4-8-14 beck homicide-investigators still need help from the public

The Fond du Lac County Sheriff says they have a prime suspect  in the cold case murder of Berit Beck but still need help from the public before the case is solved.  Sheriff Mick Fink says investigators are still not

ruling out other suspects and says any charges are not imminent.  At a press conference Fink said 60 year old Dennis Branter is an over the road trucker who lived in the Brandon area at the time Beck was killed in 1990.  Fink says a new analysis of evidence shows that Brantner had been in Beck’s van.  Investigators say photographs of Brantner’s hands are being analyzed at the  state crime lab along with evidence taken from Beck’s van in 1990.  A March 28^th search warrant notes that Brantner has a physical deformity on one of his hands, and that electronic items taken from Beck’s van could link Brantner because he is a truck driver.  District attorney Eric Toney says he is not sure  if or when charges would be filed.  The 18 year old Beck was traveling from her home in Sturdevant to Appleton when she  disappeared July 17^th, 1990.  Her van was found two days later in the K-mart parking lot in Fond du Lac and her body was found a little more than a month after that in a roadside ditch near Waupun.