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Lishkin.

2:19

It was July 12, 2013, and

2:23

Melissa Richards had decided to take her dog,

2:25

Remy, for a walk in the Richfield

2:27

Nature Park near her home

2:30

in Wisconsin. This

2:32

was a remote park, but it

2:34

was beautiful. And on this

2:36

breezy summer day, it was the perfect

2:38

place to let her dog run around and be

2:41

free for a while. When

2:44

Melissa pulled up to the park's entrance,

2:46

she only noticed one other vehicle,

2:48

a blue minivan.

2:51

She could see a person inside. The

2:54

young man's face was turned

2:56

toward the passenger door, and

2:59

he had his legs kicked up and dangling

3:01

out the window. Melissa

3:04

shrugged it off and just figured he was there

3:06

for the same reason she was, privacy

3:10

and a little bit of Mother Nature. Melissa

3:13

and her dog, Remy, roamed the grassy

3:15

park for about half an hour, basking

3:18

in the sunlight and the sweet summer

3:20

smells.

3:22

But

3:23

it was super hot out that day, and her

3:25

dog needed some water. So

3:27

Melissa decides to head back to the car.

3:31

As she walks the rocky path back

3:33

towards her car, she notices

3:35

that guy from the blue

3:37

minivan. This time,

3:39

his eyes are locked

3:42

on her. Melissa continues

3:44

toward her vehicle. Then

3:46

she senses something behind

3:48

her. That eerie feeling

3:51

of a strange body getting

3:53

too close. She

3:56

hears footsteps shuffling in the gravel.

4:00

She whips her head around and the

4:02

man is at her heels. Oh,

4:06

you scared me, she says. He's

4:09

tall and slender, with pale

4:11

skin and dark, thick-rimmed

4:13

glasses. Melissa

4:15

gasps. He's getting

4:17

closer. Then

4:21

she notices the knife. He's

4:23

gripping the weapon so tight his knuckles

4:26

are white. He lunges

4:28

at Melissa in one swift motion,

4:31

knocking her flat on the ground, stomach

4:34

first. She starts to kick

4:36

and scream using every muscle in her

4:38

body to fight under

4:41

the weight of his. Melissa

4:43

throws her arms and elbows into the air like

4:46

she's seen women do in movies and

4:49

on TV. Is this

4:51

how I'm going to die?

4:53

She thinks to herself.

4:55

But Melissa is determined to

4:57

live longer than this sunny

5:00

July day. She

5:02

summons a new strength and flails

5:05

like a fish out of water, managing

5:07

to grab the man's knife. As

5:10

her fingers snap around the blade,

5:13

blood springs from her hand,

5:15

but she doesn't notice. They

5:18

wrestle over the knife, but Melissa

5:20

doesn't let go. She's

5:23

determined to survive. The

5:26

man freezes. He shoots

5:28

up from the ground. Now

5:31

Melissa is in control.

5:34

She has his only weapon. Melissa

5:38

screams like a warrior and the man

5:41

backs away. Then

5:43

he looks at her. His

5:45

face is desperate and defeated.

5:48

The air is still. Can

5:52

I just go? He whispers.

5:55

No

5:56

she's spiders.

5:58

comprehend

6:00

what he's saying or why

6:02

this is happening. The man turns

6:05

and sprints towards his

6:07

van. Melissa drops

6:10

to the ground and sobs.

6:13

She takes note of his vehicle, his body,

6:16

and his face. She's

6:18

making a list in her brain. She

6:22

can barely breathe. She

6:24

can't believe what

6:26

just happened. She

6:29

can't believe that

6:31

she's still alive.

6:50

Welcome to Sword and Scale

6:53

Nightmares. True crime for

6:55

bedtime or nightmare

6:58

begins

6:58

now.

7:05

While many kids are making their holiday wish

7:07

lists, the patients at Nationwide Children's

7:09

Hospital are simply wishing they could

7:12

be home. But you have the power to make

7:14

their stay a little brighter. The moment

7:16

you make a donation, the butterflies on

7:18

the lawn at Nationwide Children's light up

7:21

for our patients to see. And that

7:23

gift brings joy, funds research,

7:25

and the world's finest care. Please,

7:28

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7:31

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7:33

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7:47

That same July of 2013 in

7:49

the small town of Hartford,

7:52

Wisconsin,

7:54

19-year-old Jessie Blodgett was

7:57

in the prime of her youth. kind

8:00

of girl who was born to be

8:02

on stage. She was

8:04

charismatic, bubbly, and constantly

8:07

singing. Jessie would break

8:09

into song mid-sentence or

8:12

just get so lost in her head that she'd

8:14

often stop whatever she was doing to

8:17

sit down at a piano and

8:19

work out a new song. Jessie

8:21

had even started her own business teaching

8:23

violin and piano to local kids.

8:27

In only two months, she'd garnered

8:29

an impressive roster of 26 students. On

8:33

the night of July 14, 2013, she

8:36

was riding high. Jessie

8:38

had just wrapped up starring in a local

8:40

production of The Fiddler on the Roof,

8:43

and the show was a huge success.

8:47

It was the night of the big cast party that

8:49

Jessie strolled into her family's

8:51

quaint brick house after

8:53

the event. Her mother

8:55

Joy was waiting for her like she always

8:58

did, but Joy noticed

9:00

that Jessie wasn't her happy self when

9:02

she returned home, and she

9:05

asked her daughter what was wrong. Jessie

9:08

explained that it wasn't a big deal. There

9:11

were some older guys practically

9:14

her father's age from the play

9:16

who were hitting on her at the party.

9:19

It just made her feel gross. But

9:22

she'd get over it. The two hugged

9:25

goodnight and retired to

9:27

their bedrooms.

9:28

But

9:29

in the safety of her room, Jessie

9:32

penned a note in her diary.

9:36

I think certain men are taking what should

9:38

be platonic love and perverting it into

9:40

a competition, she wrote.

9:43

I am not helpless. I will recognize

9:45

the problems and confront them

9:47

without fear.

9:49

It was a typical teenage girl entry.

9:53

Mellow dramatic yet vague. Jessie

9:56

was wrestling with the same things most 19

9:59

year old females.

9:59

instead.

10:01

The change from going from a girl

10:03

to a woman and then

10:05

the unwanted attention that often comes

10:08

with that. The next morning

10:10

Buck and Joy woke

10:12

up early to go to work. Jesse

10:15

was still asleep in her room so they

10:17

didn't want to bother her. This

10:20

was her university summer vacation and

10:22

she didn't have anything scheduled except for a

10:24

private music lesson that afternoon.

10:28

Plus the play had just ended.

10:31

They figured their teenage daughter could use a good

10:34

sleep in. So Joy

10:36

dropped a basket of laundry in her room

10:39

and crept away from her peacefully

10:41

sleeping daughter. Joy

10:43

returned around noon for lunch and noticed

10:46

that Jesse still hadn't

10:48

come out of her room. She

10:51

gingerly called her daughter's name. No

10:54

answer. Maybe she was

10:56

still resting.

10:58

Half an hour later

11:00

Jesse's student arrived for her scheduled

11:02

lesson. Joy walked

11:04

down to the hallway to her daughter's

11:07

room. Jesse,

11:09

she called again. What's going on?

11:12

This wasn't like Jesse. Joy

11:14

had a maternal instinct. That

11:17

sick feeling that something was wrong.

11:21

She opened the door.

11:23

Joy nearly fell to her

11:26

knees when she saw her daughter. Jesse

11:29

was laying on her bed, face

11:32

up and wet. Her

11:34

cheeks were turning blue against

11:37

her strawberry blonde hair. Jesse

11:40

was cold and limp. Joy

11:43

frantically searched her daughter's body for

11:46

answers. She grabbed her and

11:48

shook her. Then she noticed

11:50

the red marks around her neck.

11:54

There were similar marks on her wrists.

11:57

She ran for her cell phone and called

12:02

911. By the time the police and paramedics

12:04

arrived, Joy had dragged Jesse onto

12:07

the floor and was desperately

12:09

attempting CPR. She

12:12

sobbed and pumped her daughter's

12:14

chest,

12:16

silently praying that

12:18

she would come back somehow, through

12:20

some miracle.

12:23

But it was too late.

12:26

Jesse

12:29

was gone. So,

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14:09

Jessie Blodgett had been strangled

14:12

to death in her bedroom after

14:15

a casting party for a local play she

14:17

was in. It all made

14:20

very little sense. Jessie

14:23

had no enemies. There were

14:25

no signs of forced entry into

14:27

the home. Her parents

14:29

heard nothing suspicious the night she

14:31

died. It was unbelievable.

14:35

Buck and Joy were

14:37

destroyed. They had

14:39

lost their only daughter in the safety of

14:41

their own home. As

14:43

the news of her murder traveled

14:45

around their small community, Jessie's

14:49

parents watched their home turn into

14:51

a crime scene. Buck

14:53

couldn't believe what had happened to

14:56

his child. When

14:58

he arrived home, he thundered past the yellow

15:00

police tape and wrapped his

15:02

arms around his sobbing wife. Buck

15:05

tried to rattle off a list of suspects

15:08

in his head, but he was drawing

15:10

a blank. There was no one.

15:13

The only thing he could think of was some

15:15

tree trimmers he had hired a few weeks

15:17

prior. Maybe they had

15:20

snuck a glance at Jessie in

15:22

her window. The police

15:24

were equally as stunned as to who

15:26

did this, but one thing was

15:28

clear. This was a targeted

15:31

attack. Whoever did this

15:33

to Jessie knew her well. They

15:35

had a plan, and they carefully

15:38

executed it with precision and

15:40

care. It was later determined

15:42

that Jessie had been raped before

15:45

she was strangled. Medical

15:47

examiners found more ligature marks

15:50

around her ankles. It

15:52

was clear that she'd been tied

15:54

up and contorted for

15:56

the sexual assault, then

15:58

slowly quietly

15:59

quietly, strangled. The

16:03

Hartford Police found out

16:05

about Jessie's talk with her mom

16:07

the night before. They saw

16:10

the diary entry and decided to check

16:12

up on the guy who had hit

16:14

on her at the cast party. Everyone

16:17

from the play had witnessed his inappropriate

16:20

advances on Jessie. He

16:23

kept flirting with her, telling dirty

16:25

jokes, and at one point even

16:28

forcefully pulled her to

16:30

sit on his lap.

16:32

She recoiled.

16:34

But he was soon ruled

16:36

out. Being a creep

16:38

doesn't make you a killer, and this

16:41

creep had an alibi. Then

16:44

there was that guy at the restaurant

16:47

Jessie worked at. He

16:49

was always hitting on Jessie in weird

16:51

ways. We'd find excuses

16:54

to touch her and corner her while

16:56

they cleaned silverware so

16:59

their bodies would rub together. But

17:02

he was out of the country on

17:04

the night of Jessie's death. This

17:07

story really reminds me that men truly

17:09

are pigs. Either way,

17:12

there was no way any of these men could

17:14

be involved. Police

17:16

even looked into the tree trimmers that

17:18

Buck had hired.

17:20

Nothing.

17:22

Meanwhile, in the next town over, police

17:24

were working on a similar investigation

17:27

that had a possible link to Jessie's

17:29

death.

17:30

That girl,

17:32

Melissa Richards, who had been

17:34

attacked at the dog park, had

17:36

called police after the suspect fled.

17:40

She had memorized every detail about

17:42

her attacker. She was

17:44

6'2", slender, about 210

17:47

pounds, had sandy blonde

17:50

hair, and was driving a blue Dodge

17:52

minivan. The guy hadn't

17:54

stolen anything from her. He didn't

17:57

demand money or try to take her car.

18:00

All he did was attack her. If

18:03

she hadn't wrestled the knife away, maybe

18:05

she would have met the same fate as

18:08

Jesse. It was a

18:10

stretch that the two incidents were related,

18:12

but then the police got

18:14

a small break. A deputy

18:17

who often patrolled the park Melissa had been

18:19

attacked in

18:21

remembered

18:22

that same blue Dodge

18:24

minivan. The

18:26

officer recalled how he had seen

18:29

that exact vehicle a few weeks prior. The

18:33

van was parked in the same spot in

18:35

the same way. He wasn't

18:37

sure why, but this officer just had

18:40

a weird feeling about the van.

18:43

So he ran the plates at the time, but

18:45

no red flags came up. Now

18:48

in light of this random attack, he

18:50

was curious. So

18:53

the officer combed through his recent searches

18:55

until he found the van. It

18:58

was registered to a middle aged couple,

19:02

Laura and Melvin

19:04

Bartelt.

19:05

Melvin was too old to be

19:08

the guy who attacked Melissa, but

19:10

he did have a 19 year old son named

19:12

Dan. He was

19:15

an exact match

19:17

for the description of Melissa's attacker.

19:20

When the police called Dan on his cell phone, he

19:23

was flustered. They

19:25

asked him to come down to the station, but Dan

19:28

hesitated. He was busy at

19:30

the moment attending a vigil for

19:32

his ex girlfriend, Jesse

19:35

Blodgett. What?

19:37

What,

19:38

what, what, what, what, what?

19:41

The police were stunned.

19:43

Had they actually heard him

19:46

right?

19:47

A short 15 minutes later, Dan

19:50

showed up at the station. He

19:53

was quiet and gangly with

19:55

a messy head of blonde hair. He

19:58

sat down and immediately detected him.

21:41

But

22:00

really he was drinking beer and reading

22:03

Slaughterhouse-Five. Then

22:05

he spotted Melissa. He

22:08

said he was scared.

22:11

Life scared him.

22:13

And he wanted to scare someone

22:16

else. Hurt people

22:18

hurt people, after all. He

22:21

wanted to make Melissa feel the terror

22:23

that he

22:24

felt every day.

22:26

The attack on Melissa was a spur-of-the-moment

22:29

decision, he said. He

22:32

regretted it deeply. Dan

22:35

began to sob, holding his bony

22:37

hand over his face to conceal the fact

22:39

that no tears were coming out.

22:43

Oh, the drama. Buck

22:46

and Joy Blodgett were in denial

22:49

about Dan's involvement in this random

22:51

attack. And the potential

22:53

of him being their daughter's

22:56

killer. They loved

22:58

Dan. He came from a good

23:00

family. His parents

23:02

were kind people. Boys

23:05

like Dan didn't do things like

23:08

that.

23:09

But Dan was full

23:12

of secrets. And the police

23:15

were just beginning to uncover

23:18

what was behind his nice

23:20

boy mask.

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law it seems like terms and conditions when

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like the day

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after day in admitted to attacking

25:18

melissa research was conducted

25:21

of his home and as man

25:24

they found various types of rope zip

25:26

ties in a very specific brand

25:29

of h back tape called

25:32

inner tape six ninety eight i

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think that's how you say it but i'm not an h

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26:00

When they brought Dan in for his second

26:02

interview, they pressed him about

26:05

where he was on the morning of Jesse's murder.

26:09

Dan swore that he had nothing

26:11

to do with Jesse's death. That

26:14

morning he had done his pretend leaving

26:17

for work routine at 6.30am,

26:20

but then drove around in his parents van

26:22

aimlessly until he arrived

26:24

at Woodlawn Union Park.

26:28

He said he just sat there, until

26:30

noon reading and writing.

26:33

Then he went home.

26:35

Police

26:36

let Dan go, but immediately

26:38

executed a search of Woodlawn Union

26:41

Park. First, they secured

26:43

surveillance footage that showed Dan going

26:46

in to the men's room at

26:49

the park early on the morning of Jesse's

26:51

murder. Inside the trash

26:53

can, they found a Kellogg's

26:55

frosted mini wheat box filled

26:58

with ropes, wadded balls

27:01

of electrical tape, wrappers

27:03

with red stains, and the

27:06

exact inter-tape 698 found

27:10

in Dan's room, which had

27:12

been fashioned into a homemade

27:15

gag ball. There was

27:17

also a beach towel soaked with

27:19

blood. All items

27:21

came back positive for Jesse and

27:24

Dan's DNA. Inside

27:27

the blue Dodge minivan, police

27:29

seized another Kellogg's mini wheat

27:31

box, filled with similar

27:34

ropes used to hog-tie Jesse

27:37

as well as Dan's computer. On

27:40

the laptop, they found he had

27:42

made searches about serial killers

27:44

and that Dan was working on

27:47

a novel that mirrored his relationship

27:50

with Jesse. He'd also

27:52

written a short story about a man named

27:55

Dee,

27:56

who

27:57

beats another man into a coma with

27:59

a pillowcase.

31:36

He

32:00

will spend the rest of his days eating

32:02

horrible food and reciting monologues

32:06

in his prison cell. Dan

32:08

was a sick person, a

32:11

twisted, charming narcissist

32:13

who managed to work his craft

32:15

so brilliantly that he fooled

32:18

the world for nineteen years into

32:20

believing that he was a good person.

32:23

There's a lot of those around.

32:27

But his whole life was

32:29

a performance. His

32:31

friendships, his romances, his

32:34

fake smiles, and his interests.

32:38

It was all just part of a

32:40

character. He was playing every

32:43

waking moment of his life.

32:46

Inside, he was a monster.

32:50

He had perverted desires,

32:53

and the urge to execute them overwhelmed

32:55

him until he couldn't

32:58

keep up the charade any

33:00

longer. Maybe he wasn't

33:03

that great of an actor after

33:05

all, just a cold-hearted, sick

33:08

killer, too stupid to get

33:10

away with the worst kind of crime

33:13

imaginable. Now

33:15

he will pay eternally

33:18

for robbing Jessie Blodgett of

33:21

her life and all the love

33:23

she had to offer

33:25

the world.

33:27

But Jessie did not die

33:30

in vain. Thanks to her

33:32

parents, her father Buck

33:35

was not quiet about his daughter's tragic

33:37

murder. He did a lot of press,

33:40

talking about sexual violence against women

33:42

and girls, which was a cause

33:45

Jessie cared deeply about. Then

33:48

Buck started a foundation called

33:50

the Love Hate Project to

33:52

preserve his daughter's memory and

33:55

help end violence against women. The

33:58

organization has made a huge impact

34:01

and continues to thrive today.

34:04

Dan may have stolen Jessie's

34:07

life,

34:09

but the love surrounding

34:11

her

34:12

could never be taken,

34:14

and will instead be used

34:18

for something good. If

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you enjoyed the show, please consider

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But if you can't, consider

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34:37

Sweet dreams,

34:38

and good night.

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