Police arrived on the scene to discover the bodies of Brandt’s
wife, Teri, who had been stabbed to death with a knife from the kitchen while lying
on the couch, and the decapitated body of Brandt’s niece, Michelle Jones, in
her bed. Jones had been disemboweled and had her heart and other organs
removed. Her severed head was sitting next to the body.
The house was locked from the inside, so the suspicion fell
on Charlie Brandt, who was proved to have murdered the two before committing
suicide.
A friend of Michelle Jones had spoken with her earlier that
evening and was informed that she shouldn’t come over to the house, as the
Brandt’s were intoxicated, had been arguing and weren’t good company to be in.
Described by all as being mild mannered, a loving husband
and an all-around good guy, nobody could believe what Charlie Brandt had done.
Shockingly, this was not the first time Brandt had murdered.
On the 3rd of January 1971, at the age of just 13
years old, Charlie Brandt had shot both his father in the back while he was
shaving in the bathroom and killed his pregnant mother as she bathed in the
bathtub. He then went to his sister’s room and put the gun to her head, pulling
the trigger. However the gun was out of bullets. His fifteen year old sister
escaped after calming him and telling Charlie that she loved him and wouldn’t
leave him, before fleeing from the house.
Brandt then calmly walked next door to inform a neighbor
that he had shot his parents.
Despite evaluation at the time, he apparently showed no
signs of a diagnosable mental illness and the motive for his crimes was
unknown.
Brandt had showed no previous signs of violence or conflict in
his life and claimed to love his family and spoke highly of them.
Since he was only 13 years old at the time of the murder, he
was too young to be prosecuted in the state of Indiana.
The incident became a grisly family secret, which the kept
for years.
Following the incident in 2004, police looked into
previously unsolved cold cases and linked Brandt to some of the crimes. He was
linked to the murder of a homeless woman, Sherry Perisho, in 1989, who just
like Brandt’s niece, had her head severed and heart removed, as well as Darlene
toler, a woman working as a prostitute in 1995 who was killed with the same modus
operandi.
During a search of Brandt’s home investigators noticed something
on the back of the couples bedroom door; a poster illustrating the female
muscular and skeletal system. Despite not being in the medical profession,
books on human anatomy were sitting on a bookshelf in the home, one of which
contained a newspaper clipping of a labeled illustration of the human heart.
Charley
Brandt had a subscription to “Victorias secret” magazine, and chillingly,
always referred to his niece by a nickname he’d given her, “Victoria’s secret”.
An analysis of his computer turned up erotic websites related to sacrifice,
violence and necrophilia.
Investigators believe that Brandt was obsessed with his own
niece and had premeditated the murders.
26 cold case murders have been linked back to Brandt.
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