Schertz man held in 2021 death of friend

Months after the remains of a Schertz man were found, a Guadalupe County grand jury has indicted his childhood friend in his death.

Ethan Beckman, 23, was indicted on charges of murder and felony tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

Jacob Dubois, 22, had been missing for a year and half before his remains were found in September 2022. Dubois had told his girlfriend on March 7, 2021, that he was going to hang out with Beckman, then 21, and drive around as they often did. The two had been friends since they were children, though they briefly went separate ways in high school.

Two days later, when Dubois hadn’t returned home or answered his phone, his girlfriend called Schertz police to report him missing.

Beckman quickly became a suspect as he was the last person to see Dubois alive. On March 29, 2021, he was charged with tampering with evidence.

Before his 2021 arrest, police searched his vehicle and gathered sufficient evidence to charge him with tampering but not enough for a murder charge.

The then-21-year-old told police that Dubois had been dropped off at a construction site near his house at Homestead Parkway and Somervell so that he could walk home from there. Police said that as the questioning continued, Beckman’s story started changing with regard to where the two friends had been and where he dropped off Dubois.

Detectives learned that on March 8, 2021, the day after Dubois was last seen alive, Beckman drove north to U.S. 281 and Johnson Way and parked his 2019 Volkswagen GTI. He used several ride-sharing vehicles to make trips to Walmart, where he bought items that could be used to dispose of a body, Schertz Detective Helen Lafitte said.

Before visiting Walmart, Beckman was involved in a hit-and-run crash, damaging his vehicle and disabling it near U.S. 281 and Borgfeld Road. Bexar County deputies contacted Beckman the next day about the disabled vehicle and found lighter fluid and paper towels inside, and noted Beckman’s clothes were stained with bleach — one of the items he bought at Walmart — police said.

By the time Schertz police examined the vehicle, it had been cleaned with a power washer. Investigators were able to find trace amounts of blood in the passenger seat.

Lafitte said the evidence in Beckman’s car immediately turned the missing person case into a murder investigation.

The indictment was returned March 2, the Schertz Police Department said Friday afternoon.

Beckman remains in custody in the Guadalupe County Jail on $1.25 million bail.

Beckman

Dubois