GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Grand Rapids man already charged with mutilating a woman’s body has been officially charged with murder.

Jared Chance, 29, was arraigned on open murder and three counts of tampering with evidence in 61st District Court in Grand Rapids Friday.

Chance was already charged with mutilation of a dead body and concealing the death of 31-year-old Ashley Young, of Oshtemo Township. He faces life in prison if convicted.

His defense attorney, Andrew Rodenhouse, told 24 Hour News 8 Friday that Chance pleaded not guilty.

Young, 31 was last seen with Jared Chance around 1:30 a.m. Nov. 29 at Miss Tracy’s Liquor Store on Franklin Street near Neland Avenue SE in Grand Rapids, according to court documents obtained Thursday. That’s about a block from Chance’s apartment.

On Dec. 2, the couple living downstairs from Chance noticed an unusual smell coming from the basement of the house on Franklin near Dolbee Avenue SE. When one of them went to check it out, he found a tarp leaking blood.

In the tarp, officers found a torso. The body was missing both arms, both legs and the head, the court documents stated.

Arms and legs — which DNA testing later confirmed were Young’s — were found in a cardboard box inside the house on a stairwell landing leading down from Chance’s apartment.

An autopsy found “Young did not die of an overdose, or of any natural causes,” the court documents said, and that the dismemberment happened after her death. But the documents also say that without her head, the medical examiner can’t determine the exact cause of death. For now, it has been labeled a “homicide by unspecified means.” 

Young’s hands and feet have also not been found. 

Chance’s parents, James and Barbara Chance, are each charged with perjury and being accessories after the fact in the case.