Modern relationships can be complex. You’ve got your polycules, your open marriages, and your “it’s complicated”s that really, truly are—but rarely do they escalate to a scenario where the official charges include not just emotional confusion, but corpse abuse and theft as well. Yet, in Lakewood, Colorado, the line between unconventional living and outright criminal intrigue just got inescapably blurred.

“Three’s Company” This Is Not

According to KDVR’s report, James Agnew and Suzanne Agnew, who described their living situation as an “intimate” three-way relationship with James “Jim” O’Neill, now face charges of abuse of a corpse, theft, and tampering with a deceased human body. O’Neill’s family, after not hearing from him since 2019 (save a brief phone call in 2021), requested a welfare check in June 2025, which set this whole strange saga in motion.

KDVR details how, when officers arrived at the residence on South Ammons Street, James Agnew reportedly tried to pass himself off as O’Neill, only identifying himself as “James” and refusing contact with the real O’Neill’s relatives. The ruse unraveled quickly once O’Neill’s family informed police that Agnew was not, in fact, their missing kin. Upon officers’ return, James Agnew and Suzanne Agnew offered progressively less plausible accounts, first insisting O’Neill had never lived there, then claiming he’d stayed for a few months before moving out.

The Odder Mechanics of Covering Up

The facts outlined in both KDVR and NewsNation’s coverage make it clear that O’Neill didn’t just move out—he never left at all. His social security account, which received $967 monthly deposits, was regularly accessed, with withdrawals continuing as late as June 2025. NewsNation reports that police, aided by O’Neill’s brother who obtained banking records, traced ATM surveillance footage showing someone matching James Agnew’s description making those withdrawals.

The deepening strangeness doesn’t end there. The Lakewood police affidavit, as reviewed by both outlets, reveals that after O’Neill’s body remained unattended in the home for about a week, Suzanne Agnew and James Agnew decided to cover it with an air mattress. This grim decision came after, as Suzanne told officers, some of her eight chihuahuas began “chewing” on O’Neill’s remains. Rarely do we encounter a detail that so perfectly straddles the line between the macabre and the morbidly absurd—yet it’s all there in the police filings as cited by KDVR.

A phone call O’Neill made on December 3, 2023, reporting to Jeffcom dispatch that he feared threats from his roommate, brings context to his final days. NewsNation indicates Suzanne later told investigators she was present during this call, and that she and O’Neill had considered moving out due to James Agnew’s “erratic” behavior. Roughly a week or two later, after the trio had, in Suzanne’s account, all gone to sleep, she awoke to find O’Neill dead.

Suzanne claimed to police that James Agnew initially suggested contacting authorities, but that she was “not ready to ‘give up’ Jim,” per the police affidavit described in both KDVR and NewsNation. Suzanne stated there had been no fight and that she believed O’Neill died from a medical issue; James Agnew, meanwhile, suggested drug use may have been involved on the night of O’Neill’s death.

When Motives Start to Show

On the question of why they waited so long to report O’Neill’s death, KDVR describes how James Agnew admitted to officers that O’Neill’s social security benefits “were definitely a consideration” in that decision. Suzanne’s comments reflected a more emotional angle, again reiterating she wasn’t ready to let go.

Whatever their motives, the charges now pending—corpse abuse, tampering with a deceased body, theft, unauthorized use of a financial transaction device—reflect a situation that quickly slid beyond any reasonable explanation. According to court records, KDVR notes that Suzanne Agnew has a preliminary hearing scheduled for late August, with James Agnew’s arraignment slated for September.

A Postscript of Pure Peculiarity

The intersection of the tragic and the bizarre rarely achieves such a disconcerting balance. All the elements detailed by KDVR and NewsNation—the air mattress, the eight chihuahuas, the year-long masquerade, and the shifting stories—add up to a tableau that’s both sad and strangely unforgettable.

You have to wonder, what combination of denial, fear, and opportunism propels people to maintain a secret like this for so long? Will the chihuahuas recover from their unfortunate involvement? And at what point does the “awkward roommate” threshold tip into the territory of legend? On South Ammons Street, it seems the answer arrives with an air mattress, three uneasy lovers, and a most unfortunate canine minor chorus.