Verity Beck, accused of killing her parents in their Montgomery County home, taught at a local Catholic school
Verity Beck, accused of killing and dismembering her parents in their Jenkintown home, worked at a Catholic school for special-needs children.
The Montgomery County woman accused of killing and dismembering her parents in their Jenkintown home last week worked at a Catholic school for special-needs children, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said.
Verity Beck, 43, was a teacher at Saint Katherine School of Special Education, the archdiocese said in a statement. Saint Katherine’s, which serves young people from age 4 through early adulthood, has a main campus in Wynnewood and a high school center in Radnor.
It was not clear how long Beck had worked at the school or what classes or age groups she taught. Archdiocesan officials said she had passed a criminal background check and had not drawn any complaints during what they described as her brief tenure.
“Neither school administration nor the Archdiocese had any indication that she was potentially involved in acts of this nature,” the statement said.
Beck was charged with murder and related crimes in the deaths of her 72-year-old mother and 73-year-old father, Miriam and Reid Beck. Police were called to their home on the 1100 block of Beverly Road after their son, who said he had not heard from his parents in some time, went to the house and saw what appeared to be a dead body covered in a bloody sheet.
Investigators arrived to find the bodies in “different stages of dismemberment” with gunshot wounds to the head, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele. He said authorities found evidence that a chainsaw had been used in the crime.
Verity Beck was in the home when police arrived, according to the criminal complaint later filed against her, and when an officer asked her where her parents were, she replied, “They are dead.”
According to the archdiocese, Beck had last been to work at the school in December, before the Christmas break.
Miriam Beck was a retired school nurse who had worked at Lower Moreland High School in Huntingdon Valley, and Reid Beck was a retired training director for the Steamfitters Local 420, according to a report from 6ABC.