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Jesse Blodgett · Justice For

• JusticeFor: In quiet neighborhoods, we convince ourselves we know the danger. We picture what it looks like. We tell ourselves we would see it coming. We imagine it as obvious, loud, reckless, something that stands out, something that doesn't belong. But sometimes the most dangerous person in the room doesn't look dangerous at all. This is a story about perception, about the comfort of believing we'd recognize a threat if we saw one, and about how fragile that belief really is. Because sometimes, the danger isn't who we think it is. Welcome back to Justice Four. We are your hosts. I'm Jackie. And I'm Sam. Listen, I've been ⁓ teasing her with this case for like two weeks now. Yeah. I'm the thought that she's I really have been. ⁓ It's been so much fun. ⁓ really quick, shameless plugs before we get into this. Yay. Make sure you are following us on everything. Apple, Spotify, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, at Justice for podcast. We update. have so much going out with the Kouri Richins trial still happening. That should be wrapping up here soon. If it's still happening. It's to be about four or five weeks. So we should be wrapping up on that here pretty soon. You guys are probably sick of hearing us talk about it and post about it, but I'm still going to do it because like we've mentioned, this is one of my Roman empires. of you for remembering that. I know. It took us a second to get that a couple of episodes ago. So make sure you are followed everywhere and subscribed to Justice For Podcasts. Yes. That way don't miss anything. Yes. Please make sure you hit that like, follow, subscribe, whatever button you can ⁓ ⁓ only ⁓ get you to watch us, but to get more people to also. Yeah. Go ahead and share our episodes. helps us. Hit that share button, share it on your Facebook, Instagram, wherever. It really helps us out. Comment, reviews, all of that interaction really does help us. And it's all free. It is. It's all free 99. likes free. All right. I'm not ready. Today's K. She's never ready. She was showing me pictures though, and I feel like I know this. ⁓ I feel like I know this. I'm going to be very intrigued if you don't, if you get it. ⁓ I'm very curious if at what point this will hit you that you know this story. ⁓ today's case takes us to Hartford, Wisconsin. Fun fact, Hartford was founded in 1635, making it one of the oldest cities in the U.S. It's home to many first and oldest in the country. For example, it has the oldest public art museum, the Wadsworth and the name the oldest publicly funded park Bushnell Park. And the oldest newspaper that's still printed, the Hartford Current. Period. Right? Hell yeah. Hartford has a population of about 16,000 people. That's it? Yes. Okay. And like most towns in Wisconsin that we talk about, it's described as a safe, quiet city where nothing happens and no one locks their doors. Wisconsin. After all, there hadn't been a homicide in Hartford for over 30 years. That's it? 30 years? I'm like, ugh, we're fine. Well... in like 2011? Then had a murder in over 30 years? It's not bad. Okay, everyone got to enjoy the 90s is what you're saying. Yeah. Everyone got to enjoy the 90s and the early 2000s like they deserved to do. And the 80s. Yeah. So Jesse Marietta Blodgett was born on March 22nd, 1994 in Marietta, Georgia. I have no idea if that has anything to do with her middle name, but I thought that was funny. I just blacked out because I was so confused. I mean, it would make sense. That's kind of cool. Yeah. Eventually moving to Hartford, Wisconsin where she grew up as an only child her dad Buck was a chiropractor and her mom worked outside the home as well ⁓ always made sure that they were there for Jesse which included supporting her passions from a young age and Buck is the ultimate girl dad ⁓ okay when Jesse was in first grade She wanted to ⁓ how to play the piano So Buck signed up to take piano lessons with her so that he could help her along the journey And he didn't really know anything about it. So he figured he had to learn with her ⁓ within months. It became very clear a buck that he was out of his league and Jessie was a natural. She just excelled at the piano, then the violin, all leading to her discovering her singing voice and her passion for singing and playing music. By middle school she was writing her own songs and performing them at the school talent show. Period. Right? Then Jessie discovered theater and just absolutely fell in love. It was everything she loved and cared about in one place. It was through her music and theater that she found her close group of friends. But Jessie wasn't confined to one group of friends. She was friendly and accepting of everyone and she was very vocal about standing up against bullying and did not stand for it at all. From a very young age, she was like calling people out and not having it. Okay? kind of girl. She also very much had this thing about her where she was very not okay with violence against women and was very, it was a topic she stood on, she was for, I mean, starting in middle school, high school, everyone knew this about her. Hell yeah. She truly tried to be everyone's friend and accept everyone as they were. A a true thespian, if you will. All right, I loved all the theater, theater, theater geeks at my high school. I was a band nerd. I was in theater. Yeah. I love theater kids. After graduating high school, Jessie attended the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Now it's kind of like UCCS or like CU here where you have like CU Boulder, you have like CU Pueblo, you're like UCCS Colorado Springs. You know, it's like that. IU was like that too. So they had different campuses throughout the city or the state. So during her freshman year, she was offered a talent scholarship for musical excellence and she joined the music program. Her simple goal was to become a choir teacher. And most 19 year olds look forward to their first summer off after their freshman year of college, but not Jessie. She decided that she was going to spend her summer starting her own business, teaching piano, voice, and violin to young people in her hometown of Hartford. In just two months, Jessie had 26 students that she was teaching on a weekly basis. ⁓ my gosh. However, this was just the beginning of her plan. She had a long-term vision to become a high school or university choir director, touch 100 young lives a year for 40 years. She was very serious about using music to impact people and change the world. Like, an incredible human by 19. Absolutely. When I meet someone, one of the very first questions I ask them, what kind music do you listen to? Music is such a big thing. know for me, but for a lot of people, that's how you connect with so many people. gosh, is. We listen to music similarly ⁓ with ADHD. You bounce around, you're like, ⁓ my gosh, I to show you this song, I to show you this song. My boss just experienced it for the very first time. ⁓ no. So when I have like one of my really regular clients I'm close with at the end of the night, it's not uncommon for everyone in the salon to leave us because sometimes my nail art takes a minute. And this is where Jackie starts showing songs. But for the first time I had my boss in there with me the next day she goes, you didn't even let a song finish. And I said, I did. We were just repeating the course to the end. So we could go to the next one now. I get it. I get it. had so much time. I get it. So I was like, ⁓ just saying. get it. So yeah, no, music, I vibe on music. ⁓ As if that wasn't enough to keep her busy, Jessie auditioned for the local community theater for their summer performance of Fiddler on the Roof, landing the role of the Fiddler. Hell yeah. And of course, Jessie was excited for the role, but she was even more excited that she got to play the fiddle live in every show. That is awesome. Right. And not only that, but most of her best friend group from high school were also in this production. And it was her very first ⁓ role in the community theater. OK. At this point, it's just been in high school and in college. July 12th through 14th was the opening weekend for Fiddler on the Roof with shows on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and night and a sold-out matinee on Sunday. There was a tradition in the theater to have a big cast party the final show of opening weekend. They had it at this, I say venue, but like I don't really think venue is the right word. They had it at this place. Probably it was somebody and a family member or local that was in the theater or whatever it hosted this, but they had it there a lot. It's called a wrap party bed. Well, but listen, it was at a place that was like, it was had a pool. There was llamas. Like we're talking very responsive here. So like barbecuing and there was, so it was like a farm, but there was also a pool, but it was like a venue. like I want to call it a venue, don't want to call it a farm. It's probably like someone's house or whatever. But this was like very normal when they were all talking about it. So they were all swimming and hanging out and doing this. Hell yeah. Yeah, so it wasn't like... a local hangout. Yeah, so it wasn't like at a theater or like at a restaurant or something like... Yeah, yeah, Okay. Which is kind of cool though. That is really cool. So the whole cast attended, as well as the director of the play. So everybody was there. Jessie got home sometime between 12 and 1 a.m. And Joy heard Jessie come home and got up to see how her night was. Jessie told her she had a great time, but she was uncomfortable with something that happened with another cast member. And she didn't go into much more detail before just heading off to bed. Monday, July 15th was Jessie's first chance to sleep in since summer began. And so at 8 a.m. when Joy went into Jessie's room to drop off her laundry, she wasn't surprised that Jessie was still asleep in her bed. noon, Joy returned to the house on her lunch break. The house was quiet and Joy assumed Jessie really needed the rest and went on about her normal routine. While eating her lunch, she saw Jessie's student, a six year old and her dad coming up the driveway. So Joy called out for Jessie, but there was no answer. So she called out again and Jessie didn't answer. So she's like, okay, I'm just going to go up there and you know, she must be really tired. So Joy goes up to Jessie's room to wake her up, but when she pulled the covers back, she knew something was wrong. Jessie looked blue, and she was cold. Hartford 901, we're in emergency. She won't wake up. old is your daughter? 19. Oh my god. Is she breathing? I don't think so. I just blew. I tried to wake her up but she's not even waking up. Just me. ⁓ Yeah, that's one of the more heartbreaking 911 calls that I've ever heard in my life. I was fine until she said Jessie. Yeah, there's another part of that call where like the 911 operator has her on hold and you just hear her just crying Jessie's name out. ⁓ It's horrible. where her mom says, I think she's been strangled. There's marks on her neck. What the fuck? Joy is instructed to move Jesse to the floor and CPR ⁓ Joy is in total and just everything she's saying which is where the I see marks on her necks think she was strangled After police arrived Joy calls buck and tells him he needs to come home now something has happened to Jesse He couldn't bring himself to ask her and he couldn't bring himself to actually like ask it. So he just said, is she gone? Because she kept saying, it's bad. You need to get here. The Hartford police department did an incredible job with this case from the very beginning. After assessing Jesse in the room, they thoroughly videoed and photographed every inch of her room, including under the bed. That will be important later. Detective Thicken's noticed that Jessie had what appeared to be strangulation marks on her neck, as well as marks on her wrists and ankles, like she had been bound by something. And there were a few small blood stains on the pillow and sheet near where Jessie was sleeping. But they weren't big and had appeared to be cleaned up. As if that wasn't puzzling enough, Joy told Detective Thicken that when she moved Jessie from the bed to the floor, Jessie's hair and clothes were slightly wet. This helped detectives come to the conclusion that Jessie was cleaned up and staged to look like she was sleeping after being strangled. But her pants and hair being wet made detective suspicious of a sexual assault. But those results would take time. ⁓ no. There were. Huh? Jackie! There were no signs of a struggle in Jesse's room. Or in the house. There were no signs of a break-in, which wasn't surprising, because Joy didn't lock the front door when she left for work. I'm really gonna need y'all to start locking your front doors, and I don't care how small a town you in, they could be you and three other people. You could be that family who bought their own town with their own zip code, and it has a house and a post office and something else, and they're the only ones who live there. Lock your door. Lock your fucking doors. Lock your fucking doors. The end. How many times do we need to tell you, lock your fucking doors? Jesus. I'm very perplexed. I'm trying to build a picture of this in my head. So her room was normal. There was money sitting on the dresser. Nothing was really moved. There wasn't a struggle in there. So it was definitely officers. That they wanted. Detective Thickens, one of the first things he did before entering the house was he walked around the entire outside of the house. Looked at all the windows, looked at the doors. checked that perimeter before going in. It's the first thing he did. Good. That's a good detective. Police collected anything from her room that could have been used to bind and strangle her. They took her journals and they found a roll of tape on her bed. But this wasn't any kind of tape. It was a roll of inner tape 698, a specific kind of tape commonly used in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. So HVAC? Yeah. Applications. Detectives got to work trying to find anyone in Jessie's life that would want to hurt her. Buck told detectives that there were tree trimmers in the neighborhood in the week leading up to Jessie's death, and they were actually trimming trees right outside of her bedroom window. He also told them about this creepy guy at the restaurant Jessie worked at that was positioning himself in a small hallway so that the waitresses had to rub up against him to get by. But neither of those tips went anywhere. Hey, punch that dude in the fucking dick the next time you walk by him. ⁓ no, sorry. Close quarters, Yeah. Right in the fucking junk. Dickweed. My server book would have a different kind of bounce off my legs suddenly. Jessie's journal pointed them in another direction. Her last journal entry was from earlier that morning after she got home from the cast party and talked to her mom. She went into her room and wrote all of her feelings out. Good for her. Good for her. Quote. I think I'm being corrupted. I think certain men are taking what should be platonic love and perverting it into competition. In a way, I'm furious. I need to clearly define the relationship. DTR. This even included the castmate's name. Randy Talley. Detectives tracked down 46-year-old Randy and brought him in for questioning. 46? And they were pretty suspicious of him already. He was at the cast party with her the night before. He was in her journal. And there's a big age difference. He's 46. So they straight up tell Randy that Jesse was found dead in her house by her parents. He immediately asks what the circumstances of finding her were. What the fuck do you mean, Randy? They respond that that's what they were trying to find out. Asking him if he worked that day. He said no, he. He never got called in. They had the wrong number and didn't realize it until the end of the day, so he hung out home, answered some messages on Facebook. They started to ask him about the cast party and that they heard he had been flirting with Jessie. And he told them how they were sitting on the couch together for most of the night and they had their legs touching. He put his hand on her back a couple times. Detectives asked about Jessie sitting on his lap. He said, yeah, but it was all playful. I just kind of pulled her on my lap. And that he's just a naturally affectionate guy. The detectives asked him if he had a girlfriend. When Randy replied, yes, they said she probably wouldn't like what he was doing. And he agreed, but maintained his innocence, stating they are just friends and she's one of his favorite people ever in the cast. Yuck. Detectives still weren't convinced Randy wasn't involved. So they kept saying, we feel like there's more you want to tell us. We feel like you're not telling us everything. Even straight up asking him if he murdered Jesse. And he kept strong in his innocence. And I have to say that all of his statements are very weird. But his body language in this interview is correct. His body language, he is leaning forward, his arms are open, we're not ever sitting back, we're not He's accepting. Yeah, we're accepting. We have hands on the head, like, oh my God, what happened? And when you listened to him, you were in theater. I was. You know the straight guys who you swear probably aren't the straightest? You know, they kind of sit either way. You know how they can be a little bit like that? This is him. Yes. Yes, very much so. And all of his actions, I have never seen such innocent actions in an interview. He is genuinely shocked. And that first question really did freak me out. Like, what were the circumstances? What are the details? He had just seen her last night, the night before, was hanging out with her. like, I think you can tell he's just like, ⁓ my God, like, I can't believe this is happening. Um, I do want to point out really quick. I was in theater. I'm allowed to say this theater kids are fucking weird They are and even the detective was like maybe it's cuz you're an actor that I'm having a really hard time reading you and feeling like you need to tell me more and I was like you're gross but the the cherry on top for me with his innocence where I was really like I mean I was already there with his body language even though everything else was sounding weird. He was very direct in his answers. He wasn't dancing around anything. He told them, yeah, I do have a girlfriend. No, she wouldn't like this. Yes, I did pull her onto my lap. I'm just an affectionate guy. Yes, this is what it was. And then they asked him for a DNA swab. And he goes, yeah, I think he even actually takes the Q-tip and swabs his mouth. They tell him what to do and he swabs his own mouth and hands it back to him. I mean, instantly he's like, yeah, let's do it. What do you need from me? Hell yeah. ⁓ yeah. So ⁓ then he leaves and he's cleared. He looks hella suspicious. He sounds hella suspicious, but like also Nasty he's a 46 year old thespian. We all know this person. You know what I mean? understand but also yuck July 16th the day after Jesse was murdered Joy and Buck decided to invite Jesse's friends over for a vigil at their house Let me explain why That day After they had taken Jesse's body out of the house, Buck said that he was just standing there in silence staring out the window and he didn't know what to do. The house was quiet. He couldn't bear this. But then, then he started to see Jesse's friends come up the driveway and they filled his house and it was okay. When they left that night, they decided they couldn't do this tomorrow. So they invited everybody. Period. And that house was Good. There were so many kids in that house. And that's how it started. This was an all-day event. Eventually, by the afternoon, people had started to trickle out. though there were a lot of people, we were getting none of Jesse's main group of friends. And in attendance for these main groups, Jesse's best friend, Jackie, Mariah, Ian, Dan. And then Dan was Jesse's ex-boyfriend from high school. Dan and Jesse dated for a few months before breaking up and staying really close friends. They were both very talented singers and actors and they had actually spent time together ⁓ that summer writing music. And although Dan had acted with Jesse in high school, he wasn't in the cast for Fiddler on the Roof. all just sat around sharing stories and memories ⁓ and ⁓ He just said that it was perfect to have that absolutely packed house because he could not imagine that quiet house again like I get it. Later that afternoon, like I said, as people filtered out and it quieted down, Dan got a phone call from the Washington County Sheriff's Department. They had some questions for him. Joy told him, No, don't worry. They're going to want to talk to all of Jesse's friends. Jackie, Mariah, and Ian, they gave Dan a ride to the police station. Dan told them to pick him up in about 30 minutes. Okay. Alright, I need y'all to buckle up for this next part because you are absolutely not ready for what I'm about to tell you. It was unintentional that we're both wearing buckle up shirts today. It was like, I'm sorry. All right. ⁓ Detective Joe Clausing the Washington County Sheriff's Department didn't call Dan Bartelt in to discuss Jesse Blodgett's murder. Instead, they told him that they wanted to ask him some questions about an attack on a woman in Richfield Historical Park on Friday, July 12th. three days before Jessie was murdered. I'm sorry, what? What do you mean? So three days before Jessie was murdered, Melissa Etzler went to Richfield Historical Park to walk her dog. On her way to the park, she noticed a blue Dodge Caravan parked in the parking lot. When she returned from her walk about an hour later, the van was still there. About halfway to her car, she noticed someone had gotten out of the van and was now walking behind her and picking up his pace. We love an aware queen. She turned around and said, oh, you scared me. And he just kept running at her. that's she saw. He had a knife. Oh, the fuck? He then tackled her. While on the ground, Melissa managed to grab the blade of the knife and began wrestling it away from him. Once she got the knife from him, the man just said to her, can I go now? The fuck? While trying to grab the knife back from her, but Melissa said, no, I'm keeping the knife. And he ran back to his van. Melissa took the knife, threw it onto the passenger floorboard of her car and took off. She was bleeding from her hand and her leg and she called her boyfriend who she'd only been dating for a short while. And he told her to go straight to his dad's house. His dad is the one who called it in a 911 and requested an ambulance. Detective Clausing was a bit skeptical before talking with Melissa because stranger on stranger crime was almost non-existent in this county. Let me finish first. Most of the time the victims knew they're attackers. But after checking out her story and clearing the boyfriend, they realized this really did happen. One of the biggest pieces of evidence for her was the fact that on the top of her shoes there was gravel circle imprints that would only happen if she was tackled face down with her feet fighting on the gravel at the park. You're fucking lying. I'm not. Let me finish this paragraph. Melissa, who is an avid watcher of crime shows and loves consuming true crime, knew exactly what to do even while fighting for her life. ⁓ She was able to give detectives a detailed description of her attacker and his vehicle. Her description was so detailed, they set her up with a sketch artist. White male, blonde hair, black framed glasses. Melissa even agreed to take detectives back to the park and walk them through what happened to her. Which she did. While having her leg wrapped up, there's video of it. Period. There they found a roll of tape with aluminum backing, like for HVAC. Bitch. They found sunglasses, and of course, Melissa had already given them the knife from her car. So they put out a sketch of Melissa's attackers and some details, thinking someone will call in with a tip and has to know who this is. But they got nothing. Silence. Not a single call. One more thing. A detective said Detective Klausen said that ⁓ She did better he could have done in that attack. And to this day, she is one of the best ⁓ eyewitnesses he has had. Ever. Good on you, girl. Now, what's your question? Why didn't the dog attack? ⁓ So she the She addressed that. She said, it was a puppy first of all. He was only like seven months old. And it happened so fast. And she was also trying to protect her dog. He was still a puppy and training a lot. don't think he knew, you know what I mean? And it wasn't like she had a pit bull with her or something like that. But essentially she goes, get a lot of people who say, didn't my dog attack? And she goes, I don't know. I think he was freaked out and processing it. She goes, it also happened very fast. That's what I, that's my next thing was it probably maybe 15 seconds, 10, 15 seconds tops. And she was to her car. So like, I don't know if she had the car door open. Like she was just about to her car. So I she had the car door open and the dog had hopped inside. The dog could have been in the car. Yeah. But like, I think the dog was near her, but it's just like, yeah, that has gotten addressed. That's valid. That's totally valid. I'm very upset that they didn't believe her until like, oh yeah, your shoes are indicative of you being tackled. The fuck? Well, they were just making sure it wasn't the boyfriend. It's not that they didn't believe she'd been attacked. They just didn't believe that it was a complete stranger. She didn't know that attacked her. They needed to rule the boyfriend out. OK, I feel like she would have realized if it was the boyfriend at that point, it would have been like, yeah, guess what? My boyfriend attacked me, especially with all of the details she gave. But it literally this detective on a twenty twenty episode was like. I didn't really believe the story at first until I talked to her. Because stranger on stranger crime is. Yeah, uh huh, uh uh huh. I get that. That's also why we had so many serial killers because you know it was stranger on a stranger crime. think he learned a little lesson in this. ⁓ Also start believing people until they give you a reason not to. So there were no calls and no tips. Mm-hmm. That is. ⁓ until a fellow officer tells Detective Clausing that a couple weeks ago in his rounds of the Richfield Park, he noticed a blue Dodge Caravan in the parking lot that he hadn't seen before. So he ran the plates and everything checked out like normal. To explain this, remember we are a small town. This officer said that three cars at this park is a busy day. So you become very familiar with what cars are usually at the park. And this is like in his patrol, this is one of the places that he patrols daily. So he has to drive by sits there for 10, 15 minutes, make sure things good, you So he knows. They gotta give the police something to do. Yes. And so he knows the ongoings at this park pretty well. So they pulled the Dodge van that he saw and what do you know? the description matches what Melissa gave them. they look who it's registered to and neither of them match the sketch like the owners of the car. So they go out to their house and ask them if they own a Dodge van and they reply that their son, Dan Bartelt, actually drives that car, but he's out at the moment. They can call him if he wants. Did they call him? Detective Klauseng had a pretty good feeling that they had their guy when Dan walked into the police station, because he looked exactly like the sketch. Detectives begin with some questions to get him to open up while also discreetly looking him over for any signs of being in an attack It's actually really funny because if you watch this video like one of the detectives is literally like Just straight up both of them up Yeah, the other one like comes on the side of the table like this. It's so funny. Like they were not being discreet at all They've never had to do this before they don't know how to be discreet. They were not They asked him how he got the cut on his hand. ⁓ And Dan replied that a screwdriver slipped at work, claiming he worked for a construction and HVAC material company. Interesting. ⁓ he had been working at that company since dropped out college ⁓ after his first semester. ⁓ when he came home, his parents said, that's fine, but you need to work. You have to have a job. So he did. But then one of the detectives just had this gut feeling about this. And so he pressed Dan and goes, what would your employer say about you being at work on July 12th? And Dan admits that he actually doesn't have a job at all. He had been lying to his parents for over six months. Every morning he would get up at 6 a.m., his mom would pack him lunch, and Dan would leave for work. Instead, he was going to Richfield Park and reading or writing, or he would just drive around until going home. Dan finally admits to being in the park on the 12th and to attacking Melissa. After telling Dan that he was going to be arrested for the attack on Melissa, detectives asked how Dan got to the police station. He said that some friends had dropped him off and he was attending a vigil for Jesse Blodgett. Detective Clausing, not really knowing much about what happened to Jesse, you know, was just, he was just making small talk until they could move him out and booking and all that, So he asked Dan what happened and Dan goes, she was raped and murdered. Excuse me? This got both detectives attention because the suspicion that Jesse had been sexually assaulted hadn't been made public knowledge yet. This is the day after her murder. We don't even have the full autopsy back. back yet. So Detective Clousy went to Detective Thicken's and was like, I think he need to talk to this kid I just arrested for the attack in the park. Not only did he come from Jesse's house, for her vigil, he knows details that you haven't released yet. So detectives- Yikes. Right? Detectives from the Hartford Police Department went and spoke with Dan. He fake cried the whole time they talked to him. Fake cried? ⁓ yeah. Like he was making the noises, but there were no tears. ⁓ my gosh, like kouri Richins. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. He told them That he was Woodlawn Park around 10 a.m. the day that Jesse was murdered. He was writing and reading like he normally did. Woodlawn Park is near Jessie's house. So detectives Thicken's knew that that park had one camera. So he went and checked the cameras and saw Dan at the park that morning around 1030, like he said. He was thinking you know most criminals when they lie they give little tiny bits of the truth. Uh-huh they can keep it together Yeah So let me remind you Jesse was murdered on Monday mm-hmm Tuesdays when Dan gets arrested Wednesday we're a days later Wednesday Thursday now mm-hmm We have we're looking at the footage on Wednesday Thursday detectives go to the park Since it only been a couple days since the murder they were going to check around and see what they could find. Brother, no, they didn't. To his complete and total surprise, when he asked around, he found out that trash picks up around 7 or 730 on Monday mornings. So he immediately began searching trash cans and found a frosted mini-meats box containing what he described as a kill kit. It had a rope with knots at each end, a homemade ball gag made out the same tape used for HVAC. that was found in Jesse's bedroom, alcohol wipes, and he also found a SpongeBob towel with blood on it. A SpongeBob towel? My goodness gracious. They were able to locate Jesse's DNA on the ropes and on some of the antiseptic wipes. As for the tape, they were able to identify a fingerprint belonging to Daniel Bartelt, and they were able to identify a hair follicle with DNA that matched Jesse Blodgett. The only DNA that was in the Mini Wheats box was Dan's and Jesse's. Brother. Daniel Bartelt was then charged with first degree intentional homicide, which he of course pled not guilty. ⁓ huh. I am so confused on a timeline though. Why? Like time wise. Like. When it happened, it happened in the morning. She was killed after 830 because Joy left for work at eight. OK, so she was killed somewhere between we're going to say 830 and 10 because he's on camera at 1030 at the park. Yeah. That's why the trash was picked up on Monday morning between 7 and 730, which means that homeboy disposed in that trash can right after trash was picked up. The sheer luck in this case, it was towards the entrance where the camera wasn't. Of the park? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I don't mean this in any way, but like him, I was gonna say kind of smart of him putting it into the mini-meatbox. Yeah. But also that right there, that's fucking intentional shit. Yeah. But just the sheer luck that it hadn't been picked up yet. That and the fact that the detectives investigating her murder weren't even the ones who figured it out. This is literally the next day another investigation led to this. That's crazy. So detectives went to town with search warrants for Dan's house, his computers, the van, anything he had. Dan was living quite the double life they found out. ⁓ God. On top of him lying to his parents about going to work every day, he was also secretly obsessing over killers and how to kill, reading books about serial killers as well as writing his own book about murder. And the main character's name was Jesse and the killer went by D. This was a stark difference to the Dan that everyone knew. According to their friends, everyone loved Dan. He was funny, smart. Very talented. Everyone wanted to be Dan's friend. He usually got the lead role in theater productions. He could act, sing. He was charming. was truly shocking to the entire community when Dan was charged with Jesse's murder. No one saw it coming. Bro, something had to have happened in college. Something happened with his dropout. But there were signs. Tell me I'm right. Like this Facebook post from Jesse a month before the murder. when Dan Bartelt breaks into your house while you're sleeping to awake you to play music. A lot of people commented that it was creepy and illegal. And Jesse even added the comment, he walked into my house and then my room while I was still in bed. What a freak. Hey guys lock your fucking doors Go on. Daniel Bartelt's trial for the murder of his friend, Jesse Blodgett, began 13 months after he took her life. Well, we're gonna put a pin in that bitch really quick. Him a month before, that was him testing to see if he could do it. Oh, there's actually a detective saying that exact thing in one of the things I watched on this. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. That was his test run. That was absolutely his test run. That's why there was nothing moved in the house. That's why everything was good. And then he tried to attack Melissa. When he was asked about that, he goes, I just wanted to scare her. I don't believe that. No, I think that was another test run to see what he could do, if he could do it. wasn't the detective. Klausing said he was not wearing a mask. He goes, it wasn't a robbery because he didn't ask for anything. Uh-huh. He wasn't wearing a mask. He straight-up tackled her. Yep. He was going to take her. Mm-hmm. And kill her. Yep. That was another test to see if he could do it. He couldn't do it with a random person in a random area, so he decided to do it with somebody that he knew in a more controlled environment. And he had already tested that once. That's wild. Go on. 13 months. I'm still mad about that too. months. 13 months. Why did it take that long? It only 13 months after, like literally after her murder. So it wasn't that bad. was the next August. I it's not terrible. No, it's actually pretty quick. Yeah. All the evidence and shit they have to get together and put together and yada yada yada. Well, yeah, considering he was arrested before, like he was arrested and then they gathered evidence. ⁓ did they have both trials at the same time or did he have this trial, Melissa's trial first and then he was tried for this? We're gonna get there. Since I've already told you about a lot of evidence and how Dan became a suspect, let me talk about the autopsy and evidence we haven't touched on. Please. Jesse's autopsy revealed that her manner of death was strangulation. Although Dan's DNA was found on Jesse, it was unable to determine if Jesse was sexually assaulted. which isn't surprising given the assumption that he bathed Jessie in some manner and redressed her since her hair and pants were wet. I mean that's fair but can't they... and not if you washed her. You can still tell that shit. If there was like ribs tears buck said that there was a fear before trial and they were prepped that he was going to claim it was consensual So I'm assuming that they we there's not a lot of talk on this I've even tried to google it and chat GPT and like find it and like the best I can give you is what I have Is that there was no evidence of it, but it's kind of assumed I Get it. I know what you're saying. ⁓ So yeah, that's just one of the things that's kind of really not too much and... When you find out who the major spokesperson with this case is, you will kind of get a little bit better of an idea of that. Okay. I'll just say straight up though, the fact that he admitted the rape before it was determined it was even him. That's where can make your own assumptions. Yes. There was rope found in Dan's room that matched the rope found in the Mini Wheats box. Not only that, but there was more tape that matched the roll of tape found under Jessie's bed at the park where Melissa was attacked and in the Mini Wheats box. It's all the same kind of tape. How do people ⁓ have rope? I have shoestrings around because my cats play with them. that count? Where does one acquire rope? ⁓ Home Depot, Lowe's, they literally, it's like chains and stuff. You can like literally pull it out and cut whatever amount you want and use it for different stuff. ⁓ yeah, it's that was a really weird question of me. But like. I just don't deal with rope frequently. Everyone seems to have fucking rope on them. It's because you're not a dad. All right, I am a daddy, though. Go on So here's the thing about that specific kind of tape It's not sold in any hardware stores or any store for that matter in the county It is strictly for HVAC companies and the bartelt's had recently had HVAC work done in their house ⁓ So he straight-up jacked that tape ⁓ They either left behind or he took it Or had a couple rolls of it, either way. will say I've definitely, I've had workers leave shit here all the time. Because he never actually got a job at that company. Yeah. So. He either stole it or he was left. And I guarantee I know which one. Yeah. Joy testified at trial about finding Jesse and the 911 call was played. Buck testified as well. And Dan's mom also testified. And. I can really say it was in. I can't really say if it was in his defense or against it, because she just very honestly testified about who he was, the good and the bad. Like she straight up admitted to him lying a lot his whole childhood and into adulthood and that it was common for him and easy for him. So I don't really know. I mean, good for you. I guarantee she said that I was like, that's why he got into acting. Trial lasted for seven days and the jury only took three hours to Daniel Bartelt was found guilty on first degree intentional homicide and sentencing didn't take place until October. And at sentencing, Buck got 10 minutes and Dan got 10 minutes to talk. Dan? They gave Dan 10 minutes to talk? Yeah. ⁓ sweet Jesus. Okay. I'm gonna try to find a clip to play of Dan at this with sentencing, but I haven't been able to find one that's not talked over by news crews or whatever. ⁓ But essentially he turns to and Joy and goes, these shackles in this jumpsuit don't make me guilty and don't have the answer to this. He's basically telling them to go fuck themselves. He didn't do it. He lies to himself all the time and he's an asshole. ⁓ It was very arrogant. It very, wanna punch him in the face ⁓ and I don't like him. Like listening to him talk and how articulate he was when he speaks is kind of scary. I am now going to read what actually mattered at sentencing with Buck's victim impact statement. And I'm going to try to make it through this, guys. I'm going to do it. ⁓ no. This is what I lost. This is what all of us lost. Never again will I end a long, hard, stressful day at work with a walk around the block with my girl, talking freely and deeply about everything under the sun. In her final months, she had developed the habit of starting every one of those walks with, so, how was your day, Dad? And I had to give her real, genuine answer before we could move on to talking about her. Never again will I look out the window and see her car parked in our driveway. Now her BFF Kelly drives it ⁓ And occasionally I see it parked somewhere around and I'm caught off guard. For a split second I think she's there and then I get a fresh new stab of the old pain. How can I describe for you the pain of this loss? I can't. It is there in the background and often the foreground of my life every second for 457 days every second. It will never go away. Others tell me I adapt to it, learn to function well with it, which I already have, but it will remain there and never go away, and I know they are right. For 457 days, I've watched Joy cry, every day, powerless to take her pain away. As for my opinion on sentencing, I leave that to Judge Martins. I wish no vengeance or retribution, nor would Jess, but I know she would want such a cruel and selfish act of male on female violence to be met with an appropriate penalty. so as to be deterrent to others. And of course, above all, we can't allow another innocent life to be lost. Dan, I forgive you as I have every day since I learned it was you. I believe there is good and bad in every one of us. So I do not demonize or vilify you. That's too easy. That makes it too easy for the rest of us to separate ourselves and our humanity from you and yours. To the evil in you that you choose to follow, I say this, this was a monumental loss for evil and a stunning win for love. You stole Jessie's life in future. You had power and dominion over her body for a few minutes, but never for one second did you have one ounce of power or control over her spirit, her heart, her will, her grace, her beautiful godness and her deep love. For 457 days you have lived a lie. You held the power to set in motion a healing process for me, for joy, for yourself, for your mom and dad, and for thousands of families, friends and others who have been affected by this. You have thought only of yourself once again, not others, and it has cost you and us dearly more than you can possibly imagine. As long as you are alive, you still have a chance to own what you did, try to make amends and bring healing into our sick world. I hope you take that chance. As for Jess, she is now happy and free, empowered and peaceful beyond your understanding, but you are a shell of your true self. You told her in the weeks before you killed her that you had been making bad choices lately. May you choose well now. Dan, I don't think there is any way on God's green earth that you or many in this room will understand or believe this, but it's true. I forgive you and I love you. Of course, I hate what you did, but that doesn't mean I can't forgive and love. And that was, I took a little bit of his, like I said, he took that 10 minutes. You can find a full listing of this, we'll get to that in a minute. But I took his powerful statements out of there. And when I told you that Buck was the girl dad of girl dads, that's just a snippet of him being a girl dad of girl dad. I haven't gotten there yet. Dan was then sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Period. For Jesse he I pled guilty to the attack on Melissa and I think he just got sentenced on that I didn't really go too deep into this because I Was really deep into this that's valid ⁓ So Sam, what are your thoughts before we get into the good that came out of all of this injustice? I know we've talked a lot, so... Yeah, I mean, I feel like I've been pretty forthcoming with my thoughts throughout the whole thing. That's not who you thought was going to do this, did you? You had other thoughts along the way. When we had the 46 year old, we had Randy. ⁓ we had our other suspicions. I honestly, I think I was just more grossed out by Randy than suspicious. Suspicious. Yeah. So I don't know. I was just. Again, I was trying to piece, like make a picture in my head of what happened. And you told me about the Facebook post, like I'm just like, yep, ⁓ know what happened. Right. That was really like, ⁓ I have told you a lot about the amazing person Jesse was ⁓ already and how much she did others. So I now want to touch on ⁓ what the amazing people in her did for her after her death. ⁓ I did have one comment really quick about ⁓ his statement. He was like her Kelly. Yeah, that was cute. That was really cute. And I love that they gave her car to her. I ⁓ love that so much. Like, I absolutely love that her best friend gets to her car around. Yeah, I agree. So, yeah, no, that was a really cool... First of all, over a thousand people attended her funeral. Period. The rest of the shows for Fiddler on the Roof was done with a candle on the roof and the places where she was supposed to play the fiddle were silent. Everyone agreed that Jessie would have wanted the show to go on, but they also agreed no one should take her place. I've seen the clips and they didn't play this one but one of the friends said that you could just hear her parents crying. Bro, fuck off. Yeah. I am a bad bitch. I'm fine. We're bad bitches Okay Jesse's parents found the Love is Greater Than Hate Foundation in her honor. Have you heard of this foundation? I'm sure you would notice the logo. I do know about this because ⁓ after the Super Bowl, Bad put Love is Greater Than Hate on the screen, ⁓ This foundation actually blew up even more because of it. So, Jessie is the reason this foundation exists. That's fucking amazing. The foundation launched the Jessie Blodgett Music Scholarship. It aims to fulfill Jessie's dream of changing the world through music by supporting young musicians who use their art to inspire positive culture change. By awarding $1,000 scholarships to elementary and middle school students who demonstrate both musical passion and financial need. The foundation's overall mission is to raise awareness about interpersonal violence and promote forgiveness and healing. And to inspire individuals and communities to choose love over hate and their actions and relationships. They do this through telling victims stories, giving presentations and having programs in the prisons and local communities. Buck is mainly the voice of the foundation because Joy cannot bring herself to talk about it. she has been on trial and you hear her 911 calls and that is all you hear out of joy because this was their only child. This is why I know this case is because of that foundation. That's why you know her name. That's why I know her name, her face. ⁓ Buck and Joy had to move away from Hartford after Jessie's murder. It was too much for Joy to bear. So, and that's another big reason why you will always hear Buck. Buck is in all these interviews. Joy is not. Buck is, he, when I tell you he is the girl dad of girl dads, this man has not stopped. And he's not going to stop. I also love how supportive of he is of his wife as well. Yes. So if you do not know what the Love is Greater Than Hate, I'm gonna have it linked below in our stuff. Go please check them out. They have stories on there, they have ways to help, they have ways to donate with the foundation, all of these things. I missed that at the end of the Super Bowl, somehow. Or I missed, well I saw the Love is Greater Than Hate, but I missed them blowing up with that, and it really wasn't too much, but. ⁓ I didn't see it like on the TV at all. was all over socials. ⁓ that that was. After that, yeah. because I mean, I'm a big sports person, obviously. ⁓ And so like after any big sporting event I always get the memes and like the news articles and that's that was a reoccurring thing Which is I love this. This is awesome. ⁓ but yes, so I also did not know where that foundation came from I'd heard of it before yeah I had seen you know the purple and that which makes sense because that's purples the domestic violence color Yeah, ⁓ and so like I I've seen it. I I know generally what it was but this is where it came from. I had no idea. So did we get justice? Yes. Yes, I believe we did because Dan was caught for both incidents and we had... Charged with both of them as Charged, convicted, and we have great change that's coming out of this. We have positive change and not positive change, but positive things happening in the world because of her. She already going to bring so much positive ⁓ and even though we lost her, they were willing to continue positiveness. Positivity. ⁓ Thank you. ⁓ Moving forward in her honor and I love Which is ⁓ So, jury I have some questions for you. Do you think will ever own up to what he did? Have you heard of the love is greater than hate project? You can have it go look it up now. No, That's That's my that's my case today We did good all fucking day. We did so good all day. I'm glad we kind of ended with this one that one was a Hey, but I got there most of buck statement. I really did get most of that very well You're- when you edit this you're gonna see me just staring at you because I was just like you got this Samantha just pay attention focus Yeah, yeah we did it Listen, it's getting a little aggressive at this point and it's fine. I'm here for it. Go follow us. Hit like, hit subscribe. Share it, click it, I don't know. Do it. Tell your mom to do it. Tell your coworker to do it. Take their phone. Follow us on it. I don't know. At Justice for podcast, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, Twitter, whatever the heck it's called. I might get on there. I don't know. I've been threatening it for months. We've been here all day. It's been four episodes and what you got? Is this an OK, love you, bye moment? No, I was gonna say I literally bombarded a table at a bar when we were drunk the other day and forced them to follow us. ⁓ yeah, I hope they're listening. Hey guys, yeah, totally do that. We just walked up to the table and I don't know, we were a little drunk. I was a little drunk. were drunk and she goes, what you listen to podcast? Do you like True Crime podcast? They're like, yeah, what do you listen on? She saw Spotify, I'm like, psh, QR code. Scan You scan this. Follow us. And then we were like, bye, and just walked out the We just dipped. I hope you guys are listening because we're pretty cool. Shout out, yes. But I have nothing further. She got it covered for us. I can't handle life. Baddies get saddies. Lock your fucking doors. Don't kill people and just get a divorce. all of the above. Check out our website for resources if you need it. If you're too scared to do it, just reach out to us. We got you. We will catch you next week for an all new Deep Dive episode. Make sure you are following for all of the updates on everything that's happening right now, because there's a lot. But with that, we'll see you guys next week. Okay, love you. Bye.