Any good true crime story takes us on a stroll down the darkest alleys of the human mind; to put ourselves in the mind of a killer and try to figure out how they did it and why. And then there are stories like this one, where every answer we seek about the killer’s motives and plans for getting away with it only leaves us with more questions, and nearly all of those questions are “Wait, what the hell?!?”
Friends, family, and co-workers of Bart and Krista Halderson were shocked by news of their sudden disappearance in July 2021. But over the course of one week, investigators kept uncovering clues that only made the case more confusing… and ultimately more gruesome than anyone could imagine. To this day, there are many details we just don’t know because the only man who knows what truly happened isn’t talking. And even if he did, there’s no reason to believe a single word that comes out of his mouth ...
One Strange Phone Call
June 29, 2021. Omar Jobe, an enrollment coordinator at Madison Area Technical College in Madison, Wisconsin, received a phone call. It was one of those phone calls that anyone who’s ever worked in customer service knows all too well. Someone calls in with a problem they need rectified, and the more you try to help them out, the more it becomes obvious they must be doing something wrong on their end. You try to calmly explain to them why you can’t give them exactly what they’re asking for, but you’re only making them more frustrated and you know they’re just one no away from them biting your head off.
The man Omar was speaking to that day said his name was Chandler Halderson and that he was having trouble getting a copy of his school transcript and had not yet received his diploma after graduating the previous semester. Chandler had been trying to use the online portal on the college’s website, but every time it would not complete the request. He then said that he had been emailing back and forth with a couple of school administrators, Alyssa Brandt and Daniel Speith, and had been getting nothing but excuses. Omar did not recognize either of those names.
So, to get to the bottom of this problem, Omar looked up Chandler’s file on his end. The first problem he saw is that Chandler still had an outstanding tuition balance of over $2,000. The second issue is that the system showed that Chandler had not only not graduated, he hadn’t taken any classes at the school since the fall of 2020. This should’ve been the point of the phone call where you’d expect Chandler to go nuclear. But instead, he calmly said, “Okay, that should do it then… Okay, thank you for your help.” And then he hung up.
Omar Jobe would soon recognize the name Chandler Halderson again because, over the following week and a half, Chandler’s name would be all over the news for all of the worst reasons. And little did Omar know that one strange phone call was what might have set off this horrible chain of events.
The Original Timeline
To hear him tell it, Chandler Halderson seemed to have a lot going for him-- prior to June 2021, that is. He was 23 years old, a recent college graduate, and had been working remotely at home for an insurance company. He also volunteered with the local police department as a part of their scuba search team. He was still living at home with his parents, but he soon had plans to move to Florida with his girlfriend so he could accept a job offer from SpaceX.