Prosecutors on Friday detailed their case against Adam Beckerink, a Chicago tax attorney accused of killing his estranged wife by throwing her from a 24th-floor stairwell landing at his South Loop condominium building more than a year ago.
Caitlin Tracey was 36 when a resident of the building at 1201 South Prairie Avenue discovered her severed foot near the bottom of a stairwell on October 27, 2024. The resident alerted a building employee, and police later located the rest of her remains nearby. A representative for Tracey’s family has described her body as “pulverized.”
Chicago police detectives detained Beckerink shortly after Tracey’s body was found, but he was subsequently released due to a lack of evidence.
During a detention hearing on Friday, prosecutors detailed years of abuse they say she suffered at the hands of Beckerink in both Chicago and Michigan. In the weeks before her death, Tracey told a victim’s advocate in Michigan that Beckerink had threatened to throw her down a stairwell, prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors also said Beckerink’s DNA was recovered from a 24th-floor stairwell railing from where investigators believe Tracey was thrown. Beckerink allegedly gave police conflicting accounts about Tracey’s disappearance.
Much of the state’s evidence centers on what they described as a long pattern of domestic violence throughout the couple’s relationship. Those incidents include a September 2023 confrontation at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago, where Tracey reported that Beckerink entered her hotel room while she was sleeping and assaulted her. Prosecutors also cited a July 2023 incident in Michigan in which Tracey said Beckerink struck her in the head with a pickle jar, poured vodka on her wounds, and delayed taking her to a hospital for two days.
Beckerink served a 93-day jail sentence in Michigan for an attack in that state. An arrest warrant charging Beckerink with first-degree murder was issued in October 2025 while he was serving time at Berrien County Jail in Michigan. Chicago police detectives brought him back to the city on Monday.
In a statement released this week, Tracey’s family thanked law enforcement and prosecutors for their work on the case.
“Our family is deeply thankful to the Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, and her team, as well as the Chicago Police Department Violent Crimes Division. The CPD has worked long and hard to investigate this case,” the family said. “Although the defendant’s criminal convictions and sentence in Michigan brings some measure of justice for Caitlin, this man must now be held accountable for his actions in the days and months that led to this moment: the state’s charge that he murdered our beautiful daughter.”
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