A Colorado couple has been accused of living with the corpse of the third member of their “intimate” thruple for 18 months while they collected his Social Security payments.
James Agnew, 55, and Suzanne Agnew, 57, have been charged with tampering with a dead body, unauthorized use of a financial transaction device, and abuse of a corpse, KUSA reported.
Police uncovered the body of James O’Neill, believed to have been 62 when he died in late 2023, on July 3 beneath a deflated air mattress in the Lakewood condominium where the three had lived.
The investigation began in June when O’Neill’s brother asked police to conduct a welfare check after not hearing from him for some time. The brother said that O’Neill had been estranged from the family but that he needed to contact him to let him know he had inherited some money.
Police spoke to a man at the apartment who identified himself as “James,” who told officers he was aware the family had been trying to reach him “but he did not wish to have an contact with them.”
But when officers showed the brother the body camera footage of that meeting, the brother told them that wasn’t his brother. They later determined it was James Agnew, although during the conversation with the officers he had indicated he was O’Neill.
Officers returned, this time speaking with Suzanne Agnew, who told them James O’Neill had moved out of the condominium several years earlier after meeting a “foreign woman” online and moving in with her.
The brother then reached out to Suzanne Agnew to tell her about the money O’Neill had inherited, and “she indicated that James O’Neill was sitting right next to her but said he didn’t want to talk.” When told about the inheritance, which needed to be deposited into O’Neill’s bank account, Agnew gave him a checking account number and O’Neill’s social security number.
But when the brother told her that O’Neill would need to appear at the bank in person to sign documents, Agnew stopped talking with him.
Investigators continued to dig into the story and found that Social Security payments were deposited into O’Neill’s bank account every month, and that the money was being spent — apparently by James Agnew, who was seen on surveillance video making purchases using O’Neill’s debit card.
The court documents say detective returned to the condominium armed with a search warrant on July 3 and spoke with Suzanne Agnew.
“She said she understood and immediately told me we woul find James O’Neill’s body in the residence, indicating he was deceased,” the court documents said.
Agnew explained that she and her husband had “been in a three-way relationship” with O’Neill “for many years.” The couple told investigators they awakened one morning in December 2023 and found O’Neill dead. James Agnew said there had “probably” been drug use the night before.
James Agnew further told investigators that having access to O’Neill’s bank account was a “consideration” in deciding not to report the death.
Neither of the Agnews are charged with O’Neill’s death. Suzanne Agnew has a court appearance set for August 27, and James Agnew is due in court on September 2.
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[Featured image: center, James O’Neill/Lakewood Police Department. James Agnew and Suzanne Agnew/Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office]
