A 51-year-old woman and her alleged accomplice are on trial in Pennsylvania accused of plotting to murder the defendant's mother amid a custody dispute over a child with special needs.

The defendant, Melissa Fox-Beacom, and Matthew Jason Bates, 20, is being prosecuted for murder, conspiracy, and criminal solicitation in the death of 71-year-old Alice Robson, which occurred in December 2023 in St. Clair Township, a suburb of Pittsburgh. According to the prosecution, Fox-Beacom allegedly convinced an 18-year-old, Robert Patrick Jack, to carry out the crime. During opening statements, prosecutors claimed that the defendant expressed a desire for his mother to die amid the family conflict. Robson was the primary caregiver for Fox-Beacom's son with special needs, who required 24-hour care. Mother and daughter were involved in a custody dispute. According to the indictment, on December 11, 2023, Fox-Beacom took Bates to Robson's home under the pretext of repairing a vehicle. Later, Bates returned with Jack.

The prosecution maintains that Jack shot the victim twice in the head inside the home. Then, with Bates's help, they hid the body in a cramped space under the back porch, covering it with paneling and debris.

Discovery of the Body

The disappearance was reported on December 13, when a school principal alerted police after learning that home care workers found the boy alone in the house with his grandmother absent.

The next day, officers and a K-9 unit from the Greensburg Fire Department searched the property on Furnace Lane. The tracking dogs led investigators to the space under the porch, where they found Robson's body with two gunshot wounds to the head.

Detectives also found bloodstains in the living room.

Key Testimony

Bates, whose trial is ongoing, is scheduled to testify against his co-defendants. According to prosecutors, the young man claimed that Fox-Beacom had repeatedly asked him to kill his mother.

Fox-Beacom's defense argued before the jury that their client did not shoot the victim and that the current shooter has already been identified.

The trial continues as the prosecution attempts to prove that the murder was the result of a conspiracy motivated by family conflict.