Crime Junkie - SERIAL KILLER: Charlie Brandt

Episode Date: July 22, 2019

In 2004 a seemingly normal man commits an unthinkable crime. Police and friends are left to wonder what caused this man to just snap but his older sister holds the key and reveals a dark family secret that would completely change the investigation. For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/serial-killer-charlie-brandt/    

Hi crime junkies, I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and I'm Britt and today's episode I will warn you is a gruesome one We don't normally get into the gory details of a case But in this particular story the details are crucial to the understanding of the perpetrator and his MO that the police are scrutinizing carefully This case will make everyone who is dating or married to somebody they knew as a child sleep a little easier tonight Britt that includes you But it will make all of you who met your partner as an adult sleep with one eye open tonight

Because this case confirms for us. You never really know anyone and in 2004 many people found out that they didn't know the real Charlie brand In 2004 Charlie Brant and his wife Terry were living the kind of idyllic life that you would expect in big pine Key, which is the southernmost portion of the Florida Keys Charlie had spent most of his life in Florida from about ages 14 15 until well into adulthood With just a short break in there when he worked in the Bahamas He was an engineer and most of his career He was actually in charge of a radar blimp that was supposed to intercept drugs being smuggled into the US

Terry and Charlie were married in 1986 and for almost 18 years They had what everyone thought was a perfect marriage I mean literally to the point of almost being like sickly like years later someone said like they Used to do this thing where they would like make each other's lunch every day because they said that Lunch made by the one who loved you tasted so much better, which is like oh, but you know wow That's a lot very cheesy stuff, but again so many people wanted what they had back then Well, September of 2004 was a pretty unremarkable time in the brand's life

But it was marked by a defining event hurricane Ivan people in the keys were told to evacuate So Charlie boarded up his home with the kind of precision you'd only see from an engineer like every board cut Specifically to spec with like little holes cut out for each specific doorknob They left the house in pristine condition They did not expect to be gone long in fact Charlie thought it was a little ridiculous that they were even evacuating at all He didn't think this would be that bad of a storm, but his wife and her family were insisting They were just going to make the few-hour drive north to stay with Terry's niece Michelle near Orlando And then they would come back

But when they got in their car and started the drive I don't think either of them knew that they would never make it back to their house in the keys again The first night they got in one of Michelle's friends was supposed to come over and visit many of Michelle's friends New Aunt Terry and Uncle Charlie so it was common for others to visit while they were in town But that first night Michelle called her friend that evening and said hey, you know, don't bother coming over We've all been drinking. I think maybe we've been drinking a little too much and now Charlie and Terry are arguing so you just stay home. We're gonna get together another time while they're here The rest of the days there seemed pretty uneventful

Charlie makes plans to see his dad. He sees his younger sister Since they live just like an hour away or so and it's his younger sister, Jessica Who actually tells us that Charlie didn't really want to be there She was the one that said no he he said it was all Terry's idea to come and her family And he kept talking to her about how he just wanted to go home And she said there was this strange insistence in his voice about wanting to get home as soon as possible and she said it was weird too when they left Charlie embraced her and her dad like in a way he normally didn't and told them he loved them

And it felt like a very strange goodbye. Yeah, it sounds like it's probably more intense than usual. Yeah Now Charlie and Terry were planning on leaving on the 12th and again It sounded like Charlie couldn't get out of there fast enough which to me isn't like a weird thing like I'm all about sleeping in my own bed when I'm traveling. So yeah, definitely. I get wanting to go home But the next day something changes Despite the fact that their bags were packed and like lined up by the door as if they were ready to take off Something had to have shifted

Charlie all of a sudden insist on staying just one more night. And now this is September 13th Michelle and her mom Mary Lou normally talk every single day, but starting on the 13th Mary Lou's call to Michelle's phone start going to voicemail, which again, not a huge worry. This happens Michelle just calls her back But one day passes then to and by the third day her mom is sure something is very wrong So she calls up one of Michelle's friends Debbie Michelle had this like close group of friends and they all shared keys to one another places So Mary Lou asked her if she would just go over there and check on Michelle

She's like, I can't get a hold of her. All of this is super weird and my sister Terry is supposed to be there And I can't get a hold of her either So Debbie grabs her keys and heads over and before she pulls like into the driveway She calls their other friend Lisa the one that was actually supposed to come over that first night And she explains what's going on asked her to come over to and in the driveway as she's pulling in she sees Both cars like she knows everyone's home. So she walks up to the front door and starts knocking But no one comes to the door She waits a little bit and she's not even hearing so much as like a rustle behind the door

So her knocks become more frantic in an almost full panic now She tries to put the key to like unlock the door, but it's just sticking. It's not working She can't get in so she starts walking around the house first to the living room windows like banging on the windows Calling out Michelle's name then around to the bedroom windows like again banging banging banging calling out her name Not getting a single response as she's walking around the house She spots the glass door on Michelle's garage and she can see right in and what she sees Chills her to her core. It's Michelle's uncle Charlie Hanging from the roof of the garage from a bed sheet and Debbie immediately calls police to the scene

When police arrived they used Debbie's key to get into the house. I thought it didn't work So it didn't for Debbie, but I have to believe that Maybe it was some kind of divine intervention either She was using the wrong key like again all the friends had keys to each other's houses or it's something we can't explain But for whatever reason the lock stuck and she couldn't get in yeah, and it would be a blessing That she couldn't get into the home on her own that day because what police found inside that house is something that shocked and Scarred even the most seasoned investigators inside that home They found Terry slumped over on the couch with seven stab wounds to her chest as they made their way further back into the house

To Michelle's master bedroom. I assumed they expected to find a Similarly tragic scene, but what they found was so much worse When they opened the door to Michelle's bedroom It's been said that the site was so horrific that officers ran out of the house to throw up Michelle's body was placed on her bed It was determined that her cause of death was one fatal stab wound to her chest But after she was deceased she had been Decapitated and her head was placed next to her body as if she was made to watch the other

Depraved acts that would be perpetrated on her her breasts were severed and her body was cut open and Her organs including her heart had been removed and placed around her body while her intestines were put in the trash Now the rest of the room was littered with her underwear and bras from Victoria's secret When the police and investigators are able to regain their composure because again This is something that shook every single one of them to their core They went outside to talk to Debbie and now Lisa who had arrived They asked them to describe Michelle to them and once police confirmed what they already feared that it was Michelle inside

They told the girls about the murders Michelle's friend was the one who called Michelle's dad and she just remembers crying into the phone saying over and over again Michelle's dead. She's dead. She's dead in The first few hours after this horrific crime everyone is baffled and confused They didn't understand how something like this could happen like who would have wanted to hurt Michelle and Terry and Charlie But police are quick to correct them in the early stages of the investigation. They already had a theory This was a murder suicide perpetrated by Charlie

But this didn't make any more sense to the family like how could this have happened? Charlie was the most normal guy in the world. He and Terry were married for what almost two decades Everyone said they were a perfect couple. He had a great job. He was smart He'd spent time with Michelle a ton of times before like what happened now and Police were just as confused as everyone else They came to the conclusion because of the manner of death that it was obvious Charlie had killed Michelle and Terry and then killed himself But the reason behind it was a total mystery

Okay, I assume they pulled his records though like Did he have some secret double life? Had he ever been in trouble with the law before? I mean the first thing they of course did was pull Charlie's records, but he was totally clean There were no arrests. His fingerprints had never been entered in the system before Prior to this event Charlie would not have turned any heads officers who would have like come across him maybe on a routine stop Would have thought he was just your average Joe But there was something they didn't know something that was hidden from Charlie's records

And it doesn't come up to anyone's attention until Charlie's older sister Angela is called in to talk to police And before they can even start talking she stops them and says I have to tell something to you people and The next thing to come out of her mouth would forever change this investigation Angela tells police there's something you need to know about Charlie The reason I don't seem to be as shocked as everyone else about what he did to his wife and niece He's murdered before and at first this doesn't seem possible. Yeah, again, they look at Charlie's records He was clean Angela like had you been confused. They didn't know what was going on, but she persists She said no, you won't have his records

They've been sealed because when he killed he was only 13 when he murdered our mother Angela goes on to tell a horrific story set in 1971 the brand family which was Angela who was 15 Charlie 13 and their two younger sisters were like two and three I'm very small They lived in the town of Fort Wayne, Indiana with their dad and their mom who was eight months pregnant To everyone the brands were a normal family Charlie was a normal boy who did well in school and that's why no one could have expected what happened on January 3rd 1971 the brands had all been up that night watching TV together before it was time to go to bed

After their program Angela had gone to her room to read the younger girls were like already asleep And mom and dad went to the bathroom to get ready for bed as well Charlie's mom got into the bath while his dad stood over the bathroom sink Out of the corner of his eye Charlie's dad spotted him coming into the bathroom the next words out of his mouth were Charlie. No, Charlie stop 13-year-old Charlie held a gun and fired once into his dad's back Then went to the bathtub stood over his pregnant mother and fired five shots into her Now Angela is like hearing this from her room. She's hearing her dad yelling and before she could even make it out of her bedroom

There was Charlie Standing in her doorway. He had something in his hand But in that moment Angela couldn't even put together what he was holding or what was happening It all just seemed so unreal and as she's explaining all of this to police nearly 33 years later She explains that some of it's fuzzy some of it. She doesn't remember. She's blocked from her memory But she remembers Charlie pointing the gun right at her and then hearing a Click as he pulled the trigger The gun wouldn't fire and she doesn't know exactly how but the next thing she remembers is her and Charlie

entangled in a physical altercation and she kicks the gun away They're wrestling and she assumes that she got hit like by a few good blows because later She'd be bruised and bloody and as they're fighting she kept saying to him Charlie. I love you. What are you doing? I love you then all of a sudden Angie said that she was looking Charlie right in the eyes and he had this like Glazed and crazed look that all of a sudden just like disappeared like he snapped out of something and He asked her what did I do and

You know Angie says I don't know like I think you shot our parents, but I need to go check like get off me get off me Both children at this point are freaking out Charlie because of what he had just done and Angie because she is terrified To her core of her own brother He kept asking like what they were going to do and Angie kept saying she didn't know but she knew she had to be calm She couldn't risk him being afraid of her so she starts thinking on her feet and making Charlie think that she's like on his side And she's gonna take care of them and their sisters and she starts to head down the stairs And she's telling Charlie that they should leave but they have to take their sisters with them So she tells him you go upstairs get me some blankets for the girls like it's winter out

They need to be bundled up so he starts walking back up the stairs But he's walking backwards and the whole time he's asking Angie You're not gonna leave me are you like promise me you won't leave me and Of course, she says no all the while Knowing as soon as he's far enough away She was gonna make a run for it as Charlie got higher and higher on the staircase still looking at her She bolted for the front door and she runs out running through the snow in her bloodied nightgown barefoot Screaming for anyone to save her from her brother

She ran to one of the neighbor's houses and pounded on the door But before anyone could even come she saw her brother closing in behind her She could hear him yelling Angie you promise you promise you wouldn't leave me Those would be words that she would hear in the back of her mind for the rest of her life Angie ended up running to another neighbor's but Charlie went right up to the first door that Angela was at He knocked again softer than his sister had and a young girl opened the door Charlie stood there in the cold and just calmly said I shot my parents Police and paramedics were called to the scene and lifesaving measures were performed

Charlie's dad actually ended up surviving the incident But his mother and her unborn child didn't even have a fighting chance Both she and her unborn baby died in the tub that January night and no one could figure out why So fast forward to 2004 Suddenly police had kind of a motive not a great one But this story that Angela told them at least provided That there was like some kind of darkness that existed within Charlie something that had been there all along But maybe now just resurfaced the common thread here is women, right? Maybe yeah

I mean dad only got one shot mom got a whole gun unloaded on her practically And then what he did to Michelle cutting off her breasts and there's underwear everywhere Yeah, and so people have theorized this before that he had some kind of hatred for women, but Here's the crazy part like I agree with everything you said this it's This all seems like he is targeting women specifically as far as I know they've never connected him to a male victim But the weird part for me is everyone who knew Charlie said that not only did he and his mom have a good relationship But he was what everyone called a mama's boy, which makes this so much more shocking I think like I personally know a mama's boy

we have a mama's boy who edits this podcast and don't you dare take that out David and I Do I think it would make it all the more shocking to find out that someone who was so close to their mother and who would be Described as a mama's boy would do something like this right like I think everyone would have expected You know kind of a bad kid or maybe an anti-social kid a kid who gets into a lot of trouble Maybe is involved in drugs, but not a mama's boy Yeah, like you said like not someone who's good in school who gets along well with people and I think you want to believe You can see something like this coming

But it sounds like you couldn't right and that's what made this so terrifying to a small Indiana community back in 1971 I'm sure parents started locking their own bedroom doors at night or even looking at their kids a little differently like What are they capable of and how do you try and help them when there are apparently? No warning signs. Yeah, and I guess that's what I'm struggling to believe like there had to be something right? I think everyone wanted to believe that because to believe that some people are just born bad apples is terrifying Charlie underwent three separate psychological evaluations each time the professional was looking for some Underlined signs of like a specific mental illness that could explain away his behavior or at least explain what contributed to it

But each of them reported that Charlie seemed like a normal boy who just snapped for no apparent reason Now according to some online sources, he was too young to be charged with murder under Indiana law Wait, we have a law like that. I don't know what the laws were in 71 I know that now laws are not structured that way at all And I couldn't find somebody who like specialized in old Indiana laws But I have to assume there was some issue with charging him because he never went to prison instead He was sent to a psychiatric hospital After a year in the hospital

it's my understanding that his dad actually fought to get him released and I'm not sure why like as a parent feel Free to weigh in here because in my mind I'm like you stay there as long as you need like I'm gonna wait for the professionals to tell me when you can come home Without trying to shoot me again Yeah, that seems a lot safer Honestly, I don't know if I would miss my kid enough to be like, yeah, you can just come home and be dangerous Like it would be scary right like I have to assume there is like this bond like you want to protect your child I get that and you feel like you know protecting them is getting them the help they need exactly like to me

I would want to get to the root of why this happened. Otherwise, I'd be so afraid of something like this happening again But clearly there was a reason his dad wasn't worried. Maybe it was just his parental instinct Maybe there is more to this story that the public will never be privy to who knows When he is released Charlie's dad moves the entire family to Florida Now there isn't a lot known about Charlie's life as a child in Florida, but here's what I can piece together I think he had some grandparents who lived down there. So his dad probably moved to get some help I mean after all he's alone now with four kids But also I can imagine you'd like you'd want to start over in a new city

Fort Wayne isn't a super small town as far as Indiana goes, but I'm sure Everyone knew the story of what happened in 71 So if Charlie did have any real chance of growing up normal, it would be hard to do there So they moved to Florida and within a year his dad remarries and here's what I don't get His dad moves the family back to Indiana But leaves Charlie behind with his grandparents and I for the life of me can't figure out Why I can guess until I'm blue in the face and I think I have some pretty good guesses But no one has ever reported why he stayed and many stories on the case just kind of like gloss over it

But to me this is a huge deal and maybe one of the biggest keys in the case Like was there something still there that anyone could have seen right and I know we aren't gonna go down this rabbit hole The listeners can speculate for themselves But I do want to bring up one thought Couldn't have been that his siblings didn't feel safe around him Hmm, like I get as a parent you still feel the need to protect them and all that but I would imagine his sisters would still be Super confused and scared especially Angela. Yeah, well, so here's the thing Angela obviously knew because she was 15 when it happened Charlie like actually tried to kill her

But the other two younger sisters who were like I said like three and two when their mother was killed No one ever told them what really happened They were told that their mother died in a car accident or something like that And they lived their entire lives until 2004 having no idea what their brother had done or the truth about their mother's death Oh my god, but they weren't the only ones almost no one spoke of the incident after it happened It was like this dark stain on the family's past and they wanted to just move on They wanted Charlie to live a normal life and it really seems like that's what was happening Charlie for a long time Was proof to everyone that children shouldn't be punished like adults because they aren't fully developed and you know

There really is so much room for change But in 2004 when Charlie committed that horrible act against his niece and his wife Everyone questioned if the opposite was true like he had clearly never changed and he was still just as evil It seemed as he was back then But while the public went back and forth trying to decide if like once evil is always evil And if you suppress it long enough will whatever it is eventually explode out of you Police had a different question. They didn't think Charlie had been suppressing his evil for 33 years This 2004 crime was too perfect

It was too neat and Michelle was killed and mutilated with such precision that to police officers The real question was how many victims did Charlie have over the 33 years that he was pretending to be normal? The more they looked at Charlie's life from his teens into his 40s The more they heard disturbing stories like no one person had all of the facts But pieced together from everyone in his life a very disturbing picture began to emerge His sister Angie told police that even though the family forgave him and she really did love him There was always an instinctual part of her that was scared of him She wouldn't visit him down in the keys and if he ever came to stay with her

She would sleep with her door locked and barricaded shut and she didn't want him around her kids Now other people in Charlie's life his co-workers talked about how Charlie would talk about his niece at work sometimes Not calling her by name, but instead calling her by a nickname. He gave her He called her Victoria's secret the same brand of underwear that he threw around her room the night She was killed and the same brand of magazine that Charlie had owned a subscription to and also just not an appropriate nickname for your niece None of it is and people said at work that he would talk about her and like he almost had this obsession with her He would talk about the men she dated like no one was good enough for her and again I don't know why no one said anything at the time, but they're only seeing one piece

So in addition to this unusual taste in magazines There was also other things found in Charlie's home that were like odd to say the least He had anatomy books in the house although neither Charlie or Terry ever worked in the medical profession and Weirdest of all on the back of their bedroom door There was this poster and like I used to have posters on the back of my door, but when I was 12 so The poster on the back of their door is of the full anatomy of a woman And it is the creepiest thing ever because when I heard this for the first time I imagined like a skeletal picture

Pretty like formless figure or whatever. Yeah, but oh no when I saw the picture I got full-body chills. It is a woman cut in half One half shows the skeletal system the other half shows the muscular system But she has like a full head of hair done up into a bun It is so so creepy made only creepier by his internet search history Which included searches for autopsy photos snuff films Necrophilia sites like listen, I'm not saying you should always check your husband's search history But this case makes me want to

Another person who had a piece of the puzzle but again not the whole thing was Charlie's best friend Jim Now Jim was actually married to Angie at one time, which is how he and Charlie met But the two became fast friends now I will say Jim was one of the few people who did know about Charlie's past Angie had told him before getting married She thought it was an important piece of family history, which like hi, I agree good to know But fast forward some years later Angie ends up leaving Jim So Jim takes sanctuary at his best friend's house down in the keys and they're like drinking they're gonna smoke They're gonna fish they're gonna just like be mad. It's what you do after a breakup and listen

I know that like no one is thinking or talking a hundred percent rationally in these instances I get that like we all say things we don't mean when we're hurt and even as a friend We're saying things to like support the ones that are hurting. Oh, yeah, but you tell me if you think this is normal So this is like day two of him coming down there and they're on this fishing boat and Jim's just like mad And he's talking about how he wants to get revenge and Charlie tells him well, you know what the perfect revenge is Jim You kill somebody and then you cut their heart out and you eat it that Seems drastic right. It's not normal. It's not like you go out and find someone hotter Yeah, and like make out with them or like go like take all the shots like no

But I think it's extra disturbing because the person he's talking about is his own sister like yeah You would think he even though he's like his best friend's hurting. He would have some like shred of love for her But to talk about cutting her heart out and eating it like are you kidding me and Jim knew about his past, right? Yes red flags Everywhere you would think that right but as far as Jim knew Charlie hadn't done a thing wrong in years and years and years Maybe he was just talking and so Jim writes it off But years later Jim hears another story straight from Terry that he shouldn't have written off

Because Terry was close to discovering who her husband really was According to Jim Terry pulled him aside one day and said she was thinking about calling the sheriff on Charlie She said that she had come home early from work one day and Charlie was in their fish-gutting room Which was just like the small utility room off their house when she opened the door Charlie was covered in blood and there was blood all over the sink and Jim's trying to calm Terry down and he's like yeah, I get it. But like that's the fish cleaning room That's actually normal. There's always blood in there and Terry says yeah, I know that but there were no fish Anywhere to be seen and Jim keeps trying to make excuses for his best friend, but Terry cuts him off

She's like no listen to me There was a girl that was murdered not too far from us the same time They found her mutilated body in a rowboat and I'm worried he might have done it What should I do and like I get wanting to defend your best friend? But Ashley if Eric came to me and was like Listen Ashley is into something dark found her with a ton of blood as much as I'd want to defend you He's your husband. I'm gonna take his word for it. Well to me. That's the crazy part I was gonna ask you what you would do if like that scenario presented itself

And I think I would say like better safe than sorry again, especially knowing this weird Background that Charlie has yeah, but Jim is like steadfast and instead he kind of like veers Terry the other way He warns her, you know, if you call them like this is marriage ending It's all over and you just need to think about that before you call police Maybe that's true. Like I don't know if you can come back from your spouse thinking you're a murderer, but Again, it's worth the phone call. Okay. So when they had this conversation Did anyone bring up the fact that he had murdered his mother? So They didn't like again, we know Jim definitely knew Angie had told him

But he never talked about it with Charlie or with anyone else for the full 33 years like since the incident Charlie had actually met Terry through Jim and the woman he was dating at the time and when Charlie told him that he wanted to propose to Terry Jim said listen, have you told her about the thing and And Charlie says no, no, I don't want to and Jim says you have to tell her man Like yeah, if you don't tell her I will so Charlie just says like, okay, okay fine I'll tell her but then poof surprise wedding. No one from the family is invited No, and then Jim just never brings it up again Now he said that he like always implied that she knew because one time he'd asked him about having kids and she's like well

Considering everything. I don't think we will or I don't think it'd be a good idea or whatever and he took that to mean like Considering the thing right, but like if someone asked me are you and Eric and I have kids I'd be like right now considering everything I eat like considering. I have to research and write six episodes considering I'm going on tour considering. I'm running a business considering what like considering all that like no We're not really good time right now. It could have to me It could have meant anything and Terry's family swears up and down that she had absolutely no idea whatsoever They said there would have been no way for her to keep that a secret and more over Like she wouldn't have been with him

They say if she knew he was capable of something like that now the family and sometimes Investigators point to her journal as proof. She kept this little like daily log. It wasn't the kind of journal You're probably thinking where she like details each day. It was more like a planner Was she just jotted down significant notes like had a nice dinner with Charlie went out fishing or you know One of them was marked weird day So there was nothing in there about finding out big news However, I do think she had to have had some deep concerns about Charlie Aside from the incident where she wanted to call the sheriff on him

She also made a couple little notes in that daily planner like Charlie stayed out all night. Charlie got home at 3 a.m. stuff like that But no one person other than Jim suggested that Terry could have known anything about Charlie's past They think she was totally surprised by his actions that night And I wonder if maybe in those few fleeting and final moments She didn't realize that her darkest suspicions about her husband were right all along because they were After Charlie took the life of his niece and his wife and then took his own life in 2004

Police opened up a large-scale Investigation they were sure this had to have happened before It was reported by some media outlets that they were looking at up to 26 cases with similar mo's where like the victim had been Decapitated and or had organs removed because I guess In the world of serial killers from the research I've done one or the other isn't Super rare when you're talking about depraved killers, but to have both of those is and I imagine though that when they're looking at his mo I would hope that they expanded out a little bit further of that because I think what we we all know is that Killers don't tend to just start there like their first one isn't a decapitation and mutilation

They usually build up in their crimes getting more and more depraved Though this group of investigators got together over a decade ago to link other crimes to Charlie No official list has been created of his victims except for they do conclusively say that he has more and There are two victims who have been conclusively linked to him But beyond that like there is no large list No one has ever like laid out all 26 people that they're looking at now One of the victims that is believed to have been his was Sherry Parish show She was found decapitated and her heart had been removed

And she is actually the one who was found in that rowboat beneath the bridge near Charlie's house the one that Terry had heard About and saw him with the blood that was back in 1989 and back in 1989 this was an MO like they'd never seen before in the area It was terrifying and all they had was a composite sketch of a man who was seen running across like US Route 1 Near where she was discovered and I've got a picture of the sketch on our website It actually looks a lot like Charlie and they can tell From her boat that her boat was used like a cutting table for whoever killed her but again back then they had no Idea who that would have been

Okay, so I'm bad at math, but that's like 15 years before Michelle and Terry and Almost two decades after his mom. Is there really nothing else? Well Right, so police are confident that they can link him to a 1995 murder as well There was a woman named Darlene Toler in Miami Who was found wrapped in a blanket and then wrapped in a tarp off the highway and when they unwrapped her body They found that her head and her heart were missing as well Did they ever find the heart and head for my understanding? No, and it kind of makes me wonder This this might be really gruesome

But if he was eating them that's because that's what he told Jim to do for revenge But that's never been confirmed and it's also kind of contradicted to me by the fact that he didn't do anything with Michelle's organs Like he just left them around her body even though he would have had ample opportunity to fulfill whatever fantasy he had but I think law enforcement are confident enough to connect him to this specific case of Darlene because of what was found in his Vehicle on Darlene's body police found dog hairs similar to dog hairs that were found in Charlie's car But Charlie and Terry didn't have a dog They had a cat and my understanding is that Charlie had actually helped out a friend at this time taking her dog to the vet and Early on it was believed that those were like the same dog hairs and eventually DNA testing was done that

Confirmed it so there was no way this victim would have had hair from one of Charlie's friend's dog Unless she was somehow in his truck the same truck that the dog had been in and additionally Charlie kept meticulous Milelogs for his travels and on the day that Darlene went missing He had an extra hundred mile trip that couldn't be explained and here's just a weird side note about the friend with the dog Like I said earlier everyone saw this normal guy and each person only got maybe one or two Glimpses into the real Charlie about 12 years before the murder Charlie wrote her like a three-page love letter and She said listen that this can't be like I love you like a brother

I love Terry like a sister, but like nothing's gonna happen between us And she said after that like she didn't like to see him But after that for the longest time she would have dreams about Charlie chasing her and trying to kill her and This is like the guttural instinct I think we all have like even if it's just our subconscious that comes through deep down if we listen to ourselves We know when something isn't right now there was a book written about Charlie Brant called the invisible killer the monster behind the mask and in this book the Author theorized that Charlie was also responsible for two more murders and I'll tell you about them

But I want to be very clear that they have not been connected to Charlie by law enforcement And at least in the first case the family was actually upset that the author just like lumped them all together So while they might have been some of the initial 26 that police looked into no one has said that You know Charlie is the perpetrator of the crime for sure The first one is Carol Sullivan and she went missing and 1978 She was just 12 about to turn 13 and it's devastating because this was the very first day That she was gonna walk to the school bus on her own like she was about to turn 13. She told her mom like I'm old enough She went missing and later her skull would be found in a paint can and the reason this comes up

And she's connected to Charlie is because of the decapitation and because Charlie did live in the area that she went missing from Now the other victim that he was linked to was a woman named Lisa Saunders who at age 20 in 1988 ten years after Carol Sullivan was killed was found nude and Lifeless on the side of the road in some bushes in an area named no-name key Vultures were actually what alerted authorities to the body and according to the Miami Herald. She was missing her heart brain eyes Neck muscles appendix colon vagina left fallopian tube ovaries bladder

thyroid gland and parts of her lung Now she had marks on her body indicating that her killer tied her to the back of a car as well and Drug her about a half a mile before dumping her body The pathologist couldn't say whether the organs were removed by a person or by the vultures So this might not fit the MO at all or if maybe the cuts were crude and could be mistaken for vulture marks Maybe this is just the early signs of what was to come like if this is truly connected Maybe his methods were just more crude and he wasn't as well-practiced But here's the thing like I said those have never been conclusively linked to Charlie

He died in 2004 and in 2015 there are still articles about Lisa offering a crime stoppers reward So this case is far from being considered closed Not much else has been released about the 26 deaths that were investigated in connection to Charlie Or if any could be officially closed without him here to talk about them in the book that I mentioned There is a big section where they kind of line up Terry's Daily journal entries with Suspected victims and it is really interesting there are times where either she's out of town or she's like, you know Charlie's acting really weird. He's been really funny these last couple of days that kind of line up well

But we know, you know, that's not proof of necessarily anything I do think there were a lot of women who suffered at the hands of Charlie between the time He was 13 and when he died in his 40s women here in the US Maybe women in the Bahamas where he lived for a short time But we will likely never know a true number and will likely never know why like was Charlie Brant Just born evil or did something happen? I think Very few people hold a real answer to that one of those people is Rob Hemmert who was the lead investigator on Michelle and Terry's case in 2006 Charlie's mental health records were released to him and he said that the records helped him understand

Why Charlie committed his crimes and in the same book that I referenced earlier It said that Charlie's mother nagged him and growing up his father who grew up in Germany during Hitler's regime was overly strict But I could that really be what made him that way the rest of us are just left to speculate if you guys want to see pictures from this case like the sketch or that really weird anatomy poster You guys can go to our website crime junkie podcast.com and be sure to follow us on social at crime junkie pod on Twitter And at crime junkie podcast on Instagram on the Instagram We will be back next week with a brand new episode

Crime junkie is an audio Chuck production. So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?