A social media app’s location tracking feature helped investigators crack a gruesome double murder case in Wisconsin, where a son killed his parents after his web of lies about college and a fake job at SpaceX began to unravel.
The case began on July 7, 2021, when 23-year-old Chandler Halderson reported his parents, Bart and Krista Halderson, missing from their Windsor home.
A new “20/20” episode, “Road Map To Murder,” airing Friday, May 30, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu, examines the case.
You can also get more behind-the-scenes of each week’s episode by listening to “20/20: The After Show” weekly series right on your “20/20” podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by “20/20” co-anchor Deborah Roberts.
Chandler Halderson reported his parents, Bart and Krista Halderson, missing from their Wisconsin home on July 7, 2021
Maria Falconer
Chandler claimed his parents had gone to their family cabin for the Fourth of July weekend but never returned.
“He mentioned they were maybe going to a casino,” Dane County Sheriff’s Detective Sabrina Sims told “20/20.”
However, Sims noted that red flags quickly emerged.
“We learned that it’s out of character for them to go gambling, and that the Haldersons, especially Bart, were pretty frugal with money,” she said.
When investigators checked the family home, they said they found both parents’ cars still in the garage. A visit to the family cabin in Wolf River revealed no signs of recent use.
A breakthrough came from a resident of the nearby village of Cottage Grove. The witness reported seeing Chandler backing up his car near a wooded area on July 5, 2021.
“She watched him walking from the wooded area…and found that to be unusual,” Sims said.
Chandler Halderson is seen in this undated photo from the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.
Dane County Sheriff’s Office
Police searched the location and made a horrific discovery — a male torso that was later identified as Bart Halderson. In a nearby oil drum, investigators found scissors, a saw blade and bolt cutters. An autopsy revealed Bart had been shot and then dismembered.
Detectives discovered that the farm in Cottage Grove belonged to the family of Chandler’s girlfriend, Cathryn Mellender.
Investigators asked Chandler and Mellender to come in voluntarily for interviews. Chandler was then arrested for allegedly providing false information to investigators. In the following days, he was held in jail on a tentative charge of first-degree intentional homicide.
The investigation took another turn when Mellender provided crucial evidence on her cellphone to police, from the social media app Snapchat.
Its “Snap Map” feature — a personalized map that shares your location with friends on Snapchat — showed Chandler at the Wisconsin River on July 3, 2021. Following this lead, and another tip from an eagle-eyed neighbor near the river, investigators discovered more human remains. This time, the remains belonged to Chandler’s mother, Krista.
Dane County Sheriff’s Office Detectives Brian Shunk and Sabrina Sims told ABC News’ Ryan Smith they believed Krista and Bart Halderson were killed in the basement of their Wisconsin home.
ABC News
According to investigators, they determined early in the investigation that Mellender had nothing to do with the murders and cleared her.
During the January 2022 trial, Chandler faced eight charges, including two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating corpses and providing false information about missing persons.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Madison College Enrollment Officer Omar Jobe said he will never forget his phone conversation with Bart, who called the school posing as Chandler, as he tried to get his son’s college transcripts.
“It’s a normal phone call that we receive every day. This person was trying to request a transcript,” Jobe told “20/20” in an exclusive interview.
According to investigators, Bart had been trying unsuccessfully for months to get the transcripts from his son Chandler and was becoming suspicious.
Prosecutors said that Bart’s phone call was a ruse to see if Chandler was enrolled in college, but it turned out that Chandler had actually failed out of school.
The prosecution also alleged that Chandler set up fake email accounts in an attempt to deceive his father about why his college transcripts weren’t coming.
“Chandler had made up fake emails with fake school employees to email back and forth about the transcript issue,” Dane County Sheriff’s Office Det. Brian Shunk told “20/20.”
Barbi Townsend spoke with ABC News’ Ryan Smith about her cousin, Krista Halderson. Townsend described Halderson as a very happy person who poured her heart into her two sons.
ABC News
Prosecutors also argued that the SpaceX job Chandler claimed he had lined up was also a lie.
As Bart got closer to the truth, prosecutors alleged that Chandler grew desperate.
“When Bart figured it out, Chandler realized he could lose everything,” Caroline Dade, an anchor who covered the story for ABC’s Wisconsin affiliate WKOW, told “20/20.” “The story they [prosecutors] painted was that Chandler gave himself no other option.”
At trial, prosecutors told the jury that Chandler killed both parents to prevent his lies from being exposed. The defense team challenged that theory.
“All the State was able to prove is that Chandler is a liar, not a killer,” lead attorney Crystal Vera said.
The jury disagreed, and Chandler was found guilty on all eight charges. He received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. In April 2023, two of Chandler’s [lesser] convictions for hiding a corpse were vacated.
Chandler has filed an appeal in the case.
“They would have given everything and anything to help him,” Krista’s cousin, Barbi Townsend, told “20/20” about Bart and Krista. “They would have been there. That’s the kind of people they were.”
