Verity Beck, 49, is facing murder charges following the discovery of her parents’ remains – Reid Beck, 73, and Miriam Beck, 72 – at Abington Township on Tuesday.
Verity Beck, 49, allegedly murdered her parents and dismembered their bodies with electrical chainsaw.
The Montgomery Country District said that police were called to have a welfare check on the home from a family member “who had not seen or heard from the elderly couple in more than a week.”
Officers observed upon entering the home that the daughter was inside and had a rotting dead smell.
They also “observed one deceased person tightly wrapped in a white bed sheet, and evidence of a second deceased person inside the home. There were signs of extreme trauma present.”
“A chainsaw was also located near one of the body, and both bodies were in various stages of dismemberment,” as described by the district attorney’s office. Several firearms were also recovered from the house.
Upon investigation, Steel said that each received a gunshot wound to the head, which was determined as their cause of death. The crime was then followed by dismemberment with the electrical chainsaw.
He said, “These were not easy autopsies to conduct based upon the fact Verity used this chainsaw, and then had put parts of her parents into trash bags and had covered them up, and they were actually in two different trash cans.” He added, “It was one shot to each of their heads. We hope and pray that that happened first.”
Further investigation revealed a safe in the house that showed several attempts to open and break into. A family member was on January 7 last heard the elderlies; hence the crime must have been done before for a while. Steel presumed, “so we believe that they may have been decomposing in that time, and that was also, unfortunately, the smell that the officers got when they first came into the house – and sadly, that is a very distinctive smell. ”
Beck was immediately taken into custody and charged with first-degree and third-degree murder.
