Indio cold case closing in on killer

Someone in the Coachella Valley has been getting away with the murder of Wendi Brant for nearly 17 years, but now an Indio detective says he’s close to stopping them.

While there were many leads, no one was ever arrested. Now advances in forensic technology are allowing investigators to analyze evidence never thought possible, evidence detective Jeremy Hellawell believes will lead to Wendi’s killer.

“I remember her every day,” said Wendi’s friend Kathryn Carlson.

“It’s a truly innocent victim, that was savagely assaulted inside of her house,” said Indio police Detective Jeremy Hellawell.

The summer of 1998 Wendi Brant was in the middle of remaking her life.

“She was going back to school to be a speech therapist and she loved animals. She loved raising her Morgan horses that she had on her ranch,” said Carlson.

Her stepmother Cathy Brant says after a failed marriage things were finally going well for the 45-year-old.

“She was a very warm and giving person and we shared our love of animals and riding and things like that,” said Brant. “She was the daughter I never had.”

“That’s when it ended,” said Carlson.

Hellawell took us to where Wendi used to live. “This is Los Palos Road, right here off to our left is the location where this happened. Since then its been refurbished,” said Hellawell.

On Aug. 10th,1998, Wendi didn’t show up at her internship.

“Nobody could understand it because she was always where she was supposed to be,” said Brant.

Officers were sent to her Indio horse ranch. Everything outside appeared to be just fine, inside was anything but.

“There was clear evidence of a brutal assault and struggle that ensured throughout the house. There was large amount of a bodily fluids, DNA type evidence, the house was disheveled,” said Hellawell.

Wendi was found murdered in a bathroom.

“I just remember being very confused, traumatized,” said Carlson.

“I was shocked and angry. It just seems so unfair, she had so much to give to the world and to the family, to me,” said Brant.

A suspect pool began to emerge, but no one was ever arrested.

Hellawell started working on Wendi Brant’s case in 2008, 10 years after her murder.

“There is only so much they could do with the evidence that was recovered back then.”

Since then he’s painstaking combed through over a hundred items of evidence, items that are now undergoing forensic testing.

“We have the ability today to collect and get a profile of a DNA sample merely by breathing on something. Back then it would take a sample the size of a quarter,” said Hellawell.

Evidence like a shoe print that investigators traced to a specific style of $300 shoes, and a palm print found in blood.

“We are hopeful that it is going to be our suspect in this and that it is going to eventually lead us to whoever did this,” said Hellawell. “I truly believe there will be a day that every crime of this nature will be solved based on either technology or some sort of capability that law enforcement just hasn’t seen yet.”

“For the first time since this happened I am hopeful,” said Brant.

It’s been more than 15 years of unanswered questions, waiting, keeping her memory alive.

“The saddest thing for me is she was such a good friend and she followed my career in vet medicine. When I opened my own practice, she was always there,” said Carlson. “She would be here right now — that is my biggest sadness. She’d be sitting down at the coffee bar laughing, saying hi to clients, petting all of the dogs, and that is probably what I think of the most. I just wish that she was here.”

Carlson opened her vet clinic the day she found out about her friend’s murder.

“At that time instead of flowers we started a pet rescue fund,” said Carlson.

Since then the Wendi Brant Pet Rescue Fund has helped pet owners pay for their vet bills.

“It helps people and it helps animals and I think that is what Wendi would have wanted,” said Carlson.

“Her friends divided up her ashes, between the three of us, they gave me a little box with a horse head on it with her ashes.” said Brant “They scattered theirs, but I just can’t. I can’t scatter her ashes because I can’t do that until the case is closed.”

So now her ashes sit, but Detective Hellawell believes it won’t be for much longer.

“I don’t think there is a way to get away with it, maybe for now, but it’s a matter of time,” said Hellawell.

If you don’t want this person to get away with murder and know anything about this crime contact the Indio Police Department by calling (760) 541-4533.

Donations to the Wendi Brant Pet Rescue Fund can be made at the Village Park Animal Hospital in La Quinta. (760) 564-3833