Inset: Tasha Beamon (Saginaw County Jail). Background: The home where Beamon allegedly kept her sister-in-law imprisoned for years (Google Maps).
A 48-year-old woman in Michigan is accused of severely abusing her sister-in-law, allegedly imprisoning the 58-year-old in a locked basement against her will for years while providing barely enough food and water to survive.
Tasha Beamon was taken into custody last week and charged with one count each of unlawful imprisonment and first-degree abuse of a vulnerable adult, court records show.
The investigation into Beamon began when officers with the Saginaw Police Department responded to a home in the 1600 block of Gilbert Street at about 2 p.m. on March 15 regarding a call about a home being vandalized, local CBS affiliate WNEM reported. The caller told the dispatcher that a woman had just broken one of the windows of their home and was still outside the residence.
When officers arrived, they found a 58-year-old woman who said she had just escaped from a nearby house where she had been held against her will for about two years, according to reports from WNEM and MLive. The woman told police she broke the window so someone would call for help.
"She told officers she was not fed very often and that she didn't have any access to water," Saginaw Police Detective Sgt. Jeff Doud said, according to a report from MLive.
Authorities said the woman identified Beamon — her sister-in-law and caregiver — as the person who confined her in the basement since about 2024. The victim said she had been forced to stay on a mattress with a radio constantly blaring nearby, according to MLive.
"Usually, somebody was there," Doud said. "She didn't believe anyone was home at the time, so she was able to force a door open and escape."
A neighbor, Colton Ehlow, told local ABC affiliate WJRT he was startled to find the woman inside his home after she shattered his window with a metal pipe.
"She asks me to call the cops at first, which was weird. But that was the first thing she said to me: Call the cops," Ehlow said.
Ehlow described the woman as extremely frail.
"I thought she was like 78. She was this tall, skin and bones," he said.
He also spoke about how the basement was set up.
"It was on the outside door, so you can't get in from it," Ehlow said. "You can't unlock it from the inside, so that's what clued them to believe her that she was trapped there."
Investigators who searched Beamon's home reportedly found evidence consistent with the woman's account, including a locked basement door, a mattress, and containers of urine. Authorities also determined the victim had little to no access to food, water, a bathroom, or a shower.
Emergency responders transported the woman to a hospital, where staff determined she was suffering from severe malnourishment and could die if released, prosecutors alleged, according to MLive.
Beamon later admitted to keeping the woman in her home and not allowing her to leave, though she claimed the victim stayed in an upstairs bedroom — a statement that was reportedly contradicted by evidence at the scene.
Authorities believe Beamon may have been motivated by financial gain, alleging she kept the woman confined in order to collect her disability payments, Doud said.
Beamon is currently being held at the Saginaw County Jail, where a judge set her bond at $100,000. She is scheduled to make her next appearance in court on April 20.
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