Dateline: The Match – Who was Justin Hansen and what do we know about his crimes? Details of the 2008 incident, explored

The episode Dateline: The Match retold the story of the horrifying attack on Brittani Marcell in her home in Albuquerque. She was found by her mother, Diane, while the attacker, later discovered to be a man called Justin Hansen, was still at the scene.

The synopsis of Dateline: The Match reads:

"After being severely beaten in her own home, a high school girl Brittani Marcell goes under hypnosis to try to identify her attacker."

Hansen was sentenced to prison after a decade of committing the crime, after a DNA match with just one drop of his blood at the crime scene.

More on this in our story.

Dateline: The Match – Who was Justin Hansen and what do we know about his crimes? Details explored

As reported in Dateline: The Match, Brittani was brutally attacked by an unknown man at her home on September 11, 2008, in broad daylight, and was later discovered by her mother, Diane, as she lay on the floor.

Diane also revealed that the man, who struck Brittani with a shovel, crushing the left side of her skull, also tried to attack her, but thankfully, she was saved, and the attacker ran out through a window of their home.

While Brittani was fighting for her life in the hospital, Detective Jason Morales began his investigation and interviewed several people, and also looked into Brittani’s life. However, he couldn’t find anything helpful that could help them find the perpetrator, as the blood drop that they found on the window also didn’t match with anyone in their database.

As per Dateline: The Match, Brittani survived the attack but lost on so many levels as she was left deaf in one ear and also went blind in her left eye, due to the attack, and also lost most of her memory, which resulted in her not remembering her attacker.

However, in 2014, the new detective in the case, Jodi Gonterman, asked Brittani to try hypnosis, which could have aided her memory of the day she was attacked. Although she couldn’t remember the name, Brittani described how the man looked and further told them he might be one of her customers in her workplace, sunglass kiosk, or even a co-worker.

Later, in 2016, Brittani remembered the name Justin and, with her sisters' help, found out that she used to talk to someone named Justin Hansen when she worked at the mall.

Gonterman then contacted Parabon NanoLabs to draw a composite with the DNA that was found in Brittani’s home, and the results were shocking, as the sketch that the DNA company provided was similar to Justin Hansen.

Hansen, who was now married and had four kids, was visited by Gonterman. He told the investigators that he worked at the mall but didn’t talk to Brittani, as she had told the investigators. However, he was arrested after his DNA matched that of the one they found at the crime scene.

Dateline: The Match – Justin Hansen was convicted and sent to prison

As revealed in Dateline: The Match, Hansen maintained that he did not attack Brittani. He was arrested in 2017 and was under house arrest until his trial in 2018, where he pleaded no contest to murder, to save himself from spending almost half a century in jail. He told Dateline:

"I mean I want to go to trial, I wanted to clear my name but I just felt like the odds were against me and I didn’t want to chance 50 to 60 years away from my kids and that is kind of what pushed me into the plea."

He was later sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2018 for the attack on Brittani Marcell that had left the young girl going through so much loss, including her smile, due to paralysis.

Trending

Also Read: Dateline: Return to Early Shift – 5 harrowing details about Michelle Mockbee’s murder, explored

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback