Episode 86 | Compulsive Liar Kills Parents After They Discovered the Truth

In this podcast we'll get to the bottom of the Chandler Halderson 'Space X' murder case. Chandler Halderson murdered his parents after they discovered he was lying to them for YEARS about enrollment at college, a non-existent job with Space X, and a huge load of other BS. It's a gruesome story for the record books. Enjoy! ★

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SOURCES  for this episode:

Rolling stonehttps://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/fake-spacex-job-murder-dismemberment-lies-1278750/

https://www.nbc15.com/2022/01/20/prosecutors-continue-their-case-halderson-trial-enters-day-9/

#murder #truecrime #chandlerhalderson #spacex #podcast #truestory #homicide #homicideinc #crime #investigative #killer #horror #truecrimepodcast #prison #truecrimecommunity 

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Transcript

Case file: The Halderson Murders

July, 1 2021

Windsor Wisconsin USA

Crime: Murder 

The victims: 53 year old Krista Halderson. 50 year old Bart Halderson.

The perpretrator: 23 year old Chandler Halderson (son)

 
We’ve all had shall we say differences with our parents growing up, especially in the rebel years of being a young teen pumped up on hormones. Maybe you fantasized about using your dad as a punching bag or perhaps in a rage you kicked in the hubcaps on his green ’74 Chevy Impala. (Clears throat) But did you ever even remotely come close to wanting to kill your parents? Me neither.

Well, like many Americans his age, 23-year-old Chandler Halderson spent the past year or so living at home with his parents. His father, Bart Halderson, and his mother, Krista Halderson, believed he was working remotely for a Wisconsin insurance company while finishing up his community college coursework from his room, according to authorities. His life appeared poised to head in a more promising direction, especially after Halderson announced in June 2021 that he’d been hired by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and would be moving to Florida later that month. His girlfriend Kat Mellender planned to go with him. He told her he’d already rented an apartment and bought a car. His folks were stoked. Junior was finally taking flight. Or was he?

The problem, authorities say, is it was all a load of BS. According to prosecutors, not only was Halderson not on board at SpaceX he also wasn’t attending any classes online or otherwise. He was hanging out in his room playing Fortnite all day, waking up early for meetings that didn’t exist so that his accountant father — who was also working remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic — would not suspect the ruse. Then, when his dad Bart discovered the truth about his son’s fake life, prosecutors say Halderson shot him to death, and then killed his mom when she got home a few hours later. 

Halderson then dismembered their bodies, scattered their remains around Southern Wisconsin, and reported them missing almost a week later after he claimed they failed to return from a Fourth of July weekend trip to their cabin in northern Wisconsin. In addition to murder he faced charges of mutilating a corpse, hiding a corpse, and providing false information about a missing person, or persons, as it were.

Halderson pleaded not guilty to all charges. The defense says he didn’t do it, of course they did- and described him in their opening statement as “a normal kid” who enjoyed video games, playing with his dogs, and spending time with his girlfriend. Um hmm. Normal kids don’t murder their parents. But innocent until proven guilty right. Public Defender Catherine Dorl seemed to confirm that Halderson lied about his jobs and schooling, but suggested the deception was not a motive for murder. Saying “ You’re not going to know how Bart and Krista would’ve reacted to these lies,” referring to the state’s case. “That’s never going to be explained to you, how lying turns into murder.” She also said it was even possible that Halderson will be convicted of some of the lesser charges he faces. “But what evidence do you have of murder?” she said. Well good question Cathy D! Let’s dig in a bit here shall we!

In the prosecution’s opening statements, Dane County Deputy District Attorney William Brown said Halderson “spun an amazing web of lies” trying to prop up his claims that he was holding down a job and studying renewable energy engineering, when in truth he’d flunked out after about one semester. He fabricated dozens of email exchanges between himself and college administrators and even posed as an adviser on a call with his dad, using a burner phone he’d purchased. When his accountant father would ask him why he wasn’t getting paid by his employer of almost a year, he made up excuses about errors in his salary and direct deposit information, eventually creating a fake paper trail of emails with HR to show his dad. Kid was crafty! At one point Halderson also lied about being on a police scuba dive team.

With pressure mounting from his old man to pay rent, Halderson doubled down. The best way out of your make-believe job is an even more make-believe job. “I’m gonna be an astronaut.” He told his family and his girlfriend he’d been hired by Space X. He and his girlfriend then made plans to move to Florida together. 

Then, prosecutor Brown claimed, lacking a current or future job, a pending degree, or any money to make the move to Florida, Halderson stalled. Prosecutors allege he faked a head injury, saying he’d fallen down the stairs and suffered a terrible concussion — which Brown said a doctor will refute during the trial — along with spinal damage and nerve damage that put him in a neck brace and rendered him unable to travel. His girlfriend Mellender would testify in court that Chandler said he lost the job at SpaceX after a doctor told him he’d have permanent damage from the fall and claimed SpaceX pulled the offer due to him being unable to fly to Florida. She says she tried to help think of other ways to keep that dream alive, including looking up Greyhound bus fares if he couldn’t fly. Halderson responded the fares would have been too expensive. Hell, I would’ve asked the folks for a lift. Oh wait you killed them. Hmmm… hitchhike? 

Well around the same time, Halderson’s dad Bart fed up with all the BS, allegedly finally placed a call to Madison Area Technical College asking questions about his son’s transcript and discovered that none of the administrators Halderson had supposedly been emailing even existed. “That’ll be it then,” Bart said on the recorded customer service call. Busted! Bart Halderson's calendar showed that on Jul. 1, 2021, he and Chandler were scheduled to go MATC for a meeting, a meeting the prosecution contends was most likely fake. That afternoon, Bart texted Halderson, “I’m ready whenever you are.” It was Bart’s last recorded communication. He would rather kill his parents than come clean on his lies about school and work. Incredible and scary what some will do when the heat is on. 

Rather than going to the college for the nonexistent meeting, Halderson shot his father Bart with a rifle, and killed his mother a short while later when she returned home. Evidence from the medical examiner showed Bart had been shot at least twice, once with the muzzle of the gun touching his back, noting gunpowder burns on his skin.

He then went about dismembering their bodies, attempted to burn the bodies in their home fireplace, (Investigators found remains of a human skull in the Haldersons’ fireplace) and then scattered their remains on public land, farms, along rivers, in ditches, in trash cans and god knows where else. 

The owner of Halderson’s girlfriend’s family farm said Halderson came by acting strangely sometime after Jul. 1: he asked if he could swim in their pool, but they soon spotted him out in their field with the hatch of his car open. Th ey also noted seeing vultures flying above the area. That’s where police later discovered Bart Halderson’s torso, along with saw blades, scissors, tree loppers, and a tarp covered with Bart’s and Krista’s Halderson’s blood. Brown also said cops found the murder weapon in the barn on the property, an SKS rifle given to Halderson by one of his online friends.

Here’s more to the timline of the murders.

In the early evening of Jul. 1, after allegedly murdering his parents, Halderson wrote a list using the Notes app on his phone. It included hydrogen peroxide, lemon, and the directives: “clean floor” and “get a job.”

On July 2nd, the day after the murders, Chandler and his girlfriend Mellender had plans to meet at the Halderson home, but Chandler sent a message to Mellender the morning of July 2 telling her not to hurry because he “had a lot of chores to do.” 

Halderson didn’t say what the chores were, but referenced them multiple times over that weekend, even saying that Mellender couldn’t stay the night on July 2 because of those damn chores. She thought that was unusual because she had assumed that she would stay the entire weekend while his parents were away. 

Just after noon on July 2, Halderson asked Mellender if she could bring over a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a mop along with some groceries. Halderson told Mellender he needed the peroxide because he had stepped on glass when one of the panes on the fireplace broke while he was playing with the family’s dogs. This guy was spinning the biggest web ever. How was he going to explain away a nonexistent cut on his foot? Hydrogen peroxide by the way can be used to clean blood. 

On July 3, the two made separate plans — with Halderson saying he had to work on the chores again. Well, being the untrusting sleuth, while on Snapchat Mellender captured a screenshot of Halderson’s location. It was in a wooded area by the Wisconsin River. Later police went there and found Krista Halderson’s disembodied legs. Good god! Stuff a cop can never unsee.

To celebrate the nation’s b-day on the 4th of July, Chandler Halderson took a day off from the chores to join Mellender and others at her mother’s place for a bbq and fireworks. What was going through his mind I wonder. 

On July 5, Halderson playing hard to get once again, told Mellender that he had a doctor’s appointment to follow up on his head and neck injury, at the UW Health clinic. Later he said the doctors did an x-ray and a CT scan, and he claimed that he would have life-long leg numbness and it would cost him the SpaceX job. Sad. Imagine the possibilities if it had worked out Chandler. Deep discounts on a Tesla. Flights to Mars. Bonuses paid in Doge coin. 

Later when prosecutors checked Halderson’s medical records from UW Health, there was no record of any visit for his head and neck injury beyond the initial ER visit.

VERDICT

After roughly two hours of deliberations, a Dane County jury of 12 found Chandler Halderson, guilty on all counts for killing his parents Bart, 50, and Krista, 53, on July 1 at their home in Windsor WI. 

Halderson appeared to show no reaction when the verdict was read. He was convicted on two counts each of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, hiding a corpse, and falsifying information about a missing person. 

As his sentencing date loomed Halderson had the audacity to ask the judge to permit him to skip his own sentencing. He doesn't want to be present in court when a judge hands down his sentence. Sentenced to life without parole. Case closed.