The haunting final weeks of a woman who was found ‘pulverized’ in her husband’s luxury Chicago condo have been detailed by devastated friends and neighbors.
Caitlin Walch Tracey, 36, known to her friends as ‘CT’, was found dead in the stairwell of her tax attorney husband Adam P Beckerink’s condo in South Loop on October 27.
DailyMail.com previously revealed that her parents accused Beckerink, 46, of wreaking a secret ‘campaign and abuse of terror’ against her in her final months.
Beckerink had been facing domestic abuse allegations from Tracey, but he has not been charged in connection with her death. Her autopsy is pending.
Though they had a fraught relationship, Tracey split her time between Beckerink’s flat and her home in New Buffalo, on the banks of Lake Michigan.
Neighbors in the leafy Michigan town have now opened up about disturbing events which unfolded during her final months, while remembering their beloved friend.
Joyce Lantz and Bunny Coyner lived on Tracey’s street, and they recalled how scared she was of Beckerink. ‘She said, “I felt like he was going to kill me,”‘,’ Lantz told Fox News.
Lantz also told the Chicago Tribune that Tracey’s house, close to the lake, was ‘like something that you’d see in a design magazine’.
Caitlin Walch Tracey, 36, known to her friends as ‘CT’, was found dead in the stairwell of her tax attorney husband Adam P Beckerink’s condo in South Loop on October 27
Joyce Lantz and Bunny Coyner lived on Tracey’s street, and they recalled how scared she was of Beckerink. ‘She said, “I felt like he was going to kill me,”‘,’ Lantz said
Tracey fell down 24 flights of stairs in Beckerink’s high rise (pictured) on the 1200 block of Prairie Street in South Loop, severing her foot during the descent
‘As another woman, you just want to cheer her on, because she’s on her own, and built this amazing life,’ Lantz said.
‘It’s just amazing to me how one person can come into your life and change the trajectory in such a major way. It’s deeply sad, right? That she’s not with us anymore.’
Coyner said she met Tracey in the fall of 2023, after Tracey offered to help with DIY around her house. She said Tracey told her, ‘I know my way around a drill and some drywall.’
Pictured: Adam P Beckerink
Coyner said Tracey invited her for a tour of her home, and mentioned she had taken a temporary restraining order out against an ex-boyfriend.
She even described his car and asked Coyner to let her know if she saw it on their street.
‘She was a beautiful, intelligent young woman and had a wonderful life ahead of her,’ Coyner told the Chicago Tribune.
‘I think she was looking forward to maybe getting out of this and searching out a new life, and I wished only the best for her, and she just couldn’t do it.’
Lantz said that earlier this year, something changed and Tracey seemed to abruptly disappear from their neighborhood.
She said she began sending ‘cryptic’ texts, and they witnessed police cars pull up to her home while she was inside on August 19.
This matches with court records seen by DailyMail.com, which outline how Beckerink was charged with two counts of resisting and obstruction, interference with electronic communications and more counts of domestic violence against Tracey on that date.
Adam P Beckerink (pictured in his mugshot) was detained under felony arrest the day after his wife Caitlin Walch Tracey, 36, was found dead, records obtained by a DailyMail.com FOIA request reveal. He has not been charged over her death. The investigation is ongoing
Lantz and Coyner said when they saw Beckerink being taken away from the home in handcuffs that day, they text Tracey to ask if she wanted her to come over.
‘She said yes, which surprised me, honestly, because you know, I felt like she was a pretty independent woman that just handled things on her own,’ Lantz told the Chicago Tribune.
‘And when I got down there, I walked up the steps to her home, to her front door, I went to hug her … she felt so small and tiny, and honestly, frail. Almost like a shell of what she used to be.’
‘We told her she had to get out of it, this was the time to get out of it. You’re better than this, you’re a wonderful woman, you’re beautiful,’ Coyner added.
In the following days, Tracey told the women she wanted to ‘start her life over again here in Michigan’ and ‘turn that corner’, Lantz said.
‘I thought she was getting to a point finally where she was going to get back on track, and that makes me feel incredibly sad,’ Lantz added. ‘I felt like she was hopeful.’
She also sent them a text days later – on August 29 – saying: ‘Bunny and Joyce – Thank you for being fabulous neighbors. Your support (and space) has meant the world to me.
‘I’ve been to court twice since you were last over and yesterday was tough but moving forward and have a great advocate in the prosecutor’s office.
‘Now it’s time for me to rebuild and move forward with a calmer and healthier life and future relationships.’
The women remembered Tracey for her love of travel, dancing, fine wine, fashion, and hosting dinner parties.
Caitlin Tracey (pictured) died after falling down 24 flights of stairs on October 27
Beckerink, a former partner of international law firm Duane Morris who had been married to Tracey for six months, argued that he had the rights to her body as the surviving spouse
Lantz also described her as ‘such a shining star’ who was fashionable, with an ‘intelligence that’s (also) a humor’.
Beckerink’s lawyer Todd Pugh said he denies the domestic violence claims. ‘There was no physical violence that Adam had directed towards CT,’ he told the Chicago Tribune.
‘There is no corroboration to any of her claims. There was a layer of emotional volatility to the relationship, but CT enjoyed an incredibly close relationship with Adam’s parents and Adam.’
Beckerink’s disheveled mugshot was unearthed by a DailyMail.com FOIA request in November, following from his arrest the day she was found dead.
Chicago PD officers initially charged the attorney with disorderly conduct and accused him of making a false report of an offense on October 28, but he was released without charge after questioning.
Beckerink appeared with stubble and his hair skewed to one side in the mugshot pictured in his police report.
Since Tracey’s autopsy results are pending and the investigation into her death is ongoing, police declined to give any further information.
The report came after Tracey’s parents won custody of her body from Beckerink amid an acrimonious court battle.
Beckerink hit back by filing an emergency motion to prevent them from proceeding with her funeral and give him the opportunity to challenge the decision.
However, a Cook County judge denied his motion, according to the Chicago Tribune, which allowed them to proceed with the Catholic burial they had planned for their daughter on November 23.
Pictured: the Traceys speaking with their lawyers in court last week
Pictured: Caitlin Tracey’s father, retired real estate developer Andrew Tracey (second left), 69, holding hands with his wife and her mother, college professor Dr Monica Tracey, 65
Tracey’s body was found ‘pulverized’ and missing a foot in the stairwell of Beckerink’s luxury South Loop condo on October 27, according to court documents seen by DailyMail.com.
In the weeks that followed, Tracey’s heartbroken parents, retired real estate developer Andrew Tracey, 69, and college professor Dr. Monica Tracey, 65, battled against Beckerink for custody of their daughter’s remains.
Beckerink, a former partner of international law firm Duane Morris who had been married to Tracey for six months, argued that he had the rights to her body as the surviving spouse.
But on November 6, her family filed documents accusing him of wreaking a ‘campaign of abuse and terror’ against their daughter, including allegedly throwing a glass pickle jar at her head and pouring vodka on her wounds.
According to the Traceys, their daughter had been in a relationship with Beckerink from October 2022 until September 2023, but the couple never lived together or had children.
At some point after September, they got back together, and married in a private ceremony on April 8, 2024, which did not involve any of Tracey’s relatives.
Amid the wrangling for control of her body, her parents accused Beckerink of ‘manipulating’ their daughter, of ‘purposefully isolating her from her family’ and being responsible for her ‘tragic and highly suspicious death’.
To support their argument, the Michigan-based family presented a since-rescinded petition Tracey made to Cook County Court a year before she died in a desperate attempt to obtain a restraining order against her husband.
In her October 4, 2023 filing, Tracey detailed three examples of horrific attacks by the tax attorney.
Tracey said that on July 11, 2023, at around 3 pm, Beckerink stripped her naked and attacked her at her three-story home in New Buffalo on the banks of Lake Michigan, where her parents said she lived to be close to them and away from her partner.
Tracey’s body was at the center of a dispute between her family against her husband
Tracey’s family said her husband filed a police report on October 26 to make a missing person report, and the next day her body was found ‘directly below’ his apartment (pictured)
‘(Beckerink) physically abused me by throwing a pickle jar, which struck me on my head, punching me, pushing me, pulling my hair, dragging me by my clothes, and stripping me out of my clothes,’ Tracey wrote in the petition seen by DailyMail.com.
‘(He) also poured Vodka on my body, which burned my wounds, and would motion as if he was going to hit me with the alcohol bottle’.
Beckerink has been removed from his role as partner at law firm Duane Morris
Tracey said she managed to escape on foot, before her husband later took her to hospital for treatment to an ‘open head wound’.
In a second alleged incident on August 21, 2023, Tracey once again only narrowly escaped a brutal attack by her husband, this time at his plush apartment in Chicago’s Grand Luxury Condos where she was later found dead.
At around 8am, they had an argument, and Beckerink began launching a foul-mouthed tirade of abuse against his partner, according to her filing.
Tracey alleges he ‘verbally abused’ her by calling her a ‘cheater’, a ‘wh***’, a ‘piece of s***, ‘liar’ and a ‘b****’ before escalating to a physical assault.
‘(He) physically abused me by dragging me by my ankle, strangling me, suffocating me, slamming my head against a cabinet, slapping me, punching me, putting my head in a headlock, and dragging me away from the door to prevent me from leaving’ Tracey wrote in her petition.
Pictured: Tracey’s funeral on November 23 after her parents won custody of her body
He then allegedly stole her ‘keys, wallet, iPad and phone’ to prevent her from leaving or seeking help. Tracey said she escaped again by ‘fleeing on foot’, this time to the nearest police station.
Cops went to Beckerink’s apartment, but he refused to open the door.
Tracey detailed an alleged third incident which unfolded in the room where she was staying at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Chicago’s Magnificent Mile neighborhood on September 20, 2023.
She said her husband stormed into her room around 5:30 pm before hurling abuse at her and this time attempting ‘sexually abuse’ her.
Tracey did not give context about why she was at the hotel or go into detail about the sexual abuse, but said she filed a police report for domestic battery.
Her parents said it was around this time that Tracey temporarily ended her relationship with Beckerink and opened up to them about the alleged violence.
In their petition for control of her body, the Traceys said she told them Beckerink had been ‘emotionally, psychologically and physically abusive to her’ including ‘holding her hostage’ and ‘brutalizing’ her so badly she needed medical treatment.
She also said he had been trying to contact her ‘approximately 20 times a day’ either demanding to see her, or to verbally abuse her over the phone.
‘I believe if Beckerink knew I was here trying to get an Emergency Order of Protection, he would try and stop me, or I would be at risk of further abuse,’ Tracey wrote in her bid for the restraining order.
But Tracey’s parents said Beckerink found out and threatened to sue her for defamation and libel – so she withdrew her petition ‘based on fear’.
Though Tracey never secured the restraint, Berrien County Prosecutor’s Office charged him on January 13, 2024, with four counts of larceny, interference with electronic communications and domestic violence against Tracey.
On August 19, 2024, they added two counts of resisting and obstruction, interference with electronic communications and more counts of domestic violence against Tracey, according to her parents.
But the charges came too late for Tracey. Her body was discovered by Beckerink’s condo building manager, after a traumatized resident reported finding a severed foot in the stairwell.
Cops attended the grisly scene at 7:20 pm on October 27, and told the family that ‘based on the condition of the remains’ they determined that Tracey’s body ‘fell approximately 24 floors’.
Her devastated parents said they were told that ‘based on the height of the fall,’ their daughter’s body was ‘pulverized’ and ‘her foot was severed from her body’.
According to a police report, Beckerink was detained and questioned but later released.
Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office is conducting an autopsy on Tracey’s remains. Officials told DailyMail.com this week that the results are pending.
