All language subtitles for American.Monster.S01E04.720p.ID.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.x264-BOOP

This is a story

from a midwestern American
town

of five high school friends

with a common love
caught on tape.

Music was everything
for me in high school,

everything else was just kind
of a blur.

But an attack in the woods...

In a split second, it went
into a fight for your life.

...reveals a horror
lurking in their midst.

I think it's scary that people
like this are out there,

and you don't necessarily
know who they are.

Shenandoah since last I've seen you

shenandoah away, you rolling river river

tis seven years
since last I've seen you

shenandoah, rolling river away

Hartford, Wisconsin, 2011,

spring concert

for the Hartford union
high school choir.

Cross the wide Missouri

in high school,
I was all about choir.

We had a final concert every year,

and we would put together
a medley of different songs.

It was just amazing.

We would just
focus so much energy.

Shenandoah,

only the most talented
kids get into concert choir.

Shenandoah I did everything in my power

to be in the top choir
every year

that it was available to me.

This is the highlight
of their year.

And the audience is filled
with proud parents.

Music was everything
for me in high school.

Everything else was just kind
of a blur.

But these angelic
voices harbor a dark secret.

Five friends brought together
by a common love of music.

But in just two years,

one of these kids
will turn out to be a killer,

a killer caught on camera,

footage that has never been
seen before in public

until now.

Like Moriah, Jessie blodgett

is a member
of the concert choir.

She's also
a talented songwriter.

With the love

I met Jessie singing.

One of the first times
that I met her,

we were walking
through the hallway

of all the different
practice rooms

in our high school,
and we heard her singing.

We heard you outside,
you were incredible.

She had all this talent
that I could

as far as I was concerned,

I could never even dream
of having that much talent.

Moriah.
Jessie, hi.

Hi.

Jessie, when she was
interested
in something,

she would put 110% into it.

Jessie always has
to have a cause.

No, I don't.

Is it Dan? No, it's... hi. Hello, Dan.

See?
Ooh, what delights...

Dan was a very similar
personality to that.

He loved to debate,
which is, I think,

why they were such good
friends

because when they hung out,

it was like debate central.

Stop it.

I'm not doing anything.
Stop it.

Dan and Jessie
had a lot in common.

He was very similar to Jessie

in that he loved music,
and he loved acting.

I'm too late to stop

afraid to love
cause someone loves the draws

like Jessie, Dan
dreams of a musical career

you were my life you were my the world

how we can disregard Dan and Jessie,

when they got together,
they worked on music.

They were able to record
and put their ideas together.

Dan is also in a band...

The angry pillows.

Dan, he's the lead man.

He played lead guitar.
He sang.

Here they come here they come

doesn't matter, though

we actually wrote
a lot of our own music.

Dan wrote a lot of it.

Dan was, always
really entertaining,

I'd say.

He's he's a great character.

I always kind of,
gravitated towards him.

Man.

Yourself.
Go and you go

angry pillows!

Wah!

Get a nice one.

That a nice one?
Yeah.

A nice one.
Yeah.

As well as his band,
Dan has another great love.

Her name is Allison.

Allison was a soprano
in the choir.

Zooming? No.

Hello.
Hey.

Hey. You all right?
Yes.

Once he and Allison
started dating, it was them.

They were always together.

They always were pretty much
glued to each other.

By myself 'cause
you're always with Dan.

Okay, I'm not
always with him.

Allison was always
very bubbly, very bright.

She was a very fun person.

She was always really
happy.

Another Hartford
union high school musician

is Jessie's friend Ian nytes.

Jessie was like my best,
female friend

throughout, high school.

That fairytale thing
like before, which I liked.

We did like music together.

We like to I liked to
write, and she liked to sing.

So we kind of made, like, a
a good pair.

I referred to her as my muse.

We, we hung out at coffee shops

and just really talked.

Like, playing.

I just thought it would be,
like, we could set up,

like, a mini stage,
like, maybe in...

I mean, I'm sure
we have all that.

Hey, freak.
Hey.

Hey, Daniel.
How are you?

Good.
How are you?

Dan was, like, I guess
he could kind of give across,

like, a vibe
of being, you know,

thinking himself as superior.

He was really popular
and well liked,

but I feel like he might have
put himself on a pedestal.

It's the summer
of 2012

and graduation day
for Hartford union high.

As usual, the school choir
is at the heart of it all.

May the road rise
to meet you

and best friends Dan
and Jessie sing by side by side.

Until we meet again may god hold you

in the palm of his hand

after graduation, the friends
go their separate ways.

Dan heads off to university
of wisconsinstevens point

with Allison.

Jessie marita blodgett.

Whoo!
Whoohoo!

And Jessie auditions
for a music course

at the university
of wisconsinmilwaukee.

Wo so you want to do your name

and introduce your pieces.
Okay.

Well, my name
is Jessie blodgett.

She makes her father proud.

You can just see
how pleased she is

but how humble
she is with herself

and how confident she is
and how much she loves singing.

She has a beautiful voice,
and she just kills it.

Jessie's dad isn't
the only one who's impressed.

Wo lovely, lovely.
So nice.

Her audition is a success.

So those two plates
to table two.

Table two, yeah.
Table two.

Fantastic.
Okay.

Whilst at college,
Jessie works as a waitress.

And halfway
through freshman year,

she gets a big surprise.

She came home one day,
and she said, "Dan's home."

Shut up!
My god!

What are you doing here?

I'm like, "what do you
mean Dan's home?"

"Well, he dropped
out of college."

I'm like, "Dan
dropped out of college?

He's a straighta
he's the smartest kid in
school.

What do you mean
he dropped out of college?"

It's fine.
It's totally fine.

It it wasn't for me.

What are you gonna do?
You just gonna bum around?

I've got a job.
I've got a job.

You've got a job?
I've got a job in a factory.

He decided to come home
to Hartford,

go back to living
with his parents

and try to reassess his life
and figure out what he

what he really wanted
to do with it.

But 12 miles away from
Hartford,

events are unfolding
that will change everything.

Remy, wait.

July 12, 2013,

Melissa Richards, a young,
almost 21 year old woman

decides to go to richfield park

to walk her dog.

She could never have foreseen
that anything bad would
happen.

She's not a part

of the Hartford
high school friends group,

but her story is about to
become
part of their story.

Clausing.

It's July 12th,

and Washington county,
Wisconsin's, sheriff's office

get an unusual phone call.

We had a call of a female...

When was this?

...who was attacked in a
park in richfield

by someone with a knife.

And what was reported
was a stranger attack,

which are very few
and far between

for our jurisdiction location.

Paging dr.Stateman,
Dr. Stateman please.

Obviously, Melissa
was still scared, in shock.

The second night
I started talking to her,

I knew that this was real,
and this was valid,

and that this was serious.

I went to I went to
the park to walk my dog.

She was going back to the car

to get her dog
a drink of water.

Um, she noticed him
out of the corner of his eye,

sitting in his Van.

And then, she heard something.

She said she was walking
towards her car,

and she heard
the footsteps behind her.

And she turned around,
he was running.

In a split second,

it went from
a leisurely summer day

with your dog
to a fight for your life.

Aah!

During the struggle,

she was actually able
to take the knife away from him.

Aah!

Detectives are shocked

by this random,
impulsive attack.

I believe that he was
attempting to abduct her.

He didn't disguise himself.

Why?

My guess because he didn't
think that there would be

a witness in the end.

Melissa escapes
with some deep cuts

on her hand and her leg.

It is as unsettling
as it is random.

A wouldbe killer on the loose
in this small, midwestern
town.

As the annual summer parade
takes place in Hartford,

the community
struggles to come to terms

with news of the attack.

Hartford is smalltown
Wisconsin.

It's a workingclass community.

There's really
no crime in Hartford.

It was very unsettling
to the community.

So, guys, check US out
on Facebook under tab,

"the angry pillows."

Check out our YouTube channel.

We'll hopefully be playing a show,

coming up at rocky music medium.

Watch for an event.

This is the last song we're
playing, a brandnew one.

It's called "walk it off."

Dan still loves his music

just like in high school.

It was a lot of fun.

We, um, had a lot
of fun onstage,

running around and...

Seeing Dan, he was
just got really into it.

You know, he threw out all the moves.

Another choke and broken con

now, walk it off

just all the classic frontman.

He was really great.

Because, tonight, we're
gonna dance through it all

thank you.

Getting back into his music

also brings Dan even closer
to best friend, Jessie.

Kind of messing around
with it last week.

Dan came over probably
once a week or so

in the couple months after
he dropped out of college.

He he liked to write songs,

and Jessie liked to write
songs.

We all change and face our

um, Dan just, out of the blue,

reached out and
and pulled her in for a kiss.

It's for you Dan, what the hell?

Sorry.
What the hell?

I'm I'm sorry.

Like, what did you just do?

I don't know.

It made her
it made her mad.

We didn't think it was
that big of a deal.

Come back, I'm sorry.
What do you mean "come back"?

You've got a girlfriend.

I know.

Meanwhile, police
are still trying to figure out

who attacked Melissa Richards.

Shortly after her ordeal

and still bandaged
from the attack,

Melissa talks police through
what happened on video.

I had been in phone contact
with Melissa,

and we planned
to do the reenactment.

She described the vehicle.

She wasn't able
to get the plate number,

but she said it was
a dodge caravan,

dark Navy blue.

She was able
to describe the attacker.

She was able to describe
his age, his shirt.

We're looking for someone
who's, 18 to 22 years old.

We're looking for a person
who drives,

early 2000s dodge caravan.

Although the festivities continue,

this rural community

has been deeply affected
by the strange attack.

It could have been
so much worse.

Nobody knew who did it,

and everybody was a suspect.

And so people were
were truly in fear,

and they they were wondering,

like, "who's going
to be attacked next?"

It's July 2013,

and police have turned
to the public

for help with the attack
on Melissa Richards.

Reporter: Melissa Richards
says she took her dog, Remy,

for a walk
in a Washington county park

and ended up wrestling
with a stranger.

The police were trying
to solicit the help

of the community to figure out
who attacked Melissa.

They put out a press release,

and there was
some news coverage.

Detective Walsh
and I said, "okay.

Be prepared this weekend
and to come in at any time

because hopefully,
we'll get a tip," right?

Nothing. Crickets.

There was nothing for days.

After his rebuff
from Jessie, Dan bartelt

spends more and more time
with girlfriend, Allison.

Hello.

Hey.
Hi.

How's it going?
It's not, like,...

I've only got,
like, 13 pages.

That's good.

And she allows Dan

to pursue another passion, writing.

Dan absolutely loved to write,
loved to read as well.

But he just would get any
any thought that he had

on a page and expand it.

He just loved to write,
and he was very good at it.

He had been writing a novel.

It was called "red is red."

And he had been working
on this since high school.

So he was clearly drawing
from characters in his life

to put in this book,
at least to some degree.

There was a character
named Jessica in it.

And there was
a character named Dee.

I'm getting
a bit stuck, though.

Can I help?

He was a very eloquent writer.

Um, he knew how to make a
story, um, make it seem

like you were actually
in the story and involved.

And that's what
any good writer will do.

It's over a year
since Dan, Jessie,

Moriah, and Ian graduated
from Hartford union high
school.

Jessie is looking forward

to going back
to music college in the fall.

Welcome, monsieur,
sit yourself down

and Dan is still as
passionate about musical theater

as he was in high school.

There's a video
of him doing his

his part, and it's great.

Master of the house turning up the charm

he was able to make
it funny, um, in a way

that I don't think anyone else
would have been able to.

Makes a little still

customers appreciate a...

You know, he was always
very good at that

and just making everything

he did seem very believable
and lovable and likable.

Everybody, raise a glass whoo! Whoo!

Soon, Jessie also
gets a big role

in a local show.

Let's not get
too close too close.

It's your stage debut.

Shut up.

Jesse was the Fiddler
in "Fiddler on the roof."

It was her first, um,
participation

in the community theater.

Don't can you just
look at me without the camera?

So nervous.

Okay, okay.
Breathe.

They performed Friday night,

Saturday night,
and sunday afternoon.

Really not helping.

So much worse.
Okay.

Is my makeup okay?
Yeah.

I didn't smudge it?
No. No, no, no.

It's the sunday
afternoon performance,

and the house is packed.

You better not
put this on Facebook, okay?

Okay.
Wish me luck.

Wo good luck.
Good luck. Good luck.

And then, they had
a latenight cast party

to celebrate
their opening weekend,

three performances in a row.

And they they had a great time.

And she came home late that night.

After days of frustration,

Washington county detectives
finally get a break

in the Melissa Richards case.

The first big break that we got

was from a deputy, Andy myer.

Hey, Joel.

When deputy myer
hears about the dodge caravan,

it rings a bell.

You know, I saw a Navy
blue Van out there...

He saw a car
matching that description

parked in the same parking lot

where the attack happened
just two weeks earlier.

He had remembered
that he had run a plate

of a same vehicle

matching the description
some time ago,

but he didn't know exactly when.

Well, go, go.

If I'm not here when you come
back, give me a call.

Jessie, I'm gonna leave
breakfast on the table.

At 8:15, joy blodgett
left the house to go to work.

Call me if you need anything.

And she left the home.

Joy blodgett leaves for work.

Her 19 year old daughter, Jessie,

is asleep in her bedroom.

Joy came home for lunch.

Jessie?

The house was quiet.

She assumed Jessie
was sleeping in

from the latenight cast party
at 12:30 in the afternoon.

Jessie?

Do you want some lunch?

Hey, baby girl.
It's lunch time.

Well, now that we opened the play,

you can clear your room.

What's wrong with you?

What are you doing?

Jessie?

She reached out to wake her up.

And when she touched her, she was cold.

Jessie was cold.
And she rolled her over.

Wake up, Jessie!

Jessie!

Jessie was blue.

Come on, baby girl.
Come on.

We were dispatched
to a residence on wayside drive

in Hartford

for an unresponsive female
who was found in bed.

But the medical
teams are too late.

19 year old Jessie blodgett
is pronounced dead

at the scene.

Joy broke down crying
and couldn't talk for a while.

And I said, "honey,

is she, is she gone?"

And no more words.

So can you remember
what time you left work?

I began my interview
with Jessie's mom...

How do you know
it was 8:30?

...to get a timeline

of when she had last seen
Jessie and go from there.

It was so quiet.

I opened the
the bedroom door and...

One of the things joy saw
was a Mark on Jessie's neck,

and she also saw marks on her wrists.

I'd say
it became pretty evident,

relatively quickly
that this was a homicide,

not that she had done
something to hurt herself.

Jessie blodgett's hands
had been tied.

It was duct tape that had been used

to bind her hands and and her feet.

And obviously,
there were cords and ropes,

and these were used also
to strangle her.

It was a very violent murder.

What I remember
was the overwhelming silence

and emptiness.

All of a sudden,
I saw some figures

far away down on the road

beyond the apple trees.

It was Jessie's friends.

They started to come.

Didn't care what the right
thing

or the wrong thing was to do.

They just came.

And they came for US,

and they came for her.

12 miles from the blodgett home,

Washington county sheriffs

have just found out
who owns the car

that Melissa Richard's
attacker drove.

The police have this license plate,

and it runs back
to Melvin and Laura bartelts.

They don't know
who these people are.

You know, they're not
on the radar screen at all.

But they own
this dodge blue caravan

that was in the the park
where Melissa was attacked.

Hi, Mrs. Bartelt?

Obviously, we're
excited about this, right?

This is, detective Walsh.

And we meet Mr. and Mrs. Bartelt.

And I tell them
identify who I'm I'm with.

Dodge caravan.
Um, yeah, we do.

Mr. and Mrs. Bartelt
didn't fit our profile

of an 18 to 22yearold person.

They realize pretty quickly

that the father doesn't
fit the physical description

because of his age.

It's one of those, "well,
okay.

Well, let's see who's who's
associated with the bartelts."

And that's when we found out

that that they had a son
by the name of Daniel.

Right now, Dan bartelt

is at the blodgett house
mourning with Jessie's family

and friends.

Their entire living
room was covered with people

just, like,
sitting against the wall.

Everyone is crying.

Dan stood up and gave me a hug,

and I sat with him on the fireplace

and held his hand and,

um, just cried on his
shoulder.

Dan got a phone call.

He let go of my hand
and said that he had to take it.

I called Daniel.

Hello, Daniel?
Hi.

My name's detective clausing.
I identified who I was.

And I said I needed
to speak with him

in reference to an incident.

And he said, "okay."

And I asked him if he would be
willing to meet me

at the slinger police department.

And he said he would.
Um, well, where are you

whereabouts are you?
I said, "where are you at?"

He said that he was
at the blodgett vigil.

I said, "really?"

He's at the vigil.

He's at the blodgett girl vigil.

That's a shocking moment
for any investigator.

I mean, you're investigating
one crime,

which is bad enough as it is.

And suddenly, your key suspect,

you realize he's standing in the home

of this highprofile homicide victim.

But for now,
the Washington county detectives

are only interested
in the Melissa Richards case.

And they think
they have their man.

But could this allamerican choir boy

really be the same vicious figure

who tried to knife Melissa Richards?

They're about to find out.

I introduce myself
to Daniel. I shake his hand.

And we start interviewing him
about everything.

You're trying
to size up the person

that you're talking to

to see if they're
telling you the truth.

Whenever Daniel would talk
to me, detective Walsh

would be looking down
and looking around.

We're looking for injuries, right?

This was a knife attack.

We're looking for,
lacerations, cuts, bruises.

We did see a cut on his thumb.

I had asked him about the cut.

And he said
that he had sustained this cut

while pushing a cart at work.

And we talked more
about his work.

In actual fact,

Dan wasn't working
at a factory at all.

He had conceived
this elaborate lie.

He actually had no job.

He never had a job
at this factory.

He was spending his days,
you know, at local parks,

reading novels,

writing his book, writing songs.

So now we have him in a lie.

And police are about to find out

this isn't the only thing Dan bartelt

has been lying about.

Now, I spoke with several

of Jessie blodgett's friends tonight.

They tell me she had no enemies.

And they are trying to understand

how this could have happened to her.

It's the day after the horrific murder

of 19 year old Jessie blodgett.

In Washington county, Wisconsin,
Dan bartelt is being interviewed

about the attack on Melissa Richards

a few days before
Jessie's murder.

Though we started our

I would say
our interrogation.

Talking to him
about telling the truth,

coming clean on things.

Finally, he admitted to

to being in the park
and attacking her.

Detective Walsh,
we were talking about this,

he said, "this guy is bad."

Very intelligent, very smart,

but there was
just something about him

that the hair on the back
of your neck stood

stood up when you were
talking with him.

It was interesting
because we said,

"where were you at?"

He said that he was
at the blodgett vigil.

Where were you at tonight?

A house in, Hartford,

Jessie blodgett's house.

Jessie who?
Blodgett.

There's one thing wrong

with what Dan bartelt just said.

He said that she was raped and murdered.

Well, at that point in time,

nobody knew she was sexually assaulted.

We knew that she was murdered.

But nobody knew
that she was sexually assaulted.

So this is information
that only the person

that had done this would have known.

Someone raped and murdered her.

Then the investigation started, right?

For the blodgett homicide.

The day after Dan's arrest

for the attack
on Melissa Richards,

detective thickens questions
him about Jessie blodgett.

Could this straighta student
really be involved

with the murder
of his best friend?

He denied having any contact
with Jessie that day.

He actually advised US

that he had been there
for an extended period of time

reading a book
until he finally went home.

Detectives head
straight to woodlawn park

and retrieve the security tapes.

And at 10:30 on the morning
of Jessie's murder,

they spot Daniel well after
the time she was killed.

We did place him in the park.

It didn't give an alibi.

Instead, it leads
to a discovery

that seals the case.

The police went through all
of the trash bins.

They found this cereal box

that contained all
of these tools of death,

the cords, bloody gloves.

The police ended up
with a mountain

of forensic evidence,

which is incredibly convincing

that Dan bartelt
killed Jessie blodgett.

Call state versus
Daniel bartelt.

On August 11, 2014,

a little more than a year

after Jessie blodgett was murdered,

Dan bartelt went on trial
for her murder.

And when it's Dan's turn to talk,

he looks the family members,

the parents of this friend
that he's known for years,

looks them right in the eye
and he denies killing her.

This jumpsuit that I'm wearing,

shackles that I'm put in
don't make me guilty.

But the jury doesn't agree.

We the jury find the
defendant, Daniel bartelt,

guilty of firstdegree
intentional homicide.

He sits in his car
and he smokes a swisher

he asked himself
is he going to miss her

this was a wholesome,
sort of allamerican type boy

who loved music,
was in the school choir,

was in a band,
kind of a typical kid.

But Dan bartelt has a dark side.

He had a lot of time on his hands

for his mind to run wild.

Um, we started looking
into things like his computer

that we had seized.

He was writing about
bondage scenes in his novel,

"red is red," that he'd been
working on bit by bit

since high school.

And there were certain themes
in this book of violence.

He had been looking
at serialkiller wikis,

looking at how many people
they had killed

and how they had been killed.

Dan's fantasy world,
if you will,

was growing increasingly dark

and tinged
with elements of violence.

Then, one day,

Dan decides to turn
those dark thoughts into action.

He had a fantasy.

He wanted to know
what it was to kill someone.

But why choose his best friend?

Dan has never confessed,

and Jessie's family
must live without knowing

why their daughter was killed.

I mean, there was this loose motive

that he maybe he had made a pass
at her that she rejected.

But there was really
no great conflict between
them,

so that you have this young man,

who appears to have attacked
these two young women,

murdering one of them just
because he he wanted to.

Know you've shown me

you know, it doesn't make any
sense to me

because he had been
such a genuine person,

how could he be able
to do something like that,

you know?
It was mindblowing.

Just just one day

honestly, I think Dan
isn't so different

from all of US.

Dan is a normal person,
in my opinion,

who allowed himself
to go down a dark path

and act out dark choices.

La, la, la, la
la, la, la

la, la, la
la, la

Jessie's legacy project

is called "the love
is greater than hate project."

And our mission is to end
violence against women...

I swear to you

as if we ever stop
living this

and to elevate love
over hate in this world.

And if we ever
see the beauty

that it could be

"I'm in this world
to change this world,"

and she meant it.

Her life was just blossoming.

Just she saw her path,

and she started to walk
through the door.

And then it was over.

Singing this song for you

there is nothing
I wouldn't do

I'll be there I'll be here for you