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Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
NEIGHBOR FINDS CAITLIN, 36, 'PULVERIZED' IN TAX-LAWYER STAIRWELL, FOOT MISSING
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This is an iHeart podcast. It starts like any other night. The glass of red, the cozy blanket, then the drop. The stain. So dark, so stubborn, it might as well have been a crime scene. But this isn't your average couch. This is Anna Bay. Fully washable, unspeakably comfortable, and ready for whatever your life, your kids or your ex throws at it. And here's the kicker. Starting at just $6.99, you can make sure your sofa isn't part of the problem. Fully washable, stain resistant, and built to hide even the darkest defenses. Right now, get up to 60% off with their early access Black Friday sale because no one should have to live with a stain that won't quit. Annabe the only mystery you won't be losing sleep over shop washablesofas.com today that's washablesofas.com hey, it's Bobby from the Bobby Bones Show. I had an incredible time at this year's iHeartRadio music festival and even got the chance to hang out with Diplo and Bailey Zimmerman while I was there. How did Ashes come together? Diplo? I pulled up real quick. He was about to leave on tour. You're about to jump in your tour bus and we had like three hours. It was really cool. He really just like randomly showed up to my house and I'm like, oh, hey Diplo, what are you doing? He's like, I have a song that I want to show you. And I was like, okay, you can listen to the full episode episode out now, wherever you get your podcasts. And big shout out to my friends at Hyundai for making this possible. Had a blast cruising around festival weekend in the all new Palisade hybrid. Busy work weeks can leave you feeling drained. Prolon's five day fasting mimicking diet works at the cellular level to rejuvenate you from the inside out, providing real results that include fat focused, sustainable weight loss with no injection needed. Next Gen builds on the original prolong with 100% organic soups and teaspoons, a richer taste and ready to eat meals. Developed at USC's Longevity Institute and backed by top medical centers, Prolon supports biological age reduction, metabolic health, skin appearance, fat loss and energy. Get 15% off plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe at prolonlife.com iheart that's prolonlife.com iheart Crime stories with Nancy Grace A neighbor finds a gorgeous young wife, Caitlin, just 36, pulverized. That's the medical examiner's words, not mine. Pulverized in the stairwell of a tax lawyer. Her foot gone missing. Now, how do you lose your foot in a fall down the stairs? I'm curious. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. From the outside, Caitlin Tracy and Adam Beckerink appeared to be a typical couple from Chicago, navigating the ups and downs of dating before eventually tying the knot. But beneath the surface, a dark and troubling reality was unfolding. It is excruciating. Hearing her 911 call. What is the truth? How did Caitlin sustain so, so many injuries going down that stairwell? And how did she lose a foot in the process? I want you to hear this. Can you not put me in the car, please? Can we just talk? Can we just talk, please? Please, can we just talk before you put me in the car? Can we just talk right here? Just talk right here. How do you. Wait, wait, hold on, hold on. People are. Hold on. Seriously? Seriously. Hold on. Why the are you guys. Keep walking. I'm so angry. Wait, wait, wait. That is from a prior incident. Don't you just love how police and yeah, I'm talking about you, John Bueller, former detective, Modesto pd, refer to an outright attack as an incident that was a prior incident. And you saw that body cam footage from our friends ABC 7 Chicago. You know Bueller. Interesting. Did you hear him as they got him down on the ground saying, get out of my house? You know what? I'm surprised the cops didn't give him a little spanking for that. And then he goes on, he says, baby, baby, help me to Caitlyn. Like, she's going to call the whole thing off and just. Can't we just talk? Can't we talk about this? The time for talking was past Bueller. And I'm leading to. If he would carry on like that with the police, what would he do behind closed doors with Caitlin? Well, there's many things that he probably did between or behind closed doors that we'll never know about, because the incidents that they do have recorded and that they have documented in police reports are probably the tip of the iceberg. There are many calls that probably were never made. There were excuses that she made for things that happened and maybe bruises that people saw, and she didn't want to reveal anything. But he's a typical narcissistic, violent guy that, you know, cops deal with all the time. He's probably a smooth talker at a point. He might have been under the influence at this time. But this is where the body cameras are really Great, because it does keep the cops in line, because guys like this are frustrating. You certainly want to give some extra tune up, but you can't legally and ethically. So it worked out good that they took him in custody, but unfortunately, she was willing to go back to him. She went back to him. And I'm sad to say that there were greatly, greatly reduced charges, which seems to be the way. Dr. Cheryl Eric joining us, renowned clinical forensic psychologist specializing in trauma recovery. You just heard former Detective Modesto PD say that he, the tax lawyer in a very prominent law firm in Chicago. How they couldn't see behind his facade, I don't know. But you heard Bueller state he was a smooth talker. And Bueller is right. Did you hear him trying to make a Hail Mary save there at the end? Hey, baby, baby, can we just talk about this? Did you hear that? I did hear that. And it is not uncommon for abusers to have a false self that they show to everybody else. And then, as you're saying, behind closed doors, everything, all bets are off. This is about a cycle that is designed to have coercive control over her. And so he will do things to. To get his way and to control her. And this is really an example of how domestic violence can happen to beautiful, successful, smart women. And, you know, some people may wonder, why does somebody stay? But I think it's really important to understand she did do the right thing. She reported, she. She called the police, she told people what was happening. And the most dangerous time in domestic violence is when the victim tries to leave the abuser, because that is the moment when he feels he's losing control of her. And so this is something that it often takes multiple times to get out of a situation, but the most lethal time is when she tries to leave. And there's also a really big red flag in this case that I wish more people were aware of when it comes to domestic violence, and that is past incidents of non lethal strangulation. When an abuser has grabbed a woman by the neck during a past attack, he is 750 times more likely to kill her in the next year. Repeat that, please. That's a new statistic to me. If an abuser has ever grabbed his victim by the neck and used strangulation, which is a power and control tactic, to control her breathing, he is 750 times more likely to commit homicide against that woman within the year. And actually, if he has access to firearms, that statistic goes to above 1000%. Joining us is Dr. Cheryl Ehrent. Guys I want you to imagine. Look, I'm going to show you some more body cam, but I want you to imagine if he will do this in front of police and talk to them this way, what will he do with Caitlin behind closed doors? What the hell are you talking about? Wait, before you put blades. Seriously, I. Listen to me. You can't search me. You cannot search me. That's illegal. That's a illegal search. That's an illegal search. You know it is. That's an illegal search. Get off me. Got me. That's an illegal search. Get off me. You know it's illegal. Let go of my hands. Adam, you're under arrest. For what? Oh, the yelling, the screaming, the snotting. And in that vein, let me go straight out to veteran trial lawyer. Joining us Philip Debay, L.A. county Public Defender's office with an extension. Extensive history of trying cases, debate. Thank you for being with us. Now, hubby that we're seeing is a lawyer and he is a very well respected lawyer and a big law firm. I believe he was a partner in the law firm. They can see through his facade. And apparently he needs to go back to researching tax documents because that's not the law. You can absolutely search someone pursuant to a lawful arrest. Yeah, of course you can. And he was under arrest for domestic violence. And you don't even need a warrant for it. If there is a call for help in a domestic violence situation, they can just take you in and search you. Incident to that arrest. That includes your pockets, your hands. They can pat you down if you have any containers. Like a briefcase or a tote bag. Yes, they can sort of rifle through that as well just to make sure you're not packing any weapons or have any sharp objects. But it sounds like. Hey DB Check out those biceps. I wonder what a right hook would feel like to Caitlin from one of those guns. Check out those biceps on this guy. He's no stranger to the gym. Oh, my goodness. He's still slinging his body around in the back seat. Hey, Dube, you ever been in the backseat of a cruiser? They're disgusting. Because people like this PoC, technical legal term, they vomit back there, they defecate on purpose, they urinate, they spit. They do it all in the back seat of these guys cruiser. I mean, at apd, you just pull up behind the station and there were hoses back there. Just open the cruiser door and start hosing out. I mean, can you imagine hosing out the back seat of what? Your Porsche, your Mercedes? I don't know. Hose out the cruiser like it was a garage. Because the people like him. Can I see that again? Him twisting himself around, throwing himself, Spitting, snotting, screaming. Yeah. Mm. Good times. What about that, Dube? Well, the main reason why they hose it down is to make sure that suspects from subsequent arrests are not tied to any DNA or any other trace evidence from a prior suspect. So you want to make sure that the car is completely antiseptic and you're not. Put him up. Name me one time. One. One case where DNA was taken out of the back seat of a police cruiser and used in court. Not DNA, but dope. Dope was found between the seats. You just said DNA. Did he not just say DNA? You said DNA. All right, any evidence used against a client. They found Mets stuffed between the cushions in the back of a squad car. They tried to introduce it against a client of mine, but I was able to get all the call logs from the previous arrest in that car and show that two arrests. Cut his mic. This is not a Dubai infomercial, okay? About how you saved your meth client. So never has anyone, you know, Let me go to Bueller on that. Did you see the way this guy is carrying on? Belligerent, aggressive, kicking out at the police, struggling with them, threatening them, and then he gets in the back seat of the cruiser and almost cannot be contained. Now, can you school Dubai on why you have to hose out the back of your cruiser after putting this tax lawyer back there? Well, we do. We did that because guys would vomit in there. Maybe they, you know, were defecating or they urinated back there. And you don't want to introduce somebody that maybe doesn't need to belong in that situation, that, you know, maybe a drunk driver that's a regular member of the society. You don't want to expose them to that stuff. So we'd pose things out like that. He does have a little bit of a point on cross contamination. If it was a situation. Nice. Criminal defendants should not have to sit in a pile of this guy's poop. Hey, speaking of poop, that reminds me, isn't it true? And I hate this to be your very first question, straight out to Harriet Alexander, the Senior features writer, DailyMail.com which is awesome. Harriet, isn't it true that on one occasion, this guy, this tax lawyer, had to go, I guess, and give blood samples or check in as part of being out on bond? Yeah. There he is in his suit and tie at some clinic, and he. There's no nice way to say it. He crapped the floor on purpose. This is true. Yes, this is absolutely true. It happened. It happened. So this was when he was facing charges for domestic violence and he was required to appear multiple times for bond hearings. He had quite a long track record of misbehaving, we can say in those. In those incidences. One of those, as you say. One of those, as you say, was misbehaving. My objection. My rear end. Misbehaving. The woman is found at the foot of him. His. The law partner in the Tax Division stairwell without a foot. All of these incidents are not misbehaving. You're pushing me right over the edge, Harriet. And interestingly, you know, you were talking about his. His arrogance in that arrest, right? In that. That video. And the fact that he has a way with words that he's. He's trying to convince the officers, saying, you can't do this to me. Well, it's because actually, he has form with that, too. Previously, she tried to get a restraining order against him. She went through all of the documentation, but he pushed back on it. He threatened her with defamation, and so she dropped it. So actually, there was never a restraining order taken out against him. Did you say he had form? Yes. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. In terms of form, do the Brits call a rap sheet form? Do the Brits call having a rap sheet? That's what we say here. Do they call that form? Well, I wouldn't know what the technical term is for weaseling your way out of a charge, for pressuring someone to drop the charges, but certainly he's got. He's got previous on this. Guys, I want to look back one more time at the video we just showed you, where he tries to throw around legal theories. This is an illegal legal arrest. And then when that doesn't work, he tries to get his wife back. Please let me talk to you. Let me talk to you. Baby, baby, listen. What the hell are you talking about? Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Before you put. Wait. Seriously, I'll break it. I. Listen to me. You can't search me. You cannot search me. That's illegal. That's a illegal search. That's an illegal search. You know it is. That's an illegal search. Get off me. Got me? That's an illegal search. Get off me. You know that's illegal. Let go of my hands. Adam, you're under arrest. For what? Don't do it. Let go of your pockets. Let me talk to you. Let go of your pocket. Please let me talk to you. Let go of your pocket. I Guess legal arrests and illegal arrests are not covered in the tax code. Guys, there's more. There's more. And I haven't even gotten to the state of Caitlyn's body. I'm gonna have to bring in a medical examiner, Dr. Coyne, for that. Listen to this. Yeah. No. Adam, you are under arrest. Okay? Like I told you, you have a felony warrant already from. From a previous incident here. Okay, there's not. There is. How would I not know about it? I don't know why I. Just hold her before I go. No. Why does she not like them? Out. You're under arrest. You're in the backseat of our car. Just give her a hug. No, wait. I'm not sure if the control room misplayed something, but back to Harriet Alexander, Senior Features Writer, DailyMail.com Did I just hear him say, can I just hold her? I want to give her a hug. What? Right. Right. I mean, again, I think it just shows that the brazen arrogance of this man, that he thinks that she would want to be held by him after the police are called for domestic violence. It shows that he thinks that he is above the law, that he's very confident, that he feels that he can work his way around this. I mean, as he has done in the past. It starts like any other night. The glass of red, the cozy blanket, then the trough. The stain. So dark, so stubborn, it might as well have been a crime scene. But this isn't your average couch. This is Anna Bay. Fully washable, unspeakably comfortable, and ready for whatever your life, your kids, or your ex throws at it. And here's the kicker. Starting at just $6.99, you can make sure your sofa isn't part of the problem. Fully washable, stain resistant, and built to hide even the darkest defenses. Right now, get up to 60% off with their early access Black Friday sale. Because no one should have to live with a stain that won't quit. Annabe the only mystery you won't be losing sleep over shop washablesofas.com today, that's washablesofas.com hey, it's Bobby from the Bobby Bones Show. I had an incredible time at this year's iHeartRadio music festival and even got the chance to hang out with Diplo and Bailey Zimmerman while I was there. Check this out. So how did Ashes come together, Diplo? Well, I kind of briefly met Bailey, I think, at Morgan's show. One of them. And I think he's just a guy in Nashville. He's cool as hell. And I had a new kind of sound I wanted to do and I think he's the one, one guy that could carry it. And I came to his house, I had a show, I pulled up real quick, he was about to leave on tour. You're about to jump in your tour bus and we had like three hours play the record for him. We kind of like got a scratch and then he handled it on his own on the road. Yeah, it was really cool. He really just like randomly showed up to my house. I'm like, oh hey diplo, what are you doing? He's like, I have a song that I want to show you. And I was like, okay. And then now we're here playing it live. You can listen to the full episode out now, wherever you get your podcast. And big shout out to my friends at Hyundai for making this possible. Had a blast cruising around festival weekend in the all new Palisade Hybrid. Ever wonder why so many people regain weight after stopping a GLP1? Up to 40% of the weight lost can come from lean muscle. This weakens the body, slows metabolism and makes it easier to put the pounds back on, creating a cycle of dependency. Prolon's five day Fasting Mimicking Diet offers a drug free way to maintain results and support long term metabolic health in just five days. It activates fasting pathways to burn fat, protect muscle and rejuvenate cells, all while letting you enjoy real food. Get 15% off plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe at prolonlife.com iheart that's prolonlife.com iheart Straight Arrow News Find facts and context you've been craving. Quickly find trusted information you need to understand the news. Watch what you want when you want. Catch up on the news at home or on the Go with your own news. Q. Dive deep into the topics that matter to you and the world around you. Navigate everything you need to know about the topics shaping your world. Understand how every side of the political spectrum is reporting on a story so you get a full picture of the news. Welcome back to trustworthy journalism san.com crime stories with Nancy Grace. Dr. Cheryl Ehret with us. I want to hold her. I just want to give her a hug. I'm starting to think no, no. I almost said he's bipolar. He's not bipolar. This is just another one of his tactics because abusers have so many tactics to keep getting away with it. I'm sure his law for law firm huge firm Dwayne Morris is so proud tonight. So I don't think he's bipolar because how could he pull off being a veteran tax attorney and fighting his way. I'll let Dubai address that. Fighting his way up to being a partner in a huge law firm. He likes to be in control. He cannot handle it when he doesn't have the upper hand. And what you're seeing with the fighting with a police officer and with everything else and him trying to give them orders is him needing to try to maintain this sense of having the upper hand. As far as wanting to hold her. She's not human to him. He's not thinking about her feelings. She's an object for him to control and possess. This is my wife. I want a hug from her. I want to act like everything is fine. You will do what I say. That's where he's coming from. All of this is about power and control. It's all about B.S. Dr. Eric, can I tell you where Duane Morris has offices? Wait for it. Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boca Raton, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Houston, Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Myanmar, New York, Jersey, Philly, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, South Jersey, Sydney, Singapore, D.C. and Wilmington. And he's a partner. So what I'm saying, the reason I told you that, Dr. Sheryl, is because he had a facade like no other. That from Redfin, is their half a million dollar penthouse, a luxury apartment. They also had a beautiful home on Lake Michigan. And there they built this seemingly perfect life together. So I don't understand why rich people can't be happy their rent is paid. Look at the sports cars, the luxury cars. Here is the one home, I guess that's the one on Lake Michigan. Beautiful. And they're dragging. It kind of mars the picture with him being dragged out by the cops on the right. But I don't get why rich people with all their sports cars and their luxury high rise looking out, you know, on. On the lake, and why can't they be happy? And how did he fool so many people? Hey, Dr. Sheryl. When I volunteered for nine years at the Batter Women's center, on the hotline, there was a mayor's wife that called in routinely after abuse. She never went public, she never reported it. But it reminds me of this. Because he had to fool all those law partners in all of those offices all around the world. How did he do it? It's such a waste, isn't it? Because it could be such a beautiful life. Success and power and luxury and all of these things. But mental health and wealth are not necessarily correlated. And unfortunately, we can see this kind of violence and abuse and, and splitting and inability to be able to enjoy and have a productive life even when you have all these other strengths. We see this in all communities, including the very wealthy and including people who seem to have it all. Yeah, please just go and hold my wife. No. Adam, you are under arrest. Okay? Like I told you, you have a felony warrant already from, from a previous incident here. Okay, there's not. There is. How would I not know about it? I don't know why. Just hold her before I go to. No. Why does she not want to come out? You're under arrest. You're in the back seat of our car. Just give her a hug. No. Kaylin. Tracy believed she had found her soulmate. But their marriage soon turned into a nightmare. As domestic violence shattered their relationship. Caitlyn filed for a protection order. Caitlyn found, quote, pulverized at the bottom of a stairwell of a prominent tax attorney in a worldwide law firm. How he fooled them for all those years, I don't know. I mean, Dubay, I know that you like I was as a prosecutor, more of a freelance gunslinger. You know, you take on a case, you give it all you've got, and then you move on to the next case. Unlike working at a law firm, which I would find excruciating, the billable hours, the sucking up. Could you explain to viewers or listeners that don't know how hard it is to make partner at one of these giant firms? I mean, they're working literally hundred hour weeks sometimes to get all the way up to partner. When they get there, it's a lot of handshaking, smiling and socializing. But that's, you know, rainmaking. But getting there is really hard. Debay, and it's competitive is the problem because all the associate attorneys all aspire to partnership and the partner track is very, very difficult to achieve. First of all, you are required usually, not always, to bill a minimum of 1900 or 2000 working hours per year. And when you do the math, sometimes it could come out to between 45 and 50 hours a week to keep your job. And if you want to make a little more, you have to bill above and beyond that. And certainly if you want to get on the partner track, you're going to have to build maybe one and a half times that amount. And by the time you get all that in and the client has been billed all that money, you're so physically exhausted, you don't even want partnership anymore. You just want A vacation. It's a very tough gig. And frankly. Well, I think you're speaking for yourself. I would never have liked that because I liked going out on the street. I liked investigating. I did not want to be in office for all those hours for the rest of my life. But some people love it, and thank heaven they do because they find their niche. I just don't understand how he can fake out so many people. It's hard to reconcile the guy in the law firm photos with the designer suit and silk tie compared to all the mug shots. And you may wonder, where did all those mug shots come from? Well, listen, they were down at our small little grocery store down the street. And she said, I have no idea what I said, but I must have said something that upset him. They got home and he was mad and he was angry, and she said, I let him know that I'm locking the doors and I'm not letting you in until you can, you know, take a deep breath. Straight out. To former homicide detective who shot to the consciousness of the public during the Scott Peterson case, John Bueller. Oh, by the way, that sound you just heard is from our friends at Fox 32 Chicago. Was it you that told me that right after Peterson found out that Lacey's DNA matched the body when it washed up on San Francisco Bay beach, that that DNA in the DNA of a little baby was absolutely Lacey and Connor? And within a few moments, he said he wanted an In N out. Was it In N Out? And he wanted a double double with cheese fries and some special drink. Did you tell me that? Yeah, that was a while back. And told it a few times. Ten minutes later, maybe, I don't know, maybe 15 minutes later. The control that he had, a lot of similarities between this attorney from Chicago, very controlled. Used to get in his own way. Scott hit it a lot better than this guy did, but, yeah, he brushed off the confirmation that his wife and his child were dead, and then he was ready to eat a burger and a fry and a vanilla shake. So it kind of shows it. But this guy from Chicago, it kind of falls in line with what Shakespeare wrote. Macbeth. For this kind of attorney, the first thing we do is kill all the lawyers. This is what he was writing about, you know, another facet of that. And of course, Bueller, I know that you're not a psychiatrist or a psychologist. Neither am I. But Peterson just got told a few moments before 10 minutes or less. We got to break it to you, Peterson, that the body that washed ashore, the two bodies are definitively Your wife, Lacey, and your son, Connor. Within 10 minutes, he had his order up here. He wanted a double double with cheese, a fry, and a vanilla milkshake. He just blurted it out like nothing had just happened. Yeah, it was one of those things where we were obviously convinced well before that day that he had killed Lacy and Connor. And so we. We weren't really expecting much. We wanted to analyze his reaction, but his reaction really confirmed for us what he was all about. Because when you can contrast his reaction that with the interviews that he had done, he was faking the tears, that he was waiting for the child to come home. He kept the nursery in good shape, but of course, he had the porn channel going at the house, and he'd sold Lacy's car, and he was talking about selling the house, and it fit in line with what he was really all about. And. And I think that's what's the same thing you have with this guy. This guy, this attorney from Chicago. I don't want to mention his name. He just wasn't as controlled as Scott was probably equally as charming in the right circumstance. But you can see in the videos that you're showing and all the stuff that he was doing when he lose. When he doesn't have control over the situation, he pretty much freaks out in this. And that's where the problem came in for, you know, our victim on this. It just was terrible for her to put up with this. But she. Nice people mixing up with evil. Nice people make excuses for evil, and sometimes it ends poorly, like it did here. You know What I noticed? Dr. Cheryl Ehret. Dr. Ehret, clinical forensic psychologist specializing in trauma recovery, is when the neighbor. Her name is Joyce Lance, that. That's the Michigan neighbor, stated that she heard the victim state, I must have said something that upset him. And I found that to be almost universal, that the female victim always thinks she did something to cause the beating, which is entirely Bass Acros. Exactly. Exactly. And she says this because the abusers over and over again say, you made me do this. You made me mad. If you hadn't done this. If you had only done that. And a lot of the time, these nice people who mix with evil, as your previous guest was saying, stay a long time because they overestimate how much they can be helpful and make everything nice. They believe that somehow, if they can be different or not upset the batterer or do everything exactly right, that they can make things be peaceful and they can make the guy be the sweet, charming guy that they initially met who they thought he really was. And so they take on responsibility when they're not responsible for any of the violence that the batterer does. That's on them. We are hearing the neighbor describe how the couple was at a little grocery store down the street and. And the victim, Caitlin was saying, I don't know what I did to upset him. And she said that I let him know I'm locking the doors and not letting him in until he can take a deep breath. She locked the doors that day, but it didn't work, apparently. Then he went around to the sun room in the back of the house and came in. She tried to run and get away from him. And she describes hiding underneath the dining room table. She described him pulling her out by her hair. She described at some point during all of this, grabbing her phone and calling 911. She said, I don't know if there's anything here because he's a strangler. That's what he does. From our friends Fox 32 Chicago Debay a beautiful woman who vaulted to the top of her field has to hide under the dining room table. After she thinks she locked all the doors, she gets into the sun room. And this is not even the incident where she's thrown, where she's found at the bottom of a stairwell missing a foot and pulverized. This is a prior incident. How is there any way, and I believe that there is, if this case ever goes to trial, that these. These prior incidents can come into evidence because this neighbor is recounting what Caitlin told her. Caitlin is dead now. Yeah, the judge can let it in to prove something other than his bad character. So, for example, the intent to do evil, the intent to harm, to show that he has an excuse for everything you just offered for some non character purpose and it's all going to come in. Not to mention that most states, including California and I'm sure that Illinois is in accord, they have a special statute in their rules of evidence that specifically allow for prior incidents of domestic violence to come in, not so much to show propensity, but to show a pattern of behavior in the abuser. So the law allows for the intensity. And the real test, of course, Dube is does a similar transaction. It doesn't necessarily have to be a fingerprint crime, but does it tend to prove the case in chief, whether showing course of conduct, motive, frame of mind, scheme, plan. And in this case, it did. And it breaks my heart to think she was running around locking all the doors and he snuck in through the sun room. And you know, doctor, sherrill you mentioned some stats on when strangulation was used as a method to subdue the female victim, that it's 750 times more likely that a homicide will occur. Well, you know, just heard another neighbor, Bunny Coiner, state that she, Caitlyn, the victim said, he's a strangler. That's what he does. And the neighbor gestured to her neck. Yeah, it's tragic. And the, the correlation is so high. I mean, in the continuum of domestic violence risk, when somebody stops you from breathing and stops the blood flow to your brain, you can lose consciousness within 10 seconds and you can die within a few minutes. And that the unconsciousness to death line is so small, that is the most dangerous thing before death and homicide in terms of this risk. And the stats really are mind blowing. They really are. And I just hope that people who know of anyone who is in this situation, if there has been even non lethal strangulation, which doesn't even necessarily show a mark, sometimes you'll see marks on the perpetrator because someone's fighting like hell to get their hands off their own neck. But if that has happened, the risk of homicide following that is so high that it's very important that people know how very dangerous this is. She said, I don't know if there's anything here because he's a strangler. That's what he does. Fox 32 Chicago. Under duress, Kaitlyn dropped the protection order after being threatened. Months later, she made a desperate 911 call accusing her husband of assault and theft. Police arrived to find visible injuries on Caitlin leading to Beckering's arrest. But then Caitlyn mysteriously vanished. Many of the couple's neighbors knew, as it's been in articles, there was trouble in paradise. Boy, that's putting it mildly. It's been called incidents. It's been called misunderstandings. It's called a domestic, which brings up warm, fuzzy images. Christmas card with the family all around the fireplace. Domestic. It is anything but. It is bloody and brutal. And this is where it's landed us. A resident at Grant Luxury Condos stops short when they see a severed human foot at the bottom of the second floor stairwell that looks too real to be a Halloween decoration. The doorman calls 911 in a panic after discovering the rest of a woman three floors up. Investigators swarm the high rise and determine the victim fell at least 20 stories. Harriet Alexander. We've been told 24 stories. How do you fall down 24 stories? And what about her foot? Gone. Yeah, that's right. So prosecutors are Saying that she was actually pushed or thrown 24 stories from his apart. The body, as you've said, was described as being pulverized. So it took some time for the autopsy to be done. And given the height of the fall, that would be how the foot would be severed. But you're right, it's pretty grim indeed. Well, I'm still confused about how your foot is severed during a fall downstairs. So I guess we're going to have to go to our medical examiner. But first I want Dr. Coyne to hear the this. Caitlin's body pulverized while falling 24 floors. Multiple skull fractures, a deep gaping laceration on the back of her head, exposing cranial content cuts and bruises to her face and neck, a badly broken nose, internal organs sliced and a severed foot. Caitlyn also suffered an 11 inch laceration on her torso and the coroner made note of a 12 by 10 inch area of intense black and brown abrasions on her back. I don't understand the layout of how she could fall 24 flights. That said, straight out to a renowned medical examiner. Dr. Thomas Coyne is joining us. Chief Medical Examiner, District 2 of the Medical examiner's office in Florida. Forensic pathologist, toxicologist and neuropathologist. Dr. Coyne, thank you for being with us. Can you make heads or tails out of what we're learning the medical examiner there, Sid? Yeah, sure. We often think when we think of a person who falls from a building or a high height, we think of what we see in a movie, right, Where a body lands maybe crashing on the roof of a car or on a sidewalk. The body is intact with the blood slowly trickling out of the head area. But in reality, when a body strikes the ground from a high rise fall, let's say 20 plus stories, the impact is so forceful due to the sudden instantaneous deceleration that it tears the body apart. So you'll have tearing of the skin, fracturing of the bone as the bones fracture, they can further tear through skin. So more often than not, the body will not be intact. You'll have appendages or even internal organs that have been thrown from the body and are found yards away. I've had whole brains that have completely come out of the head and have been found more than 10 yards away from the body after impact. So it's very more common to actually have a body not be intact after an impact of that height. Dr. Coyne, I want to understand something. We have been told she was found at the bottom of a stairwell. We've also been told she fell 24 stories. When you think of someone at the bottom of a stairwell, you think they've come down the stairs. So she would have had to go down one set of stairs, then a landing, then another set of stairs, then a landing. Under the building code, you cannot have 24 stories of steps going straight down. There has to be a landing every 20, 30 steps. There has to be under the lawn she fell down. Okay, what's your theory? When you walk down the stairwells of a large building, you can peer over the railing and you see that there's that drop all the way down in between the stairs, as the stairs are, you know, winding around, going downward. My assumption is that she was pushed over the railing and then fell down in between those stairs all the way down those 24 flights, because that's the only way I can describe injuries that are catastrophic, such that they could be described as pulverized. If she fell down each individual stairwell, she wouldn't have such severe injuries. She would have injuries, of course. Course, but not that severe. It starts like any other night. The glass of red, the cozy blanket, then the drop. The stain so dark, so stubborn, it might as well have been a crime scene. But this isn't your average couch. This is Annabelle day. Fully washable, unspeakably comfortable, and ready for whatever your life, your kids, or your ex throws ahead it. And here's the kicker. 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You're about to jump in your tour bus and we had like three hours play the record for him. We kind of like got a scratch and then he handled it on his own on the road. Yeah, it was really cool. He really just like randomly showed up to my house and I'm like, oh, hey Diplo, what are you doing? He's like, I have a song that I want to show you. And I was like, okay. And then now we're here playing it live. You can listen to the full episode out now, wherever you get your podcasts. And big shout out to my friends at Hyundai for making this possible. Had a blast cruising around festival weekend in the all new Palisade Highway Hybrid Straight Arrow News Find facts and context you've been craving Quickly find trusted information you need to understand the news. Watch what you want when you want. Catch up on the news at home or on the go with your own news queue. Dive deep into the topics that matter to you and the world around you. Navigate everything you need to know about the topics shaping your world. Understand how every side of the political spectrum is reporting on a story so you get a full picture of the news. Welcome back to trustworthy journalism. San.com this is Alec Murdoch. I need police and an ambulance immediately. Murdoch Death in the Family Official Podcast is here. I'm joining Patricia Arquette, Jason Clark and the cast to uncover all things Murdoch family. First to unravel the story piece by piece was really surprising because you don't want to believe it. Murdoch Death in the Family Official Podcast Wednesdays and stream Murdoch Death in the Family on Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for bundle subscribers Terms apply Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Harriet Alexander Senior features writer DailyMail.com does that make sense? Coins analysis yeah, absolutely, in that, you know, if she's falling staircase by staircase by staircase, her fall is being slowed, so it's not going to be catastrophic. And then you'd have someone presumably pushing her rolling her down the stairs. Whereas if you think about it, if she is pushed, tipped over the gap, essentially the hole that is in the middle of the stairwell, then she could plummet straight down. So it's the same as if you topple over a balcony and you land on the ground beneath apartment buildings, you are going pretty much straight down. But back to your point as to how the foot could have been severed, you know, the body doesn't necessarily drop exactly like a stone. It could be zigzagging around somewhat in this free fall and that could certainly contribute to the Injuries, because if you're falling at speed, you could be bashing into the metal, into the stairway, into the concrete, into the railings of the stairs. And that could have caused some of the injuries as well as she fell. To former homicide detective John Bueller. In big, high rises like that, you have a trash chute. You don't go down to the bottom floor to leave your trash on the curb. You put it down a chute. It goes all the way down. You can hear it going all the way down. It's as if allegedly he pushed her over the edge, like he would just throw trash down the trash shoot. And that's it. She's gone. Yeah, that's. That's kind of the way I read it. You know, the forensic pathologist, I think, nailed it pretty good architecturally, that you got the stairs going around what essentially would be almost like an elevator shaft. And so it seems like he might have pushed her over the railing and she went down in between the stairs, all the way down, possibly bouncing off a couple of them on the way down, counting for the injuries. But when you describe the injuries, Nancy, I'm wondering how many of those that this piece of crap gave her before he tossed her over the railing. It seems to me that might be something of interest. The forensic pathologist may be able to determine that. Possibly, but it just goes along with the whole thing. The circumstantial evidence on this case points directly at this guy and no place else. No indication of attempted suicide or anything like that from Caitlin before this came about. It just shows that she was willing to forgive some of the things that he was doing. And it all fits with Dr. Sherrill's take the power control, domestic violence wheel. Everything fits into place on that when it comes to Caitlin and this attorney. Sidney Sumner with us, investigative reporter with crime stories. Sydney, was her foot found? That was actually what was found first. A resident stumbled across a foot on the second floor, reported it to a doorman, who then searched the stairwell and stumbled on Caitlin's body three floors up. So the foot continued to fall after Kaitlin's body stopped. In September 2023, Kaitlin breaks up with Becca Rink after a confrontation at the Ritz Carlton, Chicago, when Beckerink enters Kaitlin's hotel room while she sleeps and assaults her. But Beckerink continues to call and harass Kaitlin until she files an order of protection eight weeks after the breakup, stating Beckerink calls her 20 times a day, calls her a liar, cheater, whore, piece of X cross. She also Documents, repeated assaults, including an attack in August where Beckering, quote, slammed my head against a cabinet, slapped me, punched me, put my head in a headlock, and dragged me away from the door and attempted to sexually abuse me. Caitlyn filed for an emergency protection order against Beckering just two months before the first attack. Crime Stories Investigative reporter Sydney Sumner with us. And in that attack, not the alleged murder, but in that attack, isn't it true the defendant, tax attorney Beckerink, got a sweetheart deal? He didn't even plead guilty. He pled no low. No low contender. I don't contest it. To reduce charges of domestic violence and interfering with a 911 call. A lot of other charges were dropped. He got 93 days for that. On which you probably do. Maybe 20, right? He pled no contest, dropping almost all of the charges against him. So what he pled to was the January 13 attack before their marriage. So where we saw the body, Cam, he's begging, pleading, don't arrest me. The cops tell him you already have a felony warrant out. Why are you surprised at what's happening right now? That is the case that he pled guilty to. He did not. Or pled no contest to. He did not even cop to what happened on August 16 that we witnessed in that body, Cam. Okay, Philip Dube, you're the veteran defense attorney. What's your argument? If you take this to trial, what do you do? What? Claim it was just a big accident. It's causation. And this is what I would present to the jury. First of all, you have a coroner who's saying that the manner of death is undetermined. Cause of death, obviously, is traumatic injury to the body. What I would present is that in all their emotionality, exasperation and hysteria, she made a run for it and she took to the stairs. And while running down those stairs, she lost her footing. She fell over the railing into the well hold to her death. That is a causation argument. You cannot ascribe her death to being chased by a defendant. The death has to be at the hands of another and not due to her losing her footing. That would be the argument. That is called causation. Did you say losing her footing or losing her foot? Dube, do you think anybody's really going to believe she, what, committed suicide by jumping over a rail or fell down 24 flights of steps? Are you serious? Dead serious. Because murder is not his M.O. he doesn't have murder on his rap sheet. And I'll give you he is not husband of the year. He's not boyfriend of the year, but he did not cause the death. And I think they're going to have a hard time proving that this was in fact a homicide, particularly when the coroner has already found it undetermined. Well, what about the fact, Harriet Alexander, that he then reports that she's been missing for a substantial period of time and police, police find video of them together like 72 hours before he reports her missing. Saying what, she's been gone for months or weeks. So why lie about it if there's nothing nefarious going on? Right? I mean, that, that's true, Nancy. And I think it, it goes to the point that you can have somebody who is objectively smart. I mean, you don't get to be partner at a top law firm without being intelligent. And yet on this, on other hand, you know, be do things that are really very stupid, like the fact that he claimed that he hadn' seen her for a while, that she had been missing for months, and yet there's surveillance footage of them together in that actual apartment three days before. So, you know, that rapidly unravels and it really doesn't help his case because a jury is going to look at that and think you can't be trusted. And even to the bitter end, he fights with her family over what's left her remains. We can't imagine why he would want to keep Caitlyn away from her family. Even now. We will continue to fight until Kaitlin is laid to rest surrounded by family who loved and supported her. Without proof of involvement in Kaitlin's death, Beckerink is released and wants custody of her remains. But her parents file a motion to prevent their daughter from again coming under her accused abuser's control. Dr. Monica and Andrew Tracy cite the accusations in Caitlyn's order of protection and the domestic violence case against Beckerink as reasons her remains should be released to them, not her husband of just six months after a heated legal battle, a judge agrees with the Tracy's allowing them to lay Caitlyn to rest. From ABC 7 Chicago as we go to air tonight, the husband in this case, Adam Beckrink, is presumed in a sense, in the death of his young wife, Caitlin. If you know or think you know anything about this case, even if you think it's Inconsequential, please dial 312-746-6000 repeat 312-746-6000. And if you or someone you know is a a victim of domestic violence, Please dial toll free 800-799-SAFE S A F E 800-799-7233 Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye friend. Hey, it's Bobby from the Bobby Bones Show. I had an incredible time at this year's iHeartRadio music festival and even got the chance to Diplo and Bailey Zimmerman while I was there. How did Ashes come together? Diplo I pulled up real quick. He was about to leave on tour. You're about to jump in your tour bus and we had like three hours. It was really cool. He really just like randomly showed up to my house and like, oh hey Diplo, what are you doing? He's like I have a song that I want to show you. And I was like okay. You can listen to the full episode out now wherever you get your podcast. And big shout out to my friends at Hyundai for making this possible. Had a blast cruising around festival weekend in the all new Palisade Hot Hybrid Time for a sofa Upgrade Introducing Anabe sofas where designer style meets budget friendly prices. Every anibe sofa is modular allowing you to rearrange your space effortlessly. Perfect for both small and large spaces, Anabe is the only machine washable sofa inside and out. Say goodbye to stains and messes with liquid and stain resistant fabrics that make cleaning easy. Liquids simply slide right off. 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Understand how every side of the political spectrum is reporting on a story so you get a full picture of the news. Welcome back to trustworthy journalism. San.com this is Alec Murdoch. I need police and an ambulance immediately. Murdoch Death in the Family Official podcast is here. I'm joining Patricia Arquette Jason Clark and the cast to uncover all the things Murdoch family first to unravel the story piece by piece was really surprising because you don't want to believe it. Murdoch Death in the Family Official podcast Wednesdays and stream Murdoch Death in the Family on Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for bundle subscribers terms apply. This is an I heart podcast.