AURORA, Colo — Ryan Wolfe struggled to get the words out. He sat at his home in Arizona choking back tears as he remembered his friend, Karl Beaman.
"He was just one of the kindest, the most genuine people I've ever met in my life," he said via Zoom. "I want him to be remembered the way all the people that loved him knew him."
Wolfe knew Beaman as a man with a big smile and a contagious laugh. They met working security for the same bar more than a decade ago.
Last week, Beaman's body was found encased in concrete in a crawl space beneath a condominium in Aurora.
Wolfe said he last spoke to him about a year ago. He said Beaman was moving from state to state and ended up in the Denver area. Beaman's mom reported him missing over the summer.
"Ultimately he ended up in Colorado trying to help out a friend that obviously was not a friend," Wolfe said.
Police have arrested two people in connection with his death. Casie Bock is accused of accessory to homicide. Beaman's body was found beneath her condo. Her ex-boyfriend, Haskel Crawford, is facing a first-degree murder charge. Crawford is currently in custody in Jefferson County for an unrelated crime.
"I had heard that name Leroy before. I didn't know him, never met him obviously. I don't think Karl knew him either. Lifelong friend, supposedly. I don’t know," Wolfe said.
Investigators believe Crawford killed Beaman and left his body in Bock's apartment. Bock told police Crawford threatened her if she didn't hide the body. Police found out about the crime after Beaman's mom alerted them to a tip they received on a missing persons Facebook page created by Wolfe's wife. He recalled the day the message came through.
"She said we got a message. Obviously, the look on her face told me it wasn't good," Wolfe said. "My heart breaks for his mother. I didn’t even know how many people knew Karl and how widely Karl was loved."
Wolfe said as the news of Beaman's death came out, reading the headlines hurt. He said Beaman was far more than the circumstances surrounding his death. Wolfe remembered him as a kind man who loved to sing karaoke. He only wished more people got to meet that person.
"Just a smart, brilliant man. Loved to read and learn. He deserved way better than this," he said. "There’s a lot of bad people that do bad things in this world that deserve bad things, but he was not one of them. He deserved nothing but the best, and he could have brought so much more greatness and love to this world in the decades and decades he should have."
According to the arrest affidavit, the person who tipped off Beaman's mom claimed Crawford and Beaman used to steal catalytic converters together -- and that Crawford thought that Beaman was a police informant.
Wolfe is now raising money to bring Beaman's body back to Arizona -- back to his family and friends, who urge everyone to remember the man's life rather than his death.
"He’s a grown man. He makes his own choices. But he kind of got pulled into some things that the Karl I know would have never been involved in," Wolfe said. "I don’t want him to be remembered as that."
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