Brantner convicted in 1990 death of Berit Beck
Alford plea submitted after initial mistrial
FOND DU LAC – The mother of murdered teenager Berit Beck said she had given up hope after nearly three decades of waiting for justice for her daughter.
On July 17, 1990, the bubbly, blondehaired 18-year-old was abducted from her van parked near the Forest Mall in Fond du Lac. She was blindfolded and strangled or suffocated. Her decomposed body was found six weeks later in a grassy ditch near rural Waupun.
Diane Beck’s hope was restored Friday when Dennis Brantner was convicted in Fond du Lac County Circuit Court of seconddegree reckless homicide in Beck’s death.
The cold case drew nationwide attention, as a hunt for the killer stretched into months, then years and then decades. Nine previously unidentified fingerprints found in Beck’s van led Fond du Lac County officials to finally arrest Brantner in March 2015.
“We are happy to have the outcome that we did today and we look forward to the sentencing in just a few weeks,” Diane Beck said at a news conference after court adjourned. “It is something I had given up on. I didn’t think we would ever see this case resolved.”
Quiet and emotional, the grieving mother stood by her husband, Dave Beck, and Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney. Brantner, 64, a former truck driver from Kenosha, had been scheduled to stand trial Feb. 12 on a first-degree murder count.
It would have been Brantner’s second trial involving the young woman’s death. The first trialin June 2016 lasted almost three weeks and ended with a mistrial — an 11-1 jury vote in favor of guilt, Toney said.
Through it all, the Becks sat in the front row of the courtroom, awaiting an outcome.
“No family should be forced to endure what Berit Beck’s family has gone through over the past 27½ years,” Toney said. “There is no amount of prison time or punishment that can bring ‘Beri’ back or take away the anguish this family experiences.”
Fond du Lac Judge Robert Wirtz found Brantner guilty of the reduced charge after prosecutors and Brantner’s public defenders reached a plea agreement this week, Toney said.
“A new jury could realistically have come back and found him guilty of second-degree reckless homicide, and as it stood if that happened there would have been no sentence for it because the statute of limitations (for that charge) had run through,” Toney said. “We felt this was the best resolution we could do in accepting the offer from the defense to have them waive the statute of limitations on this.”
The conviction, which carries a 10-year maximum prison term, could put Brantner behind bars for 13 years, and he would remain on extended supervision for more than 20 years. Sentencing is March 1.
Brantner is currently serving a six-year, seven-month prison sentence on a drug case. Brantner entered an Alford plea to the reduced charge. The plea allows defendants to maintain their innocence while acknowledging there is strong proof of guilt.
Berit Beck had been hired as a secretary at the Boldt Construction Company and was bound for a three-day job training seminar. She stopped at Walgreens to purchase cosmetics, and the Forest Mall along the way, but never made it to Appleton.
“This doesn’t settle well, but this is the best we’re gonna get out of a real bad situation,” Fond du Lac County Sheriff Mick Fink said about the conviction. “This is about Berit Beck, and our feeling has been there needs to be closure.”
Brantner has maintained his innocence throughout, telling detectives in 2014: “I swear, I did not kill her. I did not kill her because I am not that way.”
Toney said new evidence would have been brought forth in the new trial.