In a tragic turn of events, 22-year-old Aaron Brock, a male resident of Dardanelle, Arkansas, lost his life in September 2016. His body, along with that of his friend, 22-year-old Beau DeWitt, was discovered on September 20, 2016, inside a crushed vehicle at the U-Pull-It Auto Salvage Yard in Russellville. The two men had been reported missing after they went to the salvage yard on the night of September 16 to get parts for a car.
It was family members of the victims who, in their desperate search, found the young men's bodies.
An investigation into their deaths revealed a grim sequence of events. Aaron Brock and Beau DeWitt had been shot to death before their bodies were placed inside a car that was then crushed. This gruesome discovery led law enforcement to focus their investigation on the manager of the salvage yard, Tyler Barefield, who was 36 years old at the time. Barefield himself had contacted the police to report 'suspicious activity' at his family's business. When officers arrived, they discovered blood dripping from one of the crushed cars.
Tyler Barefield was subsequently arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in connection with the deaths of Aaron Brock and Beau DeWitt. In November 2017, a jury found Barefield guilty of both counts. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole. He also received an additional sentence for firearms charges. Prosecutors argued that Barefield, frustrated with thefts at the salvage yard, had lain in wait and ambushed the two men. Surveillance footage from the night of the murders showed Barefield at the scrapyard with a rifle. Though his defense attorney argued he did not know the men were in the car when he crushed it, the jury ultimately convicted him of the premeditated killings.
