A detective’s renewed review of interviews, forensic findings and video evidence preceded charges more than two years after Kelsie Todacheeny’s death.
FARMINGTON, N.M. — For more than two years, the death of Kelsie Todacheeny remained publicly unresolved after Farmington police found the 33-year-old dead inside an East 20th Street home and described the case only as a suspicious death. The case changed in July 2026, after a detective revisited the file and police arrested Todacheeny’s longtime boyfriend.
Melvin Becenti, 34, now faces charges of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence. The arrest warrant was issued July 1 and served July 16, according to local reporting and court records. The delayed arrest is central to the case’s development: an affidavit says the original lead investigator retired in late 2025, after which the investigation was reassigned and a new detective reviewed earlier interviews, physical evidence, surveillance footage and forensic findings before asking a judge for a warrant.
That review returned investigators to the hours before Todacheeny was found dead on Jan. 15, 2024. Police were called at about 3:27 a.m. after Becenti contacted emergency dispatch from a nearby Speedway convenience store. He reported that he had returned to the home and found Todacheeny unresponsive, according to the affidavit. Officers arrived and confirmed her death. Detectives reported seeing what appeared to be blood near her body and elsewhere in the residence, then secured the scene while seeking authority to search it.
At the time, authorities did not announce an arrest. Farmington police publicly said they were examining the circumstances surrounding the death, and the case remained among the area’s unresolved homicides. The Office of the Medical Investigator later concluded that Todacheeny died from asphyxial injuries and blunt trauma and classified the death as a homicide. Acute ethanol intoxication was listed as another significant condition contributing to her death, according to the arrest affidavit. The medical finding established that another person’s actions caused the death, but it did not identify a killer or determine criminal guilt.
The 2026 warrant affidavit shows how investigators later assembled evidence that they say pointed toward Becenti. Police wrote that he was the last person known to detectives to have seen Todacheeny alive. They also alleged that his account of his movements changed repeatedly. Becenti initially said he left the residence around 1:27 a.m. to buy dog food at Walmart. Investigators determined Walmart was closed during that period. When confronted with that information, he allegedly said, “I guess I didn’t,” and offered a different explanation, saying he had gone to a park.
Detectives said the disputed Walmart trip was only one inconsistency. According to court records, Becenti allegedly gave differing accounts about whether he and Todacheeny had argued, how long he had been away, when he last saw her alive and what he did when he returned. Police said he eventually acknowledged that the couple had been arguing that night. Investigators also alleged that he moved Todacheeny’s body after finding her, while the criminal complaint says he cleaned blood and moved bedding before contacting authorities. Prosecutors charged him with evidence tampering based on those alleged actions.
The renewed review also put earlier digital evidence into the larger timeline. A friend of Todacheeny, Denise Begaye, told investigators she had communicated with Todacheeny by phone and video call on Jan. 14, the day before police found her dead. Begaye later provided screenshots and videos, according to the affidavit. Investigators said Todacheeny appeared in the recordings with bruising beneath one eye, swelling and another apparent facial injury. In one recording, a man police identified as Becenti allegedly threatened Todacheeny and said, “You are going to die tonight.”
Another recording cited by investigators was dated Jan. 15. Todacheeny appeared to be asleep on a couch while a man believed to be Becenti manipulated her face and called her names, the affidavit says. Police later documented bruising beneath her left eye and swelling to her right cheek. Those observations were included alongside the autopsy findings when investigators sought the warrant. The recordings are significant because they place alleged threats and visible injuries close in time to Todacheeny’s death, though their meaning and admissibility ultimately are matters for the court.
Surveillance evidence gave investigators a separate way to examine Becenti’s account. Police said footage from Farmington’s Real-time Crime Center and from the Speedway convenience store helped establish his whereabouts during portions of the early morning. The Speedway footage allegedly showed Becenti in a white T-shirt with a dark-colored stain below the chest. Investigators said the stain could have been blood. Public reporting reviewed for this article does not establish that testing identified the substance, so the footage is best understood as one item in the state’s broader circumstantial case rather than proof by itself.
The reworked case also drew on the couple’s prior history. The Tri-City Record reported that Becenti told police the pair had an “alcohol-fueled” history of domestic abuse. A prosecution motion seeking pretrial detention cited earlier alleged incidents involving Todacheeny, including a January 2020 accusation that Becenti punched and strangled her and a May 2020 allegation that he hit her. Other local court reporting from 2024 documented earlier police contacts involving both members of the couple. Those records provide context for investigators, but earlier accusations cannot substitute for proof of the current murder charge.
By July 2026, detectives had moved from reviewing an old suspicious-death file to asking a court to authorize Becenti’s arrest. The complaint charged second-degree murder, described in local reporting as a second-degree felony, and tampering with evidence, described as a third-degree felony. Becenti was arrested July 16 and held in the San Juan County Detention Center while prosecutors sought a pretrial detention order. The detention motion also cited prior DWI convictions and a failure-to-appear warrant, according to the Tri-City Record.
The case illustrates why a long gap between a death and an arrest does not necessarily mean an investigation was inactive or abandoned. In this case, the affidavit says a personnel change led to a fresh review of evidence already gathered, including interviews, videos and forensic material. The new detective’s role does not itself validate the state’s conclusions, but it explains the timing of the 2026 charging decision after Todacheeny’s death had remained unresolved since January 2024.
The evidentiary record described publicly still has limits. The available reports do not identify an eyewitness who says they saw Todacheeny killed, and they do not describe a confession by Becenti. They also do not provide a publicly confirmed forensic match for the dark stain shown in surveillance footage. Instead, prosecutors appear to be relying on the combined force of alleged threats, injuries documented before and after Todacheeny’s death, the autopsy, Becenti’s reported statements, surveillance video and allegations that evidence inside the home was moved or cleaned.
A hearing on prosecutors’ request to detain Becenti before trial had been scheduled for July 31 in the courtroom of 11th Judicial District Judge Stephen Wayne in Aztec. Searches of publicly accessible reporting through Aug. 23 did not locate a reliable account establishing the result of that hearing. Becenti therefore should not be described as convicted or as having had the allegations proved against him. The two criminal charges remain allegations, and the next confirmed development will come through the court record or a subsequent official announcement.
Until that happens, the most recent verified change in the case is the July arrest itself, more than two years after Todacheeny’s death. That timing makes the renewed investigative review — not merely the underlying allegations — the defining development in the story.
Author note: Last updated August 23, 2026.