Facebook DM Uncovers Deadly Secret In The Crawlspace
37m 4s
KJ Beeman, a man with a criminal warrant for stealing catalytic converters, went missing in 2022 after being arrested in Colorado. His mother, Kyla, launched a public search through a Facebook page, eventually receiving a tip from a woman named Sierra, who claimed KJ was murdered by her boyfriend, Haskell Lee Roy Crawford. Authorities investigated, leading to the discovery of a buried body in a crawl space beneath KJ’s apartment in Casey Bach’s home. After a forensic excavation and coroner confirmation, KJ’s death was officially ruled a homicide. Casey Bach, who admitted she helped Crawford hide the body and cover up the crime, was charged with being an accessory. Despite initially denying involvement, she confessed to helping move the body and participating in the cleanup under threat. In exchange for cooperation, she pleaded guilty to accessory charges and received a deferred judgment. Meanwhile, Haskell Lee Roy Crawford pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In a final confrontation, KJ’s mother testified against Crawford, stating he killed her only child, and expressed that the trauma would haunt him for life. The case highlights the dangers of domestic violence, toxic relationships, and the power of community-led investigations in uncovering hidden crimes. The story underscores how personal connections and trust can be exploited, and how a single act of violence can unravel lives. Throughout, the narrative emphasizes fear, survival, and the long emotional toll of loss.
I'm scared for my life. You can't sit and tell me you don't know anything about it's under your house. Dude, I never thought that this would be my life, both from a man who should stay far far away from him. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all-day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Maybe it's Mabelaine. Saturday, April 1st, 2023. Aurora, Colorado. Oh, or not a emergency, this is Ethan, how can I help you? Ethan, you're kind of a different type. I'm actually home from Phoenix, Arizona. I was home about my son, who lived here in Phoenix, America a couple of years ago. And he went missing around another day last year. What's your son's name? His name is Carl, J-O-R-L, and my son is Dan. We eat and we eat and we eat and we eat. How old is Dan? He's 35. Nobody's been able to get some of my top 10. I created a missing person, a safety officer, a woman, and today a woman posted on there that she didn't lean or kill, she knows the address and she knows the people went wrong. Okay, I'm going to put a call in for this. The operator alerts Aurora PD's homicide division. Two days later, on Monday, April 3rd, a detective makes contact with Kyla. So I'm calling to follow up with the report that came to our department. Yes. I guess it would have been, in terms of Saturday. To start with, if you don't mind, if we can just kind of start from when Carl kind of came out here and, you know, what was going on, what led up to him disappearing and all that. He moved back to Denver in May of 2021 and he was just living with friends kind of bouncing around, living in his car and then, and I'm sorry to interrupt you. When you say last year you hadn't heard from him for a long time, what, what do you think the timeframe was on that before that mother's day, probably two weeks. Okay, so two weeks prior to mother's day of 2022, yes, you hadn't heard from him. Would that have been unusual? It was unusual. Weeks went by and Kyla called Carl, who also goes by KJ repeatedly, but his cell phone went to voicemail. She also reached out to KJ's friends, alarmingly no one had seen her heard from him either. In July of 2022, Kyla contacted a different Denver area police department and filed a missing person's report. So then what? So then I come and waited and then I kind of ran from high school who has been as a private detective or a private investigator. So I hired him and he did some looking around him. He's the one that found out that Carl had the warrant for his arrest. According to the warrant in May of 2022, the same month he went missing, Carl and another man had been caught trying to steal catalytic converters in nearby Thornton, Colorado. And when I talked to the detective about it, he said that, you know, they picked KJ up and took him to the police department and questioned him, but at that time they didn't have proof. So he had to let him go. And then I guess that they are so later they got a video that showed him doing it. And it was at a park and right in North Thornton somewhere. And so I don't know. Then I had some of his friends are telling me because he does have military training and they said, you know, if KJ wanted to go off the grid and hide, you know, he would be able to do that. And so I kind of thought maybe that's what he was doing because he had the warrant and maybe that's why maybe he was hiding from it. Still her intuition told her something was wrong. So Kyla took action with the help of one of KJ's friends. She created a Facebook page dedicated to finding her son. A few days ago she finally got a lead. The tipster's username was "Nope, try again." And she said, "I'm so afraid to tell you this, that KJ was killed and sorry." And so, you know, it freaked out until I said, "How did you know this? Can you tell me more about it?" And so then she sent me a long, long message later in the day saying what her name was. The tipster identified herself as Sierra. She claimed that several weeks ago, her friend Casey Bach made a shocking confession. KJ had been murdered by her boyfriend Haskell Leroy Crawford. "You know, at first I thought it was a hoax, but then when she sent me that longer thing and she had a lot of information, a lot of detailed information, I knew that it was not a hoax." According to Sierra, Casey told her she helped Leroy bury KJ's body under a crawl space in KJ's apartment, and then Leroy covered him with cement. After exchanging more messages, Sierra gave KJ's mother her phone number. So KJ's mother reached out to the police department she contacted back in July of 2022. Only to discover the officer she spoke with, never actually filed her son's missing person's report. Later that day, Aurora PD detectives speak with Sierra. She swears everything she told KJ's mother is true. Last month, Casey came over to her apartment, high on drugs, and started rambling on about how Leroy had killed KJ, and she helped him with the cleanup. At first, Sierra didn't believe Casey. Then she went online and started looking up information about KJ. When she stumbled upon the Facebook page, his mother created. Sierra was horrified to realize that KJ might be telling the truth. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. According to the police, she decided to message KJ's mother instead. After speaking with Sierra, investigators do some more digging and make a crucial discovery. When KJ was arrested back in 2022 for stealing catalytic converters, he was arrested alongside none other than Leroy Crawford. That gives detectives a direct link between their alleged victim and his alleged killer. Leroy is also no stranger to violence. In September of 2022, months after KJ went missing, Leroy was arrested and incarcerated in Jefferson County on an unrelated attempted homicide charge. April 4, 2023, the next day police head to Casey Box apartment, with warrants in hand. I'm going to take your backpack off, grab your stuff here, is it Casey or is it Cassie? So we also have a search warrant for the apartment, yeah I understand you have two dogs in there, are they friendly? No. Okay, what are their names? Casey tells police her two children also reside in the apartment. After arrangements are made for her mother to pick them up from school, Casey is taken down to the Aurora PD station for questioning. With her dogs safely detained, police execute the search warrant and enter Casey's apartment.
Inside one of her closets, police find what appears to be a trap door rigged with locks. When they remove the door, they discover a crawlspace underneath. Inside the crawlspace, a foul odor fills the air. It's coming from a large suspicious concrete mound. When police peer through cracks in the mound, they spy what appear to be human remains. Based on what Casey reportedly told Sierra, police believe it's the body of KJ Beeman. However, they won't know for sure until the remains are excavated and the coroner's office makes a positive identification. One thing is for certain. Casey's apartment and the crawlspace are now officially a crime scene. Back at the police station, detectives sit down with Casey and confront her with the evidence they've just found. Now, what I can tell you is we did make it into the crawlspace and we found more or less what we thought we would find. And I understand you were a little upset with some of the things we were saying. But we would like to come back and speak to you and just not be confrontational, nothing like that. We just want to talk to you, okay, but as I mentioned, our other detectives were over there and they did go into the crawlspace we were talking about and that appears to be what we found. Okay, well, that's kind of up to you. That's why we're coming here to talk to you and we're kind of to that point where obviously we're going to have an ongoing investigation, right? There's a lot of work for us to do. But now, now is your time, okay, now is your time to say your piece, to try to give us because you're not going to have, it would be unlikely that you're going to have another opportunity to give us your side of the story. I don't even know anything about this, but how would I have to say my piece with what? The detective calls her bluff. He tells her a witness came forward to police and repeated what she said Casey had told her that KJ was murdered and buried in her crawlspace. And Casey, here's the deal, we're trying to be very respectful to you because we don't think that you're the primary person involved in this. We don't. That's why we're being, for lack of a better term, we're being soft, okay? Because we don't think that you are the person who created this whole mess, okay? But we do think you know about it and we do think that maybe you are somehow involved in getting this under here. So this is your opportunity to decide where we're going to go with this. I don't know anything about this. Okay. Well, that's the problem, you can't sit and tell me that you don't know anything about it when the whole way we got here was by you telling somebody that this is what would happen. Yeah, all of that is made up because I didn't say that to anybody. Well, that's not made us. What the hell is that? That looks like two pieces of wood, dude. You're right. That you are absolutely right. This looks like two pieces of wood. What is this? Do I look like I'm a criminal? Did we say that? No. We didn't say that. Did we? I'm not saying that. We never accused you of being a criminal. We haven't made any comments on it. I was like my husband. Despite her proclaimed innocence, Casey Bach isn't going anywhere. She's charged with being an accessory to a crime and thrown in jail. At approximately 7.44 pm that evening, police receive a call from a man identifying himself as Casey's new boyfriend. He says Casey just called him from jail and said she's ready to talk. Detectives meet with her again. Excuse for a minute. Imagine setting your makeup then forgetting it's even theirs. Do you understand that before you asked for an attorney, right? Yeah. And do you understand that those all those rights still apply to you? Okay. With that being said, would you like to speak to us now? We are. Okay. What can we do for you? How can we help you? What can I do to say? No, we can't help me. I just know that I don't want these charges placed on me because I did not do this. Casey tells detectives Lee Roy is the father of her children. They've been in an on-again, off-again relationship for years. She came to know KJ through Lee Roy. KJ and Lee Roy were once so close, their kids even called him Uncle Carl. But in 2022, after KJ and Lee Roy were caught trying to steal catalytic converters, Lee Roy turned on KJ. There was one night he was talking about him and KJ, we were having problems and he thought KJ was a rat. It was working with the cops and that it needed to be taken care of. And the next thing I knew, I was coming home from work and when I got home, he was in my apartment and KJ was already dead in my bedroom and he forced me to help him move KJ. I'm sure this is very difficult for you. No, I don't. Do you know what had happened? No, I've seen a bag of reagents. What kind of bag? I don't know. It's just a bag. The white bags. Like a white plastic bag. Yeah. I don't know. Like a white one. One more bag. Like a grocery bag. Okay. You know. It's a great take a little time. I don't know. I don't know. Dude, I never thought that this would be my life. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I never thought that anything that is unfolded in my life would be my life. It is. Um, and it's all from a man who should have stayed far far away from her. We're talking about Leroy. Yeah. Casey says her relationship with Leroy was a toxic mix of drugs and domestic violence. So let's, and I hate to kind of come back to something really dramatic, but let's talk about you saying me where I made you help move KJ down into it. I'm going to move in by myself. Okay. I'm going to tell him I have more to. Okay. I tried to leave you grab my arm. So did you guys pick him up and put him down there, tried him, was there blood anywhere? I don't know. I don't know. I don't see any blood anywhere. Do you have any, like, anything at all for lives, baseball, that's what I mean. I have my pens all over my house. Did anyone appear to have it used? No. How did the cement and all that stuff get down there? I know we showed you the photograph. How did all that end up down there? Casey's on it, would we start to cover up the cement? You worked it? Yeah. Good. And how long did that take? Did he go and do that that night? Did he do that day? Did he do it over the course of a few days? I think he did it the next day. Detectives press Casey for more details of KJ's murder, but she seems more concerned about herself. Is this gonna help me any? We will be 100% frank with you.
The charge that we are charging tonight is not going to go away. OK? That being said, we will get a greater understanding of what actually happened and how involved you actually were. This is obviously a very serious situation. I know it's serious. Yeah. I know, I know. OK. So, and we don't want to lie to you. You know, we could just lie and say you can tell us this and everything will go away. That's, unfortunately, that's just not the truth. Yeah, that's just not the truth. OK. But to work for us, we understand exactly what your role was. I didn't want a role in it. I know, but you ended up in it. Without a guaranteed deal, Casey is less and less forthcoming. Let's try to do just a linear time one of what happened that day. OK? You had mentioned, and I'll help, OK? Just, and if you correct me, if anything, I'm saying is wrong. You said that the role was upset because he thought KJ was snitching or ratting to the police. Was that correct? Yeah. Was that before all of this happened? Yeah. And you said that he said something like it had to be dealt with. I don't want to be putting words in your mouth, OK? So, if I'm wrong, please correct me. No, it's not like I want to say it again. OK, I thought you said something along those lines. Maybe I'm mistaken. So what did he say? Yeah, I'm just like confusing myself, but I just know I didn't do this. Eventually, Casey shuts down. April 5, 2023, the following day police call in a team of experts to excavate the human remains in Casey's crawl space. 27 miles away, a Royal PD detectives arrive at the Jefferson County Detention Center, where Lee Roy Crawford remains in custody on attempted murder charges in a separate case. How are you doing this morning? All right. All right. Four detectives with your Royal Police Department and the Royal Police Department. The major crime section, OK? We're here to hopefully talk to you about the case for investigate. I will let you know we're not here talking about your case that's trying to custody. OK? It doesn't work in a gender statement. It's also working in a gender statement. We can record all our interviews. OK? That's actually required to be done by the state. And then you see all the cops with body cams on and all that. Now, because I do have you here, I am required to redo your rights. OK? And I assume you've done to that before and you can understand how that works. Imagine setting your makeup. Then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new groupy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Jeldermist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours. With flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness. No stickiness. No residue. Just plum. Do we hydrate it skin? That still feels like your skin. Try new groupy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Maybe it's Mabelie. Okay? I don't know. That's not my talk of cops. I don't know. That's the case. I'll just go ahead and lay it out to you. We're currently investigating a situation at the mother of your children's apartment. And that's Casey, right? And we are actually the process of serving the search for out there. Basically, we got some information, which led us to get the search warrant and going to the apartment. All right? Now, I would like to ask you some things about that. That's why we're here. Okay? Detectives read Leroy his rights. Do you understand your rights? Well, as our engine, we're investigating a situation over at Casey's house. What I would like to do to start with is if you don't mind, I'll just show you a photo of somebody talking to you. Tell me who it is. Does that sound okay? You know what that is? Okay, what was that? It's Casey. Casey? Who was KJTU? He was one of my friends. Okay. He's been missing. We're trying to find out what's going on. Okay? So, last time it saw him. You know what I was talking about? I don't know. Because it's been a while. I'll call you later. Okay. What was I supposed to do? I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Well, we're basically investigating his disappearance. Okay? We're at the major crime section. We investigate missing persons and all the sites. Okay? So we're investigating. I was in a different time. I'm sorry. I have guys that are infected. I mean, you can be in charge of something. I didn't do it on top of that. I think I'll do it on top. Okay. Okay. Okay. Guys, I really was helpful as f***ing the colleagues. I think I'm going to face a lot of charges. I'll think of something I didn't do. Well, I don't have anything to do with that. I know. But it's still a thing on that. Several days later, the excavation is completed. And the remains are transported to the Arapahoe County Coroner's office. The Coroner confirms the victim is Carl KJB even. His death is officially ruled a homicide. For KJ's family and friends, the news doesn't come as a surprise, but it remains just as devastating. In his honor, KJ's friends set up a fundraiser to cover the funeral costs of the man they remember as a kind and genuine person with a big smile and a contagious laugh. His presumed killer, Haskell Lee Roy Crawford, is charged with first-degree murder and police and prosecutors know there's one person who holds the nail to his coffin. Casey Bach. In July of 2023, after three months in jail, a now sober Casey agrees to sit down with police again. This time, she holds nothing back. Well, we're kind of saying initially, we give you another chance to kind of tell us about what happened a day and from there, we can pass more questions. I don't remember why KJ was coming over, but all I remember is that we already had a 9-millimeter on him, and he pointed it out to the center to make sure what he said. So, we were at the point that got to the 9-point, and said, "You're going to do what you said." So, you answered the door for KJ? I made a friend KJ, isn't it? Okay. Well, as we were hiding, we'll see in your back, we'll see. No, he was hiding. He was dangerfully back door. Okay, understood. So, we were hiding here. And then KJ comes into this sliding door. Yeah, let me know that and then it's locked to the door. Okay. And then what? Rock, KJ, and I'm pretty sure. I'm going to say, "Hey, you want a slope?" I heard it. That's really great. I can't walk past any more. And when I have actually a cage in the sand. Okay, so now at this point, he doesn't have. See, then we're having more than 9-millimeter doors. And we can shut them. And it was, remind me, that was also in the apartment. It was up there. Okay, so that was fine. You brought KJ back. It's sort of not stupid. And, you know, it's antsy. So, he's pointing the gun at KJ. Okay, and what is KJ doing when he's doing? I just said, "We were walking around. I got briefly found in the river. So, we're back in the bedroom." And it's at your bedroom. And it's all the way at the end of the wall. Okay. And I know it's a part of the other thing. But, after they went into the back of the bedroom. And then what? I'm pretty much just like pulling out the camera for hours. Okay. Did you see any of that? I see nothing. I am. Where did he come from? Exactly. Where exactly? Where do you think there was music playing? Did you hear KJ? Screen? Yellow? Anything like that? No. It was my mod. Did we right come and go out of the room? We'll see back there in the entire time. Okay. I'll ask first. Did you ever hear me gunshots? Raise your head, KJ, lift the gun. One. Okay. And what makes you think that? I just remember. Okay. So, you saw that? I remember. Sure, yeah. Like I said, obviously, I was really happy. Do you recall what kind of music was saying? I think I was trying to get out of it. The KJ was working with the effects. Okay. So, Leroy thought that KJ and what was working with the effects. Kasey says, for hours, Leroy tormented and tortured KJ inside her bedroom. As the sun rose the next morning, it came to a stop. Okay. So, back there and all of a sudden it was KJ. On the right side, on my toilet. And here I had a wire wrapped around his neck. And he was pulling up from my (bleep) back there. It was my shower. He wrapped it up the shower. Okay. So, KJ is being pulled around the neck with this wire and that wire is wrapped around the shower head. The shower curves. The shower door. Okay. So, at that point, the KJ looked like he was still alive. And what we're going to do is we're going to do a little bit more.
- I'm sorry, I don't know, it's just like, what made me think he was good. - Well, how did you feel? - That's what people wanted that night was to kill him. - Leroy ordered her to help him clean up the crime scene. Casey felt she had no choice but to obey him. - He just killed his best friend. I was pretty scared. I was scared for my life and sitting there telling him, "It's gonna be great, me." And all I'm thinking about is my children or about to wake up and he's making me clean up blood from his best friend. So I was pretty scared. - Casey recalls Leroy wrapped KJ's body in a white mattress cover, then forced her to help him move KJ's body from the bathroom into the crawl space. Then Leroy took off. - So now KJ is under the crawl space. And you said, "Leroy left and didn't come back for. " I think he actually said a couple of days. How long? How long did you enjoy life? - All right. - I really can't remember, I'm good. I know that it was like two or three days until he covered him up. - Okay. - And what did he bring? - Let's have him to do that. I think his legs are concrete, my fist, and my foot. - Yeah, his arms were already at my house. He's sharpening the knee that was already there. - That's what I'm talking about. - So after he did that, and you know about how long I was looking to do that. Did he say things to you after that? What was, I guess, what was his to be after all that? - I don't know what this is. - Did he make you impressed then? - Yeah, he's a lady, he heard me, he found out. He said people were watching me and people knew what he said did not even let them. - Do you have a decent, and I don't expect you to be able to put too a date on the calendar or anything like that. But now that we've gone through all this, do you have a decent idea of what this would occur? Obviously, he said it was summer. - Yeah, I don't really remember. This was a while ago, over at the center. - How did you show it, so I don't really remember. - As the interview comes to a close, detectives ask one final question. - When we spoke to you the second time last time, when we were taking you over to the G.O. and you gave us kind of a better account of what happened. Why not give us double story then? - Like a social security, okay. - I'm scared of what? - I'm scared of what was gonna happen to me, my safety, my kids' safety. We were still there for my kids around, and that didn't really put me cast on, that he wouldn't do something to hurt them. - In exchange for her cooperation, prosecutors offer Casey a deal. She pleads guilty to being an accessory to a crime. She receives a deferred judgment and is released from jail. As his trial approaches, Leroy decides not to roll the dice. He pleads guilty to second-degree murder. In April of 2025, he's sentenced to 30 years in prison. At Leroy's hearing, KJ's mother comes face to face with her son's killer and tells the judge, he murdered my only child. We may never know all the details, but the defendant does. I hope it haunts him every day for the rest of his life, like it does me. (gentle music)
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
KJ Beeman, a man with military training and a criminal warrant for stealing catalytic converters, went missing in 2022 after being arrested in Colorado, sparking a missing persons investigation.
His mother, Kyla, created a Facebook page to find him, and a tipster named Sierra revealed that KJ was murdered by her boyfriend, Haskell Lee Roy Crawford, who buried the body in a crawl space beneath KJ’s apartment.
Police discovered human remains in the crawl space, confirmed as KJ’s body by the coroner, leading to charges against Casey Bach, who was found to have aided in the murder and concealment.
Summary:
KJ Beeman, a man with a criminal warrant for stealing catalytic converters, went missing in 2022 after being arrested in Colorado. His mother, Kyla, launched a public search through a Facebook page, eventually receiving a tip from a woman named Sierra, who claimed KJ was murdered by her boyfriend, Haskell Lee Roy Crawford. Authorities investigated, leading to the discovery of a buried body in a crawl space beneath KJ’s apartment in Casey Bach’s home.
After a forensic excavation and coroner confirmation, KJ’s death was officially ruled a homicide. Casey Bach, who admitted she helped Crawford hide the body and cover up the crime, was charged with being an accessory. Despite initially denying involvement, she confessed to helping move the body and participating in the cleanup under threat.
In exchange for cooperation, she pleaded guilty to accessory charges and received a deferred judgment. Meanwhile, Haskell Lee Roy Crawford pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In a final confrontation, KJ’s mother testified against Crawford, stating he killed her only child, and expressed that the trauma would haunt him for life.
The case highlights the dangers of domestic violence, toxic relationships, and the power of community-led investigations in uncovering hidden crimes. The story underscores how personal connections and trust can be exploited, and how a single act of violence can unravel lives. Throughout, the narrative emphasizes fear, survival, and the long emotional toll of loss.
FAQs
Carl KJ Beeman was murdered by Haskell Lee Roy Crawford and buried in a crawl space beneath Casey Bach's apartment. His death was officially ruled a homicide after remains were found and positively identified by the coroner.
The murder was discovered when police found a crawlspace beneath Casey Bach's apartment with a concrete mound and foul odor. Inside, they found human remains believed to be KJ's body, leading to a full investigation.
Haskell Lee Roy Crawford is charged with first-degree murder. Casey Bach is charged as an accessory to the crime for helping cover up the body and assisting in the disposal of KJ's remains.
Casey Bach allegedly helped Crawford hide KJ's body by moving it from the bathroom to the crawl space and covering it with cement. She initially denied involvement but later admitted to helping with the cleanup and covering up the crime.
The police connected the case when they found that KJ had previously been arrested in 2022 for stealing catalytic converters alongside Leroy Crawford, creating a direct link between the suspect and the missing person case.
Yes, after multiple investigations and interviews, Casey Bach eventually confessed to helping Crawford dispose of KJ's body and covering up the crime, though she initially claimed ignorance and fear for her safety.
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