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Man Ordered To Trial For Murder Of Chelsea Bruck After 2014 Halloween Party

MONROW (WWJ) - A detective who worked the Chelsea Bruck case says the accused murderer told him he'd accidentally killed the 22-year-old woman during rough sex.

The testimony came shortly before a Monroe County District Court judge ordered 28-year-old Daniel Clay to trial on charges of open murder and concealing a body.

Chilling new details emerged during a preliminary hearing, more than two years after Bruck was disappeared following a massive Halloween Party in rural Frenchtown Township on Oct. 26, 2014.

Chelsea Bruck
Chelsea Bruck (Handout)

The Medical Examiner determined that Bruck died of blunt force trauma to the head, saying she numerous fractures to her face, jaw and neck, along with two chipped teeth.

However, taking the stand Wednesday afternoon, Det. Michael Preadnor testified that Daniel Clay told him he didn't mean to kill her.

"He described that while he and Chelsea were having sexual intercourse in the backseat of his vehicle, um, that the sex got rough, freaky," Preadnor told the court. "She asked him to choke her and slap her around a little bit; and while in the course of having sex and choking her she went limp."

Preadnor said Clay claimed he tried to perform CPR, but couldn't revive the young woman.

The Medical Examiner testified that Bruck's body — which was found in a field on Aptil 24, 2015 — was too decomposed to find evidence of strangulation, adding that it takes about two-and-a-half minutes of sustained pressure to actually choke someone to death.

[Prosecutor: DNA Links Man To Chelsea Bruck In Halloween Party Death]

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