Benjamin Beale, the man charged with dismembering Julia Dardar was caught on security cameras buying items believed to be used to cut up her body, New Orleans detectives said during testimony at Beale’s preliminary hearing on Tuesday.
As Nola.com reports, detectives testified details including items such as a reciprocating saw and cleaning supplies they say Beale purchased to dismember Dardar.
Beale appeared with his two attorneys at his hearing late Tuesday evening at Orleans Parish Magistrate Court.
At the hearing, NOPD Detective Raynell Johnson testified that they found receipts for the items purchased at a West Bank hardware store around the time Dardar’s ex-husband, Michael Dardar, reported her missing on Dec. 23.
Johnson told prosecutors her head and hands were cut off and found inside a plastic bag which was placed inside the freezer next to her torso.
The detective also described other items found such as propane tanks in a freezer inside the house, which is believed to be used in the clandestine Meth lab also found at Beale’s Pauline Street home.
During a police search of Beale’s home and a bus parked on the property, Beale reportedly gave detectives keys to the bus and a padlock on a freezer inside.
New Orleans Police Detective Michael Flores testified what he saw when he opened that freezer.
“A horrific sight of a headless torso. And then I closed the lid,” said Flores.
Defense attorneys Christopher Murell and William Sothern described Beale as a man with an unstable mental state.
They say Beale was prescribed antidepressants and antipsychotic medication and was forced into a mental care facility.
The defense attorneys argued there was not enough evidence for probable cause to justify the charges against Beale.
After hours of testimony by witnesses, and detectives, Magistrate Commissioner Albert Thibodeaux decided there was enough evidence for probable cause for each charge Beale faces including a second-degree murder charge.
