Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Wife with Severed Foot Found Dead in Condo Stairwell

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

Caitlyn Tracey, 36, was found dead at the bottom of a stairwell with one of her feet apparently severed in the building of her husband’s condo. Chicago Police are investigating and no charges have been filed. Tracey’s parents went to court demanding that her remains be released to them citing past abuse of their daughter by her husband, Adam Beckerink. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy looks at the case and the past allegations of abuse in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Christa Ramey https://www.instagram.com/christaramey/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law & Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. This new year, why not let Audible expand your life by listening? Audible CA contains over 890,000 total titles within its current library, including audiobooks, podcasts, and exclusive Audible Originals that'll inspire and motivate you. Tap into your well-being with advice and insight from leading professionals and experts on better health, relationships, career, finance, investing, and more. Maybe you want to kick a bad habit or start a good one. If you're looking to encourage

positive change in your life, one day and challenge at a time, look no further than Tabitha Brown's I Did a New Thing, 30 Days to Living Free. In the audiobook, Tab shares her own stories and those of others, alongside gentle guidance and encouragement to create these incredible changes for yourself and see what good can come from them. Trust me, listening on Audible can help you reach the goals you set for yourself. Start listening today when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com slash wonderyca. That's audible.com slash wonderyca. A woman is found dead at her husband's condo in Chicago and police are investigating as Caitlin Tracy's parents go to court to claim her remains. I lay out the details of this sad case and why Tracy's parents

are taking on her husband. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Caitlin Tracy was just 36 years old when she was found dead on October 27th at the condo where her husband lived in Chicago. Chicago police are investigating Caitlin Tracy's death, and they're not saying anything about where the case stands. Caitlin Tracy's cause and manner of death have not yet been released, and no one has been charged in her death. But Caitlin's parents claim in court documents that she was being abused by her husband, Adam Beckerink. And they say Beckerink was detained, questioned, and then released after Caitlin's body was found. Beckerink lived in

Chicago, and the couple, according to the court documents, married this past April. But Caitlin Tracy's parents were not at the ceremony, and Caitlin was actually still living in Michigan. On October 27th, Caitlin's body was found at the condo building. Details provided in court documents are graphic. An affidavit from Caitlin Tracy's parents states, decedent's remains were discovered directly below the respondent's condominium. Law enforcement has advised the family that based on the condition of the remains, decedent's body fell approximately 24 floors before landing at the bottom of a stairwell. Based on the height of the fall, DeSeden's body was pulverized and her foot was

severed from her body. Law enforcement has advised the family that the respondent is the primary suspect and he was immediately taken into custody by the Chicago Police Department Violent Crimes Unit. Law enforcement has advised the family that the respondent was detained for 48 hours and then was released without being charged. Now, court documents filed by Kaitlyn Tracy's parents say she was living in Michigan at the time that she died, but her husband was living in that condo in Chicago

where he worked as a lawyer. The documents continue. Kaitlyn obtained a restraining order against Beckerink in Cook County, Illinois, in October 2023. In 2024, Beckerink was arrested twice in New Buffalo for domestic violence against Caitlin. The court documents include part of the petition for a restraining order that Caitlin Tracy filed in 2023. She described Beckerink calling her a cheater and a liar, among other things. The document states, the respondent physically abused me by dragging me by my ankle,

strangling me, suffocating me, slamming my head against a cabinet, slapping me, punching me, putting my head on a headlock and dragging me away from the front door to prevent me from leaving. The respondent took my keys, wallet, iPad, and phone from me to prevent me from leaving. The respondent took my keys, wallet, iPad, and phone from me to prevent me from seeking help. I was able to flee on foot. I went to the police station and filed a police report for aggravated domestic battery. Now, it's not clear what happened to that charge, but the documents filed by Caitlin Tracy's parents to support their effort to claim her remains say she later withdrew the request for the restraining order. The request for a restraining order also includes other details about an alleged

incident in July of 2023 in Michigan. Caitlin Tracy wrote, the respondent physically abused me by throwing a pickle jar, which struck me on my head, punching me, pushing me, pulling my hair, dragging me by my clothes, and stripping me out of my clothes. The respondent also poured vodka on my body, which burned my wounds and would motion as if he was going to hit me with the alcohol bottle. The next day, Tracy wrote, the respondent took me to the hospital to seek medical attention for my open head wound. Now, because of the history of alleged abuse and what Caitlin Tracy's parents say law enforcement told them, they asked a judge in Cook County to order that her remains be released to them and not Adam Beckerink. The

Tracys wrote that they wanted to give their daughter a proper burial in the Catholic Church. An attorney representing Caitlin Tracy's parents said in an affidavit that he asked Adam Becker-Rink's lawyers about releasing her remains to her parents. The Tracy's lawyers said in an affidavit, Chelsea, the attorney representing Adam Becker-Rink, advised me that Becker-Rink wished to have Caitlin's remains cremated and that he intended to keep possession of her ashes after her funeral. It continues, Chelsea and I discussed the matter further, and I again requested that Becker-Rank agree to release Caitlin's remains to her family. The final answer was no, according to an email in the documents.

Last week, a judge in Cook County, Illinois, agreed to release Caitlin Tracy's remains to her parents. Their attorney, Andrew Cuniff, said in a statement, today's hearing marked a significant step for Caitlin's family and we are grateful to the courts for their sound and swift rulings, both in Michigan and Chicago. We are also grateful to the family's Michigan attorney, Mitt Drew, for his hard work and dedication. Finally, the Tracy family can close this chapter and focus on mourning Caitlin's loss and celebrating her remarkable life. Caitlin was an incredible young woman who

was taken far too soon. We hope that her story may shine a light on the often hidden tragedy of domestic abuse. The death of Caitlin Tracy and the alleged abuse she suffered is tragic. It's a reminder of how important it is to check out the people who are in your life. Truthfinder.com is a website that can help you do that. It scours public records for things like criminal and traffic records. In fact, it's one of the largest

public record search services out there. Just log on to truthfinder.com and put in a person's name. You'll get things like past and current addresses, social media accounts, possible relatives, phone numbers, and the sex offenders who live in your neighborhood. You should try it. I have a great deal for you. You can get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix and start accessing information about almost anyone. I want to bring in Krista Ramey.

She's a trial attorney who represents victims of abuse and survivors of abuse. Your thoughts, Krista, on the parents of Kaitlin Tracy having to go to court to say, we want to claim our daughter's remains. Thank God they did. And I think that they really had some great legal advice and were able to get her remains back. You know, a couple of things just initially, just being Catholic, you know, he was saying that he wanted to, you know, cremate her remains and keep them privately. Well, you know, in the Catholic faith, you know, it's ashes to ashes. And there's a requirement to be buried. And so when you're looking at Michigan law, which although he lived in Illinois and that's where her body was, Michigan law was the prevailing law because

that's where her permanent residence was. And it's a rebuttable presumption that the spouse gets the remains. And it is rebutted by the fact of someone not having moral character or being able to handle the remains appropriately or being dishonest. And so this is how the parents got in there. And we're able to use their daughter's own words as an assistance in that, which is just incredible and sad, you know, all at the same time. But I, you know, I'm glad that the parents made this fight. I'm glad that they were able to get their daughter's remains so that they can at least have that portion of their grieving, you know, to be able to move forward with that. The fact that he wanted to cremate her remains, to me, it just seems like a big red flag, given the allegations here that he was abusive toward her.

Nothing to this point, it appears, has been proven in a court of law. He has not been charged in her death. The investigation is still underway. We don't have a cause and manner of death yet. The parents claim they've been told he is the prime suspect in her death. The investigation is still underway. We don't have a cause and manner of death yet. The parents claim they've been told he is the prime suspect in her death. So just the fact that he wanted to cremate those remains is very suspect to me. Yeah, it just kind of goes, it continues that sense of control that narcissistic, abusive men, or in some cases, women, have over their victims. And it's that level of control that he wanted to continue to have over her, even after death.

And the allegations of abuse are pretty horrific before her death, where he would cause her cuts by throwing jars at her and then pouring vodka on them to make the pain worse and physically assaulting her, raping her. And it makes sense that he would continue this control and abuse after her life has ended. So I, you know, it is, it is very creepy, if you will. And, but not surprising. One of the things that struck me was the fact that her parents said that they didn't even know if they were legally married. They weren't at the ceremony for the wedding in April. The mother in her affidavit, in the joint affidavit with her husband said, we were isolated from our daughter. She was kept away from us. So there are all of these flags, these red flags about abuse. And we see in October, she's filing for a restraining order

in which she says he's her ex-boyfriend. Okay. And then by April of this year, they're married. But then they're living apart. So, you know, there's often this abusive incident. There's a honeymoon period. And then there will be another incident of abuse. So it's this vicious cycle that takes place. And it seems from the paperwork, at least, that we've been presented with, that that may have been what was happening here. Yeah. So it was last year, October, when she filed for that restraining order and then supposedly married him this year in April in a private ceremony where no one was present.

And I don't believe that he has presented any evidence that they were in fact married to anyone yet. So that's the question mark. But what, you know, it's that cycle that you're talking about is very common with abuse. You know, it's that I can't believe I did that to you. I'm so sorry. God, please forgive me. And then you get the showering of gifts and the apologies and a brief period of time where the relationship looks good. And you're hopeful that your love can change that man. I think it's kind of like akin it to all the Disney movies that we watch when we're kids. We're taught kind of at an early age for me as a young woman, that our love can change the abuser. So if we love that beast, he'll turn into a prince. If he kissed that frog, he'll turn into a prince. And the fact is, is that her love could not have changed him. He was a narcissistic psychopath. And that looks like it continued to play out

all the way until her death. Police are still investigating, of course, but the description of how Caitlin's body was found in a stairwell on the lower level, somebody discovered her body and her foot. I mean, they state in the police report, I'm looking at it right now, there was a severed foot in the stairwell and they were unsure to determine if it was real. And then they located the rest of the body. There were bloodstains. I mean, it's a really grisly, gruesome scene. You would have to think in a high rise condo building in Chicago that there would be surveillance cameras in these areas. We don't

know that. But the police are obviously investigating this. They questioned Adam Becker-Rink, we're told, for an amount of time. He was detained, according to the parents, for 48 hours. I mean, there's got to be something going on here with this police investigation. They call it ongoing, of course. Yeah, we were talking about I don't really understand, you know, that mechanics of falling down 24 flights of stairs. Clearly, that is not the case because 24 flights, you have to go around landing. So this is going probably down that area between the stairs as you're going down that spiral. And that seems to me to be a push or throwing someone over.

And, you know, I guess the idea is, you know, how did that happen? And the police have to, you know, tie that up. Was it self-inflicted? Did he do it? I guess is the idea, but you know, the severed foot is what really gets me. I don't know that the foot could be severed on the way down. And when you use the word severed, that seems a very, like a deliberate act, like a cutting, a dismembering of the foot. And so, you know, there was a lot of allegations in the past that were made by her where she would have to leave on foot to get to the police because he would take her iPhone and her iPad and her other ways of communicating her car keys.

And so I wonder if that was symbolic in some way as a part of not allowing her to leave by severing her foot. That's just a supposition on my part, but it tracks for me. And it definitely says that the foot was severed and that she was laying at the bottom of the stairwell face down. There was a lot of blood and that she was missing a foot. So it is very suspect and it's very disturbing. This investigation, I think, we'll learn more shortly. I'm assuming police are dotting all of their I's and crossing their T's.

They may have to wait for toxicology results and to really form, you know, the medical examiner is going to have to come up with a cause and manner of death and finalize all of that, possibly before they come to any type of conclusion that they're not calling this a homicide just yet. Yeah, the only other option would be suicide. This cannot be called natural causes. Yes, it could be called an accident, for sure. But I think that there is a strong presumption here that he is going to be charged, ultimately, just because of the history that the two of them had, and the domestic violence charges that were pending against him and in Michigan, I believe. And then you have, you know, where, where she was found, you know, and in the manner in which she was found. So I think that there is a presumption that at least in my mind that he will be charged, but I, you know, you, you have to have all of those things in order to present a case either by information or to a grand jury. So you do have to complete that investigation first. There are times where you will see an arrest made immediately, but that is when there

is probable cause that there was a murder, that it was a homicide, and that this person was the person that did it. So here, because you have multiple other options for cause and manner of death, that you have him free. The police are definitely keeping their eye on him. And I suspect that he is the prime suspect in what they're thinking right now is probably a homicide. It certainly looks that way, and we will keep an eye on it. Krista Ramey, thank you so much. We appreciate your time. Thanks. anytime.

Kaitlin Tracy's family remembered her in her obituary, calling her a force of nature, vibrant and bold, and always ready to make you laugh until your sides hurt. They said she lit up a room, loved to travel, and had an eye for fashion and design. She had a business degree in hospitality management, but had switched careers working in data analytics. She was loved dearly by her family. And again, I want to say that I reached out to the attorneys representing Adam Becker Rink. At the time of this recording, they have not responded. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy.

Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.