Charlie Brandt, a serial killer murdered his wife and niece while Hurricane Ivan devastated Florida in 2004, is the focus of tonight’s episode of The Real Story With Maria Elena Salinas on Investigation Discovery.
The episode, titled The Secret Cost of Silence, recalls how Brandt stabbed his wife, Teresa “Teri” Brandt, seven times and severely mutilated and decapitated his niece, Michelle Jones.
He later committed suicide by hanging himself in Jones’s garage.
It was unbeknownst to Jones when she provided her aunt and uncle with shelter during the natural disaster that he had shot his parents in 1971, when he was only 13 years old. His mother, who was pregnant at the time, died as a result of her injuries.
Brandt was committed to a psychiatric facility but didn’t face any criminal charges over the earlier incident. Doctors allegedly gave him three separate psychiatric evaluations, but none of them resulted in a mental diagnosis that led them to understand why Brandt had shot his parents.
Teri Brandt apparently also didn’t know her husband’s hidden past.
Police, noticing the meticulousness of Brandt’s killing of his wife and niece, suspected he was a serial killer.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelTheir hunch was proven correct when it was later determined Brandt had multiple other homicides attributed to him.
In the other killings, Brandt reportedly decapitated his victims and carved their hearts out of their bodies.
The Real Story With Maria Elena Salinas airs Mondays at 10/9c on Investigation Discovery.