EATON COUNTY, Mich. (TCD) — A 63-year-old woman who had to be extradited from Italy was convicted this week of killing her husband, burning his body, and leaving the remains in a blueberry patch over 20 years ago.
The Lansing State Journal reports a jury found Beverly McCallum guilty of second-degree murder and disinterment and mutilation of a body in connection with her husband Roberto Caraballo’s death. She could face up to life in prison. Court records indicate McCallum was originally charged with first-degree premeditated murder.
McCallum is the third person to be convicted for killing Caraballo. McCallum’s daughter, Dineane Ducharme, was found guilty in December 2021 of first-degree premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and disinterment and mutilation of a dead body, according to WLNS-TV. She is serving life in prison.
Ducharme’s friend Christopher McMillan entered a guilty plea to murder in 2019. He will spend between 15 to 40 years in prison.
According to the Lansing State Journal, McMillan testified at McCallum’s trial and said the three of them planned Caraballo’s killing a few days before it happened in May 2002. The Lansing State Journal reports a detective testified at a pretrial hearing that McCallum reportedly pushed Caraballo down the stairs, then she, McMillan, and Ducharme attacked him with a hammer. Caraballo survived the hammer attack, so McCallum put a plastic bag over his head until he died. Then, the three put Caraballo’s body in a metal footlocker and transported his remains to a blueberry field, where they lit the container on fire.
Caraballo’s remains were found May 8, 2002, but he could not be positively identified until 2015 when Ducharme reached out to police and reported the incident.
McCallum left the country not long after Caraballo’s death and eventually remarried. She was arrested in Rome, Italy, in February 2020, and was extradited back to the United States in July 2022.
Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd called McCallum the “boss” of the plan to kill Caraballo, and said, “Robert being around was cramping her lifestyle.”
Lloyd said, “It’s like a made-for-TV movie, is what it seemed like, especially as she took the stand and tried to give an explanation that didn’t make any sense at all.”
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