NEW ORLEANS — Coroners confirmed on Wednesday that the dismembered body found in a New Orleans freezer was a missing woman.
The Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office said 36-year-old Julia Dardar died from blunt force injuries to the head and neck as well as asphyxia due to manual strangulation. Dardar was reported missing by her estranged husband on Dec. 23 after she moved in with another man, Benjamin Beale.
New Orleans Police officers investigating Dardar’s disappearance searched Beale’s home in January and found a series of extension cords leading to a freezer in a locked bus in the backyard. Inside, officers found a headless human torso with a deep cut that appeared to be made after her death. Nearby officers also found an electric saw “which appeared to have bits of flesh and fluid on the blade” as well as a plastic face shield, goggles and garbage bags.
Beale has been booked into the Orleans Parish Justice Center on charges of obstruction of justice of a death investigation after he refused to answer’s officer’s questions about the body. He was later booked on a second-degree murder charge.
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