Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - NEIGHBOR FINDS CAITLIN, 36, "PULVERIZED" IN TAX-LAWYER STAIRWELL, FOOT MISSING

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

A resident at Grant Luxury Condos heads downstairs, but 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 resident reports it to a doorman, who calls 911 in a panic, after discovering the rest of a woman’s body three floors up. Investigators swarm the high-rise and determine the victim fell at least 20 stories.   When the fall victim is identified as Caitlin Tracey, her husband, Adam Beckerink is arrested. Beckerink reported Caitlin missing just the day before she was discovered dead on the second floor of their building. Beckerink claimed he hadn’t seen Caitlin in months, but surveillance footage shows them at the Grant together, just three days prior to Caitlin’s death. With no real proof Beckerink committed a crime, Chicago Police are forced to release Beckerink 48 hours later.   The Medical Examiner finds Caitlin’s body “pulverized,” suffering multiple injuries while falling 24 floors. The report notes 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. Raising even more questions, cocaine and an erectile dysfunction drug, tadalafil are found in Caitlin's system.   Joining Nancy Grace today:  Philip Dubé  -  Former Court-Appointed Counsel, Los Angeles County Public Defenders: Criminal & Constitutional Law, Forensics & Mental Health Advocacy, X: PhilipCDube, IG: PhilipDube, YouTube: PhilipDube3922 Dr. Cheryl Arutt - Licensed Clinical and Forensic Psychologist specializing in Trauma Recovery, PTSD and EMDR,  website: askdrcheryl.com,  website: CreativeEMDR.com, IG: @askdrcheryl  Jon Buehler -  Former Detective for Modesto Police Department, California, Detective in Scott Peterson Investigation Dr. Thomas Coyne  - Chief Medical Examiner, District 2 Medical Examiner's Office, State of Florida; Forensic Pathologist, Toxicologist, Neuropathologist; X: @DrTMCoyne  Harriet Alexander - Senior Features Writer at DailyMail.com  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. 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 many injuries going down that stairwell and how did she lose a foot in the process? I want you to hear this. Don't 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 a car? Can we just talk right here? Just talk right here. How do you hit? Wait, wait, whoa, hold on. Keep walking. Hold on, seriously, seriously, hold on. What?

Don't keep walking. Why are you 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 and he says baby, baby, help me to Caitlin. Like she's going to call the whole thing off. And this, 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 psychologists 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 get his way and to control her. And this is really an example of how domestic violence can happen even 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 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, you know, 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 a thousand percent. Joining us is Dr. Cheryl Errett. 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, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, before you put, wait, wait, wait, before you put, wait. In that car. Seriously.

What's your, I can't, I'll break it. I listen to me. You can't search me. You can't search me. That's illegal. That's a legal search. That's an illegal search. You know what 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 on my hands. Adam, you're on the rest. For what? Let go on me. Don't do it. Don't do it. Let me talk to you. Let me talk to you. Oh, the yelling, the screaming, the snodding. 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 extensive history of trying cases. DeBay, 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 patch 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. Hey, Debe, 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 back seat 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, um,

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-hmm. Good times.

What about that, DeBay? Well, the main reason why they hose it down is to make sure that. 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 lost. Put him up. 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 meth stuffed between the cushions and 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 arrests in that car and show that two arrests. Hey, hey, shut his mic. Cut his mic. This is not a Dubet 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 to bay of why you have to hose out in the back of your cruiser after putting this tax lawyer back there? Well, 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 hose things out like that. He does have a little bit of a point on cross-contamination if it was a situation. The nice criminal defendants should not have to sit in a pile of this guy's poop. Hey, speaking of poop, mm, that reminds you. me, isn't it true? And I hate this to be your very first question, straight out to Harriet Alexander, the senior features writer, Daily Mail.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 And he, there's no nice way to say it. He crapped the floor on purpose. This is true. It has. This is absolutely true. It happened.

It happened. So this was when he was, he was facing charges for domestic violence. And he was, 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 were, you know, you were talking about his arrogance in that arrest, right? In that video. And the fact that he has a way with words, that he's trying to convince the officers saying, you can't do this to me. Well, it's interesting because actually he has formed 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 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 do you talk about? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, before you put, wait, wait! Seriously! This shit, I can't, I can't, I listen to me! You can't search me! You cannot search me! That's illegal, that's a final legal search!

That's an illegal search! search. You know what 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 on my hands. Adam, you're on arrest. For what? Let go on. Let's do it. Don't do it. Let me talk to you. Let me talk to you. Let me talk to you. 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 Caitlin's body. I'm going to have to bring in a medical examiner, Dr. Coyne, for that. Listen to this.

Yeah. Please just go and hold my wife to the next to you. No, Adam, you are under arrest, okay? Like I told you, you have a felony warrant already from a previous incident here, okay? There's not. There is. How would I not know about it? I don't know why.

Can I 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. Can I just give her a hug? No. Wait, but 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. Right. 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

the 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. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Dr. Cheryl Eric 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 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? Al-Dubay addressed 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 the police officers 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 BS. Dr. Erritt.

Can I tell you where Dwayne Mars has offices? Wait for it. Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boca Raton, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth. North, Hanoi, Ho Chi Men 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. Cheryl, is because he had a facade like no other. that from Redfin is their half a million dollar penthouse 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 the lake. And why can't they be happy? And how did he fool so many people? Hey, Dr. Cheryl, when I volunteered for nine years at the Better 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, you know, 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 splitting an 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 see. seem to have it all. Yeah. Please just go and hold my wife with the next.

No, Adam, you are under arrest, okay? Like I told you, you have a felony warrant already from a previous incident here, okay? There's not. There is. How would I not know about it? I don't know why. Can I 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. Can I just give her a hug? No. Elyn Tracy believes she had found her soulmate, but their marriage soon turned into a nightmare as domestic violence shattered their relationship.

Caitlin filed for a protection order. Caitlin 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, DeBay, 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 100 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, debate. 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 1,900 or 2,000 working hours per year. year. And when you do the math, sometimes it could come out to between 45 and 50 hours a week just to

keep your job. And if you want to make a little more, you have to build 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 it's a... 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. Yeah. 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'd 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 walking the doors, and I'm not letting you in and tell 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 and out, was it in and 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, 10 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 of 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. 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 fast 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 was to shore, 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 milk shake 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 lacey 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 to that with the interviews that he had done and he was faking the tears and 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 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 loses control when he doesn't have control over the situation he pretty much freaks out in this and that's where the problem came in uh for uh you know our victim on this it just was terrible for her to 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 uh you know what i noticed dr sherrill erritt uh dr errat uh clinical forensic psychologist specializing in trauma recovery is when the neighbor, her name is Joyce Lance,

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 universal, almost universal, that the female victim always things she did something to cause the beating which is entirely bad backwards 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 um 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 We are hearing the neighbor describe how the couple was at a little grocery store down the street. 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 sunroom 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 in through the sunroom. 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 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 offer it 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... And the real test, of course, Dubay 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 sunroom and you know dr. Cheryl 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 just heard another neighbor bunny coiner state that she Caitlin 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 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 the unconsciousness to death line is so small that 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, Caitlin 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 Beckerings' arrest, but then Caitlin 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, you know, images, you know, you know, a 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 stopped 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's body three floors up. Investigators swore the high rise and determine the victim fell at least 20 stories. Harry and 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 apartment. Um, 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 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. Caitlin also suffered an 11-inch laceration on her torso and the corner made note of a 12-10-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, said? 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 a 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 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 landing, then another set of stairs, then another set of stairs,

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. Yeah. Under the law. So, yeah. 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 it could be described as pulverized. As she fell down each individual stairwell, she wouldn't have such severe injuries. She would have injuries, of course, but not that severe.

crime stories with nancy grace harriet alexander senior features writer dealing mill 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 um 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 plum it straight down. So it's the same as if you topple over a balcony and you land on the ground beneath a apartment building. 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 Beeler,

and big high rises like that you have a trash chute and you don't go down to the bottom floor to leave your trash on the curb you put it down a sheet and 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 you would just throw trash down the trash the trash sheet and that's that she's gone yeah 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 pathologists may be able to determine that possibly but it 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. Cheryl's take on the power control domestic violence wheel. Everything fits into place on that when it comes to Caitlin and this attorney. Sydney Sumner with a 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 Caitlin's body stopped.

In September 2023, Caitlin breaks up with back. Beckerink after a confrontation at the Ritz Carlton, Chicago, when Beckerink enters Caitlin's hotel room while she sleeps and assault her. But Beckerink continues to call and harass Caitlin until she files an order of protection eight weeks after the breakup, stating, Beckerin calls her 20 times a day, calls her a liar, cheater, whore, piece of excrement. She also documents repeated assaults, including an attack in August where Bechering, quote, slam 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 section. abuse me. Caitlin filed for an emergency protection order against Beckerink just two months before

the first attack. Crime stories investigative reporter, Sidney Sumner, with us. And in that attack, not the alleged murder, but in that attack, isn't it true? The defendant, tax attorney Beckering got a sweetheart deal. He didn't even plead guilty. He pled no low, no low contender. I don't contested 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 13th attack before their marriage. So where we saw the body hands. 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 16th that we witnessed in that body cam. Okay, Philip Dubet, 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 a 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 wellhole 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. Wait, did you say losing her footing or losing her foot, 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? That's serious because murder is not his MO. 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 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 goes to the point that you can have somebody who is objectively smart i mean you don't get to be a partner at a top law firm without being intelligent and yet on this on other hand, you know, we do things that are really very stupid, like the fact that he claimed that he hadn't seen her for a while that she'd 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 Caitlin away from her family even now. We will continue to fight until Caitlin is laid to rest surrounded by family who loved and supported her. Without proof of involvement in Caitlin'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 Caitlin's Order of Protection and the domestic violence case against Beckerink as reasons her remain should be released to them, not her husband of just six months. After a heated legal battle, a judge agrees with the Tracies,

allowing them to lay Caitlin arrest. From ABC 7, Chicago. As we go to air tonight, the husband, in this case, Adam Bekrinke, is presumed innocent in the death of his young wife. wife, Caitlin. If you know or think you know anything about this case, even if you think it's

inconsequential, please dial 312-746-6-000 repeat. 312-746-6,000. And if you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence. Please dial toll-free. 800-799 Safe, S-A-F-E. 800-7-99-7-2-33. Nancy Grace, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an I-Heart podcast.

Thank you.