What would you do to stay out of trouble with your parents? We’ve all told a white lie to keep Mom and Dad from finding out about a crazy night out, or how badly we did on a test, but can you imagine your lie being worse than the actual crime? Chandler Halderson certainly didn’t. Rather than address an unpleasant topic with his parents, he decided to take them out of the equation altogether. In a perfect example of How Not to Get Away with Murder, Halderson bumbled his way into getting caught lying – two times over.
Who is Chandler Halderson?
Chandler Halderson, pre-2021, seemed to have everything figured out. He was a full-time college student with a bright future at SpaceX, a loving girlfriend, a busy schedule full of volunteering for the local police force’s scuba search team, working a demanding remote job. His loving parents, Bart and Krista, let him stay with them – rent free while he finished up his degree. Everything was going pretty well for him until a nasty fall in June – one so bad he had to postpone his move from Wisconsin to Florida until his doctor gave him the all clear – and he lost the opportunity of a lifetime with SpaceX.
Or so he told people. Truthfully, almost nothing in the then 23-year-old’s life was happening in reality. Chandler had stopped attending the college in 2020, and the SpaceX job was never even on the table. His girlfriend was pretty certain he was cheating on her. The local police department didn’t even have a scuba division to assist. His demanding remote job was just a fabricated series of employers, HR personnel, and payroll mess-ups that gave Halderson ample time to play videogames in the privacy of his room. Even his injury was fraudulent, sure Chandler had fallen down the stairs, but there was no potentially life-threatening brain damage.
Despite Chandler’s busy work schedule and exciting career opportunities, the Haldersons started to notice their son seemed to be going nowhere fast. Though Chandler worked a regular job, he never seemed to have any money. Every time they questioned it, he had ample excuses and a paper trail of frustrating conversations between “Human Resources” personnel who blamed it on infinite glitches in the payroll system. He did the same with his college diploma, he even purchased purchase burner phones so the numbers attached to the fake email signatures could be contacted.
And contacted they were — at the very least Bart was catching wise of his son’s charade. After multiple attempts to use the school’s website to find the missing diploma failed, Bart called the Madison Area Technical College, pretending to be his son on June 29, 2021. The enrollment coordinator told him that, not only had his son not graduated, but he also hadn’t taken any classes at the school for more than a year. According to Cracked, Mr. Halderson’s only response to the news was, “Okay, that should do it then… Okay, thank you for your help.”
Two days later, around 2:25pm on July 1, Mr. Halderson texted his son, “I’m ready when you are.” Not long after, Bart’s iPhone health app stopped recording data. Shortly after, Chandler texted his mother, “Dad’s phone died. Text or call and get soda on your way home, I’ve got an extra hour of work.” According to data pulled from a cellphone tower, Krista Halderson returned home around 5:12pm. Authorities don’t know when or how she died, and Chandler refuses to tell.
Chandler Halderson’s crime timeline
When Krista Halderson didn’t show up for work the following day, her co-worker and friend Daniel Krongier knew something wasn’t right. After attempts to call and text her failed, he followed up with a visit to the family’s home. Chandler was the only one there. He told Krongier that his family had gone to their lakeside vacation home for the July 4 weekend for some kind of emergency. When Chandler visited Krongier on July 4, he told him that his parents had gone to the nearby town of White Lake to see the parade that Saturday.
On July 5, he asked his girlfriend’s mom if he could use their pool. She gave him permission but said she would be gone most of the day. When she returned home, the pool was unused, but she could see Chandler’s Subaru near the woods neighboring her property. She remembered him being despondent, but thought nothing of it at the time. A neighbor would later confirm the sighting, corroborating Chandler’s visit to the wooded area near her farm.
The following Wednesday, July 7, Chandler reported his parents missing at Krongier’s insistence. He told the police that they had left early in the morning with a couple he didn’t recognize. After speaking with police, Chandler even went door to door in the neighborhood, asking if anyone had seen or heard from his parents, or if they had any security footage from the days before.
The day after the report was filed, the elder Halderson boy, Mitchell, drove out to the family’s cabin to look for his parents with the help of his fiancé. Deputies met them at the property, and it was quickly apparent that no one had visited the home for some time. Not only was there a fallen tree over the road, but the house was locked up tight, and the grass was overgrown. There were absolutely no signs of Bart and Krista Halverson.
Meanwhile, detectives were investigating the farm owner’s tip, and as they approached the area, they knew they were on the right track. Carrion birds were swirling over a barn and the nearby woods where detectives found a grizzly scene. Hastily covered by branches and detritus was the dismembered torso of an adult male. It was fully clothed and had several bullet wounds in its back. Inside a nearby barn, authorities found a bloodied tarp, and several cutting implements stashed in a rusted water tank. Months afterward, the barn’s owner found a SKS rifle, which was confirmed to be the murder weapon.
By the evening of the July 8, Chandler was taken into custody for providing false information in a missing person’s report. While Chandler had been relatively cooperative up until that point, Detectives noticed an abrupt change when they mentioned what they found on the farm. He asked for a lawyer and never spoke on the subject again – even at his own trial.
On July 12, the body was identified as Bart Halderson’s, and three days later Chandler was formally charged in relation to the death of his father as well as dismembering a body.
It was social media that led to the next break in the case, Chandler’s Snapchat data was given to investigators by his girlfriend. After feeling uneasy about his loyalty, the pair started using Snapchat’s See My Location option, and when Chandler said he was at home – but Snapchat said otherwise – his girlfriend snapped a screenshot. Rather than sitting at home, Chandler was visiting a favorite spot of his, a swimming hole near the Wisconsin River. Authorities had received calls about a suspicious-looking person near the area that same day. When the river was searched, authorities discovered human remains along the bank that were later confirmed to be Krista’s.
While most of the remains were never found, authorities have a gruesome theory. The family’s fireplace showed signs of an uncontrolled blaze, and neighbors reported the smells of BBQ in the neighborhood. One neighbor’s security camera recorded what authorities now know to be a blaze of substantial size, as Halderson tried to cremate his parents’ remains in the small fireplace. More than 200 pieces of human bone fragments were found in the soot, and the basement of the home showed recent signs of cleanup. Forensics revealed blood residue on the basement floor.
What happened to Chandler Halderson?
The jury found Chandler Halderson guilty of all charges and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole with just 2 hours of deliberation. Chandler only spoke once during his trial, right after he was sentenced. He told the court that he intended to appeal his conviction and asked any lawyers that were willing to listen to take up his case, ending his statement with;
“It’s not that I do not have feelings, it is that I was warned to not show them due to the scrutiny of this case.”
In April 2023, the conviction related to hiding his parent’s remains were vacated on “procedural grounds.” He continues to serve a life sentence with no possibility of parole, though his paternal grandmother hopes that someday her grandson, and her son’s killer, can go free.