End Time: Man Beats Girlfriend To Death With Dumbbell

A 22-year-old Arizona man turned himself in to police this week and admitted to beating his girlfriend, a 19-year-old college student, to death with a dumbbell in their apartment days earlier.

The victim has been identified as Arizona State University junior and Minnesota native Rebecca ‘Becky’ Kasper, whose decomposing body was discovered in the bathtub in the off-campus apartment she shared with Luis Soltero.

Court documents made public Wednesday state that Soltero, who is not believed to be a student, left a note next to the apparent murder weapon allegedly admitting to the brutal slaying.

According to a statement released by ASU, Kasper was a junior majoring in marketing.

‘ASU extends its sincere condolences to her family and friends at this difficult time,’ the statement read. ‘Counseling services for those who knew Kasper are being made available to the university community.’

In a Wednesday night press conference, the 19-year-old’s father, Dan Kasper, said his daughter ‘loved being a Sun Devil,’ referring to ASU’s athletic teams, and was on the Dean’s List.

Becky Kasper, who had two sisters, was a native of Saint Cloud, Minnesota. She graduated from Northfield Senior High School in 2011.

At around 10.30am Tuesday morning, the 22-year-old Soltero walked into a Tempe Police Department substation, handed an officer his ID card and Kasper’s Minnesota driver’s license and stated: ‘My girlfriend is there and she is dead, and I am not going to tell you anything more without an attorney,’ according to the court papers cited by Phoenix News Times.

Soltero was then hospitalized with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning after telling police he felt dizzy because he had spent 12 hours in his car with the engine running inside a storage space.

Meanwhile, police officers went to Soltero and Kasper’s home at 919 East Lemon Street in Tempe near the ASU campus, where the 22-year-old man said they would found his girlfriend’s body.

Responding officers forced open the door to the unit and found Kasper dead in the bathtub.

According to court documents, the 19-year-old’s body was covered with blankets and a yoga mat, with coffee grounds and baking soda sprinkled on top.

The young woman’s head was covered with a plastic bag, and her face was described as ‘unrecognizable’ from horrific blunt-force trauma.

‘It’s a gruesome scene,’ Tempe Police Sgt Mike Pooley told the station KTAR.
Court documents indicate that Becky Kasper’s wrists were handcuffed and her ankles were restrained, and there was blood splatter in the tub, on the walls and floor. The rest of the woman’s body was beginning to decay.

A blood-covered dumbbell, believed to be the murder weapon, was found on the bathroom floor.

Next to the dumbbell, police discovered an unsigned note wedged into the bathroom doors which read in part: ‘I did not treat her right. She deserved better but never accepted it. So I had to make the choice for her.’

The author of the rambling missive goes on to say: ‘She died on 420 not because of drugs, but because a sociopath talked and treated her nice…I don’t know where to go from here. Do I kill again, end it with myself or become invisible.’

Police say the note was penned in handwriting consistent with Soltero’s, according to the documents.

Neighbors told police that Soltero and Kasper had a stormy relationship and often could be heard screaming at one another.

The leasing office recently had to replace the front door in Soltero’s apartment after it was damaged during a fight between the couple.

The 19-year-old victim’s employer told officials she often came to work with bruises on her arms as if someone grabbed her, although she had never reported domestic abuse.

Investigators later learned that Soltero and Kasper had recently split up, but were still spending a lot of time together, documents state.

A search of Soltero’s apartment yielded a handwritten list of ‘pros and cons’ of ‘breaking up with Becky.’

On Tuesday afternoon, Soltero was transferred from the hospital to the Tempe Police Department, where he asked an officer: ‘Do they still have final meals on death row? I was wondering if I can order something from Texas,’ according to court documents.

Soltero was charged with first-degree premeditated murder and ordered held on $1million bond.