Slaying victim lived ‘simple life’
Bentdahl loved campy movies, walks, family
Adam Bentdahl preferred to listen rather than talk about himself.
He lived a simple life, enjoyed watching campy horror movies with his sister and making people around him laugh.
And he especially loved taking walks.
Bentdahl was on one of his frequent walks Sunday evening on the Trestle Trail Bridge in Menasha when he was killed in a random shooting rampage in which three others, including a father and his 11-year-old daughter, died.
“He loved to take walks. All the time. He would come over just to take our dogs for a walk, whether or not we went with him,” his brother-in-law Jesse Brickner said. “Being outdoors, walking, enjoying nature, that is why he was on the bridge that night.”
The family thinks Sunday’s balmy weather after the long winter drew Bentdahl to the bridge to enjoy “God’s great outdoors.”
“It is a mystery to us why he went to Menasha to walk — it was not a place that he normally went — but I imagine it was such a beautiful evening, the first in a long, long time, that he thought a walk over the river might be the perfect way to spend a few hours of time,” Brickner said.
Brickner, who is married to Bentdahl’s sister, Tahnae, said the 31-year-old Appleton man came over to their house about once a month, “just to hang out or watch movies.”
“He loved to watch the most campy, ridiculous horror movies with his sister, Tahnae,” Brickner said. “When they’d put one of those on, I’d have to hide in the office and pretend to work.”
He described Bentdahl as perpetually curious — “always interested in what other people were interested in” — and someone who genuinely cared about people. And he said he was always extremely laid back, unless something triggered his sense of humor.
“He could make anyone laugh,” Brickner said. “I’m going to really miss hearing his laugh and his stories. I’ll miss the completely random, out-ofthe-blue questions that he would ask, the type that catch a person totally off-guard. But most of all, I’ll miss knowing that one of the most unselfish, honest, intelligent, and caring individuals that I’ve ever met is no longer ‘only a phone call away.’ ”
Bentdahl worked at The Apollon, a Mediterranean restaurant, for years, and he was never an extravagant person, his family said.
“He lived a fairly simple life — he didn’t spend money on anything really fancy or extravagant. In the 11 years I’ve known him, I can’t remember him ever making any major purchase,” Brickner said. “To him, being around friends and family was far more rewarding and enjoyable than anything money could buy.”
But he loved to travel, whether it was visits to Canada and California with his mother and sister, camping excursions, or a mission trip to Argentina that he did years ago with his church youth group.
Bentdahl, who was born in Mankato, Minn., is survived by a large family, including his parents, seven siblings, his grandparents, six nephews, four nieces and others.
He graduated from Grace Lutheran Christian Grade School and Appleton West High School, then received his associate degree from the University of Wisconsin-fox Valley. He also studied at Uw-oshkosh.
A Gofundme page had raised more than $7,500 to help his family with funeral costs, and the Valley Funeral Home in Appleton also has set up a memorial fund for Bentdahl.
Fox Communities Credit Union announced Tuesday that it will accept donations for the Bentdahl family as well as the other shooting victims, the Stoffel family.
Jonathan Stoffel, 33, and his 11year-old daughter, Olivia, of Neenah also were killed in the shooting.
Erin Stoffel, Jon’s wife, was shot multiple times and was in serious condition Wednesday at Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah. Stoffel, 32, was able to get herself and her two other children, 7-year-old Ezra and 5-yearold Selah, off the bridge.
The shooter, Sergio Valencia Del Toro, 27, shot himself and later died from a head wound.
On Sunday evening, Valencia Del Toro rode his bike to Fritse Park and onto the trestle bridge across Little Lake Butte des Morts, where between 75 and 100 people were walking, jogging, bicycling and fishing.
About two-thirds of the way across the bridge, about 7:30 p.m., he got off his bicycle and without a word pulled out his guns and began firing at strangers, witnesses reported.