Police have arrested a suspect in connection with a December murder at a Gilbert home.
Officers were called to 63-year-old Donald Beckemeyer’s home near Pecos Road and Ranch House Parkway on December 15, 2017, to return a cell phone that was traced back to his name and address. His phone was reportedly found by a couple along a Gilbert street a few days earlier.
At the home, officers found a loaded handgun magazine in the home’s front landscaping. The front door was ajar and items from inside the home were also strewn on the front lawn.
Beckemeyer was found inside, unconscious and with obvious trauma to his head. He died days later from his injuries.
Information obtained through a search warrant found text messages and calls to the victim from another number. That number was traced back to a woman who said she was forced at gunpoint to set up a robbery involving the victim and was there at the time of the incident.
That woman told police 33-year-old Joshua Walker hit the victim with a pistol, breaking off a piece of the gun.
Police located a broken gun in Walker’s west Valley residence, along with the victim’s credit card, which had been used several times. Surveillance video from stores where the card was used also linked Walker to the crime. Additionally, phone records showed phones in his name to be in the Gilbert area only during the times of the crime.
Walker denied involvement, but due to evidence collected and the witness statement, Walker was arrested Tuesday on charges of second-degree murder, burglary and fraudulent use of a credit card.
