One was a registered sex offender.
Another had been accused of abuse by the home's former owner, who was later found dead.
Another had a history of brushes with the law in Michigan, including felony assault.
Two of them were previously accused of holding a person against their will in the same basement.
The Wilkes-Barre home where police say several people took part in the torture and murder of a visiting Michigan woman last year has been the scene of other alleged crimes in the recent past. Several of the accused have been the targets of previous allegations there and elsewhere.
And police say an 8-year-old child's eyewitness accounts helped lead them to unraveling the case.
***Warning: Some readers may find details of the case included below disturbing.
Nicole Cuevas-Ingram's badly decomposed body was discovered buried in the dirt floor beneath 142 Carlisle St. on Feb. 28. Her remains were wrapped in a tarp, tied with electrical cords and rope. Police believe she was killed in April 2023 after weeks of torture.
Court documents reveal additional terrors that took place at the rundown pink row home or were allegedly connected to its residents.
On Tuesday, Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce announced that five people had been arrested in connection with Cuevas-Ingram's death, adding that investigation continues into the death of the building's former owner, Debra Fox, whose body was discovered alongside the North Cross Valley Expressway last month.
More charges are possible, Sanguedolce has said.
Below is a summary of the complicated connections and allegations that recent and archived court documents reveal.
Affidavit: All participated
Charged in Cuevas-Ingram's death are: Faith Beamer, 39, Wilkes-Barre; Desiree Linnette, 43, Edwardsville; Sarai Doyle, 24, Edwardsville; Jason Race, 43, Kingston; and William Wolfe, 54, of Wilkes-Barre.
Each defendant was charged with criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, aggravated assault and abuse of corpse.
The police affidavit describes gruesome injuries: Cuevas-Ingram, 38, had been handcuffed to a post and other fixtures, and she was beaten, stabbed, slashed, kicked, stomped, her eyes gouged and strangled. Her cause of death was asphyxiation.
According to investigators, all five defendants and a sixth uncharged person took part, as follows:
- Stab and slash wounds on the back — Beamer
- Destroyed nasal cavity — Beamer, Doyle, Linnette, Race, Wolfe
- Broken ribs — Beamer, Doyle, Linnette, Race, Wolfe, and Anthony Dixon, Doyle's paramour, who has not been charged.
- Stab wound to the left arm — Race
- Broken hyoid bone — Race and Wolfe
- Sewed fishing line in arm — Beamer and Doyle
- Broken leg — Race and Linnette
- Broken/missing tooth — Linnette and Wolfe
- Damage, blindness and infection to both eyes — Beamer
In addition, the affidavit alleges that Cuevas-Ingram's body was buried in the basement by Beamer, Dixon, Doyle, Linnette, Race and Wolfe.
Police say Dixon only assaulted Cuevas-Ingram once — stomping on her ribs after being told she had molested a child — and did not take part in the daily torture.
Journey from Michigan
According to the affidavit, investigators learned that Cuevas-Ingram traveled from Michigan to Pennsylvania with Linnette and Doyle (Linnette's adult daughter), as well as three minor children.
Police say Race, Beamer and Wolfe were already living there. Cuevas-Ingram, Linnette, Doyle and the children also began staying there, and Dixon occasionally visited and spent the night.
Cuevas-Ingram made the trip, in part, police say, "to pursue a possible relationship with Linnette."
"I think she came just really for a visit and tried to get home, but was unsuccessful in that endeavor," the DA said this week, adding that things "quickly turned sour."
Investigators pointed to a March 31, 2023, Facebook Messenger conversation in which Cuevas-Ingram told a friend Linnette had hit her and she needed money and a way home.
Cuevas-Ingram told the friend Linnette was mad she was trying to leave. The friend asked if she had been hit hard.
"I'm bleeding can u just send it," Cuevas-Ingram replied.
She later told the friend that she planned to return to Michigan, cut ties with Linnette, and pursue a relationship with a man they both knew.
On April 1, after nine hours with no contact, the friend wrote back to ask if Cuevas-Ingram was alive.
Police say that investigation shows Cuevas-Ingram was assaulted in the kitchen of the home during this time by Linnette, Doyle and Beamer.
The friend receives a message, purportedly from Cuevas-Ingram, saying "everything I said about her (Linnette) is a lie," adding that she had disrespected Linnette and her family by driving while falling asleep at the wheel, and stole money from Linnette's daughter.
Cuevas-Ingram goes on to say she stole money and bought drugs. The friend asked how that was possible, adding that the message didn't sound like her.
Investigators believe the friend's suspicions were correct, and that Cuevas-Ingram was no longer in control of her phone.
Drug use and abuse allegations
Investigators say that as soon as the group arrived in Wilkes-Barre from Michigan, Linnette began attacking Cuevas-Ingram's character, including an allegation that she had inappropriately touched a small child. Investigators believe Linnette's intention was to "turn the house against" her.
They also allege that Beamer, Doyle, Linnette and Race were all using crack cocaine during the month of April 2023, mostly supplied by Linnette.
According to the affidavit, Cuevas-Ingram was handcuffed to items in the home, fed only bread and water at Linnette's direction, and had to ask permission to use the bathroom, soiling her clothing on at least one occasion.
The abuse was so extensive that Cuevas-Ingram had to be moved around the house on a cart, police say. Investigation revealed her head had been shaved, she was routinely beaten and kicked, struck in the face with a hammer, and she was slashed so badly that Doyle and Beamer attempted to stitch her wounded arm with a fishing line.
Final hours
Police say Doyle gave a detailed account of Cuevas-Ingram's final hours and death.
According to Doyle's reported confession, Beamer, Race and Wolfe were mad at Cuevas-Ingram for soiling her clothes because she could not go to the bathroom. Race then repeatedly stomped on her head while wearing black boots with silver trim.
Race used a stethoscope to see if she was still breathing, and they determined she was dead, according to the affidavit.
Investigators say they recovered black cowboy boots and a stethoscope from a storage locker leased by Wolfe and used by Race.
Witness contacts police
On Feb. 21, 2024, an unnamed witness visited Wilkes-Barre police headquarters to report a possible homicide that had taken place months previously at 142 Carlisle St., police said.
That person and a second witness both told police about an 8-year-old child who claimed to have witnessed the beatings and killing of Cuevas-Ingram.
Following conversations with multiple people, including the people later determined to be suspects, police visited 142 Carlisle St. on Feb. 27. Investigators found a tarped body buried beneath layers of soil, with lime and mothballs mixed in.
A forensic autopsy was performed at Mercyhurst University in Erie, where Dr. Eric Vey determined the remains to be those of Cuevas-Ingram based on medical records, tattoos and interviews.
Communication between mothers
Police also say they spoke with Cuevas-Ingram's mother, Lupe Rodea, in February. According to the affidavit, Rodea said her daughter had called her in April 2023 seeking $400 for a bus ticket, saying she was in Pennsylvania with friends.
Rodea said she sent the $400 via CashApp. Then her daughter asked for an additional $100, which she did not send.
Rodea told police her daughter told her she "stole a girl's wallet" and needed $800. That was her last communication.
Police said they spoke with Linnette's mother, Regina Myers, who admitted she called Rodea seeking $800 that she claimed Cuevas-Ingram had stolen from Linnette.
Previous accusations
The affidavit, as well as other court records reviewed by WVIA, point to other crimes surrounding the home and its occupants.
In July 2023, police say, a man named Anthony Cook was found badly beaten at 632 Carey Ave., Wilkes-Barre. Cook told police that Race, Linnette and two drug dealers had held him captive in the basement of 142 Carlisle St. for several hours after accusing him of inappropriately touching the same 8-year-old who claimed to have witnessed Cuevas-Ingram's torture and death.
The 2023 case led only to obstruction of justice charges being filed against Race and Beamer, who allegedly screamed at police and refused to let them into the home to check on the child. Those charges were dismissed last month.
- Wolfe is a registered sex offender, who previously served prison time for a 1992 statutory rape and a 2010 indecent assault of a child.
- Race and Beamer's records included lower level charges, and no felonies.
- Linnette had brushes with the law in Michigan. Saginaw County court records show she was charged with non-capital felony assault there in April 2019. The case was later dismissed. Records also show she was the subject of several landlord-tenant actions there for non-payment of rent in 2022-2023.
Previous owner's PFA
Fox's death remains unsolved. She owned the home at the time of the killing, but lost it in a tax sale in January of this year.
Sanguedolce said it is not believed that Fox was involved in the torture of Cuevas-Ingram.
But she, too, had a potentially violent tie to the suspects.
Last August, Fox sought and was granted a Protection From Abuse order against Race, who was identified in court documents as an unspecified blood relative.
In her petition for the restraining order, Fox claimed that Race had abused, assaulted and threatened to kill her, forced her to do marijuana and crack and locked her in her bedroom against her will.
When police began searching 142 Carlisle St. regarding tips about the murder, Fox had not been seen in months.
In a March 7 Facebook post, daughter Danni Fox wrote that her mother had been missing since November. She declined to comment about the case when contacted by WVIA this week.
Debra Fox's remains were found March 26 in woods behind a hotel on Route 309 near the North Cross Valley Expressway.
Information about Fox's cause and manner of death have not been released, and no charges have been filed.
Sanguedolce said Friday that there were no updates in the Fox case.
Status of defendants
Each defendant in the Cuevas-Ingram case was charged with criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, aggravated assault and abuse of corpse.
They were arraigned Tuesday by District Judge Richard Cronauer, then remanded without bail to separate correctional facilities around the state to await further proceedings.
According to court documents, preliminary hearings have been continued until May 31.
The minor children mentioned in the case are with a foster parent, the DA said Friday.
