A wellness check in Colorado, USA unveiled a horrifying case where a polyamory couple was found to be living alongside their long-deceased partner’s corpse for 18 months.
For 18 months, the couple lived off the deceased’s social security benefits and let their pet dog gnaw at the corpse.
The suspects 55-year-old James Agnew and 57-year-old Suzanne Agnew have been charged with four felonies: tampering with a corpse, abuse of a corpse, theft, and unauthorized use of a financial transaction device.
“Unbearable Parting"
According to an arrest affidavit released by Lakewood police, the suspects allegedly hid the body of their 64-year-old third partner James O’Neill under an air mattress after he supposedly passed away in his sleep in December 2023,
Suzanne had told the police that she could not bear separating from her partner, hence the failure to inform authorities of his passing. They had allegedly hid his body under an air mattress after their pet chihuahua had begun chewing at O’Neill’s body.
This excuse becomes quite bizarre-sounding, however, when it was revealed that James had posed as O’Neill during previous wellness checks. He had even gone as far as claiming that he “did not want to have any contact with [his family]”. It was only after his brother had been shown the cops’ bodycam footage was it found out that it was James impersonating O’Neill.
During another wellness check, Suzanne herself claimed that O’Neill had not been living with them for several years now. Instead he had met a foreign woman online and had moved out to live with her, according to KUSA.
US$17,406 stolen in social security benefits
The affidavit revealed that the couple continued stealing from O’Neill’s bank account by using his debit card and fraudulently collecting his social security monetary benefits, totaling up to US$17,406 spent, which is over HK$130,000.
When O’Neill’s brother finally reached out personally through a phone call, she informed him that O’Neill was “sitting right next to her but did not wish to talk”.
While O’Neill had been estranged from his family for quite a few years, his brother whom he had last spoken to in 2019 was trying to contact him to inform him of an inheritance. He had informed Suzanne of the sort during their phone call, but she cut contact immediately after finding out that O’Neill would have to physically sign the documents himself at the bank, rather than the brother simply depositing the money into his account.
Twisted unraveling of the throuple’s relationship
Suzanne had informed the police after being arrested that the three of them had been in a long-term “intimate” polyamorous relationship and had been residing together for a long time.
James told the police that they had simply been awoken to O’Neill’s dead body one morning and indicated that his sudden death could have been attributed to alleged “drug use”. The exact cause behind his death is still being investigated.
He also admitted that his access to O’Neill’s bank account was a contributing factor to his failure to report the death.
The authorities have not charged the couple in connection to his death. If convicted, they could face up to 12 years in prison. They are both scheduled to appear in court late August and early September.
