AURORA, Colo. – An Aurora woman arrested earlier this week confessed to helping hide the body of a murdered man inside a crawl space of her apartment and only came forward after telling a neighbor she was “freaking out about people inside her walls,” according to an arrest affidavit unsealed in the case Thursday.
Casie Bock, 29, faces one count of accessory to first-degree murder for helping hide the body of Karl Beaman inside a crawl space accessible from her bedroom sometime between June 12 and September 19 of 2022, arresting documents provided by the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office show.
The investigation into the gruesome case started on April 1, when the mother of the victim called the Aurora Police Department to inquire about her missing son.
The woman told the officer who took the call that she was concerned about Beaman, who she had not spoken with since May of 2022, and further relayed that her son had a friend named Haskel Leroy Crawford “who possibly jumped Karl at some point” over the two of them almost being caught stealing catalytic converters, according to the arrest affidavit.
The woman told police she thought a missing person’s report had been filed in connection with Beaman’s disappearance with the Arvada Police Department around July 1, 2022, but later learned such report was never filed.
Beaman’s mother told police over the phone that she eventually hired a private investigator after not hearing from her son for several months. The private investigator would tell her Beaman had, in fact, been caught with Crawford stealing catalytic converters in Thornton. Crawford, the private investigator said, was later booked into the Jefferson County Jail in mid-September of last year on an unrelated crime and charged with attempted first-degree murder, arresting documents show.
During the conversation with police, the woman told the officer she would later start a Facebook page to try and find her son.
The affidavit does not say when the page was started, but on April 1, 2023, the woman received a message from a Facebook user with the name “Nope TryAgain” informing her that her son was buried under Bock’s apartment in Aurora.
The tipster went on to say in other messages that Bock “had gotten high and … that Leroy (possibly Haskel Leroy Crawford) believed Karl was an informant for the police” which led to an altercation that ended with Beaman’s death, the documents state.
Nope TryAgain also told the woman that her son’s body was then taken into a crawl space underneath the apartment building “where he was buried in a shallow grave which was covered in cement to help mask the smell,” according to the affidavit.
The Facebook tipster told Beaman’s mother Bock told the tipster all of this one night when she was “very high and upset about people being in her walls,” police document show.
The tipster told the woman she was at first skeptical of these claims until she began receiving death threats and had her car vandalized. The tipster told Beaman’s mother she “previously spoke to the Aurora Police Department regarding these matters but said that the police did not seem interested in what she had to say,” the affidavit states.
A Crime Stoppers tip with similar details relayed by Beaman’s mother to police would later be received by the police department, and it’s at this point that police would follow-up.
Arresting documents show Aurora police later contacted the Facebook tipster Nope TryAgain, who would confirm they were the ones who sent the Crime Stopper’s tip.
The tipster told police they and Bock didn’t know each other very well, but their children went to the same school and approximately three months ago, Bock would ask the tipster to watch her children and take them to school.
Within the last three weeks, however, the tipster noticed that Bock appeared to be spiraling down, to the point where she would leave her kids at the tipster’s apartment all night.
About two or three weeks ago, the tipster said Bock then came over to the tipster’s apartment “clearly high on methamphetamine and was ‘freaking out,' talking about people inside her walls.” Bock then led the tipster to her bedroom and told her what had happened.
The tipster told police she was skeptical of the story but would investigate her claims after Bock’s daughter later made a comment that she “missed Karl, and Karl wasn’t around anymore.”
Nope TryAgain would start doing research, at first finding the missing page on Facebook dedicated to finding Beaman, and later finding out Crawford was in custody in Jefferson County. The tipster told police Beaman’s death occurred before Crawford was arrested, which led Nope TryAgain to speculate the crime occurred “anywhere between six and eight months ago,” according to the affidavit.
Nope TryAgain also told police Bock had firearms inside the apartment and said her car was later vandalized and that she started receiving threatening calls.
A subsequent search by police found Beaman had been on the radar of several law enforcement agencies in Colorado from October 2022 through February of 2023.
Search of Bock’s apartment
In the early afternoon of April 4, Bock was arrested after she was spotted leaving her apartment and later interviewed by detectives, according to police documents.
As the interview took place, investigators executed a search warrant of her apartment and found the crawl space inside her bedroom, which was “covered by two pieces of plywood that were screwed, bolted, and taped shut,” the affidavit states.
Two detectives who were able to get into the crawl space said they saw “what appeared to be a mound of poured concrete… which would be more than able to cover Karl,” the documents state.
Later that night, police conducted a second interview with Bock, who said that at the time of the murder, she and Crawford had gotten back together despite a history of domestic abuse. After coming back from work one day, Bock said she found Crawford inside her apartment and saw Beaman lying on the ground. The man had apparently been suffocated, she said.
She told police Crawford told her he had killed Beaman and said she was forced to help him move the body by dragging him from where he was killed and into the crawl space.
“At one point during this event, Casie (Bock) said she tried to flee her apartment, but Leroy (Crawford) grabbed her by the arm and threatened to hurt her if she did not assist,” the affidavit states.
Bock said Crawford came back the next day and covered Beaman’s body with concrete which he would later need to re-seal.
The woman told police she would grow “disturbed by the opening to the crawl space” so she locked it and sealed it, and relayed the crime probably happened sometime in June 2022.
When asked why she didn’t reach out to the Aurora Police Department about the crime, Bock told officers “mistrust of the Aurora Police Department, and the government in general" was her reasoning for not doing so, according to the affidavit.
Following the interview, she was arrested and charged with accessory to first-degree murder.
Crawford, 38, who was already in Jefferson County Jail in connection with another crime, was arrested Thursday on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with Beaman’s death.
Bock is being held on a $150,000 cash surety bond. Her next court date is on April 11 at 9 a.m.
