Oregon Man's Corpse With Skull Fractures Found Inside Refrigerator; 3 Men Arrested

Three men have been arrested after police found the body of a man with skull fractures inside a refrigerator in an Oregon apartment.

Medford police responded to an assault report in an apartment on Royal Avenue at around 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 25. Officers arrived at the scene and found one of the male suspects outside the residence. The man ran back inside to avoid any contact with the officers.

"After officers phoned the suspect, he exited and was detained without further incident," Medford Police Department said in a statement Saturday. "Officers located a deceased male inside the apartment, who appears to have suffered homicidal violence."

The body of the victim, Aaron Richard Stitt, 24, was kept "inside of a closed refrigerator." Police then identified the suspect who ran inside the apartment as Brycen Scofield, 20.

According to police, the suspects tried to hide the victim's body and clean up the crime scene, where firearms were also recovered.

Stitt's body was sent for an autopsy. The Jackson County Medical Examiner's Office said the skull fractures on the victim were consistent with being "struck by a hammer."

The apartment where the body was found is listed under Scofield's name, court documents said as per The Mail Tribune. Besides Scofield, two other suspects, Austin McLeod, 25, and Dylan McLeod, 22, have been arrested in connection with Stitt's death.

Investigators said the three men gave conflicting statements. However, all of them claimed they invited Stitt to Scofield's apartment and planned to rob him. One of the suspects told officers Stitt stole from him in the past.

The three men have been accused of using "a hammer and/or wrench" to strike Stitt, which eventually killed him, reported AP News. The suspects then tried to remove and destroy evidence described as "blood, bloody clothing and weapons" as per the outlet.

The three suspects have been charged with felony counts of second-degree murder, second-degree abuse of a corpse, unlawful use of a weapon, first-degree robbery and a misdemeanor charge of tampering with physical evidence. They are currently being held in the Jackson County Jail without bail.

Oregon State Police Crime Lab joined the investigation alongside Medford Police.