Man charged in death of Jessie Blodgett found competent

WASHINGTON CO. (WITI) -- 19-year-old Daniel Bartelt, the Hubertus man charged in connection with the death of Jessie Blodgett, was found competent during his court hearing Wednesday, September 4th. Bartelt is due back in court for a preliminary hearing on October 17th.

Bartelt faces four felony counts in all — one count of first-degree intentional homicide for the Blodgett death. The other three charges are related to an alleged attack at a Richfield Park on July 12th. Those three charges include one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, one count of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, and one count of false imprisonment.

Prosecutors say 19-year-old Bartelt allegedly came at a woman with a knife at the Richfield Historical Nature Park shortly after 10 a.m. on July 12th. After a struggle, the woman was able to disarm Bartelt and get hold of the knife.

The complaint says the victim in this case suffered multiple cuts to her right hand, which needed a total of 15 stitches. She also had a cut across the palm of her left hand, road rash on her right elbow and right knee.

Just a day later, on July 15th, Jessie Blodgett was found dead in her home.

According to the complaint, police found ligature marks on Blodgett’s neck, left wrist and ankles. The preliminary autopsy findings are that Blodgett died of “ligature strangulation.” Police also found a “roll of tape underneath Blodgett’s footboard.” Investigators say they later discovered fingerprints on the tape that matched Bartelt’s.

Investigators also recovered evidence thrown away at Woodlawn Park, where a camera captured a picture of Bartelt.

Bartelt was reportedly a friend of Blodgett’s, and a classmate at Hartford Union High School, where both were active in the music program. The two had apparently recently reconnected.

The complaint also referred to a search of Bartelt’s laptop, which recovered a search with the parameters “serial killer wiki,” a Wikipedia search for “list of serial killers by number of victims,” which leads to a webpage that defines a serial killer as “a person who murders two or more people in two or more separate events over a period of time, for primarily psychological reasons, which may range from a few hours to many years.”

The complaint says the list shows serial killers from the 20th Century to present day by number of victims.

The complaint says other serial killers were searched by name.