UPDATED: Murder victim has local ties, roots

Posted at 9:20 a.m. on July 14, 2021

The Brillion News

MADISON – The 50-year old DeForest-area man whose dismembered body was found in the Town of Cottage Grove, in Dane County, several days after he and his wife were reported missing, was a Valders native and graduate of Valders High School.

The body of Bart Halderson was found in a wooded area, where his 23-year old son, Chandler, had been seen by the property owner.

The death of Bart Halderson was determined to be a gunshot homicide. His wife, Krista, has yet to be found.

Their son Chandler is in custody in the Dane County Jail, and is held for deceiving officers investigating the disappearance of his parents from their Village of Windsor home.

[<< Photo of Bart and Krista Halderson. He was murdered; she remains missing, and their son is held in jail, pending formal charges. Photo from Dane Co. S.O ]

UPDATED at 3:40 p.m on July 15, 2021: The Dane County District Attorney's Office, on July 15, laid four felony charges against Chandler Halderson: first degree intentional homicide; providing false information on missing persons; mutilating a corpse; and hiding a corpse. The first charges carries a mandatory life prison sentence upon conviction.

Photo (right) is of Chandler Halderson, taken at the Dane County Jail. He was charged with the murder of his father, but his mother remains "missing" and her body has yet to be found.

Bart Halderson’s brother, Brett Halderson, is a resident of Hilbert.

A retired Menasha police officer, Brett Halderson is also an accomplished scuba diver, and is a member of the Calumet County Dive Team, where he serves as a diver and the team’s training officer.

Bart Halderson was a certified public accountant, a Managing Director at BDO USA, a premier tax consulting firm in Madison.

Brett is the elder of the Halderson brothers, graduating from Valders High School in 1985, Bart graduated in 1989.

Chandler Halderson was ordered held under $40,000 cash bond.

He reported his parents missing and said they were probably at a cabin in White Lake, in Langlade County, with friends. The Langlade County Sheriff's Office determined that to be untrue.

Formal charges were laid against Chandler Halderson on Thursday, July 15, by the Dane County District Attorney’s Office.

Extended members of the Halderson family still live in the Valders area.

On its Facebook page, the Dane County Sheriff's Office expressed its sorrow: "The members of Dane County Sheriff’s Office first want to extend our thoughts and prayers to the friends and family of Bart and Krista Halderson. This has been a trying and emotional time and the Dane County Sheriff’s Office is doing everything we can to bring closure and justice to this investigation."

No funeral or memorial arrangements have been made public. When they are, they will be posted at thebrillionnews.com.

~ Ed Byrne/BN