Michelle Jones contacted her aunt and uncle as Hurricane Ivan was bearing down on Florida in September 2004. Since they lived in the Florida Keys Michelle invited them to stay with her in Orlando until the danger passed. Little did she know that she had just summoned pure evil into her home. Authorities eventually suspected that her uncle Charlie Brandt was involved in a number of unsolved murders in the Florida area.
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Our story takes place in Orlando, Florida located in Orange County. Initially inhabited by the Timucua and later Seminole indigenous tribes, it was originally named Jernigan after Aaron Jernigan, one of the first settlers in the area. Jernigan was renamed in 1857 to honor an army sentry killed in the Seminole War, Orlando Reeves. Orlando is one of the most visited destinations in Florida mainly due to Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Studios. Side note, Walt Disney looked at two other locations for his theme park, Tampa and Miami areas. Still, he settled on Orlando due to its location being more inland and not as susceptible to hurricanes as there would have been on the coast.
Hurricane Ivan
On September 2, 2004, Hurricane Ivan was making its way to Florida and the United States Gulf Coast prompting voluntary evacuations of the Florida Keys. For that reason, thirty-seven-year-old Michelle Jones, a sales manager at the Golf Channel, contacted her aunt and uncle who lived in the Florida Keys and invited them to stay at her place in Orlando to ride out the hurricane. Michelle, who was single, had a close relationship with her aunt, Teri, who was her mother’s sister. Teri (46) and Carl “Charlie” (47) Brandt lived in Big Pine Key and married in 1986.
Hurricane Ivan was turning into a massive event that in the end would be responsible for 91 deaths throughout the Caribbean and the United States. Ivan ran a 5,600-mile track and lasted over 22 days, 10 of which were as a major hurricane. At its height, Ivan had winds above 120 mph and caused 26.1 billion dollars in damages. In today’s money that equals 37 billion dollars.
While Michelle’s aunt and uncle were staying with her she would keep in daily contact with her mother, Mary Lou, as was their norm. Mary Lou became concerned when she couldn’t get ahold of Michelle after Monday, September 13th. On the 13th, Michelle had spoken to her friend, Lisa Emmons who was planning on going over to Michelle’s house that evening, but Michelle told her not to come as Charlie and Teri had been drinking and that led to them arguing.
Discovery
On Wednesday, September 15th, Mary Lou contacted another of Michelle’s friends, Debbie Knight, and asked her to go over to Michelle’s house while she remained on the line. Debbie did as Mary Lou asked and when she arrived she was immediately alarmed by a few things. First, there was two days’ worth of mail coming out of the mailbox and newspapers on the ground. When she tried her key in the door it didn’t work. Debbie decided to go around to the back and when she looked in the glass door leading to the garage she was met with a horrific sight.
Hanging from the rafters with a bed sheet tied around his neck was Charlie Brandt. Debbie immediately contacted the police. In the 48 Hours episode I watched regarding this case, Debbie states that when three Seminole County Sherrif Deputies arrived they entered the house only to return about 40 seconds later all throwing up in the yard.
Horrific Site
Detectives Rob Hemmert and Bob Jaynes arrived on the scene to discover what had the other officers so upset. In the living room on the couch slumped over was Teri Brandt. She looks to have been stabbed 7 to 8 times in the chest. Detectives believe she may have been the first victim. In Michelle’s bedroom they discovered that, unlike Teri, Michelle only had a single stab wound to her chest. However, what was done to her was beyond horrendous. Both stabbings were done with a knife from Michelle’s kitchen.
Michelle’s head had been removed from her body and positioned on the bed so it faced her body. Her hair had been brushed away from her face so her face was not obstructed. The killer cut off her breast and her left leg. Her heart and other organs were also removed in what detectives felt was a surgical manner.
Detectives believed that Charlie Brandt had committed the murders and then committed suicide leaving no note behind. There were no signs of struggle. They also surmised that he had spent hours with Michelle’s body and when finished he removed his clothes leaving them beside her bed on the floor. Also on the floor were cut-up Victoria’s Secret bras and underwear scattered around the room.
After Charlie had finished he then went into the garage climbed a step ladder tied a bedsheet around his neck and hung himself.
Motive
Detectives tried to figure out Charlie’s motive for the killings and to do that they needed to find out more about Charlie Brandt. Four hundred miles away in Big Pine Key detectives would find the Brandt house meticulously boarded up just the way the Brandts left it. Inside nothing stood out to detectives at first until they entered the deceased couple’s bedroom. That’s when detectives knew their theory of Charlie’s killing of Michelle may not have been his first time.
Charlie Brandt was trained as an engineer and worked as a radar technician for Ford Aerospace. His job didn’t explain why on the back of the couple’s bedroom door was an anatomy poster of the female skeletal and muscular systems. There were also various medical journals and surgery-themed books, as well as numerous Victoria’s Secret catalogs addressed to Charlie Brandt. He had a monthly subscription.
Detectives also looked at Charlie’s computer and found that he often visited websites focused on necrophilia, autopsy photos, and viewed snuff films depicting violence against women. In talking with people that worked with Charlie they found out that he often talked about Michelle referring to her as “Victoria’s Secret.” He would tell his co-workers how beautiful Michelle was. His co-workers never knew her name. He seemed to be infatuated with Michelle and may have been planning what he did to her for a long time turning fantasy into reality or at least the detectives thought so.
Questions
Detectives surmised from the evidence that Charlie Brandt had committed the murders perhaps propelled by his infatuation with extremely disturbing fantasies against women. They didn’t believe what he did to Michelle was his first time doing so and started to look into other cases that involved a similar modus operandi.
Meanwhile, Michelle’s family was left bewildered trying to reconcile the mild-mannered brother-in-law they knew for over 17 years with the man who had killed their sister and daughter in such a violent manner. Everyone the police talked to described the Brandt marriage as a happy one. Teri was described as kind and carefree and Charlie a bit of an oddball, but harmless. They had what friends described as a perfect marriage with them even making each other’s lunches because they said it tasted better when made by the other.
One person that was thankful for Charlie committing suicide was his sister, Angela. She told Mary Lou right after the murders that she could finally sleep at night. The reason for her relief is a family secret she would soon share with the police.
Charlie Brandt Had A Dark Past
Early on in the investigation for answers as to why a person with no criminal background would do such a thing, detectives were approached by Charlie’s older sister, Angela. She would tell detectives a well-kept family secret that had them looking at Charlie in a different light.
Now we are going to back to January 3, 1971, when Charlie Brandt was 13-years-old, and living with both his parents, his older sister, Angela who was 15, and two younger sisters in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His mother was seven to eight months pregnant at the time. That evening his parents were in their bathroom with his mom in the bathtub and his father shaving when Charlie entered holding a gun. This was just before 9 pm. Angela was in her room when she heard her father say, “Charlie don’t do it.” Charlie shot his father in the back several times then turned the gun on his mother standing over the tub and fired several more rounds. His mother called out to Angela to call the police and these were the last words she ever spoke.
Madness In His Eyes
Charlie then went after Angela and the two started fighting after the gun failed to fire. Anglea tried to calm Charlie down by telling him she loved him. Angela would tell detectives that she saw madness in his eyes and he had a glazed-over look that eventually disappeared. She claimed that Charlie said, “you are going to leave me, aren’t you?” Angela told him, no, but as soon as she was able to she ran out the door into the snow in nothing but her bloody nightgown screaming running to the nearest neighbor’s house.
Angela pounded on the neighbor’s front door. Inside, 16-year-old Sandy Radcliff heard the pounding wondering what was going on, but by the time she got to the door, Angela was already headed to another neighbor’s house. However, Charlie was standing there telling her he had just shot his mom and dad.
Questions
Charlie Brandt was taken into custody while his father, who survived, was questioned by police. Mr. Brandt kept telling detectives at the time he didn’t know why Charlie did what he did. In Indiana at the time, a 13-year-old was considered too young to be held criminally responsible. So in Charlie’s case charges were never filed, but there was a grand jury investigation to try to discover the motive for his crimes. From those proceedings, Charlie was recommended for psychiatric treatment due to concerns that “such anti-social conduct could repeat itself in the future.” This was taken from the grand jury report.
So Charlie underwent three separate psychological evaluations by three different psychiatrists to determine the cause of his murderous actions. Authorities were looking for the answer as to why Charlie killed his mother and attempted to kill his father and sister, unfortunately, that answer would never be discovered. All three psych evaluations stated that Charlie had no diagnosable mental illness. Charlie Brandt was determined to not have been hallucinating at the time. He was found to be mature for his age and did well in school, with no behavioral issues. He was a loving kid who loved his family and showed no signs of mental illness.
Family Secret
Charlie Brandt was sent to an Indiana psychiatric hospital for a year until his father petitioned the courts and won his release. Soon afterward, the family moved to Ormond Beach, Florida and the “incident” was never talked about again. The family went on like it never happened. This family secret was so well kept that Charlie’s younger sister always believed that their mother had died in a car accident. They were never told the truth. Interestingly enough, Charlie’s father and his new wife along with his two younger sisters moved back to Indiana the next year. Charlie and his sister Angela stayed behind in Florida to live with their grandparents.
Devastation
Mary Lou never believed that her sister, Teri, knew what Charlie had done when he was 13. She didn’t feel her sister would have ever gone through with marrying him or putting her niece’s life in jeopardy. Melissa’s parents directed their disdain toward Charlie’s father, Herbert, who never bothered to reach out to them after the murder instead continuing to hold onto the family secret. However, there is someone who believes that Teri did know about her husband’s past, and that was Charlie’s former brother-in-law, Jim Graves.
Jim had been married to Charlie’s older sister, Angela in the 1980s and she confided in him about what Charlie had done. Before Charlie married Teri, Jim advised him to tell Teri about his past as he was not only the best man at their wedding but he was the one that introduced them. Jim believes that Charlie did tell Teri because of a conversation he had with Terri about the couple having children. Terri told him that considering everything that happened in the past it’s not a good idea to have kids. He didn’t follow up on what considering meant but assumed that Charlie had told her what he had done.
Jim also couldn’t believe what Charlie had done to Teri and Melissa, but he did relate a conversation he had with Charlie to 48 Hours right after he divorced his sister. The pair had met up for drinks and their conversation had turned to the topic of revenge. That is when Charlie told him that if you want revenge you need to “kill them and cut their heart out.” This statement creeped Jim out at the time, but he dismissed it as guy talk. Years later he thinks there was more to that conversation.
Was Charlie Brandt A Serial Killer?
So detectives decided to look at Charlie’s travel schedule for his work. Part of his job took him across the US and abroad. Detectives put out to law enforcement agencies around Florida and around the country inquiries of any similar murders focusing specifically on what had been done to Michelle’s body.
Criminal profiler Leslie DeAmbrosia consulted for the 48 Hours program on this case. She stated that “how killers normally behave translates into how they carry out their crimes.” In Charlie’s case, he was quite organized, planned, intelligent, and very reliable and responsible. Charlie’s trademark lies in his precision and methodical techniques.
Victim
Detectives from Orlando got a hit on an unsolved cold case from July 16, 1989, that was just 1,000 feet from Charlie’s house. The partially clothed body of thirty-eight-year-old Sherry Perisho was discovered under the North Pine Channel Bridge by a local fisherman. Monroe County Homicide Detective Trish Dowley reported that the fisherman thought he had caught a mannequin on his line. It’s rarely ever a mannequin.
Sherry was a local woman who was considered homeless and lived on a small rowboat. Every night she would take her boat about 100 yards off-shore. Detectives believe that is also where she died. At the time police theorized that she was dismembered on the rowboat due to cut marks found on the wood on the bottom of the boat. Sherry’s throat had been slashed and her heart had been cut out. For years all authorities had to go on was a sketch of a man seen running across U.S. Route 1 the night she was murdered. I have to say the sketch looked to be spot on for a younger Charlie Brandt.
Wasn’t Me
On 48 Hours Jim Graves said that he had had a conversation with Teri a few weeks after Sherry’s murder. She told him that someone had been killed not too far from their home. She told him she was thinking about calling the sheriff. When he asked why she just said because of Charlie’s past. Graves was stunned and later confronted Charlie about his wife’s suspicions. All Charlie said is that he didn’t do it. Jim would add more detail when detectives talked to him again, stating that Teri was suspicious of Charlie because she found him wet and covered in blood the night of the murder. She asked him what happened and he told her he was filleting fish. She thought it was odd at the time since it was a workday and late in the evening to be doing such an activity.
Due to Jim’s statements, it was enough to close Sherry’s case on May 6, 2006.
Another Victim
Another murder was tied to Charlie Brandt from the Miami area in 1995. A sex trade worker from Little Havana, Darlene Toler, was found along an area highway. Her head and heart had been removed. Detective Pat Diaz felt that whoever killed Darlene knew what they were doing. Two bits of evidence convinced Detective Diaz that Charlie was a prime suspect in Darlene’s murder.
When Darlene had been found she had been wrapped up in plastic, then in a blanket. The wrapping was almost like she was gift-wrapped. In the blanket were two dogs’ hairs. Similar dog hairs were also found in the back of Charlie’s truck. Another clue was due to Charlie being meticulous and writing down his mileage. In those records, it showed a 100-mile trip from Charlie’s home to where Darlene was last seen. Detectives believe that Charlie drove from Key West to Miami to hunt for a victim. Detectives did not DNA test the dog hairs to see if they were a match due to the cost. If and when they do, detectives believe it will be a match.
More Victims
After Michelle and Terri’s murder, investigators for more than a year poured over Charlie’s life putting together a thirty-five-page timeline. Since 1973 when the Brandts moved to Florida, there have been 26 unsolved slayings just in Florida that fit Charlie’s M.O.
Two additional cases that authorities feel are Charlie’s work are the 1978 murder of Carol Sullivan, 12, who was abducted from a school bus stop in Volusia County on September 20th. Her skull had been found in a bucket. At the time, Charlie Brandt was twenty years old and was living in Volusia County.
The other one is from 1988. Lisa Saunders, 20, had been pulled from her car, beaten, and stabbed in December in Big Pine Key. When she was found her heart was missing. Authorities don’t know if it was initially cut out or if vultures had gotten to it.
Resources
- Orlando, Florida – Wikipedia
- Hurricane Ivan – Wikipedia
- Orlando | History, Attractions, & Facts | Britannica
- Charlie Brandt – Wikipedia
- Carl Brandt | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
- Deadly Obsession | 48 Hours Mystery
- Killer tied to ’89 death — wife suspected him all along
- Michelle Lynn’s Law | Dr. Phil
- DETAILS OF KILLER EMERGE – Sun Sentinel