Prosecutors said the plot grew out of a fight over custody of the victim’s special-needs grandson.
GREENSBURG, Pa. — A Westmoreland County jury has convicted a Pennsylvania woman and a younger accomplice in the 2023 killing of the woman’s 71-year-old mother, a case prosecutors said began with years of anger and ended with the victim shot twice in her living room and hidden beneath her porch.
The verdict closed the first trial arising from the death of Alice Robson, whose disappearance alarmed police in St. Clair Township in December 2023 after a child who needed round-the-clock care was found home alone. Prosecutors said Robson’s daughter, Melissa Fox-Beacom, wanted control of her son and recruited Matthew Bates and Robert Jack to kill her mother. Jurors agreed, finding Fox-Beacom and Bates guilty on all counts after a week of testimony that traced the planning, the shooting and the effort to hide the body.
Robson was last seen Dec. 11, 2023, at her home on Furnace Lane in St. Clair Township, a rural community in Westmoreland County east of Pittsburgh. Two days later, according to investigators, a school principal contacted police after home health workers found Robson’s grandson alone without supervision. Detectives later said the boy needed 24-hour care and that Robson, his grandmother, had been acting as his legal guardian and daily caregiver. On Dec. 14, officers returned to the home with members of the Greensburg Fire Department’s bloodhound team. Lou Battistella, the team commander, testified that a dog named Lucy needed about six minutes to alert to an unfinished crawl space under the rear porch. “Lucy immediately put her nose down,” Battistella said, describing how the dog pressed toward the opening. Officers then looked inside and saw Robson’s legs, according to testimony, beneath debris and behind a panel that partly blocked the space.
An autopsy found Robson had been shot twice in the head. Detectives also found bloodstains in the living room, and prosecutors said the evidence matched testimony that she was killed while seated inside the house before her body was dragged outside and concealed. Fox-Beacom, 51, of New Florence, and Bates, 20, of Ligonier Township, were each charged with criminal homicide, conspiracy, solicitation and abuse of a corpse. Robert Jack, now 20 and formerly of Fairfield, was identified as the admitted gunman. By the time Fox-Beacom and Bates went to trial in February 2026, Jack had agreed to testify for the prosecution while his own case remained pending. In court, prosecutors said Fox-Beacom had turned her anger toward her mother into a plan, and they told jurors she used crude language when pressing for the killing. Defense lawyers argued that whatever Fox-Beacom may have said, the Commonwealth had the shooter and was stretching to pull other people into the crime.
Testimony at trial gave jurors a fuller picture of the family conflict behind the case. Prosecutors said Fox-Beacom resented Robson because Robson had custody of Fox-Beacom’s son, who had severe disabilities and needed constant attention. Assistant District Attorney Steven Reddy told jurors that Fox-Beacom repeatedly spoke about wanting her mother dead and that the hostility was not new. Another witness, Fox-Beacom’s former boyfriend, testified that she had described violent fantasies about killing Robson long before the shooting. Jack then took the stand and said that on the night of Dec. 11, he was brought to Robson’s house by Bates and was asked to kill the woman inside. According to prosecutors, Bates supplied the .22-caliber revolver and showed Jack how to use it. Jack testified that he went into the house and fired two shots into Robson’s head. He said the killing happened after Fox-Beacom and Bates pushed the idea and made clear whom they wanted dead.
Investigators said the plot did not end with the shooting. After Robson was killed, prosecutors told jurors, Bates and Jack moved her body into the crawl space beneath the porch and tried to clean the living room before leaving. The .22-caliber handgun later was recovered from Donegal Lake, where authorities said it had been thrown away after the crime. Those details helped prosecutors argue that the killing was planned and carried out with clear steps before and after the shooting. The state’s theory did not depend only on one witness. Jurors also heard about the timing of Robson’s disappearance, the condition of the scene, the blood found inside the home, the search that uncovered the body and the family dispute over custody. What remains unresolved is Jack’s final criminal liability. He admitted in court that he was the shooter and said he had been offered a deal that could send him to prison for decades in exchange for testimony. His case had not yet reached trial when the jury returned its verdict against the other two defendants.
The courtroom record showed how prosecutors built the case in layers rather than around a single dramatic moment. They first established Robson’s role as caretaker and legal guardian for her grandson, then showed that her disappearance was noticed because that child was found alone. They followed with physical evidence from the house and the crawl space, then testimony from witnesses who described Fox-Beacom’s anger toward her mother. Finally, they called Jack, whose account tied together the motive, the weapon and the people present that night. The defense tried to chip away at that account by stressing that Jack was the admitted killer and had a strong reason to help the prosecution. Fox-Beacom’s attorney told jurors the case was “already solved” because the Commonwealth had the gunman. But prosecutors said the law does not stop with the person who pulls the trigger. In their telling, Fox-Beacom sought the killing, Bates helped carry it out and Jack completed it.
Jurors deliberated for about two hours before finding Fox-Beacom and Bates guilty on all counts, including first-degree murder, criminal solicitation, criminal conspiracy and abuse of a corpse. Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli said the verdict delivered justice for Robson after a short but closely watched trial. The convictions carry the most serious consequence available under Pennsylvania law: a mandatory life sentence without parole on the first-degree murder counts. Sentencing for Fox-Beacom and Bates is scheduled for May 1. Jack, the third defendant, is scheduled for a separate trial on April 13. That means the legal process is not over even though the first jury has spoken. Prosecutors still must complete the case against the admitted shooter, and the court still must formally impose sentence on the two people jurors found responsible for planning and helping carry out Robson’s death.
The facts that emerged in court left a grim picture of a killing inside a family home, followed by days in which Robson’s absence was explained only when others noticed the vulnerable child she cared for had been left behind. The search scene itself became part of the case, with testimony about the bloodhound team, the hidden crawl space and the debris covering the body. Those details gave jurors a vivid account of the effort to conceal the crime. They also underscored the central accusation that this was not a sudden outburst but a coordinated act linked to a long-running custody dispute. By mid-February 2026, the case had moved from accusation to conviction for two of the three defendants. The next key dates are Jack’s April trial and the May sentencing hearing for Fox-Beacom and Bates.
Author note: Last updated March 15, 2026.