‘We need you to put a fat cow down’: Woman conspired with 2 men to kill her 71-year-old mother

A Pennsylvania woman and an alleged accomplice are on trial after prosecutors say they persuaded a teenager to kill her 71-year-old mother during a dispute over custody of her special-needs son.

Melissa Fox-Beacom, 51, and Matthew Jason Bates, 20, face charges of homicide, conspiracy, and solicitation in connection with the death of Alice Robson in St. Clair Township, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Prosecutors allege Bates supplied the gun to the shooter, then 18-year-old Robert Patrick Jack, and that Fox-Beacom told Jack she wanted her mother dead.

According to reporting from CBS affiliate KDKA, prosecutors said in opening statements that Fox-Beacom urged Jack to carry out the killing. Robson had been the full-time caregiver for Fox-Beacom’s son, who requires round-the-clock care. Prosecutors say tensions between Fox-Beacom and Robson, the boy’s grandmother, had escalated over custody.

Authorities allege that on Dec. 11, 2023, Fox-Beacom directed Bates, who was dating her daughter at the time, and Jack to go to Robson’s home with instructions to kill her. Jack is accused of shooting Robson, after which he and Bates allegedly concealed her body in a crawl space beneath the house.

Bates is expected to testify against Fox-Beacom and Jack. Prosecutors have said that although he is cooperating, he will still be held accountable for his role.

Fox-Beacom’s attorney argued to jurors that his client did not commit the killing. Defense attorney Timothy Dawson said during opening statements that the actual shooter had already been identified and that prosecutors were attempting to tie his client to the crime despite a lack of direct involvement.

According to a previous news release from the Westmoreland County Prosecutor’s Office, the case began when a school principal contacted police on Dec. 13, 2023, after home health workers found the special-needs child alone at Robson’s home and she could not be located. Detectives determined Robson had been missing for two days.

On Dec. 14, officers and a Greensburg Fire Department bloodhound team searched the property on Furnace Lane. The dogs alerted authorities to a crawl space beneath the rear porch, where Robson’s body was discovered concealed behind a panel and covered with debris. Investigators also found bloodstains inside the home.

Detectives later learned that Bates had been at the home the night Robson disappeared. He initially told investigators that Fox-Beacom brought him there to fix a car. Bates allegedly told detectives that Fox-Beacom had asked him on multiple occasions, including that night, to kill her mother. After leaving the house, Bates reportedly returned with Jack.

Prosecutors allege that after the shooting, Bates and Jack moved Robson’s body into the crawl space and attempted to clean the scene. The trial is ongoing.

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