What Happened After This Killer Child Was Released?

Terry Brandt thought that she had the kind of marriage that people could only ever dream about having. She had the kind of husband that her friends envied. Her friends would actually say that if their husbands loved them one-third as much as Charlie loved Terry, then they would be the luckiest person in the entire world. But what Terry Brandt didn't know was that her husband was hiding a deep, dark secret. I saw the weird look on his face, the madness, the glazed over look. Her husband was a serial killer, and he started killing people when he was only 13 years old. Have you ever seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Yeah. I saw it once in my life. I could never watch it again. You know the girl screaming? Yeah. The way she ran screaming? That was me. I was just a little girl. I was running through the snow in my bloody nightgown, torn, just screaming. These are the horrific crimes of Charlie Brandt. My name is Brianna, and I'm hot on the case. How far would you go when someone threatens everyone you love? Who can you trust? From. Academy Award winner Ben Affleck. Animals stars Affleck, Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, and Steven Yeun. When a Los Angeles mayoral candidate's son is kidnapped, he and his wife are pulled into a web of deception, forced to make choices that could tear their world apart. Watch Animals in select theaters and on Netflix October 9th. Rated R. Tap the banner to learn more. Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light. And slowly the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress. A hoodie slips beneath a blazer. An old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross. Charles Charlie Brandt was born to his parents Herbert and Ilsa Brandt on February 23rd, 1957. Charlie Brandt was the only son in his family. He had an older sister named Angela and two baby sisters named Jessica and Melanie. His parents were both German immigrants. His mother Ilsa was a homemaker and his father Herbert worked for a major farm equipment manufacturing company as a project engineer. Because of Herbert's job, the family were forced to move around a lot. They moved all across the entire country. And at least once every couple years, the children were forced to move around a lot. And at least once every couple move schools. So the second that Charlie felt like he was finally settling in, he wasn't the weird new kid anymore, it was time to pick up and move again. So what was even the point? Eventually, a young Charlie Brandt would just give up trying to make friends and get to know the people in his new town. He became extremely closed off. He never bothered trying to connect with his peers, and because he was always the new kid at school, Charlie Brandt was the easy target for bullies. Life at home was no better. Charlie was just as closed off even with his own family. That might be due to the fact that his feelings were always being dismissed. His father, Herbert, was the kind of father that felt that his son should be manly, and there was only one kind of way to be a man. He would discipline, and by discipline, I mean shout at people. Anytime Charlie ever showed any emotion, ever had feelings, and especially if Charlie ever cried. Because in Herbert Brandt's eyes, having feelings isn't human. That's for girls. So we know his relationship with his father is not really good. From the limited information I could find online, it seemed like Charlie's relationship with his three sisters was fine and normal. From all accounts, Charlie was extremely close with his mother, Elsa. People would always talk about how he was a little bit of a jerk, but he was a little bit of a jerk. People would actually call him a mommy's boy. But Charlie's best friend in the entire world was their family dog, a cute little beagle. Charlie and this dog were inseparable. It seemed like this dog was the only thing in the entire world that made Charlie Brandt truly happy. I don't have confirmation on this. I'm just using context clues, but I do believe that this beagle was a dog that Charlie's father, Herbert, got to use as a hunting dog. Herbert was super into hunting. He was always trying to push it on his son, Charlie, because hunting is a manly hobby. Beagles are known hunting dogs, and they would take this dog out hunting whenever the father and son would go out. This would further explain why Charlie's father, Herbert, would get really mad at Charlie for being so close and so attached to this dog. In Herbert's mind, this wasn't a pet. This was just a tool. When Charlie was 11 years old, the family would move states again. This time, they moved to Indiana. By the end of 1970, when Charlie was 13 years old, the Brandt family were expecting some major changes. A fifth baby. Ilsa was heavily pregnant, going into the holiday season of 1970. The family decided to go away on vacation for the holidays. The entire family went, including the dog, because Herbert wanted to make sure him and his son got some hunting in while they were away on their trip. On the day that Herbert, Charlie, and the dog went out hunting, something happened that upset the dog, and it ran into some thick bushes and refused to come out, even for Charlie. There was something that used to always upset Herbert, where he felt like he could never get the dog to listen to him, but the dog would always listen for Charlie, but not even this time. So Herbert, getting really frustrated trying to get this dog out of the bushes and it's not coming out, he points his gun into the bushes and opened fire. Herbert would later claim that he only did this to try and scare the dog into coming out, but unfortunately, that's not what happened. Herbert killed the dog right in front of 13-year-old Charlie. And of course, because his father was there, Charlie wasn't allowed to show any emotion or cry, even though his dog was just massacred right in front of him. Not one single bit of Charlie believed that this was an accident. He believed that his father intentionally killed his best friend to get back at him. And teach him a lesson. A few days later, the entire family would return home from their holiday vacation. About a week later, after the family dog was killed, it was January 3rd, 1971. That evening seemed normal. The family had recently gotten a color TV, so they were all watching TV. And then when it got later into the evening, it was pretty late at this time, like 9 or 10 p.m. Charlie's younger siblings, who were only two and three years old, were already put to bed. And his older sister, Angela, who was 15 years old, was already upstairs in her bedroom. She was wearing her nightgown already, and she was just reading, relaxing, about to go to sleep herself. Charlie's parents were both in the bathroom. His father was shaving his face at the sink, and his mother, heavily pregnant, eight months pregnant, was taking a nice hot bath. Charlie was just sitting at the desk, doing his homework, minding his own business, when all of a sudden, Charlie got up, he went into his parents' bedroom, and he took out his father's 9mm pistol from his father's nightstand. He then went into the bathroom, where both of his parents were. He pointed his gun at his parents, he shot his father three times in the back, and he shot his mother, eight months pregnant, two times in the stomach. Angela, like I said, was in her bedroom, and she could hear him, and she could hear these loud popping sounds. She actually thought that they were firecrackers, but then she heard her father scream, Charlie, don't, followed by her mother screaming for her to call 911. By the time that Angela jumped out of her bed and started running towards her bedroom door, her 13-year-old brother, Charlie, was already standing in her room. He was pointing the gun at her head, and then he pulled the trigger. Thankfully, the gun didn't go off. Charlie ran out of bullets, but he did intend to kill his sister, Angela, and after that, he was likely going to head into the bedroom of his 3- and 2-year-old baby sisters and kill them as well. When the gun didn't go off, Charlie dropped the gun. Angela, thinking on her feet really quickly, kicked the gun under her bed. She didn't know if it was out of bullets or if it was just jammed, and after she did that, her brother, Charlie, ran at her, started attacking her. He was trying to get her out of the bedroom, but Charlie didn't know if it was out of bullets or if it was just jammed. The next thing she knows, she's laying on the floor of her bedroom, her 13-year-old brother's on top of her, and he's strangling her. She said that looking her brother in the face while he was trying to murder her, it didn't look like her brother. He had this crazed look in his eyes like he was possessed, and then all at once, that look just went away. Charlie stopped strangling her. He took his hands off of her neck, and he just looked at his sister, and he said, wait, what am I doing? Like, it was truly this bizarre out-of-body experience, like Charlie was possessed. Angela looks at her brother. She says, I don't know what you're doing, but I think you just shot her. and killed our parents Charlie claimed that he didn't remember doing that he said did I just shoot our parents I did that did I do that Charlie agreed to get up off of his sister Angela not hurt her if she promised not to leave him Angela said I promise I won't but the second she was out of her brother's view 15 year old Angela Brandt ran screaming out the front door of the home she was running barefoot through the snow her nightgown was torn and covered in blood Angela was running for help she was running up to neighbors houses not even taking time to knock on the door just looking for any house whose front door was unlocked Angela could hear from behind her that her brother was now outside Charlie screamed you promised you wouldn't leave me Angela eventually found a neighbor that called for emergency services by the time that police arrived she was in a state of shock she was in a state of shock she was in a state of shock at the home Charlie was just there waiting for them he didn't try a fight he didn't try and run he just immediately turned himself in Herbert who was shot three times in the back was miraculously still alive he even managed to crawl to a phone to call for an ambulance himself but tragically Isla and her unborn baby were both already gone Charlie Brandt at only 13 years old murdered his mother and his unborn sibling Charlie was brought into custody and was reportedly he felt a lot of regret and remorse for what he did even right away he could not give investigators a reason why he wanted to murder his entire family why he did kill his mother and unborn sibling he never even told them the story about how just a week earlier his father shot and killed his dog his best friend right in front of him I'm not saying you should ever kill people okay I don't want to get clipped I'm at least saying that for a 13 year old troubled child if we're looking for a motive for murder I could at least understand the motive for wanting to kill your father after seeing the only thing in your life that you cared about being killed right in front of you at the hands of your father but they could never find a motive discover why he would want to kill his sister his mother everybody said that Charlie and Isla were extremely close like he was a mommy's boy but he killed her he shot her twice in the stomach I think it's extremely telling considering that his mother was eight months pregnant I 100% think that that was intentional and I think it's very possible that maybe Charlie Brandt just didn't want a younger sibling because that have possibly been part of his motive how far would you go when someone threatens everyone you love who can you trust from academy award winner Ben Affleck animals stars Affleck Kerry Washington Jillian Anderson and Steven Young when a Los Angeles mayor will candidate son is kidnapped he and his wife are pulled into a web of deception forced to make choices that could tear their world apart watch animals in select theaters and on Netflix October 9th rated R tap the banner to learn more fall never arrives all at once first the air then the light and slowly the things you love begin to find each other a jacket meets a dress a hoodie slips beneath a blazer an old cap finds a new one and a new one and a new one and a new one and a new scarf because you don't simply step into the season you create it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall find fall your way at Ross Charlie Brandt would undergo three separate psychiatric evaluations and they all came back with the exact same conclusion Charlie Brandt showed zero signs of any diagnosable mental illnesses the state was absolutely stuck on what to do with Charlie Brandt and his family and his family and his family and his family and his family and his family and his family and his family and his family and his family and his family with this 13 year old killer although the law would change just a few short years later at the time in Indiana a 13 year old was too young to be criminally charged with murder so instead a grand jury was brought in to look at the case and they came to the conclusion that Charlie Brandt would go to a psychiatric hospital and receive psychiatric treatment so that's where Charlie Brandt went for one year it took one year of his father's life to get him to the hospital and his mother Herbert begging for his son's release for them to let go a child that murdered his mother and planned to kill his entire family just one year earlier Charlie Brandt was released he was never charged with murder his records at the hospital were completely sealed even to this day so nothing would show up if anyone even tried to do a background check on Charlie Brandt he seemingly just got away with murder 14 year old Charlie was released back into his father's custody Herbert moved his entire family once again he moved his son and his three daughters to Florida where they could all just pretend that none of this ever happened Angela who is still a teenager who's terrified whose brother literally tried to kill her just one year earlier whose brother did kill her mother was now forced to just live under the same roof as him and she was forbidden by her father to ever talk about what Charlie did to them Herbert never once brought up to Charlie what happened he never asked him any questions he never asked him why did you try and kill me why did you shoot me why did you shoot and kill your mother like was family dinner not extremely awkward after Charlie came home the entire family just never talked about it they moved to a state where nobody knew about it Charlie's baby sisters who were three and two years old when Charlie killed their mother grew up being lied to they grew up believing that their mother died in a car accident this would just be a deep dark family secret and after killing his mother Charlie Brandt went on to live a seemingly ordinary life he made friends down in Florida something he could never do before killing his mother he graduated high school and then he graduated college and he started a career as an engineer Angela didn't even know what she was doing until she got married to a man named Jim Graves and one day Angela just broke down to her husband Jim and she told him everything about her and her brother when they were teenagers and he tried to murder her and actually did kill her mother and how she was never allowed to talk about it this is just such an insane bomb to drop on somebody your brother-in-law is a murderer literally killed his own mom and despite knowing the truth Jim and Charlie would actually become best friends they even stayed best friends arguably got even closer after Jim and Charlie's sister Angela eventually got a divorce and while Jim and Angela's marriage was ending Jim and Charlie went out fishing together something that the two men did often and while they were out fishing Jim was telling Charlie about how he was heartbroken he was angry and he was angry and the topic of revenge was brought up and Jim claims that Charlie looked at him and said that the best way to get revenge on a woman that breaks your heart is to kill her and cut her heart out Jim knows that not only is Charlie a killer but he did actually try to kill Angela when they were kids and now this is how Charlie is talking about Angela now as they are adults Jim would say that he thought this was weird but he thought that it was just a weird joke that his friend was making Jim claims that he believed that Charlie's murderous tendencies was behind him he would actually say that if bugs ever infested Charlie's home that he quite literally couldn't hurt a fly that's how kind and gentle Charlie Brandt was and despite all he knew about Charlie Jim would even set his buddy Charlie up on a date when Charlie was 29 years old he went out on a nice date with a woman named Terry Helfrich and Charlie and Terry immediately hit it off right after their first date the two were inseparable Charlie was an oddball a bit eccentric Terry was super carefree and loving it really seemed like they matched each other super well and they brought out the best in each other they were the kind of couple that people envied they very quickly got engaged and they got married and they got married and they shared a home together on the beach in the Florida Keys even after years of being together Charlie and Terry were the kind of couple that just couldn't keep their hands off of each other the love that they shared seemed so intense and real they had this cute little thing where every single day they would make lunch for the other one because lunch always tasted better when it was made by the person that loved you most Terry's best friend in the entire world used to say that if her husband loved her one-third as much as Charlie loved Terry then she would be the luckiest woman in the entire world but only one month before Charlie and Terry's wedding something absolutely terrifying happened on July 15th in 1989 Charlie Brandt was late coming home Terry had absolutely no idea where her fiance was and when Charlie finally did come home he was covered in blood Terry of course questioned her fiance about where he was all the time and she said that he was in the middle of all night and Charlie explained that he was out night fishing and the reason he was covered in blood was because he was gutting the fish that he caught. But Terry thought that this explanation was very suspicious because Charlie didn't come home with any fish. If he was gutting fish and that's why he's covered in blood, then where are the fish? The next morning, only four blocks away from their home, the body of 38 year old Sherry Parisho was discovered. She was mutilated, nearly decapitated, and her heart was cut out of her chest. Terry went to Jim about this, her fiance's best friend and the man that actually set the two of them up and said, I think my husband killed someone. Jim, even though again, he knows the truth about what Charlie did in his past, that Charlie is a killer. He knows that Charlie, not that long ago, even made jokes about killing a girl and cutting out her heart. Jim reassures Terry and says, there must be some sort of explanation. Charlie would never do something like that. But the next time that Jim saw his best friend, Charlie, he did confront him about this and said, hey, your wife thinks that you murdered someone. A body was found four blocks away from your house and then you came home a few hours later covered in blood. Charlie, of course, said that he did not do this. And then Jim claims that he told his best buddy in the whole world, Charlie, that he should probably tell his soon to be wife that he killed his mom when he was a kid, his pregnant mother. And then he also shot and tried to kill his father and also attempted to kill his sister. Now, it is unclear if Charlie ever told Terry, if Terry ever discovered the truth about Charlie's past. And only one month later, on August 29th, 1989, Charlie and Terry got married and they lived this seemingly happy, normal life. And then on September 2nd, 2004, the Florida Keys, where Charlie and Terry lived together, was evacuated because of Hurricane Ivan. Terry's niece, her sister's daughter, Michelle Jones, was following the news coverage about the storm. And when she saw that the Florida Keys, where her Aunt Terry and Uncle Charlie lived, was being evacuated, she immediately called them up and offered to have them stay at her house in Orlando until the storm passed. That was just the kind of thing that happened. That was the kind of person that Michelle was. Michelle Jones was a 37-year-old, extremely successful executive for the Golf Channel down in Orlando. She had amazing close friends, friends that she had for over 20 years, who she was always in close contact with. She was extremely close with both of her parents, but of course, she had a very special bond with her mother, Mary Lou. They would speak on the phone nearly every single day. So on September 15th, 2004, after no one was able to get a hold of her, she was able to get a hold of her mother, Mary Lou. For nearly three days, Michelle's mother, Mary Lou, and some of Michelle's closest friends were starting to get extremely concerned. Mary Lou, who lived in North Carolina, called up one of her daughter's best friends, Debbie Knight, to see if Debbie would mind heading over to Michelle's house just to check and make sure that everything is okay. Debbie either had a key to her best friend's house, or she knew where Michelle hid her key because Debbie was trying to unlock the front door. But her hands were shaking so badly because she was so scared and anxious that she wasn't able to unlock the door. Something that I do truly believe was divine intervention, keeping Debbie from finding what was inside. Debbie was on the phone with Mary Lou, Michelle's mother, Terry's sister, and Charlie's sister-in-law throughout this entire thing. And while Debbie is on the phone with Mary Lou, she's going around the house trying to. find a window to look in. She notices that the light is on in the garage. So she peers through the garage window, and she finds a body hanging from the rafters. The police were immediately called. They broke down the front door of Michelle Jones's home, and inside they found something absolutely horrific. Debbie is still standing outside her best friend's home, still on the phone with her best friend's mother. And Debbie is still standing outside her best friend's home, and Debbie sees that there's trained professionals going inside her best friend's home. And then only moments later, those same professionals that see terrible things every single day start running from her best friend's home, vomiting because of what they found inside. Who can you trust? From Academy Award winner Ben Affleck, Animals, stars Affleck, Kerry Washington, Jillian Anderson, and Michelle Jones. Watch Animals in select theaters and on Netflix October 9th, rated R. First the air, then the light, and slowly the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress, a dress meets a dress, and a dress meets a dress. You create it, layer by layer, until it finally feels like fall. Just a few days earlier, September 13th, the storm in the Florida Keys had completely passed. Terry was anxious to get back to her house and just get back to regular life. They had been staying with her niece now for several days, going on two weeks. Her and Charlie's bags were already completely packed and sitting by the front door, ready for them to leave that very day. But Charlie had a change of heart, and he insisted that they stay one more night. Charlie, Terry, and Michelle all have dinner together. They have drinks at Michelle's home. Some of Michelle's friends actually had plans to come over that evening, but Michelle would call them and say, and tell them not to come. Because her uncle Charlie and Aunt Terry had a little bit too much to drink, they were drunk, they were fighting, and just were not the best company. And that would be the last time that anyone heard from Michelle Jones. Once the night had settled down, Michelle was in her bedroom relaxing, getting ready for bed. Terry was on the couch in the living room, also just relaxing, minding her own business. Charlie was standing in Michelle's kitchen. And just like he had 33 years earlier, when he was just a child sitting at his kitchen table doing his homework, Charlie just got up without warning. He went to Michelle's knife block, and he grabbed a knife. He then went into the living room, and he stabbed his wife Terry seven times in the chest. He then went into the bedroom of his niece, Michelle Jones. When authorities found Michelle, she was completely mutilated. I don't want to get into too much graphic detail. Michelle was dismembered though. She had been decapitated, and her heart was cut out of her chest. After brutally, savagely killing his innocent wife and niece, Charlie Brandt ended his own life in the garage. Everybody was shocked. Nobody had an explanation how or why this happened. Charlie, as far as I know, was the perfect husband to Terry, and he was the fun-loving uncle to Michelle. So just as investigators are trying to piece together what the hell happened, they heard from someone that not only would break this case wide open, but would destroy everything that everyone thought they knew about Charlie Brandt, especially the family of Terry and Michelle. After not being able to talk about it for over 30 years, Charlie's older sister Angela went and told them everything about how when Charlie was 13 years old, he murdered her pregnant mother, tried to kill her father, and also tried to kill her. This was the first time that Charlie and Angela's two little sisters that were only three and two years old when their mother died found out how their mother actually died. Like I told you earlier, they grew up believing that their mother died in a car accident, and now they're in their 30s. They're 36, and they're in their 30s. and 35 years old, and they find out that their older brother murdered their mother. The FBI was over. We went upstairs. I went and got in bed to read my book like I always did before I went to sleep. My mom ran a bath in Red Time magazine. My dad was shaving. Okay. So you're in your bed reading, and what happens next? I heard loud noises, which I perceive to be firecrackers for the simple reason, not that that makes any sense, but I mean, you know, what other loud noise is there? Popping. Yeah, just a really loud, loud noise and I just, like I said, I just thought it was firecrackers. So I started pulling the covers back to see why on earth, you know, there was all this noise going on. But then I heard my father yell, Charlie, don't, or Charlie, stop. And my mom was just screaming, and the last thing we heard my mom say was, Angela, call the police. So what happened after that? So, as I said, I was removing the covers from my bed and getting out of the bed, and all this took place in split seconds. I mean, we couldn't, this has got to be less than a minute, I would think, okay? And I get up, and as I'm getting up, he comes into my room. Charlie. Charlie. Brandishing the gun, a gun. I didn't even realize what it really was, I mean, until he aimed it at me, and he pulled the trigger. Okay, so you could hear it click. And I was going to say, and I could hear it click. Okay. And I guess when he realized the gun didn't have any more bullets, that must be what, he threw it on the floor. Okay. And as I said. And as I said, I was lucid enough to kick it under the bed. I didn't know if it had any bullets in it or not, I didn't even know what was going on. Right. And then a physical altercation ensued. I imagine, I think he struck me, I do, I think he, because I had blood and just bruises, and I fought back. This is the only physical altercation I've ever been in in my entire life. Okay. Okay, and I guess I won, because I'm here to tell about it, I don't know. Right, right. And I just. Still, my brain, I remember I was only 15. My brain was trying to assimilate what was going on, and I was trying to get away from him at the same time. He was very strong. Next thing I know that I can remember is I was laying flat on my back, my bed was right here. On the bed? No, on the floor. Okay. Probably knocked me to the floor, I don't know. Okay. And he was sitting on me, and he was strangling me. Okay. Okay. I was drifting in and out. I don't think that I got him off of me physically. All right. Okay. What I remember, the way I remember it is, I saw the weird look on his face, the madness, the glazed over look. Okay. I thought disappear. He just looked more like himself, and he said, what am I doing? Or what have I done? And I remember perfectly saying, I don't know, but I think you shot dad. Because I heard my dad yelling, Charlie, don't do that, or Charlie, stop. Okay. And he said, oh, I did, or whatever. I said, I don't know, but get off of me so we can figure it out. Okay. And he did, he got off of me. My next step, I was trying to get out of the house. He goes, sir, you're not going to leave me, are you? Of course I said no. Sir. No, he would run out the door. And I did, as soon as I thought he was far enough away, I ran. Yeah. Yeah. That was me. I got to the first house right across the street. I did knock on the door. I turned the knob, and it was locked. And then I ran to the next house. And by the time I got to the next house, my brother had apparently come down the steps. He was outside. And all my life, I've heard him. Screaming after me, Angie, you promised you wouldn't leave me. You promised you wouldn't leave me. But I did. And as you can imagine, Terry and Michelle's family were horrified, frustrated, angry. How did they not know about this? How can someone murder their pregnant mother in cold blood, sit in timeout for a year at a hospital, and then go on to live life as normal and no one around them gets to know? What they did? Investigators go to search Charlie and Terry's home in Key West. Charlie had meticulously boarded up his home in preparation for the storm that was coming. This was done with such care. Charlie boarding up his home. It's shocking to me that someone would go through so much effort to preserve their home if they knew that they were never coming back to it. It makes me believe that Charlie didn't plan to end all of their lives when him and his wife went to go stay with their niece. Walking into Charlie and Terry's home, I saw a picture of Charlie and Terry's house. I saw a picture of Charlie and Terry's house. I saw a picture of Charlie and Terry's home. Everything looked normal until they got to the bedroom. On the back of the bedroom door was a huge poster of the female body. She's half skeleton and half muscle. And there's something about it that's just creepy. I don't know if it's the hair or the fact that Charlie, we know, enjoys mutilating female bodies. But investigators 100% thought this was odd. Bear with me that this is a creepy poster. Especially because Charlie and Terry, neither of them were in the medical profession. But throughout this entire room, they find medical textbooks. Books on the human anatomy. In one of these human anatomy books, they find a newspaper clipping that Charlie had cut out of a human heart. A search of Charlie's internet history also discovered something absolutely terrifying. Charlie had many searches for extreme gore and violence, almost entirely violence towards women. There were a lot of searches for necrophilia. Things like necrophilia. There was a lot of erotic death fetish websites. Videos of women pretending to be dead while men are having sex with them. Charlie would also frequently search up photos of dead bodies, photos of autopsies, crime scene photos. They also, in the other corner of the room, found a large stack of Victoria's Secret catalogs. Not addressed to Terry, but addressed to Charlie. And throughout their investigation, they would also search for photos of dead bodies. They also discovered that Charlie Brandt had a very dark, disturbing obsession, a secret obsession with his niece, Michelle. When referring to his niece to his buddies, he would call her by a little nickname, Victoria's Secret. Who can you trust? From Academy Award winner Ben Affleck, Animals stars Affleck, Carrie Washington, Gillian Anderson, and Steven Yeun. When a Los Angeles mayoral candidate's son is kidnapped, he and his wife are pulled into a web of deception. Forced to make choices that could tear their world apart. Rated R. You create it, layer by layer. Until it finally feels like fall. Michelle, it seemed, never knew of her uncle's dark obsession with her. She truly just saw him as a family member. An oddball, sure. But a nice guy that she thought truly loved her aunt. Investigators were starting to piece together the crime. But this was just the beginning. They did not think it was likely that Charlie killed his mom when he was 13 years old. And then 33 years later would commit a crime of this nature. With nothing in the middle. They were certain that Charlie Brandt was a serial killer. That he had more victims out there. Charlie's best friend, Jim Graves, would help confirm this theory to investigators. When he told them about how Terry actually believed that her husband was a serial killer. Possibly killed someone 15 years earlier. So after going unsolved for 15 years. Police reopened the murder of Sherry Parisho. And were shocked to find how similar her murder was to the murder of Michelle. Both women around the same age. And also might I add, also around the same age as Charlie's mother, Ilsa. They're 38, 38 and 37. Well, Sherry. And Michelle. Same age. Also have similar features. But they're both decapitated with their hearts cut out. Pair that with the fact that her body was only found four blocks away from Charlie's home. And the night that she was killed, he came home late. Covered in blood. At the time that Sherry was killed, the police had very little to go on. All they had was a composite sketch of a man seen running from the scene of the crime. The day that Sherry was killed. And comparing this composite sketch. To Charlie Brandt in 1989. It's uncanny. So after 15 years. Sherry Parisho's murder was officially closed. Linking Charlie Brandt as her killer. Charlie Brandt traveled a lot for work. He would travel all over the entire country. And sometimes even outside the country. So when they're looking for more victims. They are looking across the entire world. Authorities would send out Charlie's profile and his M.O. Which is women around a certain age. Decapitated. Hearts cut out. They send this across the country. Seeing if any other police forces have any unsolved crimes that fit this M.O. And they get dozens of hits back. In 1995. The body of 38 year old. Again, similar age. The body of 38 year old Darlene Toler was discovered wrapped in plastic. And a blanket on the side of a highway in Miami. Darlene had been decapitated. And her heart was cut out. At the time. time her case went unsolved but now investigators reopen her case trying to link her murder to Charlie. Charlie Brandt meticulously would log all of his gas mileage, all the miles that he put on his truck. They discovered on the day that Darlene was murdered, Charlie drove more miles than usual. And in fact, the exact extra miles that Charlie put on his truck were the exact miles it would have took Charlie to drive from his home in Key West to where Darlene's body was in Miami. When Darlene's body was discovered in 1995, the blanket that she was wrapped in was covered in hairs, and these were determined to be dog hairs. And even though Darlene was murdered nine years earlier, they check Charlie's truck and they find exact same dog hairs. The dog hairs come back as a definitive match, and Darlene Toler's murder nine years after she was killed was finally closed, linked to Charlie Brandt as her killer. There was evidence to ever definitively link Charlie Brandt to any other unsolved murders, but it is believed that Charlie Brandt has possibly killed over 30 women. But tragically, we will probably never know the true amount of victims that Charlie Brandt had. So many families out there that will never know answers. So many innocent women who will never get justice, never get justice because Charlie, Charlie's dead, but they will never, ever have their cases solved, which is just a tragedy all in itself. There is a lot of controversy whether Terry knew that her husband was a killer or not. Jim Graves does believe that Terry knew. After telling Charlie that he should tell his wife about his past, Jim claims that although it was never outright said out loud, Terry would make a lot of comments implying that she knew about her husband's past. Like for one instance, one time Jim claims that he asked Terry when her and Charlie were planning to have children. And Terry said that they didn't think it was best for them to have children, all things considered. Wink wink. Despite what Jim claims, Terry's family is absolutely adamant to this very day, they remain adamant that Terry did not know about Charlie's past. They claim that Terry was incapable of keeping a secret. And if she did know about what Charlie did to his mother when he was a child, then she would at least have confided in her best friend or her sister about it. I think it's possible that Terry knew. I think people are capable of keeping all kinds of secrets. But Terry did keep a diary. She wrote in it every single day and she never wrote anything about her husband being a killer or even implying that her husband was a killer. I think it's actually extremely possible that Jim Graves might be lying or might be exaggerating because he knew 100% that Charlie killed his mother and he still set Charlie up with Terry anyways. So if he could get people to believe that maybe Terry knew that Charlie was a killer before they got married, he could kind of shift the blame off of him and put it more on Terry. But personally, I do not want to focus too much whether or not Terry knew. I don't think it really makes a difference. I think that if people really want to focus on that, I think it is a little victim blamey. So I'd rather just move on and really not focus on that detail in this case. I really do want to talk about Terry and Michelle's families, who I believe are right in any anger that they feel towards Charlie Brandt's family and Charlie Brandt and Jim Graves. They lost two beautiful, wonderful women in their family, all at the exact same time. Women that were kind, full of life and completely innocent and had so much more life left to live. My heart absolutely goes out to each and every single one of their friends, their loved ones, their family members, but especially to Mary Lou, who not only lost her sister, but lost her daughter all at once. Before we wrap up this week's episode, I'm so extremely interested to know why you think that Charlie Brandt killed. Killed his mother without much of a motive, none that we could think of. Was he really just a cold-blooded killer? Was he born that way? Did he fake everything? He was supposed to be a mommy's boy, but he killed his mom. He was supposed to be the perfect husband, but he killed his wife. Did he just fake everything, every human interaction? Did he fake being this loving son and this perfect loving husband? Cases like this absolutely terrify me. Cases where you have this man that everyone saw as this normal, fun guy. People literally referred to him as the perfect husband, and he was hiding this deep, dark secret that nobody knew. I don't have any answers. I'm absolutely not an expert. I didn't go to school for psychology or anything like that. I'm just going to be spitballing. I've already brought it up throughout this episode. I think the fact that he shot his father in the back and has tried to shoot his sister in the head, but he purposefully shot his mother in the back. I don't know if that's true, mother in the stomach who was eight months pregnant is very telling. His mother, I'm really trying to remember right now, was either 37 or 38 years old. And then both of the women that we have confirmation he killed, Darlene and Sherry, were 38 years old. And then Michelle was 37 years old. So every woman other than his wife, Terry, that we have confirmation he killed was around that same age group. Was the target always his mother? Not his father, not his family? Was it his mother? And he was kind of. recreating that over and over again. He said the best way to get revenge on a woman was to kill her and cut his heart and cut her heart out. Did he think he was getting revenge on his mother for betraying him, having another child? I don't know. Extremely, extremely interested to hear all of your thoughts and takes. I think that there's so many questions left unanswered. And I think there could be an extremely interesting conversation and debate about the psychology, the possible motives. Why did Charlie Brandt kill? Please let me know all of your thoughts and opinions in the comments on Spotify and on YouTube. Please make sure that you are subscribed on YouTube and also following the show wherever you get your podcasts, because it's just a really simple way to help push out these episodes, the show, and push out these cases to even more people. Thank you so much for making it to the end of this week's episode. Please remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel, and I'll see you in the next episode. Remember to also be respectful in the comments for all the victims in this case sake. And I will see you guys all next Friday when we are hot in the case once again. Who can you trust? From Academy Award winner Ben Affleck. Animals stars Affleck, Kerry Washington, Jillian Anderson, and Steven Yeun. Rated R. A jacket meets a dress, a hoodie slips beneath a blazer, an old cap finds a new scarf, because you don't simply step into the season. Find fall your way at Ross.