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Beck faces rape, sodomy charges

By Jolene Guzman - Polkio.com

October 4, 2011

SALEM -- Cindy Lou Beck, sentenced in Polk County last month for her role in the August 2010 murders of Scott and Marilyn Jondle of Dallas, is now facing additional charges in Marion County.

A Marion County grand jury indicted Beck, 47, on two charges each of first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy, all class A felonies.

The indictment, dated Sept. 22, stated the charges involved a boy younger than 16.

Court records state the incidents continued for years, beginning in April 2007.

Beck was taken into custody at Polk County Jail in September 2010 in connection with the Jondle murder plot.

She was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Sept. 19 on two counts of conspiring to commit murder. According to prosecutors, Beck pretended to channel spirits in order to convince the Jondles' son, Andrew Jondle, 21, to kill his parents on Aug. 30, 2010.

Beck had been sent to Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville following her Sept. 19 sentencing.

Man, girlfriend sentenced in Polk County farm slayings

OregonLive.com

September 19, 2011

A Polk County couple's youngest son and his girlfriend were sentenced to prison Monday in their brutal killings a year ago.

Andrew Thomas Jondle, 21, received a life sentence with a 50-year mininum. He pleaded guilty July 29 to two counts of aggravated murder and one count of robbery.

Cindy Lou Beck, 47, received a 20-year term. She entered no-contest pleas Aug. 31 to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Eric Bergstrom handed down the sentences in separate hearings at the Polk County Courthouse. Bergstrom had facilitated plea agreement conferences with both defendants, Polk County District Attorney Stan Butterfield said.

Family members supported a settlement instead of a trial, Butterfield said, although Andrew Jondle agreed to cooperate with the state and testify against Beck.

David Scott Jondle, 61, and Marilyn Jondle, 58, were found dead Aug. 31, 2010, at their Abundant Life Farm on Gilliam Road southwest of Dallas.

Two weapons were found at the scene: a scythe and a metal pipe. An autopsy showed that Scott Jondle died of stab wounds to the head and torso. Marilyn Jondle was killed by blunt-force trauma to the head and upper body

Andrew Jondle and Beck hatched a plan shortly after they began dating a month before the slayings, Butterfield said. The two hoped to inherit the farm after the elder Jondles' death.

Butterfield said the motive was money -- to avoid being evicted from the Salem apartment they shared and to prove to the state that Beck could provide a proper home for her children, who had been taken into protective custody by the state months before the killings.

The district attorney contended that Beck was using a fake form of psychic channeling, "pretending to receive messages from animal or tree spirits," to manipulate Andrew Jondle into committing the murders. They were intended to look like part of a home invasion robbery.

The elder Jondles had strongly disapproved of the May-December relationship between their son and Beck, who was 26 years older.

Woman pleads no contest for role in gruesome killing of Polk County couple

Koinlocal6.com

August 31, 2011

A co-conspirator in the gruesome killing of a Polk County couple pleaded no contest to her role in a murder plot hatched to inherit the family farm of her boyfriend.

Cindy Lou Beck pleaded no contest to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and will receive a 20 year sentence, Polk County District Attorney Stan Butterfield said Wednesday.

Andrew Jondle, 20, pleaded guilty in July to two counts of aggravated murder in the death of his parents, David and Marilyn Jondle, who were killed in August of 2010.

Jondle and Beck, 47, hatched a plan to rob Andrew's parents, murder them and inherit the family farm that sits just southwest of Dallas.

According to court documents, Andrew waited for his dad in the family garage, where he beat him with a steel pipe and stabbed him. When his mother saw what happened he killed her with the same pipe.

DA Stan Butterfield agreed to a term of at least 50 years in prison for Jondle.

The no contest plea for Beck means she admitted the state could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she did conspire with Jondle to murder each of his parents in a plan put in place shortly after they began their relationship in July of 2010.

Jondle also pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary. 

The victims' family was involved in the process and was supportive of this resolution.

Andrew Jondle, 20, Used A Pipe And Scythe To Murder His Parents

Dreamindemon.com

September 3, 2010

Dallas, OR - Andrew Jondle set out on his scooter Monday evening with murder on his mind – the 20-year-old was fixin’ to kill his parents, 61-year-old David Jondle, and 58-year-old Marilyn Jondle. When David opened the garage door to greet his son that night, Andrew repeatedly bashed him in the head with a metal pipe before stabbing him a few times with a scythe. Andrew’s mother heard the commotion in the garage and popped her head out to investigate. She, too, was beaten with a pipe. Their bodies were found the next morning by a delivery man. “I just couldn’t imagine Andrew doing something like this,” said Nate Rafn, a family friend. “In the limited times I saw him he wasn’t violent at all – he didn’t seem to be angry or troubled in any way. He just seemed to be a normal kid.” Neither drugs nor alcohol was involved in the killings, just pure rage. Why so much rage from a normally pleasant person? Police believe it may stem from the fact that the Jondles didn’t approve of the relationship between their youngest child and his much older girlfriend. That, and Andrew needed some cash and his parents refused to give it to him. Andrew told investigators he and his hambeast girlfriend, 46-year-old Cindy Lou Beck, had begun hatching the plot last Saturday.

Cindy Lou assumed that if David and Marilyn were out of the picture, Andrew would inherit Abundant Life Farm – a 210-acre plot where the Jondles have been raising poultry, pigs, cattle and sheep since 2000. Andrew called the hambeast the night of the murder, and said he was waiting for his parents to fall asleep. Cindy Lou told Andrew he could come back home, or wait it out and kill them – after all, according to Cindy Lou, they “had to be killed at some point in time." And so they were. After Andrew bludgeoned his parents to death, he robbed them of their credit cards, cash and jewelry. He was hoping to scrounge up about $500 to pay back rent on the apartment he shared with Cindy. Authorities also believe Andrew was trying to scrape money together to help Cindy Lou get her kids out of foster care. At this point, it is unknown exactly why her children weren’t in her custody.

Andrew Jondle has been charged with two counts of aggravated murder, two counts murder and two counts of burglary. He’s being held without bail. Cindy Lou Beck has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of hindering prosecution. Her bail was set at $1 million.

Authorities: Son robbed parents, then killed them at family farm near Salem

OregonLive.com

September 1, 2010

Neighbors of the couple implicated in the deaths of a Dallas couple say the pair  started living together a few months ago and that they picked fights with neighbors and threatened local children, this morning’s Statesman Journal reports.

Andrew Jondle, 20, and Cindy Lou Beck, 46, are being held this morning in the Polk County Jail in connection with the deaths of David S. Jondle, 61, and Marilyn R. Jondle, 58.

Jondle is accused of aggravated murder. Beck, his girlfriend, faces accusations of hindering prosecution and conspiracy to commit aggravated murder. The pair was arrested Tuesday at their Salem apartment.

The Jondles were found in their home at 16055 Gilliam Road early Tuesday. They owned Abundant Life Farm, about three miles from Dallas.

Polk County Sheriff Bob Wolfe told The Oregonian this morning that robbery is the likely motive. The younger Jondle went to his parents’ home alone at some point after dark Monday and “hid out on the property.” He stole credit cards and jewelry, then was confronted by his father.

“There was a confrontation with him and his father and then he ended up finding the mother and she was killed,” Wolfe said.

The elder Jondle’s body was found in the garage, near the open garage door. His wife’s body was found in the kitchen.

Jondle then returned to his Salem apartment, where Beck allegedly helped dispose of his bloody clothing, Wolfe said.

Wolfe would not disclose the weapon used in the crime but said it was found at the scene. He said it was not a firearm.

Autopsies are being done on the couple today. Wolfe said the case represent the first homicides that his office has handled since 1999.

This morning’s Statesman Journal reports police were called to the Jondle home by a person delivering water to the farm.

The paper reports that the Jondles moved to the area from California in 2000 to farm.

Thomas Forbes, a longtime neighbor of the Jondle farm, said the couple was friendly and hard working. "We would see them (working on the farm) every morning and every night, seven days a week," Forbes said. He said they moved their cattle and sheep frequently, making sure the animals didn't overgraze.

Keith Nelson, who runs Teal Creek Farms in Dallas, said the younger Jondle, known as Drew, was a typical teen who was helpful to his parents. He said the Jondles used to be vendors at the Salem Public Market.

"When I knew him as a teenager he was going through teenage stuff," Nelson said. "He was always very helpful. He would go around and sweep the floor and help people carry out their bags. He was a decent kid."

He said the Jondles were devout Christians and hard-working people. "They were special," he said.

Nate Rafn, of Salem, got to know the Jondles through a television show he produces that features mid-Willamette Valley gardeners, farmers and artisans. He bought milk and meat from the Jondles. He said the couple was kind and honest and clearly loved to farm.

“They were very passionate about what they were doing,” he said. “They were living out their dream. They were doing what they loved.”

He said Andrew Jondle was bright and cheerful whenever he saw him. Rafn never sensed any strain between the younger Jondle and his parents.

Neighbors of the younger Jondle and Beck said they'd called police multiple times in the past month.

(Neighbor David) Powell said Beck and Andrew Jondle showed up at his house asking for cigarettes about 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. Tuesday.

"She had her hood up, and he was shaking uncontrollably," Powell said.

Beck has felony convictions for theft in 1992 and criminal mistreatment in 2008, according to court records.

In a video posted to YouTube earlier this year, the Jondles talked about their decision to move from California to Oregon, and to explore careers in farming. David Jondle, who went by Scott, was a software engineer before turning to farming for a livelihood. His wife, Marilyn, says she was a housewife who home-schooled the couple's three sons, all of whom are now grown. Andrew Jondle was their youngest son.