Web of Lies

Chandler Halderson, 23, lived with his parents, Bart and Krista Halderson, in Windsor, Wisconsin, just north of Madison. For years he fed everyone invented stories: that he was studying at Madison Area Technical College, that he had steady work, and that he was about to move to Florida for a job at SpaceX. None of it was true.

At the end of June 2021, Bart found out his son was not enrolled at the college. On July 1, Chandler shot both parents at the family home. He cut up the bodies, burned some remains in the fireplace and hid the rest. On July 7 he reported his parents missing, saying they had gone on a trip up north to the family cabin. Detectives soon found that his account did not add up, and on July 8 he was arrested for giving them false information. His girlfriend’s Snapchat location then led searchers to woods near the Wisconsin River, where remains turned up on July 10.

On January 20, 2022, a Dane County jury found him guilty on every count, including two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and two of mutilating a corpse. At a March 17, 2022, hearing he received life in prison with no chance of release. Two convictions for hiding a corpse were later vacated, but the Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld his murder convictions in November 2025.