Brantner Preliminary Hearing Scheduled

The preliminary hearing for a Fond du Lac County murder suspect has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 29th.  Bond was set at $1 million cash when Dennis Brantner made his initial court appearance last week on a 1st degree murder charge. Brantner is suspected of the July 1990 murder of 18-year-old Berit Beck of Sturtevant. She was on her way to a training session for work when she stopped in Fond du Lac. Her van was found in the former Kmart parking lot in Fond du Lac. Six weeks later her body was discovered in a ditch outside of Waupun. Brantner’s fingerprints allegedly put him inside the Beck van. Investigators also found cigarette ashes in the van and Beck was not a smoker, but Brantner was a heavy smoker at the time. A fingerprint on a cellophane wrapper from a pack of cigarettes was among the fingerprints found in the van.