Seventeen-year-old Justine Vanderschoot’s boyfriend, Daniel Bezemer, and his friend/flatmate Brandon Fernandez, were the two primary suspects arrested in connection with her Labor Day 2003 disappearance and murder. They admitted to strangling and burying her alive before leading investigators to the gravesite in a remote Applegate area in California.
Justine was reported missing on the night of September 1, 2003, after she had Labor Day dinner with her family and boyfriend, Daniel. A weeks-long search for the teen failed to yield results until the suspects were arrested.
Both Daniel and Brandon pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 25 years and 15 years in prison, respectively. They have been previously denied parole on separate occasions.
On a new episode of Buried in the Backyard, investigators working a missing persons case head to a wooded, isolated location. What do they find when they get there? Find out Saturday at 8/7c on Oxygen True Crime. pic.twitter.com/N6Te2ApkBe
An all-new episode of Oxygen’s Buried in the Backyard chronicles Justine Vanderschoot’s murder case this Saturday, August 5, in an episode titled Last Song You’ll Ever Hear, which will air on the channel at 8:00 pm ET.
Here’s the official synopsis:
“When a California mother wakes to find the door wide open and her daughter missing, law enforcement travel the country to find her until they discover a dark plot that began at the teen’s doorstep.”
Justine Vanderschoot’s boyfriend and flatmate were arrested and charged for strangling and burying her alive
According to Gold Country Media, Justine Vanderschoot’s boyfriend, Daniel Bezemer and his friend Brandon Fernandez, who resided in the same Auburn apartment as Daniel, were arrested in connection with the 17-year-old’s disappearance and possible murder weeks after she went missing.
Justine disappeared after having Labor Day dinner with her family and boyfriend Daniel at her Christian Valley home on September 1, 2003. Her abandoned silver-colored pickup truck was found at the Clipper Gap park and ride two days later. An unsuccessful search for the Maidu High School student continued for weeks.
On September 17 of that same year, Daniel (18) and Brandon (21), were arrested after the Placer County Sheriff’s Department and FBI Sacramento office agents conducted several searches and interviews of those close to Justine to find clues concerning her disappearance.
The suspects reported confessed to strangling the victim and then burying her alive in a remote, wooded area in Applegate, California, several miles east of Interstate 80 off Boole Road.
Reports claim that Justine Vanderschoot was murdered because her then-boyfriend Daniel Bezemer feared she was considering breaking things off with him. According to the official Placer County website, the latter was controlling, jealous, and hence planned the murder with Brandon Fernandez.
A Fox 40 report stated that Justine’s mother Lynnette Vanderschoot described the crime as an act of “jealousy, control, and teen-dating violence.” Lynnette further added at the time:
“When you start looking back at the last summer, you start to see some signs he was controlling her.”
Detectives believed the 17-year-old voluntarily met the killers that night and that she was murdered shortly after her family reported her missing. Shortly after the discovery of the body, both suspects were charged with murder. Justine Vanderschoot’s best friend at the time, 16-year-old Michaela Jamison commented on her relationship with the controlling boyfriend. Michaela further alleged that she was unsure about the duo’s relationship, adding:
“towards the end she, I think, got kind of tired of him.”
Where are Daniel Bezemer and Brandon Fernandez now?
Daniel Bezemer accepted a plea deal in March 2005, a month after Brandon Fernandez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, receiving a 15-year prison sentence. The former was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Both were given the possibility of parole.
Sources state that Brandon was first denied parole in 2017 and a second time five years later in July 2022. A month later, Daniel was also denied release by the parole board.
Murder in the Backyard will further delve into Justine Vanderschoot’s murder from nearly two decades ago in its Saturday, August 5 episode, at 8:00 pm ET.
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Edited by Abhipsa Choudhury
Categories: Trending
Source: newstars.edu.vn