Jackie Denmark, hiding behind a coat, is escorted from the
courtroom Monday by Calhoun Deputy Sheriff Carl Ballengee.
(Photo by David) Hedges
By David Hedges, Publisher
www.thetimesrecord.net
A missing Spencer man may have been killed because he knew too much about a shooting in Calhoun County, authorities said in a court hearing Monday.
David Beach allegedly helped Seth Denmark and his father, William Denmark, plan the shooting of another man in April 2006.
Aaron Lloyd was shot in the leg and survived, but Beach may have met a more serious fate the following month. That's when officials believe he was shot in the head and buried in a grave he helped dig.
Denmark, 22, and his father and mother have all been arrested in connection with the alleged incident and a cover-up that followed.
Calhoun County prosecutor Shelley DeMarino said Beach knew too much about the Denmark family.
"He'd been running his mouth about other criminal activity they'd been involved with," she told Judge David Nibert Monday afternoon in Calhoun Circuit Court.
According to the charges, Beach, met with his friend, Seth Denmark, and William Denmark, at the Denmark home on Beech Road in Calhoun County when they planned to shoot Lloyd.
Seth Denmark and Beach allegedly walked to the Lloyd residence on Jesse Run where Denmark shot Lloyd in the leg.
The next month, May 2006, Seth Denmark shot Beach in the head, a witness allegedly told police.
Denmark then forced the female witness to hold a flashlight while he buried the body in a hole on the Denmark farm he and Beach had dug together.
Seth Denmark is now charged with kidnapping for holding the witness at gunpoint. The warrant says he threatened to do the same thing to her and her child that he did to Beach.
Denmark's mother, 56-year-ld Jackie Denmark, is charged with aiding and abetting a kidnapping.
The charge says she knows Beach's whereabouts and has been an active participant in concealing the information.
Both mother and son appeared before Nibert Monday to ask that they be released on bond.
Nibert told both they would have to remain in jail, at least for now.
Police say they have not determined if Beach is dead or alive, although the female witness allegedly told authorities he was last seen in the bottom of the grave he helped dig at the Denmark farm.
She said she was with Seth Denmark when he picked Beach up in Spencer that day.
Beach was 17 when he was reported missing by his mother in May 2006. He would be 21 today, if he is still alive.
Seth Denmark appeared before Nibert Monday morning. He was arrested the previous week when he was released from the Anthony Center for Youthful Offenders where he was serving a sentence for an unrelated offense that alleged he held three underage girls in a car for 12 hours and provided them with alcohol. Charges of kidnapping in that case were eventually reduced to child concealment.
Denmark is now faced with another charge of kidnapping that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Warrants filed by Cpl. Doug Starcher of the State Police detachment in Grantsville allege Denmark shot Beach in the head after the two dug a hole on the Denmark property around the same time Beach was reported missing.
Police have said they have not located a body and are not certain if Beach is dead or alive.
Attorney Ernie Skaggs represented Seth Denmark at Monday's hearing.
Nibert said because the charges against Denmark were serious, he would have to remain in jail a while longer.
He was slated to have a preliminary hearing the next day before Calhoun Magistrate Richard Postalwait, but that hearing was postponed.
Denmark's mother, Jackie, is charged with aiding and abetting a kidnapping because she allegedly assisted her son.
She was also represented by a court-appointed attorney, John Oshoway, when she waived her right to a hearing last Thursday in Calhoun magistrate court.
Oshoway told Nibert Monday morning that Mrs. Denmark had hired a lawyer, Lee Benford of Ravenswood.
Nibert continued the hearing until that afternoon when Benford could appear with his client.
Benford told Nibert that he did not think the complaint against Mrs. Denmark would hold up.
"It's certainly not clear to me how this supports a charge of aiding and abetting a kidnapping," he said.
DeMarino, assisted in the case by Roane prosecutor Josh Downey, opposed Benford's request his client be released on bond.
Mrs. Denmark and her husband, William Denmark, 58, were both arrested March 12 at a home at Tariff in Roane County where they have been staying.
Mr. Denmark is charged with conspiracy for allegedly helping his son and Beach plan the shooting of Lloyd.
William Denmark was released on $50,000 bond, set by Magistrate Teresa Robinson after a preliminary hearing last Tuesday, March 16. Cpl. Starcher was the only witness to testify at that hearing.
As part of his bond, William Denmark is required to be electronically monitored on home confinement at the Tariff residence.
At Monday's hearing, DeMarino told Nibert the shooting of Lloyd and the disappearance of Beach were tied together.
"We believe the kidnapping was an effort to keep David Beach from talking about the malicious wounding," she told the judge.
Downey also opposed the request for bond and said Roane authorities do not allow two persons on home confinement in the same home.
He said there have already been problems with William Denmark calling the Roane Sheriff's Dept., which monitors the home confinement program, on a daily basis and not letting authorities know he was going to see his attorney in Ripley until he had already left.
Benford said his client did not need to be on home confinement.
"She is 56 and has no prior criminal record," Benford said. "She has 25 years of ties to Calhoun County, except for six years she returned to New Jersey to care for her terminally ill mother."
Benford said his client has both two-year and four-year college degrees and was working as a CNA at Miletree Center for more than a year prior to her arrest.
He said she has probably lost that job because of her incarceration, but she is still needed to help her husband care for an ailing woman at their home at Tariff.
Downey noted that both Denmark and her husband have passports and travel to time-shares they own in Mexico and the Caribbean.
Benford said his client would surrender her passport, as her husband did, if she is released on bond, but Downey continued to oppose the request.
"We've had one individual who has been shot and we have a young man in his teens still missing," Downey said. "More serious charges could come out of this."
At the conclusion of the hearing, Nibert denied the request for bond.
"With the possibility of life in prison," the judge said, "flight is the biggest concern this court has."
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