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Prosecutor: Defendant in ’90 killing knew area

By: Associated Press//June 14, 2016//

Prosecutor: Defendant in ’90 killing knew area

By: Associated Press//June 14, 2016//

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A trial has begun for a man accused of killing an 18-year-old Wisconsin woman in 1990.
Dennis Brantner sits in a Fond du Lac County courtroom with attorneys Beth Van Engen and Craig Powell on Monday during jury selection for Brantner’s 1990 murder trial for the slaying of Berit Beck. (Doug Raflik/The Reporter via AP)

FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) — The prosecutor says a man accused of killing an 18-year-old Wisconsin woman 26 years ago knew the area where her body was found.

Jurors heard opening statements Tuesday in the first-degree murder trial of 62-year-old Dennis Brantner in the death of Berit Beck.

Beck was traveling from her home in Sturtevant to Appleton for a work-related seminar in 1990 when she disappeared. Her body was found weeks later in a ditch in Fond du Lac County.

USA Today Network-Wisconsin reports Assistant District Attorney Dennis Krueger told jurors that Brantner lived in Fond du Lac County during the 1970s, and serviced furnaces in homes near where Beck’s body was found.

Defense attorney Craig Powell said too much evidence collected in 1990 has gone missing to tie Brantner to the crime.

Assisstant District Attorney Dennis Krueger gives opening statements in the Dennis Brantner trial in a courtroom in Fond du Lac County, Wis., Tuesday, June 14, 2016. Jurors heard opening statements Tuesday in the first-degree murder trial of 62-year-old Dennis Brantner in the death of 18-year-old Berit Beck in 1990. (Doug Raflik/The Reporter via AP)
Assisstant District Attorney Dennis Krueger gives opening statements in the Dennis Brantner trial in a courtroom in Fond du Lac County on Tuesday. (Doug Raflik/The Reporter via AP)

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