‘Pedophile who murdered girl, 9, while trying to rape her’ found dead in jail
Jeff Beagley was found unresponsive in his cell six weeks after he allegedly killed a nine year-old girl with chloroform while trying to sexually assault her
A suspected pedophile accused of murdering a nine year-old girl with chloroform while trying to rape her has been found dead in jail.
Jeff Beagley, 34, was found unresponsive in his cell at Mesa County Jail in Colorado Monday.
He was rushed to St Mary’s Medical Center, where he later died.
He is not believed to have fallen victim to foul play, but coroners have not said whether he died of natural causes or took his own life.
A toxicology report is now pending.
Beagley was arrested after allegedly killing a nine year-old girl with a chloroform-soaked rag at his home in Grand Junction on November 9.
The drug is often used to knock out sexual assault victims, police told the Grand Junction Sentinel at the time.
An empty 100 milliliter bottle of the substance was found in a shed behind the home where the youngster died.
Police later discovered it had been delivered to Beagley the day before his murder.
Toxicology reports later confirmed the youngster had ‘extremely high levels of chloroform’ in her system.
Beagley dialed 911 to report the girl unresponsive on the evening she died.
The victim’s mother told police that she’d come home the night before and discovered Beagley sleeping next to the girl and her sister.
Their identities have not been disclosed with police in accordance with a Colorado Open Records law.
During a subsequent search of the dilapidated house, investigators discovered a thumb drive with ‘a lot of child porn’ on it.
They also found images and movies that appeared to have been filmed on a secret camera.
The child sex abuse material appeared to have been a mix of images Beagley had downloaded from the internet and photos as well as videos of the girl he allegedly murdered.
Beagley is also said to have photoshopped his face into images of other men sexually abusing children.
He denied all knowledge of what was found in the shed, and claimed that he had only bought the chloroform to make hemp.
Beagley later admitted he had no idea about how to use the substance to grow the plant.