Lured to his death
Beaten, killed and set on fire in a twisted Christmas killing
THE CRIME
On Christmas Day 2015, Christopher West was lured to an apartment where he was beaten, choked, and threatened with a gun before his dead body was dumped and set on fire...
THE STORY
While most people spent Christmas Day with family, tucking into a turkey dinner, opening presents, and watching festive films, Amanda Laforce and Timothy Shawn Mceachern had other plans.
Together with their mutual friend Krystal Lane, they spent the day in their apartment in Kingsport, Tennessee, getting high on methamphetamine.
The drug, also known as ‘ice’, is popular in America, and has been called the most dangerous, destructive drug of recent times.
After injecting lethal amounts of the substance, Amanda received a text message from her friend Christopher West, 39.
The message made Mceachern – a possessive, jealous man – see red.
He ordered Amanda, 29, to reply to Christopher and lure him to the flat under the pretext of wanting to have sex with him.
Amanda did as she was told, and Christopher agreed to come over, believing he was about to get a Christmas treat.
Meanwhile, Mceachern, 45, hatched a horrifying plan.
He hid in the kitchen, wearing a ski mask and brandishing a bat.
Lane, 27, answered the door when the bell rang, while Amanda stayed sitting on the sofa.
But, seconds after he’d stepped inside the apartment, Christopher was hit across the head from behind with the bat Mceachern was holding.
Christopher immediately fell to the ground, but still recognised Mceachern, even though he was wearing a mask.
Then poor Christopher was subjected to a lengthy and terrifying ordeal. He was bound with duct tape so tightly that he could barely move while he was viciously beaten.
Still high on ice and another drug, known as ‘gravel’, Mceachern choked Christopher and threatened him with a handgun, while the poor man begged for his life.
At that point, Mceachern sent the two women out to his car to look for some zip ties.
But, according to Lane’s account of events, they couldn’t find them, and, when they went back to the apartment, Christopher was dead.
On Boxing Day, instead of a lazy day enjoying leftovers, the trio had their work cut out with an inhuman task. They had a dead body to get rid of.
They persuaded a male friend to come over and drive them to a local home-improvement shop, where they bought bleach, rags, spray bottles and a fire log.
Mceachern went on to visit Walmart, where he shoplifted rubbish bags, along with a few other items.
Then the three furiously cleaned the scene of the crime in a bid to erase any evidence
The trio had their work cut out with an inhuman task…
of their heinous actions.
Once that was done, they bundled Christopher’s body into the boot of their friend’s car, and drove to a secluded area of forest nearby.
It was there that they set fire to Christopher’s corpse and threw it down an embankment.
They hoped they’d done enough to stop him ever being discovered or identified.
Meanwhile, Christopher’s family were beginning to worry about not having had contact with him.
His sister hadn’t heard anything from him since the beginning of December.
Although Christopher didn’t have a permanent address, he usually stayed in touch with his loved ones.
But they’d heard nothing over Christmas.
By the end of January, when he still hadn’t replied to his sister’s messages or been active on Facebook, she reported him as missing.
Concern over Christopher’s safety grew.
Then, on 17 February last year, human remains were found down the embankment.
An autopsy identified them as being those of Christopher West, and his family’s worst fears were confirmed.
The police then turned their attention from locating Christopher to finding out who killed him.
They found Christopher had last been seen at Lane’s apartment with Mceachern and Laforce.
Initially, Lane told officers that Christopher had called round on Christmas Day, but went to run an errand and never came back.
But, when they began pressing her for details, she ended up spilling the beans – implicating herself and her two accomplices.
Luckily for the police, they didn’t have to spend any time hunting down Mceachern and Laforce, as they were already in custody on unrelated theft charges.
All suspects were initially charged with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse.
But Mceachern later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse as part of a plea deal.
He was sentenced to a total of 32 years – 26 for second-degree murder, and six years to run consecutively for abuse of a corpse.
Admitting the same crimes, Lane received a total of 25 years for second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse.
She was also sentenced for various drugs charges.
Laforce has been charged with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse, but is yet to enter a plea or stand trial.
They furiously cleaned the scene of the crime