A Pennsylvania woman has been charged with two counts of murder after her elderly parents were found dead and dismembered, authorities said.
A Pennsylvania woman has been charged with two counts of murder for allegedly shooting her parents in the head and then dismembering their bodies with a chainsaw, authorities said.
Verity Beck, 43, was charged Wednesday with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of third-degree murder and other charges, according to online court records. The bodies of Reid Beck, 73, and Miriam Beck, 72, were found Tuesday "in various stages of dismemberment," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele told reporters Wednesday.
"These were not easy autopsies to conduct based upon the fact Verity used this chainsaw and then had put parts of her parents into trash bags and had covered them up, and they were actually in two different trash cans," Steele said.
Beck appeared in court Wednesday and was denied bail, according to online court records. She has not entered a plea. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 1.
Police were called to perform a welfare check on the couple after another family said they hadn't been heard from for more than a week, the prosecutor said.
Inside the home, officers found the daughter and one body "tightly wrapped in a white bed sheet" and evidence of a second dead person, Steele said. A chainsaw was found next to one of the bodies, he said.
"There were signs of extreme trauma present," Steele said.
An autopsy determined each parent had been shot, Steele said.
"It was one shot to each of their heads," Steele told reporters at a press conference. "We hope and pray that that happened first."
A motive for the killings has not been established, authorities said, though evidence at the home showed recent drill holes had been made in a safe kept at the home shared by the daughter and her parents.
The couple may have been dead for more than a week when their bodies were discovered, Steele said.
"Their voices were last heard by a family member on the 7th of January, so we believe that they may have been decomposing in that time and that was also unfortunately the smell that the officers got when they first came into the house," the prosecutor said. "And sadly that is a very distinctive smell."
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