Eric Beecroft, a 75-year-old retired painter, was brutally killed last Saturday evening evening in an alleged attack by his roommate at their north-end Barrie home.
Sonny Conrad Stephens, 46, has been charged with second-degree murder after Beecroft was found dead at 317 Grove St. E., near Duckworth Street, on July 13.
None of the allegations have been tested in court.
Stephens had been scheduled to be in court today from jail, but he had not appeared by early Thursday afternoon.
Following their investigation, Barrie police allege Stephens had been involved in an altercation with Beecroft in the backyard of the home just after 10:30 p.m. Police say Stephens fled the scene prior to officers arriving at the home.
Police located Beecroft, who was unconscious with injuries to his head and face. Despite the life-saving efforts of police and paramedics, the elderly man died from his injuries.
Shortly after 6 a.m. on Sunday, Stephens was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
On Wednesday afternoon, another roommate at the house, a man who is around the same age as Beecroft, sat in a chair in his living room. He spoke in a quiet and slow manner, carefully choosing his words about his friend Beecroft during an interview with BarrieToday.
A thin oxygen hose trailed away behind him.
“He was just a quiet guy,” he said of Beecroft, who had been living there for around six years.
The roommate described him as “a good guy” who was fairly physically fit. He liked to go swimming at a local recreation complex.
“He used to swim a lot," said the roommate.
Beecroft was also an avid reader.
“He went to the library and would bring back books, read them in a week, and go back and get more,” added the roommate, noting he and Beecroft were pretty good friends.
He said they got along fine living together at the house on Grove Street East.
“Eric liked to garden and used to borrow my tools and things to do some trimming in the yard,” the man said.
Beecroft tended a small garden in the backyard.
Along with the two older men and Stephens, another much younger roommate also shared the house. He is around 30 years old and has been reluctant to speak much about this past weekend's tragic events.
The younger roommate told BarrieToday on Sunday morning that he witnessed Stephens beating Beecroft with his hands and feet. He then called the police. The man described the scene as “an ugly thing to witness” and “disgusting.”
Both roommates say they witnessed the deadly attack on Beecroft.
The older man said he was in his bedroom at the time of the killing, “sitting on the edge of my bed about to go to sleep,” when Stephens entered his room without knocking. The man said Stephens had never done that before. He says he told Stephens to get out of his room.
The roommate claims Stephens then left his room, proceeded downstairs to the main floor and then out onto the backyard patio where he allegedly attacked and killed Beecroft.
The roommate said he had called Beecroft immediately after he told Stephens to get out of his room, as he was concerned about what had transpired. When Beecroft answered the call, the roommate says he heard the struggle, along with him shouting for him to help him, while on the line.
When he went downstairs and went to the backyard through the kitchen patio door, it was too late. He said Beecroft was lying on the ground adjacent to the step beside a patio table and chairs. The elderly man was covered in blood.
Beecroft's roommate said he held his battered friend's head as paramedics arrived and tried to save him.
He acknowledged he’s “pretty traumatized about the whole thing. It could have been me he killed."
Both surviving roommates said they always tried to keep their distance from Stephens, who had been living with them for about six months, as he was prone to “snap,” according to the older man. “It was like a switch."
Unfortunately, not much else is known about Beecroft at this time. He did not have a social-media presence, as his friend and roommate said he was against putting anything on the internet.
In the bottom corner of the large living-room window at the front of their house, a placard facing the street proclaims “hate has no home here.”
