Exactly one year after 36-year-old Caitlin Tracey was found dead at the bottom of her estranged husband’s South Loop condominium stairwell, officials on Monday issued an arrest warrant for him in connection with her death.
Prosecutors charged 47-year-old Adam Beckerink with one count of murder and issued the warrant just a week after the former high-paid tax attorney was sentenced to 93 days in jail in Michigan for a separate domestic battery case involving Tracey.
Tracey’s body was discovered on the evening of October 27, 2024, at the base of a stairwell inside 1201 South Prairie Avenue. A representative for her family said her body was “pulverized” and that one of her feet had been severed. She suffered multiple skull and rib fractures.
Beckerink is accused of throwing his wife over a 24th-floor floor railing, sending her plunging to her death.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office found that Tracey died from injuries consistent with a “fall from height,” but the office was unable to determine the manner of her death, ruling it “undetermined.” Manner-of-death classifications include accident, suicide, homicide, and natural causes. The lack of a definitive finding is expected to be a key issue in Beckerink’s defense.
Although Tracey was living in New Buffalo, Michigan, when she died, her family said she had been staying at Beckerink’s South Loop condo. They said Beckerink reported her missing on October 26, one day before her body was found. While making that report, Beckerink allegedly told police he had not seen his wife in about a month, but investigators later found surveillance video showing the two together two days earlier.
Tracey’s death came two days before a jury trial was set to begin in Michigan, where Beckerink faced felony charges for allegedly interfering with her attempts to call 911 and violently resisting police during his arrest.
Court records show Tracey had filed multiple protective orders and police reports describing escalating violence and harassment in the months before her death. In a 2023 petition filed in Cook County, she alleged that Beckerink contacted her “approximately twenty times a day” and regularly called her “derogatory names like ‘liar,’ ‘cheater,’ ‘whore,’ and a ‘piece of s***.’”
She reported several incidents of physical abuse, including one in September 2023 at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago, where she said Beckerink entered her hotel room while she was sleeping and began a verbal and physical attack.
Another report described an August 2023 incident at the same South Loop residential building where she was later found dead. In that account, Tracey alleged Beckerink “slammed my head against a cabinet, slapped me, punched me, put my head in a headlock, and dragged me away from the door.”
In yet another case, she accused him of striking her in the head with a pickle jar at her Michigan home in July 2023, then pouring vodka on her body, which she said “burned my wounds.” She claimed he took her to a hospital for treatment of an “open head wound” two days later.
The family and Beckerink went to court to win control of Tracey’s remains late last year, with the family emerging victorious in November.
On Tuesday morning, Tracey’s family released the following statement:
One year ago today, we learned that Caitlin Tracey, our beloved daughter and sister was found deceased at the bottom of a stairwell in Adam Beckerink’s Chicago, South Loop condominium building, having plummeted 24 stories. He will now be charged with her first-degree murder.
Only a week ago, Adam Beckerink, a convicted felon, was sentenced in Michigan for interfering with Caitlin’s cell phone and a domestic violence committed against her. Today he sits in a Michigan jail for his actions.
Today’s charges of first-degree murder against Adam Beckerink is another big step in the path to obtain justice for Caitlin. We are very grateful for the dedicated work of the Chicago Police Department. Our family especially thanks Detective Michael Carroll, the lead detective and his team for their unceasing efforts on behalf of Caitlin. Our family is also deeply thankful to Cook County States Attorney, Eileen O’Neill Burke who has made cases involving domestic violence, such as Caitlin’s, a law enforcement priority. 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.
We dearly miss Caitlin as do her friends. Our family hopes that during the murder case against Adam Beckerink, that the truth about the last months of Caitlin’s life and the events leading to her tragic death are revealed, so our wonderful daughter can finally be laid to rest.
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