Justine’s Voice

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Speaker 6 Auburn, California, above the fog and below the snow.

Speaker 5 The perfect place.

Speaker 8 Rural,

Speaker 9 steep cliffs, wooded areas, dirt roads.

Speaker 5 There are a lot of places to bury a body.

Speaker 11 What were you doing that brought you here in 2003?

Speaker 12 I was conditioning a horse to do endurance.

Speaker 12 That was Labor Day weekend, Saturday, that I came up on just my normal training ride. Right about here,

Speaker 12 I saw a freshly dug hole in the brush. The rest of my ride, I kept trying to justify why it was there.

Speaker 11 It sort of haunted you, it sounds like.

Speaker 4 It did.

Speaker 8 We had just come home from our summer house up in the Sierras.

Speaker 9 I barbecued.

Speaker 13 At dinner were Don and Lynette Vandershoot, their daughter Justine, and her boyfriend Danny. No one had any idea what nightmare was about to unfold after that meal.

Speaker 14 I gave her a kiss on the forehead, said good night, I love you.

Speaker 15 I spoke to her on the phone.

Speaker 4 I told her that I loved her.

Speaker 14 I was leaving for work at 5, 5.30 in the morning.

Speaker 13 Lynette walks into Justine's room. Justine is not there.
The dog is on the bed. The front door is open, and her car is gone.

Speaker 5 17 years old, disappears, leaves everything behind without trace. It felt sinister.

Speaker 9 We're going to find her. We searched and searched everywhere.

Speaker 5 There were searches that the bandershuts organized. And then there were searches that we did on our own with our search and rescue teams.

Speaker 12 I try to imagine what it was like and what it's going to be like when she comes back.

Speaker 5 Danny and his roommate, Brandon, were on the sheriff's radar quickly.

Speaker 17 Friends started to come forward about how jealous Danny was of Justine.

Speaker 5 They were interviewed that first day.

Speaker 10 They said, oh no, we were home all night.

Speaker 5 There's a belief right away that they are concealing something about Justine's disappearance.

Speaker 18 Okay, how Satan. Have you ever seen anyone die, Brandon?

Speaker 5 Tone changes, story changes, he

Speaker 5 confesses.

Speaker 13 Brandon claims that Danny killed Justine.

Speaker 18 She's laying down and he's over her and his hands were not released.

Speaker 17 He explained that Danny was choking her and that he helped bury her.

Speaker 4 Let's go.

Speaker 13 At the end of the interview, Brandon led the investigators to the location of Justine's body.

Speaker 19 Justine Vanderschut's body discovered buried in a shallow grave.

Speaker 12 The Auburn Journal had a photo of just the brush where Justine had been buried and I went, oh my gosh, I saw a freshly dug hole three days prior to her disappearance.

Speaker 12 I immediately, contacted the Sheriff's Department.

Speaker 5 That was a big piece of evidence. That's absolutely cold-blooded, premeditated.

Speaker 3 The Vanderschute family says they are relieved.

Speaker 13 The decision was made to accept pleas to murder from both defendants and give them a life sentence.

Speaker 9 Hopefully we can all move on from here.

Speaker 13 No one would have ever imagined that 20 years later we would still be fighting for justice for Justine and her family. In 2020, Brandon Fernandez filed a petition to get out of his murder conviction.

Speaker 13 If Brandon's petition is granted, one of Justine's killers will walk free.

Speaker 15 We're fighting for her.

Speaker 20 That's why we're here. She doesn't have a voice, so we're her voice.

Speaker 14 It's 21 years since we've lost Justine, but it's still very fresh in our mind.

Speaker 11 It was September 18th, 2003, when Justine Vanderschutt's remains were discovered in a remote location more than two weeks after she disappeared.

Speaker 11 But it's here in this garden outside her bedroom window that her parents, Don and Lynette, still come to find her.

Speaker 14 This is actually Justine's little

Speaker 14 footprint there.

Speaker 11 Mementos of their youngest child and condolence flowers that poured in after her death are now permanently rooted here.

Speaker 14 We call this Justine's garden.

Speaker 11 At the center, a towering dogwood tree, a reminder of her favorite trips to the Sierra Mountains, and a sobering measure of how long she's been gone.

Speaker 14 When we celebrated the 17th anniversary, Christine said she's been gone as long as she was here on Earth.

Speaker 11 Justine's older sister, Christine, sums up what those years have been like for her in one word. Lonely.

Speaker 15 She was my best friend. We were only 18 months apart.

Speaker 20 We did pretty much everything together since day one.

Speaker 11 How would you describe Justine? What was her personality?

Speaker 21 Vibrant, charismatic, just life of the party.

Speaker 21 She made you laugh every time she'd say something.

Speaker 8 She was a spark in our household, that's for sure.

Speaker 4 Little firecracker.

Speaker 14 Cheerleader. Baseball, soccer.
She was always on the go.

Speaker 11 At 17, Justine was on the verge of graduating high school and wanted to pursue a career in fashion and beauty. Did she know what she wanted to do in life after high school?

Speaker 21 She would sew and design her own shirts and shoes. She had to stand out, and that was what she wanted to do for other people: make them stand out and feel beautiful.

Speaker 11 Instead, her family is now forced to grapple with her murder and its aftermath.

Speaker 8 I don't ever want to forget about her, but I don't want to be reminded of what happened.

Speaker 11 But it's not so easy to just pack it up and put it away right no it's not

Speaker 11 in fact the vander shoots say it remains an open wound thanks to ongoing efforts by justine's convicted murderers danny bezemer and brandon fernandez to get out of prison retired placard county sheriff ed bonner including parole hearings i think the vanderschuts have been back to court seven times in the last seven years always facing the possibility it's hard to imagine that both men were once welcome in the family's home.

Speaker 11 First came Brandon.

Speaker 21 I believe it was probably seventh or eighth grade that I started to become friends with him.

Speaker 11 A few years later, he introduced the Vanderschutz to his friend Danny.

Speaker 21 It was actually at a birthday party for me. We had a pool party and Danny was actually coming to the house to meet me.

Speaker 11 But it was Danny and Justine who clicked. And while she was only 15 and he was about 17, they quickly became serious.

Speaker 20 From From that party on, they were always, always together.

Speaker 11 They even talked about perhaps getting married, is that right?

Speaker 21 Yeah, they were very serious. He became kind of like a fixture in our family.
His dad wasn't really in the picture and he didn't really have a mom.

Speaker 21 So to come into our household and see how a real family was, I think that was something that he was attracted to as well.

Speaker 11 The Vanderschutz offered Danny the support and stability of a happy family life.

Speaker 21 I considered him like a brother almost.

Speaker 11 Dawn even got Danny his first real job working with him at an auto dealership and his own key to the house. But looking back, the Vanderschutz now see red flags they didn't recognize then.

Speaker 8 Controlling.

Speaker 21 Telling her who she could see and who she couldn't, monitoring her texts and her cell phone calls, her frustrations were really starting.

Speaker 23 He was so jealous and very possessive over her. She couldn't go out and hang out with friends without him freaking out and getting upset and pouting.

Speaker 11 Lindsay Morris was Brandon's girlfriend and says Justine confided in her about problems with Danny.

Speaker 23 She even said, I don't know if I break up with him, if he'll ever really let me go.

Speaker 21 Towards the end, she was trying to pursue certain things that he was trying to hold her back from. He didn't want anything to change.

Speaker 11 And she was sort of growing up and maybe growing apart from him at that point.

Speaker 21 Yes, I think so.

Speaker 11 Retired Placer County Detective Angela Ford says Danny's fears of Justine leaving him reached a fever pitch in April of 2003 when Justine met someone during a spring break trip to Florida.

Speaker 17 Justine had developed a friendship with a Navy sailor there at Pensacola.

Speaker 11 Did she tell you about the man she met in Florida?

Speaker 14 She did. She liked him, I think it kind of opened her eyes.

Speaker 17 When Justine came back, she was definitely talking about this guy and telling all of her friends about how amazing he was and how attractive he was and how she wished she could spend more time with him.

Speaker 17 Danny had gotten wind of this.

Speaker 21 He thought he was losing her.

Speaker 11 And they say Danny became consumed with the idea that Justine was cheating on him.

Speaker 23 Danny had asked me, would I be willing to wear a wire?

Speaker 23 So I can get her to confess this. He wanted the proof.
I told him, absolutely not.

Speaker 11 And there was another troubling dynamic among Justine, Danny, and Brandon.

Speaker 17 Once Justine came into the relationship, their friendship wasn't the same as it was before.

Speaker 11 Justine believed Brandon was a serial cheater and a bad influence, so she gave Danny an ultimatum, him or her.

Speaker 11 Danny and Brandon lost touch for about a year, but by late 2002, they reconnected and decided to become roommates. It was a triangle that was sort of toxic at that point.

Speaker 21 Exactly. And it kind of really fueled when Danny and Brandon moved in together.

Speaker 11 Justine continued to be a thorn in Brandon's side.

Speaker 23 Brandon hated Justine with a passion, would constantly say that she was a whore and that she

Speaker 23 manipulated Danny.

Speaker 11 In 2003, a few days before Labor Day, Justine attended a party at Danny and Brandon's apartment.

Speaker 23 We sat on the front porch, just talking, and we both agreed that we were going to get rid of these guys and that we wanted a fresh start and that we could do better.

Speaker 5 Justine was getting ready to go to the next stage.

Speaker 7 Danny was not going to allow it.

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Speaker 11 In the early morning hours of Tuesday, September 2nd, 2003, Lynette Vanderschutt found her daughter's bedroom empty and her truck gone from their driveway.

Speaker 5 This was so uncharacteristic of their daughter. So different from any behaviors in the past.

Speaker 14 She has no money,

Speaker 14 no ATM, no credit card, no identification on her at all.

Speaker 11 Justine's family frantically turned to the community for help.

Speaker 5 The Vanderchutes, passionate, and they got organized.

Speaker 14 This is my sister. She's been missing since Tuesday.
We went through all of Auburn, hanging the missing poster flyers,

Speaker 14 tying the pink ribbons around because pink was her favorite color.

Speaker 14 Justine, we love you. We're all out looking for you.
Please call us and let us know you're okay.

Speaker 11 Pretty soon, everyone was looking for Justine.

Speaker 11 Was Danny assisting in any of these search efforts in the beginning?

Speaker 17 Danny showed up a number of times, and he would wear the t-shirts.

Speaker 11 He seemed really concerned.

Speaker 19 She's been gone for three days now, and concern is growing.

Speaker 11 The first break in the case came when Justine's truck was located at a parking ride about five miles from the Vanderschute home. It was parked right here in this parking space.

Speaker 5 Once we had that, then our belief was that

Speaker 5 she was not far.

Speaker 11 Matt Scribner was out riding his horse when he saw searchers gathered at the park and ride. Like many in the area, he had seen reports of Justine's disappearance.

Speaker 12 I thought, well, they might be searching this area because at the time, there was a direct access from the park and ride to this area.

Speaker 11 A week earlier, he had seen a freshly dug hole along the trail. But as he rode through again this time.

Speaker 11 Did you notice anything different?

Speaker 6 The hole was not

Speaker 12 there anymore. There was debris over the top of it.

Speaker 11 But the significance of that would not become clear until later.

Speaker 12 I wasn't thinking like that.

Speaker 11 Nobody thinks like that.

Speaker 11 As the search continued, Placer County District Attorney Morgan Geyer says investigators considered the possibility that Justine had left the state.

Speaker 13 The park and ride is located on a very busy interstate, Interstate 80 that runs the length of our country. We have a car that is locked and looks as if it was left intentionally.

Speaker 13 Did she meet someone there and jump on the freeway?

Speaker 11 Danny had told detectives early on about the Navy man Justine had met in Florida.

Speaker 17 Danny was actually one of the first people to say, well, maybe she's off in Florida because there's some guy she likes in Florida.

Speaker 5 You have to assume everything's possible. Our detectives made contact with the Naval Intelligence Service.
They tracked him down right away.

Speaker 4 Boom.

Speaker 17 They did an extensive interview with him, and it was determined that he didn't have anything to do with her disappearance.

Speaker 5 Danny, however, kept throwing that out there.

Speaker 11 Danny told the media about a strange call he had received.

Speaker 16 There's been an inquiry to my credit in Florida. Someone tried to get a credit card there, and I'm really hoping it's Justine.

Speaker 19 They call tonight's vigil the vigil of hope.

Speaker 11 Her loved ones clung to the hope that she was still alive and thought she was possibly being held against her will.

Speaker 27 It's you you guys that keep us doing all the support.

Speaker 28 We're all gonna bring her home. We're gonna find her.
She's gonna get away.

Speaker 28 She's a fighter.

Speaker 11 Meanwhile, Danny appeared to be the distraught boyfriend on the local news.

Speaker 16 Two and a half years of my life have been devoted to that girl and

Speaker 16 now that that part of my life is gone.

Speaker 11 Holding a photo of Justine and an engagement ring appraisal, he made his own plea.

Speaker 16 She means more to me and her family than she does to you.

Speaker 16 And whoever it is needs to just let her go and let her come home.

Speaker 11 But suspicion was growing around Danny and friends were coming forward about his toxic relationship with Justine.

Speaker 5 Danny's possessive. He's jealous.
He's angry. He believes Justine is cheating on him.

Speaker 10 He's angrier.

Speaker 5 And all those things began to roll.

Speaker 11 Detectives also began looking deeper into his relationship with Brandon.

Speaker 6 As we interviewed more and more people, find these guys were together.

Speaker 5 Generally what they did, they did together.

Speaker 13 By most accounts, Danny sort of looked up to Brandon. Brandon was known to be smart, somewhat cunning.
He sort of had an edge to him.

Speaker 11 They had some things in common, like juvenile brushes with the law.

Speaker 13 Danny Besmer had a history of thefts, burglaries, possession of stolen property. Brandon Fernandez had been prosecuted for essentially computer hacking.

Speaker 23 For somebody who was a total geek, he was very, very confident in himself. Danny was more of

Speaker 23 a follower.

Speaker 11 And detectives learned they shared a disturbing fixation with murder.

Speaker 5 They talked about killing people. They talked about disposing of the bodies, meaning polygraphs.

Speaker 5 Well before the disappearance of Justine Vandershut.

Speaker 23 He had told me there's a couple spots where if I ever wanted to kill you, nobody would ever find you. This was something he had just said as a joke.

Speaker 11 Brandon had created a website ranking levels of violence.

Speaker 5 He had pictures of people dead, dying.

Speaker 13 Things that give you chills up the back of your neck.

Speaker 11 One of the levels discussed thinking about committing some form of violence, but not doing it. Another level talked about committing the violence contemplated on an animal.

Speaker 11 I mean, that's not normal behavior for a young man.

Speaker 13 It is not normal behavior, and it is certainly consistent with those who find value and thrill in killing other human beings.

Speaker 11 Investigators questioned Danny and Brandon throughout the investigation. Both of them said they had spent the evening alone together in their apartment.

Speaker 5 The fact that each boy was the other's alibi is a red flag.

Speaker 11 And that wasn't the only red flag. As detectives retraced Justine's last steps, they knew her cell phone shut off in the area where her truck was found.
But then they found something very interesting.

Speaker 5 They got the last two incoming phone calls to her on the night she was murdered. They were both from

Speaker 5 Brandon Fernandez.

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Speaker 11 As the search for Justine Vander Schute entered its third week.

Speaker 19 Day 15 that Justine Vander Schoot has been missing.

Speaker 11 There was no sign of the missing teen alive or dead.

Speaker 5 We had no body. We didn't have a lot.

Speaker 11 Sheriff's detectives decided to up the ante.

Speaker 11 They enlisted the help of the FBI to interview Danny and Brandon again.

Speaker 5 We needed to separate them, number one, but to have one roll on the other.

Speaker 11 On September 17th, 2003, detectives questioned Danny Bessemer at Sheriff's Headquarters.

Speaker 4 Tell me why you didn't do it because I was sleeping.

Speaker 11 The same afternoon, Detective Angela Ford and FBI agent Jeff Reinack and his partner drove Brandon Fernandez from his job to the FBI building in Sacramento. Did he seem nervous?

Speaker 11 I mean, when the FBI shows up at your job and wants to talk to you?

Speaker 10 He didn't seem nervous.

Speaker 13 He seemed like he had nothing to hide.

Speaker 11 Brandon told the agents he had jet skied all day with coworkers, and after going home, he went out to run an errand because he wasn't feeling well.

Speaker 18 I went down to get a VA juice. I had the flu at this point.

Speaker 11 He said he got pulled over for running a stop sign and accidentally called Justine twice.

Speaker 4 Justine's cell phone is right next to my girlfriend's number.

Speaker 11 He said he returned home and went to bed. Brandon said Danny had also been home after having dinner with the Vanderschutz.

Speaker 11 But the agents were about to catch Brandon in a big lie.

Speaker 5 Danny and Brandon first said, no, we were by ourselves.

Speaker 4 Well, no, it turns out that they weren't.

Speaker 11 Sheriff's detectives had received a tip from Brandon's cousin, Clayton Cole.

Speaker 11 He told them that he and a friend had stayed at Brandon and Danny's place the night Justine went missing and saw them leave.

Speaker 17 They knew that Danny and Brandon didn't come back until much later.

Speaker 18 We're going to play something to you.

Speaker 13 What is this? What Brandon didn't know is that the investigators had a recorded phone call.

Speaker 11 After receiving that tip, detectives had asked Clayton to call Brandon and recorded the conversation.

Speaker 11 I talked to my dad about the salt testing thing, and I had to go to the cops today.

Speaker 11 On the call, Brandon repeatedly told Clayton to lie to police and to say that Clayton and his friend weren't there that night.

Speaker 17 And at that point, he knew we had a lot more information.

Speaker 11 With Brandon now rattled, Agent Reinek asked a key question.

Speaker 18 Have you ever seen anyone die?

Speaker 18 Brandon, yes.

Speaker 13 He won't wife.

Speaker 11 Brandon broke and admitted he knew where Justine was. But first he said he needed protection from Danny.

Speaker 18 Can you take me somewhere safe? Can you bring my girlfriend somewhere safe?

Speaker 11 He wants to tell you a little bit more, but he's pointing it.

Speaker 13 Towards Danny. It's all towards Danny.
I had nothing to do with it.

Speaker 18 He's scary, intelligent. He has built everything

Speaker 18 in lies.

Speaker 18 He is a great actor. He's a monster.

Speaker 4 Sorry, Clint.

Speaker 18 How long was it planned

Speaker 16 to hurt Justine?

Speaker 18 Long. He had planned it forever, almost.

Speaker 11 Brandon told them he knew Danny had tapped Justine's phone to catch her cheating and confront her.

Speaker 18 I didn't know what was going to happen.

Speaker 11 But Brandon insisted he had no idea Danny would seek revenge that night. He says as far as he knew, they were just going to meet up with Justine to steal marijuana plants from a farm.

Speaker 11 He now said those calls to Justine's phone were him trying to get hold of Danny to back out.

Speaker 17 And Danny said, no, man, you need to come up here.

Speaker 11 Brandon said he met up with Danny and Justine at the park and ride around midnight and they got in his car with Danny giving directions. When he parked, he said Danny wanted to talk to Justine alone.

Speaker 11 So he walked away for a bit.

Speaker 18 I went down this

Speaker 4 hill.

Speaker 18 I was looking around and I figured out he's still up there for a while.

Speaker 11 After a few minutes, he says he heard the car horn, followed by a scream. He hurried back to find Danny had strangled Justine, his hands still around her neck, and a taser next to her lifeless body.

Speaker 18 He looked at me and he just was psycho. His eyes were just bulging out and he was laughing.
He was saying, I win. I win.

Speaker 11 Brandon said those words were in reference to a song called The Game.

Speaker 4 Do you think that we could play another game?

Speaker 11 That Danny had playing on a loop in Brandon's car, a soundtrack to her murder.

Speaker 13 The lyrics detail a girlfriend's infidelity and her ultimate murder by her boyfriend.

Speaker 13 And interspersed with that song are vignettes of Justine's own words as she's talking either to another boy or about another boy.

Speaker 11 And some of the lyrics just excruciating. You always wanted people to remember you.
Don't you know your wish is coming true today?

Speaker 11 Another victim dies tonight. The fear that she must have faced.

Speaker 13 I can only imagine if you saw it in a movie, you probably wouldn't believe it.

Speaker 11 Even though Brandon had initially said Justine was dead when he made it back up the hill, his story began to evolve.

Speaker 13 What he was doing

Speaker 7 was

Speaker 4 slowly

Speaker 13 putting himself at the scene of the death.

Speaker 18 Did you hear her exhale? Yes. It was like

Speaker 18 a really screwed up breath.

Speaker 4 It

Speaker 18 kept happening.

Speaker 13 According to Brandon, she was still alive at that point. And also, according to Brandon, she was already dead at that point.

Speaker 13 His own statements internally are inconsistent and demonstrate where he's trying to lie to get out of this.

Speaker 11 Brandon said Danny removed her clothing and put her in a grave they dug that night and poured a liquid over her to decompose the body. He says he prayed for it to end.

Speaker 4 I said, please just go.

Speaker 18 He wanted her to die so it'd be over.

Speaker 4 I thought she might have still been alive and he was going to do something more brutal than she was.

Speaker 10 He's watching her die.

Speaker 11 And he's not helping her.

Speaker 10 He's not helping her, no.

Speaker 11 But Brandon said he was scared Danny would kill him too.

Speaker 18 He made me bury her and he made me promise and say that I was his brother, that I would never say anything. And he said he would kill himself or others.

Speaker 18 And then he had mentioned my girlfriend and Justine's family. He said he was going to take them out next.

Speaker 11 After a four and a half hour interview, Brandon agreed to take them to the scene. It was about 9.30 at night, so dark walking through this, I can only imagine.

Speaker 17 When we first pulled up to come here, there was something shiny on the ground. It was a piece of her jewelry.
It was two little cherries put together.

Speaker 11 A few yards away in a clearing among the trees, her grave lay hidden under an old mattress.

Speaker 29 Danny, I'm Sergeant McDonald. I want to show this to you.

Speaker 11 It wasn't long before detectives informed Danny, who said very little during his six-hour interrogation, that they'd found the grave site.

Speaker 29 I just got back from there. Guess who took us there? And guess who he's blaming for the whole thing?

Speaker 11 The next morning, a team of investigators digging through the hard clay dirt unearthed Justine Vanderschute's remains.

Speaker 5 There's a relief, and then there's pain.

Speaker 11 Danny and Brandon were both arrested and charged with Justine's murder. After two and a half weeks, the search was finally over.
But justice would prove elusive.

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Speaker 21 I drove home and I see the chaplain

Speaker 21 and I see detectives. My mom's crying.
And my dad said, Your sister's not coming home.

Speaker 11 I passed out, literally. And it's still hard to relive that moment.
Yeah.

Speaker 11 On September 18th, 2003, Justine's family shared their heartbreak with the community.

Speaker 5 I almost sensed Lynette just crumbling. And I put my hand on her shoulder and just kind of propped her up.
And we announced that

Speaker 5 this family's worst fears

Speaker 5 had come true.

Speaker 19 Danny Besamer and his roommate Brandon Fernandez were arrested Wednesday.

Speaker 9 If the two gentlemen that are in custody now are responsible for this,

Speaker 9 they need to burn in hell.

Speaker 11 Detectives interviewed Danny Bessemer again and told him they needed information about Brandon Fernandez's role in the murder.

Speaker 29 Just talk about Brandon. Don't talk about Danny.

Speaker 11 Believing Brandon has a deal with the FBI, Danny tried to haggle.

Speaker 18 How can I get the same vote Brandon's in right now?

Speaker 29 I don't have the authority to say let's make a deal.

Speaker 11 Okay. Ultimately, he broke down and started talking.

Speaker 4 I really want to tell you everything I do.

Speaker 11 Danny admitted he had started to strangle Justine, but then she said

Speaker 4 four words that just changed my mind.

Speaker 4 Those words were Danny, I love you.

Speaker 11 But he said Brandon was the one who encouraged him to keep going.

Speaker 4 He tells me it's too late now. It's already attempted murder.

Speaker 11 Danny admitted he had poured drain cleaner over Justine's body, but said Brandon had poured it down her throat.

Speaker 17 There was a black tarry substance on top of her. And then after the autopsy, there was a black tarry substance inside of her lungs.

Speaker 11 Justine's official cause of death was listed as homicidal violence. But further testing suggested she had also ingested dirt.

Speaker 13 There is no other way to be that far down and into the bronchial canals means she inhaled it.

Speaker 6 She was alive.

Speaker 11 Taking into consideration the family's wishes to avoid a painful prolonged trial, prosecutors at the time offered a plea deal.

Speaker 11 As a condition of his plea agreement, Danny spoke with detectives again and gave new details about Brandon's role. What was the story he started to tell?

Speaker 13 Danny tells a story ultimately that involves Brandon as the mastermind. Brandon is claiming he is merely a victim of circumstance and he panicked and participated in the cleanup and the getaway.

Speaker 11 So we know the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Speaker 13 It really does. And Brandon does a pretty good job of incriminating Danny and Danny does a pretty good job of incriminating Brandon.

Speaker 11 In 2005, Danny Besimer pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of 25 years to life.

Speaker 11 Brandon Fernandez pleaded to second-degree murder and received 15 years to life.

Speaker 9 A piece of justice was served. At least we can put some of this behind us.

Speaker 13 Part of their plan was to receive a life sentence that allowed them to at least become eligible for parole and maybe have a chance someday.

Speaker 11 Justine's family made it their mission to ensure that would never happen.

Speaker 11 Brandon Fernandez came up for parole in 2017 and was denied.

Speaker 21 Every time they get denied, that's justice for her.

Speaker 11 The family breathed a sigh of relief, but their lives would soon be upended once again.

Speaker 13 In 2018, California changed the law of murder. In 2020, Brandon Fernandez filed a petition to get out of his murder conviction based on the new law.

Speaker 11 The new law reduced the fault of defendants who didn't actually do the killing, like a getaway driver.

Speaker 11 Brandon wanted to have his life sentence for second-degree murder thrown out and and to be re-sentenced as an accessory after the fact.

Speaker 14 He still has not taken any responsibility. He's guilty just as much as Danny.

Speaker 11 Brandon's defense attorney, Steve D. Philippis, maintains his client was only guilty of being taken in by Danny's schemes.

Speaker 10 Clearly, Brandon was in the wrong. He shouldn't have participated in the cover-up of this, and that's what he did.

Speaker 10 And absolutely, he should be convicted of that, but shouldn't be held responsible for a murder.

Speaker 11 A judge presiding over the resentencing case in 2020 denied Brandon's motion, but that ruling was reversed by the Court of Appeals and sent back due to yet another shift in the legal standard.

Speaker 11 Both sides would now have to fight it out in court in an evidentiary hearing.

Speaker 13 We had to call all of the witnesses and we had to prove Mr. Fernandez's guilty.

Speaker 10 The district attorney has to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, and the judge has to make findings beyond a reasonable doubt.

Speaker 11 In May 2024, it would be up to Deputy DA Tim Wertz to prove that Brandon Fernandez helped plan and carry out Justine's murder.

Speaker 5 Once they started kicking this idea around, they built off each other.

Speaker 11 His key witness was Danny Bessemer, who over several days testified how he and Brandon Fernandez were two pillars in the plot to lure Justine to her death.

Speaker 5 Danny talks about how he doesn't want to let Brandon down when they're out there digging the grave. And Brandon says this better not be for nothing.

Speaker 11 Danny described how he and Brandon assumed different responsibilities.

Speaker 5 Danny was going to kill her, and Brandon was going to be involved in the cover-up side of things, the forensics as he described it. Brandon purchased the chemicals that were poured over Justine.

Speaker 11 According to Danny, he and Brandon pre-dug the grave over several days.

Speaker 5 The last time they go to the grave before they bring Justine there is that Mondays during the day to check it out in the light and possibly do some digging.

Speaker 11 And Danny says Brandon provided the tools used to dig, including a pickaxe he took from his parents' house.

Speaker 5 After they kill Justine and bury her, they throw them over the fence at Brandon's parents' house. And the police go and corroborate that.

Speaker 11 The prosecution says it found other evidence at Brandon's workplace that he never mentioned, like pieces of the recording device used to tap Justine's phone and in his shredder, a receipt for a brand new set of tires.

Speaker 11 He was already covering his tracks the day after.

Speaker 13 What we call in the prosecution world consciousness of guilt.

Speaker 11 Brandon's defense attorney insists Brandon was only trying to hide his role in the cover-up, not the murder.

Speaker 11 And he says that relying on Danny Bessemer's testimony is a sign of the prosecution's desperation.

Speaker 10 They don't have a case.

Speaker 8 I often wonder, will I ever get 100% of the truth?

Speaker 4 I don't think we ever will.

Speaker 11 You think he's still a danger?

Speaker 14 Yes, definitely.

Speaker 11 Brandon's defense attorney, Steve D.Filippis, says Danny Bessemer is the real danger. and points out it was Danny who broke bread with Justine's family, knowing he was going to kill her that night.

Speaker 10 This is a Ted Bundy in the making. Somebody Somebody who has no conscience, somebody who has no empathy for other people, basically a psychopath.

Speaker 11 And he argues Danny will say anything in court to improve his chances of being paroled.

Speaker 10 He wants everything to look like Brandon made him do this. He's at that point told either four or five different stories about what happened.

Speaker 11 In his cross-examination, DeFilippes picks apart inconsistencies in Danny's statements about Brandon's involvement.

Speaker 10 You can't corroborate any of his story, and that's deliberately done by him because he knows that it can't be refuted.

Speaker 11 In fact, he argues that the evidence contradicts Danny's story. For one thing, he says if Brandon was really in charge of forensics, he wouldn't leave a trail of evidence.

Speaker 10 The guy who is in charge of forensics is not going to do any of the things that Brandon did. Brandon takes the shovel and leaves it at his parents' home.

Speaker 10 Why would you put something involved in the homicide at your parents' home? Why would you drive your car up to the scene knowing that you're going to leave tire tracks on the dirt?

Speaker 9 You wouldn't do that.

Speaker 11 And another discrepancy, Danny's claim that he and Brandon poured drain cleaner on Justine doesn't match the autopsy findings.

Speaker 11 Instead, those results indicate she ingested methanol, a toxic chemical compound found in a variety of products, but not drain cleaners.

Speaker 11 But Tim Wertz counters that Danny has no reason to lie about that.

Speaker 5 I don't know what theory under which the parole board might look favorably upon Drano, but unfavorably upon methanol being poured on her.

Speaker 5 The only explanation is that he's honestly mistaken, and the only way he'd be mistaken is if he wasn't the one that bought it.

Speaker 11 And Dee Philippis says Brandon has an alibi for that Monday afternoon before the murder when Danny claims they went to the grave site.

Speaker 10 We know that Brandon was up at the lake that day.

Speaker 11 Wertz points out there was a two-hour window when Brandon left to pick up tools to fix a broken jet ski.

Speaker 5 It's just not an alibi. There's plenty of time for him to have done what he said.

Speaker 11 DeFilippis says the timing still doesn't match up with Danny's story.

Speaker 10 Danny also said that the digging was later in the day. It was not in the morning time, which is when Brandon got the tools and went back.

Speaker 11 But the prosecution argues that the defense can't get around Matt Scribner's testimony that he saw a freshly dug hole three days prior to the murder, murder, which is consistent with Danny's account of digging the grave over several days.

Speaker 5 This wasn't a panicked dig that they did at the last minute where Brandon's terrified for his life. The way it actually pans out, Brandon is given immense power.
Brandon knows where the body is.

Speaker 11 After more than two weeks of testimony, the judge gets the case. If Brandon's motion is granted, he will walk free.
It's a familiar fear for the Vanderschutz.

Speaker 14 The hands shaking, just trying to get ready, just brings the emotions up all over again.

Speaker 8 You don't know what to expect.

Speaker 11 On August 1st, 2024, before a courtroom packed with the Vanderschutz and their supporters, as well as Brandon Fernandez, who appeared via video conference and his parents, the judge issued his ruling.

Speaker 11 Was there a palpable concern for the Vanderschutz that one of their daughter's murders could go free?

Speaker 13 That fear, that concern, you could cut it with a knife.

Speaker 11 Cameras were allowed in court, but we were not allowed to record audio. The judge denied Brandon Fernandez's motion and upheld his conviction.

Speaker 24 So I was very nervous. I let out a big sigh as soon as he said it, so it was just yay, feels really good.
Some justice.

Speaker 14 Justice for Justine again.

Speaker 14 He did not get out.

Speaker 14 Very relieved.

Speaker 11 The judge said it was difficult to parse the truth from lies told by by both Danny and Brandon.

Speaker 11 But he says ultimately, it was evident Brandon was in on the murder plot and easily led investigators to Justine's body through rugged terrain in the dark.

Speaker 11 Brandon brought you here and pinpointed exactly. I mean, he knew exactly where it was.
He did.

Speaker 17 He gave us instructions and

Speaker 17 even said you wouldn't find it on your own.

Speaker 11 The ruling is a big win for the Vanderschutz, but only temporary relief.

Speaker 14 In two years, we've got two more parole hearings coming up.

Speaker 11 We're not going away. We're never giving up.

Speaker 8 I'll be there with my cane. I think this one right here is my favorite.

Speaker 11 They're critical of evolving laws that have allowed Brandon Fernandez to keep relitigating his role in Justine's murder.

Speaker 21 I kind of like feel at times we've been on pause.

Speaker 23 We really haven't been able to move forward because we have to relive it.

Speaker 11 In issuing his ruling, the judge acknowledged that the legal system can seem unfair to the victims' families and to survivors.

Speaker 6 I wholeheartedly agree.

Speaker 13 Oftentimes, it feels as if the only rights we are trying to respect are those of the convicted and the guilty and not grieving family members.

Speaker 13 That underlies the problems with this law because it decreases people's faith in the system, that there's finality.

Speaker 11 It's something the Vanderschutz are trying to change by advocating for victims' rights.

Speaker 20 We're trying to do everything we can to prevent this happening to somebody else's family.

Speaker 11 They also partnered with the Placer County DA to sponsor new state legislation.

Speaker 11 Justine's Law, as it's called, passed in 2023 and provides teen dating violence prevention education in high schools throughout California.

Speaker 11 What do you want Justine's legacy to be now?

Speaker 14 To help educate other boys and girls. Even if it saves one life, it's worth everything.

Speaker 11 Matt Scribner says he can't ride through these trails without thinking of Justine.

Speaker 12 In one aspect, it's quiet. They cleaned the area up, it's beautiful.

Speaker 11 In some ways, it's almost like Justine is shining here.

Speaker 13 I believe that.

Speaker 14 We think of her as hummingbirds come to us.

Speaker 14 A lot of times we're back here working in their garden.

Speaker 14 I'll have a little hummingbird. She'll come right up to my face and I'll talk to her and I think of her.

Speaker 14 She's saying hi to me.

Speaker 3 Join me Tuesday for post-mortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.

Speaker 11 You've probably heard of the NCIS from the HIIT TV series, but we're about to take you inside its real-life work.

Speaker 11 Listen to 48 Hours NCIS early and ad-free on the 48 Hours Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 22 This is the story of the one.

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