- 2 months ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00A summer in small-town Wisconsin, 19-year-old Jessie Bludgett, a young woman on the rise,
00:09is out celebrating with friends. Everybody was having a fantastic time. I think they
00:15were all on cloud nine. Riding high fresh from her lead performance in a musical.
00:21On Sunday evening of the 14th, there's this cast party and there's a pool party.
00:25Jessie was magnetic. She was friends with everyone.
00:33A killer is hiding in plain sight, closer than anyone imagined.
00:39How old is your daughter? 19.
00:41She's 19, okay. Oh my God.
00:43Okay, so is she breathing? I don't think so, no.
00:48I think he was stalking his prey. He was looking to make his first kill. He was bloodthirsty.
00:56His goal was to get a high body count. He had done the research on it. He had actually even
01:01Googled serial killers by body count. He had an obsession, a deranged obsession,
01:08with wanting to be famous, so he had to become a vicious predator.
01:15That day, something in me just knew there's good and evil in this world, and it's time to pick a side.
01:25It's time to pick a side.
01:38Jessie Blodgett, home in Wisconsin after her first year of college, is spending the summer tutoring music
01:44students and rehearsing for a lead role in a community play.
01:48She's not just tutoring them musically. She's also becoming kind of a tutor for them in life.
01:54Their students really love her and look up to her, and so she's having a very busy and productive and
02:00really a happy summer. She had a reputation for being outgoing spirit and musically talented and
02:07artistically gifted and really interested in talking to people.
02:11She was the fiddler and the fiddler on the roof. She won the title role. I was so proud of her.
02:16The Blodgetts live in Hartford, a quiet, close-knit town in Wisconsin, where Joy and Buck Blodgett work
02:27as chiropractors in their own clinic.
02:29When we think about small-town America, this will be the place to think about.
02:35An idyllic, safe, quiet community to raise your kids.
02:43In the city of Hartford, we've had three homicides since our city became a city a little over 100 years ago.
02:56Within this trusting community, Jessie Blodgett makes close friends, many of whom, like her, a musical.
03:05There's no doubt in my mind that she could have made it big.
03:10My name's Ian Needus. I was a classmate of Jessie Blodgett. We were best friends. I'd like to think
03:17that we still are best friends. Jessie was very interested in the freedom of women to express
03:27themselves however they saw fit. Another of Jessie's close friends and fellow violinist
03:35Daniel Baltelt. Dan was Jessie's first boyfriend, freshman year of high school,
03:41for about three months if I remember right. Dan was a straight-A student. Came from a great family
03:48in a great town. Never in any trouble at school. Never in any trouble with the law. Athlete. Popular
03:56with the girls. Popular with the boys. Talented.
04:07The 14th was like any other day for me. It was a Sunday. She made a Facebook post. She was inviting
04:21everybody, all of her friends, to come and see the performance. She was extremely excited about
04:28the Fiddler. Worked very hard at it and was on cloud nine, really, after opening weekend.
04:41I went to see the show. She's stellar. Like, musically, she is one of the most talented people
04:49that I've ever met. So Jessie and her second family, as she called them all, performed Friday night,
04:56Saturday night, and then Sunday matinee, and she had the cast party. They were all proud of themselves
05:02and excited to have performed three days in a row. People were swimming and sitting around the pool.
05:15They were in swimming suits and dressed light, and it was a pleasant summer afternoon and evening
05:20in Hartford, Wisconsin. It's a fun night until Jessie finds herself navigating an uncomfortable moment.
05:30Jessie is 19 years old, and there are a couple of men there who are in their 40s, which, you know,
05:34when you're 19 years old, that's old. A couple of men there are saying things that she thinks are
05:39inappropriate. At one point, one of the men is making jokes, making inappropriate jokes,
05:44pulls her on his lap, and that is extremely uncomfortable for her.
05:50Somebody that, like, talked to her or made advances or just generally did some things that
05:56made her uncomfortable. I don't know what was said or what was done or, you know, what the vibes were,
06:02but I do want to leave open the possibility that Jessie might have misinterpreted friendliness.
06:08There was another cast member there who was in his 40s that he was getting a little too friendly,
06:13and they were hugging, and he was sitting by Jessie, and she was sitting on his lap.
06:22She came home late that night from the cast party. I think it was around 12 30,
06:27and I was asleep already. Being dad, I was out cold. Joy being mom, couldn't sleep until Jess got home.
06:35So Jess came home from the cast party, and they talked for a little while because Jessie was upset
06:42when she came home by a couple things that happened with a couple people there at the cast party,
06:48and she told her mom about it. Joy really talks to her and consoles her, and Jessie ends up writing
06:55about it in her diary, but she feels empowered. I mean, at the end of her diary, she's talking about,
07:00I'm not a victim. I'm strong. I can handle these kinds of situations, and so she ends up going to bed.
07:12She's got, it looks like, strangulation marks. There are strangulation marks? That's what it
07:26looks like. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on.
07:30It's the morning after the cast party. Jessie is home, asleep in her bed. Her parents head to work,
07:49quietly so as not to wake her. Everything seems perfectly ordinary.
07:53It's time to go to work. I get up first. I do my thing, get ready for work, and peeked in Jessie's room,
08:04like always, and she's sleeping in. She was sleeping soundly and apparently just fine when we left the house.
08:13From a young age, Jessie Blodgett has shone naturally bright, curious, and quick to impress.
08:31I'm Buck Blodgett. I'm Jessie's dad. When Jessie came and her eyes were wide open, she was looking right at me.
08:40Uh, it was the most magical day of my life. Changed my life forever.
08:51I didn't know a baby could have personality like that.
08:58Jesse Blodgett, born in 1994, is the only child of Buck and Joy.
09:03We'd go outside at night and look up in the Georgia sky and see the bright moon,
09:08and I'd say, the moon, Jessie, and she'd just look up with these great big eyes.
09:14She didn't say anything because she wasn't old enough to talk.
09:21Jessie taught herself cursive writing off of a placemat that we used to put under her food,
09:28and we didn't even know it. She learned the cursive alphabet before she went to school,
09:33and Jessie's first word was anesthesiologist. And then her second word was metamorphosis.
09:47Jessie is drawn to music, a passion that only grows stronger with time.
09:52She could hear any song on the radio and just sit down and play it on the piano or the violin from
09:58ear whether she'd heard it before or not, and even sing if she knew the words.
10:08She had a lot of confidence and talent.
10:13She loved to perform for other people.
10:19She was very pensive and thoughtful girl.
10:21Maybe even back then she was thinking about how she was going to change the world. I don't know.
10:33In high school, Jessie Bodget quickly makes an impression known for her creativity and confidence.
10:42We made music together in high school, and it was amazing.
10:45The experience of it, just watching her skill. I wrote lyrics and she did literally everything else.
10:54It was crazy how much talent was in that girl.
11:07Another of Jessie's musical friends, Daniel Bartelt, is often over at the Bodget household for practice.
11:14They're both very bright, they're both very musical, and they develop a real friendship.
11:19They become kind of sweethearts for a few months until Daniel decides he's not ready for that kind
11:25of relationship. But even after they broke up, they kind of remained friends.
11:32We knew Dan well. They sat right next to each other in orchestra for four years.
11:38They were in all the musicals, all the plays, often had the big roles.
11:44Dan was welcome in our home. They dated in freshman year.
11:49Daniel was a classmate. I generally thought of us as being friends.
11:55Daniel was kind of stoic in a way. I think that he had the same sort of bombasticness that a lot of
12:07teenage boys have as far as humor and things like that. I think that a lot of people would consider
12:14him to be sort of an intellectual, somebody that was argumentative, but always interested in pursuing truth, if that makes sense.
12:25I feel like they played off each other very well. There was an inherent sort of chemistry there, but I
12:38do think it was more adversarial. There was a couple of times where he and Jesse would kind of get into
12:48it at lunch discussions. It was usually like debate topics. One of the big issues of the day was the
12:57way women are perceived based on how they dress. Dan took a more conservative approach to it, whereas
13:04Jesse was a more free-form express yourself sort of mindset. And they kind of clashed in the idea of what
13:13like constitutes, you know, appropriateness. And they kind of got into heated debates like that.
13:23Towards the end of high school, Daniel Bartelt is involved in an incident.
13:28He got into a car accident on the way to school once
13:30and suffered some sort of brain concussion type of thing. And after that, I feel like it's possible that
13:42he changed a little bit.
13:46He seemed a little bit off and I feel like spiraled with him becoming more agitated with
13:51the arguments that we would have over the lunch table.
13:53After graduating top of his academic class, Daniel Bartelt heads off to college.
14:00Dan was in college for a year. He dropped out. And in the summer after freshman year of college,
14:08they started to get together a little bit again. He had a music room in his house and we had one in
14:14our house. And every couple of weeks or so, one would go over to the other's house and they'd
14:20play and write music together. Dan was welcome in our home.
14:36He was comfortable in the house. He would let himself in. He knew when mom and dad were gone to
14:41work. He knew what mom and dad did for work. He knew when she was going to be home alone.
14:45And for him to let himself in.
14:48They are frequently getting together. They're writing songs together. They're
14:52practicing their different instruments. And they're really having a good time as friends.
14:58But beneath the surface, Daniel Bartelt is walking the road no one else can see. He's
15:03holding on to some dark secrets. I think that he just broke down when he wasn't
15:10reaching the milestones that he felt like he should be. I think that he wasn't living up to his own
15:16expectations of himself. And that kind of created this feedback loop of negativity
15:23and wanting to pin the blame on something.
15:34Daniel loses his job. But instead of telling his parents, he keeps up the pretense for months,
15:40leaving the house each day as if nothing has changed. All the while, concealing a far more disturbing
15:46reality. I think that semester taught him how to be a good liar. And how to start fooling those people
15:52that were closest to him. And convincing them that he's doing things that he wasn't doing. Such as going
15:59to work or having a job. Probably lost a sense of direction. And I imagine that that created like
16:06a feedback loop that really cycled into a really dark period in a really dark place.
16:11This best friend thought he was going to a full-time job all day for a few months. And he wasn't. He was
16:20going to the park. Daniel isn't just hiding the truth. He's rehearsing a double life.
16:29He was going to these places and he was stuck in his fantasy world of harming others.
16:34I think he became very twisted, very isolated. And I think his time in the park, he was haunted.
16:46Evil is not an inherent thing. It's something that has developed over time.
16:55Daniel Bartelt's internet searches are growing darker by the day.
16:58So this is somebody that is hiding from everybody who knows him this increasing obsession with violence,
17:11with bondage, with sadism, and you know, feeding that essentially. Every day that he has all this time
17:19when he's supposed to be at work, he is essentially feeding this growing obsession with serial killers,
17:26with violence, with darkness, and hurting other people.
17:40Jesse Blodgett continues to flourish. But Daniel Bartelt is living a lie, spending hours alone in
17:48parks and behind closed doors, consumed by violent fantasies, and preparing to strike.
17:54We know that Daniel Bartelt is living a secret life already. He is searching out sites about serial
18:04killers. He is looking at serial killers by order of victim count. He is viewing a lot of pornography
18:12that involves bondage and it involves sexual assault. He is even looking up pornographic snuff films.
18:21A lot of bondage videos, a lot of violence with sex type videos, his lookups and his internet search
18:33history on spree killers and serial killers and the like like that. He twisted.
18:41It appears that he let himself go down a slippery slope further, further, further, further until he acted it out.
18:53But in public, Daniel is still presenting as the polite, talented young man that he's always been,
18:59dropping by the blodgett home to write music with Jesse, just as he always has.
19:04So the week before the big splash of Fiddler on the Roof happens, they're getting together quite a bit.
19:20It wasn't unusual for him to just pop over, let himself in. And Jesse wasn't bothered by this
19:26particularly, and neither were Jesse's parents. He came over for an hour or two, I don't remember,
19:33and him and Jess played songs and wrote songs in our music room. Jesse's wider friendship group
19:41is suspicious of Daniel Bartelt's intentions. He was also somewhat flirtatiously
19:48pursuing Jesse, and I'm not sure that it was a requited pursuit.
19:59My name is Melissa Etzler. I'm from Menominee Falls, Wisconsin.
20:0519-year-old Melissa is walking her dog in Richfield Historical Park,
20:09a nature reserve around 15 miles from Hartford, Wisconsin.
20:14It's a familiar route, one she's walked many times before, through open meadows and woodland trails.
20:23They have giant, beautiful trees, but they also have really wide, vast open spaces.
20:28So it's a really nice mix of little woodsy with wide open space for the dogs to run.
20:36Remy loved it.
20:36Melissa went to Richfield County Park to walk her dog, Remy. When she got there,
20:44there was a blue van in the gravel parking lot.
20:47That didn't surprise me at all because I'm not always the only person there,
20:52so it was really no big deal.
20:54I got out of my car, we went on our trek down to the pond like we usually did.
21:00He was kind of testing the waters to see what his actual attunement for violence was.
21:07He was a predator and he was stalking his prey.
21:11And unfortunately, Melissa happened to be at the park at that day.
21:14I was probably in the park for about 45 minutes to an hour. And that's when it was a little like,
21:23oh, what are you still doing here? Why are you still in your van? Like, why are you still here?
21:30But then what happened was I saw him peering out of his van, out of his window kind of like this.
21:35And then when he saw me looking, he quickly went back like that. And that's when I was like,
21:40okay, I'm going back to my car. Not going to bother this person, just going back to my car.
21:45So I dropped her on me's leash because she would always just go to my car.
21:48And as I was walking back to my car, probably halfway there,
21:54I heard somebody running from behind me.
21:57She looks over her shoulder and sees Dan running towards her.
22:01At first, I turned around and I'm like, huh, you know, you scared me.
22:06Because there was a garbage can right there. I thought he was like throwing something away.
22:09But then in that split second, my intuition, my spirit guide, God, whoever you believe,
22:16told me, turn back around. Like, why would you turn back around? Come on, Melissa.
22:20So I turned back around and that's when I saw the knife in his hand.
22:26I didn't really have any time to react because the next thing I know, I'm on the ground.
22:32He's on top of me. I'm on my stomach and I'm fighting like this. You know,
22:35I've got the knife in my right hand and we're fighting. And I'm like yelling at him like,
22:40what are you doing?
22:43And he's just, you know, he's not saying anything. He's just wrestling,
22:46trying to get the knife away from me, but he doesn't get it.
22:50He ends up getting off of me and saying, can I just go? And I was like, no.
22:56I think a lot of that has to do with that will to survive and being able to turn off those pain
23:01receptors.
23:02I would have let that knife cut my finger off before I let go of it. He was not getting the
23:09knife away from me. So she holds onto the knife. She refuses to give the knife back.
23:15He ends up running off and getting back in his car.
23:17When he ran away, he seemed like a coward.
23:28So I threw the knife on the floor of my car and I just got out of there as soon as I could.
23:36Textbook. Textbook. I don't think anyone could handle it any better than she did.
23:41When Melissa saw this six foot one individual standing there with the knife and she's not six
23:49foot one and she probably doesn't weigh anywhere near what this subject weighed, that had to just
23:55be terrifying. I couldn't feel the pain. I didn't feel the pain until I got back to the ER room.
24:03I had to get 15 stitches in my hand.
24:05Melissa remembers Daniel Bartelt in striking detail.
24:11I've always been into like CSI criminal minds and I've always joked that watching those shows
24:18really helped me that day because I was able to remember his height, his weight and what he was
24:25wearing. I got all of that correct and the Dodge Caravan.
24:29When his first attack failed, I think that would have been disappointing to him. I think it would
24:40have been frustrating for him. I do get the sense that he thought of himself as being somewhat of a
24:44mastermind in many areas of his life. I might have been a little blow to his ego.
24:49After Melissa was attacked, we received notification from the Washington County
25:03Sheriff's Department who had that jurisdiction. I think the public in our Hartford community though,
25:12that information didn't necessarily get them concerned because it was too fresh. It hadn't gotten out and around.
25:31Jesse's parents have left their daughter to sleep and headed off to work.
25:34Around lunchtime, Joy comes home. She's coming home to see Jesse.
25:42Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
25:47Hartford 901, what's the problem?
25:48My daughter is blue. I went to wake her up and I just got home for lunch and she won't wake up.
25:56Okay, so is she breathing?
25:58I don't think so, no.
26:00Oh, not breathing?
26:01I don't think so. She's got, it looks like strangulation marks.
26:08There are strangulation marks?
26:09That's what it looks like. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on.
26:17I'm back in my office and Holly knocks on my door. Boom, boom, boom. And just kind of busts in
26:25and says, Dr. Buck, Dr. Buck, Joy's on the phone. You have to pick up now. And so that's when I picked
26:32up the phone. That's when I got the phone call that every parent fears. Honey, it's Jesse. It's Jesse.
26:38It's Jesse. And I said, what? And she said, she's not responding. And the EMTs are here now and they've
26:47taken over for me and they're shocking her. I said, honey, is she? And I couldn't say the word dead
27:01to joy. So I said, is she gone? I never got that answer.
27:13Time stopped. I felt like a super awareness, like I was aware of everything.
27:22I was driving up the freeway and identifying as an atheist at the time. I was talking with God
27:32and begging and pleading. I didn't know. It didn't sound good, but I didn't know.
27:39It's kind of a fight or flight thing, like, um, like, you know, wanting to get home and save your girl,
27:46if you could. First suspects are family. I wondered if I was one. There was no pain.
27:56One one hundredth of the intensity of this one. I remember walking up to the door and it was a
28:03warm day because I had been out cutting my grass prior to, but it just seemed the air seemed real
28:09still. It seemed real somber, just felt like the heaviness in the air, that something was just
28:15not right here. Walking into the house, I saw the piano sitting in the breezeway. And on top of the
28:23piano was a bunch of money from piano lessons that she had been teaching, and the money was still
28:28sitting there. So this appears to me as if someone knows their way around the inside of the house or
28:34how to get into the house. And they weren't there to rob. They weren't there to take. They were there
28:39for other reasons. Of course, the first was, is she gone? And when I went through my home, I finally
28:49got into the living room and found Joy. She was on the couch and there was a first responder and I
28:54think a police officer on each side of her holding her hands. And I took one look at her and I knew
29:00then, that was when I knew that Jessie was gone. I had to be with her. I had to, I had to hold her and I
29:12had to tell her, um, that I'm sorry that I wasn't there when she needed her dad. And that I'd never
29:20stop plugging her. Upstairs in Jessie's room, Detective Jim Zewicki and colleagues at Hartford PD
29:32begin their investigation. They discover that the scene has been carefully staged to avoid suspicion.
29:41She was washed, placed back in bed, covered up with the blanket and laid there as if she was put to
29:48sleep. But they soon discover evidence that Jessie had been subject to a brutal attack.
29:53And it appears by the injuries that are on her that she was tied up. She was bound with
30:00a type of tape that is used. Predominantly, you would see it with ventilation systems. It was that
30:06type of tape. Her feet and wrists were taped. We could see there were marks on her wrists from
30:13ligature marks from being held. There was a cord that was placed around her neck.
30:20It's clear to law enforcement that the perpetrator has made efforts to dispose of vital DNA evidence.
30:29You know, washing the body and washing the hair and redressing this person. I mean,
30:34these are the kind of behaviors that you would expect with somebody who has offended many,
30:39many times before and progressed over time.
30:55I finally got my moment and they brought Jessie down on a gurney. That's supposed to be my time
31:01to be with her and tell her that I'm sorry I wasn't there and that I love you always.
31:15After everyone else pulled away with Jessie, it was just me and Joy and the two cats.
31:21And it was the, it was an emptiness like I didn't know existed. The house was empty and I stared out
31:31the picture window for hours. Then the thoughts began. Who did this? Why? And what did she suffer through?
31:44And that morning evil came to Jessica with a familiar face. It was the depravity in that
31:58of someone who trusts you and you harming them is just beyond my realm of comprehension.
32:03It's the day after the murder of Jessie Blodgett. Her school friends gather at Jessie's parents' house.
32:14That they could see like what their daughter meant to all of the people that she touched.
32:25I hope that that gave them a little bit of comfort, a little bit of solace.
32:33We were just crying and sharing stories and laughing.
32:38Daniel Bartelt is amongst those visiting.
32:44He was there with all of her friends. We were sharing grief and memories and stories and tears.
32:53I hugged Dan once or twice like all of her friends. He was there for several hours and
33:02I don't even know if he's telling himself the truth. I don't even know if he, I don't know his mental state.
33:14I wonder what was going through his head. I really do.
33:18I imagine that he thought he was going to get away with it scot-free and that he just had to play a part.
33:22In the middle of that day, his cell phone rang and it was the Washington County Sheriff's
33:31calling him in to the Slinger PD for an interview. Joy saw him right after he hung up and knew something
33:40was wrong and she went over to comfort him and she said, what's the matter? And he said that he was being
33:48called in for questioning. My sister and my girlfriend at the time took him to the precinct.
33:57I imagine that Daniel himself was less focused on the two ladies in front of him and more about
34:02the game plan of how to get away with things.
34:09In the 36 hours since Jesse's murder, Daniel Bartelt has been rehearsing his story.
34:14But when police call him, it's not to talk to him about Jesse.
34:24They finally tracked the vehicle down.
34:25A deputy had gone through the park a week, two weeks maybe previous to that and
34:32Dan had his vehicle at a park at that point, which was the blue minivan,
34:37and the deputy ran the license plate just saying, no, it looks a little odd.
34:41He wasn't a suspect in anything at that time.
34:43Not in trouble.
34:44Okay.
34:44You're not under arrest.
34:46This deputy ended up saying, hey, I remember a blue minivan and I ran a license plate on it.
34:51So subsequently, they did a historical check of this deputy's computer, found that the vehicle
34:57that he ran came back to the parents of Daniel Bartelt. And that's when he ended up getting in our
35:03sights and on our radar.
35:04They made those connections of, okay, that van belongs to the Bartelt's. Okay, Daniel,
35:11it kind of fits my description.
35:14Do you know what this is about?
35:15Yeah.
35:16This is about the incident that he's had to watch on the best scene and have it last Friday.
35:21Okay.
35:22This happened at a park.
35:23And if you have any knowledge involved with what this is, it doesn't tell me not understand that.
35:30It's okay.
35:31Okay.
35:32I'll remember your case of the virus.
35:34Where have your arm?
35:35Where?
35:36On your elbow.
35:36On your elbow.
35:3912, brother.
35:40I don't remember.
35:42Do you have any other injuries that we didn't have a lot?
35:44We don't.
35:46Do you see your hands?
35:48Religious.
35:52Daniel Bartelt is interrogated for over two hours.
35:55He eventually confesses to attacking Melissa.
35:58And he went after that girl, right?
36:08During the interview, police asked Daniel Bartelt where he was earlier that day.
36:12What he reveals to police offers a startling coincidence.
36:17The following day, Daniel Bartelt is interviewed as a person of interest in Jesse's case.
36:47What I want to talk to you about is Jesse Blodgett.
36:51He talked about Jesse.
36:52He would, but when you start cornering him in on certain details and certain things,
36:57he would get uncomfortable.
36:58Wouldn't want to talk about it.
37:02Bartelt offers up an alibi saying that he spent the morning at a nearby park.
37:07But when detectives check the location, they uncover a crucial piece of surveillance footage.
37:18It leads them to a public restroom and a vital breakthrough.
37:25Daniel Bartelt leads police to Woodlawn Park.
37:28There, in the public restrooms, they make a vital discovery.
37:32My understanding is the garbage was emptied twice a week at Woodlawn Park on Mondays and Thursdays.
37:38Which means we're lucky to find the cereal box with all that physical and DNA evidence in it.
37:49I refer to it as a kill kit because he had it in a frosted mini wheat cereal box that was emptied out.
37:56His literature that he used to strangle her with, he had grabbed some of the other stuff.
38:00Some of the tape that was around her was rolled up into a ball in there.
38:03At some point, he had cut his finger and used an alcohol wipe to wipe it up,
38:08and he had thrown that in the cereal box.
38:12He had left there and gone to a park in our city,
38:15and he had placed that cereal box with all of his
38:18items that he had used to kill her in a garbage can in the park.
38:22It proves a crucial find.
38:24It wouldn't have been as much of a shock
38:28if we found his DNA in the house knowing that he had been in there,
38:31that he had been friendly with her in the past prior to this.
38:36So I think finding that box and finding those items and being able to have all that stuff tested
38:42with the crime lab, I think was the overwhelming evidence that pointed to his guilt.
38:49At this point, Jesse's parents are told there has been an arrest.
38:59He said, haven't we told you yet?
39:02Dan's under arrest, and he starts to lay out the evidence that they have so far.
39:09When I heard that it was him and knew that it was him, it was like,
39:12oh my god, what could be so broken?
39:18What happened to Dan that he could be capable of such a thing?
39:26It was met with a lot of, that can't be right, sort of skepticism.
39:31It was met with a lot of disbelief.
39:34We all have a little evil in us, and he fed it.
39:37What's that old Native American parable about there's two wolves in us,
39:41and, well, which one will I become, Grandpa?
39:43Well, the one you feed.
39:44Well, Dan fed that wolf, and his computer search shows it.
39:51Despite overwhelming evidence, throughout the trial,
39:54Daniel Bartelt maintains his innocence.
39:58I think that Daniel would never admit to the murder.
40:02I don't think he has remorse.
40:03I don't think he has guilt.
40:04What is in it for him?
40:05Daniel Bartelt is found guilty.
40:10In court, he delivers a statement to Jesse's parents.
40:16Buck, Joy, I can't give you the answers that you're looking for.
40:21There's no hiding from yourself in a tiny concrete cell.
40:26This jumpsuit that I'm wearing, these shackles that I'm put in, don't make me guilty.
40:39And I know there's evidence that I can't refute that would make you believe that I am guilty.
40:45I really, truly believe, and I will believe for the rest of my days,
40:50that had he not been caught, he would have victimized many, many, many more people.
40:55And he would have only gotten better with time.
40:57I remember sitting in the courtroom, and the one thing that has always stood out to me was Buck.
41:14Forgiving him, telling him he loves him, just being Buck, being his authentic self.
41:20Since his daughter's murder, Buck Blodgett has run the Love Is Greater Than Hate campaign,
41:27set up in Jesse's memory.
41:29Um, it was like that.
41:31A thousand people came to Jesse's funeral.
41:33It was an outpouring of love like I had never experienced in my life before.
41:39And I thought to myself, why don't we practice love and forgiveness?
41:46What's more important than that?
41:47Why don't we have that as part of our core, daily, routine, habit, practice in life?
41:56That was the roots from which the project was born.
42:02Love Is Greater Than Hate started that day in our town, six years ago with the death of my daughter.
42:09She was killed by a friend who also went to your school.
42:13At Jesse's funeral, I said,
42:14Honey, this has been a devastating blow, but your strength is in me, too.
42:19And love will always be stronger than hate.
42:22I believe she wanted to change the world.
42:26I believe she's actively involved from the other side of the veil.
42:30And me and her are in this together.
42:32And she's extremely proud.
42:35Jesse's still everywhere,
42:37putting her little seeds of beauty and love everywhere in this world.
42:41They're some of the strongest people I know.
42:44And I know Jesse is looking down, just amazed at what Joy and Buck have done.
42:52She not only lost her life that day, she lost her voice.
42:55And if you knew her, that meant a lot to her, to Jesse.
43:09She will always be 19 years old,
43:12burning with potential that didn't get to
43:17make it to a point where it was fulfilled.
43:19And that's tough.
43:22But also, I still see her around, just in a different sort of way.
43:28If you were to be a person who wanted to honor Jesse's life and death,
43:33then the best way to do that is a deepened,
43:37strengthened commitment to a daily practice of forgiveness and love.
43:43Singing this song for you, there's nothing I wouldn't do.
43:50I'll be there, I'll be there for you.
43:55Singing this song for you, there's nothing I wouldn't do.
44:03I'll be here, I'll be here for you.
44:13Above the Longst ost
44:22I'll be here for you.
44:24It's been a long time L
44:28For me, Happy 65
44:30Lawnole
Comments