird thing to ask.

[Narrator]

So the detective calls you?

[Investigator]

Yep.

[Narrator]

What did the detective say?

[Investigator]

Just, like, interrogating me, asking me where.

[Buck Blodgett]

I was last night. How do I know her?

[Narrator]

Detectives have cleared Melissa's boyfriend, and they determine the story that she's telling is true. And there's one particular detail that seals the deal for them.

[Reporter]

She had gravel dust on the toes of her shoes. Her story was that he was on top of her and she was on her stomach. That would create these circles of gravel dust.

[911 Operator]

He was white.

[Buck Blodgett]

He's a white guy.

[Melissa Etzler]

Blonde hair. Blonde hair, black framed glasses.

[Reporter]

And she described him to a T. And she was, to this day, one of the better witnesses I've ever talked to in my entire life. She would have made a better witness than I did. Would you be able to do a composite sketch on him?

[Melissa Etzler]

Could try, for sure.

[Investigator]

This sketch was very detailed, and it was actually pretty remarkable. Her recollection of this attacker during a traumatic incident where she's being attacked and possibly going to be killed.

[Narrator]

Washington county deputies are searching for a man who assaulted a woman in richfield.

[Randy Talley]

Historic.

[Reporter]

I remember watching it on tv.

[911 Operator]

And.

[Reporter]

I'm like, why is nobody calling? Nothing. Zero, zip. Not a single call. You get that realization, like, wow, this is not going to be easy to solve.

[Narrator]

But soon there's an unexpected breakthrough in the knife attack on Melissa.

[Reporter]

And I was like, holy. That never happens.

[Narrator]

They zero in on a suspect, but when they track him down, no one can believe where they find him.

[Reporter]

I was wondering if I could talk to you. And he's like, sure. And I'm like, where are you?

[Investigator]

He was portraying himself as something that he absolutely wasn't.

[Friend of Jesse]

He was with us when we were grieving. He saw our pain.

[Narrator]

Both cases, very different, but investigators are now piecing the puzzle together.

[Investigator]

Yes.

[Narrator]

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[Investigator]

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[Randy Talley]

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[Investigator]

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[Narrator]

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[Investigator]

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[Buck Blodgett]

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[Detective]

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[Reporter]

Makes you effortlessly beautiful.

[Buck Blodgett]

From executive producer Ryan Murphy.

[Reporter]

This is the closest to the fountain of youth any has ever gotten.

[Melissa Etzler]

Again, are there side effects?

[Friend of Jesse]

I just went in, woke up and it looked like this.

[Investigator]

I would like the first pope.

[Buck Blodgett]

FX is the Beauty. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for bundle subscribers.

[Randy Talley]

Now.

[Friend of Jesse]

A mystery surrounding the death of a.

[Randy Talley]

19 year old woman in Washington County.

[Investigator]

15,000 people have been on edge ever since Jesse blodgett's murder.

[Narrator]

That 19 year old UWM student was found dead inside her family's home. That crime sent shockwaves through Hartford. Fiddler on the Roof. Jesse's a part of the cast.

[Buck Blodgett]

She was the fiddler. And after she was murdered, the Hartford players didn't know if they should do the second weekend without Jesse. Everybody was traumatized.

[Melissa Etzler]

What do we do now? Do we cancel? What would Jesse want us to do?

[Friend of Jesse]

It was very challenging to get back into it.

[Buck Blodgett]

They debated it hard and decided together that Jesse would want the show to go on. And they were right.

[Director/Community Member]

Final decision was made to take a candle. We placed it up there where she had originally sat and that candle was lit through the entire musical.

[Buck Blodgett]

Just a lit candle because they said Jesse wasn't replaceable, so why even try?

[Director/Community Member]

The symbolism of the Fiddler sitting on the roof is that life is always tenuous and you never really know what's going to happen next. She could never have known that that harm was coming toward her.

[Narrator]

While police in Hartford, Wisconsin are investigating Jesse's murder, they don't know yet that Jesse. Three days earlier there had been a violent attack on Melissa Etzler in a nearby town. Washington county deputies are searching for a man who assaulted a woman in Richfield Historical Park.

[Friend of Jesse]

When I found out about the attack in the park, I did think it was related because we live in a small town so there's not a lot of crime that happens here.

[Reporter]

The detective that went down to process Melissa's car located a night on the passenger floorboard of the vehicle. And then later Melissa was like, that's the knife that I took from him.

[Investigator]

Blood on the handle still. Most likely her blood from the defensive wound of her hand.

[Reporter]

We had assigned a detective go to the park. There was a litany of evidence through the driveway of the parking lot.

[Investigator]

There were sunglasses that were, were located there.

[Reporter]

And then we found a roll of tape, ventilation tape.

[Investigator]

It's kind of like an aluminum Backing on it a little bit so that when you put it on, it sticks real tight, and it's real hard to get out of.

[Reporter]

Why would he have a roll of tape on it? This is not a robbery. I've done legit robberies. It's a threat of force. Guy with a gun, guy with a knife. We now have your attention, but that's followed by a request. Give me your wallet, your necklace. And then you go in deeper and you're thinking, well, why didn't he hide his identity? Put on a mask, put on a cap. Why didn't he? Absolutely nothing. Really. The answer is because he didn't expect that there would be a witness. Probably because he wanted to take her with him.

[Melissa Etzler]

And that's when my brain was like, oh, were you trying to kidnap me? Were you trying to rape me? What is this?

[Investigator]

He was probably going to bind her up somehow or control her that way. So she really showed a lot of strength and a lot of determination to survive by fighting him off.

[Reporter]

Tuesday, July 16th, 139. We're in Ridgefield at the historical park. Melissa's going to walk us through what had occurred. Was it the 12th on July 12th?

[Melissa Etzler]

It was the 12th. Friday, so.

[Narrator]

So a couple of days after the incident, you come back with police.

[Melissa Etzler]

I basically walked them through the park of what happened during the attack, right.

[Buck Blodgett]

To the gravel car.

[Melissa Etzler]

After this, I still had my leg bandaged up from the hospital. The whole side of my leg was just ripped up from being tackled on the ground. I noticed he was looking at me out of his car. And when he noticed that I saw him, he went like this, so I, like, couldn't see he was there.

[Friend of Jesse]

Okay.

[Detective]

But she did say something about a blue minivan van. That's a pretty common vehicle, at least in Washington county.

[911 Operator]

Where was the divan at?

[Melissa Etzler]

Right here.

[Narrator]

So something really interesting happens. Just two weeks before the attack on Melissa. An officer on routine patrol in that same park makes a crucial observation.

[Investigator]

Richfield Historical Park. There's not a lot of traffic at all. If you see three cars in the parking lot at one time, that's quite a busy day. Part of our duties are property checks and park checks.

[Detective]

I drove through this park at least once a day.

[Investigator]

I saw a single vehicle.

[Detective]

Tend to recognize the vehicles you see.

[Investigator]

On a regular basis. This was one I hadn't seen before.

[Detective]

I ran the register registration.

[Investigator]

I did a brief background check.

[Detective]

There were no red flags, no criminal.

[Investigator]

History, Nothing that caused any concern.

[Buck Blodgett]

I concluded that the registered owners were.

[Investigator]

Probably just out here walking or walking Their dog.

[Narrator]

So he hears from fellow officers that they're looking for a similar vehicle that may have been involved in that attack.

[Reporter]

Andy came up to me and said, hey, I don't know if it'll help or not, but there was this blue van parked and here's the plate. Here you go. Thanks, Andy.

[Investigator]

With that license plate, we were subsequently able to identify who the vehicle belonged to.

[Reporter]

It came back to a couple out of Ridgefield, right. Local.

[Detective]

So then detectives went out to their house and they said, do you have this minivan? They said, yes, our son uses this mini.

[Director/Community Member]

Then.

[Reporter]

And found out that they had a 20 year old son. So I called him, said an investigating incident that happened last Friday, I was wondering if I could talk to you. And they said he'd be there in 15 minutes. Right. I hung up the phone and I looked at Aaron. I was like, holy Aaron. He never asked me what this is about. That never happens.

[911 Operator]

It's just hot in here, cuz.

[Narrator]

And when they sit down to talk to him, he says he something about Jesse Blodgett's murder that raises some serious alarms. That's information that hadn't been released.

[Buck Blodgett]

Correct.

[Investigator]

So that would be inside information that he shouldn't have had.

[Buck Blodgett]

Everybody has had some mix of broken bones or broken heart or broken dreams or broken relationships, but I've never had a pain that was 1/100th literally of the intensity and the duration of this pain.

[911 Operator]

I'll be here for you.

[Friend of Jesse]

The day after Jesse had been murdered, some of us friends were invited to go over to the Blodgett house. We thought it would be a good idea to be there for her parents, especially with her being the only child.

[Investigator]

It was all of Jesse's friends.

[Buck Blodgett]

That house was back to the gills with people.

[Narrator]

Mariah, Jackie and Ian were among Jesse's closest friends that were there that day, along with Jesse's former boyfriend, Dan Bartelt. Those are some good friends.

[Buck Blodgett]

Those are some good friends, some good kids, some good young human beings. We formed a big circle in our living room around the fireplace and told stories. You know, just shared memories and shared tears and shared hugs.

[Friend of Jesse]

We were also laughing Jesse's life, I mean, she was a light in this world.

[Buck Blodgett]

Dan was Jesse's first boyfriend back in freshman year of high school. Jesse was kind of head over heels for Dan temporarily for I think about three months. Dan broke up with Jesse, but so they stayed friends.

[Friend of Jesse]

You would see them laughing or hanging out or just doing music together.

[Buck Blodgett]

They sat right next to each other in school for four years. First and Second chair violins in the orchestra.

[Friend of Jesse]

Dan was also very musically talented as well. He was very similar to Jesse in that way.

[Buck Blodgett]

They were in a lot of the musicals and the plays together. And Dan was just over the week before playing music in Jesse's music room.

[Friend of Jesse]

With her when we were gathered as friends the day after Jesse had died. I sat with Dan on the fireplace and I was holding his hand and I had my head on his shoulder crying, and he squeezed my hand in comfort.

[Buck Blodgett]

And then his cell phone rang.

[Friend of Jesse]

So he excused himself from the room and went over into the dining room and was on the phone for a while. He came back into the room and he said, okay, well, I have to go and said, I was just on the phone with a police officer and they asked me to come down to the station for an interview.

[Buck Blodgett]

And Joy said, you know, don't worry, Dan, police are going to want to talk to all of Jesse's friends.

[Friend of Jesse]

So we drove him to the police station, we dropped him off, and he just simply said, pick me up in 30 minutes.

[Narrator]

The police do want to talk to Dan, but not about Jesse's murder. Instead, they want to ask him about the park attack on Melissa.

[Reporter]

We need, you know, to talk to him because I, I have his picture and that was a heck of a resemblance for the sketch that I had in my hand.

[911 Operator]

Okay. My name's Joel Fosing. That's hair and walls. Just so you know, you're not in trouble. Okay. Did you get dropped up here or. Yes, I get dropped up. Who dropped me up? Some friends of mine.

[Reporter]

All these different questions gets a person talking. What's your name? What do you do? Do you have a job where you.

[911 Operator]

Work at Roller Associate Engineering.

[Investigator]

And what do you do there?

[911 Operator]

Mostly cut around materials there. This is about an incident that Detective Walch and our investigator happened last Friday. So this happened at a park. And if you have any knowledge about what this is, best to tell me now. You understand that? Yes. Okay.

[Reporter]

The game plan was to get him to admit to being in that park at the same time that Melissa was.

[911 Operator]

Were you at a park?

[Friend of Jesse]

No.

[911 Operator]

At any park? I don't believe so. Okay. Is it possible that you're at a park now?

[Reporter]

Okay, if this is our guy, he was in a fight on Friday where a girl.

[Friend of Jesse]

The.

[Reporter]

The wounds would still be there. You could see both of us looking occasionally looking underneath tables, looking for abrasions, signs of a strange.

[911 Operator]

I see your hands. What happened on your phone? Cut stab with a screw at work. Oh, grab a. Like a cart that I move my Stuff around on there with a screw through the line.

[Reporter]

Aaron thought, this guy ain't working. Aaron just saw an opening and went, you don't have a job, do you? It was an intuition.

[911 Operator]

If we checked with your employer, would they still. Would you still have your job? No. Okay. That's what I thought. How long. When do you lose your job? A while ago. You carry a lot to go.

[Friend of Jesse]

No.

[Reporter]

First provable lie.

[911 Operator]

No.

[Reporter]

And then now. Now he's on the defense, right? And that's when I went in and said, how did you hurt yourself then? How did you injure your thumb?

[911 Operator]

So then you want to cut your finger at work?

[Director/Community Member]

No.

[911 Operator]

Where'd you cut your finger on that accident? Okay, tell us about that.

[Friend of Jesse]

Where?

[Investigator]

Where?

[911 Operator]

When did this happen? At home. Okay, hold on a second. Let's talk. Okay.

[Reporter]

At the point that I moved my chair, we went from an interview to an interrogation.

[911 Operator]

Listen, nobody in the right mind would lie about cutting themselves if it happened at home, cooking. What happened? Just be honest. I've gone to the park before. I've been there.

[Reporter]

So we're knocking down dominoes, right? We have our guy. He's now admitted to being there.

[911 Operator]

Things aren't going well for you, and we can understand. Okay? And then when things aren't going well for people, they do things that are very much out of character.

[Reporter]

And what you have to do is basically make them understand or make them feel like telling you the truth is better than not telling you the truth.

[911 Operator]

If nobody made a mistake, they wouldn't put erasers on pencils. They made a mistake, made a mistake, made mistake not telling the parents that I got fired and haven't been working.

[Narrator]

They up the pressure, telling him there's evidence, there's blood on the knife. It's being processed by the crime lab. Finally, Dan cracks.

[911 Operator]

I was at the park. Correct. And you went after that girl. Right. Okay. Why? I'm scared. It's. Life scares me. I don't handle it well. College was stressful enough. College. And so I'm employed, and I wanted to scare someone else. Everyone else.

[Reporter]

When. That's right. That was just his out. Fine.

[Detective]

In his version of events, it was to quote, unquote, to scare Melissa. But we didn't believe that.

[911 Operator]

So you're under arrest. Okay. You understand that? Yes. Stand up.

[Detective]

He was arrested by law enforcement, and then we charged him with an attempted murder and a recklessly endangering safety.

[Melissa Etzler]

I was very thankful because I was scared that he was, like, gonna come back and finish the job.

[Narrator]

As for Dan's friends The ones who had dropped him off at the police station, they had no idea this was all going on.

[Friend of Jesse]

And so we came back in 30 minutes and we said, we're looking for Dan. And a police officer came out and said, we can't release Dan. He's being detained right now. We were so confused and we just assumed that meant we could come pick him up later.

[Narrator]

So one arrest has been made and investigators are now wondering, is it possible that the man who attacked Melissa could have also killed his own friend?

[Detective]

He was living this secret life.

[Friend of Jesse]

Washington county sheriff's deputies arrested a man.

[Narrator]

For a attacking a woman in Richfield Historical Park.

[Friend of Jesse]

It was all over the news. This young man was taken into custody.

[Melissa Etzler]

The reason why the police found him was because I remembered the van make and model and what it looked like. I'm one of the people that I like to watch crime shows. I do always joke about that. The reason why I was able to remember what he was wearing and how tall he was and his in his weight is because I watched the those shows.

[Friend of Jesse]

Dan and I became friends through high school. How could the guy that, you know, I was friends with do something like that?

[Narrator]

Dan appears to be in denial as well. Just moments after his arrest for attacking Melissa, he asked detectives a really odd question.

[911 Operator]

Anyone with a record, please notice that anything what interested this.

[Narrator]

But there were two other comments that Dan made during that interview that really struck investigators.

[911 Operator]

Did you get dropped off here or. Yes, I got trouble.

[Detective]

Where.

[911 Operator]

Where were you at again? In ag. How was being Hartford. Jesse Blod. Jesse who? Blod. Is that the girl that just passed? Yeah, we were visiting her face. Okay, sorry, I didn't hear about that.

[Detective]

They just thought it was a little bit odd and unusual that he had been coming from her residence, from this vigil.

[Reporter]

And I asked him, you know, do you know anything about that? And I was making small talk. Right.

[911 Operator]

I had no idea what happened. Someone raped in her. You think so or do you think so or what? Do you think so?

[Investigator]

He said that his friend Jesse had just been murdered and that she had been raped.

[Narrator]

But that's information that hadn't been released.

[Investigator]

That is true. That had not been released.

[Buck Blodgett]

Correct.

[Investigator]

So that would be inside information that he shouldn't have had. This is a detail of the crime scene that only the killer would know.

[Detective]

Daniel Bartelt came from a nice family. He went to church and he was involved in theater.

[Melissa Etzler]

And he also goes to.

[911 Operator]

Dan Bartelt.

[Buck Blodgett]

He was a straight A student. He was one of the few students at Hartford Union High School. Who had a higher GPA than Jesse did. He's a gifted violinist. He's an athlete on the cross country team.

[Friend of Jesse]

Dan Bartelt was funny. I mean, he was a fun person to be around. He lightened up a room. He could pull in a crowd and get people to gravitate toward him. And we, we loved being part of that group. He could sing, he could act, he could write music. He was a good entertainer.

[Narrator]

Dan often showed off his talent. Here he is singing Master of the House from Les Miserables.

[Friend of Jesse]

Master of the house, tuning up the.

[911 Operator]

Charm Ready with the handshake and an open punk.

[Friend of Jesse]

I know that Jesse and Dan were also close at that time. And I was kind of always jealous of their friendship because I was like, Dan is so. He's so fun and he's so smart and he's an overachiever.

[Detective]

And he went off to the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, and he was there his fall semester, freshman year, and then he dropped out of school. His father told him, well, if you're going to be home, you need to work.

[Narrator]

He told his parents he got a job, but he also landed the lead role in a theater production of Bye Bye Birdie. Here he is singing One last Kiss.

[911 Operator]

One last.

[Friend of Jesse]

Jesse and Dan were also close at that time. They made music together, they wrote songs together, they sang together, they recorded together, They loved music together. And it was just a shared love that they had.

[Buck Blodgett]

He's Jesse's friend. He's a good kid. He's never in any trouble.

[Investigator]

Daniel Bartelt was playing the part of an actor who was portraying himself as something that he absolutely wasn't.

[Buck Blodgett]

Dan had been pretending he had a job that he didn't have for months. And nobody knew.

[Detective]

He never worked there. Apparently, he never even had applied for the job.

[Investigator]

He would get up every morning, 5, 5, 30. His mom would pack his lunch for him.

[Reporter]

He would put his lunch pail, his work boots, his computer, and a backpack in a van and drive away from the house. And his parents had no clue that he didn't have a job.

[Investigator]

And in fact, what he was doing is he was hanging out in parks. He was becoming a predator, and he was looking for easy prey.

[Reporter]

He was one of the smartest people that I've ever interviewed. He was a creep. I'm trying to think of a better way to put it. When I found out that he. He had a relationship friendship with Jesse, I knew I was gonna call Hartford right away. As soon as I had time to.

[Investigator]

Do it, the sheriff's department gives us a call and Says we have someone in our custody right now for our attack in Richfield. He's a friend of Jesse's. He knows Jesse. You guys are probably gonna wanna come talk with him. So our detectives had gone over there to conduct an interview with him pertaining to Jesse Blodgett.

[Narrator]

But this time, Dan has an alibi. He says he was at the park.

[Reporter]

Sure enough, he was there like he said he was.

[Narrator]

But there's something else at that park that also catches the detective's eye.

[Investigator]

We got very, very, very lucky.

[Narrator]

Shopping is hard.

[Friend of Jesse]

I can never find anything in my size.

[Buck Blodgett]

I don't even know my size.

[Friend of Jesse]

I buy my clothes the same place.

[Narrator]

I buy my groceries.

[Friend of Jesse]

There's a better way. Make it easy with Stitch Fix.

[Narrator]

Just share your size, style, budget and done.

[Friend of Jesse]

Your personal stylist sends pieces picked just for you.

[Narrator]

That was easy. Stitch Fix online personal styling for everyone. Free shipping and returns.

[Friend of Jesse]

No subscription required. Get started [e-mail].

[Reporter]

Tell me lies is back with an all new season. I'm willing to forgive you after everything you've done.

[Melissa Etzler]

Everything I've done?

[Narrator]

What about everything you've done?

[Reporter]

Now streaming.

[Melissa Etzler]

Every single time you try to make.

[Narrator]

Something better, you end up making it so much worse.

[Investigator]

Every betrayal.

[Melissa Etzler]

Why are you doing this?

[Reporter]

Has consequences.

[911 Operator]

Because I want to hurt you.

[Reporter]

And I don't know how else to do it. Tell me Lies New season now streaming. Streaming on Hulu and for bundle subscribers on Disney plus terms apply.

[Investigator]

When Daniel Bartelt was arrested, the sheriff's department gives us a call and says, we have someone in our custody right now for the attack on Melissa.

[Reporter]

A, he came and met me from Jesse's vigil. B he mentioned that she was raped. You need to look at this guy.

[Investigator]

Sarda, Texas had gone over there to conduct an interview with him.

[Narrator]

So July 17, Rothschild is brought in once again for questioning.

[Investigator]

They had already gotten the evidence and they had enough for the charging for the attack on Melissa. Now we wanted to speak with him about Jesse. And Detective Thickens was leading the investigation at this point, so he conducted the interview with him.

[Randy Talley]

I'm trying to talk to anybody, everybody who might have some information that's going to help me figure out what happened.

[Investigator]

Initially, Dan was cooperative and wanted to say that, you know, how great she was.

[Randy Talley]

What kind of person was Jesse?

[911 Operator]

How would you describe her?

[Reporter]

She gone to hell.

[Director/Community Member]

If one of her friends is having.

[911 Operator]

Trouble at home, she doesn't ignore it.

[Investigator]

Or beat around the bush.

[911 Operator]

She wants to help them confront a crazy tree hugger. And she only ate organic food.

[Investigator]

And then he would become emotional as he was talking.

[911 Operator]

She advocated against.

[Director/Community Member]

One.

[911 Operator]

He finds, violence against women.

[Investigator]

He was exhibiting signs that would show somebody was emotional, putting his head down, making sounds. But every time he would look up, there wasn't a single tear in either one of his eyes.

[Detective]

By this point in time, they knew that he had lied about having a job. They asked him what he was doing that Monday when Jesse was killed. What are you doing Monday?

[911 Operator]

Driving around.

[Investigator]

Where'd you go?

[911 Operator]

To the Bedwood lawn where you live at Woodlawn. Reading, trying to write, like riding outside.

[Detective]

He said that he was at Woodlawn park in fairly close proximity to Jesse's house.

[911 Operator]

What do you think happened to Jesse? I have no idea. Sometimes things happen that are intended.

[Investigator]

You've been in a situation like that.

[911 Operator]

You make me very uncomfortable. Why is that? Would I make you feel uncomfortable because.

[Director/Community Member]

Of what you're trying to send.

[Detective]

You hate.

[Investigator]

The reason he would be asked that question was, what do you think happened to Jesse? Is because we want to see what he's going to tell us. We try to keep them open ended.

[911 Operator]

See how this was helpful. You know what I answer? It's coming up though, if we're going to talk more, to have a lawyer, that's what you want to do.

[Investigator]

He wants to have an attorney present. So we end our interview with him. What we got out of the interview was a little bit more of the time frame during this time that homicide potentially happened.

[Detective]

So officers did what good officers would do and they tried to figure out, okay, is there any way we can tell if Daniel Bartelt was at Woodlawn park?

[Narrator]

How many cameras are set up here throughout the park?

[Investigator]

We've got the one, just the one up at this park. When we pulled that video, saw that he was actually here at the park. He walks this way over towards this pavilion here. There's children in here playing. He walks by these garbage cans here. And then he kind of goes out of frame as he's walking down the pathway to get out of the park.

[Detective]

So that actually corroborated what Daniel had to say, that he was at Woodlawn park on sometime on Monday morning.

[Investigator]

I think Daniel Bartelt was being asked so many questions and he was starting to get so frustrated that he thought the easiest way is maybe feed us a little bit of the truth with a lot of the lies.

[Reporter]

He was there at 10am on Monday morning like he said he was. But there's still between 8 and 10 that he was, you know, that he's unaccounted for. So they went to and pulled all the garbage from that park.

[Detective]

They asked the person in charge of the park when was garbage taken? And he said, well, garbage was last taken on Monday morning around 7 or 7:30.

[Narrator]

At this point, several days have passed since the murder. What were the odds that that evidence would still be there in a trash can like this?

[Investigator]

Closest to zero that you could get, I would say. There's been and there's being lucky and you know, in this line of work you need a little bit of both of them. This case we had a lot of luck.

[Detective]

They did locate something. We called it the mother lode.

[Investigator]

Inside this garbage can, they ended up finding a frosted Mini Wheats box. The top was opened up on it. Stuffed inside that frosted mini Wheats box was a ligature, the rope, alcohol wipes, a ball gag that was homemade, made with the same type of tape that is used for ventilation systems.

[Detective]

This type of tape was located at the crime scene with Melissa.

[Investigator]

I refer to it as a kill kit. It's just someone who has bad intentions to harm someone else. Gathering up all the supplies that they would need to do it. Keeping it all in one place for easy disposal.

[Narrator]

But now the critical question, can they connect these items to Dan? Since Jessie would have been killed sometime after her mother went to work at 8:30 and Dan was seen at the park at 10:25, police believe he would have had plenty of time to dump them there.

[Detective]

They were able to locate Jesse's DNA on the ropes and on some of the antiseptic wipes on that tape.

[Investigator]

They were able to identify a fingerprint belonging to Daniel. Daniel Bartelt. And they were able to identify a hair follicle with DNA matched to Jesse Blodgett. The only DNA that was in that box was Daniel Bartelt's and Jesse's. We've got him.

[Reporter]

We begin with an arrest in the killing of that young Wisconsin actress found dead after a filler on the roof cast party. The suspect is one of her high school classmates.

[Friend of Jesse]

It's the same man who was arrested.

[Narrator]

For assaulting a woman in a Washington county park days before Jesse's death.

[Friend of Jesse]

This is a close friend of Jesse's. They had been hanging out all summer and now all of a sudden he's being charged with her murder.

[Buck Blodgett]

He was welcome in her home. He was over the week before Joy and I couldn't quite believe it.

[Narrator]

Dan Bartelt is charged with first degree intentional homicide and pleads not guilty. Then as detectives continue digging into his relationship with Jesse, they discover a Chilling social media post from just a month and a half before her murder, we.

[Investigator]

Were able to retrieve a Facebook post that Jesse had written about Dan coming into her house.

[Narrator]

Jesse wrote, when Dan Bartelt breaks into your house while you're sleeping to awaken you. And as people start commenting, she adds, he walked into my house and then my room while I was still in bed. What a freak.

[Detective]

He knew how to get in. He knew her parents, he knew her parents worked. And he also would have the perfect alibi. I'm just over here to see Jessie, and we're just going to play some music.

[Friend of Jesse]

I think, honestly, it was a practice. Could I get into her house? Could I get up to her room?

[Narrator]

But that post is just the beginning.

[Reporter]

I did. Search warrants on the home, the van, the computer.

[Investigator]

Looking at this search history, it looked like that Daniel was attempting to play the part of the killer.

[Friend of Jesse]

Opening statement started today in Daniel Bartelt's.

[Narrator]

Murder trial in West Bend. Thirteen months after Jesse's murder, Dan Bartelt walks into a Wisconsin courtroom to face a jury. He would eventually plead guilty to the charge of reckless endangering for that attack on Melissa. And the charge for her attempted murder, that was dismissed. But he insists he's not guilty of killing his friend.

[Friend of Jesse]

We see Jesse's side on one side of the aisle and Dan's side on the other side of the aisle. Like a bizarro horror movie wedding.

[Melissa Etzler]

People were crying, people were angry. You could look at anybody's face and you'd see a different emotion.

[Narrator]

Although Bartelt's DNA was found on Jesse, he was never charged with rape.

[Buck Blodgett]

Our biggest fear was that Dan was going to claim that this was a consensual thing that Jesse participated in. That went wrong, and we knew that wasn't true. That didn't mean he might not claim it in court and smear her name.

[Investigator]

Yes.

[Detective]

There's tons of pieces of evidence. We want to think through a logical order of how we're going to present the case. Jessie's mother, Joy, was our first witness.

[Melissa Etzler]

She didn't ever keep the covers on.

[Narrator]

Her and her bed wasn't cluttered.

[Detective]

Joy was an important witness because she was the person that found Jessie. And she was also on that 911 call.

[911 Operator]

She's cold. She's cold.

[Detective]

She's cold.

[911 Operator]

She's cold. Oh, my God.

[Narrator]

When the defense cross examines Joy, they focus on Jesse and Dan's friendship, suggesting he would have no reason to kill his friend.

[911 Operator]

You would see Dan at the house on those three occasions. Did Jesse and Dan appear to Enjoy each other's company and be having a good time making music.

[Friend of Jesse]

Mm.

[911 Operator]

Yes.

[Friend of Jesse]

Yes.

[Detective]

This was an unusual case because Daniel Bartelt's family actually knew Jesse's family. And there was an interesting dynamic because we had two mothers testify.

[Friend of Jesse]

Daniel Bartelt's mother broke down in tears on the witness stand today.

[Detective]

Love your son.

[Friend of Jesse]

Yes.

[Detective]

Is it fair to say that you and your husband have done everything to provide a decent and loving home?

[Buck Blodgett]

I didn't blame them for this. They didn't do this. I only know them to be a good family who gave him a good environment to grow up in.

[Friend of Jesse]

But when questioned by the defense, Laura Bartelt admitted it was in her son's nature to be a bit of a liar.

[911 Operator]

Was Dan a kid who would lie to you often as he was growing up? Well, yes, from time to time.

[Friend of Jesse]

Time to time.

[Detective]

When you found that out from law enforcement that your son didn't have a job, were you surprised?

[Friend of Jesse]

Yes.

[Detective]

Why were you surprised?

[Narrator]

Because he was leaving every day and I don't know where else he would have been going.

[Friend of Jesse]

Jesse Blodgett's parents walked out of court at one point today. The testimony simply too much to take. A detective took the stand. He testified about some key evidence that he found.

[Detective]

Based upon your experience, was it also an unusual mixture of materials to be located in a cereal box?

[Randy Talley]

Very much so.

[Investigator]

Here we had a box with all the stuff used to kill Jesse.

[Detective]

Rope, laces, antiseptic wipes. And the Intertape 698 was a huge piece of evidence. It's not like duct tape or masking tape or Scotch tape.

[Buck Blodgett]

It's not a common tape. The police couldn't even find any in all the hardware stores in Washington County.

[Detective]

Was located at the crime scene where Melissa was attacked on July 12 in the mother lode of the Frosted Mini Wheat cereal box. And that Same inner tape 698 was also located in Daniel's house. In addition, an actual roll was found under Jesse's bed, and it had Daniel's fingerprints on it.

[Investigator]

We had taken good video and good photographic evidence of her bedroom. You can see in one of the photographs the roll of tape that was underneath her bed.

[Detective]

The defense definitely made some hay out of this roll of tape because that was not initially taken into evidence. Was located about a week later. They never came out and said that somebody planted this tape, but they were trying to cast doubt on the investigation.

[Narrator]

Another important piece of evidence for the prosecution, it was that rope that was found in the cereal box.

[Detective]

Jesse's DNA was Sort of in the.

[Investigator]

Middle of the rope.

[Detective]

And Dan's DNA was located on the ends of the rope by the knots that he made. These same ropes were located by search warren in Daniel's house. It was our theory that Daniel cut this rope at his house. He made a knot around it so it'd be a good grip for him. And then he used that to strangle Jesse. The defense tried to. To claim that there was some sort of cross contamination within the mother load and that you can't tell which was Jesse's on one or on the other.

[Friend of Jesse]

If there is two items that touch.

[911 Operator]

Each other, there is that possibility of.

[Narrator]

Transfer of DNA to occur.

[Detective]

But the defense never really said what those alternative explanations were for how this DNA got there.

[Friend of Jesse]

We learned today that the young man accused of killing Jesse Blodgett seemed to have a fascination, fascination with murder.

[Narrator]

The computer search history, a lot of.

[Investigator]

The search history on Dan's computer was very, very disturbing. It was serial killers, spree killers. How many bodies do you need to be considered in one or the other? And it was intertwined with very graphic, violent pornography.

[Reporter]

There was videos on there for bondage and sexual. Sexual assault and homicide. Much in the same way as we suspect that Jesse was bound.

[Detective]

Jesse was in her bed sleeping. She never had a chance to fight back. The motive was, I want to kill somebody, and I want to kill somebody. That's going to be an easy mark. Jesse's screaming to us. She's screaming to us. She's telling us a story. His DNA is all under her fingernails, under her left hand, on her right hand on her.

[911 Operator]

I don't believe that you have heard any testimony that would give you reason to believe that Dan Bartelt had any motive to cause the death of Jesse Blodgett.

[Detective]

That jury came back. I was nervous. As everyone on the prosecution team was breaking news now.

[Reporter]

Daniel Bartelt found guilty of murdering 19 Jesse Blodgett. The jury reached a verdict in just three hours this afternoon.

[Buck Blodgett]

It wasn't a victory. Jesse's still dead, and Dan's still lost, and the world still hasn't changed. The kid's still gone forever. But it was justice.

[Investigator]

Dan Bartelt took from this family their only daughter. He played on their emotions by going to the vigil. He had just killed their daughter the day earlier.

[Friend of Jesse]

How could he show up to her house after he had just killed her? And it's almost as if he was there so he could get a front seat to find out that he was, you know, acting a part, you know, was kind of Horrifying.

[Investigator]

Sometimes evil comes to our door. A familiar face.

[Buck Blodgett]

At sentencing, we each had 10 minutes, me and Dan.

[Narrator]

And what Dan Bartelt had to say there set shock waves through the courtroom.

[Detective]

I'd never witnessed anything like that.

[Friend of Jesse]

Daniel Bartelt will spend the rest of.

[Narrator]

His life in prison. The judge sentenced him to life without parole.

[Buck Blodgett]

At sentencing, we each had 10 minutes, me and Dan, to give our statements. And he looked at Joy and I, and he said, these shackles and this orange jumpsuit don't make me guilty.

[Director/Community Member]

Buck.

[Investigator]

Joy.

[Buck Blodgett]

I can't give you the answers you're looking for.

[Director/Community Member]

I pray for you, for all of you.

[Reporter]

And I hope that someday I will.

[Director/Community Member]

Be before a court that will know.

[Investigator]

That my conscience is clear.

[Detective]

I love you. I'm so sorry for your loss.

[Buck Blodgett]

There was, like, some sobbing, but I didn't see any actual tears. I never saw genuine, actual remorse for. Genuine. For what he put her through. When it was my turn, mostly I talked about Jesse. I wanted people to know who she was. And the last quarter of it was directly to Dan. I wish no vengeance or retribution. I not only forgive you, I love you.

[Detective]

Of course, I hate what you did.

[Buck Blodgett]

You are forgiven. But you won't know it, and you won't feel it and experience it until you tell the truth.

[Narrator]

Where does this place of forgiveness come from?

[Buck Blodgett]

For me, it comes from a higher place. It was a gift to me that I didn't hate him and want vengeance. Me and Joy, well, look what came out of our concern for him. A movement to end violence like this.

[Narrator]

Shortly after her death, Buck started the Love is Greater Than Hate project. In Jesse's memory.

[Buck Blodgett]

We believe that violence tends to happen a lot less in the presence of love and a lot more in the absence of love. So it's really simple. The more we presence love, the more we absence violence. That's what we're trying to do.

[Narrator]

The project recently hosted an event for survivors of violence and featured performers of Jesse's music.

[911 Operator]

How could we ever see the beauty.

[Friend of Jesse]

That it could be if we haven't got. I think the music that Jesse brought into this world still lives on. And that's the legacy she left.

[Melissa Etzler]

How are you?

[Narrator]

And Melissa Etzler has also teamed up with Buck in his mission.

[Melissa Etzler]

My name is Melissa Etzler. My story is forever tied to Jesse's. What he's done is just incredible. Bringing his daughter's legacy to life.

[Narrator]

You never met Jesse.

[Melissa Etzler]

No, but we have a soul connection. We do.

[Buck Blodgett]

Somebody said to me, you know, if Jesse was a soul waiting to come into a life. And they said, this one's gonna be short, it's gonna end bad and it's gonna be violent, but you're gonna cause more love than most people ever will. In their 80 years, Jesse would have been at the front of the line to jump into that life.

[Narrator]

To help keep her memory alive, there's now the Jessie Blodgett Scholarship, given every year to young people following following in her footsteps.

[Buck Blodgett]

David. Hoping to study music.

[Detective]

And as for Dan Bartelt, his latest appeals have been denied and he continues to serve his life sentence.

[Reporter]

That's our program for tonight.

[Detective]

Thanks for watching.

[Investigator]

I'm David Muir.

[Narrator]

And I'm Deborah Roberts. From all of us here at ABC News and 20 20, good.

[Reporter]

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[Buck Blodgett]

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