Dan Bartelt | Unlikely Killer Consoles Woman's Parents Right After Murdering Her

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[00:01:02] This is True Crime Psychology and Personality, where we discuss the pathology behind some

[00:01:18] of the most horrific crimes and those who committed them from a scientifically informed

[00:01:23] perspective.

[00:01:24] I'm Dr. Todd Grande.

[00:01:27] I have a PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision, and I'm a licensed professional counselor

[00:01:32] of mental health.

[00:01:33] Dr. Todd Grande, that's my YouTube channel.

[00:01:37] Today's question is, can I analyze the case of Jessie Blodgett and Dan Bartelt?

[00:01:43] First I'll look at the background of this case, move to the timeline of the crime, then

[00:01:47] offer my analysis.

[00:01:49] Jessie Blodgett was born on March 22, 1994 in Marietta, Georgia.

[00:01:55] When she was three years old, her family moved to Hartford, Wisconsin, which is a small

[00:02:00] town about 45 minutes northwest of Milwaukee.

[00:02:03] She lived with her parents, Buck and Joy.

[00:02:07] Jessie was highly interested in music for most of her life.

[00:02:10] She was both a singer and a piano player and was considered exceptionally talented.

[00:02:15] When she was in high school, she met a teenager named Daniel Bartelt, who went by the name

[00:02:21] Dan.

[00:02:22] The couple briefly dated and remained friends after this.

[00:02:25] Like Jessie, Dan was interested in music, although his skill level was not in the same league.

[00:02:32] He would hold a guitar and move the strings with his fingers to create unpleasant sounds.

[00:02:36] Dan referred to this behavior as playing the guitar.

[00:02:40] He represented himself as the lead singer of a band called Angry Pillows.

[00:02:45] The name Angry Audience would have been more accurate.

[00:02:48] Dan also participated in behaviors he referred to as singing and acting and was attempting

[00:02:53] to write a fiction novel about murder titled Red is Red.

[00:03:00] After high school, Jessie and Dan attended different colleges.

[00:03:03] Jessie stayed busy not only with school but giving music lessons to students in the Blodgett

[00:03:08] family house.

[00:03:10] Dan dropped out of college, found a full-time job, and reconnected with Jessie.

[00:03:15] About once a week, he stopped by the Blodgett family house and they would work on music together.

[00:03:21] Eventually, Dan stopped working at his job, but he told people he was still employed.

[00:03:26] He would even leave his parents' house in the day, pretending to go to work.

[00:03:32] Now moving to the timeline of the crime.

[00:03:34] On Friday, July 12, 2013, Jessie Blodgett performed in a community theater production

[00:03:40] of Fiddler on the Roof.

[00:03:42] This was the opening weekend of the show and Jessie was playing the lead role.

[00:03:47] She performed not only on Friday but on Saturday and Sunday as well.

[00:03:52] Jessie probably viewed this as the sunrise of her career, but unfortunately it was the sunset.

[00:03:59] After the performance on Sunday, the cast and crew of the production attended a pool

[00:04:03] party at a llama farm at about 1230 AM, now on Monday, July 15.

[00:04:10] Jessie returned to the Blodgett family house.

[00:04:13] She was upset because two men in their 40s allegedly made passes at her during the party.

[00:04:19] Before going to sleep for the night, Jessie recorded entries about the incident in her journal.

[00:04:25] In the morning, her mother Joy checked on Jessie before going to work.

[00:04:30] This was at about 8 AM.

[00:04:32] Joy returned home for lunch and a new student for Jessie showed up around 1230 PM.

[00:04:38] Joy called for Jessie but did not get a response.

[00:04:42] She went to Jessie's bedroom and found Jessie in her bed, unresponsive.

[00:04:48] There were marks around her neck.

[00:04:50] Joy called 911 and told the operator that her daughter was blue and would not wake up.

[00:04:56] When the police arrived, they found that 19-year-old Jessie was dead.

[00:05:01] Here's what the police found during the course of their investigation.

[00:05:05] Jessie had been strangled and was the victim of an assault of a sexual nature.

[00:05:10] Nothing appeared to be stolen from the house and it was not ransacked.

[00:05:13] There was no forced entry, but the doors were often unlocked so anybody could have walked in.

[00:05:19] The two men who allegedly made passes at Jessie were ruled out as potential suspects.

[00:05:25] As the investigation continued, it ended up intersecting with another investigation which

[00:05:31] initially seemed unrelated.

[00:05:34] On Friday, July 12, three days before Jessie was killed, a woman named Melissa Richards

[00:05:39] was walking her dog in Richfield Park.

[00:05:42] When she was in the gravel parking lot, a young man attacked her with a knife.

[00:05:46] She managed to grab the blade with her hands and take the knife away from him.

[00:05:51] The man attempted to get the knife back from her but Melissa prevented this.

[00:05:55] Eventually the man said, can I just go?

[00:05:59] The man ran away, entered a blue Dodge Caravan and drove away from the park.

[00:06:04] Melissa had cuts on both her hands and on one of her legs, but she survived and contacted

[00:06:10] the police.

[00:06:11] She offered them an excellent description of the perpetrator and of his vehicle.

[00:06:16] Furthermore, she still had the knife that was used to attack her.

[00:06:20] Two months before this attack, a police officer had spotted a blue Dodge Caravan in the park

[00:06:25] and recorded the license plate.

[00:06:28] The officer didn't think much of it at the time, but now that license plate seemed

[00:06:32] important.

[00:06:34] On July 16, the day after Jessie was murdered, the police learned that the Dodge Caravan

[00:06:39] was registered to a married couple.

[00:06:41] Neither of these people matched the description of the attacker.

[00:06:44] However, they had a son who did.

[00:06:48] Their son's name was Dan Bartelt.

[00:06:50] When the police called Dan, they discovered he was actually at the Blodgett family house

[00:06:55] consoling Jessie's parents.

[00:06:58] Dan agreed to be interviewed without an attorney.

[00:07:01] After initially denying any involvement in Melissa's attack, he admitted that he was

[00:07:06] the perpetrator.

[00:07:07] To explain his actions, he said, quote, life scares me and I don't particularly think I'm

[00:07:12] very good at it and I wanted to scare someone else because everyone else is confident.

[00:07:18] I don't understand it, unquote.

[00:07:20] The police asked Dan what happened with Jessie, like why was he visiting the Blodgett family

[00:07:25] house?

[00:07:26] He explained that Jessie was murdered and was the victim of an assault of a sexual nature.

[00:07:31] At this point, the information about the assault was not available to the public.

[00:07:36] Dan was arrested for the attack on Melissa and charged with first-degree attempted homicide,

[00:07:42] first-degree recklessly endangering safety, and false imprisonment.

[00:07:46] The next day, January 17, the police interviewed Dan about Jessie's murder.

[00:07:52] Even though he had admitted to attacking Melissa, Dan denied murdering Jessie.

[00:07:57] He said that on the day of the murder, he was at Woodlawn Union Park.

[00:08:02] In his effort to provide an alibi, Dan actually led the police to evidence of his guilt.

[00:08:08] The police searched the trash cans in the park and found a cereal box containing duct

[00:08:13] tape, sanitizing wipes, and ropes.

[00:08:16] DNA from both Dan and Jessie were on the ropes.

[00:08:21] One of the ropes matched marks that were left on Jessie's neck, and another rope matched

[00:08:25] marks left on her wrists and ankles.

[00:08:28] The duct tape was an unusual brand which was not sold in any store in the area.

[00:08:33] The same brand of tape was found underneath Jessie's bed and in the residence where Dan

[00:08:38] lived with his parents.

[00:08:40] On July 31, 2013, Dan Bartelt was charged with first-degree intentional homicide.

[00:08:46] In 2014, he was convicted of that charge.

[00:08:50] In October of that year, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

[00:08:56] Later, Dan pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless endangerment in connection with the

[00:09:00] attack on Melissa Richards.

[00:09:03] He received another five years to be served consecutively with his life sentence.

[00:09:07] Now moving to my analysis.

[00:09:09] Here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case.

[00:09:13] Item number one.

[00:09:15] After Dan was arrested, investigators discovered he had a number of unusual interests.

[00:09:20] A few examples.

[00:09:22] He was fascinated by violent films involving clothing-challenged characters.

[00:09:27] One of the films had a plot which was similar to the circumstances of Jessie's murder.

[00:09:32] Dan searched the internet for information on spree killers and serial killers.

[00:09:36] He had an intense interest in bondage.

[00:09:39] There were images of bondage on his computer, and it was prominently featured in the novel

[00:09:44] that he was attempting to write.

[00:09:46] This book contained a series of stories about a young girl who would eventually be murdered.

[00:09:50] The character's name was Jessica.

[00:09:53] Item number two.

[00:09:54] It is reasonable to believe that Dan had a sexual interest in Jessie.

[00:09:59] They had dated for a few months in high school, and later spent time together just about every

[00:10:03] week to work on music.

[00:10:05] Jessie said that on one occasion when Dan was at the Blodgett family house, he pulled her

[00:10:10] in for a kiss out of nowhere.

[00:10:13] This was disturbing to Jessie, and she was angry about it.

[00:10:17] After the murder, Dan implied that he recently had consensual sex with Jessie, which was

[00:10:21] her idea.

[00:10:23] This is highly unlikely.

[00:10:25] He probably said this because it was part of his fantasy to be with her.

[00:10:30] Item number three.

[00:10:31] At his sentencing, Dan continued to deny any involvement in Jessie's murder.

[00:10:36] He told Jessie's parents that he could not give them the answers they were looking for.

[00:10:41] He said, quote, this jumpsuit that I'm wearing, these shackles that I'm put in don't make

[00:10:47] me guilty, unquote.

[00:10:49] Dan recognized that he could not refute the evidence against him.

[00:10:52] He talked about how he only went to trial because he was not permitted to take an Alford

[00:10:57] plea.

[00:10:58] In this type of plea, a defendant recognizes that the state has enough evidence to convict

[00:11:02] them while still maintaining their innocence.

[00:11:06] Dan told the judge, quote, I can't prove that I'm innocent to anyone, not even myself, unquote.

[00:11:14] The addition of the words not even myself is telling.

[00:11:18] It's almost like Dan was trying to confess without actually saying the words.

[00:11:23] Item number four.

[00:11:24] What do I think happened in this case?

[00:11:26] This is just a theory, my opinion.

[00:11:29] Dan Bartelt was impulsive, irresponsible, grandiose, self-centered, deceptive, manipulative, sadistic,

[00:11:35] excitement-seeking, cold, callous, attention-seeking, charismatic, shallow, and had a sense of entitlement.

[00:11:43] He was highly interested in sexual dominance.

[00:11:47] His fantasy was pervasive and left him with an intense desire to control and harm women.

[00:11:52] This influenced his reading selections, his writing, and his film preferences.

[00:11:58] All he could think about was murder.

[00:12:00] He was obsessed with it.

[00:12:02] At some point, he transformed into an aspiring serial killer.

[00:12:07] His intense interest pushed him to attack Melissa in the parking lot of the Richfield Park.

[00:12:13] The preparations he made for the attack were insufficient.

[00:12:17] Dan was not wearing a disguise because he did not intend for his victim to survive.

[00:12:23] Melissa managed to fight him off, which put Dan in a challenging situation.

[00:12:27] His victim had the knife, knew what he looked like, and saw his vehicle.

[00:12:32] He should have known that there was a good chance he was going to be arrested soon.

[00:12:37] Instead of trying to stay out of sight for a while, Dan went in another direction and

[00:12:43] murdered Jessie three days later.

[00:12:46] Maybe he believed that he was never going to get caught for the attack on Melissa, so

[00:12:49] he wasn't worried about carrying out a second attack.

[00:12:53] Another possibility is that he did believe he was going to be arrested, which meant he

[00:12:57] needed to act quickly or he would lose his chance to murder Jessie.

[00:13:02] Dan probably fantasized about attacking Jessie for quite some time.

[00:13:06] In his mind, she was an ideal target for several reasons.

[00:13:10] She had romantically rejected him.

[00:13:12] He had a way to approach her in her house when she was alone.

[00:13:16] He could surprise her when she was sleeping, which would prevent her from fighting back.

[00:13:22] And if he left DNA or other evidence in her room, he had a non-homicidal explanation for it.

[00:13:28] Again, he had been regularly visiting the Blodgett family house.

[00:13:33] After murdering Jessie, Dan spent time consoling her parents because he wanted them to trust him.

[00:13:39] Furthermore, seeing them suffer for something that he did may have satisfied his sadistic tendencies.

[00:13:46] Dan wanted a good view of his handiwork.

[00:13:50] Now moving to my final thoughts.

[00:13:52] As I mentioned, Dan may have been an aspiring serial killer.

[00:13:56] There were many similarities between his personality and typical serial killer characteristics.

[00:14:02] For example, Dan was manipulative, charismatic, irresponsible, and motivated by a desire for sexual dominance.

[00:14:10] In other ways, however, Dan's traits did not match an aspiring serial killer.

[00:14:15] For example, he was not a loner like most serial killers.

[00:14:19] Dan actually had a large group of friends.

[00:14:21] He may have been creepy, but did not immediately strike people as creepy.

[00:14:26] Those around him did not look at him and think, this is a guy who's going to commit murder someday.

[00:14:31] As a matter of fact, he was just about the last person anyone would have suspected.

[00:14:36] Dan had a girlfriend around the time of the murder, and he was attention-seeking, like

[00:14:41] he had performed on stage.

[00:14:44] An argument could be made that Dan was the scariest kind of killer there is.

[00:14:49] One who doesn't express obvious signs of being dangerous, and one who is willing to

[00:14:53] violate the trust of a close friend.

[00:15:04] This has been True Crime Psychology and Personality from Ars Langa Media.

[00:15:10] This content is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

[00:15:14] Ars Langa, Vita Brevis.

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