Daniel Clark (Arvada police) and Chelsea Beadles (1st Judicial District Attorney's Office).
A Colorado man is headed to prison for a decade after he admitted to stuffing a woman's body in a tote bin and placing the remains near a dumpster.
Daniel Ryan Clark, 41, pleaded guilty to tampering with a deceased human body and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the First District Attorney's Office said in a press release. Cops in Arvada, a Denver suburb, responded on Sept. 15 to The Perch on 52nd apartment complex after a maintenance worker found a body that was later identified as 29-year-old Chelsea Beadles near a dumpster. The body had "numerous injuries."
The remains were inside the plastic tote and covered with bedding. Investigators using cell phone data and Facebook records determined Beadles was with Clark in the hours before her death. Cops also obtained evidence tying Clark to the bedding and tote bin.
But cops and prosecutors never charged Clark with murder or other more serious charges because a medical examiner was unable to determine a cause and manner of death. The coroner concluded the cause and manner of death were "undetermined." While there was no evidence of significant trauma to her body, "in consideration of the unclear circumstances surrounding the decedent's death, a traumatic death cannot be definitively excluded," the ME stated.
Investigators could never determine how she died or whether anyone was criminally responsible.
At sentencing, Beadles' mother described her daughter as a "sweet soul" and lamented the way in which her body was discovered.
"No parent should have to collect their child's body from the trash," she told the court.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Brenna Zortman acknowledged the sentence "feels so abysmally low for what happened."
"I'm so sorry we can't provide the family with more information about what happened. It's not fair," Zortman said in a statement.
For his part, Clark told the judge he was "owning up to the stuff I did," but denied killing the victim. Clark said he doesn't remember much of what happened because of drug use.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by local NBC affiliate KUSA, Clark told authorities Beadles left his apartment early on the day in question after she got into an argument on the phone with "some dude." Authorities haven't described their relationship but he told authorities they would often hang out together.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed the tampering with physical evidence charge. The sentence for tampering with a deceased human body called for a sentence of between four and 12 years. Prosecutors and Clark's attorneys agreed on a 10-year prison sentence which a judge imposed.