Wisconsin’s Jessie Blodgett case: Gifted musician-actress found dead in bed

there is a killer in this cast and someone on this stage is about to die oh my god hartford 901 worth of your emergency it looks like strangulation work an imposter on the prowl he is able to present himself to the world in a very different way than the way he actually is acting on evil you staged your body a real-life thriller as twisted as any drama you've got one woman who's been attacked and another woman who's dead a lot of dark dark stuff and when the plot finally unravels right when i saw his face i'm like yeah the suspect at the center we told him you have the rock guy we'll leave a community stunned and several families torn apart no remorse no compassion [Music] i've interviewed killers before he's at a different level [Music] this was jesse blodgett the essence of who she was and on most days how you'd find her every time i would go over to her house she'd be playing the piano even when i was trying to talk to her she'd be playing the piano and i'd be like i'm trying to talk to you know she was always singing always dancing and as both a public performer and a music tutor for local kids jessie was something of a star in the small town of hartford wisconsin what was she like as a little girl she was brilliant in first grade the teacher created her own curriculum for jesse and when the class of spelling words were and and the jesse's first one was metamorphosis and anesthesiologist a brilliant mind that jessie would use to pursue many passions as she grew from fighting for animal rights to advocating against violence towards women but in the end it always came back to music we actually wrote some songs together she was just brilliant at writing music [Music] but jessie wasn't the only exceptional talent to come out of hartford enter her good friend and classmate dan bartelt dan and jess sat next to each other every day in school all through high school dan was a gifted violinist he was first chair and jess was second chair dan was hilarious you know i always thought he was the funny really outgoing always making jokes he was also very smart i kind of admired their friendship jessie and dan also had a shared love for the stage and on paper they had all the makings of an arts-loving power couple but they tried that didn't work they dated for about three or four months freshman year of high school they broke up but dan is the one who broke it off why i don't know we thought that he's freshman in high school he doesn't need to explain himself why he's not committed for life here and anyway they were better as friends after high school jesse and dan went away to different colleges but they reconnected the following summer jess came home one day and said dad mom dan's back he dropped out of college he's a straight a student what's up with that i know that they became really close when he had dropped out of college they would play music together all the time they were collaborating the two even wrote and recorded this song together which now serves as something of a time capsule just a few weeks after posting that tune on youtube jesse and dan would be in the spotlight for separate but equal reasons dan landed a starring role in bye-bye birdie and jessie jesse was the fiddler in fiddler on the roof here she is playing for a packed house on opening weekend these last few notes jessie's swan song that was her last night on earth [Music] just hours after curtain call jessie is seen here at the cast party her smile apparently betraying some very uneasy feelings issues that had to do with at least two older men in attendance later that night technically early the next morning july 15th jessie returns home and runs into her mom the two talk about that party they talk about two of the people at the cast party were kind of flirting with her she even put those feelings down in her diary that same night writing in part i think i'm being corrupted i think certain men are taking what should be platonic love and perverting it into a competition but jesse also goes on to write i am not helpless i will recognize problems and confront them without fear god be with me and then she went to bed yes around eight the next morning jesse's mom joy dropped some laundry off in jessie's room before heading to work jessie's dad had already left for the day jesse was asleep in her bed and everything was fine four hours after that jessie's mom returned home for her lunch break the house was quiet joyce just thought she was sleeping in she was a teenager on break but when she went to wake her daughter she was mad that just wasn't answering her she went into jessie's room she couldn't understand why she wasn't responding and then she touched her and jesse was cold oh my god oh my god hartford 901 what's your emergency my daughter is blue i went to wake her up and i just got home for [Music] is she breathing i don't think so no jessie is unresponsive covered up in her own bed okay ma'am do you know how to do cpr josie do you know how to do cpr man she's cold she's cold she's cold you can hear the anguish in her voice as she tries to process the scene and especially what she sees next oh my gosh oh my god oh my god oh my god she rolled her over and she saw ligature marks your pants are all wet and she's got it looks like strangulation works there are strangulation marks that's what it looks like i don't know what's going on i don't know what's going on after that the dispatcher puts joy on hold while she alerts ems sadly it's already too late honey what happened to you no no honey no no that's how we found her dad she was just 19 years old [Music] buck blodgett was at work the monday his wife found their only child jessie apparently strangled to death in her bedroom she just seemed so good by the time buck returned home investigators already had his daughter cordoned off did you know that she's been murdered in her own bed they wouldn't let me upstairs so i couldn't see her i couldn't touch her i couldn't say goodbye i couldn't tell her i loved her and i couldn't tell her i was sorry for not being there when she needed her dad and i'm sorry i forgot the question detective richard thickens of the hartford pd was one of the first investigators on the scene that day what did you find we found jessie on the floor very obvious mark on her neck and marks on her wrist very faint marks that could possibly have been binding marks at that point i believe we had a homicide in our hands jessie's mom also tells detectives that when she found her daughter her hair and clothes were wet a sign the killer may have spent extra time with his victim he staged her body i believed he washed her body and then placed it back in the bed covered her up did you think it was someone who knew the victim or did you think that this was a random act of violence there was no signs of forced entry so it led us to believe that it was somebody that knew the house but who knew jessie's movements so intimately and who would use that knowledge to end her life police didn't have to look far to find their first suspects jesse been in a play that had wrapped up sunday night and afterwards she had gone to a cast party and jesse had talked about some concerns she had about other people involved in the cast concerns she wrote about in her journal on the day she died her own diary is telling you that there is an older man who's been bothering her and you start looking at him absolutely what did you find we found that there were some concerns with his actions at the cast party he had actually pulled her onto his lap according to one of her friends and on the day jess was killed he hadn't shown up for work on monday which for us was a significant concern but police say he cooperated with the investigation and after talking to the man for a few hours we cleared him pretty quickly detectives also cleared the other man jessie wrote about in her diary what are you narrowing down on to someone that knew her activity and knew where she'd be what cops in hartford didn't realize was that authorities in the neighboring town of richfield were already zeroing in on the suspect but for an entirely different reason an entirely different attack on an entirely different victim okay and how is he holding it it happened three days before jesse's murder a young woman named melissa etzler was walking her dog at a local park when she was tackled from behind by a man with a knife washington county detective joel clausing interviewed melissa in the hospital shortly after the assault her emotions still raw as her wounds from fighting off the attacker all right it's detective closing it is july 12th do you need me to stop and so what was her story well i got down to the hospital and i started talking to her and she couldn't write because her hand was all cut up so i got a recorded statement melissa tells detective clausing she was just getting ready to leave the park that morning when she startled by the sound of footsteps behind her so i looked back and i laughed and said oh you scared me just because i thought he was some friendly guy and then i turn around again because i can hear him coming at me and i see a knife in his hand melissa continues her story a few days later when police take her back to that park to reenact the crime yeah this is how far away you were when you first saw it okay then you turn around and then you got a after that melissa says it was fight back or die the next thing i remember i'm on the ground these aren't me i'm stomach down i'm holding on to the night we he said something weird to her after she disarmed him he asked if he could leave and and i believe she said no i said no you're gonna go and as melissa tells us that's exactly what she did oh i i kept the knife yeah that was in my car it was a fish filet knife wow so you kept the knife right is that when he said can i go he can't get it from me he he's trying but he just can't get it out of my grip so he finally is just like can i just go and it's like well you're the one on top of me so you're the one who attacked me what are you doing exactly so it was just it was just bizarre she says after that the suspect ran off but that she remembered every detail of her perpetrator i can still see it in my head right now what he was wearing a white male 18 to 20 years of age six to 210 pounds he had light blonde hair with very fair skin yes okay and you said he had checkered shorts blade shorts melissa was the best witness i've ever had in my entire career she described where he was parked in the parking lot and what kind of vehicle he was driving to within a couple of years dark blue minivan dodge caravan i don't know what year an older model though based on melissa's description of the suspect police released this composite sketch to the media we expected a bunch of calls saying i knew who this guy was we didn't get anything but when they circulate melissa's near-perfect description of the suspect's van i was approached by a deputy meyer from our department he came up to me and said i saw a car like that parked in that very same spot a couple months ago but even better he said i found you a plate how did he have the plate he ran it that day no way yeah he ran the plate that day he knew he ran the plate that day so he looked back on all the plates that he had run over the past how many ever weeks and found it and when police put a name to that plate the focus of two mysteries in two separate towns narrows in on one very surprising suspect the owner didn't match the description but then they found out that they had a son who did on the same day 19 year old actress slash activist singer songwriter jessie blodgett was being murdered in her own bed 12 miles away in the neighboring town of richfield wisconsin a woman named melissa etzler was walking detectives through an assault that happened to her three days before the police were still trying to find the person who attacked you right did you ever get a really good look at him i know i got a good look at his clothes and his van and because of that detective joel clausing of the washington county sheriff's office was able to track down a license plate for the suspect's vehicle though to his initial dismay it came back registered to a middle-aged couple we're looking for a 20-year-old kid that's six foot one 200 pounds we're not looking for a 45-year-old man and his wife but when police question that man and his wife they find out the couple has a son 20 years old roughly six foot one 200 pounds mom and dad gave us his cell phone number as we're driving away from the residents i called them around that same time in the town of hartford jesse blodgett's loved ones have filled her family's home we all sat in a circle around our living room and people shared memories and cried together and hugged among those mourners jesse's old artistic collaborator fellow actor slash singer songwriter daniel bartelt dan actually did most of the talking he was talking talking talking talking talking he did a lot of talking and he was about to do a lot more then all of a sudden he was he had this phone call and i just kind of looked at him when he got this phone call and he wasn't like upset he wasn't surprised and he just said okay i'll be right over there and then he hung up the phone on the other end of that phone detective clausing daniel bartelt was the son of that couple the driver of the van i told him we needed to talk to him and he said okay i asked him where he was he said he was at jesse blodgett's vigil and by this time even though it wasn't your case you knew who jesse blodgett was yes but what sparked more interest when i got off the phone i looked at detective also said he never even asked me what this was about how many people get called by a detective asked to meet and they don't say what's going on why do i need to beat you he never said it and apparently he didn't have much to say to his friends back at the blodget house either we kind of looked at everyone and was like i got called down to the police station of course at that point no one there even knew about the attack on melissa he's in our house and joy this is my wife she said dan don't worry they're going to talk to all of jesse's friends and little did we know at the time why they were talking to dan all right do you know what this is about no this is about an incident that detective walks our investigation had last friday you're questioning him only about the attack in the park not jesse's murder that's correct and tell him you know i just want to talk to you about some stuff and i said where were we at again a house in hartford and i said you know just making small talk whatever happened with her and he said that was in the first two minutes of the interview but would prove to be one of its most significant moments more on why in a moment but first i wanted to talk to him about my case right so we started asking him about his history dan denies knowing anything about the assault on melissa but then something catches clausen's eye he had an injury to his thumb a puncture cut we asked him where he had sustained that injury and he said he did it at work and then um detective walsh says if we check with your employer would they would you still have your job no okay that's what i thought did he really have a job no every day he would get up put on his work clothes grab his lunch get in his van and pretend to go to work to his parents but if dan wasn't working then his explanation for that cut wasn't either then i said well how'd you injure your thumb then tell us about that that's when i stopped him i said okay nobody in their right mind would lie about cutting themselves if they happen at home okay what happened just be honest and a closing surprise he suddenly was i found this eventually he admitted that he was the one that attacked melissa in the park you went after that girl right okay why what were you going to do dan tells detectives that since he dropped out of college he's felt frightened of life and he just wanted someone else to feel the same a confession complete with motive but then investigators didn't necessarily need it at the park they find dan's blood on multiple items and a roll of heating duct tape that matches tape in dan's house plus they had their star witness they had me do a lineup um right when i saw his face i'm like yeah that's him 100 so you had your guy before the attack and then what happens we got to arrest him you know but now we discussed you know do you think he's the guy the jesse blodger guy correct you know do you think he's good for the murder and the reason they wonder that goes back to those first few minutes of the interview when daniel bartelt said this he said well that she was raped and murdered which was significant because because the police us at that time didn't even know that she was sexually assaulted investigators expected to find the man guilty of the brazen assault on melissa etzler lurking in the shadows they figured any persons of interest in 19 year old jesse blodgett's murder 12 miles away to be hiding underground instead daniel bartelt was basking in the spotlight even landing the lead role in bye-bye birdie just before both attacks dan was one of the most intelligent people that i've ever interviewed he had a sense about him that was bad dan made your skin crawl yes especially when just one day after jesse's murder before the forensics had even come back this trained actor flubbed one of his lines he said that he believed that jesse had been raped and murdered and you didn't even know she had been raped yet we had no indications of her being raped only the killer could know that so while dan sits in jail for that assault on the girl in the park detectives covering that case share what they know with detectives investigating jesse's murder i was doing search warrants on dan's computer and in the computer there was a lot of bondage pornography there's a lot of i don't know how you describe it it's dark dark stuff including one wikipedia search on spree killers and several other searches for serial killers it didn't end there we actually had searches for pornographic snuff films that actually seemed to match the series of events that occurred in jessie's room in the movie after strangling her he washes her one of the things that mrs blodgett had made note of was how jessie was placed back in her bed covered up and that her hair was wet just an eerie coincidence detectives were about to ask the suspect themselves what i want to talk to you about jesse blodgett and understand that you you're friends with her this time dan is a little more careful not to incriminate himself what do you think happened to jesse dan admits that he'd reconnected with his one-time girlfriend that summer and had been at jesse's house a lot in the weeks before her murder he even says he had good reason to hide that fact but it wasn't because of anything nefarious i started kissing on the couch and she'd asked me to go up with her he said that they had a romantic relationship but he hadn't made it public because he was dating someone else but detectives are suspicious the entire time i talked to him he made it look like he was crying but i didn't see him shed a tear it's one of those kind of cries right a lot of noise and no tears right as for dan's whereabouts on the day of jesse's murder he says he was driving around in his parents van pretending to be at work he said that he had left the house and he'd gone to a couple of different parks ending up at woodlawn parking in the city up there 10 or so worried about woodlawn trying to ride an airtight alibi claims dan but then get this when it comes to what dan was quote trying to write he tells detectives it's a series of stories about a young girl not unlike jessie who would eventually be murdered main character's name so he admits to killing off the fictional character jessica not so much for jesse blodgett can you help us a feels good hundred some closure he denied any involvement and as detectives continue to press dan's tone gets suddenly less teary uncomfortable because yeah because of what you're trying to say dan uses his right to remain silent on that question and he won't have much to say beyond let's see that either is helpful and with that statement it was interview over dan had confessed to nothing as for his alibi dan said that he was at the woodlawn park so they get video sure enough there's dan he was there that morning that jesse was killed that's him in the red shorts definitely not at the scene of the crime so then had police been too quick to pin a murder on an easy suspect one who had already confessed to another crime jesse's own parents thought so especially because daniel bartelt spent hours grieving with them after jesse's murder in fact when the police called dan dan was at our house he's crying over jesse yeah and sharing memories with us i hugged dan several times we were telling the police it wasn't him and he was a good guy but jesse's parents are wrong fooled by his act as it turns out dan's own alibi would also be his undoing back at that park police uncovered the dark side of daniel bartelt they go take all the trash out of the trash bins at woodlawn park they find the cereal box inside the cereal box is ball gig ligatures alcohol wipes and the rope found in the trash lines up perfectly with the ligature marks on jessie's neck then when detectives searched dan's house they find the exact same rope in his garage plus remember that tape investigators found on dan's vents that match tape he dropped during melissa's assault incredibly a full week after jesse blodgett's murder investigators taking a second look at the scene find the exact same tape under her bed his fingerprints are on that pretty incredible yes and based on the evidence investigators believe they know exactly why the tape was there what did he use this tape for he hogged digest he gag balled her and he taped her so the gag ball wouldn't come out detectives also find both jessie and dan's dna on those ligatures and dan's dna under jesse's fingernails and when it comes to that detail dan let slip in his first interview and did he rape her we found dna that indicated that he assaulted her after that it was hard for anyone to deny the daniel bartelt they thought they knew was something else entirely dan's a chameleon he is able to present himself to the world in a very different light than the way he actually is good qualities for an actor lethal for a killer you want to believe the best about people you want to believe the best about people that you call your friends to you know see your friends not be evil even without a confession dan bartelt is charged with first degree intentional homicide of his old friend jesse but there's still one giant question left hanging why dan would get one more chance to say his piece in court but would he finally come clean or would it be the ultimate slap in the face to a family already in mourning mr bartel before i sentence you anything you want to say on your behalf i do jessie blodgett didn't have an arch nemesis she wasn't murdered by an angry foe jesse's life was taken by someone she thought was a friend she definitely admired dan you know his musical talents his you know his mind his intelligence she really did you have a good friendship with dan the two even wrote and recorded songs together just weeks before daniel bartelt bound jessie as she slept sexually assaulted her then strangled her to death leaving her dead in her bed for her mother to find honey [Music] but the big question still remaining was why he did it personally don't like labels but i think his sociopath i think he has no empathy i think he's brilliant and talented like many sociopaths and they're calculating they learn how to fit in and blend and based on the evidence which included a lot of disturbing searches found on dan's computer the prevailing theory is that the big reason dan killed jesse was just to satisfy a sick urge i think she was a convenient target he knew where she was going to be you knew there wasn't going to be a family in the house i think he wanted to kill someone and she was available and if cops hadn't caught dan when they did you think he was going to kill again i believe there's a possibility that he would have tried it again what's the time span between the attack in the park and the killing of jesse three days at trial prosecutors bring up all these points and more daniel bartelt is found guilty i think dan is a bad bad person he's where he should be but that's what everyone else says about him now that he's been found guilty what would dan have to say for himself would he finally confess buck joy i can't give you the answers that you're looking for guess not when he started by saying buck and joy i wish i could give you the answers you're looking for we knew it wasn't going to go in a good direction this jumpsuit that i'm wearing these shackles that i'm put in don't make me guilty no it was the mountain of evidence that made him guilty and yet like an actor delivering his final monologue in a play dan prattles on i can't prove that i'm innocent to anyone not even myself i can't prove that son that i haven't seen for over 400 days still even rises and sets but i like to believe that it does the only reason the only reason that i went to trial at all is because i was told i would not be allowed to acknowledge that i couldn't refute the evidence and just accept sentencing without saying that i'd done something i hadn't basically said there is this evidence but no i didn't kill her he said some weird things weird things like this i'm suffering now more than i ever have before and this judge martens i uh i pity you but in the end the one thing dan didn't say my conscience he didn't acknowledge what he did and let alone apologize to joy and to me and to jesse and to everybody he continued to deny what he did daniel bartelt is sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole anger hatred rage any normal parent of a murdered child might be feeling all of these things but when it was jesse's father's turn to speak in court he turned to his daughter's killer and said this i forgive you as i have every single day since we found out it was you i believe there's good and bad in every one of us so i don't demonize or vilify you you showed a lot of grace and kindness and love in your statement i don't want you to think that i'm living in some sugar-coated bubble and i don't have pain or anger at all at the same time stronger than that was this inexplainable peace and forgiveness and a sense that everything is okay and i don't know how to explain that to this day because he's seen the impact his forgiveness has had on others he's decided to honor his daughter's memory by starting an organization called the love is greater than hate project it's a non-profit and our dual mission is to end violence against our girls and women and to have all people inspired educated and motivated to choose love over hate it's how jessie would have wanted it he says what she lived for and what she wrote about in the music that lives on after her death [Music] don't get me wrong i'll never be okay with what dan did to jesse but jesse's life and death for me are for bringing light into this world [Music] my life's getting better and better all the time love is greater than hate

Channel: True Crime Daily

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Id: 52_taNUr7tQ

Length: 36min 15sec (2175 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 07 2021