Man convicted of corpse abuse, not murder, in woman’s death

A jury in Evansville acquitted a man of murder and kidnapping in the death of a 19-year-old disabled woman while convicting him of criminal confinement and abuse of a corpse.

The jury in Vanderburgh County returned the verdict early Thursday in the case of 25-year-old Terrence W. Roach after more than 11 hours of deliberations that began Wednesday.

Aleah Beckerle disappeared from her home July 17, 2016. Her decomposing remains were found March 27, 2017, in a vacant Evansville house next to Roach’s residence. Police said at the time that Roach was arrested after confessing to abducting and killing her.

Roach didn’t testify at trial. Prosecutors played a recording of him calling his mother and saying: “I didn’t plan on killing her … she died on her own.”