Charlie Brandt

Charlie Brandt
Born	Carl Brandt February 23, 1957 Connecticut, U.S.
Died	(2004-09-13)September 13, 2004 (aged 47) Orlando, Florida, U.S.
Cause of death	Suicide by hanging[1]
Details
Victims	3 - 6+ (including an unborn child)
Span of crimes	January 3, 1971–September 13, 2004
Country	United States
State(s)	Indiana, Florida

Carl "Charlie" Brandt (February 23, 1957 – September 13, 2004) was an American serial killer. A former resident of Fort Wayne, Indiana and longtime resident of the Florida Keys, Brandt committed suicide in September 2004 after he stabbed his wife, Teresa "Teri" Brandt, and decapitated and severely mutilated his niece, Michelle Jones, by removing her heart. An investigation by police concluded that Brandt hanged himself in Jones' garage after committing the murders.

It later came to light that Brandt had shot his parents – his pregnant mother fatally – in 1971, when he was 13; he spent one year at a psychiatric hospital before being released, and was never criminally charged. Because of this incident, and because of Brandt's efficiency in killing his wife and niece and his hidden obsession with human anatomy, investigators looked into the prospect that he had committed other murders since moving to Florida in 1973. Police have positively ascribed up to six homicides to Brandt.

Early life

Brandt was the second child and only son of Herbert and Ilse Brandt, two German immigrants who originally lived in Connecticut. His father worked as a laborer for a division of International Harvester, eventually working his way up to draftsman and project engineer. However, the family frequently moved, and as a result, Brandt and his older sister Angela attended several different schools. He was regarded as a good student, but was shy and had difficulty adjusting to new surroundings. In September 1968, Herbert was transferred to International Harvester's plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Every summer and Christmas, the family would vacation in Florida, where Brandt went on hunting trips with his father.

1971 incident

On the night of January 3, 1971, Brandt, then 13, walked into his parents' bathroom while Herbert was shaving and Ilse, who was eight months pregnant, was taking a bath. Brandt shot both parents at point blank range; his father survived, but his mother died at the scene. Brandt then confronted his sister Angela, but his gun wouldn't fire. After a physical struggle, Angela managed to calm her brother down before she fled the house and sought help from neighbors. Brandt also left the house and knocked on the door of a girl next door named Sandi Radcliffe, telling her, "Sandi, I just shot my mom and dad." Herbert Brandt later identified his son as his attacker.^[2]

Because he was too young to be charged with murder under Indiana law, Brandt appeared before a grand jury and was ordered to undergo three separate psychiatric evaluations, all of which couldn't determine what motivated him to shoot his parents. One of Brandt's psychiatrists, Ronald Pancner, later recounted, "Basically, I was looking for mental illness. And he wasn't showing the signs and symptoms of serious mental illness, which I thought was what the court wanted to know." Interviews with Brandt's family and friends showed that he had no conflicts at home or at school, and had previously shown nothing but devotion to his mother. Brandt spent one year at a psychiatric hospital before being released back into the custody of his family.^[3] They never spoke of the incident again, and Brandt's younger sisters were never told about the shooting.

2004 incident

Shortly after Brandt's release, his family relocated to Florida. One year later, Brandt's father and sisters moved away after he remarried, while Brandt himself remained in Florida under the care of his grandparents. In 1984, Brandt got a degree on electronics and became a radar specialist. In 1986, he married his girlfriend Teri. No relatives were invited to their wedding. The couple settled in a beach house of Big Pine Key, the southernmost portion of the Florida Keys, in 1989.

On September 2, 2004, Brandt and Teri evacuated from their home ahead of Hurricane Ivan. Their niece, Michelle Lynn Jones, invited them to stay at her residence in near Orlando. Throughout the visit, Jones kept in regular contact with her mother, Mary Lou, as well as several friends. On the evening of September 13, one of Jones' friends, Lisa Emmons, was scheduled to visit her house. However, Jones discouraged her from coming after reporting that the Brandts had an argument after drinking.^[4] After that night, Jones stopped answering telephone calls, which alarmed her acquaintances.^[5]

On September 15, another one of Jones' friends, Debbie Knight, came to her house to check on her while on the phone with Jones' mother. After finding the front door locked, Knight tried to enter the house through the garage, where she found Brandt's decomposing body hanging from the rafters. Knight contacted the police, who entered the house and found the bodies of Brandt's wife and niece. Teri had been stabbed seven times in the chest while reclining on a couch. Jones had been decapitated and disemboweled, with her heart and organs removed. Jones' head was also placed next to her own body.^[6] The weapons used in the crimes had been knives from Jones' kitchen.

Investigation

A search of Brandt's residence on Big Pine Key revealed that he was a monthly subscriber to Victoria's Secret catalogs; had an extensive collection of surgery-themed books, posters, and clippings; and regularly searched online for autopsy photos and snuff film websites depicting violence against women. Because Brandt's murder of Jones indicated methodology and past experience, and because he traveled often due to his job, police checked cold cases in Florida that matched his apparent modus operandi, and launched requests for similar inquiries in the United States and abroad. Ultimately, the search linked Brandt to twenty-six unsolved murders in Florida dating back to 1973.

• Carol Sullivan, 1978: Sullivan, aged 12, was abducted from a school bus stop in Volusia County on September 20, 1978. Her skull was found inside a bucket, leading authorities to presume she was murdered and decapitated. Brandt was 20 years old and lived in Volusia County at the time, but could not be tied to the crime in any other way.
• Lisa Saunders, 1988: Saunders, aged 20, was beaten, stabbed, and dragged from her car in Big Pine Key in December 1988. Her heart was missing when she was found, but it is unclear if it was extracted by an attacker or eaten by vultures.
• Sherry Perisho, 1989: Perisho's partially-clothed body was found on July 16, 1989, near the North Pine Channel Bridge at Big Pine Key, where Perisho, who was homeless, lived on a dinghy. Her throat had been slashed and her head had been nearly severed; like Jones, her body was extensively mutilated and her heart was removed. Perisho was found less than 1,000 feet from where Brandt lived, and Brandt matched a composite sketch of a man seen crossing U.S. Route 1 near where Perisho was discovered on the night she was murdered. Based on this evidence, Monroe County investigators determined that Brandt killed Perisho and officially closed the case on May 6, 2006.^[7]
• Darlene Toler, 1995: Toler was a prostitute from Miami whose body, missing her head and heart, was found near a highway wrapped in plastic. Brandt used the same highway regularly and he kept a mileage record of his travels, which shows an entry for 100 miles – the driving distance between Big Pine Key and Miami – on the day of her murder.

See also

• Danny Rolling
• Dean Corll
• Neal Falls

References