Dane County parents dismembered, killed; son pleads not guilty

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Chandler Halderson appears in Dane Co. court on July 15, 2021.(Dane Co. via YouTube)

MADISON, Wis. - A judge on Wednesday entered a not guilty plea on behalf of a Wisconsin man accused of killing and dismembering his parents.

Chandler Halderson, 23, of Windsor, did not speak during the brief hearing before Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland. He remains in the Dane County Jail on $1 million bond.

Halderson is charged with two counts each of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, hiding a corpse, and providing false information on kidnapped or missing persons in the deaths of his parents, Bart and Krista Halderson.

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According to prosecutors, Halderson spun a "web of lies" after reporting his parents missing on July 7. He told investigators that his parents never returned home to Dane County from a Fourth of July weekend trip to their cabin in northern Wisconsin. Authorities found discrepancies in his story, including a claim that his parents had planned to attend a parade in White Lake when no parade had been scheduled.

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Bart and Krista Halderson (Courtesy: The Dane County Sheriff's Office)

Bart Chandler’s dismembered remains were found July 8, the day Chandler Halderson was arrested, in rural Dane County. Six days later, investigators found Krista Halderson’s remains along the Wisconsin River on land state Department of Natural Resources land in Sauk County, according to the complaint.