1990 cold case murder a "bold stranger abduction"
FOND DU LAC, Wis. -- The Kenosha trucker charged with killing a Wisconsin teen in 1990 kept a photograph of the victim in his toolbox and became emotional when confronted by police with details of the crime, according to a criminal complaint released Monday.
Dennis J. Brantner, 61, was arrested Friday and has been charged with first-degree murder in the cold case slaying of eighteen-year-old Berit Beck, officials said at a press conference Monday. Fond du Lac County Sheriff Mylan Fink described the case as a "bold stranger abduction," and district attorney Eric Toney said he feels officials have enough evidence to prove the case against Brantner in court.
Fink, who was one of the original investigators when Beck's body was located, said Beck's family "has been waiting for this day for nearly 25 years."
Beck, of Sturtevant, disappeared in Fond du Lac, about 70 miles north of Milwaukee, in July 17, 1990 as she was on her way to a computer class. Authorities found her body in a ditch about a month later. She had been suffocated and strangled to death.
According to new details released in the criminal complaint, Beck's body was found with a blindfold tied around her head. The blindfold appeared to match a ripped red tee shirt found in Beck's van, which has been discovered abandoned in a K-Mart parking lot two days after she vanished.
Evidence in the van, according to the complaint, would become critical in identifying Brantner as a suspect in the case. On Feb. 27, 2014, five previously unidentified fingerprints discovered on a Burger King cup, an employee manual and a Jolen bleach kit in the van were identified by the state crime lab as belonging to Brantner. Matches for more fingerprints - discovered under the front passenger seat, on the inside middle door window and on a cellophane cigarette wrapper - were also linked the following month to Brantner, according to the complaint.
Family told investigators that Beck didn't smoke, though evidence of cigarettes were found in the van.
Fond du Lac County Sheriff's office named Brantner as their main suspect in April of last year after the new evidence was analyzed, and tips resulting from the media coverage helped move the case forward, Toney said Monday.
On April 8 and 9 of 2014, investigators spoke with co-workers of Brantner who recognized a photograph the man kept clipped to the inside of his toolbox as Beck from media reports, the complaint alleges. One co-worker told police Brantner told him the photograph was of "a girlfriend of mine."
When police interviewed Brantner in 2014 and confronted him with the fingerprint evidence, he became emotional, according to the complaint. He denied having anything to do with Beck's murder, but at other times said he didn't know or couldn't remember details of what happened, investigators said.
"I swear, I did not kill her," Brantner said, according to the complaint. "I didn't kill her because I'm not that way." When he was asked about evidence connecting him to Beck's van, he allegedly said, "I don't remember how I got in the van."
When asked about whether he dumped Beck's body, Brantner allegedly said he didn't know because he couldn't remember. He allegedly said that if he helped dump the body he was "so f---ing sorry," became emotional and left the interview room.
Investigators uncovered alleged incidents of violence against women in Brantner's past, according to the complaint. In 1994, he was arrested in Lake County, Illinois for unlawful restraint and battery related to an alleged abduction of his second wife. Brantner, according to the complaint, was separated from the woman at the time when he hid in her car as she left work. He allegedly threatened her with a knife and forced her to drive to another location where he held her against her will for hours.
During a court appearance Monday afternoon, bond was set for Brantner at $1 million cash and he remained in the Fond du Lac County Jail. His attorney did not immediately return a telephone message from the Associated Press seeking comment.
The Beck family issued a brief statement, reports CBS affiliate WDJT: "We are encouraged and relieved for this day to have arrived for Berit and our family. We request that our privacy be respected as this process unfolds."
