Wis. man to stand trial in teen's 1990 cold case slaying
FOND DU LAC, Wis. - A man arrested last month in the 25-year-old cold case killing of Wisconsin teen Berit Beck has been ordered to stand trial in Fond du Lac County.
Sixty-one-year-old Dennis Brantner, of Kenosha, faces a charge of first-degree murder in the July 1990 death of Beck. The 18-year-old was traveling from her home in Sturtevant to Appleton for a computer training seminar when she disappeared. Her van was found a few days later in a Fond du Lac parking lot, but her body wasn't found until more than a month later in a ditch in the Fond du Lac County Town of Waupun. An autopsy showed she had likely been strangled.
Brantner was named as a prime suspect in the case in 2014. At the time, investigators said newly analyzed evidence suggested Brantner had been in Beck's van. He was arrested in March of this year.
Brantner's attorney has said fingerprint evidence submitted by the state doesn't mean the defendant killed Beck.
WLUK-TV says Brantner is being held on $1 million bond.