What Made Stephanie Casberg’s Case So Unusual? | Forensic Files

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers. >> And I'm Britt. And the story I have for
you today is one that has hung over a corner of Wisconsin for decades. In the summer of 1969, a teenage girl walked
out of a restaurant after her waitressing shift and was never seen alive again. What turned up later,
scattered in pieces across Racine County, told investigators that they were dealing with someone who had skill,
patience, and time. Since then, this case has pulled detectives [music] in every direction from a co-worker whose
own family has been pointing the finger at him for years to a man who terrorized
his children by claiming he was the killer. And just recently, a new lead surfaced,
one that came straight [music] from a Crime Junkie episode to a detective's ears.
This is the story of Stephanie Casberg. [music] Wednesday afternoon, July 9th, 1969
was a great [music] time for fishing in Racine County, Wisconsin. The day was overcast, low 70s with a little drizzle.
If you found just the right spot on Root River, you might catch a ton. One family out that day chose to set up
near an old steel trestle bridge on 8 Mile Road. The bridge had actually been condemned a few weeks earlier, like shut
down to traffic because it's basically falling apart, but that hasn't stopped people from coming by, including this
family. At some point, while they're out there, their 10-year-old son makes his way down the riverbank to fish or just
explore, whatever, but something on the water's edge catches his eye. It's hard to tell what it is from afar, just looks
like this weird lumpy pile of something, but definitely not natural to the river.
Any kid would be curious. So, he inches his way closer and closer, but he stops himself when he realizes
what he's actually looking at. It's a foot. And it sends him running back to his
parents, but the totality of what's there is so much worse. In several piles along the riverbank, half covered by mud
and in a mix of torn brown paper bags and newspaper, were the dismembered remains of a teenage girl,
or at least most of her. What police realized when they came to process the scene is this girl's torso and left leg
were missing. And even a river dive never turns them up, which to police isn't all that surprising because based
on the condition of the remains and how they were found, investigators are leaning toward the theory that they were
likely dumped there, not like that they washed downstream. Now, despite what's missing, there are other clues that have
been left behind, like the newspaper used to wrap sections of the girl's body. It was a Milwaukee Sentinel dated
June 24th. And pressed into some of the newspaper folds are cigarette butts. On top of one of the piles, police collect
a brown leather shoe, and under the remains were burned paper match sticks. Though none of the remains or the paper
itself actually looks burned. What had been partially burned was a military style jacket with all of its patches
removed that was like 8 ft away. And was there blood or anything on the jacket? >> No, it was like caked in mud. It looked
like it actually might have been there for a while, and it was an older style, not something like current service
members would have been issued, more like a fashion thing almost, like the kind of things showing up in thrift
stores at the time. >> Okay. But that's pretty much all they have to go off of as far as what is
found at the scene. What tells investigators far more is what the pathologist finds when he examines the
remains. He sees two small puncture wounds beneath the right side of her chin and a large cut across the back of
her neck. Most of the cuts are precise, almost scalpel-like. So, her probable cause of
death is listed as a neck wound, a severed artery, but really, with no torso, no organs, like that's just a
best guess based on what they have. Now, what the pathologist can determine is that the dismemberment [music] happened
after she was already dead, and the cuts at each joint are deliberate, methodical, like this is the work of
someone who knew what they were doing. Now, the level of decomposition suggests that whoever this girl is, she died
within the last 24 to 48 hours of being found. And even though no one matching her description has been reported
missing, it turns out that someone had been missing her. Because that same night, around 11:00 p.m., officials get
a worried call from Charles Casberg over in Milwaukee. According to Journal Times
reporter Michael Osan, he and his family had just been about to report their teenage daughter Stephanie missing when
one of his children heard a news bulletin about that had been found at Root River. They gave like a vague
description over the broadcast, but Charles tells them about this small mole on the right side of Stephanie's face,
something that they hadn't mentioned was on their Jane Doe, who obviously isn't a Jane Doe anymore. Cuz
by the early hours of July 10th, Charles confirmed that this was his daughter, Stephanie Casberg, whose 18th birthday
would have been the very next day. Her dad and even other members of the family when they talked to them have no
idea who would do something like this. Stephanie was hardworking, she kept out of trouble. I mean, she just graduated
high school, and she was like eager to be out on her own. She'd gotten a job even before graduation, this part-time
job waitressing at a chain restaurant in downtown Milwaukee called Mark's Big Boy. And listen, more than just like
staying out of trouble, Stephanie was kind. Our reporter Nina spoke to a woman named Romaine who lived in her
neighborhood, who actually would later marry one of Stephanie's brothers, but she said that she has clear memories of
Stephanie even though the two only crossed paths briefly. And to Romaine, she was like that older girl who looked
out for the younger kids, the one who made sure that everyone felt included. Stephanie did have a secret, though,
that she had been keeping from her parents. Detectives learned that Stephanie had
been seeing and actually gotten pretty serious with a 22-year-old serviceman named John. And was she keeping it a
secret because of his age? >> No, she was keeping it a secret because John was black. And while she had met
John's family and they seemed to openly accept her, she apparently was afraid of
her parents' reaction. Sneaking around with John is probably one of the reasons Stephanie had been out of the house more
recently. So, her dad said that it wasn't unusual that summer for her to spend a few days at a friend's house.
That's one of the reasons that they hadn't called to report her missing sooner. They'd seen her around the house on
Sunday, July 6th. Unbeknownst to them, John had dropped her off at home at like 4:00 in the
morning that day after a party the night before. And when police talked to John, he says
that's the last time he saw her. Now, we know she left her parents' house sometime on the 6th between 5:15 and
5:30. This is Sunday evening. [music] And John was supposed to pick her up from work when her shift ended around
12:30 a.m. But apparently, he'd fallen asleep. Co-workers said that Stephanie was mad
about it. I'd have been mad if my boyfriend fell asleep and forgot to pick me up. And so, the last they knew is she
walked out the front door of the restaurant with her brown leather purse slung over her shoulder, maybe headed to
catch a bus. But that is truly the last anyone saw her. And like I said, when she didn't come home on Monday, her
parents figured that she was staying with friends. And she was scheduled to work that day, but she was a no-call,
no-show. Though it doesn't sound like anyone notified the Casbergs that first day. Though I will say John had come by
the restaurant looking for Stephanie, which might have signaled that something was up because the next day, Tuesday,
when she's a no-call, no-show again, that's when her supervisor called her family to see if they knew what was
going on. >> [music] >> And that set off this chain of family calls looking for Stephanie. And then
before they could report her missing on Wednesday, that broadcast came out. So, the 12:30 a.m. departure from the
restaurant becomes the last confirmed moment anyone had eyes on Stephanie. And as they start working outward from that
last known sighting, they do find a trail, but it's not Stephanie's. It's her killer's.
Quiet coastal towns may seem peaceful, but they can harbor dark secrets. I'm Kylie Low, host of Dark Down East, a
podcast that tells true crime stories from my own New England community to help victims and families get justice.
Listen to Dark Down East wherever you get your podcasts. >> [music] >> The day after Stephanie's remains were
discovered, residents in the nearby city of Franklin, which is like 6 miles north
of that riverbank, they turn over a cluster of items that had been sitting along a rural road for at least two
days. There was this gold clutch style purse, a blue appointment book, and plastic wallet insert still holding
Stephanie's social security card and her driver's license application. And mixed in all of that were pictures,
like a couple copies of her graduation portrait, and a photo of her father in his Air Force uniform.
And then, ripped into fragments [music] were pictures of like they're like a photo booth style strip showing a young
woman who is alone in the photos. But what's hard to tell is if the photos are pictures of Stephanie. Like there is a
clear shot of this girl's face, and like the dark-haired woman could very well be
her, but for some reason, no one's been able to confirm that. That seems bizarre. And all of these things, like
would that have all fit into the brown purse that she had when she left the restaurant?
>> Yeah, so the lead detective on this case, Racine Sheriff's Lieutenant Brian Van Sock, he told Nina that Stephanie
had this habit of bringing extra clothes in her bag [music] and like swapping out
for her work uniform if she was going to go somewhere after work or like even ride the bus. So, while I haven't seen
the brown bag, I think the brown bag is like a decent size and it gives at least
the assumption to investigators or what the assumption that they've made is that
these are all things that would have been in the purse that Stephanie had with her when she first went missing.
Which tells investigators something important. Someone was moving between Milwaukee, where Stephanie lived, where
she worked, where the newspaper that her body was wrapped in was from, and then Racine County, where her remains were
dumped. And then they seem to have been like shedding evidence along the way. And the window for when that happened
narrows when an attorney [music] contacts the Sheriff's Department. He says that on Monday in like the late
afternoon, early evening, he and two colleagues were out at the condemned bridge doing a detailed ground survey
for a lawsuit. And he is adamant, if remains had been there, they would have seen them because they're not far from
the bridge. So, combine that with the fact that witnesses in Franklin say that the roadside items were there as early
as sometime on Tuesday. I think it's very likely that sometime Tuesday to Wednesday morning is when her
killer disposed of her. Which makes the sighting of a man on Root River on Wednesday just hours before Stephanie's
remains were found very interesting to me. A few miles from where her body was discovered, a man near another small
bridge over on Root River spotted someone below. It was a white guy in his late 40s down at the water either like
putting something into the river or pulling something out. Whatever this guy was doing, he
definitely wasn't fishing though. Right. And it stood out enough that this man took the time to get a good look at this
guy. He was able to describe him to police as a white guy about 5'11, 175 lbs, reddish hair, said that he was
wearing a white t-shirt and he had some kind of bandage on one of his hands. >> that description we know that that
person isn't John. >> No. And this witness even clocked the man's car, too. A white early 60s
Chevrolet parked just south of the bridge with what he believed were Wisconsin plates, which by the way,
isn't John's car either. He had a green Camaro that was in the shop at the time.
[music] And even then, he was driving his sister's blue Mustang. And when he gets asked, he lets police search his
car, his home, whatever. Nothing points to John being involved in Stephanie's murder. But there is this theory that
Stephanie might have been murdered because of him. You see, this rumor catches fire that Charles Casper,
Stephanie's dad, somehow found out about Stephanie and John and that like they were dating
and maybe like killed his own daughter over the relationship. And does he fit the description of bridge guy? No, he
doesn't. But at some point, I mean, this rumor like gets big enough that like investigators do go to him and they just
ask him point-blank, [music] "Did you kill Stephanie?" And his response took me aback even just like
reading it on paper half a century later because he apparently like chuckled and told
them something like "If I had, you never would have found her." Which is like that's
I know. That's not the answer you should be giving here. How long after they find her is he
saying this? I mean, she's found on the 9th and then he is having this conversation with detectives like on the
11th. So >> Oh my god. It's definitely odd. Yeah. But there doesn't seem to be anything to
back up these rumors beyond talk or whatever. Like the Casper house was always full of people and Charles worked
second shift as as a dispatcher. So, presumably he was like on the job during the overnight hours when Stephanie most
likely vanished. I'm sorry, presumably? >> I was just I was just going to say, although
I don't know if the police ever actually like confirmed that, like got like his actual like time cards or records or
whatever. There's actually another Charles related rumor that made the rounds. Romaine, who married Stephanie's
brother, remember, she told us that Charles was known to be a gambler. And there was also some speculation that
maybe Stephanie's murder was like some kind of violent retaliation for unpaid debts.
>> Uh this isn't feel like an unpaid debts hit [music] to me. >> I agree. And it doesn't seem like that
or like the her dating John thing, like either theory related to Charles, none of it ever gains much traction with
investigators. What they keep circling back to is Mark's Big Boy, the restaurant that Stephanie worked at. It
was like the anchor of her routine, set hours, familiar faces, a world they could map. But that world
turns out to be messy with reports of staff drinking on the job, managers hitting on waitresses,
shifts that ended late, >> [music] >> and a cast of men who knew Stephanie's schedule and routine.
Like one of the managers who puts detectives on alert almost immediately with his eagerness. Like he wants to
know if any of Stephanie's clothes were found with her remains. He volunteers unprompted that a woman on the radio,
sort of like a psychic from the sound of it, predicted the killer's initials, which by the [music] way happened to
match his own initials, which are RS. Okay. >> And then at the restaurant, there's also
this 20-year-old cook named Michael Bartelt who catches their attention. [music]
Like John and a lot of other young men at the time, he'd recently come home from Vietnam. Now, Michael's version of
the [music] night tracks with everyone else's except for one detail. He says that Stephanie left work through
the restaurant's back door when she was done with her shift, not the front. It's not a huge discrepancy, but what's
interesting is before they're even finished with him, he asks if it would be all right for him to like go ahead
with this trip that he had been planning to Hawaii. He says like, "I've got the plane ticket already. I've had it since
early July. Like I'll be leaving in a couple of days." And he's like, "By the way, I've already quit my job at the
restaurant." But he is like letting them know cuz he doesn't want like them thinking he is guilty of something if he
just like takes off. Okay, he quit his job for vacation? It Well, it sound like from the sound of it, it
sounds like he plans to be gone for a while. Maybe I should call it like a temporary relocation instead of like a
just a vacation. He's I don't know how much Yeah. And how long after Stephanie's death is this? Like where in
the timeline are we? >> We're still within like days. So, police interview him on Sunday, July 13th. And
he says that he he didn't even quit that day. He had quit the previous Friday, so
a few days even before that. >> And is Michael white guy? He is. >> And what does he drive? Nothing. He
doesn't have a car. I want to say like did he sell it for the vacation? Like now I'm questioning everything.
>> Yeah. But they did check this guy's record. They find nothing more than a couple of like drunk and disorderly
incidents as an adult, so they clear him to go off to Hawaii. Cuz I think really
like at the time they're looking for someone with like a darker history. Someone with more motive. So, they're
much more interested [music] in pursuing a story that they hear from a former waitress.
She tells investigators that about a month before Stephanie was killed, she was [music] attacked while leaving the
restaurant at around 2:00 a.m. She said a man grabbed her by the neck and told her that he would slit her throat if she
screamed. So, she shoved him off, he punched her in the stomach, and thank god another coworker actually came along
and beat this guy with her purse until he took off, like miracle. Now, even though this waitress was injured with
like a deep cut to her throat, she did not report the assault because she didn't think that she could identify the
man. Her and the other coworker just had the same vague description of him. White
guy, maybe early 20s, 5'5 to 5'6, light blonde hair, wearing a white jacket and shoes with cleats. But they're telling
police now, and what really stands out is the MO cuz there had been, it turns out, a string of attacks across downtown
Milwaukee following this kind of same playbook. Women targeted while walking alone, a man with a sharp object,
threats involving cutting and sexual assaults. In fact, one happened not long after Stephanie's remains were found.
This woman was attacked in a parking lot and then stabbed in the shoulder before
the culprit fled in her car. Which by the way, made him an easy catch. They catch the guy. Again, this is days
after Stephanie's found. He's a 17-year-old busboy from Milwaukee's south side. But they can't tie him to the Big Boy
attack that happened before Stephanie's murder and they can't seem to tie him to
Stephanie's murder either. And he never admits to either even though he confesses to violent crimes against four
other women. >> Oh my god. Now, police search this guy's house, but without his confession or
evidence linking him to Stephanie, like nothing comes of it. They move on. >> And if he was 17 then, like
where is that guy now? Oh, I checked for sure. He >> [laughter] >> He Well, so he got convicted of rape. He
spent the next like [music] 6 years cycling between like prison and a mental health institution, but as far as I can
tell, now he's like alive and out in [music] the world. But the only record he has
since then is like for some traffic violations. And listen, like that's not even the only
that they look at, by the way. At one point, detectives get two urgent calls from an anonymous tipster who insists
that an 18-year-old who killed Stephanie after some kind of argument is about to
flee town by [music] bus. Sure enough, they find this guy, nab him at the bus station right as he's about
to board, but he swears that he's leaving because of a family matter, not because he's like running from anything.
[music] And he says that he doesn't even know Stephanie, though he does know her
boyfriend, John. Police, like obviously keep this guy for a little bit. They question him. They end up verifying that
he was working during like this key window of time when Stephanie like left work and they think something happened.
And so they let him go. And this is like the wild part. They actually come to believe that he was the
tipster that called the tip on himself. >> Wait, what? They said that he did it or
they think he did it as some kind of ploy to get attention or sympathy from this girlfriend that he'd been arguing
with, which is like a weird level of manipulation and like like devious that is, to me, right on par with like
physical attacks. >> Yeah. >> So I wasn't surprised to learn that though this guy likely had nothing to do
with Stephanie's case, he did turn out to be a dirtbag. His record after 1969 is a long one. Armed robbery, sexual
assault charges, in and out of Wisconsin prisons for decades. So, long story short, police are chasing
down everything in the first couple of weeks, but they are getting nowhere. There are no sightings that are coming
up of Stephanie like filling in that like lost time where we don't know where she was. Her purse, that brown leather
shoulder bag style thing, still MIA. And there are three agencies trying to coordinate efforts. You got Milwaukee,
where she went missing, Franklin, where some of her belongings were found, and Racine, where some of her remains were
found. The place that they still didn't even have, though, was a crime scene. Everything about the crime points to
someone who had time, who had control, and privacy. Not just to dismember her, but perhaps, they wondered, to keep
missing parts of her. Though they would find out within weeks that actually wasn't the case. It didn't happen until
Monday, July 21st, but that's when a couple on a farm, about 4 [music] and 1/2 miles from the bridge,
finds bones in their yard. Their dog, I guess, had been like dragging them home for a couple of weeks
by then. But it was the human pelvis that made someone realize these weren't just
animal [music] bones. And detectives, when they get brought out, they end up locating this weather-beaten white
cardboard sun-kissed box half buried in heavy brush just off the side of the road. But it's only like 250 feet or so
from this family's farmhouse. And at the bottom of this box is a dirty towel with
pubic hairs on it. And inside and then scattered around it, I mean, they find a lot of bones, a rib cage, a spine, like
other missing parts of Stephanie. Cuz these definitely belong to Stephanie. They fit together perfectly with the
rest of her. But even still, there are parts that are still unaccounted for. Her upper right leg from like her hip to
her knee, and then her entire left leg. Though I will say like it's possible they were there at one point, but then
over the course of like the two weeks before this is found, maybe they got carried off by those family dogs or even
other animals in the area. But like think about what this means. This is a second deliberate disposal site.
>> Yeah, I was going to say like why not leave this with the rest of her by the river? Like now you're miles away and
kind of super close to someone's house. >> what I'm like this person is like making
multiple stops, multiple decisions. It's someone comfortable moving through rural
backroads with a body in pieces. >> Well, and then like there's evidence other places, too. I know. So like when
you're looking at this, the distance between the farthest points, so from Big Boy to the farmhouse, it spans nearly 25
miles. Whoever did this seems to know the area or at the very least like moved through this area with habits.
>> So if you take that with what the pathologist said about this person knowing what they were doing in the
dismemberment, this starts feeling less and less like a one-off. But that's the thing.
They don't have anything else around their area at the time that looks exactly like this case. According to
Journal Times reporter Barbara Heffling, in the years surrounding Stephanie's death, there were multiple unsolved
killings across the region. Young women who were stabbed or bludgeoned, their bodies left along railroad tracks and
rural roads in Racine and Milwaukee counties. I mean, one victim's decomposed remains were found like
stuffed in a bag even along railroad tracks the same month that Stephanie was discovered. We have another one that was
like beaten to death and dumped along a county road. And when you look at these like the geography overlaps, but the
methods are so different. And there is nothing concrete tying or making any connection between Stephanie's [music]
case and these other cases. So investigators begin watching for like this specific MO beyond their own
backyard. And the first case that comes on their radar happens about 7 months after Stephanie's murder. That's when a
young woman, 6 hours away in Detroit, Michigan, is found dismembered in a vacant field. [music]
Body parts are in plastic bags, torso is missing, >> [music] >> and there were cuts that were done
precisely with a large knife. And good news, Detroit police even make an arrest in that case. Two, actually. Both men
are cooks at a local restaurant there. >> Which feels kind of promising, right? >> Kind of, yeah. And so investigators
start circulating photos of these two guys through Stephanie's world. They show them to her coworkers at Big Boy,
friends, acquaintances. The problem is nobody can say for sure if they recognize these guys. Stephanie's father
and brothers don't, but the outlier is Stephanie's mother, who reportedly identifies one of the two men as someone
who had picked Stephanie up at their home before. But that lead fizzles out because both
men say that they were working during the time frame of Stephanie's murder, and they deny ever being in Milwaukee or
Racine areas. And it seems like police can't find any evidence actually tying them to the area
even or to Stephanie. And so that is about when the case begins to go cold. For 19 full years, nothing really
happens, and Stephanie's family have to figure out how to keep moving while a killer walks free. Someone who might
have been passing them at the grocery store or serving them a meal. And it probably would have stayed cold for even
longer if not for one woman who I'm going to call Pam. Pam calls detectives out of the blue one
day in 1988 to tell them that she thinks she knows who killed Stephanie Caspers.
She believes it was her brother, Michael Bartelt, the cook at Big Boy who told investigators that he last saw Stephanie
leave [music] through the restaurant's back door. Not the front door like everyone else said. And Pam says that
she believes Michael might have had help from one of their other brothers, who I'm going to call Dan. Now, remember
that trip to Hawaii, the one Michael told police like he'd been planning, tickets already in hand?
>> Yeah. Pam says that was all BS. Never had tickets, didn't even go to Hawaii, at least not at the time.
Instead, Michael took off somewhere with friends and was gone for like close to a
year. So he didn't go to Hawaii, but he did leave after all. He did, correct, but not to
Hawaii. So investigators wonder if the story was a way to like make his sudden vanishing act look planned. And I don't
know, I'm guessing he said like you're going to go away anyways, why not tell them where you were going?
>> Yeah. I'm kind of guessing maybe Hawaii sounded far enough that they wouldn't
come knocking. >> like a vaca- it's it's like a for sure vacation. >> he didn't want them to know where he
was. And listen, Pam says that their mother helped sell that story cuz they did go question his mom back in '69. And
Pam apparently listened in on the conversation and heard her mom tell investigators like, oh yes, Michael did
go to Hawaii, even though Pam's like he absolutely did not. And by the way, she said their mom told them back then like,
oh, Michael doesn't own a gun. They must have asked him that. No, he doesn't own
a gun. But Pam's like, by the way, she lied to you about that, too. >> [music] >> He definitely did own a gun.
And according to Pam, this kind of behavior from their mom was typical. Like she would routinely lie to protect
[music] her sons. Pam also points out that the Bartelts have family in the area. Their uncle
lives between the two dump sites, about a 3-mile drive from where the sun-kissed
box was [music] found, and less than a mile and a half from the riverbank. Which, by the way, investigators realize
is actually visible from parts of that [music] family property. And Pam says that Michael spent years fishing and
hunting in that area. He knew it well. But beyond all of this, one of the main reasons that she suspects him, forget
the geography, forget the fact that he knew Stephanie. She says it's what he did to his own family. Because Pam
alleges that Michael sexually abused her and others. And Michael did have a juvenile charge for indecent behavior
with a child. >> I thought they checked his record. His adult record. Now, police knew about the
juvenile charge at the time I found out, but for whatever reason, they didn't seem to make much of [music] it. And on
top of that, Pam also says that Michael was running with a gang back then. So, why does she think her other brother
Dan's involved? Like did he know Stephanie, too? Not that I'm aware of, but Pam basically says that Dan also
sexually abused her and that about a month after Stephanie's murder, he had some kind of mental breakdown and had to
be hospitalized, which she sees as a potential reaction to him feeling guilty, which I think is
interesting. But it seems like police at this time are like much more focused on
Michael. [music] Who, by this point, has actually relocated to Hawaii, where he was living
with his wife. But he would have been wrong if he thinks that they're not going to come knocking for this. [music]
So, investigators coordinate with law enforcement out there. And in June of '88, this is almost 6 months after Pam
originally calls in and tips them off. This detective sits down with Michael. And surprisingly, I mean, to me at
least, he is cooperative and agrees to talk to them. He describes Stephanie as someone that he barely knew and implies
that he had no interest in her sexually. >> He was already dating a few other women
who like worked at the restaurant at the time. [music] Sure, fine, whatever. It's not even like
he said they were close like back then or anything. But now, in '88, he is putting major distance between them.
Because his story changes. [music] Before, he says that he saw Stephanie leave out the back door when she was
done with her shift at 12:30. Now, he says that he typically clocked out around 10:30, 10:45 at night, which
would have put him out the door well before Stephanie left at 12:30. >> So, he's saying that he doesn't remember
seeing her leave at all. This is the problem. He's not committing to anything now. He's just saying that
he probably wouldn't have seen her leave because he probably wouldn't have been there at that time. [music] And what
does he say about the whole Hawaii of it all? He admits that he didn't go to Hawaii back then. He says he actually
went to Las Vegas with the manager from the restaurant, the one that gave police
like creepy vibes, along with a woman that that manager was dating. >> [music] >> But he's like, "Listen, I had I had
police's blessing to go." Uh no, they cleared you to go to Hawaii. No one said anything about you going to Vegas with
your creepy manager. It doesn't seem like that answer rubs detectives the wrong way, I guess because it's not like
they went looking for him. So, like they don't press him on that. And the bottom line is Michael denies any
involvement in Stephanie's [music] murder. All these years later, they don't have much that they can do to
prove or disprove what he's saying, either. They're like in [music] that weird spot before technology can even
help. >> Mhm. So, since they only have Pam's account, the case goes cold again. But
Pam's account includes someone else. Like did they ever even interview Dan? They did a few times, yeah. But like he
denied being involved in like murder or like sexually assaulting anyone. So really, I mean, I think at this point
they're like they got to wait for technology to [music] advance. Like right? I mean,
'88, you can see it coming, right? Like it's just around the corner in the '90s.
But even with what they have, like really what they're working with in this case is pubic hairs, so early '90s can't
do much with that, either. Those don't get sent off until 2009. And when they do, though, they actually
get something promising. Even for 2009, when I saw that, I was like, "Oh, it's going to be too early to do anything."
No, two of the pubic hairs produce two different partial male DNA profiles. Only one of them is strong enough for
state databases. [music] No match there, though. Neither is good enough for the national
database CODIS. Okay, but can they tell if the two profiles are related? >> Not with what
>> Not with what they have. The profiles aren't strong enough to make that determination. And by the way, it
doesn't even mean that two men were involved. It just means that at least two different men left hairs on this
towel somehow. >> Right. Where did the towel come from? How did it even get in the box? Where
did the box come from? Is this your killer's DNA? Maybe, maybe not. But I do think finding the person who belongs to
these hairs has a very high likelihood of getting you at least one step closer to your killer.
>> And by the way, a partial profile is good enough for comparison to a full profile. So, you can go one by one and
do direct comparisons. If someone comes on their radar when the case gets reinvestigated. Like this can be used as
a tool to help rule people in or out. And the first two people they test are Michael and that suspicious manager who
gave police the bad vibes back in '69. And both are ruled out. But I will say the sample they had from Michael Bartelt
was shaky cuz it was covertly obtained from a plastic fork that he had used in 2012.
So, even with that, like they didn't have much confidence in those results. And then the next person they end [music] up
checking is this guy named Wilbert Mackie. He hadn't come up at all in the case file.
>> [music] >> Well, an anonymous caller puts him on police's radar in 2015. And he's an
interesting lead, for sure, because it turns out that he lived on 8 Mile Road, like less than 10 minutes from
that Root River condemned bridge where her remains are found. And the story behind this lead is wild. So, the caller
says that one of Wilbert's son, who lives down in Florida, has been talking, claiming that his father was a serial
killer who butchered a young woman and dumped her near Root River in the late '60s. And that Wilbert forced his own
daughter, who was just a child at the time, to help him dispose of the body. Now, [music] police can't talk to
Wilbert about any of this because he died in prison in 2009 [music] at the tail end of a 20-year sentence
for child sex offenses. [music] I mean, it sounds like he's a pretty strong contender right out of the gate. Yes,
but in late 2016, investigators do track down two of his adult children, including the daughter who was allegedly
forced to help dispose of the body. >> Mhm. Now, she describes a father who was cruel and abusive, like in every way,
physically, sexually, psychologically. She says that he was obsessed with Stephanie's case and with like true
detective magazines. He would make the kids read what he called Root River Killer stories out loud and then tell
them everything the stories got wrong, which he says he knew because he was the real killer. And his daughter says she
does have this early childhood memory of being forced to throw heavy, sticky bags
into Root River. And her father told her to make sure that they sank. Afterwards, she said Wilbert scrubbed
his car clean. And their family property was overrun with dogs, like more than a
hundred of them. And when they got sick, Wilbert would kill them, butcher them, and then feed them to the other dogs.
I'm telling you, like this dude was the stuff nightmares are made of. But as damning as all of this sounds, none of
it was provable. Investigators nowadays can't even confirm that, you know, he called it the Root River Killer. Like
they don't even know that as a real moniker. Like it was never used by the media, it was never used by law
enforcement. So, there's a world where Wilbert just invented it to terrorize his kids. And listen, moniker aside,
they do get a DNA sample from one of Wilbert's sons to compare against the pubic hair.
No match. Although, that son tells police that there are rumors he may not even be
Wilbert's biological child. So, like there's this moment where they're like, "Does this mean anything?"
>> Yeah. But luckily, there was still a sample of Wilbert's DNA in CODIS because of his
[music] record. So, they do end up doing a better comparison. It's still not a match.
So, he fades out of the picture. But speaking of families pointing fingers at their own,
just a few years ago, one of Michael Bartelt's brothers came forward claiming that he, too, was suspicious of Michael,
just like Pam was. And I'm assuming this brother is not Dan. No, this is a different brother. This guy reaches out
to Romaine after she was interviewed about Stephanie's case for a news segment. And he tells Romaine that he is
confident that Michael killed Stephanie. And that like the whole family has a theory about what happened and why.
Certain members of the Bartelt family have always suspected Michael to [music] be Stephanie's killer.
There was even a rumor within the family at some point that Michael's wife found
one of Stephanie's earring in the car that he'd been using and that she had been holding it ever since, like stored
in a safe deposit box that her sister has, [music] using it as leverage over Michael or as like an insurance policy
or maybe both. Now, this is a little confusing to me because it doesn't seem like Michael was involved with his wife
when Stephanie was killed. They didn't marry until 3 years later. And like she didn't go with him to
Vegas. So, when or how she would have found this earring doesn't make a whole lot of sense in my mind. [music]
But this does hold some decent weight for investigators because when Stephanie was found, she did have an earring in
one ear but not the other. So, the theory that this family has goes like this. Michael borrows a car. Remember,
he didn't own one. >> Right. [music] He lures Stephanie into it by offering to show her an apartment
for rent. And we know for a fact that after graduating, she was wanting more independence and her and John were
supposedly even talking about trying to get a place together. So, this would track. And a lot of people knew that she
was like itching to get out of her parents' house. So, I'm sure this is something that she probably even talked
about at work. So, after he got her in the car, the family believes something went wrong. He may have made
advances toward her or drugged her. And then after he killed her, he disposed of
her in areas that he knew well near where that relative of theirs lived. Oh, where would he have killed
and dismembered her though? That's the part they don't know because he was living at home at the time. So,
it couldn't have been there. Maybe on their uncle's property? Question mark. But like like that is a big gap I think
in their theory. Now, when this makes it to the current investigator, Lieutenant
Vansock, he goes back through the file and he finds something that will make you want to pull your hair out. That
thing about the earring Mhm. that was part of Pam's story when she came to them in '88. For whatever reason, I
guess the detectives just like didn't hone in on it. You said they needed a thing. Like that's
>> That's that's the thing. >> That's the thing. >> I know, but there might have actually
been a good reason that like no one clung onto this. I found out that in early news coverage, it mentioned that
she was found wearing only one earring. So, in theory, anyone could have known about
that. But still, like even all these years later, when Vansock is like reading about this, he's like he's still
intrigued. And with little else to go on in an ice cold case, he and other investigators start trying to chase this
down. This was in 2023. But Michael's wife, now [music] his ex-wife, tells police that she has no
idea what they're talking about. Meanwhile, her sister, the one who supposedly had the earring in in her
possession in that safe deposit box, [music] seems genuinely bewildered by the question. And when they subpoena
bank records, they confirm the sister didn't even have a safe deposit box, at least not at any bank. So, that trail
goes nowhere. But Vansock keeps pulling at the Bartelt thread. And there's a discrepancy buried in the
old records that's hard to explain. So, remember how Michael told police in 1969 that he saw Stephanie leave through
the back door of the restaurant? [music] Yes, but also that he probably clocked out at 10:30. Well, apparently not that
either. Because according to his time card, he wasn't even working that night. What do you mean? How is that not caught
right away? How Why was I I have no idea because investigators had everyone's time cards. As a matter of
fact, police reports from 1988 say that they confirmed Michael was working that night during the same hours as
Stephanie. The schedule seems to be one of the main reasons police were even interested in him in the first place.
>> But think about how much more suspicious it is if the time card is accurate and
he wasn't on the clock because then he's not just like a co-worker who happened to be on the same shift. He lied his way
into the narrative and made himself one of the last people to have seen Stephanie alive. [music]
Still, before Lieutenant Vansock goes straight to Michael in Hawaii, he decides that he needs to like
strengthen his position for the courts out there. So, he sends the hair evidence he has back to the lab hoping
that like modern technology can pull a stronger profile than the partial one they had from years earlier. It's going
to take a little bit more time, but it could be well worth it. >> Yeah. Well, it turns out that was a
risky gamble in a case so old because Michael died of sepsis on June 3rd, 2024 before detectives could get to him. But
at least now, a DNA sample from him was easy to get. And maybe things wouldn't have changed much even if he had gone
sooner or the DNA had been faster or Michael wouldn't have died because his DNA doesn't match the hair. Now,
remember, DNA exclusion doesn't necessarily clear him or anyone. A non-match just means
that that specific hair didn't come from him. But it's worth noting that Michael
and that manager aren't the only ones who have been excluded. Investigators also ruled out Michael's brother, Dan.
So, them plus Wilbur Mackie, right? Yeah, they've all been eliminated from the hair.
So, I kind of want to go back to something that you mentioned at the top. Like with
all those rumors that were floating around, did they ever test it against Stephanie's dad? I know it's like
sensational but like nobody really seems to believe that he was involved in any way. And all they have is this this
these hair samples, right? Like could they test the cigarette [music] butts or the the newspapers or anything else from
back then? >> did test the cigarette butts. There was no DNA on them. There was nothing on the newspaper, like
no usable prints or anything like that. They even tried recently using a wet back extraction system, like M-Vac, on
the military jacket. Like that was like found by the river. >> like burned, yeah. Mhm. They did it on
that and they did it on the towel that was in the Sunkist box. And the initial results from those showed male DNA on
both but the quantities were too low to actually build a full profile or to even
determine if any of them like matched each other or the partial that they were getting from the hair.
>> samples, yeah. So, right now, they're just waiting on further testing. [music]
And they're hoping that the same advances in DNA technology that have cracked other cold cases
means that maybe they'll be able to crack this one one day. Or at the very least get that partial profile to a
better spot that they could put it in a national database. And that's really important because even though Lieutenant
Vansock thought of Michael as a really good suspect for a while, his current working theory is that
Stephanie was killed by a stranger. He doesn't believe that Michael had the skill to do what was done to Stephanie.
[music] He thinks that it's more likely that Stephanie left the restaurant mad at her
boyfriend for not picking her up and gotten a car with someone that she didn't know.
>> [music] >> And that person took her somewhere, sexually assaulted her, killed her, and then dismembered
her. He doesn't know who that person is yet. But a new name was added to the case
file just recently. One that actually started with us. So, last summer, Lieutenant Vansock was
outside doing some yard work listening to our episode on Kristen David. And at the end of that episode, if you
remember, I did this call out. And for anyone who doesn't remember, Kristen was a young woman who went missing in 1981
while riding her bike on a highway between two cities in Idaho. We're not even talking about Wisconsin.
>> Right. But her remains were later found in garbage bags in and along Snake River. Like Stephanie, she'd been
dismembered with surgical-like precision and she'd been wrapped in newspaper. And and one of her legs was never
recovered. Well, and if I remember correctly, the call out at the end like you specifically have been looking for a
guy who was military that the FBI was looking into for like connections to other cases
across the country. And you were like, "Hey, like are there more?" >> Right. Because the FBI opened an
investigation into this guy but like nothing came of it. That is something we are still
investigating but I thought more cases might be the key to cracking some kind of pattern.
And I know I've told you this before but when Lieutenant Vansock heard that call
out, he basically like dropped his mower because it sounded like this case [music] to him. And when he contacted us
to compare notes and he learned that this man has major ties to the Midwest and possibly Wisconsin,
he got he's a chills. I'm going to call them full body chills, yeah. >> Now, Nina has actually been out to
Racine since then to meet with Lieutenant Vansock and he's making the hero wall because like I'm still not
ready to name this other suspect yet. He is still alive as of this recording and
we're still trying to get a handle on the scope of his potential activities. And now, all that's been ongoing for
more than a year now. But Lieutenant Vansock has been like moving heaven and earth in that time to see if this man
can be definitively tied to anything. [music] And it has been an uphill battle. Logistics, bureaucracy, jurisdictional
barriers at every single turn but I have never seen anyone put up the kind of fight that he has. And he gets people to
move. It is incredible. Now, I need to say Romain Casper still believes that Michael killed Stephanie. And listen,
nothing is off the table. This case is not closed and Vansock isn't letting it sit. So, his goal is to rule everyone in
or out definitively and eventually solve this [music] case. Solve it for Stephanie but also solve it for her
family. Romain's son, Nick, was born more than a decade after Stephanie was killed. So,
he never got to meet his aunt. But he told us he felt the emotional toll that Stephanie's death took on his dad, her
brother. I mean, this is the kind of loss that doesn't stay in one generation. It ripples forward.
>> Mhm. So, if you know anything about what happened to Stephanie, the Racine County
Sheriff's Office wants to hear from you. You can call their Detective Bureau at 262-636-3225. [music]
But if you'd rather stay anonymous, you can reach Crime Stoppers at [music] 888-636-9330.
I'll also give you a way to text in the show notes.

In July 1969, 17-year-old Stephanie Casberg walked out of her shift at Marc’s Big Boy restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and vanished. Days later, her remains were discovered along the Root River near 8 Mile Road in Racine County, Wisconsin.

What investigators found at the scene pointed to something deeply disturbing: careful, methodical dismemberment, evidence spread across multiple locations, and signs that the person responsible had time, control, and familiarity with the area.

More than 50 years later, this case remains unsolved. In this video, Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat break down Stephanie Casberg’s final known movements on July 6–7, 1969, the evidence discovered in Racine County and Franklin, Wisconsin, the suspects who have come under scrutiny over the decades, and the new lead that may connect this case to a larger pattern of crimes.

From coworkers and local suspects… to a man whose own family accused him… to a possible connection uncovered through a Crime Junkie investigation, this case has taken investigators in every direction.

If you know anything about what happened to Stephanie, please contact the Racine County Sheriff’s Office at 262-636-3225. If you’d rather stay anonymous, please call Crime Stoppers at 888-636-9330

Key Episode Moments: 00:00 Intro 02:15 Remains Found in Racine County 07:10 Stephanie’s Last Night at Work 12:40 Early Investigation 19:05 Suspects: Coworkers & Local Leads 26:30 The “Root River Killer” Claims 33:45 New Leads & Crime Junkie Tip 42:10 Where the Case Stands Today -------- Follow Crime Junkie: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crimejunkiepodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrimeJunkiePodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CrimeJunkiePod Crime Junkie is created and hosted by Ashley Flowers.

About Ashley Flowers Ashley Flowers is the top female podcaster in the U.S. and the host of Crime Junkie, the #1 podcast among women and the #1 true crime podcast globally. As the Founder of Audiochuck, she has built a top-tier podcast production company that has garnered over 2.6 billion downloads, captivating audiences with its gripping storytelling through 10+ chart topping podcasts. Ashley and her team are dedicated to creating responsible true crime content that respects victims and their families.

Follow Ashley: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ASHLEYFLOWERS/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ash_flowers TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ashleyflowerscrimejunkie Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashleyflowers.af/

Check out these other great crime channels: @kallmekris This 37-Year-Old Cold Case Was SOLVED By The Internet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQiqTxBBjIQ @annieelise 18 Year Old Dies Months After 4 Hour Assault by Her Own Father | Justice for Makayla Settles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqGnO-vAkvI @EleanorNeale She Tracked Her Missing Sister to Her Killer's Door https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdweZiXzyyA @bellafiori The Twisted Case of Dan Markel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v45cDjLN6ZQ

Brief Summary

The episode details the 1969 murder of Stephanie Casberg and ongoing investigations into potential suspects.

Key points

The Discovery of Remains. A young boy discovers dismembered remains along the riverbank, leading to a chilling investigation.
Stephanie's Secret Relationship. Detectives uncover that Stephanie was secretly dating a 22-year-old serviceman named John.
Rumors Surrounding Charles Casberg. Rumors swirl that Stephanie's father may have killed her over her relationship with John.
Police Search for Suspects. Police investigate various suspects linked to Stephanie's disappearance, but leads go cold.
Bones Found on a Farm. A couple discovers human bones in their yard, leading to a significant breakthrough.
New Suspect Emerges. Pam tips off detectives about her brother Michael, raising new suspicions in the case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is the story of Stephanie Casberg.

Introduction to the case.

0:48WatchApr 20, 2026

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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