A Michigan judge on Tuesday set a $2 million bail for Adam Beckerink, the man accused of killing his estranged wife by hurling her from a 24th-floor stairs at his South Loop condominium last year. Beckerink is still in jail in Berrien County, Michigan, serving a 93-day sentence for domestic assault against the woman.
The Cook County warrant was issued on Monday after Chicago police filed a complaint accusing Beckerink, 47, of killing 36-year-old Caitlin Tracey on October 25, 2024, by throwing her over the east stairway railing near his 24th-floor flat at 1201 South Prairie Avenue.
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Tracey’s body was discovered two days later, on the evening of October 27, after a homeowner spotted a severed foot on a lower floor of the staircase. Police discovered the remainder of her body nearby. A family member described her body as “pulverized.”
Tracey died from injuries consistent with a fall from height, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, but the cause of death is “undetermined,” leaving open the possibility of an accident, suicide, or homicide. The next year, Chicago police officers gathered evidence that they believe demonstrates Beckerink is to blame.
Tracey’s family issued a statement on Monday, congratulating the police department and Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke.
“Both the Chicago police department and Ms. O’Neill Burke’s office have been tireless in their efforts to obtain justice on behalf of Caitlin,” the family said.
Tracey was living in New Buffalo, Michigan, at the time of her death, but according to her family, she had been staying with Beckerink in Chicago. He informed authorities she had been missing for almost a month when he filed a missing person report on October 26—one day before her remains were discovered and, according to the complaint, one day after she died. However, investigators apparently uncovered security video showing the couple together just a few days before her death was discovered.
Tracey died only two days before a Michigan jury trial began on felony allegations that Beckerink interfered with her attempts to call 911 and physically resisted police during a previous arrest. According to court papers, Tracey requested repeated protection orders and made police reports in the months leading up to her murder, detailing escalating abuse and harassment.
In one 2023 Cook County petition, she said Beckerink contacted her “approximately twenty times a day” and frequently called her “liar,” “cheater,” “whore,” and “piece of s***.” She also documented repeated assaults, including an August 2023 attack inside the same Prairie Avenue building, where she said Beckerink “slammed my head against a cabinet, slapped me, punched me, put my head in a headlock, and dragged me away from the door.”
Other incidents included a confrontation in September 2023 at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago, where Tracey claimed he entered her hotel room while she was sleeping and assaulted her, and a July 2023 altercation in Michigan, where she claimed Beckerink struck her in the head with a pickle jar and poured vodka on her wounds before taking her to the hospital two days later.
Following Tracey’s death, her family and Beckerink clashed in court over control of her remains. In November 2024, the family won the right to take possession for burial.
