Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Parents Killed, Dismembered, Bodies Decomposed for Days

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Parents Killed, Dismembered, Bodies Decomposed for Days · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greece. Do you have that couple
0:14
Speaker 1: in your neighborhood, that sweet little old couple that everybody
0:19
Speaker 1: adores because I did growing up, and it was our
0:24
Speaker 1: next door neighbors, the Andersons, and then down the street
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Speaker 1: maybe four houses, the Wilson's, and the Andersons raised all
0:35
Speaker 1: their children and they were like family to us. And
0:41
Speaker 1: see them every single day, every single night. That's who
0:46
Speaker 1: these people remind me of. And I am talking about
0:49
Speaker 1: Read and Miriam Beck, ages seventy three and seventy two.
0:54
Speaker 1: So what does the sweet couple next door have to
1:01
Speaker 1: do with a double dismemberment? I mean, see, Grace, this
1:07
Speaker 1: is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here
1:09
Speaker 1: at Fox Nation in Serious X one eleven. First of all,
1:13
Speaker 1: take a listen to our friend Dave mac. Miriam and
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Speaker 1: Reid Beck have been married for more than forty three years.
1:19
Speaker 1: The couple set up a good life in Habington Township, Pennsylvania,
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Speaker 1: where Miriam works as a school nurse for more than
1:24
Speaker 1: twenty years and Reid works as a training director for
1:27
Speaker 1: the steam fitters local for twenty long enough to retire.
1:31
Speaker 1: The Becks have two children. Their daughter works at a
1:33
Speaker 1: Catholic school for special needs children. Their son Justin, has
1:36
Speaker 1: a special relationship with his mother, communicating every day either
1:40
Speaker 1: through tax or phone calls, and even after all these years,
1:43
Speaker 1: the couples still have a loving relationship. Neighbors report the
1:47
Speaker 1: Becks could be seen walking daily in the neighborhood hand
1:49
Speaker 1: in hand. And that's just like Grady and Beautelli Anderson.
1:54
Speaker 1: They'll live next to us whole life growing up. Every evening,
1:58
Speaker 1: not when it was dall, but not when it was
2:01
Speaker 1: still hot during the day in Middle Georgia, about when
2:06
Speaker 1: everyone had come home from work and had had supper
2:09
Speaker 1: and maybe we're settling into watch TV. They would go
2:14
Speaker 1: out and go for a walk hand in hand every
2:19
Speaker 1: single night, very slowly. I always noticed that they would
2:23
Speaker 1: stop in like if someone had planted a new bush
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Speaker 1: in their yard, or you know, rate the leaves. They
2:29
Speaker 1: would stand there for the longest time. I don't know
2:31
Speaker 1: what they were saying to each other, but they would
2:33
Speaker 1: stand their hand in hand and then look at the bush,
2:35
Speaker 1: and then look at the roses, and then they keep walking.
2:40
Speaker 1: And needless to say, they had a beautiful yard, perfect yard,
2:45
Speaker 1: and so they would stop and look at everybody else's
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Speaker 1: yard and just the sweetest people you'd ever want to meet.
2:52
Speaker 1: And that's what I think about these two. And when
2:56
Speaker 1: I'm reading about mister Beck, it reminds me my dad.
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Speaker 1: My dad was in the Union and worked on the railroad.
3:03
Speaker 1: This guy was a training director for the steam fitters
3:06
Speaker 1: local for twenty his whole life, it looks like because
3:10
Speaker 1: he retired with them. Now back to how does this
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Speaker 1: fit in with a double dismemberment? Take a listen to this.
3:19
Speaker 1: Neighbors become worried as newspapers begin piling up outside the
3:23
Speaker 1: back home. Son Justin, who talked with his mother often
3:27
Speaker 1: begins getting text messages, only then for over a week nothing.
3:32
Speaker 1: Justin Beck goes to the home. The lights are off,
3:34
Speaker 1: but his parents' vehicles are parked outside. Inside, Beck finds
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Speaker 1: something resembling a corpse wrapped in a bloody sheet. Nine
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Speaker 1: one one is called and police find the backs dismembered bodies. Okay,
3:48
Speaker 1: now that I've got to send my head all I
3:50
Speaker 1: can think about our Grady and Beulah Anderson. And I
3:55
Speaker 1: remember asking my mom I would be at Court TV,
3:59
Speaker 1: or at hill In or at Fox Nation now and
4:03
Speaker 1: I would call my parents on the way home from work.
4:05
Speaker 1: And go, how are you what's going on? Have you
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Speaker 1: seen Grady and Bule out walking? And mother would say yes,
4:12
Speaker 1: our daddy would say yes, and so they're fine. And
4:16
Speaker 1: whenever would have a big meal, would always take food
4:19
Speaker 1: over to Grady and Bule. And now I'm thinking about
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Speaker 1: this couple, and I'm also looking at their pictures because
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Speaker 1: they're really really a lovely couple, a double dismemberment. Let
4:30
Speaker 1: me go to well, we've got an fabulous panel and
4:35
Speaker 1: I'll get to them one by one, but first to
4:36
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, forensic expert and founder of the Cold Case
4:40
Speaker 1: Research Institute. She's also the host of a brand new
4:44
Speaker 1: podcast which I love. Haven't been invited on yet, I
4:49
Speaker 1: cause invitation in the mail. Snail Mail Zone seven is
4:53
Speaker 1: her new hit podcast, and you can find her at
4:56
Speaker 1: Coaldcase Crimes dot org. Cheryl, You've been with me many
5:01
Speaker 1: times when we would be in courts or wherever we were,
5:05
Speaker 1: and I would call home to check our mother and daddy.
5:08
Speaker 1: And what's interesting, and I'm talking about PROBITI value. Something
5:13
Speaker 1: that you can prove is that this son of the
5:17
Speaker 1: two would always call in text every day, but his
5:22
Speaker 1: main emo motor saw Brenda method of operation was to
5:25
Speaker 1: call home and speak. And you know, that's just like
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Speaker 1: my mom and dad, because they weren't good at texting
5:31
Speaker 1: at that point. My mom was great at it now,
5:34
Speaker 1: but we would call and talk and when then suddenly
5:38
Speaker 1: Mom no longer picking up with the phone, but it's
5:41
Speaker 1: continuing to text. Right there. I smell a rat because
5:44
Speaker 1: there's a change in routine, no question. You and I
5:48
Speaker 1: talk all the time about patterns, patterns, patterns. Once that
5:53
Speaker 1: pattern is broken, that could be the first red flag.
5:57
Speaker 1: This crime took a lot of time to come mit,
6:00
Speaker 1: but the cover up, the you know, the length of
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Speaker 1: time the person had from the time the crime ended
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Speaker 1: until when the sun really began to be concerned to
6:11
Speaker 1: go over there. They had a week, Nancy, oh, a
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Speaker 1: week to stage and to do everything. You know, I
6:17
Speaker 1: want you to take a listen to our friend Maggie
6:19
Speaker 1: can't at WPVI. How do you go from no calls
6:24
Speaker 1: for service to probably one of the worst crimes that
6:27
Speaker 1: we have seen. Avington Police got the call for a
6:30
Speaker 1: wellness check at eleven sixty five Beverly Road, me by
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Speaker 1: the son of the couple who lived there. Responding officers
6:36
Speaker 1: could not have imagined what was going on inside what
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Speaker 1: they discovered. You can't un see that a married couple
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Speaker 1: in their seventies, Reid and Miriam Tony Beck, were found
6:46
Speaker 1: murdered and dismembered by a chainsaw. Murdered and dismembered by
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Speaker 1: a chainsaw. Has everybody and their cousin been watching Dexter
6:55
Speaker 1: and they think is so easy to dismember a body?
6:58
Speaker 1: I've gotten needs for you. It is not easy to
7:01
Speaker 1: dismember a body, not at all. The Lord made us
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Speaker 1: pretty sturdy. And I'm gonna go to an expert. If
7:08
Speaker 1: you thought I was gonna say Sheryl McCallum, no, she
7:11
Speaker 1: has never dismembered a body, not that I know of anyway.
7:14
Speaker 1: But I got a guy with me who can tell
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Speaker 1: you all about it. Doctor Kendall Crowns, Chief Medical Examiner,
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Speaker 1: Tarrant County. That's Fort Worth Lecturer, University, Texas Austin and
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Speaker 1: Texas Christian University Medical School. That's not shabby, doctor Kendall Crowns.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crowns, could you tell me how difficult is
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Speaker 1: it to dismember saw a part a body? I mean,
7:41
Speaker 1: think about it. Hold on, hold on, doctor crowns. Let's
7:44
Speaker 1: go to Karen start. She says, little bitty, petite, beautiful, precious.
7:49
Speaker 1: She looks like a doll that would just break apart.
7:52
Speaker 1: Psychologist joring own psychologist as at matter of fact, joining
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Speaker 1: us out of Manhattan. She's a trauma and crime expert.
8:00
Speaker 1: You can find her at Karen dot com. That's Karen
8:03
Speaker 1: with a see. Karen, have you ever tried to saw
8:07
Speaker 1: anything in half? Ever? I've never used as god, Nancy,
8:13
Speaker 1: but I have to tell you anybody, and we both
8:16
Speaker 1: know that anybody who would even attend to dismember a
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Speaker 1: body who is not a forensic expert trying to be
8:25
Speaker 1: there as a medical examiner, anything like that, it takes gus.
8:30
Speaker 1: I mean, can I ask you, Karen, start aside from
8:34
Speaker 1: the moral and physical fortitude you believe it takes to
8:39
Speaker 1: saw a body apart, even though you've never picked up
8:42
Speaker 1: a saw in your life, could you give me in
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Speaker 1: less than five words why you've never tried to saw
8:49
Speaker 1: anything in half? I never do any of that kind
8:53
Speaker 1: of work because it's too hard. It's too hard. Cherry McComb.
8:59
Speaker 1: If you're sawing anything in half, yes, I'm absolutely I
9:03
Speaker 1: knew you were going to say that I knew it
9:05
Speaker 1: the I knew you were going to see that, even
9:08
Speaker 1: me and my sister Charlene. Oh, now Charlene's getting into
9:11
Speaker 1: the whole thing. You and Charlene have sawed something in half?
9:15
Speaker 1: What was it? We would enter the long fallowing content
9:18
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you nothing will wear you out quicker?
9:20
Speaker 1: Where were you in a log sawing contest at the
9:25
Speaker 1: Thogham Fura Festival. Okay, see that's my fault, Brooklyn. This
9:32
Speaker 1: is trobably my fault, because isn't it true? Matthew team
9:35
Speaker 1: man Gino high profile while you never asked the question,
9:38
Speaker 1: you don't know the answer to see I asked, I
9:40
Speaker 1: knew the answer. With Karen Stark, she's gotten the perfect nails,
9:44
Speaker 1: the slender arms. I knew this girl had not picked
9:47
Speaker 1: up a song. Now, I didn't ask Cheryl to start
9:50
Speaker 1: because I knew she probably had, but I didn't know
9:52
Speaker 1: she entered the what Cheryl is sorghum? Sup? What Thogham
9:56
Speaker 1: Thurap festival in North Georgia. Yeah, that was poor cross examination,
10:06
Speaker 1: very poor crime stories with Nancy Grace. Well, let me
10:25
Speaker 1: ask you, Matthew Mangino, high profile lawyer, farmer district attorney,
10:29
Speaker 1: author of The Executioner's Toll, and can I tell you
10:33
Speaker 1: what I like him about in the book, It's the
10:34
Speaker 1: crimes or as trials, appeals, last meals, and final words
10:39
Speaker 1: forty six people in the US. Because I'm always interested
10:42
Speaker 1: in what do they say to explain away whoever they murdered?
10:47
Speaker 1: And what do they decide they want for their last meal?
10:49
Speaker 1: That's why I like your book, Mangino, have you ever
10:53
Speaker 1: sawt anything in half? I have sawed things in half,
10:56
Speaker 1: not very well. What would other things that around the home?
11:02
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not a handy guy, so basically not so much.
11:06
Speaker 1: All right, I've got one other person I need to ask,
11:09
Speaker 1: and I'm hearing in my ear. We're just being joined
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Speaker 1: by Crime online dot Com investigative reporter Nicole Parton. Now,
11:17
Speaker 1: Nicole Parton, it's not just an investigative reporter. She's a
11:21
Speaker 1: mom and she has adopted. How many children have you adopted? Nicole? Five?
11:27
Speaker 1: You know why? Then you early have eight in my home.
11:30
Speaker 1: You are an angel and you have earned your way
11:33
Speaker 1: into heaven according to me. Of course, I'm not the
11:35
Speaker 1: ultimate authority on that, but I don't think i'd even
11:38
Speaker 1: be a very good reference. So don't use me. When
11:40
Speaker 1: you get to the pearly Gates, Nicole, with all those children,
11:45
Speaker 1: you had to have sought something in half. I have, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: I must confess I do own a chainsaw, and I
11:50
Speaker 1: have cut a tree in half. Why, I was just,
11:54
Speaker 1: you know, handling business myself, you know how it is.
11:57
Speaker 1: I just did you have to cut a tree in half?
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Speaker 1: I'm just curious. The tree had fallen and it was
12:02
Speaker 1: going to take a long time for workers to come
12:05
Speaker 1: out and got out of the way, So just got
12:07
Speaker 1: out there with the chainsaw. Well, I'm all about d
12:10
Speaker 1: I y as you guys know. But I remember I
12:13
Speaker 1: was in m off on a trial somewhere, and there
12:17
Speaker 1: had been a horrible snow sleet ice disaster back home
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Speaker 1: in Georgia. And by then now now husband was here
12:30
Speaker 1: and he was grounded because he travels all the time
12:32
Speaker 1: with his job, and he happened to be Atlanta to
12:34
Speaker 1: catch the blizzard. And I called him and said, hey,
12:37
Speaker 1: are you okay. I'm so glad the phones are working. Goes, yeah,
12:39
Speaker 1: I'm like, what's that in the background. He goes, it's
12:41
Speaker 1: his chainsaw. I'm like what he said? Yeah? I went
12:44
Speaker 1: out a chain So I'm like, you putting that down
12:47
Speaker 1: right now, and you leave the trees right where they are,
12:50
Speaker 1: or you'll be missing a leg the next thing. You know. Anyway,
12:55
Speaker 1: Thank you Heaven. He only destroyed one tree before he
13:00
Speaker 1: put the chainsaw down. Now leading up to Doctor Kendall Crowns,
13:06
Speaker 1: the reason we don't like to saw things in half
13:09
Speaker 1: is because it's really hard. Cheryl McCollum, did you and
13:12
Speaker 1: your sister win by chance? Or did you place and
13:15
Speaker 1: the sorghum syrup? What did she say? It was logs
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Speaker 1: splitting cutting contest. We were champions two years running undefeated. Yeah. Well,
13:26
Speaker 1: I don't believe her. I don't want to check that
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Speaker 1: out because I think she's totally lying. Doctor Kendel Crowns,
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Speaker 1: How hard is it to cut up a human body?
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Speaker 1: It's really hard. So it depends on where you cut at.
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Speaker 1: So if you go to joint spaces, it's actually quite
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Speaker 1: easy to dismember a body. I've done that a few
13:44
Speaker 1: times over the year. But if you go to like
13:47
Speaker 1: midshaft to the bone or something like that, it is
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Speaker 1: actually are you dismembering a body? Well, we occasionally have
13:54
Speaker 1: to remove the sections of the body to evaluate them
13:57
Speaker 1: with anthropology, to remove parts, legs, arms, I've even removed
14:05
Speaker 1: head for the anthropologist. Well you just have all the fun,
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Speaker 1: don't you do every day, doctor Crowns. But wouldn't you
14:13
Speaker 1: have to know we're exactly where to cut to make
14:19
Speaker 1: it so easy, because I think it's really hard. I
14:23
Speaker 1: mean I can barely pull a chicken apart to fry
14:28
Speaker 1: the darn thing much less. Well, so yeah, yes you
14:32
Speaker 1: would have to know. But just by saying you've pulled
14:34
Speaker 1: a chicken apart, you know the good basics of joint
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Speaker 1: space and do it very well, Doctor Crowns, I'd get
14:42
Speaker 1: out a knife. Well, practice makes perfect, you know, as
14:48
Speaker 1: I've been told, you can buy them already in pieces.
14:51
Speaker 1: That said, Dotter Kennel Crowns, you're making it sound easy,
14:54
Speaker 1: but it's not easy for a lay person to dismember
14:58
Speaker 1: a body. If you don't know what you're doing and
15:01
Speaker 1: you're cutting through bone, what happens so commonly the mistake
15:06
Speaker 1: is as people don't go for joint spaces. You're correct,
15:08
Speaker 1: as most people try and cut in the mid portion
15:11
Speaker 1: of a bone, and it is very difficult to cut
15:14
Speaker 1: through bone, especially if you don't have an electric kasok
15:17
Speaker 1: because most of the ones most people have a hack
15:19
Speaker 1: saut that they try and cut through bone with and
15:21
Speaker 1: they get very tired. So a lot of the dismemberment
15:24
Speaker 1: cases we see is they become frustrated or fed up
15:28
Speaker 1: with trying to cut through the body and just end
15:32
Speaker 1: up giving up or lighting them on fire, which is
15:35
Speaker 1: also a very inefficient way of disposing about you know what,
15:38
Speaker 1: unless you wrap them entires. Matthew me Gino, have you
15:41
Speaker 1: ever had a case that you had to defend where
15:43
Speaker 1: the victim had been dismembered? Well, I actually had a
15:47
Speaker 1: prosecution or actually defendedicication which there was some effort at dismemberment.
15:55
Speaker 1: It was prior to when I was a prosecutor, and
15:59
Speaker 1: it was a very futile effort at dismemberment, but it
16:03
Speaker 1: was there was an effort to dismember a person who
16:07
Speaker 1: ultimately was charged, as in this case, with first degree murder. Guys,
16:11
Speaker 1: we're talking about a beautiful couple, a couple who by
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Speaker 1: all accounts, as far as we know right now, certainly
16:20
Speaker 1: did not deserve this. Take a listen to our friend
16:24
Speaker 1: Kevin Steele, the Montgomery County District Attorney. He was wrapped
16:29
Speaker 1: in a white sheet and comforter. And they were also
16:35
Speaker 1: unfortunately able to see that there was evidence of Miriam
16:43
Speaker 1: in the house also, and she was deceased. There were
16:48
Speaker 1: signs of extreme trauma. I'll tell you that a chainsaw
16:51
Speaker 1: was found. Both Reid and Miriam were found in different
16:58
Speaker 1: stages of dismount various stages of dismemberment. So whoever started
17:06
Speaker 1: didn't finish. And this would never have been discovered if
17:10
Speaker 1: the son hadn't gotten concerned because his mom was only
17:15
Speaker 1: texting back and he couldn't get her on the phone.
17:19
Speaker 1: You know, to you, Karen Stark, renowned psychologists joining us
17:23
Speaker 1: out of Manhattan, the shock of finding your parents not
17:28
Speaker 1: only dead but didn't dismembered. I mean, you and I
17:31
Speaker 1: talked forever after I sat in the room with my
17:35
Speaker 1: dad when he passed away, and I almost wish I hadn't,
17:39
Speaker 1: But again I'm glad I did, because I could never
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Speaker 1: forget those moments. I'd rather remember him alive and happy
17:48
Speaker 1: as opposed to that. But that sticks with you forever, Karen,
17:52
Speaker 1: Yes it doesn't, Nancy, and I do remember what happened
17:55
Speaker 1: with your dad, and what a way to discover that.
18:00
Speaker 1: I mean, at least you understood what has happened to
18:03
Speaker 1: your dad, but can't imagine if you walk into a
18:07
Speaker 1: scene and you realize that your parents are dead, but
18:12
Speaker 1: gruesomely something happened and they've been dismembered or hidden or
18:18
Speaker 1: something horrificant, and that's the scene that you walk into.
18:22
Speaker 1: You will never get over that, Cheryl McCollum, you and
18:25
Speaker 1: I have del were so many crime victims. It's the shock,
18:30
Speaker 1: the shock not only your loved on being dead, but
18:35
Speaker 1: from violence, much less a dismemberment. No wonder, crime victims
18:41
Speaker 1: are never the same. This would be something that your
18:43
Speaker 1: mind would not even allow you to process, almost like
18:47
Speaker 1: you would not even be able to understand what you
18:50
Speaker 1: were seeing. And again, he probably had some concern that
18:55
Speaker 1: something had happened, you know, maybe they weren't feeling well,
18:58
Speaker 1: maybe something going over with his mom's phone. But again
19:02
Speaker 1: it was enough care and concerned that he had to
19:04
Speaker 1: go over there personally when he could no longer reach
19:07
Speaker 1: them by phone. Guys, now take a listen to Kevin Steel,
19:11
Speaker 1: the attorney. The autopsy revealed that both Read and Miriam
19:17
Speaker 1: were shot in the head. We believe that happened first,
19:24
Speaker 1: there is evidence that a pillow was used in the
19:30
Speaker 1: in the shot and there was one shot to each
19:32
Speaker 1: of their heads, so you know, we hope and pray
19:38
Speaker 1: that that happened happened first Doctor Kennel Crown's medical examiner
19:44
Speaker 1: out of Fort Worth. When someone has been dismembered, it
19:47
Speaker 1: makes it so difficult to determine cod cause of death.
19:51
Speaker 1: How do you do it? As in this case it
19:54
Speaker 1: was by gunshot one. So usually with the dismembered bodies,
19:58
Speaker 1: if there's an intervening cause death like a gunshot, wound, stabbed,
20:02
Speaker 1: something of that nature, the wound itself will have blood
20:05
Speaker 1: throughout the wound force, so you know the individual was
20:08
Speaker 1: alive when they were shot or stabbed. And then the
20:12
Speaker 1: dismemberment usually there isn't a lot of blood associated with
20:16
Speaker 1: the cutting of the tissues and ripping away of the bones,
20:20
Speaker 1: so that the wounds will actually be fairly blood lists
20:24
Speaker 1: and they will kind of have a tannish dry appearance
20:27
Speaker 1: to them. So you can separate out post mortum injuries
20:31
Speaker 1: versus anti mortem inaguries or before death injuries versus after
20:35
Speaker 1: death enturies based on the tissue reaction in the blood.
20:39
Speaker 1: So and that's usually what we find with dismembermentsus they
20:43
Speaker 1: always are occurring after the fact, after the individual's death. Okay,
20:46
Speaker 1: let me translate that into regular people talk. I think
20:49
Speaker 1: you said that dismemberment usually occurs after the murder, and
20:54
Speaker 1: therefore the cuts due to dismemberment do not blade or
20:58
Speaker 1: do not blade very much, and you look at the
21:02
Speaker 1: body parts to determine if you can find a bullet
21:06
Speaker 1: wound or a stab wound which would have blood. Is
21:10
Speaker 1: that what you just said, correct, Because when you get
21:12
Speaker 1: the initial gunshot wound, your heart is still beating, and
21:15
Speaker 1: then when they're cutting parts off of you, the blood
21:18
Speaker 1: is just oozing and there's no beating heart. Do you
21:20
Speaker 1: ever just hear what you're saying like an objective bystander,
21:24
Speaker 1: and it all seems so normal. You sound like you're
21:27
Speaker 1: describing a painting by Monai. It's just very calm, and
21:32
Speaker 1: you're talking about the blood still is pumping while you're alive,
21:37
Speaker 1: and then after the murder, the blood's not pumping anymore,
21:42
Speaker 1: and so when you cut the body apart, there's not
21:44
Speaker 1: a lot of blood. You said that as cool as
21:46
Speaker 1: a cucumber. Well, if I present my findings in an
21:49
Speaker 1: emotional manner. I am no good at court because I
21:53
Speaker 1: don't come off as logical in thinking and instead of
21:56
Speaker 1: an emotional basket cake. So it's best to be a
22:00
Speaker 1: logical manner when presenting finding. You know what you are, Crowns.
22:03
Speaker 1: You're brilliant, You're absolutely brilliant, because nobody wants an agitated
22:10
Speaker 1: or excitable professional like I don't want a lawyer or
22:16
Speaker 1: a doctor or an accountant not to compare you to
22:20
Speaker 1: an account and of course you don't want them to
22:22
Speaker 1: be excitable and agitated and emotional. No, no, no, you're
22:28
Speaker 1: absolutely right, doctor Crowns. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys,
22:47
Speaker 1: we're talking about this as if it's a theory. But
22:52
Speaker 1: these are two lovely people, a mom and a dad,
22:58
Speaker 1: two seniors that walk hand in hand through the neighborhood
23:01
Speaker 1: every day. And again, I just keep thinking about Gradian Bua,
23:05
Speaker 1: our next door neighbors, and who would do this? Trying
23:08
Speaker 1: to determine the answer that question, who would have done
23:11
Speaker 1: this to such a lovely couple. Well, when you don't
23:15
Speaker 1: know who did it, you look at the victims in
23:18
Speaker 1: this case. Did they have any enemies? Were they involved
23:21
Speaker 1: with drugs? Did they sneak away to Vegas on the weekend.
23:24
Speaker 1: I blow a lot of money. Who are these people?
23:29
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friend Maggie Kent WP. The
23:34
Speaker 1: the community is reeling. Miriam Tony Beck was a school
23:38
Speaker 1: nurse for twenty years at Lower Moorland High School. Readbeck
23:42
Speaker 1: was a retired training director of steam Fitters Local Union
23:46
Speaker 1: for twenty Just a friendly, nice man who you know,
23:51
Speaker 1: when you think about it today, you step back and reminisce.
23:54
Speaker 1: I mean he taught the generation of apprentices underably. It
24:00
Speaker 1: is really difficult for neighbors and friends to talk about
24:05
Speaker 1: the Becks in past tense, but there is a few
24:08
Speaker 1: stories that they wanted to share, one being that the
24:11
Speaker 1: Becks would go for a walk almost a daily, every
24:14
Speaker 1: single day that we're seen walking down the street holding hands.
24:18
Speaker 1: So to Matthew Mangino joining us from near this jurisdiction.
24:26
Speaker 1: Matthew Mangino, high profile lawyer and author. Matthew it's not them.
24:34
Speaker 1: They don't have a risky lifestyle. They're not shooting up
24:37
Speaker 1: on the corner. She's not a hooker, he's not selling drugs.
24:42
Speaker 1: They don't sneak away to Vegas and blow all their money.
24:45
Speaker 1: They don't have any enemies. They're the people in the
24:49
Speaker 1: neighborhood that everybody loves. It's like clockwork every day their
24:52
Speaker 1: walk around the neighborhood. She was a school nurse for
24:56
Speaker 1: twenty years. There's no mystery there because defense attorney is
25:02
Speaker 1: very often we'll somehow try to blame the victim in
25:04
Speaker 1: some way. But these people are spotless. They're pure right.
25:09
Speaker 1: And if I was looking at this case initially, um,
25:13
Speaker 1: you know, I would want to know, you know, was
25:15
Speaker 1: there a robbery, You know that there are things taken
25:19
Speaker 1: from the home, and uh, you know, was there other
25:22
Speaker 1: things that mightn't be indicative of a stranger intruder. But
25:27
Speaker 1: the thing that would catch my eye would be the
25:29
Speaker 1: aspect of dismemberment. And dismemberment indicates someone who is trying
25:35
Speaker 1: to get rid of the evidence, get rid of the body.
25:38
Speaker 1: And so someone who comes in and commits a robbery,
25:41
Speaker 1: they're going to get the money, they'll kill you and
25:44
Speaker 1: they're gone. They're not going to try to dismember your
25:47
Speaker 1: body and put put it into a garbage scan dispose
25:50
Speaker 1: of it. So so I'm thinking right off the bat,
25:53
Speaker 1: if I'm investigating this or advising investigators, is who would
25:58
Speaker 1: want to all these people and then disposed of their bodies,
26:03
Speaker 1: disposed of the adit. You know, Matthew and Gino. That
26:06
Speaker 1: is very clear thinking and extremely astute. And in that line,
26:14
Speaker 1: take a listen to the da We are looking for
26:20
Speaker 1: what motive could have been behind this. I can't share
26:24
Speaker 1: one with you at this time. We did find evidence
26:28
Speaker 1: in the house of a safe that had been attempted
26:31
Speaker 1: to be broken into, and we also believe that this
26:36
Speaker 1: happened over a period of some time. Their voices were
26:43
Speaker 1: last heard by a family member on the seventh of January,
26:48
Speaker 1: so we believe that they may have been decomposing in
26:53
Speaker 1: that time. And that was also, unfortunately the than the
27:00
Speaker 1: smell that the officers when they first came into the
27:07
Speaker 1: into the house to doctor Kidneal Crowns as the chief
27:09
Speaker 1: medical examiner fort Worth, not the Crowns. Why do decomposing
27:13
Speaker 1: bodies smell? And it's a smell you'll never forget it,
27:17
Speaker 1: so unlike anything else to decomposing bodies smell because the
27:21
Speaker 1: bacteria that's in your intestines that help you digest food
27:25
Speaker 1: and all that after you die are no longer kept
27:27
Speaker 1: in check by the body and begin digesting or or
27:30
Speaker 1: breaking you down into a more breaking your body down.
27:36
Speaker 1: So it's the bacteria in your body that breaks you down.
27:39
Speaker 1: And when they breaks the body down, it creates kind
27:43
Speaker 1: of sulfur and other compounds that create that distinctive odor.
27:49
Speaker 1: And that's and then gases as well as methane is
27:52
Speaker 1: one that's produced by the breakdown of the body by bacteria.
27:56
Speaker 1: So again it's your body's bacteria breaking you down into
27:59
Speaker 1: some The mother, you know, Sheryl mccomer reminds me of
28:02
Speaker 1: top Mom Casey Anthony. Remember when her truck was opened
28:05
Speaker 1: by her own mother, Cindy Anthony and the mom set.
28:09
Speaker 1: It smells like a dead body's been in the car, right,
28:13
Speaker 1: There is a smell about a dead body. I really
28:16
Speaker 1: can't explain. It's unlike any other smell and you'll never
28:21
Speaker 1: forget it. And there's no way to ignore it. There's
28:24
Speaker 1: no way to say it's anything else. Casey Anthony trying
28:27
Speaker 1: to say it was a rotten pizza box, something not
28:30
Speaker 1: even close. You know. The sad thing again, in this situation,
28:36
Speaker 1: it seems like they were in that state for some
28:38
Speaker 1: period of time in their home alone. And that's a
28:41
Speaker 1: real fan and that's the real indicator, because, as I've
28:45
Speaker 1: said about many other high profile cases, who would take
28:48
Speaker 1: the time with the effort to do this to Nicole
28:51
Speaker 1: Parton joining us climb online dot com and Dusty at
28:53
Speaker 1: a reporter. So someone did try to get into the safe,
28:58
Speaker 1: but seemingly was successful. Do you know if there was
29:02
Speaker 1: a forced entry, was anything else taken? Or either one
29:05
Speaker 1: of them sex assaulted before or after death? Do we
29:08
Speaker 1: know any of that? There was no sign of forced entry,
29:12
Speaker 1: no signs of any sexual abuse, sexual assaults. We do
29:16
Speaker 1: know that there were holes that had been drilled into
29:19
Speaker 1: the family safe. So obviously someone that did not have
29:22
Speaker 1: the code or the key had tried to get into
29:25
Speaker 1: the safe but were unsuccessful. We were also being told
29:28
Speaker 1: that nothing else was missing from the home. So someone
29:31
Speaker 1: came into the home, no forced entry, and drilled holes
29:37
Speaker 1: into the Becks safe in their home. Correct, So someone
29:42
Speaker 1: was trying to get into that safe that didn't have
29:44
Speaker 1: a key, didn't have the combination. They were unsuccessful, but
29:48
Speaker 1: they had drilled holes into the safe trying to get
29:51
Speaker 1: into it. Nicole, pardon, I'm sure you have. Have you
29:54
Speaker 1: looked at their home, it's perfectly kept, like their yard
29:59
Speaker 1: is perfect. The shrubs are perfect. There is not one
30:05
Speaker 1: leaf from those trees, most of them are evergreens, though
30:08
Speaker 1: not one leaf on the lawn. Nothing. The walkway up
30:14
Speaker 1: to their front door is perfectly cleaned. The sidewalk in
30:18
Speaker 1: front of their home, everything's perfect. But my point is
30:23
Speaker 1: the home is not a mansion. Now. It's a pretty
30:26
Speaker 1: ripsey area. I'll grant you that it's up. It isn't
30:29
Speaker 1: that a suburb of Philly, Matthew Mangino, Yes it is.
30:32
Speaker 1: It's in Montgomery County, about fifteen miles from Philadelphia. It's
30:38
Speaker 1: the home of Pennsylvania the new governor, George Piro. So
30:42
Speaker 1: it's a nice neighborhood. But this home itself is not
30:46
Speaker 1: a multimillion dollar mansion. It looks like a family home
30:49
Speaker 1: that somebody bought back in the fifties or sixties maybe
30:53
Speaker 1: and raise their children, their two children, and that the
30:57
Speaker 1: parents still live there for a school nurse and the
31:01
Speaker 1: union man. You know, it reminds me a lot of
31:04
Speaker 1: the home I grew up in, as a matter of fact.
31:06
Speaker 1: But who we want to break in to a home
31:08
Speaker 1: like that and try to get into the safe? There
31:13
Speaker 1: is no way somebody would break into that home and
31:16
Speaker 1: murder two people and then be unsuccessful with that safe.
31:20
Speaker 1: There's no way if anything else, they would try to,
31:24
Speaker 1: you know, take it off the wall, take it with them.
31:27
Speaker 1: This sounds like somebody that almost googled how to break
31:30
Speaker 1: into it and failed miserably. But back to doctor Kendall,
31:33
Speaker 1: Crown's chief medical Examiner, Tarrant County Fort Worth. I know
31:38
Speaker 1: that their voices were last heard on the seventh of January.
31:44
Speaker 1: They have been decomposing for many days to that degree.
31:51
Speaker 1: If you have that degree of decomposition, doctor, can you
31:55
Speaker 1: still determine cod cause of death? Yes, you can. You
31:59
Speaker 1: can still pick figure out what people died from. The
32:02
Speaker 1: injuries are still there. You'll still find damage to the organs,
32:06
Speaker 1: even though they may be decomposed or liquefied. But you
32:10
Speaker 1: will also find injuries to the bones as well that
32:13
Speaker 1: will be significant for gunshot wounds or fractures that are
32:16
Speaker 1: significant for beatings and things like that. So what would
32:19
Speaker 1: have to happen to the body in order for there
32:23
Speaker 1: to be an undetermined cause of death? They would have
32:28
Speaker 1: to be literally cremated. Otherwise, most of the time we
32:32
Speaker 1: are able to figure out a cause of that cremated,
32:35
Speaker 1: and to be cremated, you have really high temperatures, not
32:40
Speaker 1: like an oven or a fire in the back of
32:43
Speaker 1: the yard. They have to be incinerator gray temperatures to
32:46
Speaker 1: get rid of it right, to get rid of evidence.
32:48
Speaker 1: That's correct. So guys, I want you to take a
32:51
Speaker 1: listen to a mcman wp v I. There was a
32:56
Speaker 1: couple's son who grew concerned after he hadn't spoken to
32:59
Speaker 1: his parents in a week. He went to their home,
33:01
Speaker 1: saw a body inside, confronted his sister, and then left
33:05
Speaker 1: and called ninety one. The couple's son told authorities he
33:08
Speaker 1: believed that he was texting with his parents all week. Now,
33:11
Speaker 1: authorities believe his sister was using the parents' phone to
33:15
Speaker 1: make the son think that they were still alive. Cheryl McCollum,
33:19
Speaker 1: what do you make of that? Someone going to the
33:21
Speaker 1: links of fake texting. We saw that with Brian Laundry
33:27
Speaker 1: and Gabby Petito where he referred to her. I believe
33:30
Speaker 1: it was her uncle grandfather by their name like Tom
33:34
Speaker 1: and so saying Grandpa, how is Grandpa? Right? She said
33:38
Speaker 1: how's Tom? When they went that's not right? Correct? I
33:42
Speaker 1: think everything she did after these murders to cover up
33:45
Speaker 1: the crime is very telling, hide them under sheets, to
33:49
Speaker 1: head them and dismembering. Trying to hide the bodies. She
33:53
Speaker 1: had to get chainsaws and dollies. She had to keep
33:56
Speaker 1: the phones charged Nancy in order to do this text messaging.
34:00
Speaker 1: She told him that she herself was sick, trying to
34:03
Speaker 1: get him up to come over. She turned the lights out.
34:05
Speaker 1: She wouldn't answer the door. She moved the bodies with
34:09
Speaker 1: that dolly, creating the creating the marks and the carpet.
34:12
Speaker 1: She did something every single day, every single minute after
34:17
Speaker 1: these murders to try to cover it up and further
34:20
Speaker 1: and a cover up. Take a listen to Marcus Espinoza
34:24
Speaker 1: Fox twenty nine. Steele believes that the parents were killed
34:26
Speaker 1: on or around at January seventh. The daughter is a
34:29
Speaker 1: resident of the home, and Steele says it's clear she
34:32
Speaker 1: tried to hide the bodies both by dismemberment and also
34:36
Speaker 1: may have impersonated the parents via cell phone. That's when
34:41
Speaker 1: their voices had last been heard. And I say that
34:45
Speaker 1: specifically because it seems like the daughter may have had
34:50
Speaker 1: access to their phones and may have been texting on
34:55
Speaker 1: their behalf. Wow, Okay, there's no way around that Matthew,
35:00
Speaker 1: Me and Gino. If that can be proved that is
35:03
Speaker 1: serious intent. Well, yeah, there's no question. I mean, there
35:08
Speaker 1: are certain situations here that lend itself to the fact
35:13
Speaker 1: that she understood what she was doing, and she understood
35:17
Speaker 1: right from wrong. Although this is macabb and you're in
35:20
Speaker 1: a house for a number of days with your deceased
35:24
Speaker 1: parents while you're trying to dismember their bodies. That is
35:28
Speaker 1: indicative of someone who knows that they did something wrong
35:31
Speaker 1: and are trying to cover it up so it doesn't
35:33
Speaker 1: look like insanity. He's going to be an option to Nancy. Yeah,
35:36
Speaker 1: jump in. That's doctor Karen start, go ahead. So this
35:40
Speaker 1: is this type of person I want to tell you
35:42
Speaker 1: is not mentally ill and certainly doesn't have any kind
35:47
Speaker 1: doesn't suffer from what we know of the severe abuse.
35:51
Speaker 1: She's an antisocial offender. What do you mean by that?
35:55
Speaker 1: That means that she's doing this for selfish reasons. Parents
36:00
Speaker 1: are in her way. She wants something like their money
36:03
Speaker 1: or freedom. In this case, it seems like money because
36:07
Speaker 1: somebody tried to break into the safe and I assume
36:10
Speaker 1: it must be her, and so she lacks emotions, She
36:14
Speaker 1: lacks empathy for others. She doesn't She knows exactly what
36:19
Speaker 1: she's doing, but she doesn't care. Antisocial, you know, I
36:23
Speaker 1: hear that phrase used a lot, of course in common vernacular,
36:30
Speaker 1: but when you think of it in the sense of
36:34
Speaker 1: a psychiatric or psychological disorder, it takes on a whole
36:40
Speaker 1: different meaning. Karen Start, that's right, because it really is
36:44
Speaker 1: describing a personality somebody that we have trouble really comprehending
36:49
Speaker 1: because they don't have a conscience and they don't care.
36:53
Speaker 1: Makes you think of the brothers Lyla Eric Mendez, right right,
36:57
Speaker 1: Menendez who killed their parents and I knew what they
37:01
Speaker 1: were doing, and they really wanted the money. I still
37:04
Speaker 1: have in my head about that, Karen Start, which we've
37:07
Speaker 1: talked about a lot. The mother kid, even Indez, crawling
37:10
Speaker 1: down the hall begging for her life, and they just
37:14
Speaker 1: followed her with the gun and killed her. To Nicole
37:16
Speaker 1: Parton joining Me Crime on One dot Com investigative reporter
37:20
Speaker 1: Nicole take a listen to Maggie Kent WPVII. Their forty
37:25
Speaker 1: three year old daughter, Verity was inside, as were three guns.
37:29
Speaker 1: Police knew they needed to approach with caution. They used drones.
37:33
Speaker 1: They threw in a camera which was able to search
37:36
Speaker 1: most of the area. When they reached the door and
37:38
Speaker 1: made their way inside, Verity walked down the steps, hands raised.
37:42
Speaker 1: She just confirmed that her parents were deceased and was
37:47
Speaker 1: concerned about her cats and dog. They were the only
37:51
Speaker 1: words that she uttered. It's evident that the Becks had
37:53
Speaker 1: been deceased for some time. They were both shot once
37:56
Speaker 1: in the head, whether they were sleeping or not. You
37:58
Speaker 1: just hope that they Nicole Parton, what can you tell
38:01
Speaker 1: me about the arrest of the adult daughter Verity Beck.
38:07
Speaker 1: Verity Beck is a school teacher at Saint Catherine's School
38:10
Speaker 1: of Special Education. She's now facing two counts of first
38:14
Speaker 1: degree murder for the death of her parents. Decapitated her
38:19
Speaker 1: father and severed her mother into eight pieces Nancy with
38:24
Speaker 1: a chainsaw. Okay, hold on, do you say that one
38:27
Speaker 1: more time? What decapitated her father and then put her
38:32
Speaker 1: mother into eight pieces, threw her in the trash cans
38:36
Speaker 1: in the garage. The chainsaw was still laying there with
38:40
Speaker 1: the biological material on it from her family, and she
38:43
Speaker 1: was Karen Stark boy dorinated shrink again. All she said
38:48
Speaker 1: was she was worried about her cast and dogs. Let
38:51
Speaker 1: me tell you, Nancy, that she continue to animals because
38:55
Speaker 1: animals just they give to you. You don't have to
38:58
Speaker 1: really interact with them in an important way. And think
39:02
Speaker 1: about that. It's just amazing that she had no hesitation.
39:07
Speaker 1: She was able to decapitate her father and take apart
39:11
Speaker 1: her mother and eight pieces. I can't even cut up
39:14
Speaker 1: a piece of chicken. I mean, think about it. She
39:16
Speaker 1: just chopped her mother up, Chryl McCollum, and what seven
39:19
Speaker 1: or eight pieces, And when the cops come in, she goes, well,
39:22
Speaker 1: what about my cat and dog? That's right. And even
39:24
Speaker 1: before that, Nancy, she spent thirty minutes talking to her
39:28
Speaker 1: own brother in that scene with their parents dead, with
39:33
Speaker 1: blood everywhere, like nothing was wrong, Like she was just
39:36
Speaker 1: sitting in the living room reading a magazine and there's
39:39
Speaker 1: like eight pieces of her mother over there. Guys, take
39:42
Speaker 1: a listen now to w p VII. Verity used this
39:47
Speaker 1: chainsaw and then had put parts of her parents into
39:55
Speaker 1: trash bags. This fifty five gallon trash been authorities say
40:00
Speaker 1: held some of the couple's remains and was transported to
40:02
Speaker 1: the coroner's office along with her father's decapitated body. Tuesday evening,
40:08
Speaker 1: the couple's concerned son entered the home, found a body
40:11
Speaker 1: with a sheet over it, spoke to his sister, left
40:14
Speaker 1: and called nine one one. When police arrived, they made
40:17
Speaker 1: the grizzly discovery and they asked Verity, where are your parents?
40:22
Speaker 1: And Verity replied they are dead, shooting her elderly parents
40:26
Speaker 1: in their heads, dismembering their bodies with a chainsaw, stuffing
40:30
Speaker 1: them in trash cans. This all comes to light after
40:33
Speaker 1: the adults son tells cops he had not spoken to
40:36
Speaker 1: his parents vermally since jan seven. Possible motive? Do we
40:42
Speaker 1: care what the motive is? Take a listen to more
40:44
Speaker 1: from ABC Philly. They also found guns belonging to Verity
40:49
Speaker 1: and believed they found the murder weapon. The crime left
40:52
Speaker 1: neighbor's dumbfounded. I'm completely stunned at the quiet neighborhood, very
40:57
Speaker 1: friendly kids all over the place. Authors are still searching
41:01
Speaker 1: for a votive. We did find evidence in the house
41:05
Speaker 1: of a safe that had been attempted to be broken into,
41:09
Speaker 1: a daughter shooting her parents in the head before using
41:12
Speaker 1: a chainsaw to dismember them. Chery McCollum, You and I
41:17
Speaker 1: both worked on dismemberment cases where portions of the victim well,
41:24
Speaker 1: where the victim was in portions. I think that that's
41:28
Speaker 1: very difficult for a jury to take in not only
41:33
Speaker 1: the murderer, but the dismemberment when the person is actually sane,
41:39
Speaker 1: because you would expect the defendant to be insane to
41:43
Speaker 1: commit a dismemberment. You would. And you know, you're also
41:47
Speaker 1: talking about somebody that was a special education teacher, so
41:51
Speaker 1: you have this idea that they are a comfort to
41:53
Speaker 1: people and understand our patient and kind and then she's
41:58
Speaker 1: able to do something like this for se only no
42:00
Speaker 1: reason at all. But if you take everything step by step,
42:05
Speaker 1: this was not somebody eighteen or nineteen. This was a woman,
42:08
Speaker 1: middle aged, still living with her parents. That's a flag.
42:13
Speaker 1: The fact that she's going to buy all these guns
42:16
Speaker 1: for what that's a flag. Now you've got these issues
42:20
Speaker 1: that are probably well known to the brother because again
42:23
Speaker 1: when he goes over there, he doesn't flip out. He's
42:26
Speaker 1: able to talk to her calmly for thirty minutes in
42:30
Speaker 1: order I believe, to save his own life. Matthew Mangino question,
42:34
Speaker 1: this is in Pennsylvania. Now, Pennsylvania does have the death penalty.
42:39
Speaker 1: But is it correct that no one has been executed
42:41
Speaker 1: since around nineteen seventy six. Yeah, there have been three
42:45
Speaker 1: executions since nineteen seventy six in Pennsylvania. They were all volunteers.
42:50
Speaker 1: People gave up their rights and just agreed to be executed.
42:54
Speaker 1: The last one was in nineteen ninety nine in Governor Wolf,
42:59
Speaker 1: who left office had imposed a moratorium on signing death warrants.
43:06
Speaker 1: So you know the death penalty, Well, it's on the books,
43:09
Speaker 1: and there's a hundred and some people on death row.
43:13
Speaker 1: It's not working in Pennsylvania. Karen Storry, what do you
43:16
Speaker 1: make of a person that is legally sane but not
43:20
Speaker 1: only murders their parents and then dismembers. Well we go
43:25
Speaker 1: back Nancy too, the fact that there are no feelings.
43:29
Speaker 1: She has no emotions. She can only connect to I
43:35
Speaker 1: guess children and animals because they don't demand much from you.
43:40
Speaker 1: They just care about you and love you. She is
43:43
Speaker 1: not like anybody that we usually know. She doesn't care.
43:48
Speaker 1: And now the son is left with nothing but memories
43:51
Speaker 1: of his parents walking hand in hand through the neighborhood.
43:56
Speaker 1: I know he will never be able to reconcile that
44:00
Speaker 1: that loving image with what he saw in the home
44:03
Speaker 1: that day, his parents murdered and dismembered, and his sister
44:06
Speaker 1: sitting there like nothing had happened. We wait as justice
44:11
Speaker 1: and false. Goodbye, friend,