Daniel Clark (Arvada police) and Chelsea Beadles (1st Judicial District Attorney”s Office).
A man from Colorado has been sentenced to a decade in prison after confessing to hiding a woman’s body in a tote bin and abandoning it near a dumpster.
Daniel Ryan Clark, aged 41, admitted to the charge of tampering with a deceased human body and received a 10-year prison sentence, according to a statement from the First District Attorney’s Office. Authorities were called to The Perch on 52nd apartment complex in Arvada, a suburb of Denver, on September 15, after a maintenance worker discovered the body of 29-year-old Chelsea Beadles near a dumpster. Her body exhibited “numerous injuries.”
Beadles’ remains were found inside a plastic tote, covered with bedding. Through cell phone data and Facebook records, investigators established that Beadles had been in Clark’s company shortly before her death. They also gathered evidence linking Clark to the bedding and the tote bin.
However, Clark was not charged with murder or more serious crimes because the medical examiner could not ascertain the cause and manner of Beadles’ death. The coroner declared both to be “undetermined.” While there was no evidence of major trauma, the medical examiner noted that “a traumatic death cannot be definitively excluded” due to the unclear circumstances surrounding her demise.
Ultimately, investigators were unable to determine how Beadles died or if there was any criminal culpability involved.
During the sentencing, Beadles’ mother spoke of her daughter as a “sweet soul” and expressed sorrow over the manner in which her body was found.
“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.
