Share and Follow
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).
In Pennsylvania, a woman and her alleged accomplice have been accused of persuading a teenager to execute her 71-year-old mother over a custody dispute involving her son, who requires special needs care.
Melissa Fox-Beacom, aged 51, and 20-year-old Matthew Jason Bates are currently facing trial for the murder of Alice Robson in St. Clair Township, located near Pittsburgh. Both are charged with homicide, conspiracy, and solicitation. Prosecutors claim Bates supplied the weapon to Robert Patrick Jack, who was 18 at the time of the incident. As reported by KDKA, a local CBS outlet, the prosecution revealed in their opening remarks that Fox-Beacom expressed her desire for her mother’s death to Jack.
Allegedly, Fox-Beacom instructed Jack with the words, “We need you to put a fat cow down.”
Robson was the primary caregiver for Fox-Beacom’s son, who required continuous attention due to his special needs. The custody battle over the child had strained the relationship between Fox-Beacom and Robson, the boy’s grandmother. It is claimed that Fox-Beacom orchestrated the plan with Bates, her daughter’s boyfriend at the time, to visit Robson’s residence on December 11, 2023, with the intention of committing murder.
Jack is accused of shooting Robson twice in the head, afterward concealing her body with Bates’ assistance in a crawl space beneath 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.