Sword and Scale Nightmares - Such Drama

Episode Date: November 23, 2023

When a promising young actress is raped and murdered in her childhood bedroom, her family and the police department are stunned as to who could have done this. Two linking crimes eventually lead to the same unassuming suspect.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5863198/advertisement

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It was July 12, 2013, and Melissa Richards had decided to take her dog Remi for a walk in the Richfield Nature Park near her home in Wisconsin. This was a remote park, but it was beautiful. And on this breezy summer day, it was the perfect place to let her dog run around and be free for a while. When Melissa pulled up to the park's entrance, she only noticed one other vehicle, a blue minivan. She could see a person inside, the young man's face was turned toward the passenger door, and he had his legs kicked up and dangling out the window. Melissa shrugged it off and just figured he was there for the same reason she was. Privacy and a little bit of mother nature. Melissa entered Dog Remi, Rome, the grassy park for about half an hour,

basking in the sunlight and the sweet summer smells. But it was super hot out that day and her dog needed some water. So Melissa decides to head back to the car. As she walks the rocky path back towards her car, she notices that guy from the Blue Minivan.

This time his eyes are locked on her. Melissa continues toward her vehicle, then she senses something behind her. That eerie feeling of a strange body getting too close. She hears footsteps shuffling in the gravel. She whips her head around and the man is at her heels. Oh, you scared me, she says. He's tall and slender with pale skin and dark, thick rimmed glasses. Melissa gasps. He's getting closer. Then, she notices

the knife. He's gripping the weapon so tight his knuckles are white. He lunges at Melissa in one swift motion, knocking her flat on the ground stomach first. She starts to kick and scream using every muscle in her body to fight under the weight of his. Melissa throws her arms and elbows into the air like she's seen women do in movies, and on TV is this how I'm going to die, she thinks to herself. But Melissa is determined to live longer than this sunny July day. She summons a new strength and flails like a fish out of water, managing to grab the man's knife.

As her fingers snap around the blade, blood springs from her hand, but she doesn't notice. They wrestle over the knife, but Melissa doesn't let go. She's determined to survive. The man freezes, he shoots up from the ground. Now Melissa is in control. She has his only weapon. Melissa screams like a warrior and the man backs away. Then he looks at her.

His face is desperate and defeated. The air is still. Can I just go? He whispers. No, she sputters. But before Melissa can even comprehend what he's saying, her why this is happening, the man turns and sprints towards his van. Melissa drops to the ground and sobs.

She takes note of his vehicle, his body, and his face. She's making a list in her brain. She can barely breathe. She can't believe what just happened. And she can't believe that she's still alive. Welcome to Sword and Scale Nightmares nightmares true crime for bedtime When nightmare begins now Business notifications getting out of hand buried under an avalanche of customer emails texts and social media messages Keep your edge Thrive Small Business Software and never miss a message again. Thrive offers one solution to communicate, market, and run your business, but simply small businesses run better on Thrive.

Get Command Center for free today at Thrive.ca. That's THRYV.ca. Terms and conditions apply free plans have limited functionality. That same July of 2013, in the small town of Hartford, Wisconsin, 19-year-old Jesse Blodgett was in the prime of her youth. Jesse was the kind of girl who was born to be on stage. She was charismatic, bubbly, and constantly singing. Jesse would break into song mid-sentence, or just get so lost in her head that she'd often stop whatever she was doing to sit down at a piano and work out a new song.

Jesse had even started her own business teaching violin and piano to local kids. In only two months, she'd garnered an impressive roster of 26 students. On the night of July 14, 2013, she was writing high. Jessie had just wrapped up starring in a local production of The Fiddler on the Roof, and the show was a huge success. It was the night of the big cast party that Jessie strolled into her family's quaint, brick house after the event. Her mother Joy was waiting for her, like she

always did. But Joy noticed that Jessie wasn't her happy self when she returned home, and she asked her daughter what was wrong. Jessie explained that it wasn't a big deal. There were some older guys practically her father's age from the play who were hitting on her at the party. It just made her feel gross. But she'd get over it. The two hugged good night and retired to their bedrooms. But in the safety of her room, Jesse penned a note in her diary. I think certain men are taking what should be platonic

love and perverting it into a competition," she wrote. I am not helpless. I will recognize the problems and confront them without fear. It was a typical teenage girl entry, melodramatic, yet vague. Little teenage girl entry, mellow dramatic, yet vague. Jesse was wrestling with the same things most 19 year old females did. The change from going from a girl to a woman, and then the unwanted attention that often comes with that. The next morning, Buck and Joy woke up early to go to work. Jesse was still asleep in her room, so they didn't want to bother her.

This was her university summer vacation, and she didn't have anything scheduled, except for a private music lesson that afternoon. Plus, the play had just ended. They figured their teenage daughter could use a good sleep in. They figured their teenage daughter could use a good sleep in. So Joy dropped a basket of laundry in her room and crept away from her peacefully sleeping daughter. Joy returned around noon for lunch and noticed that Jessie still hadn't come out of her room. She gingerly called her daughter's name.

No answer. Maybe she was still resting. Half an hour later, Jessie's student arrived for her scheduled lesson. Joy walked down to the hallway to her daughter's room. Jessie, she called again. What's going on? This wasn't like Jessie. Joy had a maternal instinct.

That sick feeling that something was wrong. She opened the door. Joy nearly felt her knees when she saw her daughter. Jesse was laying on her bed, face up, and wet. Her cheeks were turning blue against her strawberry blonde hair. Jesse was cold and limp. Joy frantically searched her daughter's body for answers. She grabbed her and shook her. Then she noticed the red marks around her neck. There were similar marks on her wrists. She ran for her cell phone and called 911.

By the time the police and paramedics arrived, Joy had dragged Jesse onto the floor and was desperately attempting CPR. She sobbed and pumped her daughter's chest silently praying that she would come back somehow through some miracle. But it was too late. Jesse was gone. Customers are rushing to your store. Do you have a point of sale system you can trust or is it a real POS if you know what I mean? You need Shopify for retail. Did you know Shopify powers selling in person, too? Shopify POS is your command center for your retail store.

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All over case in no spaces. Shopify.com slash sword and scale. Business notifications getting out of hand, buried under an avalanche of customer emails, texts, and social media messages, keep your edge with thrive small business software and never miss a message again. Thrive offers one solution to communicate miss a message again, Thrive offers

one solution to communicate, market, and run your business. But simply, small businesses run better on Thrive. Get Command Center for free today at thrive.ca. That's THR-Y-V dot CA. Terms and conditions apply, free plans have limited functionality. Business notifications getting out of hand, buried under an avalanche of customer emails, texts, and social media messages? Keep your edge with Thrive Small Business Off-Dware and never miss a message again.

Thrive offers one solution to communicate, market, and run your business. But simply, small businesses run better on Thrive. Get Command Center for free today at Thrive.ca. That's THR-Y-V dot CA. Terms and conditions apply free plans have limited functionality. Jesse Blodgett had been strangled to death in her bedroom, after a casting party for a local play, she was it. It all made very little sense. Jesse had no enemies. There were no signs of forced entry into the home.

Her parents heard nothing suspicious the night she died. It was unbelievable. Buck and Joy were destroyed. They had lost their only daughter in the safety of their own home. As the news of her murder traveled around their small community, Jesse's parents watched their home turn into a crime scene. Buck couldn't believe what had happened to his child. And when he arrived home, he thundered past the yellow police tape and wrapped his arms around his sobbing wife. Buck tried to rattle off a list of suspects in his head, but he was drawing a blank.

There was no one. The only thing he could think of was some tree trimmers he had hired a few weeks prior. Maybe they had snuck a glance at Jesse in her window. The police were equally as stunned as to who did this, but one thing was clear. This was a targeted attack. Whoever did this to Jesse knew her well. They had a plan and they carefully executed it with precision and care. It was later determined that Jesse had been raped before she was strangled. Medical examiners found more ligature marks around her ankles. It was clear that she'd been tied up and contorted for the sexual assault, and slowly, quietly strangled. The Hartford police found out about Jesse's talk with her mom the night before.

They saw the diary entry and decided to check up on the guy who had hit on her at the cast party. Everyone from the play had witnessed his inappropriate advances on Jesse. He kept flirting with her, telling dirty jokes, and at one point even forcefully pulled her to sit on his lap. She recoiled. But he was soon ruled out. Being a creep doesn't make you a killer, and this creep had an alibi. Then there was that guy at the restaurant, Jesse worked at.

He was always hitting on Jesse in weird ways. He'd find excuses to touch her and corner her while they cleaned silverware so their bodies would rub together. But he was out of the country on the night of Jesse's death. This story really reminds me that men truly are pigs. Either way, there was no way any of these men could be involved. Police even looked into the tree trimmers that bucket hired. Nothing. Meanwhile, in the next town over, police were working on a similar investigation that had a possible link to Jesse's death. That girl, Melissa Richards, who had been attacked

at the dog park, had called police after the suspect fled. She had memorized every detail about her attacker. He was six, two, slender, about 210 pounds, had sandy blonde hair and was driving a blue Dodge minivan. The guy hadn't stolen anything from her, he didn't demand money or try to take her car, all he did was attack her. If she hadn't wrestled the knife away, maybe she would have met the same fate as Jesse. It was a stretch that the two incidents were related, but then the

police got a small break. A deputy who often patrolled the park molissa had been attacked in remembered that same blue Dodge minivan. The officer recalled how he had seen that exact vehicle a few weeks prior. The van was parked in the same spot in the same way. He wasn't sure why, but this officer just had a weird feeling about the van. So he ran the plates at the time, but no red flags came up. Now in light of this random attack he was curious. So the officer combed through his recent searches until he found the van. It was registered to a middle-aged couple, Laura and Melvin Bartelt. Melvin was too old to be the guy who attacked Melissa, but he did have a 19 year old son named Dan.

He was an exact match for the description of Melissa's attacker. When the police called Dan on his cell phone, he was flustered. They asked him to come down to the station, but Dan hesitated. He was busy at the moment attending a vigil for his ex-girlfriend, Jesse, Blodgett. What? What, what, what, what, what? The police were stunned. Had they actually heard him right?

A short 15 minutes later, Dan showed up at the station. He was quiet and gangly with a messy head of blonde hair. He sat down and immediately detectives noticed a road rash on his leg, a series of cuts on his hand and bruises on his knees. Wonder how those got there. knees. Wonder how those got there. Dan blamed it all on work, but as the interview went on, a few details decided to slip out. Dan admitted that he actually didn't have a job anymore. Some mornings he'd drive his parents' van to the park and just sit there reading or writing, so his family wouldn't know what was really going on. He described writing as his therapy. Things had been hard since he dropped out of college. He was doing a lot of introspective work. After all, he was an actor by trade.

Hollywood just had to find out about that little fact. He also loved playing music. Like most Thespians, he spent a lot of time in his own head. Maybe that's what attracted him to Jesse in the first place. They were two peas in a pod. Dan and Jesse had known each other since the eighth grade. It was originally dating one of her friends, but they soon broke up.

And then he got together with Jesse. Dan was also a theater kid. He also landed the lead in the school play. He was a straight A student, a talented guitarist, and an all-star kind of guy who came from a great family. He was handsome, likable, and eager to please. As the police pressed Dan, he began to break. He finally admitted that he had attacked Melissa at the park. He was there pretending

to be at work for his parents' sake, or maybe his own. But really he was drinking beer and reading Slaughter House 5. Then he spotted Melissa. He said he was scared. Life scared him, and he wanted to scare someone else. Hurt people, hurt people after all. He wanted to make Melissa feel the terror that he felt every day. The attack on Melissa was a spur of the moment decision, he said. He regretted it deeply. Dan began to sob, holding his bony hand over his face to conceal the fact that no tears were coming out. Oh, the drama. Buck and Joy Blodgett were in denial about Dan's involvement in this random attack, and the potential of him being their daughter's killer. They loved Dan. He came from a good family.

His parents were kind people. Boys like Dan didn't do things like that. But Dan was full of secrets, and the police were just beginning to uncover what was behind his nice boy mask. Sometimes letting go can be scary, but if it puts cash in your pocket, it can feel a whole lot better. Like when you decide to finally sell that diamond ring, you no longer wear, or the jewelry you inherited that just sits there in a box. Instead of getting low-balled by a jeweler, diamond buyer, trust worthy. Worthy is your selling partner with the expertise and resources to sell your jewelry for its true value.

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or more for a limited time. That's worthy.com slash let go. L-E-T-G-O. Or the dot com slash let go. Business notifications getting out of hand, buried under an avalanche of customer emails, texts, and social media messages? Keep your edge with Thrive Small Business software

and never miss a message again. Thrive offers one solution to communicate, market, and run your business. But simply, small businesses run better on Thrive. Get Command Center for free today at thrive.ca. That's THR-Y-V dot CA. Terms and conditions apply. Free plans have limited functionality.

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InterTape 698. I think that's how you say it, but I'm not an HVAC guy, so don't hold me to it. Anyway, some of this tape had female hairs stuck to it. This woven tape is designed with a strong adhesive that will withstand all types of weather and surfaces. In other words, if you aren't tied up with this tape, there's no way you're getting out. When they brought Dan in for his second interview, they pressed him about where he was on the morning of Jesse's murder.

Dan swore that he had nothing to do with Jesse's death. That morning he had done his pretend leaving for work routine at 6.30am, but then drove around in his parents' van aimlessly until he arrived at Woodlawn Union Park. He said he just sat there until noon reading and writing. Then he went home. Police let Dan go, but immediately executed a search of Woodlawn Union Park. First, they secured surveillance footage that showed Dan going in to the men's room at the park early on the morning of Jesse's murder. Inside the trash can, they found a Kellogg's frosted mini-weets box filled with ropes, wadded balls of electrical

tape, wrappers with red stains, and the exact inter-tape 698 found in Dan's room, which had been fashioned into a homemade gag ball. There was also a beach towel soaked with blood. All items came back positive for Jesse and Dan's DNA. Inside the blue Dodge minivan, police seized another Kellogg's mini-weets box, filled with similar ropes used to hard-tide Jesse, as well as Dan's computer. On the laptop they found, he had made searches about serial killers, and that Dan was working on a novel that mirrored his relationship with Jesse. He'd also written a short story about a man named Dee, who beats another man into a coma with a pillowcase of Legos.

But more importantly, it appeared that Dan had been obsessively watching a snuff porn that he used as an instruction video for Jesse's rape and murder. The police theorized that after Buck and Joy Blodgett left for work on July 15, 2013, Dan snuck through Jesse's unlocked back door with his backpack of tools. The homemade gag ball, the ropes, the Intertapes 698. He crept into his ex-girlfriend's room, He crept into his ex-girlfriend's room, careful not to breathe too loudly as he prepared to pounce. Just like he had attempted days prior at the park with Melissa, Dan Flung himself on top of Jesse, shoving the sticky ball gag into her mouth and wrapping her head with tape.

Jessie couldn't scream. She could barely move under the weight of Dan's six-two frame. Dan then stripped off her clothes, hogtied her ankles and wrists, then violently raped Jessie as she struggled in her single bed. When he was done, Dan twisted the rope around his friend's neck until her face turned red, violent, and then still. As Dan slowly released the rope, he watched the color drain from Jesse's cheeks and felt a rush of excitement and terror.

He had done it. Just like he had seen in his sick snuff porn, Dan used alcohol wipes to rid her body of his sweat and semen. Then he positioned her as if she were sleeping. He tried to wet her hair to wash away evidence, but soon gave up. Then he garnered his tools and vanished. Dan Bartelt was arrested and charged with the sexual assault and murder of Jesse Blodget. When it came time to face a courtroom, mainly Buck and Joy who had loved him like a son, Dan put on his best performance, swearing he had nothing to do with their daughter's death. I have a disgusting

and innate ability to lie to myself that I have exercised far too many times. He panned her to the court, but I refuse to hurt someone other than myself by doing that. Dan's voice was dripping in mellow drama, as he sniffed and sobbed his crocodile tears like a true fespian. Then he turned to Jesse's parents. Buck, Joy, I can't give you the reasons you are looking for. He said, you the reasons you are looking for." He said, "...there's no hiding from yourself in a tiny concrete cell. This jumpsuit that I'm wearing these shackles don't make me guilty. I know there's evidence that I can't refute that would make you believe that I am guilty." It was the role of a lifetime for Dan, the tortured, innocent, defendant fighting for his

life, like a John Grisham novel. Now common sense is not that common, but thankfully it's not that rare, either. Dan was given life in prison. He will spend the rest of his days eating horrible food and reciting monologues in his prison cell. Dan was a sick person, a twisted, charming narcissist who managed to work his craft so brilliantly that he fooled the world for 19 years into believing that he was a good person. There's a lot of those around. But his whole life was a performance. His friendships, his romances, his fake smiles and his interests. It was all just part of a character he was playing every waking moment of his life. Inside, he was a monster.

He had perverted desires, and he urged to execute them overwhelmed him until he couldn't keep up the charade any longer. Maybe he wasn't that great of an actor after all, just a cold-hearted sick killer to stupid to get away with the worst kind of crime imaginable. Now, he will pay eternally for robbing Jesse Blodgett of her life and all the love she had to offer the world. But Jesse did not die in vain. Thanks to her parents, her father Buck was not quiet about his daughter's tragic murder. He did a lot of press, talking about sexual violence against women and girls, which was a cause Jesse cared deeply about.

Then Buck started a foundation called the Love Hate Project to preserve his daughter's memory and help end violence against women. The organization has made a huge impact and continues to thrive today. Dan may have stolen Jesse's life, but the love surrounding her could never be taken, and will instead be used for something good. If you enjoyed the show, please consider joining plus at sword and scale.com slash plus. But if you can't, consider leaving us a positive review on your preferred listening platform, sweet dreams and good night.

Customers are rushing to your store. Do you have a point of sale system you can trust or is it a real POS if you know what I mean? You need Shopify for retail. Did you know Shopify powers selling in person too? Shopify POS is your command center for your retail store. From accepting payments to managing inventory, Shopify has everything you need to sell in person. With Shopify, you get a powerhouse selling partner that effortlessly unites your in-person and online sales into one source of truth. Track every sale across your business in one place and know exactly what's in stock. Connect with customers in-line and online. Shopify helps you drive store traffic with plug-and-play tools built for marketing campaigns from

TikTok to Instagram and beyond. Get hardware that fits your business. Take payments by smartphone, transform your tablet into a point of sale system or use Shopify's POS Go mobile device for a battle-tested solution. Plus Shopify's award-winning help is there to support your success every step of the way. Do retail right with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 a month trial period at shopify.com slash sword and scale. All lower case.

Go to shopify.com slash sword and scale to take your retail business to the next level today. Shopify.com slash sword and scale. All over case and no spaces. Shopify.com slash sword and scale. Sometimes letting go can be scary. But if it puts cash in your pocket, it can feel a whole lot better. Like when you decide to finally sell that diamond ring, you no longer wear. Or the jewelry you inherited that just sits there in a box. Instead of getting low-balled by a jeweler or diamond buyer, trust worthy. Worthy is your selling partner with the expertise and resources to sell your jewelry for its true

value. No guessing games, no stress. Worthy is the safest, fastest way to sell jewelry with zero risk, and you're in complete control. Ship securely, pick your price, and only accept the offer you want all in about two to three weeks. And since they make more when you make more, you know they're on your side. Selling your valuables with worthy isn't easy decision that should get you big dollars.

See why over 60,000 people have sold over $200 million worth of jewelry with worthy. Go to worthy.com slash let go and get an extra $100 when you sell your items for $1,500 Worthy.