4-30-15 kenosha man to stand trial in fdl county cold case homicide

A Kenosha man charged with killing a teenager in 1990 has been ordered to stand trial in Fond du Lac County.  Sixty-one-year-old Dennis Brantner faces a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Berit Beck. The 18-year-old was traveling from her home in Sturtevant to Appleton for a computer training seminar when she disappeared. Her van was found a few days later in a Fond du Lac parking lot, but her body wasn’t found until more than a month later in a ditch in the Fond du Lac County Town of Waupun. An autopsy showed she had probably been strangled.  Brantner’s attorney says fingerprint evidence submitted by the state doesn’t mean the defendant killed Beck.  Probable cause was found at a preliminary hearing Wednesday and Brantner was bound over for trial.  Judge Richard Nuss denied a motion by Brantner’s attorney to dismiss the charges.   Brantner is being held on $1 million bond.