VA court documents detail DSP investigation into Laurel murder
LAUREL, Del. – In the days following the discovery of Tia Tucker’s body on a back road in Sussex County an in-depth investigation by the Delaware State Police led to the apprehension of the case’s primary suspect, 32-year-old Joseph Beck, who was found in Virginia just one day after police had interviewed Beck and his wife, Allison Santee at their home in Laurel.
According to a search warrant affidavit filed on March 14th by Detective E.L. Mccullough of the Stafford (VA) Sheriff’s Office the detective received a call from Detective D. Grassi, a 21-year veteran of the Delaware State Police assigned to the homicide unit, explaining that he had been assigned to work the murder of 34-year-old Tia Tucker and that the main suspect in the investigation, Joseph Beck, was currently being held for a DUI in Stafford County. Beck was driving a gray 2005 Honda Civic at the time of the traffic stop and it was that car that Detective Grassi wanted to search for any signs of forensic evidence.
The search warrant goes on to explain that the homicide investigation began on Saturday, March 9th when troopers from Delaware State Police Troop #5 were called to South Shell Bridge Road in Laurel for a report of a dead female who had been dumped on the shoulder of the road following a fatal gunshot wound to the upper torso. An autopsy conducted by Delaware’s Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Collins, also revealed that the body suffered a number of incised wounds caused by an unknown cutting instrument.
Detective Grassi, along with other members of the homicide unit, then met with the family of Tia Tucker on March 12th after tattoos on her body led investigators to correctly identify Tucker as the woman who was murdered. Tucker’s family members told Detective Grassi and the team that no one in the family had seen or spoken to Tia since Thursday March 7th and that all calls to her cell phone were going directly to her voicemail. One family member showed Detective Grassi text messages she had received from Tia explaining that Tia had left the motel she was staying at and was living with Joseph Beck and Allison Santee at their home on Loblolly Lane in Laurel prompting the homicide unit to go to the couples home that same day.
Both Beck and Santee were home at the time and were interviewed separately by police who discovered that Tia had in fact been at their home. According to the couple, Tia had left the home at around 8 P.M. on Friday, March 8th and they had not seen or heard from her since that time. During the interviews it was discovered that Beck was in the process of moving out and he told investigators it was because he had received a call from a family member that Tia was dead and he was scared so he wanted to move back to Bridgeville to live with his mom. Troopers had also observed the gray 2005 Honda Civic at the center of the search warrant parked in the driveway of the couple’s home.
The following day, Wednesday, March 13th, at around 9:30 A.M. a resident living on Loblolly Lane called 911 to report that the front door of the home where Beck and Santee lived was wide open and that the screen door was also suspiciously open as well. Troopers came to the home for a welfare check and found a 1997 Jeep Cherokee registered to Beck parked in the driveway and discovered that no one was currently home. As troopers checked the home they found several credit/debit/bank cards belonging to Tia Tucker lying on top of a television in the living room as well as a smart phone and a purse on a mattress in the living room. Detectives also found what appeared to be dried blood in the hallway approximately 3 feet off the floor on the wall. An additional smart phone was also found on the lawn directly behind the home. According to the warrant Tia’s cell phone purse, clothing, and other belongings were not found on the scene when the investigation began on the roadside of South Shell Bridge Road and that up until now their location was unknown. Police say that during the interviews with Beck and Santee the day before, neither person had told them that any property belonging to Tucker was still in their home. At this stage of the investigation it was unknown where Tucker was killed and authorities believed now that something harmful possibly happened to the victim at the home on Loblolly Lane.
Detective Grassi believed that because Tucker’s body had been most likely moved after the murder there would most likely be some trace DNA evidence in the vehicle that would have been used to transport Tucker following the murder. The search warrant filed in Virginia was on the grounds that the Honda Civic, registered and operated by Joseph Beck during the DUI traffic stop, might have been the vehicle used in the transportation and that further forensic testing of the vehicle would be required as part of the homicide investigation. The warrant called for the Civic to be turned over to Delaware State Police for further forensic processing.
Beck has been extradited from Virginia to Delaware and is currently being held at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center on $2,062,000 cash only bond.
