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A Colorado man has been sentenced to prison for concealing the body of a man involved in a threesome, partly to defraud social security benefits.
James Agnew admitted guilt on March 16 to charges of tampering with a deceased body and committing identity theft, according to a representative from the Colorado First Judicial District Attorney’s Office, as reported by Oxygen. In return for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss five additional charges.
Agnew will face a five-year prison term, the district attorney’s spokesperson confirmed to Oxygen.
His wife, Suzanne Agnew, is facing a slew of charges including tampering with a deceased body, theft, unauthorized use of a financial transaction device, abuse of a corpse, two counts of identity theft, and attempted theft. She has entered a plea of not guilty.
The case unfolded when Robert O’Neill, the brother of the deceased James O’Neill, requested a welfare check at the Agnews’ residence in Lakewood last June, according to an affidavit obtained by Oxygen.
When Agnew answered the door, he appeared to imply that he was O’Neill and that he did not want to hear from his family, police noted in the affidavit.
However, when Robert was shown the body-camera, per the affidavit, he told police that was not his sibling.
Police revisited the Agnew home but the couple, who did not allow them inside, indicated that O’Neill had moved out years ago, according to the affidavit.
But Suzanne told Robert something very different—she said she was sitting next to his brother, but O’Neill did not want to talk, according to the affidavit. When Robert said his brother had an inheritance check that required his physical presence to deposit, per the affidavit, Suzanne provided his brother’s checking account and social security numbers.
Robert later discovered that his brother’s bank account was active, showing monthly Social Security deposits of $967—and withdrawals, according to the affidavit.
Surveillance footage showed a man police said resembled Agnew using O’Neill’s debit card, noting in the affidavit that Suzanne had appeared to use O’Neill’s social security number.
On July 3, police searched the Agnew home and found O’Neill dead. Suzanne later told police they covered the body to block their dogs from chewing on his remains. At the time, her husband was arrested, and she was booked a few weeks later.
According to Suzanne, she and her husband woke up one morning in 2023 to find O’Neill—who she said had been in a romantic relationship with her and her husband—unresponsive and CPR was not successful, per the affidavit. Suzanne told police in the affidavit that she discouraged her husband from calling 911 because she was not ready to “give up” O’Neill.
However, Agnew admitted that O’Neill’s social security benefits played a part in the decision to not report his death, according to the affidavit. However, he did acknowledge that he knew it was wrong to steal O’Neill’s money.
In a call with police, Suzanne said they used O’Neill’s money to pay bills, per the affidavit.
Suzanne will next appear in court on May 26.