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During Search For Missing Mom, Investigators Find 'Headless Torso' In Freezer At Her Boyfriend’s Alleged Meth Lab
Benjamin Beale has been arrested after police searching for Julia Dardar made a gruesome discovery.
While searching for a missing Louisiana mother, investigators uncovered a dismembered body in a freezer at her boyfriend’s alleged meth lab.
Police have been searching for Julia Dardar, 36, since her estranged husband Michael Dardar reported her missing last month, and have been in close contact with her boyfriend Benjamin Beale, 34, NOLA reports.
After reporting his wife missing, Michael Dardar told NOLA that he learned that his estranged wife and Beale went to California to pick up a school bus in December. It was in that school bus that investigators say they found the dismembered body on Tuesday.
"The headless torso of what appeared to be an adult human female," was located in a freezer aboard the bus, according to court documents obtained by Fox News. The victim seemed to have suffered deep cuts that "appeared to have been inflicted post-mortem."
In a nearby Coleman ice chest, investigators noted that they located a saw "which appeared to have bits of flesh and fluid on the blade." The court documents also alleged that there was a meth lab and illegal weapons at the scene.
Beale is currently being held on a $450,000 bond on an obstruction of justice charge as well as charges for alleged distribution of meth and marijuana, illegal weapons possession and running a "clandestine drug lab,” according to online jail records.
The identity of the remains have not yet been publicly confirmed by authorities and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office has not immediately responded to Oxygen.com’s request for comment on the case.
However, Michael Dardar is certain that the remains belong to his wife.
“She would want to be remembered as a good mother because she tried her best, we had our ups and downs,” he told NOLA. He said she fell victim to meth a year ago and claims that Beale had enabled her addiction. He said she recently moved in with Beale.
Michael and Julia shared two daughters, who are currently in their teens.
“This is a big gap, an emptiness in our lives now because we always did think she would eventually get better and come back,” Michael said.
He told NOLA that while he knew his wife was headed down a “bad road,” he said the way it all ended was “gruesome [...] beyond belief.”
It’s not clear if Beale has an attorney. He’s due back in court in March.
