Serial Killer Motives - Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Summary

Small Town Murder – Serial Killer Motives: Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Episode Date: March 27, 2026
Hosts: James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman

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Episode Overview

This episode of "Small Town Murder" dives into the 1990 murder of Barrett (Berit) Beck in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin—a small town both hosts gleefully dissect with their trademark mix of dark fascination and irreverent humor. The case features a baffling set of circumstances, a wrongly targeted “Psycho,” a long-cold trail, and the eventual unmasking of a true predator decades later. Along the way, James and Jimmie lampoon small town quirks, festival culture, and law enforcement missteps, delivering poignant moments amid the banter.

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Fond du Lac: The Small Town Backdrop

[03:42–14:32] Fond du Lac Introduction & Color

• Geography & Demographics: Southeastern Wisconsin, population ~44,000, median income $56k, median home cost $176k. Sometimes called “bottom of the lake”—an unintentionally grim foreshadowing.
  • “Come to the mud of the lake. That’s where you put corpses, you know what I mean?” —James [06:57]
• Town Reviews: Ranged from “very good town” to “armpit of Wisconsin.” One star reviewer: “This town is a dump.” [10:57]
• Local Events:
  • Fondue Fest (“Fondue has really gotten the best reputation...”—James [11:25])
  • Sturgeon Spectacular: an embrace-the-cold festival with snow sculpting and fishing [13:54]
  • Notable natives: Don Gorske (Big Mac world record holder—“That guy outlived Morgan Spurlock, which is crazy.” —James [08:32])

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The Case: Murder of Barrett (Berit) Beck

Barrett’s Background

[14:37–17:41]

• 18-year-old from Sturtevant, WI, vibrant, musically inclined, raised in a suburban family.

• Starting a secretary job at Bolt Construction in Appleton; scheduled for a 3-day orientation.

  Quote: “She’s got everything we don’t have anymore. She’s got in spades... her eyes are wide open for having no babies.” —James [17:02]

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Timeline of the Disappearance

[18:15–22:06]

• July 17, 1990: Leaves for work orientation, driving her two-tone gray GMC conversion van.

  • Tells her dad: “Don’t worry, dad. All the people up north are good people.” [19:04]

• En Route: Stops at McDonald’s, then at Fond du Lac’s Forest Mall. Buys a hair bleach kit at Walgreens (receipt timestamp 11:04am), is seen leaving, but then vanishes.

  Memorable moment: The hosts riff on 1990s mall culture, including Kmart as a mall anchor and the vanished Chess King [20:33–21:21].

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The Van: Clues & Strangeness

[22:06–27:03]

• July 19, 1990: Her van is located, locked, in a Kmart lot. She’s missing.

  • Van anomalies:
    • Jolin hair bleach kit still in the bag
    • Ripped red t-shirt (back cut out)
    • Burger King cup with two sets of prints
    • Cigarette wrapper/ash piles—she didn’t smoke
    • Odometer: 462 miles accrued beyond expected

  Quote: “She doesn’t smoke, so obviously the piles of ash are a concern... and why would she stop at McDonald’s, then Burger King?” —James [25:15]

  Host riff: “She’s a Big Mac chick, not a Whopper gal!” —James [38:16]

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Statewide Search & Discovery

[32:20–36:21]

• Missing posters & searches yield nothing for weeks.

• FBI profiler: “It’s Ted Bundy’s dream... a young, blonde girl, alone, walking into a mall.” —James [34:21 paraphrased]

• August 22, 1990: Barrett’s badly decomposed body is found in a drainage ditch 18 miles from the mall; she was strangled and suffocated, red shirt back used as a blindfold, pantyhose cut to bind her.

  Host reaction: “Just dumped in a fucking drainage ditch on the side of the road... That’s horrifying, man.” —James [36:24]

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The Bungled Investigation & Wrong Suspect

"Psycho" as Main Suspect

[39:18–44:05]

• For over 20 years, police fixate on Craig “Psycho” Hron—local car thief, bank robber, and, in their minds, likely murderer. His only “link”: a suspicious hairbrush with blonde hairs and circumstantial presence in the area.

  • Quote: “They think those might belong—it might be her hairbrush that he stole and it’s a trophy at this point.” —James [40:45]

• Multiple unreliable witnesses, false confessions, and red herrings.

• Key evidence (shirt, pantyhose) eventually lost by the sheriff’s office.

  Quote: “How do you accidentally go in the evidence locker and start throwing shit away?” —Jimmie [46:43]

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Breakthrough: Decades Later

[51:34–56:41]

• 2013–2014: Cold case reopened, prints from van (collected in 1990) finally run in automated database.

  • Quote: “If I’m their parents, I would love to go to that police station... and kick them in the fucking balls, one for every year.” —James [52:40]

• Fingerprint Match: Dennis J. Brantner, long-haul truck driver and welder, is finally identified as suspect thanks to nine matching prints on key items (Burger King cup, bleach kit, employment manual, door handle, seat adjuster, etc.).

  • Heavy smoker in 1990—explains cigarette ash.

• Brantner’s background:

  • Drove all over Wisconsin, including the ditch where Barrett was found.

  • History of violence against women: e.g., 1994—hides in ex-wife’s car, threatens with knife, restrains her for hours [57:33].

  • “This guy… this is horrifying.” —James [67:03]

  • Suspected serial killer, kept toolbox photos of young, often expressionless, women; some believed to be dead.

    Key moment: "The photographs in the toolbox were not just that though too. . . multiple co worker accounts describing lots of photos of girls who looked to be teenagers... The images reportedly showed girls appearing to be posing in campsite style backgrounds... looking stiff or mannequin type, you know, dead." —James [66:34]

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Trial, Plea, and Aftermath

[71:52–79:04]

• 2016 trial: Prosecution presents print evidence, toolbox photos, witness testimony. Defense argues lack of physical evidence tying him to murder (much lost by police), unknown print on steering column, “prints prove presence, not murder.”

  • Jury: Hung (one holdout).

• 2018 Plea: Alford plea to second-degree reckless homicide (no admission of guilt), avoiding retrial.

  • “I wish someone would have realized long ago this man's mentality. Maybe this would have never happened to Barry.” —Diane Beck, mother [77:09]
  • 10-year sentence, consecutive to drug charges (oxycodone found in boot)—seen as unjustly short by family and prosecution.

• Psycho (“the wrong suspect”) never charged in Barrett’s case, but later imprisoned for attempted murder after stabbing ex-girlfriend in Walmart parking lot [68:17–69:43].

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Memorable Quotes

• “If he does—no way. No fucking way. . . This is a practiced thing that he’s doing.” —James [60:57)
• “He just likes to drive and smoke, man.” —Jimmie [57:25]
• “Fingerprints prove presence, not murder.” —Defense [71:55]
• “All the people up north are good people.” —Barrett Beck’s last words to her father [19:04 / 76:24]
• “How do you accidentally go in the evidence locker and start throwing shit away?” —Jimmie [46:43]
• “That is some wild shit. He’s got so many more bodies, I think.” —James [80:16]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Fond du Lac town profile & banter: [03:42–14:32]
• Victim background & disappearance: [14:37–22:06]
• The van: evidence & odometer mystery: [22:06–27:03]
• Body discovered, investigation deepens: [36:21]
• “Psycho” Hron, mistakes & lost evidence: [39:18–47:29]
• Break in the case (prints ID Dennis Brantner): [51:34–56:41]
• Brantner’s MO, toolbox photos, “serial” implications: [56:41–68:11]
• Trial, plea, and family impact: [71:52–79:04]
• Closing reflections & aftermath: [80:16–end]

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Tone & Style

• Hosts’ approach: Morbidly humorous, irreverent, sympathetic; frequently break to joke about local customs, police incompetence, and mall culture but maintain deep empathy for victims and their families.
• Plenty of running gags (“Lake cheese,” band names at the festival, psycho’s “menace” status, Kmart mall anchor), pop culture asides, and genuine outrage at law enforcement failures.

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Takeaways

• The small town’s quirks and insular nature set the scene for a chilling, long-unsolved crime—highlighting pitfalls of tunnel vision and poor evidence handling.
• The real killer was only found decades later, ironically thanks to modern technology and a file of fingerprints left untouched for years.
• The case raises bigger questions about undetected serial killers along rural American highways and the criminal justice system's failures, but also celebrates a family's resilience and the power of perseverance—delivered with laughter in the face of darkness.

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Summary by [Your Name], Podcast Summarizer

Transcript

[James Petregallo]

Small Town Murder is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, but potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. Support is available 24. 7 with VRBoCare. We're here day or night, ready whenever you need help. Because a great trip starts with the right support. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yay and choo choo.

[James Petregallo]

Yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petregallo. I'm here with my co host.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm Jimmy Wissman.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today. All aboard the Murder train pulling away from the station. Another wild, crazy edition of Small Town Murder Express. And this is a whole lot of murder. Gonna be packed into an hour here. This is a wild episode. Crazy stuff. We'll get to it in just a. Mom, before we do that, definitely head over to shut upandgivememurder.com get your tickets for live shows. You're gonna want to come out. They are so fun. It's a comedy show. It's, you know, obviously, and there's pictures and lots of jokes in the pictures too. It's so much fun. Get your tickets. The next available date with tickets is May 2nd in Denver, Salt Lake City. Sold out. Sorry about that, but thank you for doing that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Then also Royal Oak, Michigan, May 30, because Buffalo sold out too. Again. Awesome. Thank you so much for doing that. Let's get the rest of those. Sol. We are excited for that. And also get your tickets. Milwaukee, September 18th, Minneapolis, September 19th. I say that because we're doing a Wisconsin episode. So you know, it's gonna be great. Some people listen to and the Pabsta is an amazing venue.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, what a theater.

[James Petregallo]

It's the best place. So we're real excited for that. Get in there. Shut upandgivemerder.com get yourself Patreon, everybody.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all the bonus material. All you gotta do is be $5 a month or above and you get everything we put out. As soon as you subscribe, you get hundreds of back bonus episodes you've never heard before. Then you get new ones every other week. One crime and sports. One small town murder. This week for crime and sports, we're gonna talk about the craziest names in sports history and where These people came from and how they got these names and why did people name them that. And then for small town murder, we're gonna figure out Stockholm syndrome, which is when you start to identify with your captors if you're kidnapped or held hostage, but it came from an actual event that happened in Stockholm. That is wild and one of the craziest things I've ever heard. So can't wait to talk about that. Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all of that and you get everything we put out. Crime in sports, your stupid opinions, and both small town murders all ad free with your Patreon. Ad free. Ad free, damn it. And on top of that, you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. Jimmy will mispronounce your name all sorts of ways, but dammit, he'll try. That's the important part. That said, I think it's time, everybody, let's all sit back. Gotta clear the lungs here. Arms to the sky. And let's all shout.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Shut up and give me murder.

[James Petregallo]

Let's do this, everybody.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Let's go.

[James Petregallo]

Let's go on a trip, shall we? We are.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All right.

[James Petregallo]

Going to Wisconsin. Today we're going to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, everybody's heard of Fond du Lac,

[James Petregallo]

which is fond Due Du Lac.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Lac.

[James Petregallo]

And for some reason the do is not capitalized. Don't know why. No, it's capital F. Fond, lowercase du. Yeah, lack with a capital L. So that's French. Yes, I would assume so, yeah. Yeah, it's definitely not German.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, I think the du means of. Right?

[James Petregallo]

Probably. Yeah. Yeah, it's all from Lakey. Shit. Yeah, we'll find out all about it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, cheese from the lake.

[James Petregallo]

Lake cheese is what.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's what's fondue.

[James Petregallo]

Herds from the depth. This is in southeastern Wisconsin. It's about an hour 10 to Milwaukee, where we will be performing on September 18th at the PABS. So you can get your tickets for that while there's still some left.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Can't wait.

[James Petregallo]

Let's do it. An hour 20 to Madison, where we were last year. Very nice.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Where we just were.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, it was a theater that had no security and people were wandering into our green room off the street. That was fun. Hey, they should get some goddamn security. Sorry, I look over.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's so funny.

[James Petregallo]

It was the craziest thing I ever saw. Thank God it wasn't like some crazy giant bearded guy. Thank God it was just some lady who was nice, but she could have stabbed us and killed us both in there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I Mean, she had the same interest as what? Generally, a murder. And that's to be close to us.

[James Petregallo]

Yes.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Mission achieved.

[James Petregallo]

Luckily, she wasn't physically imposing, so we were less scared than we might have been.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And I think she was as surprised that she made it in as we did.

[James Petregallo]

She's like, wow, shouldn't. She was like, shouldn't they have some security? And I was like, yes, they should, as a matter of fact. And then they.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There you are. There we are. Why are you here? I don't know, but I did it.

[James Petregallo]

Well, that makes fucking three of us then. Don't know why you're here. Maybe you should go back.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Unbelievable.

[James Petregallo]

This is two hours from our last Wisconsin episode. I almost called it Milconson, like Milwaukee. Wilconson here is a Menominee. Two hours from there. That was the Singing Serial Killer, which you gotta hear that one if you haven't. Episode 647. This is in fond du lac county. Area code 920. Population 44,412. So good size. It's a good sized place. And there's a lot around it, too, where people are that kind of work around very farm country outside of this. Yeah, for sure. Median household income here, 56,561, which is about 12,000 below the national average. But the median home cost is also low. So it's all relative. 176,200 bucks.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You gotta love winter.

[James Petregallo]

Like half the national average. It's not bad. Yeah. I think it shoots up in the summer for like, what, the four days of summer that Wisconsin has?

[Jimmy Wissman]

The four days of that wet fucking. It's crazy. You walk outside and your clothes are soaked. I've never experienced that before.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, it's humidity and rain and everything else. Wow, history here. Fond du Lac is French for bottom of the lake.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Bottom of the lake.

[James Petregallo]

Bottom of the lake. Where the cheese comes from.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's not a positive thing, right?

[James Petregallo]

I guess not. Come to the mud of the lake. That's where you put corpses. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's mud. There's nothing good at the bottom of the lake.

[James Petregallo]

Things with claws on them, giant cats eating corpses.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not good.

[James Petregallo]

Carp. Yeah. It was named because of its location at the bottom of the south end of Lake Winnebago. Now, in 1836, a guy tried to make Fond du Lac the capital of Wisconsin, which didn't work, and they picked Madison instead. So, not sure. From June to August 1944, the Fond du Lac County Fairgrounds, where people are eating fried dough and shooting water. Into a clown's mouth housed a prisoner of war camp that held 300 German POWs. So there was.

[Jimmy Wissman]

At the fairgrounds.

[James Petregallo]

At the fairgrounds, the workers worked on pea farms and canneries that summer.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Enjoy the Zipper.

[James Petregallo]

There you go. There's a crazy person from here. Don Gorski is from here. Who is the Guinness record holder for the most Big Macs. Eaton. You've seen that guy. He was on the Super Size Me documentary.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's him.

[James Petregallo]

That's him. He eats like three Big Macs a day or some shit for free.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's that guy.

[James Petregallo]

I think it's that guy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's fucking dead.

[James Petregallo]

He's dead now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Super seismic guy. Yeah, he's dead.

[James Petregallo]

Well, Christ, it was how long ago? Not Morgan Spurloc.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If that's the Super. If that's the super, what is it?

[James Petregallo]

Not Morgan Spurlock. The guy who made Duck. The guy that they show that has the record for most Big Macs eaten on the documentary. Super Sky. Yeah. Not Morgan Spurlock, sadly. And somehow I think the Big Mac guy outlived Morgan Spurlock, which is if he's still alive.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He did.

[James Petregallo]

Because Morgan Spurlock. Because you know when he was filming and he was like, jesus, this guy's going to be dead any minute. And he outlived you. That's crazy. Reviews of this town. We've never been here. Let's find out what people think. Here's five stars. Fond du Lac is a very good town. All right. People know everyone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You know, 44,000 people.

[James Petregallo]

This is not a town of 700 people. 44,000 people is a decent sized town. You don't know everyone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a lot of people.

[James Petregallo]

A lot of people. People know everyone. You're most likely to go somewhere and will know someone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's more feasible.

[James Petregallo]

Maybe in your neighborhood too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You know, there's no two, three people at the mall.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. There's not a lot of crime that goes on compared to other places. Okay. It's all relative here. Three stars. I've lived in Fond du Lac my whole life and I've always had a love hate relationship with it. I live right in the middle. So it's great to go everywhere within 10 minutes. Such as my high school. This is a high school kid. The community isn't the greatest, though, with lots of violence and crime.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Violence.

[James Petregallo]

Okay, so we've heard two completely conflicting stories so far.

[Jimmy Wissman]

High school children are exposed to lots of violence and crime.

[James Petregallo]

So one person said not a lot of crime. They said chock full of violence and crime. Two stars here. I heard about crimes that went down but never really experienced them too much.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I heard about it.

[James Petregallo]

I heard tell at one point while I was taking my dog for a walk at night, some guy started following me in his car. And another time I saw a guy just sitting in his car with a knife. Just sit. Okay. What did he have an apple in the other hand? Yeah. Cause that's a weird way to just sit in your car with a knife. You're not gonna get to anybody. You're inside a car.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Was it Christopher Lloyd?

[James Petregallo]

What are we talking about?

[Jimmy Wissman]

What was that movie? Dennis the Menace, Right?

[James Petregallo]

There you go. Yeah. The lighting at night was awful. And over the past few years the crime has been rising as well as drug use. Such as heroin.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Such as.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. And then the next one. I'll read just one. The first opening here. One star. Because it's a long one and it's really, really. With a lot of personal beefs. I have been all over the US and Fond du Lac has to be by far the worst place I've ever lived. The armpit of Wisconsin.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's the bottom of the lake, man.

[James Petregallo]

Bottom of the lake. I'm shocked by the good reviews and can only assume they are people who haven't had enough life experience to know any better. This town is a dump.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm shocked.

[James Petregallo]

Wow. Things to do. The fondue fest. And it's fondue like the cheese.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is it really?

[James Petregallo]

That's how they're spelling it. Fondue. Yeah. With an e. They say they get 25,000 people here. And it remains fondue. It remains Fond du Lac's largest one day festival. Wow. With stages of all kinds of live music and kids zones and craft vendors and farmers markets and cheese and chocolate and fondue. And it's all happening every month.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fondue has really gotten. It's got the best reputation of all things that are like, it dips and

[James Petregallo]

like its popularity dips and ebbs and flows a lot. Real big in the 80s when everybody bought everybody a fondue pot. Nobody ever used them. And then in the 90s, you couldn't find a fondue anywhere in the world. And then in like 2012, there was fondue restaurants popping up and now they're all out of business. So it really goes up and down.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But it has. But you. Anytime somebody mentions they'll be fondue. You're like, oh, wow. Really?

[James Petregallo]

I'll take it. It's strawberry in that chocolate? Yeah, sure.

[Jimmy Wissman]

For the cheese and meats. It's all fucking great.

[James Petregallo]

There's The Fondue Feast Challenge. Which is part of Falltober Festive.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Call it Oktoberfest. You can't.

[James Petregallo]

I don't know what's going on. There's four rounds of speed eating challenges with fondue. That sounds dangerous.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Someone's gonna be speed eating fondue.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. And then there's music in the streets, baby.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You bet.

[James Petregallo]

Also at the outdoor patio at some place. And okay. We got until dawn. Will be playing from 11am to 2pm which is pretty fun. Until dawn.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nowhere near dawn.

[James Petregallo]

Nowhere near dawn. They start almost at dawn.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They start at fucking noon.

[James Petregallo]

They start closer to dawn this way than they end up. Yeah. Then second ride will play. Then. Smart mouth. Not to be confused with Smash Mouth.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Who I think are dead. Are they dead?

[James Petregallo]

I don't. I think the one guy had a health problem.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I think the lead singer's dead.

[James Petregallo]

Then Kip Jones at the coveted 10:00am spot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Smelling fondue cheese farts the whole time. 1:30 coming hot. Okay. 5:00pm free time at 9:00pm 6 pack

[Jimmy Wissman]

12 bar will be there at 5:00pm and then it's. They play four fucking hours.

[James Petregallo]

Or I think maybe they stop. And then in the middle they have the eating contests. And then they have more bands or something.

[Jimmy Wissman]

9pm is who.

[James Petregallo]

Six pack, 12 bars. Okay. From 3:30 at another place. Kate Voss and the Hot Sauce.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yep.

[James Petregallo]

Then from 8 to 11pm until dawn. Will be playing again. So that's close. Almost. And at 7:30 at some other location. D Willie and the Souvenirs. Not Willie. D Not Willie. D From the ghetto boys. D Willie. Different guy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Awesome.

[James Petregallo]

If you can't make that, make sure you go to the Sturgeon Spectacular.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What? Fishing fucking tournament.

[James Petregallo]

It's in the winter and it says. Check out the premier winter festival in the Midwest. Whether you join the always popular Wisconsin Snow Sculpting Championship.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

Or a bunch of other shit. It's there. So you can go to that. And they have a bunch of music there that looks terrible. Including.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So they. Because it's so fucking cold here. At some point you have to embrace the cold and just be like, we're doing something fun in the cold.

[James Petregallo]

It's either that or you're sitting inside for six, eight months. Six months.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

That's it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And when the packers stink, then what do you do?

[James Petregallo]

That's what I mean. Which is a lot. Then what happens?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

That said, let's talk about some murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Let's do it.

[James Petregallo]

Let's do this. Let's start in 1990. Different times. Okay. 1990. Let's talk about a young lady in 1990. Her name is Barrett, Lynn Beck.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So first name Barrett.

[James Petregallo]

B E R I T. Barrett, they call her. Oh, yeah, Barrett.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fascinating.

[James Petregallo]

Lynn beck. She is 18 years old, born in 1972. She's got a dad named Dave and a mom named Diane and a brother named Ben.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So she's 18.

[James Petregallo]

Two D's name their kids. Two B's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Two B's, that's right.

[James Petregallo]

Grew up in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, which is in Racine county, which is at the bottom down south by the Illinois border there about an hour.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Where the Rasine Peaches were at.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Of Milwaukee. Yeah, obviously. Yeah, we know that. The Racine Peaches.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Was it. Were they. No, no, it was Rockford. Rockford Yellow team. Were they the.

[James Petregallo]

Didn't they wear brown and yellow? They terribly brown and yellow.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't think they had a name.

[James Petregallo]

That's where Kit got traded.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, yeah, the Peaches.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Well, she threw it, you know, Gina Davis. I'm sorry. You know what? Kit's never going to learn.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You know what? She was hungrier than her James. She said it. You wanted it more than I did.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. If you. If you have a little brother, you block his shot in basketball, you spike it to the ground or he's never going to get better, ever.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I just had. This is probably the most observed thing in the history of that movie. At the beginning of the movie, she told the big brother, let him have a chance. And then told the little brother, kill him. That's what happened to her. I never noticed that until we.

[James Petregallo]

That's how it works.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that foreshadowing? It obviously is. And I just got it in that

[James Petregallo]

movie, what, 30 years late? Probably, what, 50 times you've seen it, if you count a good 50 times.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She basically just told him, throw the game, let him win, for Christ sake.

[James Petregallo]

He did it. That's nice. That's why. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

So, yeah, she grows up in a little, you know, suburb here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So it's the summer of 1990. She plays a bunch of instruments as well. She loves music. That's what she's into. Like she's a real vibrant, you know, out there doing stuff. 18.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Barrett's a Wisconsin Young girl and she goes hard.

[James Petregallo]

She's got. She's got energy and she's got like everything we don't have anymore, she's got in spades. Just like everything that dies, that dies in like your late 20s, when that sparkle just kind of goes out of your eye and they dull over she's got all of that and her eyes are wide open for having no babies.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Barely.

[James Petregallo]

Isn't that nice? Yeah. Just no divorces, no kids, no divorces. Just easy life so far. She got hired as a secretary at Bolt Construction Company in Appleton, Wisconsin, which is a brand new job now. The company was bringing her up to Appleton for a three day orientation seminar.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nice.

[James Petregallo]

That's what she's doing. And this was the beginning of. She's starting to do. I don't think she's going to college or maybe she's going to college in the fall. I'm not sure here. But she's ready to go on this trip to this, you know, this little or whatever this is a orientation seminar. Three days. So she packs up. She's got a two tone gray GMC conversion van. Big old diddler van.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, wow, conversion. So it's got a bed in the back?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. It's a big boy. That's big with the captain.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a camper.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, that's a good. It's just a big, giant fat van.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's cozy.

[James Petregallo]

So July 17, 1990, she's leaving Sturdivant. I want to say Stuyvesant, like Bedford, but it's not. It's Sturtevent. She's heading north and her dad's seeing her off. Dave is out there and it's his van, right? It's her van. It's her van.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She owns that.

[James Petregallo]

I assume he gave it to her or I don't think an 18 year old kid in 1990 said, Give me the giant gray conversion van. That's what I'm looking for. That's probably the van's yours.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Looking through the auto trailer going, dad, this motherfucker doesn't know what he's got, man.

[James Petregallo]

I'm telling you, me spinning in those captain's chairs, that's worth six grand.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's asking three.

[James Petregallo]

It's possible, but unlikely. Although you could fit a lot of friends in there if you're a teenager. And dad would be safe because it's happy. Because it's pretty safe. It's huge. It's going to plow through whatever you hit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

3500 OBO. We could get that for 28. I guarantee.

[James Petregallo]

I guarantee 29, tops. Take the 29 and just. We'll call it that. So she said, when he says, be safe, she says, don't worry, dad. All the people up north are good people. And she pulls out, heading up to northern Wisconsin where everybody's happy. So she drives north, she drives north on U.S. highway 41. And it's from Milwaukee, kind of goes up through the state toward Green Bay. And it hugs the eastern part of the state. And it's just farmland.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure is.

[James Petregallo]

I've driven this area. It is farmland with signs for places that sell cheese on every exit. Like seven House of Cheese places.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And every gas station has that bullshit bags of curds and spotted cow.

[James Petregallo]

That garbage ass beer sack of curds. No, thank you. I don't want your oily curds in a bag. So anyway, that's what it is. And Fond du Lac is about halfway up the route to where she's going. So she stops, which makes sense. It's halfway to her destination. It's about 11am on July 17. She pulls off the highway and heads to the Forest Mall, which is at the intersection of US 41 and Wisconsin Highway 23. It's a big mall. And this is how 1990 it is. Kmart is one of the anchors still in the mall. In the mall, Kmart's an anchor. So that's old school right there. I've. Wow.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I've ever seen that.

[James Petregallo]

The mall by me. Growing up, Kmart was the anchor on one side.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yep. And then they built a better mall because Kmart was the anchor of that mall. So they were like. I never saw. It's right for the picket one.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It was either Dillard's or Robinsons on either end of it.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And then I'd have JCPenney in the middle somewhere.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Here it's Filene's on one side, which is East Coast. Dillard's, I think. I think they're the same company. And then whatever on the other side. Doesn't matter. Walgreens is. The other is inside the mall. Not the Ankas.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is a wild mall.

[James Petregallo]

They got a Walgreens in there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

A Walgreens and a Kmart.

[James Petregallo]

Walgreens isn't the anchor. Walgreens. It's just came one. It's really. These are details we don't need to be bogged down in at this moment in time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What other commerce is there, James?

[James Petregallo]

Jesus. There's a chess king, Jimmy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You want to talk about that? Has they got a Cinnabon?

[James Petregallo]

Do they have the pleated acid washes? Cause I'm really looking for a pair in 1990.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is there a Brookstone? I need a massager.

[James Petregallo]

There is a Sharper image in here with a chair that you are just going to love. Let me take you there. It's gonna blow my mind. So at 1104, inside Walgreens. She makes a cosmetic purchase at Walgreens. The register receipt timestamps at 11:04. She buys a Jolin J O L E N hair bleaching kit. She's very blonde. She's got the super blonde Ric Flair 80s hair, you know, and she's gonna blonde it again. She's gonna bleach her hair before the seminar so she looks fresh. So she walked back to the van, and that's it. Disappears.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Never seen again.

[James Petregallo]

Never seen again. We know she walks out. There's no outside security cameras. Nobody sees what happens to her. We just know that her van, she's just never gone poof. Like it never happened. So that is July 17th. Now, her parents expect her to be gone for a couple days, so they're not expecting her. And back then, you don't have cell phones. Long distance calls are expensive. People aren't always calling, telling everybody where they are, texting, all that shit. They're just, I'll be back in three days. And they go, okay, bye. Sure. So July 19th, the gray conversion van is found locked in the Kmart parking lot across from the Forest Mall. Now, also here, I'm sure that maybe her work people said she didn't show up. Probably called her house. Her parents probably said, well, she left. She should be there. And that's probably why we're looking for her van at this point.

[Jimmy Wissman]

48 hours is a long ride.

[James Petregallo]

It's a long time. The keys are missing from the van, but the van is there and it's locked. So now there's witnesses around saying that the van's been there since probably the previous evening, which is the 18th. But she's nowhere to be found around here, obviously.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Now, inside the van, they find several very suspicious items and some items that just might have some evidence that could help them with this. Sure. They find a ripped red T shirt. The back has been cleanly cut out of it, like someone took a razor and cut out a strip out of the back. They find the Jolin hair bleach kit purchased at 11:04am still in the bag. They find a Burger King cup with two separate sets of fingerprints on it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Okay. They find a cellophane cigarette wrapper, which is discarded under the passenger seat. That's the. The wrapper on the outside. Exactly. On the bottom that fell under the passenger seat. And those things have a static cling to them. And if you lose it and it clings to something, it's gone forever. You're never going to find it. And that's what they find in there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You can't get your box you pack back in that motherfucker.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, God, no. Yeah. Good luck if you can. That's better than Operation. That should have been a game for kids. You want to see if you got a steady hand? Get a cellophane on a pack of Cools and we'll see how steady your fucking hand is, asshole. That's. I don't care if you get the wishbone out. Let's see what you do with this. Yeah, good luck. They also found large piles of cigarette ash on the floor behind the front passenger seat and to the left of the driver's seat of her van. Piles of ashes. Yeah, she doesn't smoke, by the way. They find a duffel bag, they find condoms. Oh, they find a small piece of cut nylon from pantyhose. A strip of nylon. They find her employment manual from the construction company when she was taken to the seminar. And they find an empty McDonald's bag from Racine that has a receipt that's timestamped earlier in the morning. So we got a Burger King cup and a McDonald's bag.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, and the McDonald's bag is after the Walgreens run.

[James Petregallo]

No, before, no.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, okay.

[James Petregallo]

All right. She got that down there and then drove up and got that. Okay, so she doesn't smoke, so obviously the piles of ash are a concern. And the Burger King cup is odd because the only food stop that she has a receipt for is McDonald's, and that's earlier in the morning. So why would she stop at McDonald's then stop at Burger King? Over the course of fingerprints on it. Yeah, over the course of just a couple hours. And then the weirdest part of all is the odometer. Okay. She was heading to a business seminar. So she was tracking her mileage because she got paid for it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Or she could write it off or whatever. So you track your mileage. Talk about a responsible 18 year old. No shit she's tracked. Well, I need it for tax purposes. Like, Jesus, this kid's awesome. So anyway, she had noted her starting figures. So we know where the van started and how long. How many miles it is from her house to where the van is now. On top of that, in the two days since she has been seen, the van has accumulated 462 miles.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Somehow that van's been moving.

[James Petregallo]

So somehow added to what it was is an extra 462 that shouldn't be there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

From her house to this parking lot is so much. And plus 460 something.

[James Petregallo]

Exactly. So that's crazy. So now they're like, holy shit, what happened?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, somebody's been driving the shit out of this car.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. And they're immediately afraid that she's been, she was abducted and that somebody drove her around Wisconsin for two days, basically holding her hostage maybe or something.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So that smoking like a chimney in

[James Petregallo]

this thing, smoking their ass off and drinking Burger King. So, hey everybody, just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a better way to feed your kitty with smalls.

[Jimmy Wissman]

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[James Petregallo]

I love my kitty. I got a little Brandy. She's great, she's lovely. She is the coolest little cat and you want to make her happy, you know what I mean? Because cats are a little bit aloof and you don't know. A dog will tell you right away what makes them happy. A cat, it's a little harder to tell. So when you have a food like Smalls that you can break out, and as soon as you break it out, they come over and, oh, lose their mind. Losing it, going back and forth. And the second you put it in the bowl, they're eating it happy and all that. You know, you've done something at that point, point, you know it feels good. And Smalls, you need to do it. This podcast is sponsored by Smalls. After my cat rejected kibble for the millionth time here, we realized that something had to change. And Smalls cat food is fresh. It's protein packed recipes made with preservative free, 100% human grade ingredients that you'd find in your fridge. You can sit down with your cat, grab a fork and share a meal if you want and it's delivered right to your door. That's why cats.com named Smalls their best overall cat food for a limit. And so did Brandy, by the way. She agreed. She was part of that team, I think, doing the research. Yes, that's what it was. For a limited time, you can get 60% off your first order plus free shipping. When you head to smalls.com stm super easy to start with Smalls too. You just share some info about your cat's diet, health and food preferences. Smalls puts together a personalized meal plan just for your cat. No more picking between the random brands at the store. Smalls has the right food to satisfy any cat's cravings. By the way too makes your cat's breath much better. Get rid of that kitty death breath. It's much better. Yeah, it's good stuff. And if you're still not a believer in smalls? Listen to Forbes. They ranked Smalls the best overall cat food, while Buzzfeed said my cats went completely ballistic for the stuff here. And after you switched to smalls, 88% of cat owners reported overall health improvements. That's huge. That's a big deal. So stop guessing which meals will upset their stomach for a limited time because you're a Small Town murder listener. Get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com stm one last time. That's 60% off your first order plus Free shipping when you head to smalls dot com stm now back to the show. This show, Small Town Murder, is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp.com Absolutely. March includes international Women's Day. Everybody, a moment to celebrate women's strength and progress while also recognizing how much they carry every day. And you know that if you ever, if you've ever, you know, been around a woman or sure. Seeing your mother or your anybody like that, there's a lot to do and a lot to carry. And it's true. And a lot of these things between caring for others and managing responsibilities and unseen things, their emotional well being could easily be overlooked. And we want to remind women how much they matter and that therapy offers a space for them to take care of themselves in the way they deserve. You should do that. Get in there. Therapy is great. I'm telling you. You can see things just in a whole new perspective, in a whole new light and get just tools that are amazing to help you deal with life. It's incredible. I don't know anybody where I would say they don't need any therapy. Everybody could use something. You know what I mean? Certainly. It's just a lot. It really is. Betterhelp. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You got to pack the history to know how you can do going forward.

[James Petregallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

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[James Petregallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

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[James Petregallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

Murder now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

They said that they couldn't. They don't know where the van went obviously and where it stopped because there's no other receipts or anything that they could tie it to. But it definitely drove 462 fucking miles. That's irrefutable. So it's a mystery. This is a crazy mystery. Not only is this girl gone, but her van is in the same place she left it. But it was driven 462 miles, then brought back to this exact spot, which is insane.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now it has a lot of pieces in it that shouldn't be here.

[James Petregallo]

We got a real weird one here. So the sheriff described it as a bold stranger abduction probably. That's what they said. So she had her hotel reservation, she didn't make it. And there's a statewide. I mean the media covers this thing like crazy. Statewide. I mean, It's a missing 18 year old blonde girl. I mean, we're gonna.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not good.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah, they're going here. I guess they said she would never run away from home. She wasn't that kind of person. She had toured the country with the Continental Singers, which is Christian music group. That's what she toured around with them. Her aunt said someone must have caught her off guard. And they said this is past the second day and we haven't heard. Boo is what her dad says. So they're very scared, obviously. July 20, 1990. They're searching for her everywhere. They're trying to find her. The day after the van was found, there's over 100 volunteers that fan out across the area distributing posters and asking people if they've seen, seen her, if she's five'10, 140 pounds, blonde hair, last seen in blue jeans and a red T shirt. So pretty, statuesque 18 year old girl who's blonde. If she's around, everyone on earth will notice her at least every guy will. Every guy on earth will at least go look at that giant, striking, tall blonde.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There she is.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Wow, that's pretty cool. So she'll be seen. So the red shirt that she was wearing is the one that's in the van with the back cut out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh no.

[James Petregallo]

Which is not good. Bad sign. They don't quite know that yet, but we'll find that out later. They keep searching, they find nothing. Weeks go by, one week, two weeks, five weeks go by, no new leads. There's nobody comes forward saying, oh, I saw her over here, I saw her over there. No witnesses, no leads, no signs of her, no nothing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Just the van, the fingerprints.

[James Petregallo]

Well, we'll get to that. The van and 462 unexplained bits of mileage here. So they can't find her though, obviously. And they said this is an FBI special investigator. Said a young good looking blonde girl by herself and she's walking into a mall would really stand out if someone is scoping it out. It's Ted Bundy's dream. I mean that's what he tried to get that girl in the mall. Usually not tall blonde girls, but he didn't really have them, right?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, he would. Not the appearance, but certainly a pretty alone girl with dark hair down the middle.

[James Petregallo]

That's the thing. Yeah, there was blondes that he went after too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Did he get some blondes too?

[James Petregallo]

Fuck yeah. He was opportunistic. I mean they had to be pretty that he knew about.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But yeah, the little girl in Florida was a blonde.

[James Petregallo]

Yep, yep. He didn't care. Whatever he saw at some point. August 22, 1990. So this is some time has gone by here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's really going.

[James Petregallo]

She went disappeared on the 17th of July. This is on Brown Road in the town of Waupun in Fond du Lac County. A man named Michael Plume. Plume, Wow. P L U I M Snope. Plume.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I guess Plume cause fruit. You know what I mean?

[James Petregallo]

That's what I was, I was thinking that. But then I've never seen that in a name before. It's very odd.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Don't like it.

[James Petregallo]

I don't like it at all. Michael, he needs to change that. Change your name, Michael. You can do it, you're an adult. So he's near Brown Road, which is a rural Fond du Lac county road here. It's about 18 miles from Forest Mall where she disappeared. There's a clump of Tall weeds along a drainage ditch. And this guy's walking along, and he sees something and sees some blonde hair. And it turns out it is Barrett in a ditch so badly decomposed after five weeks of summertime that they need dental records to identify her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Damn it.

[James Petregallo]

Which is horrifying, obviously.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Terrible.

[James Petregallo]

Terrible. Just dumped in a fucking drainage ditch on the side of the road.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Somebody's daughter.

[James Petregallo]

That's. That's horrifying, man. Jesus Christ. And it means also she was taken from that spot and.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

It's just terrifying. It's terrible. So cause of death is strangulation and suffocation as well. So terrible. Also, again, with her is a red piece of cloth, which is the fabric cut from the back of her T shirt. It was used as a blindfold.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, what the fuck?

[James Petregallo]

And they find that it was cut off while she was wearing it, which is also horrifying. Imagine how terrifying that would be.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The psychological warfare.

[James Petregallo]

That is horrible. They also recover the length of nylon cut from pantyhose that was used to bind her, and they have the shirt used for a blindfold. So they process the scene. They already have the van, and they bag everything up. So in total, the problem is DNA technology is just barely coming right now. I mean, it's a lot. And you have to have a pool of blood or, you know, like four hairs with the roots still attached. You needed a lot of shit. It couldn't have just been, you know, a swipe on your finger.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And then you need a pool of suspects to test that against. There's no. Yeah, there's no database right now.

[James Petregallo]

Fingerprint comparison in 1990 requires a known suspect to compare it against. You can't just put it into the database. Let it run through the computer and see. So if you want. In 1990, they still weren't, especially in Wisconsin. In rural Wisconsin, maybe, you know, if they. Los Angeles county or something, or a wealthier place. But.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But they're sliding sheets around looking at. Nope, this one's close. No, this one's.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. So that's tough. So neither of these things help you if you don't have anyone to compare them to. So otherwise they have this Burger King cup that they think was brought by the perpetrator because she stopped at McDonald's. And if you're a McDonald's girl, you're a McDonald's girl. You're not a big. You're not a Burger King girl.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a good point.

[James Petregallo]

She's a Big Mac chick, not a Whopper gal. You know what I'M saying. So they have that and they have the mileage and they think that's all they really have to go on. They have an initial press conference announcing no Suspects. This is September 14th. And they said that the investigation proceeds without any outside agency assistance. So there's no state police coming in here. There's no. It's the sheriff, Jim Gilmore, and the investigators are thinking it's an auto burglary theory. Like they were after the car, which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Cause they took the car and then gave it back. So that's a bad auto thief.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Plus condoms.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, terrible auto thief at that point. Really bad at it. I'll say. So they have a suspect. After a minute, they have a suspect and they think this is our guy. His name is Craig. Nickname psycho. That's what he's known as. Craig Psycho Ron.

[Jimmy Wissman]

H, R, O, N. Why does everybody's last name suck?

[James Petregallo]

Dude, Wisconsin is a. Just a minefield of last names. It's all. There's Polish names and there's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What's your last name?

[James Petregallo]

Ron. How do you spell it? H. Ron. So nickname psycho.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, that's a good guess on. Let's question him.

[James Petregallo]

They're pretty polite in Wisconsin. You gotta be real crazy to be psycho in Wisconsin. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Like, maybe he's psychotically kind.

[James Petregallo]

Before they would bestow you with that nickname, you'd have to like eat several toddlers or something before they'd be like, man, he's a real psycho, huh?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or he held the door for somebody and then bought their gas and then pumped it.

[James Petregallo]

That's a psycho.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Psycho.

[James Petregallo]

Although in the Midwest, I'm not sure that would be considered that crazy. They're so nice there. I feel like they would just do that for you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They really are so.

[James Petregallo]

They're so goddamn nice. So he's a career criminal, a car thief, a bank robber, and, you know, a psycho generally, as we know, he robbed a bank in West Bend just days after the murder took place and ended up going to federal prison for it. So when they're looking at him, he's already in prison. Now they latch onto him because when he's found, he has a hairbrush that has several blonde hairs in it that don't belong to him. Okay, so they think those might belong. It might be her hairbrush that he stole and it's a trophy at this point.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How did we get on him, though, to look at his brush?

[James Petregallo]

Because he's in the area and his name is psycho.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, that's literally why it is. There's nothing else to connect him to it. He's the craziest fuck in the area. And when they found him with the brush with the blonde hair, they went, there's a o. And they connected it and said, there's our suspect, because where the fuck else did this brush come from? So they're suspected he's active in auto thefts and robberies in the area in June and July of 1990. They theorized that he targeted her van for the electronics because she had a radar detector and a CB in there in 1990. That's big stuff. Yeah. So they said it wasn't for the actual van. It was for the stuff in the van. He was in Fond du Lac the week of the abduction and drove unusually high mileage all the time as well. A Washington county farmer identified Psycho's. Or, I'm sorry, identified Barrett's van near.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Whoa.

[James Petregallo]

He was Kawaskum. Ooh, K e W A S K U M Q A scum. Q A scum, I hope. Jesus. On July 17th with a man matching Psycho's description. Five, eight one five zero, short hair, average build. And said the man was hiding his face.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, I bet it's Kawaskum.

[James Petregallo]

Maybe Kawaskum. Probably. So he had robbed the store and they found the hairbrush. Or robbed the bank. They found the hairbrush in his duffel bag, along with a stolen revolver. So a clump of his head hairs was compared to some hairs that were in the van. They thought they matched initially, but later on, years later, when DNA becomes a thing, those hairs are ruled out. Actually.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Not his.

[James Petregallo]

Not his. And then also one of someone he knows named Tim Admonson. Initially said that Psycho admitted killing Beck and showing him Barrett's body in the van. But then he later recanted passing a lie detector test.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why do you people do this?

[James Petregallo]

He said he got the details from the media and just blew it up. Now also, Psycho's girlfriend isn't helping his cause either. His live in girlfriend, Jeanette Mickelson, she said she and Psycho checked into a Fond du Lac motel the same week as the abduction. Psycho. Mom, I'd like you to meet Psycho. Hey, ma. How you doing? Single.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's your fault.

[James Petregallo]

Just rips a handful of hairs out. While he's standing there, there's a man

[Jimmy Wissman]

named Psycho who has a live in girlfriend.

[James Petregallo]

Picks up the cat, licks it, puts it down. Nice to meet you. Yes, Psycho can get a girlfriend. Wow. It's sad.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Licks the cat and Goes. Tastes like paprika. Mmm.

[James Petregallo]

Tasty. So they stayed in a Fond du Lac motel the same week as the abduction. He made statements to police he made them weeks after the body was found here. She did. I'm sorry, Jeanette, the girlfriend, she told investigators that Psycho was on a, quote, suicide run. Like fucking Bruce Springsteen or something.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Born to run, babe.

[James Petregallo]

That's right. And was, quote, capable of anything and had been. His name is Psycho. We got that already. We inferred it. We understand. They said he'd been thinking of killing someone that week and that there was, quote. He said there was, quote, no turning back after July 20. The day after the abduction, July 18, he allegedly told her, it's all over with now. I did it. Sheik also claimed he repeatedly beat and choked her as well, the girlfriend, which. Yeah. So the detectives lean heavily on her because she seems to have a lot of information. Her statements appear in search warrants and court documents. And she also shows investigators a locket that Psycho bought her on July 17th at Ufenbeck Jewelers in Fond du Lac, which supported part of his saying that he was in the area. He was there. Yeah, he was in Fond du LAC. So in 1991, detectives obtain a search warrant against Psycho, declaring in court documents that he is, quote, more than likely involved with the case. More than likely, he's the guy. So the detective here said, quote, we kept running into things that brought us back to him. Psycho. Everywhere we turned, it seemed like we shouldn't be looking at anybody else but him. So anytime somebody else would come up, the information would lead them back to Psycho over the next. Let's see, 19 years or so. 20 years or so, what go by. No arrest.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Barrett's family has no clothing.

[James Petregallo]

Nothing. Nothing. They're sitting here wondering what the fuck happened to this poor girl for 20 years.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Petregallo]

For over 20 years.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That is awful.

[James Petregallo]

Up until 2013.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Stop this.

[James Petregallo]

Then they reopened the case in 2013.

[Jimmy Wissman]

23 years.

[James Petregallo]

23 years of nothing. They never arrested Psycho. They don't have anything. So during this time, and this is More specifically between 2004 and 2013, some of the physical evidence in the case started vanishing from the sheriff's evidence lockers

[Jimmy Wissman]

here, as it does.

[James Petregallo]

The torn red shirt is gone. The nylon pantyhose binding is gone. Those are very important pieces of evidence, and they're gone. Nobody has a complete explanation. The sheriff's office has no trail of chain of evidence. It was destroyed or it was put in a storage facility. They have nothing. They say that staff either Misplaced them or accidentally discarded them, but they're gone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How do you accidentally go in the evidence locker and start throwing shit away?

[James Petregallo]

I think you see 1990 and you go, that's never gonna happen. You know, I think that's what they did.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's so fucked up.

[James Petregallo]

Insane. Yeah, it's fucked. That's so fucked up. I would be livid. If I was this fucking the Beck family. I would be livid. You can't. It's bad enough you can't make an arrest, but you can't even hold on to the shit that might someday get you a fucking arrest. You can't have a Ziploc bag on a shelf for this case. I that much caring of it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Those two items came in contact with the skin of the person that did this to my daughter, and you threw it in the fucking trash.

[James Petregallo]

Threw it in the trash would be very helpful in 2013.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Son of a bitch.

[James Petregallo]

So in 2013, guess who's still a suspect?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Psycho.

[James Petregallo]

It's Psycho.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He hasn't cleared himself in 23 years.

[James Petregallo]

It's impossible. They say they keep going back to him. So they said they were making statements to journalists in 2013 still about Psycho. That one about the detective saying it always comes back to him. That was made in 2013, that statement. So they said that they were fixating on him for over 20 years, calling him very capable of murder and warrants publicly naming him as the prime suspect for the last 20 something years. There's no direct physical evidence to him. The fingerprints are not linked to him. The ones from the cause, they have his to compare him to. Not on the Burger King copy. So they said that later on, they said that the case is built mainly on guesswork, hunches and speculation. So does the FBI agree that this is an electronics heist murder?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Well, do they?

[James Petregallo]

Gary Plank, who's a profiler for the FBI here, said that the sheriff's investigators appeared to focus on the wrong motive. The whole time. He said, stealing electronics, I would find that unusual. He said, I just can't imagine that in this case, with a murder and all this is too much for stealing electronics. He said that Plank said that an auto thief wouldn't even make much money from reselling stolen merchandise. Like a CB or a radar detector.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, a radar detector makes you 20 bucks.

[James Petregallo]

That's what you're getting. I mean, a real crackhead maybe, but they're going to do it in a sneak way. They're not going to want to deal with having a corpse to deal with, because then that's time not to spent going and buying crack.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right. And I'm not dealing with. I'm not dealing with murdering somebody over a $20 Cobra radar detector.

[James Petregallo]

I'm getting two hits off of this shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

So I can find out when the sheriffs are hiding behind the cheese sign.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right. And a Midland cb. I'm not dealing with this.

[James Petregallo]

No. This guy said criminals are looking for low risk crimes. And in broad daylight they risk being seen by other witnesses. Especially at a Mall in 1990, you

[Jimmy Wissman]

know, and those things are hardwired in. You have to go behind the dash. You can't just take the wiring harness off and take it out. You need the wiring.

[James Petregallo]

He said if it was a robbery, there's a little reason. There's little reason to up the ante with a kidnapping and a homicide to steal electronics. They're not worth that much. Even in 1990 they weren't. So they theorized that. Investigators had theorized that Psycho stole the van from the mall parking lot because he had already been linked to a long list of auto thefts and armed robberies. So that was why they connected him. The guy here says, I remember Washington county called us about three cars that were stolen by Psycho. He said, ron, but Psycho from West Bend that were found in Fond du Lac. We were told if Psycho is in your town, he murdered your girl. That's what the thing was. Because he's the guy that would do it. So I mean, that's what it is. The family wants answers. Mom Diane said, I spent a lot of time in the cemetery talking to Barry. I knew she wasn't there. I knew our Lord in heaven had her beside him. But talking to her there seemed comforting to me because I would watch all the activity. Watching and waiting and hoping that the guilty person would present himself there. This poor woman, she's wandering around cemeteries looking for an answer to why her fucking daughter is dead. Or doesn't even know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Probably not there.

[James Petregallo]

Probably not. But I mean, and that's the fucked up part is, yeah, it's the worst.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Cause that's where the resting place is. So you wander around.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. You just wander around the cemetery.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. It's like wandering around looking for your car keys in the same spots in your house.

[James Petregallo]

And it's just basically at this point she wants something and nothing else is giving her answers. So why not? Maybe she'll see her vision in the pond at this point, who knows? So 2013, when they reopen the case here. The case is subject of a USA Today network. Wisconsin investigative Report. So the press gets involved. They realize that they're sure shit missing the pantyhose, the red shirt. But they do have the fingerprints lifted from the van.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So the blatant prints are re photographed, redigitized and submitted to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab for analysis. Which, by the way, they could have done that anytime after they put that automated system in. The day that fucking computer system went online, they should have said, thank fuck. Been waiting years to test this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We got so many cases to try.

[James Petregallo]

Let's run it. You know, that's insane because that's the automated fingerprint identification system. And that's crazy. So they end up figuring out that. So now they can run it against anyone in the system. Prints from the same person are on the following objects. A Burger King cup with two separate prints from the same person. The hair bleach kit from Walgreens. Her employment manual from Bolt Construction. The inside middle door window of the van. The front passenger seat undercarriage, like moving it up or down, back and forth. And the cellophane cigarette wrapper discarded under the passenger seat. There's nine prints in all that they have. Wow. All the same guy. All matching all these prints.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a lot of prints.

[James Petregallo]

That's a lot. So they run it finally on February 27, 2014. If I'm their parents, I would love to go to that police station. Find out how many years they've had that system and kick them in the fucking balls. One for every year, one for every week. Assholes. Yeah, so they run it on a comparison and they end up getting a hit. They get a match, who do we got? It is a man. It's not Psycho, by the way. No, it is. Dennis J. Brantner. Dennis B R A N T N E R. Never trust anyone named Dennis. They're either a menace or the BTK killer or something.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or the three point shooter from the Orlando match.

[James Petregallo]

No good. Yeah. Dennis Scott. So he's born in 1954, grew up in Mondovi or Mondavi, Wisconsin, which is in the western part of the state. He's moved around a lot. Lived in Green Lake. Lived in Fond du Lac, Lived in Ripon. He's a trucker.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, you son of a bitch.

[James Petregallo]

Guess what truckers do? They get all over the place. And they know all the back roads. They know all that shit in this place.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If he did this.

[James Petregallo]

That's what I'm saying.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How many drove 400 miles with this girl in the car? Not worried about it.

[James Petregallo]

Let's find out what the Evidence is here. He's a long haul truck driver since 79. Also worked as a welder. Another on people with some shady characters in it. Not an untrustworthy job, but I know some welders, and they're shady. You know, welders are shady people for some reason.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Generally.

[James Petregallo]

Don't know why.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a cash business.

[James Petregallo]

I don't know what it is. Something about melting metal. It's just. It's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Well, it's a job that you can do anywhere. You can drift, and there's not a lot of people that can do it. If you're really good at it, you can work anywhere.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, no, that's true. That's true. But I don't know why that would make them some shady characters though, too, I guess.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, I just mean that can blow

[James Petregallo]

in like a drifter.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, it's not that. It's not that all welders are shady. It's just that a lot of shady guys are pretty good at welding.

[James Petregallo]

They get into welding.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

I think welding is also something, especially back in the day, you'd learn in prison as well. That was a skill you could learn in prison. I think that's where they got the reputation. Probably there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Used to learn it in high school, too.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, Yeah, I did. Well, I didn't learn it, but they tried to teach me. They showed you. They sure gave it their best shot. I just wasn't really accepting it at the time. So he works at Pneumatech, which is a manufacturing plant in Kenosha, as a welder as well. So he's got two jobs. His trucking route across multiple companies in Fond du Lac county and Ripon areas gave him intimate knowledge of all the rural Wisconsin highways like the one that she was found dumped off of. They established that his delivery routes for a Ripon area trucking company regularly brought him through the intersection of State Highway 26 and U.S. highway 151, directly adjacent to Brown Road, where she was found in the ditch. He passes it all the time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's been through there all the time.

[James Petregallo]

All the time. He works that road all the time. He knows it. So the investigators after the hit, they look into him. They monitor his Facebook account, which you couldn't monitor a murderer's every movement like that back in the day.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That is fascinating.

[James Petregallo]

Imagine if they were like, pull up Ted Bundy's Facebook. Let's see what he's up to. Oh, he's out at a bar tonight watching the Washington game. Okay.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Have you seen the TikTok Murderer documentary. They caught him because he. Yeah, in his live chat, he was telling where exactly he was and what time it was, and the cops just showed up there.

[James Petregallo]

Fucking great. Hey, how are you? Hey, stupid, how you doing? He should be stupid instead of psycho, you know? He's more stupid than crazy. So they're monitoring his Facebook account after he became a suspect, and they discovered that he had shared a post about a different young blonde woman who was reported missing from Columbus, Ohio. He was actively following and sharing things about the disappearances of young blonde women all over the place.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Petregallo]

He's got a thing. So they get search warrants and they search his house and they sees a computer, Internet, like a hard drive, a memory card, a photo album and some discs. None of what's in there is publicly reported. We also find out he was a heavy smoker in 1990, which makes a lot of sense for the ashes and the cellophane wrapper with his fingerprints on it. Apparently in 1989, the year before Barrett was murdered, Dennis had taken a Cadillac in Green Lake without the owner's consent and put more than 900 miles on it before returning it with large piles of ashes everywhere.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What is that?

[James Petregallo]

He just. Ashes in a pile. I don't know what he does.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Guy just likes to drive and smoke, man.

[James Petregallo]

Loves to drive and smoke. He's a blues brother, this guy. That's all he is. He missed his calling.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hundreds of miles.

[James Petregallo]

Hundreds of miles. 1994, he's. I'm sorry, 1990. Oh, yeah. This is his arrest. In 1994, he was arrested with charges of unlawful restraint and battery. He was separated from his second wife, concealed himself in her car while she was at work and waited for her. When she came out and drove away, he revealed himself, threatened her with a knife, forced her to drive to another location and held her against her will for hours. That sounds familiar. That all sounds familiar. The DA at this point says what we think the evidence shows is that Mr. Brantner's intent and motive is to isolate, watch, control, and possess women. This is not the only time he did this. If he does. No way. No fucking way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Absolutely impossible.

[James Petregallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

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[James Petregallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

This is a practiced thing that he's doing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Dangerous human being.

[James Petregallo]

But the driving around is very specific. The extra miles kink. Yeah, but I don't know if anybody else, you'd be able to know if there was extra miles, because I doubt anybody else wrote down their mileage and had it with them when they left the house the day they got murdered. Nobody does that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How many people have done that in their lives? 2. And he found them.

[James Petregallo]

Exactly how many miles are on your car? You know what I mean? You got a ballpark, but you're not going to say, oh, that's an extra 18 miles on my car. You're not running drugs for the bark stales and the wire or anything. So March 28, 2014, the police interview Dennis. They sit him down. They drive to Kenosha, and they sit him down and they confront him with all this evidence that they have, which is a lot. He tells them, I've never eaten at Burger King. I hate Burger King. So that's not me.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Never. How do you know if you hate it if you haven't had it?

[James Petregallo]

One of his ex wives who was interviewed separately said he ate at Burger King all the time. It was his favorite.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's the opposite.

[James Petregallo]

So his greasy onion ring fingerprints are gonna be on the outside of everything he touches. So he also claimed that he was unfamiliar with the Waupun area where the body was found. And they said, well, your trucking route, you go by there 20 times a week. That's funny. Oh, yeah, that's your spot. Then he says, he starts crying at multiple times. And he says, I swear I did not kill her. Which, I want a contraction there. Gimme a don't. Or didn't. Then he says, I didn't kill her because I'm not that way. That's why I didn't do it. The way of killing people.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm not a murderer.

[James Petregallo]

Then he says, quote, because they said they kept going, you were in the van. Your prints are all over the goddamn van. There's no scientifically. You weren't in the van. And he said, quote, I don't remember how I got in the van. Well, you're done.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's over.

[James Petregallo]

It's over. And then he says, yeah, I wasn't in the van, Nothing. But that's what he says. And then at one point, when asked directly about Barrett's body, where he dumped her, he said he couldn't remember and that if he had done so, he's, quote, so fucking sorry. I don't remember. I don't think I did it. But if I did murder an 18 year old and callously dump her on the side of the road, I'm so fucking.

[Jimmy Wissman]

My bad thank you, God. Case closed. Have a good time.

[James Petregallo]

I'm an animal. Anyway, I'll be going to Burger King. I mean, no, I don't like Burger King. I'm going

[Jimmy Wissman]

BK broiler.

[James Petregallo]

I'm gonna get on. No, no. I mean a Quarter Pounder with cheese. So he's held on first degree intentional homicide charges with a $1 million bond. While being booked into the county jail, they discover 37 oxycodone pills and additional prescription drugs concealed in his left cowboy boot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

37? He's got an addiction.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. He didn't tell them he had him. So that's. Now it's sneaking contraband in. That's so weird. Last week's Express, a guy, when they busted him. What happened?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jammed it up his ass.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. He had a balloon full of powder. He didn't disclose the pills when asked because before jail, they say, whatever you got now, let me know because otherwise you're getting charges.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Otherwise, it's a charge in there.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. He handed his boot to the booking agent, the pills were found, and he gets multiple counts of controlled substance possession and felony bail jumping. Because he was on bail somewhere else.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What did he think was gonna happen?

[James Petregallo]

They were just not gonna see it. He was just gonna have oxycodone in prison.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's gonna turn a blind eye.

[James Petregallo]

So they have a press conference where they name him as the prime suspect. It's the first time any physical evidence has linked anybody. And all of this. Beck's family said, we're encouraged and relieved for this day to have arrived for Barrett and our family. Now, fingerprints, that's fine. But what about murder evidence? It's a good connection, and it's enough. But it's also. It can be fucked with a little bit. You can say, the police, they can't even keep evidence in store. How can you trust them with fingerprints? They can't even keep a piece of nylon.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's certainly a way to cast doubt, then.

[James Petregallo]

So the way to cast doubt goes away. Multiple former co workers at the Kenosha welding plant confirmed to investigators that after his photo appeared in the news in 2014, they came forward and said, that's the weirdo who works here. He kept photographs of young women inside a toolbox at his welding station.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. That one specific photo was a small image of a blonde teenage girl clipped to the side of his toolbox. He had it outside the toolbox, stuck to his toolbox. Brantner told different co workers different things about who she was. She told one this used to be My girlfriend, she told another that it was his daughter. He doesn't have any daughters, by the way, in case you were wondering. Thanks. Fuck. He has no daughters. Because I would feel terrible for them if that was their father. So after the name circulated, these coworkers said with high certainty that the girl on the toolbox is Barrett. Beck. Is Barrett.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, one said. I'm 90% sure of it. So the photographs in the toolbox were not just that though too. They found multiple co worker accounts describing lots of photos of girls who looked to be teenagers in his workspace. They don't have the photos. They've been gone now, but they all remember them. So these are. This is probably his treasure chest. Trophies.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, those are the people that he knows. Yeah, those are the people that he took.

[James Petregallo]

The images reportedly showed girls appearing to be posing in campsite style backgrounds. You know, like he drove them somewhere in the woods. And pose describes some as looking stiff or mannequin type, you know, dead.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh my God.

[James Petregallo]

And they also said they all looked expressionless. You know what if either he's making them pose that way or he's killing them and taking pictures of them.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's fucked up.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. This guy. Dude, this is horrifying.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How many more? There's nothing they can do.

[James Petregallo]

I mean, I guess you could run his DNA, but who knows. If they've kept anything samples from back then, they probably got destroyed too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You gotta find the bodies first.

[James Petregallo]

That's the thing. They don't even know who he killed. They don't use these pictures. But Jesus, run his database. Run his DNA through every goddamn database.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There is one on the planet.

[James Petregallo]

If he killed that many girls, you're bound to get a hit now and then, you know. So should we feel bad for Craig Kron because he's been harassed and called a murderer for 20 years? Should we feel bad for Psycho?

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's lived a life with the nickname Psycho. Tell me more. Tell me why I shouldn't.

[James Petregallo]

You should feel bad for him. He was never charged with the murder. But there was never any evidence, obviously. Anyway, in 2013 he goes back to prison for attempted murder of his ex girlfriend when he stabbed her in a Walmart parking lot. Psycho is all class. He's all class if nothing else, isn't he? How trash can you be stabbing your ex girlfriend in a Walmart parking lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Do we know where? What state was it in? Wisconsin?

[James Petregallo]

West Bend. West Bend, Wisconsin.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He didn't leave.

[James Petregallo]

He never left? Nope. Her name was Tammy Jolly. I guess she suffered non life threatening stab Wounds to her right shoulder, chest and forearm. He was hacking out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He stabbed the shit out of her.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. She lived with him for more than four years in Fond du Lac and West Bend. She left him around July 23, 2013, to move into another apartment with a different man. She told Psycho. Yeah, no, God, you can't. A guy like Psycho, you don't believe Psycho. You know what she told Psycho? I was tired of being punched and tossed around, you know, because you're a psycho. They said that he attacked the woman on August 4, moments after she finished her overnight shift at the Walmart. Oof, that's depressing. Oh, she works there and she gets beat up too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She worked a shift, came outside and got her ass kicked. What a fucking.

[James Petregallo]

And she said somehow that wasn't the worst part of my day. I just did eight hours at Walmart, so it was way worse.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I've had a hell of a day.

[James Petregallo]

She was returning to her Chevy Blazer in the parking lot about 7am when he suddenly attacked her. He quickly pulled out a black handled folding knife with a 3 inch long blade. The cop said. The complaint says she believed it was his intent to kill her, take her vehicle and her teenage son.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh my God.

[James Petregallo]

He tried to yank her out of the vehicle as he stabbed her multiple times. He accused her of making false reports to the police in the hopes of sending him back to prison because he had been in prison several times.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What do you think this is gonna

[James Petregallo]

do as I cold and stab you? How dare you tell the cops bad things about me in order to put me in prison. I'm a good fucking guy, bitch. What the fuck? Wow. So she tried to kick him and draw attention from others screaming, Call 911. I have a restraining order. A couple of men ran over, grabbed Psycho and pinned him down to the parking lot until police arrived.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nice.

[James Petregallo]

Walmart surveillance cameras captured the entire incident. He had parked his 95 Ford Ranger truck across from the Walmart. A 20 year old truck across from 2013.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He dropped the 9th.

[James Petregallo]

He parked her on the side of the building and stalked her. Police found a duffel bag in his truck with a ski mask, leather gloves, a crowbar, a second BB gun, lighter fluid, binoculars, and a man's tie.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why does he have all of this?

[James Petregallo]

He's gonna be super formal while he does crazy shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's my Apollo 7 bit.

[James Petregallo]

Okay. Gloves, got my ski mask, here's my crowbar, my BB gun. Gonna set something on fire. Wait a minute. There we go. Got it all adjusted. Is my. Do I Have a nice Windsor on there. Is it straight? Double so he's sentenced to 25 years in prison for that. Bye bye Psycho. We're rid of Psycho for this story. 2016 is Dennis's trial. It's an 11 day trial. The judge ruled that the defense could not bring Psycho in as an alternative suspect. Because he's been proven not to be. So his name was kind of kept from the jury there. The judge also said if there was ever a retrial. If this trial doesn't go right and there's a retrial, I might reconsider that. Who knows? The prosecution presents all the fingerprints. His familiarity with the body dump location. The Burger King paradox there. The toolbox. Photographs and testimony from all of his co workers talking about that. In opening statements. The DA said draw the conclusion from the evidence what the facts prove beyond a reasonable doubt. He killed Barrett Beck. Yeah, there you go. The defense says, what are we talking about here?

[Jimmy Wissman]

What are we talking about?

[James Petregallo]

The chain of custody is a disaster here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Who fucking knows what happened.

[James Petregallo]

Missing physical evidence and they said, fingerprints prove presence, not murder. He said, you'll hear no evidence of any connection between the two. Him and her. They never crossed paths. Never in the same area. Total strangers don't do that. He felt up her van. Explain why he felt up her van.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's what he said, right?

[James Petregallo]

That's all you can do.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fingerprints prove presence. He's never been there. What? Don't.

[James Petregallo]

So they bring in the crime lab analyst here who they say that the talk about the 1990 collection process. Former co workers testify about the toolbox. They talk about the matching fingerprints. The defense points out facts the prosecution could not explain. Including an unidentified fingerprint on the steering wheel column. They never found out who that was. Male DNA on a toothpick found in the van. Which could have been one of her friends six months ago. It could have been anybody. Which never matched anyone. Including Brantner. I assume they would test all the family for that. And the absence of Brantner's prints on the driver's side of the van. Which means he might have wiped him down with a McDonald's napkin. They said if he drove 462 miles. Why are none of his prints on the wheel? I don't care. Why are his prints everywhere else? That's what I'd like to know. That's my main thing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The seat undertake.

[James Petregallo]

That's it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Adjusting the seat. If you're adjusting that seat, you're in that car.

[James Petregallo]

In the fucking car. The prosecution in their closing said follow the evidence. Follow that evidence. And what I'm asking you to do is find Dennis Brantner guilty of first degree intentional homicide. The defense said, quote, these are just items in the van. Yeah, just items in a van. I mean, it was a, you know, kind of a crime scene that he should have been in.

[Jimmy Wissman]

James.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, it's not driving. It's traveling. It's fine.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a sovereign vehicle.

[James Petregallo]

So they said. They don't say anything about whether Mr. Brantner intentionally killed Ms. Beck? Nothing. The jury deliberates for a day, and then there's a mistrial. Hung jury, really.

[Jimmy Wissman]

One juror, One guy wouldn't do it.

[James Petregallo]

Everybody else was guilty from moment one. One person held out, and they couldn't

[Jimmy Wissman]

spoil the whole thing.

[James Petregallo]

They could never do it. They said they will never say that he's guilty. That was it. They had to call it a mistrial. Defense motions for an acquittal. The prosecution says, let's calm down a little bit here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's one guy.

[James Petregallo]

The defense says there was no direct evidence linking Brantner to Beck's death. The state's entire case rested on fingerprints. No witness implicated Brantner in the killing. No physical evidence tied Brantner to the killing. The only portion or potential evidence that could have done so. The remnants of the red shirt and the pantyhose were lost or destroyed by the state. But a prosecution says, oh, we're going to retry him. Don't worry about that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Good.

[James Petregallo]

They do that because a former girlfriend of his, Terry Kaczynski, who had initially denied dating Brantner when she was first interviewed, came forward with the correction. She said she lived with him for a year in the late 90s. During that time, during a breakup in 1998, he choked her. And she said she was afraid that he would harm her for talking to the police. That's why she didn't say it at first, and that she was still afraid of him even though he was in jail. 2016, there's the separate drug charges case. He's convicted on drug charges, and they sentence him to. You, sir, may fuck off. Six years and seven months in prison

[Jimmy Wissman]

for bringing the boot full of Oxy's

[James Petregallo]

in for his boot full of fucking opiate here. Early February 2018, they reach a plea agreement. What plea agreement? He will enter an Alford plea, which means he does not have to admit guilt. An Alford plea to second degree reckless homicide, which is not murder, by the way. No. Acknowledging that there's sufficient evidence existing, but also claiming his innocence. This avoids a second murder trial. Now, you figure the family is pissed, but they were consulted throughout the process. They say I'd like to know from them how closely and whether we're happy

[Jimmy Wissman]

about this or not.

[James Petregallo]

But in sentencing, everyone in the court, all of Barrett's friends and family wear red cuz that's her favorite color. So they all have ret on. Cause also they bloods, bitch.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, bitch.

[James Petregallo]

You didn't know Suge Knight was related to her, but he is. So the dad involved.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Better watch your back in there.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, you better watch your back, motherfucker. We deep in that motherfucker. You know what I'm saying? Dave Beck said as she was leaving. She said with a smile, don't worry, dad. All the people up north are good people. I waved as she drove off, not ever thinking that would be the last time I would see her or hear from her again. After 27 years. There's no preparation you can make for this day, Diane. Mom says everyone in this courtroom, including Dennis Brantner, knows what a guilty coward he is. Ah, I like you. He did it. He knows he did it. It's time he stepped up and admitted it. Lots of thought, lots of anger. We don't have to worry about Dennis Brantner being out on the streets any longer harming anyone else. I wish someone would have realized long ago this man's mentality. Maybe this would have never happened to Barry.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And her brother Ben said, I think it's a huge win. This is a very evil, evil person that's going to be behind bars. No amount of time could ever repay the pain and anguish he's put the family through. The judge says the public needs to be protected from you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

You, sir, may fuck off. A maximum of 10 years in prison. Nowhere near enough. Nowhere near enough. How old is he at the time? Was he born in 50s? Like his 50s at this point? 55 or something? He was born in 56, I think I said, or 54. The sentence will run consecutive to his drug sentence. So he's got 11, 16 years. The prosecutor said in almost every respect, 10 years feels like too little. Yeah. You think that's crazy?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. A decade.

[James Petregallo]

The reason why they did it, they said rather than proceed with a second murder trial, which might now include the alternate suspect, offense of Psycho. They said that might come in. And the choking testimony and all the other stuff. They said, fuck it. Let's just. Everybody said it was better to just to get a plea deal. Plus it's been almost 30 years at this point. August of 2020, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals Upholds the conviction. But the Wisconsin Supreme Court rules in his favor on the drug charges, agreeing that two of the counts of. Of his drug counts were duplicative. So we're the same.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Cancels him out.

[James Petregallo]

So his sentence is adjusted to seven years and 60 days. The homicide conviction stands. Yeah. So February 2021. Supreme Court declines to hear his appeal. The Wisconsin Supreme Court. February 2023. Brantner is scheduled finally his drug charges over. And he's scheduled to begin serving the 10 year sentence for homicide. Finally.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Just two years ago.

[James Petregallo]

Just two years ago. But I mean, he could be out in a few years. He could be out by 20, 30.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He got maximum of 10. If he gets all 10 years served.

[James Petregallo]

They better not. Who the fuck is going to parole him? Yeah, you would look at that and go, you're staying every fucking second of those 10 years, every goddamn minute. Or they'll make.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Then when we release you, we're going to make you go to the bathroom. We're going to.

[James Petregallo]

They can't because they're. He'll be released though.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, we'll get out that day.

[James Petregallo]

We're going to say we can't find your socks that you came in with. We'll look for them. You know what I mean? We don't have them right now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We're going to turn this jail upside down looking for him.

[James Petregallo]

Who has the key to the front door? Who's got the key to the front. Hold on. I mean, we can't find the key. Wait a minute. You might want to sit down for a while.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Some outdated pager or something, Some shit. We'll find it. You just sit still.

[James Petregallo]

Calm down.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Your Motorola Razor pump.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, man. Barrett Beck's family established a memorial scholarship in her name for music students. Every year, a student pursuing music in college receives free assistance from a fund built from this thing. So that's nice. The family seems like great people, too. They seem like nice people and it's a fucking shame anyway. Even if they seem like assholes, it would still be a shame. The girls are horrible. But they'd also seem like a nice group of people. Got tortured for years.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Kind midwesterners. Sat for 30 years with no closure.

[James Petregallo]

That's fucked up. So anyway, there you go. There is Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. That is some wild shit. He's got so many more bodies. I think. In my opinion, he's got a ton more bodies.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Gotta be three to five more, right?

[James Petregallo]

least. At least. Who knows when he slowed down or stopped or whatever. But this is bad stuff. So if you enjoy this show or any of the shows we put out, go to whatever app you listen on and give us five stars. It helps a lot. Tell your friends, everybody on Netflix, please help out. It does help out the show a ton. Follow on social media malltownmurder on Instagram smalltownpod on Facebook. Definitely go to shutupandgivememurder.com and get your tickets for live shows. Oh, yeah, goodness. We have Salt Lake City on May 1st is sold out. May 2nd, Denver. May 29th, Buffalo, that's sold out. May 30th, Royal Oak. And September 18th, Milwaukee. All you Wisconsinites listening, get in there. And May 9th or I'm sorry, September 19th, Minneapolis. Shut upandgivemergar.com patreon.com crimeinsports where you get all of the bonus material? Anybody $5 a month or above. You get everything we put out, including immediately upon subscription, hundreds of back bonus episodes. You've never heard new ones every other week. One crime and sports, one Small town murder. You get them all. This week for crime and sports, we are going to talk about the craziest names in sports history and little bios, maybe a why they have that name. Not nicknames, but name names.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, real names.

[James Petregallo]

Real names. And then for small town Murder, we're gonna talk about where Stockholm syndrome came from. Feeling, you know, whatever, identifying with your captors. It came from a real event. That is the craziest shit I've ever heard in my life and I can't wait to tell everybody about it. We're gonna have Fun with that one. Patreon.com CrimeInSports and you get a shout out at the end of the regular show and you get every damn show. We put out ad free as well. So do all that. Keep coming back and seeing us. Shut up and give me murder.com if you want to get tickets, if you want to find us on social media, anything to do with the show, it's all there. Keep coming back and hanging out with us. And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Bye.

[James Petregallo]

Small Town Murder is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. But potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. Hey everybody listening to Small town Murder out there? Hi.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hello.

[James Petregallo]

Good to see you out there. I'm here with Jimmy too. And this is an ad, but not an ad for a product. This is an ad for tour dates. Yes. Come see a live show. The 2026 Tour. All the tickets are for sale right now. Starting out with February 21st in Nashville, March 6th in Durham. March 7th in Atlanta. Phoenix is sold out. We do have tickets, though, to your stupid opinions. On the 21st of March, Salt Lake City, sold out. Denver has tickets. Be there on May 2. May 29, Buffalo, sold out. Royal Oak, Michigan. May 30, we have September 18, Milwaukee. September 19, Minneapolis. October 3 in Dallas. October 16 in San Jose. October 7 in Sacramento. November 13 in Tarrytown. November 14 in Boston. Come see us. The live shows are spectacular. Come join all of the other STM people. You're gonna meet so many people. You're gonna have fun. Make some new friends like crazy. And make some new friends. Come out and see us. Shut up and givememerder.com is where you go for those tickets. Get them right now while they're hot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

See you on the road.