JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — A defendant accused of killing a man and forcing his girlfriend to hide the body in the crawlspace of her Aurora apartment pleaded not guilty to the two charges against him.
During an arraignment hearing on Monday in a Jefferson County courtroom, Haskel Leroy Crawford, 39, pleaded not guilty to both charges filed against him — first-degree murder after deliberation and tampering with a deceased human body.
The investigation into this case began on April 1, 2023, when a woman called the Aurora Police Department to report that her son was missing. According to an arrest affidavit, she said she was concerned that her son, 36-year-old Karl Beaman, had a friend named Haskel Leroy Crawford who might have "jumped Karl at some point" after the duo was nearly caught stealing catalytic converters.
The woman told police that she had recently received a message on Facebook from an anonymous account that told her that her son was buried under an apartment in Aurora belonging to a 30-year-old woman named Casie Taylor Bock. The person went on to say in other messages that Bock "had gotten high and … that Leroy believed Karl was an informant for the police," which led to an altercation that ended with Beaman’s death, the arrest affidavit reads. The anonymous person said the man's body was taken to a crawl space under the apartment building, where he was buried in a shallow grave and covered with cement.
The Facebook tipster told Beaman’s mother that Bock had disclosed this information when she was “very high and upset about people being in her walls,” according to the affidavit.
Crime
Affidavit: Woman helped hide body, told neighbor about ‘people inside her walls’
Police were able to communicate with the anonymous person, who said Beaman was killed before Crawford was arrested in September 2022 on an unrelated crime, where he was facing a charge of attempted first-degree murder. Based on this timeline, the tipster said they assumed this meant that the homicide occurred “anywhere between six and eight months ago,” according to the affidavit.
A deceased person was found entombed in concrete in the crawl space, the affidavit reads.
Bock was arrested on April 4, 2023 and police executed a search warrant of her apartment, where they found the crawl space and saw "what appeared to be a mound of poured concrete… which would be more than able to cover Karl," according to the affidavit.
During an interview with police, Bock said she and Crawford had started dating again, despite a history of domestic violence. She recalled returning home from work one day to find Crawford in her apartment and Beaman on the ground. He had apparently been suffocated, she told police. She said Crawford forced her to help him hide the body in the crawl space, according to the affidavit.
“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,” it reads.
Bock told police she did not trust the police department, which is why she did not report the homicide, according to the affidavit. She was charged with accessory to first-degree murder.
Crawford, who was already in jail in connection with an unrelated crime, was also arrested on a new charge of first-degree murder and tampering with a deceased human body. He pleaded not guilty to those charges on Monday. He is next due in court on May 8 for a disposition hearing and a jury trial is expected to begin on July 16.
Bock pleaded guilty to accessory to a crime in September 2023. With this plea deal, the charges against her of intimidating a witness and tampering with a deceased human body were dismissed. She received a deferred sentence of four years in the Department of Corrections.
