Insets, from left: Alice Robson (Stuart Funeral Home), Melissa Beacom, Robert Jack and Matthew Bates (Westmoreland County Prison). Background: Cops investigate Robson”s death at her home in St. Clair Township, Pennsylvania (WTAE/YouTube).
AÂ Pennsylvania woman and her accomplice allegedly convinced a teenager to fatally shoot her 71-year-old mother in the head over the custody of her special-needs son.
Melissa Fox-Beacom, 51, and Matthew Jason Bates, 20, are on trial for the death of Alice Robson in St. Clair Township Police Department, a Pittsburgh suburb. Both are charged with homicide, conspiracy and solicitation. Prosecutors allege Bates provided the trigger man, then 18-year-old Robert Patrick Jack, with the gun. According to a courtroom report from local CBS affiliate KDKA, prosecutors said during opening statements that Fox-Beacom told Jack she wanted her mother dead.
“We need you to put a fat cow down,” Fox-Beacom allegedly told Jack.
Robson was the full-time caregiver to Fox-Beacom’s special needs son who was in need of 24-hour care. Fox-Beacom and Robson, who was also the boy’s grandmother, were sparring over custody of the boy. Fox-Beacom allegedly had Bates, her daughter’s then-boyfriend, and Jack go to Robson’s home on Dec. 11, 2023, with orders to kill the victim.
Jack allegedly shot Robson twice in the head, and with the help of Bates hid her body in a crawl space underneath her home.
Bates is set to testify against his co-defendants. His case remains ongoing and prosecutors said he will still be held accountable for his actions.
Fox-Beacom’s attorney told jurors that his client was no murderer.
“The case is already solved,” defense attorney Timothy Dawson reportedly said during opening statements. “They have the killer. He’s the star witness for the Commonwealth. They’re trying to bring our clients in. They didn’t shoot Alice Robson.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, the Westmoreland County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release that the principal at a school in the local district called the St. Clair Township Police Department on Dec. 13, 2023, after home health care workers found the special needs boy at home alone and Robson nowhere to be found. Police contacted Westmoreland County detectives who later determined Robson had been missing for two days.
On Dec. 14, 2023, cops and the Greensburg Fire Department’s bloodhound team responded to Robson’s home on Furnace Lane in St. Clair Township to search for her. The dogs alerted authorities to an unfinished crawl space beneath the rear porch of the home. Cops found Robson’s body there, concealed by a panel and covered by debris, prosecutors said. She had been shot twice in the head.
Detectives searched the home, where they found bloodstains in the living room. They later learned Bates was at Robson’s home the night of she went missing. Bates told investigators Fox-Beacom brought him to the home to fix a car.
Fox-Beacom had asked Bates to kill Robson on “multiple occasions,” including that evening, he allegedly told detectives. Bates and Fox-Beacom left Robson’s home and he returned with Jack.
“Detectives were told the two entered the home, two shots were fired at Robson’s head, killing her,” the news release said.
Bates and Jack then moved her body under the crawl space and tried to clean up the mess in the house, prosecutors allege.
