A Colorado man has been charged with killing a 9-year-old girl with chloroform while raping her, the Grand Junction Sentinel reported on Friday.
Jeffrey Beagley, 34, was arrested on December 13 and charged with first-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death, reckless manslaughter, attempted sex assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, sexual exploitation of children, and invasion of privacy for sexual gratification. The affidavit for his arrest, however, was sealed until Wednesday.
The affidavit said that investigators found an empty chloroform bottle with a rag in a shed behind the home where the little girl died on November 9. The chloroform had been delivered to Beagley the day before. Additionally, the Sentinel reported, the Mesa County Coroner ruled the girl’s death a homicide on December 13 saying she had extremely high levels of the drug in her system.
Beagley called emergency responders on the morning of November 9, saying he had found the girl unresponsive when he woke up. The girl’s mother told detectives she had seen Beagley asleep with the little girl and her sister when she came home the night before. She said she awoke to Beagley’s screams.
Detectives described a disturbing scene in and around the house when the girl died. In the shed, they found a “tent-like” structure with pillows and blankets that appeared to have been built for “privacy and seclusion,” KKCO reported.
They also found computers and other electronic devices with “a lot” of child pornography along with video showing the victim taken from a hidden camera in the house. Detectives said a thumb drive contained images of sex acts between adults and children that had been “digitally altered” to replace the adult’s face with Beagley’s.
Inside the home, where the little girl was found dead, investigators described a “macabre” scene, including posters depicting death, headless dolls, and a large rabbit mask made to look as though the ears had bloody wounds.
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[Featured image: Jeffrey Beagley/Grand Junction Police Department]
