Photo: Montgomery County District Attorney
Authorities in Pennsylvania arrested a woman accused of shooting her parents and then dismembering their bodies using a chainsaw. Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said that 49-year-old Verity Beck had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of third-degree murder in the deaths of Reid Beck, 73, and Miriam Beck, 72,
Officers with the Abington Township Police Department were dispatched to the home after their son called the police. He told the dispatcher that he hadn't heard from his parents in over a week and went to check on them. When he arrived, he saw what appeared to be a body underneath a bloody sheet.
After speaking with his sister for about 30 minutes, he returned home and called 911.
When officers arrived at the home, they asked Verity, "Where are your parents?" She told them, "They are dead."
Inside the home, the officers found two partially dismembered bodies and a chainsaw near them.
"Verity used this chainsaw and put parts of her parents into trash bags and had covered them up. They were actually in two different trash cans," Steele said.
The autopsy report determined that the Becks were each shot once in the head and were dead before they were dismembered.
Investigators have not determined a motive for the killings but noted that somebody tried to break into a safe inside the house.
Verity was taken into custody and is being held without bail at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.