Placer DA slams parole system after Vanderschoot killer’s denied parole 3rd time
Daniel Bezemer, convicted in the 2003 murder of 17-year-old Justine Vanderschoot, was denied parole for a third time this week, according to the Placer County District Attorney’s Office.
The hearing, held Thursday by the state Board of Parole Hearings, concluded with another denial following hours of testimony from prosecutors, the Vanderschoot family and Bezemer himself. Despite a five-year parole denial issued in 2023, this week’s hearing was granted under a state regulation that allows parole reviews to be advanced ahead of schedule.
Bezemer, now 38, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2005 and is serving a 25-years-to-life sentence. In 2003, he and his roommate, Brandon Fernandez, lured Vanderschoot — Bezemer’s girlfriend — to a remote area in Applegate, where they strangled and buried her alive. Her body was recovered more than two weeks later after Fernandez led authorities to the site.
According to the DA’s Office, Vanderschoot’s family described the ongoing trauma of reliving her killing to the parole board. District Attorney Morgan Gire joined them in urging the board to deny Bezemer’s release, citing the brutality and premeditation of the crime.
“While we are grateful for the board’s denial, (Thursday’s) hearing should never have happened,” Gire said in a statement, adding that “Parole denials are supposed to mean something, and today’s outcome exposes a post-conviction process that is broken. We will seek to fix it in 2026.”
Since 2021, Gire and his office have campaigned to the Legislature to overhaul state parole regulations, arguing that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has used credit and hearing-advancement rules to repeatedly override parole denials and force victims’ families back into the process.
Bezemer had previously been denied parole in 2022 and 2023. Under the five-year denial issued last year, his next hearing was not expected until 2028. However, according to the DA’s Office, the CDCR’s interpretation of current regulations allowed him to request a new hearing.
“Being dragged back into this process just days before Christmas forced us to relive the worst moment of our lives yet again,” Don Vanderschoot, Justine’s father, said in the DA’s news release. “No family should be repeatedly pulled back into their trauma because prior parole decisions were ignored.”
Since Vanderschoot’s murder, her family has attended eight parole-related hearings in eight years, according to the DA’s Office. Bezemer, who is being housed at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, may petition again in 12 months, prosecutors said.
Fernandez, who is incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, has been denied parole twice since gaining eligibility, according to CDCR records. He has a tentative suitability hearing before the Board of Parole Hearings as soon as July 2027.
Both men escaped the death penalty by accepting a plea deal.