Investigators say Melvin Becenti changed his account after claiming he left Kelsie Todacheeny’s home to buy dog food at a closed Walmart.

FARMINGTON, N.M. — A Farmington man is facing second-degree murder and evidence-tampering charges after investigators said the story he gave police about leaving his longtime girlfriend’s home to buy dog food at Walmart did not match store hours, surveillance video or other evidence gathered in the case.

Melvin Becenti, 34, was arrested July 16 in connection with the Jan. 15, 2024, death of 33-year-old Kelsie Todacheeny. Farmington police had initially described Todacheeny’s death as suspicious. More than two years later, an arrest warrant affidavit laid out a case built in part around what detectives described as changing statements from Becenti about where he went, how long he was gone and what happened before he called for help.

The investigation began about 3:27 a.m. when Becenti called emergency dispatch from a nearby Speedway convenience store, according to the affidavit. He reported that he had returned to the East 20th Street home and found Todacheeny dead. Police said he also told dispatch that she was purple and possibly not breathing. Officers arrived minutes later and confirmed she was dead. Investigators reported seeing what appeared to be blood near her body and elsewhere inside the residence, then secured the home while they sought a search warrant.

Becenti told investigators he had left around 1:27 a.m. and gone to Walmart to buy dog food, according to court records. That account quickly became a focal point. Police determined the store was closed during the period he said he was shopping. When officers confronted him with that problem, he allegedly responded, “I guess I didn’t,” and then said he had gone to a park instead. Investigators later alleged that his description of the night shifted on several other points, including whether he and Todacheeny had argued, when he had last seen her alive and what he did after finding her.

Those inconsistencies became more significant when police compared them with surveillance footage. Investigators said video from the city’s Real-time Crime Center and the Speedway helped them track Becenti’s movements during the early morning hours. Footage from the convenience store allegedly showed him wearing a white T-shirt with a dark-colored stain below the chest. Detectives wrote that the stain could have been blood, although the publicly available accounts do not establish that laboratory testing confirmed what the stain was. The distinction matters because the murder charge is an allegation, not a finding of guilt.

Police also focused on what happened inside the home before the 911 call. According to a criminal complaint, investigators alleged Becenti moved Todacheeny’s body, cleaned up blood and moved bedding before authorities were contacted. Prosecutors say those actions form the basis of a separate tampering-with-evidence charge. The affidavit also says Becenti gave inconsistent descriptions of the position of Todacheeny’s body. Becenti has not been convicted of either charge, and the state would have to prove its allegations in court.

A second branch of the investigation came from a friend who had been in contact with Todacheeny shortly before her death. Court records say the friend, Denise Begaye, spoke with Todacheeny by phone and video call on Jan. 14 and later provided detectives with screenshots and videos. According to the affidavit, Todacheeny appeared in the recordings with a black eye and other facial injuries. A man identified by investigators as Becenti could be heard insulting her and making threats, including, “You are going to die tonight.” Another recording was described as showing Todacheeny apparently asleep on a couch while a man believed to be Becenti manipulated her face and called her names.

Those recordings did not stand alone. Officers said Todacheeny had bruising beneath her left eye and swelling to her right cheek when they examined her after her death. The Office of the Medical Investigator later listed her cause of death as asphyxial injuries and blunt trauma and classified the manner of death as homicide. The affidavit also identified acute ethanol intoxication as another significant condition contributing to the death. A medical ruling of homicide means the death resulted from the actions of another person; it does not determine who is criminally responsible.

The couple’s history was also included in the detention request filed by prosecutors after Becenti’s arrest. The Tri-City Record reported that Becenti described the pair’s domestic problems to police as “alcohol-fueled.” The detention motion cited earlier alleged incidents in which Becenti was accused of punching and strangling Todacheeny in January 2020 and hitting her in May 2020. Earlier records also documented police responses involving the couple. Those incidents are part of the background described in court filings, but they do not by themselves prove the murder allegation now before the court.

For more than two years after Todacheeny’s death, no one was publicly charged. Farmington police said in January 2024 that they were treating the death as suspicious while awaiting medical and investigative findings. Later local reporting continued to list Todacheeny’s death among the area’s unresolved homicides. According to the 2026 affidavit, the original lead investigator retired in late 2025 and the case was reassigned. A new detective then reviewed earlier interviews, physical evidence, surveillance footage and forensic findings before seeking an arrest warrant.

That review produced a criminal complaint filed July 1, 2026, in San Juan County Magistrate Court. An arrest warrant was issued the same day and served July 16. Becenti was booked into the San Juan County Detention Center, according to local reports. Prosecutors sought to keep him in custody before trial, citing the murder and tampering charges as well as prior convictions and an earlier failure-to-appear warrant described in their detention filing.

The state’s theory, as presented in the affidavit, depends not on a single piece of evidence but on how several pieces fit together: Becenti was allegedly the last person known to have seen Todacheeny alive; a friend supplied recordings that police say captured injuries and threats; the autopsy documented a violent death; surveillance footage tracked Becenti near the time he called 911; and investigators say his explanation about Walmart was contradicted by the fact that the store was closed. Police also say he later acknowledged that he and Todacheeny had been arguing that night.

Important questions remain for court. Public reports reviewed for this story do not identify a confession, an eyewitness to the killing or a publicly released forensic result tying the stain seen on Becenti’s shirt to Todacheeny. They also do not establish the outcome of the motions hearing that had been scheduled for July 31 before 11th Judicial District Judge Stephen Wayne in Aztec. Those gaps do not erase the evidence described in the affidavit, but they mark the difference between an investigative theory and facts proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

The latest publicly accessible reporting reviewed for this article, Becenti faces one count of second-degree murder and one count of tampering with evidence in Todacheeny’s death. The charges remain allegations. The July reports said he was being held pending a hearing on prosecutors’ request for pretrial detention, but later public reporting confirming the result of that hearing was not located. The criminal case therefore remains the forum in which prosecutors must prove their account and the defense may challenge the evidence and the alleged inconsistencies attributed to Becenti.

Author note: Last updated August 23, 2026.