A Kenosha truck driver charged in the cold case murder of a Sturdevant teenager in Fond du Lac County has been convicted on a gun charge. During a Kenosha County court hearing this week 61 year old Dennis Brantner pleaded no contest to a charge of felon in possession of a firearm. As part of the plea agreement the prosecutor agreed to recommend Brantner be sentenced to the 82 days he has already served in jail. His attorney told the court the gun was a family heirloom being held for his son to someday inherit. Brantner is being held on a million dollars cash bail in the 1990 murder of Berit Beck. She disappeared in July of that year while on her way from Sturdevant to a work seminar in Appleton. Her van was found in the Forest Plaza parking lot in Fond du lac and her body was found in a roadside ditch near Waupun about a month later. Brantner was arrested after his fingerprints matched prints found in Beck’s van. Brantner was charged in Fond du Lac in March. That case is ongoing, with no court dates scheduled.
