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[0] Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad -free on Amazon Music.
[1] Download the Amazon Music app today.
[2] Today's story is about a typical middle -class American family that had everything going for them.
[3] Mom and dad were still totally in love 25 years after getting married.
[4] Their two kids were happy, successful, and poised to do huge things in life.
[5] But then, in 2021, it was like things just started to go so badly for the kids.
[6] this family.
[7] It was like they hit the stretch of unfathomably bad luck.
[8] But their misfortunes had nothing to do with bad luck.
[9] Their misfortunes were the result of someone in their midst carrying around a very big secret.
[10] But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark and Mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
[11] So if that's of interest to you, The next time the Amazon Music Follow button is in a deep sleep, glue a wig onto their head, along with a beard slash mustache combo, then decorate their bedroom to look like a hospital suite, and then violently wake them up and tell them that they've been in a medically induced coma for several years.
[12] Okay, let's get into today's story.
[13] I'm Dan Tiberzky.
[14] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York, a mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.
[15] What's the answer?
[16] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?
[17] Hysterical.
[18] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.
[19] Binge all episodes of Hysterical Early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.
[20] In the early 1990s, a woman in her early 20s named Krista Freider was working as a manager inside of a retail store called the Boston store in Madison, Wisconsin.
[21] Not long after she was hired there, the Boston store would hire another employee to work at their Madison location.
[22] His name was Bart Halderson, and like Krista, he was in his early 20s, although he was three years younger than Krista, and he was hired to be a clerk.
[23] Bart and Krista didn't know each other before working at the same location, but their shifts often overlapped, and so in time they got to know each other, and they found they had a lot in common.
[24] They both had grown up roughly outside of Madison, Wisconsin.
[25] They both had graduated from the same college, the University of Wisconsin -Madison, and they both shared a love of home design.
[26] Krista, who had majored in art history in college, was very passionate about interior home design.
[27] As for Bart, he was just one of those people who naturally could fix just about anything with his bare hands, and growing up, his favorite projects were anything to do with home repairs, whether it was something super simple or super complex, he didn't he just found it incredibly satisfying to keep a home in immaculate condition.
[28] And so Bart and Krista bonded over their commonalities, and in time, their working friendship evolved into a full -fledged romance.
[29] And by 1994, they had left the Boston store, they had gotten married, and they had moved in together to their own apartment in DeForest, Wisconsin, which is not far from Madison.
[30] Two years after that, in 1996, Bart and Krista welcomed their first child into the world.
[31] It was a little boy who they named Mitchell.
[32] And as soon as Mitchell was born, Krista decided she wanted to stay home with the baby, and Bart was in full support, and so he went out and he got a great job as an accountant, which paid enough money to pay for the whole family.
[33] And 18 months after Mitchell was born, Bart and Krista welcomed their second and final child, another boy who they named Chandler.
[34] A few years after Chandler was born, Bart and Krista had saved up just enough money that they could finally afford to buy a house of their own.
[35] And the house they finally settled on was just this very modest small two -story home in this very quiet little town in Wisconsin called Windsor.
[36] Windsor is not far from De Forest where they had been renting an apartment, but this little house in Windsor was perfect for Bart, Krista, and their boys.
[37] Not only did it have enough space for the family, But because it was their own house, as soon as they moved in, Krista got to really lean in to her passion for interior design, and she got to design the entire layout of the house.
[38] And then she continued to take pride in keeping the house perfectly tidy and beautiful at all times.
[39] As for Bart, he immediately began doing home repair project after home repair project.
[40] This house became his trophy, and he wanted to make sure his trophy was polished at all times.
[41] And it wasn't just the physical house that made this feel like their forever home.
[42] It was also their neighbors.
[43] As soon as they moved in, Bard and Krista made friends with all of the people that lived on their street, and they were all so friendly and welcoming.
[44] And then before long, the Haltersons were deeply invested in community activities like the Boy Scouts and the Kiwanis Club, and they were donating their time and money to other charities.
[45] I mean, so quickly, the Halterson family just found where they belonged.
[46] And over the next two -plus decades, life for the Holdersons in this little home in Windsor remained perfect.
[47] Bart continued to move up the ladder at his accounting firm, and Krista continued to be a devoted mother and housekeeper.
[48] As for the kids, Mitchell and Chandler, they were given every opportunity their parents could possibly give them.
[49] And in that loving and supportive environment, they both thrived.
[50] By 2021, the older brother, Mitchell, who was 25 at the time, he had moved out and was living alone in an apartment, and he had graduated from college, he had landed an incredible IT job with a local, very successful company, he was engaged to be married, and he was about to buy his own house.
[51] As for the younger brother, Chandler, who was 23 at the time, he was still living at home with Bart and Krista, but he was doing just as well as his older brother.
[52] He was in his final year of college, but he had already accepted a full -time job with SpaceX that was set to start in Florida as soon as he graduated.
[53] And while he was in his final year of college, in between his studies, he worked part -time at a local insurance company to help pay rent to his parents, and he also volunteered the rest of his spare time with the Madison Police Department on their rescue scuba diving team.
[54] Chandler was also in a committed relationship with his girlfriend.
[55] But despite how well everything was going for Bart, for Krista, for Mitchell, for Chandler, their lives were about to take a serious turn for the worst.
[56] It all started in June of 2021.
[57] That month, Chandler, who was only weeks away from flying out to Titusville, Florida to start his job with SpaceX, fell down an entire flight of stairs, smashing his head in the process.
[58] Now, he immediately picked himself up and tried to tell himself that he was okay, but over the course of that day, he started to feel woozy and disoriented, and his legs started to feel numb.
[59] And so in a panic, he rushed himself to the hospital.
[60] And unfortunately, when they scanned his brain and they checked him out, the doctors discovered he had a severe concussion from this fall, and he had a brain bleed that almost certainly would require surgery at some point down the road.
[61] Also, the numbness in his legs appeared to be the result of permanent nerve damage.
[62] And so suddenly, Chandler, who was so excited about this opportunity in Florida, is now back home in a neck brace with a cane to get around.
[63] And even with the cane, he can barely walk.
[64] And then adding insult to injury, he almost immediately lost the job at SpaceX because he couldn't travel to Florida to start the job.
[65] And so they filled it with someone else.
[66] Chandler did his best to stay positive and optimistic, but I mean this was a crushing blow.
[67] everything he had worked for had just been taken away.
[68] And it was crushing for his family too.
[69] I mean, seeing their beloved Chaz, as they called him, laying on the couch looking totally miserable and depressed all day, was awful.
[70] But despite how bad Chandler's accident was, the trauma it inflicted on Chandler and his family was nothing compared to what happened next.
[71] The Haltersons owned a small cabin that was located in a part of Wisconsin called White Lake.
[72] It was located about three hours drive to the north of their home in Windsor, and the cabin was situated inside of this rural forested area right near a big lake called White Lake, hence the name of the area.
[73] This cabin had been in the Halterson family since the 1940s, and when Mitchell and Chandler were little kids, Bart and Krista would take them up there all the time to go fishing, to go swimming, or just to relax.
[74] It was like their vacation home.
[75] But at some point, Chandler and Mitchell reached a certain age where they weren't that interested in going to the cabin anymore.
[76] And so as a result, Bart and Krista basically stopped going.
[77] However, just two weeks after Chandler's horrific injury, there was this huge storm that rolled through the White Lake area.
[78] And after the storm had passed, some people who lived permanently in White Lake called Bart and Krista and told them, hey, I was driving past your cabin and I saw there was some broken windows.
[79] It looks like your cabin might have been damaged from this storm.
[80] And so Bart and Krista, they're thinking, oh my goodness, we've got to get up there as soon as we can and patch up that window and fix the rest of the cabin before another storm rolls through and totally ruins the cabin.
[81] And so Bart and Krista pull out their calendar and they see the next weekend coming up is the 4th of July weekend.
[82] The 4th of July is a very big holiday in America.
[83] It's when we celebrate our independence.
[84] And the way White Lake celebrates the 4th of July is with a big parade down Main Street and these amazing fireworks out over White Lake.
[85] And so Bart and Krista, they figure, you know what, let's just hold off and head up to our cabin in a couple of days to time it with the 4th of July weekend and we can make the necessary repairs and we can enjoy the festivities of the holiday and kind of have a mini vacation up there.
[86] And so that was all fine and good.
[87] But right before they left for this trip up to White Lake, Bart and Krista started acting a little weird.
[88] On the evening of Thursday, July 1st, the day before Bart and Krista are supposed to leave for this trip, they begin packing up their things.
[89] And since Chandler lives with them, he's at home.
[90] He sees them doing this.
[91] And at some point, he kind of got up and hobbled over and tried to help them pack, but that was short -lived because his legs were so weak.
[92] And so he sat down and just kind of watched them pack.
[93] And what he saw is they were packing lots and lots of cash and silver bars into their luggage.
[94] Although this was kind of odd to Chandler, he decided not to say anything because he figured, you know what, maybe they want to stash their cash and silver in the cabin like a keepsake, I don't know, but it's their business, it's not mine.
[95] And so Bart and Krista, they continue to pack up their things, and Chandler, because he can't go anywhere, just continues to kind of watch them pack.
[96] And at some point, Chandler asked his parents, so how are you getting up to White Lake?
[97] And his parents would say, oh, we're just getting a ride from our friends, another couple.
[98] They're driving us up.
[99] but they didn't tell him who the couple was.
[100] They basically just said it's our friends.
[101] And so again, Chandler's sitting there thinking, okay, this whole thing is a little bit weird, but you know what?
[102] It's their business.
[103] I'm not going to ask about it.
[104] They obviously don't want to tell me. And so he just kind of let it go.
[105] And so at some point, Bart and Krista, they finish packing and they move all their luggage to the front of the house right near the front door.
[106] And then a little while later, they and Chandler would retreat to their rooms and they would go to sleep.
[107] The next morning, July 2nd, Friday, Chandler got up early at about 6 a .m. And when he got up, he began slowly hobbling his way down the stairs, expecting to see his mom and dad having breakfast and, you know, getting ready to leave because they certainly wouldn't have left without telling him.
[108] But he gets downstairs and the house is dark and totally empty in all of the bags that his parents had packed the night before and put near the front door, they were all gone.
[109] And so Chandler's thinking, did my parents get up at like 5 a .m. and leave without telling me?
[110] So he goes to the door and he looks out the window thinking, you know, maybe they're out.
[111] there waiting outside but when he looked outside his parents weren't out there and sure enough their cars were still in the driveway and so chandler was left to believe that well i guess my parents did get picked up by whoever these friends were and they did not feel the need to come tell me they were leaving now this did leave chandler a little bit shaken up he just kept thinking about the strangeness of what they were packing and the fact that he didn't know who they were going with and now this sudden departure but again chanler just told himself that his parents would be just fine.
[112] You know, these are just kind of random anomalies, but they are not indicative of there being any issue here.
[113] And so Chandler found a way to just kind of push these concerns out of his mind, and he just went about his day.
[114] And so because his parents were now going to be gone for the weekend, he promptly called his girlfriend, Catherine, and asked her to come over and stay at his house with him for a couple of days.
[115] And so she would, she comes over.
[116] And because Chandler can't really do anything because of his injury, they basically spent the weekend just kind of lounging around and eating nice food and watching Netflix.
[117] But by the end of the weekend on Sunday morning, there was an undertone that both of them noticed that something was wrong.
[118] Hey, all you fans of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.
[119] It's me, Mr. Ballin, and today I have some big news.
[120] It's something I'm holding in my hands right now, and so obviously you can't see it.
[121] But this is something you're really going to want to see.
[122] It's the first ever official Mr. Ballin publication.
[123] It's a graphic novel, and it's called Mr. Ballin Presents, Strange, Dark and Mysterious, the Graphic.
[124] stories.
[125] It's an anthology of both classic and brand new, terrifying stories that we've never covered on any of my other platforms, because we created them specifically for this first book.
[126] Each of these stories in the book are feature length, Mr. Ballin's stories that really needed to be told visually.
[127] And the artwork in this book is, I mean, I'm looking at it, and it's just absolutely stunning.
[128] So the book is not actually coming out until my birthday this year, October first, but you can pre -order it right now at book .ballin studios .com.
[129] Again, that's book .bollin studios .com.
[130] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good, you are a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.
[131] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.
[132] We just launched a brand new Strange Dark and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
[133] And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge, and the show is awesome.
[134] In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.
[135] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.
[136] Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad -free on Amazon Music.
[137] Chandler had told his girlfriend about the strangeness of his parents' quick departure to White Lake, but he had said to her, you know, I'm sure it's fine, and she basically said the same thing, that of course your parents are fine.
[138] But by Sunday, Bart and Krista had still not called or texted or checked in with Chandler or Mitchell or anybody.
[139] They were just totally gone and silent.
[140] And whenever Chandler or Catherine tried calling Bart or Krista's cell phone, it didn't even ring.
[141] It just went straight to voicemail.
[142] But by late that day, Sunday, July 4th, when really concerns were starting to mount about what happened to Bart and Krista, Krista would text her son, Chandler.
[143] And what she basically said was, hey, we arrived in White Lake, you know, it's packed here, the service is terrible, but we're going to stick around for the parade, and we'll be back either Monday night or Tuesday early.
[144] And so as soon as Chandler and Catherine saw this text message, it was like all their worries were completely gone, and they were just excited to see Bart and Krista when they were.
[145] came back the next day or the day after.
[146] But the next day, Monday, Bart and Krista did not come home.
[147] They didn't call anyone.
[148] They didn't text anyone.
[149] And again, whenever anybody tried calling their cell phones, which now was Chandler, Catherine, and also Mitchell, who had been looped in on what's going on with his parents, whenever they tried calling them, Bart and Krista's phone didn't ring.
[150] It just went straight to voicemail.
[151] And then the day after that, on Tuesday, July 6th, so this was the day that Krista said they would be home by, they didn't come home.
[152] And again, no one could get in touch with them.
[153] And again, they did not contact anyone.
[154] Additionally, on Tuesday, Krista's office began calling Chandler and Mitchell asking if they knew where Krista was.
[155] Krista had recently taken up a customer service job at an auto body shop, and apparently she was scheduled to work on that day, Tuesday the 6th, And she was scheduled to work on that previous Friday, which was the day Bart and Krista left for the lake, meaning she had left on this trip without telling anybody at work.
[156] And according to her boss, Krista was the type of person who even if she was running a couple of minutes late, she would call ahead or text ahead and let people know.
[157] So for her to just completely not show up and tell no one was totally out of character.
[158] But before Chandler, Mitchell, and Catherine could process this information, Bart's employer began calling them, asking the same things.
[159] Hey, do you know where Bart is?
[160] He's supposed to be working right now, and we can't get in touch with him, and he didn't put in for time off.
[161] And so all afternoon on Tuesday the 6th, Chandler, Mitchell, and Catherine and other family members are trying to call Bard and Krista.
[162] They're calling other people in White Lake to see if anybody knows where they are, but nobody does.
[163] And so finally, the next morning on Wednesday, July 7th, when still there was no word from Bart and Krista, Chandler goes to the police and he files a missing person report.
[164] And pretty much right away, the police in Windsor contacted the police up north in White Lake and asked them to do a check on this cabin to see if maybe Bart and Krista were there.
[165] And maybe they just had terrible service or, you know, maybe there was some sort of accident or something that happened.
[166] But when the White Lake Police arrived at the Halterson cabin, Bart and Krista were not there.
[167] No one was there.
[168] In fact, the cabin looked like it had not been used in months.
[169] The outside was totally overgrown and inside there was no food in the fridge.
[170] And interestingly, the police would also tell Chandler, Mitchell, and Catherine that there was no damage done to this cabin.
[171] There were no broken windows or any sign, at least no obvious sign of storm damage to this cabin.
[172] And so after this revelation, of course, Bart and Krista's family is like, wait a minute, who called them and told them to head up there to fix these obvious broken windows?
[173] Are those the same mystery friends that drove them up in the first place?
[174] I mean, what's going on here?
[175] Was this some sort of trap if they've been set up?
[176] Are they okay?
[177] And so by the following day, Thursday, July 8th, when still there was no sign of Bart or Krista and the police really didn't have any new leads to speak of, Chandler was desperate.
[178] And so he went to local media and he said, please run a story about my parents and get the word out there that they're missing and maybe someone knows something and they'll come forward.
[179] And so local media, they would do that.
[180] They would run this piece.
[181] And so while this media coverage is going on on the 8th, Chandler would go back to his home and he would hobble door to door asking each of his neighbors if they had a security camera on the front of their house that might have picked up an angle of the street, and so may have seen his parents on the morning of July 2nd when they climbed into that mystery couple's car that took them up to White Lake.
[182] Chandler was hoping that if he got this footage, somebody would be able to identify who these mystery friends were.
[183] But unfortunately, none of his neighbors had that footage.
[184] But as it would turn out, it didn't matter.
[185] Because on that day, the 8th, the police made a discovery that at first seemed relatively minor, relatively small, but when they examined it more closely, they realized it was a huge discovery and it completely broke the case wide open.
[186] To understand this breakthrough, we have to go back to June 29th, 2021.
[187] three days before Bart and Krista hopped into that mystery person's car and headed up to White Lake.
[188] On that day, June 29th, Bart had finally just had it.
[189] There had been something bothering him for a really long time and he had just finally decided, you know what, today I'm going to get to the bottom of it.
[190] And so Bart pulled out his phone, he punched in a number, he put it to his ear and after a few rings, a young man named Omar Job answered his call.
[191] In total, Bart and Omar would talk on the phone for a total of 17 minutes.
[192] And for the first half of the call, it was basically just Bart being really angry and aggressive towards Omar.
[193] But then during the second half of the call, when Omar really had a chance to speak for the first time, Bart's tone completely changed.
[194] He was no longer angry.
[195] He actually sounded totally defeated.
[196] And so after this 17 -minute phone call finally comes to an end, Bart is left kind of in shock, but he knows he now needs to set up an even more intense meeting with a group of people, and he needs to tell them what he just learned from Omar.
[197] And within 24 hours, Bart had set this additional high -stakes meeting with this other group.
[198] It was set for 3 p .m. on July 1st.
[199] July 1st was the day before Bart and Krista would leave for White Lake.
[200] And so on July 1st, the day of this new pivotal meeting, Bart was working from home, and at some point he looked at his watch, saw it was just after 2 p .m. And even though this meeting he was going to have was still an hour away, the location of the meeting was a bit of a drive away.
[201] And so he knew he needed to leave soon.
[202] And so Bart stopped working and he texted Chandler, who was in the house with him, he just said, ready to leave when you are.
[203] Chandler was aware of how important this meeting was for his dad.
[204] He also understood the terrible position his dad was in.
[205] And so he had agreed to go with his dad to this meeting.
[206] And so after a couple of minutes, both Chandler and Bart have gotten dressed and ready for this meeting and they met downstairs on the first floor.
[207] And after kind of a nod to each other, they begin walking towards the front door.
[208] But then something happens.
[209] Chandler was standing behind Bart. And so as they're moving towards the door, Chandler reaches out and grabs a rifle he was hiding on the first floor.
[210] He raises it and he fires at least two shots into his father's back.
[211] And then once his father fell to the ground and was either dead or dying, Chandler, calm as can be, pulled out his phone, and he texted his mother and told her, hey, dad's phone is dead, so just text me. And then Chandler also sent his mother a text saying, get soda on your way home.
[212] To which his mother just wrote, Kay, I can, smiley face.
[213] All Chandler was trying to do was buy as much time as possible to prep the house for his mother's return.
[214] And so over the next couple of hours, we don't know exactly what Chandler did, but it's assumed he moved his father's body into some hiding place, and then after maybe trying to clean up a little bit, Chandler laid in wait for his mother.
[215] And at 458 p .m., Krista would clock out of her job at the automotive shop.
[216] She would make a pit stop at a store to buy Chandler some soda, and then between 515 and 530, security cameras on neighbor's houses would pick her up pulling into her driveway.
[217] And then just a couple of minutes later, she walked inside of her beautiful little dream home where she had raised her family over the past couple of decades, only to be immediately gunned down by her son the second she walked inside.
[218] It would turn out, Chandler was living a double life.
[219] He had never graduated from college.
[220] He had gone to college, but for like a semester and flunked out, but he just kept telling his friends and family that he was progressing through college and then he graduated from college, all made up.
[221] He also did not have a job at the insurance company.
[222] He just told his family that he worked from home, which really meant he sat in his room and played video games all day.
[223] He was not a rescue scuba diver for the Madison Police Department because, one, he was not a scuba diver, and two, because the Madison Police Department did not have a rescue scuba diving team.
[224] And needless to say, he did not have a job with SpaceX.
[225] He had never even applied.
[226] As for his head injury, he may have bumped his head at some point, and he did go to the doctors by himself sometime in mid -June.
[227] But that doctor just told him he might have a mild concussion and then offered him a neck brace and told him, you don't need to wear it.
[228] That's only if you want to wear it.
[229] But then very quickly, Chandler turned this non.
[230] injury into a debilitating, crippling, life -altering injury and literally hobbled all around with a neck brace and cane.
[231] And the reason he did that is he needed an excuse for why he wasn't starting his job at SpaceX.
[232] In short, Chandler lied about virtually every aspect of his life to virtually everyone in his life.
[233] And for the most part, people did believe him.
[234] However, his parents were becoming more and more suspicious.
[235] Specifically, in 2021, he was telling them, oh yeah, I'm working at the insurance company, but he never had any money.
[236] He could barely pay rent to his family, if at all, and so his dad would say to him, how is it?
[237] You are employed, but have no money.
[238] And the way Chandler would handle this is he would create fake email accounts pretending to be people in HR at this insurance company, and then acting as them, he would write these convoluted emails that had these ridiculous excuses for why Chandler had not been paid yet.
[239] And so he would have that fake email account, email his real account.
[240] And then Chandler, in his actual email, would write back really angrily and sternly saying, you've got to fix this.
[241] My family's not happy.
[242] And then he would once again pretend to be the HR person who would say, I'm sorry, it's some issue that you can't affect.
[243] We're going to fix it, but you got to wait.
[244] And Chandler would take these exchanges.
[245] and he would forward them to his father.
[246] And while Bart didn't necessarily totally believe what he was being shown, it was enough to get him to stop asking questions.
[247] But Bart and Krista were also suspicious of other aspects of Chandler's life.
[248] Like, for example, his school records.
[249] At some point, he needed to show them his transcripts, and he would tell them, oh, you know, I can't.
[250] I can't access my transcripts.
[251] And so Bart and Krista are like, why?
[252] Can't you just log in and pull up your unofficial transcripts at least?
[253] And the way Chandler would handle this was the same way he handled the insurance company.
[254] He would create fictitious email accounts of people that were college advisors at Madison College, where he claimed to have gone and graduated from.
[255] And he would do those phony back and forths where it looked like the college was telling Chandler, sorry, you can't get your transcripts.
[256] It's this huge problem.
[257] That's totally our fault, not yours.
[258] But you just got to wait.
[259] There's nothing else you can do.
[260] We can't get them for you right now.
[261] And when Chandler would send these exchanges to Bart, Bart would get totally worked up about it.
[262] And finally, he demanded that Chandler give him a phone number so he can talk to one of these college advisors.
[263] And so Chandler went out and got a burner phone from a convenience store, and he gave that phone number to his dad.
[264] And then when his dad called this number up, somebody picked up, someone introducing themselves as Daniel Spieth, which really was just Chandler, disguising his voice.
[265] and Daniel Spieth would give Bart the same spiel about how, oh, I'm so sorry, it's all the college's fault that we can't get your son's transcripts, you're just going to have to wait.
[266] And so finally, on June 29, 2021, Bart had just had it with his son.
[267] He was convinced his son was lying or there was something going on, there was just too much about his son's life that didn't add up.
[268] And so Bart decided he was just going to call Madison College and pretend, to be Chandler and see if he could get his transcripts.
[269] And so he dialed a number for customer service at Madison College.
[270] And after a few rings, Omar Job, a customer service rep at Madison College, picked up.
[271] And initially, Bart was kind of aggressive and mean towards Omar for really no reason other than he was just so frustrated with this whole situation.
[272] And so he's on this call pretending to be Chandler and he's kind of barking at Omar to give me my transcripts right now, I go to your school, there's no reason you can keep them from me, but then after a couple of minutes, Omar finally was able to talk, and he said, you know, hey, Chandler, I looked you up in the system, and you don't go to this school.
[273] You've never gone to the school, save for maybe one semester and you failed out.
[274] And so it's at this point when Bart hears this, that he just pauses for a really long amount of time on this call, and then he begins asking follow -up questions that are not really connected to trying to get transcripts, because now he knows the transcripts don't exist because his son didn't go to school.
[275] And so he begins asking Omar, does Daniel Spieth still work there?
[276] And so Omar would look him up and he would say, no, there's no Daniel Spieth that works here, and there's no Daniel Spieth that's ever worked here.
[277] And because Chandler had used like five or six different names when pretending to be college advisors for Madison College, Bart, in addition to asking about that Daniel Speeth guy, asked about every other name he had interacted with, believing he was talking to Madison College, and one by one, Omar told him, I'm sorry, those people do not work here.
[278] I've never heard of these people.
[279] They're not in the directory.
[280] I'm sorry.
[281] And so finally, at the end of that 17 -minute call, Bart knew his son was living a huge lie.
[282] And so he hung up with Omar and then Bart called real college advisors at Madison College, and he set a meeting for July 1st at 3rd.
[283] And then he told Chandler that he had set this meeting and Chandler was going to come with him and they together were going to ask those college advisors why they can't produce Chandler's transcripts.
[284] Now Bart of course knew Chandler did not have transcripts and so he likely had set this meeting to get Chandler to call the meeting off and come clean about this big lie so that Bart could get his son back on the right track.
[285] Stop lying and live a real life.
[286] But the way Chandler handled being caught was not to own up to any of this.
[287] He didn't call off the meeting.
[288] He just waited until the day of the meeting, and then he killed his father, killed his mother, and then dismembered their bodies and burned their body parts in the family fireplace, including their heads.
[289] And then when he couldn't destroy their bodies completely, he took what was left of their remains and scattered them all over town in parks and forests and rivers, he even put his father's headless, armless, legless torso behind his girlfriend's parents' house.
[290] And all the while, as he's doing this, he's spinning this ridiculous story to his girlfriend, to his brother, to other members of the Halterson family, to police, to colleagues of Bart and Krista, that Bart and Krista just up and left on the morning of July 2nd with this mystery couple.
[291] And oh, by the way, my parents, they were putting cash and silver bars in their luggage.
[292] So I don't know.
[293] They went up to White Lake and now they're gone.
[294] I don't know what happened to them.
[295] We don't know why Chandler chose the story he did.
[296] It's unclear if he was trying to make it seem like his parents were suspicious and had gotten into something that had maybe gotten them harmed or kidnapped, or if he was trying to make it seem like his parents were just super gullible and had been taken advantage of by this mystery couple.
[297] We don't know.
[298] He was just trying to make the whole situation seem plausibly suspicious.
[299] Ultimately, though, Chandler did so many things that got him cut.
[300] From the mountain of physical evidence he left behind inside of his house, where he killed and dismembered his parents, and also at the various dump sites where he didn't even bury the body parts.
[301] He would just put them underneath sticks and branches, and so they were very easy to find.
[302] To his extremely suspicious behavior on July 7th, when he walked into the police station and reported his parents missing, that whole time he was talking to police officers, he was acting so weird and was just saying things that didn't make sense, and he just totally came off like a guy who did not care at all that his parents were gone, and really just seemed like a guy who was hiding something.
[303] But the big breakthrough that happened on July 8th that broke the case open stemmed from the text message Krista's phone sent to Chandler's phone on July 4th.
[304] When Chandler walked into the police station on July 7th and said, my parents are missing, one of the first questions they had for him was, okay, well, when was the last time you spoke to your parents?
[305] And Chandler would tell them he got a text message from his mother, Krista, on Sunday, July 4th.
[306] And then he showed them the text message.
[307] And the text message said that they had arrived in White Lake, and they were going to be sticking around for the parade, and they'd be back in a couple of days.
[308] But the police noticed that this text message had been sent on July 4th, But in White Lake that year, the parade was on July 3rd.
[309] So when this text came through, the parade that anyone in White Lake would be aware of, it's a small place.
[310] You're not going to miss this parade.
[311] The parade had already happened.
[312] So why would Krista be texting her son that she was going to stick around in White Lake for the parade that had already happened?
[313] And so this led police to check phone records, and they would discover that text message was sent from Krista's phone to Chandler's phone.
[314] phone, but when it was sent on July 4th, Christa's phone was not in White Lake.
[315] Instead, it was inside of the Halterson home, right near Chandler's phone.
[316] And so when police went to the Haltersen house, they searched it and they found Christa's phone in the garage underneath a drawer inside of a shoe wrapped in tinfoil next to her driver's license.
[317] And so Chandler had obviously sent that text message on July 4th using his mother's phone to himself.
[318] But he had just gotten the date wrong of the parade.
[319] And so this discrepancy really opened up the floodgates and before long it was beyond obvious that Chandler was the killer.
[320] And after a thorough investigation, it was determined that Chandler had acted entirely alone, meaning Catherine, his girlfriend and his brother Mitchell had nothing to do with it.
[321] They were just innocent bystanders.
[322] Chandler would ultimately be found guilty of killing his parents and he would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
[323] Chandler has still not taken any responsibility for what he's done.
[324] Instead, he just tells anybody who will listen that his plan is to continue to appeal his verdict.
[325] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.
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[336] So that's going to do it.
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[343] I'm Dan Tiberski.
[344] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.
[345] I was like at my locker and she came up to me. and she was like stuttering super bad.
[346] I'm like, stop fucking around.
[347] She's like, I can't.
[348] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.
[349] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.
[350] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.
[351] Everybody thought I was holding something back.
[352] Well, you were holding something back.
[353] Intentionally.
[354] Yeah, yeah.
[355] Well, yeah.
[356] No, it's hysteria.
[357] It's all in your head.
[358] It's not physical.
[359] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.
[360] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the witches of Salem?
[361] Or is it something else.
[362] entirely.
[363] Something's wrong here.
[364] Something's not right.
[365] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.
[366] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.
[367] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
[368] You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus.