DENMARK INDICTED FOR MURDER OF TEEN DAVID BEACH

(03/22/2012)
A Calhoun grand jury has indicted William Seth Denmark, 24, for the murder of teen David Wayne Beach, who disappeared in 2006 and who authorities believe was shot and buried in a grave on the Denmark family property a few miles from Arnoldsburg.

The indictment was one of five issued Tuesday by a grand jury.

Denmark has been incarcerated for two years on various charges since the discovery of the empty grave in 2010, after a Spencer woman gave testimony that she witnessed Denmark bury Beach in 2006.

The West Virginia State Police charged Denmark with murder in May, 2011.

The Denmark case has had problems because a body was not found in a dug grave.

Investigators re-visited the grave-site in March, 2010.

The criminal complaint says the grave-site was unearthed, and according to Prosecutor Rocky Holmes, soil and content of the grave was sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC for forensic analysis.

The latest complaint says new forensic information confirms a .38 caliber bullet was found in the grave and other samples indicating a human body was once at the site.

Cpl. Doug Starcher, lead investigator, said in the complaint that a ".38 caliber revolver recovered in March, 2010, was identified by the eyewitness to be the murder weapon used to kill Beach."

The criminal complaint also says the .38 caliber weapon was the gun Denmark used to shoot Aaron Lloyd in the leg in 2006, during another incident.