Clem Beauchamp charged in death of PBC woman, two children

Clem Beauchamp had been a person of interest in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her two young children. On Thursday, a grand jury indicted Beauchamp, 34, who will be charged with three counts of murder in the first degree.

The children's bodies were found stuffed in suitcases and found in a Delray Beach Canal. Prosecutors believe Beauchamp was responsible. A notice of intent to seek the death penalty has already been filed in this case.

For Palm Beach County law enforcement officers, the images from the day the children's bodies were discovered are difficult to forget. "It doesn't get much worse than what occurred down there that day," said Chief Anthony Strianese of the Delray Beach Police Department.

On March 2, 2011, the bodies of Ju'Tyra Allen, 6, and Jermaine McNeil, 10, were found floating in a Delray Beach waterway.

"When two identified children's bodies were found floating in a canal and stuffed into pieces of luggage... that sense of loss became shock and profound despair," said Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe.

Prosecutors believe Ju'Tyra was killed by asphyxiation and Jermaine died from blunt force trauma.

In August of 2010, a woman's body was discovered at a West Palm Beach dump. Police were unable to determine her identity or her cause of death. It was not until the children's bodies were discovered that investigators could identify the woman as Felicia Brown, 25.
Brown was the mother of Ju'Tyra and Jermaine. "We now know that these three bodies stripped of identification and dignity were connected in life and in death," said McAuliffe.

That connection, investigators believe, was Beauchamp, who was Brown's on and off boyfriend. Beauchamp was arrested days after the children's bodies were found and charged in an unrelated weapons case. He has remained behind bars and is now charged with three counts of first degree murder.

"It was the hard work of the investigators that spent the countless hours getting these indictments solidified," said Chief Strianese.

Beauchamp will be arraigned on the new charges within ten days.