DENVER — A Jefferson County couple face multiple felony charges after they lived for almost two years with the corpse of a man with whom they had been involved in a three-way relationship.

The gruesome living arrangement was discovered in early July after the brother of 64-year-old James Frances O’Neill called the Lakewood Police Department and requested a welfare check, according to a July 11 police arrest affidavit. During the investigation, police determined that the roommates spent more than $17,000 with O’Neill’s debit card and that someone had forged his signature on a car title after O’Neill died in their apartment in December 2023, according to the affidavit.

The body had stayed in the apartment under a deflated air mattress since late December 2023 until police served a search warrant on July 3. The couple confessed to keeping the body inside and not reporting the death to police, in part because they were spending O’Neill’s social security money, the affidavit stated.

James Agnew, 55, and Suzanne Agnew, 57, each face one count of tampering with a deceased body, abuse of a corpse, one count of theft between $5,000 and $20,000 and one count of unauthorized use of a financial device, court records show. The arrest was first reported by 9News.

The death investigation began after O’Neill’s brother called the Lakewood police to ask for a welfare check in June 2025 after not hearing from him since 2021.

When police went to the apartment in the 3400 block of South Ammon Street, a man met them outside, implied that he was O’Neill and told police that he did not wish to have contact with his family.

However, police showed body camera footage of that interaction to O’Neill’s brother, who said the man was not his sibling, the affidavit said.

O’Neill’s brother convinced the couple to provide him with O’Neill’s checking account number and social security number by telling them that O’Neill was in line for an inheritance. He then checked the account and saw that multiple transactions had taken place monthly and that the account was overdrawn.

Lakewood police found 7-11 video footage that showed James Agnew shopping with O’Neill’s debit card, and they researched Colorado Department of Motor Vehicle records and found a title to O’Neill’s car with a signature that did not resemble his previous signature on titles. They also discovered a recording of a phone call from Dec. 2, 2023, in which O’Neill called Jefferson County dispatch to report that his roommate was threatening him, but he declined to have officers respond, the affidavit said.

Lakewood police agents served a search warrant at the home on July 3, and Suzanne Agnew told them they would find O’Neill’s body in the apartment.

The roommate told police that the three of them had been in a relationship for years and that O’Neill slept on a mattress on the floor next to the other couple’s bed. One morning between Dec. 10 and Dec. 12, 2023, they woke to find O’Neill deceased on the air mattress, the affidavit stated.

“Suzanne claimed that James Agnew suggested they call the police, but she did not want him to do that because she was not ready to ‘give up’ Jim,” the affidavit stated. “Suzanne told me more than once that she knew it was wrong and that she should have reported his death.”

Suzanne Agnew told police that she did not believe James Agnew had harmed O’Neill, and James Agnew told police that on the night of O’Neill’s death, “there probably was drug use going on.”

The couple owned eight Chihuahuas so the Agnews covered O’Neill’s body with a deflated air mattress to keep them away, the affidavit stated.

James Agnew admitted that O’Neill’s Social Security income, “was definitely a consideration in deciding whether or not to report his death,” the affidavit stated.

Suzanne Agnew is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 27, and James Agnew is set to appear on Sept. 2.

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