The murder of Berit Beck
Fond Du Lac, Fond Du Lac County, Wisconsin · 1990
Overview
Berit Beck, an 18-year-old from Sturtevant, Wisconsin, vanished on July 17, 1990, while driving to a computer seminar in Appleton. Her van was found abandoned two days later in a Kmart parking lot in Fond du Lac, and her body was discovered about a month afterward in a ditch near Waupun; she had been suffocated and strangled. The case stayed cold for nearly 25 years until a 2014 re-analysis of evidence from the van matched fingerprints to Dennis Brantner, a Kenosha trucker. After a 2016 trial ended in a hung jury, Brantner entered an Alford plea in 2018 to second-degree reckless homicide and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
How it was solved
The break came from physical evidence that had sat in the van for more than two decades. In February 2014 the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory re-analyzed items recovered from Beck's Dodge Caravan and identified previously unidentified fingerprints, on items including a Burger King cup, an employee manual, and a Jolen bleach kit, as belonging to Dennis Brantner, a Kenosha trucker. Additional prints tied to Brantner were reported from inside the van. Fond du Lac County Sheriff Mylan Fink said it was the first time investigators had tangible physical evidence placing someone in the interior of the van. Brantner was interviewed in 2014 and arrested in March 2015, charged with first-degree intentional homicide. His 2016 trial ended in a mistrial when the jury could not reach a verdict. On February 2, 2018, rather than face a retrial, Brantner entered an Alford plea, conceding that the evidence was sufficient to convict while maintaining his innocence, to a reduced charge of second-degree reckless homicide. On March 1, 2018, Fond du Lac County Judge Robert Wirtz sentenced him to 10 years in prison. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld the conviction in August 2020.
Sources
- 1990 cold case murder a 'bold stranger abduction,' sheriff says
“five previously unidentified prints on a Burger King cup, employee manual, and Jolen bleach kit were identified on February 27, 2014, as belonging to Brantner”
- Arrest made in 1990 homicide of Sturtevant native Berit Beck
“Beck disappeared in Fond du Lac on July 17, 1990 as she was on her way to a computer class in Appleton; her van was found two days later in a Kmart parking lot in Fond du Lac”
- New evidence reportedly points to Kenosha man in 1990 murder of Wisconsin girl, 18
“This is the first time we had tangible physical evidence to put someone in the interior of that van”
- Dennis Brantner found guilty after entering Alford plea in 1990 killing of Berit Beck
“No family should be forced to endure what Berit Beck's family has gone through over the past 27 1/2 years”
- After 28 Years, Berit Beck Killer Pleads Guilty: Court
“Brantner was tried in 2016, but a mistrial was declared after the jury could not reach a verdict”
- Brantner gets 10 years in Berit Beck murder
“Fond du Lac County Judge Robert Wirtz: 'The public needs to be protected from you.'”
- 'Very evil, evil person:' 10 years for Dennis Brantner in 1990 strangulation of Berit Beck
“There is a very evil, evil person that is going to be behind bars”
- Court denies appeal for man convicted in Berit Beck death
“double jeopardy does not prohibit the continued prosecution of a defendant after a mistrial”