ABINGTON, Pa. – A woman is facing murder charges after prosecutors said she murdered her parents before dismembering them inside a Pennsylvania home.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele announced first- and third-degree murder charges were filed against Verity Beck in a news release on Wednesday.
Steele said that Abington police were called to a home on Tuesday night to check on an elderly couple who had not been seen or heard from in more than a week. When officers arrived, they found the couple’s adult daughter, identified as Verity Beck, inside.
The victims were identified as Reid and Miriam Beck, WCAU reported.
Officers described seeing a person tightly wrapped in a bed sheet and signs of “extreme trauma.” When police officers searched the home, they found two victims, ages 72 and 73, “in various stages of dismemberment.” Steele said that a chainsaw was found near one of the bodies and several firearms were recovered from the home.
“There were signs of extreme trauma, and I’ll tell you that the chainsaw was found,” Steele told KYW-TV. “Both Reid and Miriam were found in different stages of dismemberment, and that was one of the reasons that it’s taken the time today for us because these were not easy autopsies to conduct.”
Steele said Montgomery County Coroner’s Office determined that both victims had been killed by a gunshot wound to the head.
The victims’ son told investigators that he had received texts from his parents over the last 10 days but had not heard their voices on the phone or seen them since Jan. 7, WCAU reported.
Investigators told WCAU they believe the couple was killed on Jan. 7 because of unread newspapers found inside the house.
The son told police that he had gone into the house earlier on Jan. 17 and saw what appeared to be a body under a blanket, WPVI reported. Verity Beck allegedly told her brother at the time that things in the home had “been bad.” When her brother said to call the police, Verity Beck allegedly responded that she needed “more time,” according to WPVI. The brother left the home and called 911.
Police said that when they asked Beck where her parents were, she responded, “They are dead,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“This is somebody that is dismembering her mother and father and putting body parts in trash cans, so clearly she’s trying to get rid of the evidence,” Steele told KYW-TV.
In a criminal complaint obtained by WCAU, detectives said a safe in the house had drill marks on it and tools nearby, indicating someone without the key or combination had attempted to access it.
Police have not offered any possible motive in the case.
Miriam Beck had worked as a nurse at Lower Moreland High School and retired in 2018 after 20 years, WPVI reported.
