A Farmington man has been arrested and charged in the unsolved 2024 homicide of Kelsie Todacheeny.
Farmington Police found Todacheeny, 33, dead at 3:28 a.m. Jan. 15, 2024, inside a home in the 2400 block of E. 20th St.
The last person to see her alive was Melvin Becenti, 34, who has now been charged with second-degree murder and tampering with evidence in connection with her death.
An arrest warrant was issued July 1 and was served July 16 after Farmington Police spent more than two years investigating what they originally described as a “suspicious death.”
Becenti was Todacheeny’s longtime boyfriend, and the couple had a history of domestic abuse, which Becenti told police was “alcohol-fueled,” according to the affidavit for arrest warrant.
Police obtained evidence of Todacheeny being abused on Jan. 14, 2024, allegedly by Becenti.
The woman’s friend, Denise Begaye, provided police with videos in which Todacheeny had a black eye and Becenti could be heard in the background calling the woman an “ugly hoe” and a “crackhead,” according to the affidavit for arrest warrant.
Becenti also reportedly was heard in the video saying, “I’m going to (expletive) kill you,” and “You are going to die tonight,” the affidavit said.
In additional videos, dated Jan. 15, 2024, Todacheeny appeared to be “sleeping” on a couch, and a man believed to be Becenti was “manipulating” her face and calling her names, the affidavit said.
Police noted Todacheeny had “bruising beneath her left eye” and her “right cheek also appeared swollen,” the affidavit said.
An autopsy from the Office of the Medical Investigator listed Todacheeny’s cause of death as “asphyxial injuries and blunt trauma,” with “homicide” listed as the manner of death, the affidavit said.
Police interviewed Becenti, who said he was not home at the time of Todacheeny’s death. He said he left Todacheeny’s residence around 1:27 a.m. and went to Walmart to purchase dog food, the affidavit said.
Becenti reported finding Todacheeny dead at 3:27 a.m., when he called dispatch from a phone at a nearby Speedway on East 20th Street, the affidavit said.
Walmart was closed during those hours, and when Becenti was told this, he reportedly told police, “I guess I didn’t” go there to buy dog food, and instead claimed “he went to the park,” according to the affidavit.
Becenti also reportedly told police that he and Todacheeny “were arguing” that night, the affidavit said.
Police used video footage from the Real-time Crime Center and from the nearby Speedway, on East 20th Street, to see where Becenti was at during various times throughout the early morning hours of Jan. 15, 2024, the affidavit said.
In those videos, police observed a “dark-colored stain on the left side of his shirt, below the chest area,” which could have been blood, the affidavit said.
Becenti is being held in the San Juan County Detention Center pending a motions hearing to determine whether a pretrial detention hold filed by the San Juan County District Attorney’s Office will be granted.
The motion lists prior convictions of DWI, as well as a failure to appear warrant in that case.
The motion also lists prior alleged instances of Becenti abusing Todacheeny. Those include a January 2020 charge for “punching and strangling” her, and a May 2020 charge for him “hitting” her.
The hearing has been set for 10 a.m. July 31 in 11th Judicial District Judge Stephen Wayne’s courtroom in Aztec.