The conjoined murder trials of 51-year-old Melissa Fox-Beacom of New Florence and 20-year-old Matthew Jason Bates of Ligonier were to begin Monday in Westmoreland County Court, but Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio has rescheduled it to begin March 2nd. A jury of twelve plus four alternates was chosen last Tuesday.
Both defendants are charged with criminal homicide, first degree murder, conspiracy, and abuse of a corpse in the shooting death of 71-year-old Alice Robson, whose body was found buried beneath the back porch of her home along Furnace Lane in St. Clair Township in December of 2023.
A third defendant, 20-year-old Robert Patrick Jack of Washington, PA, will be tried in April. Fox-Beacom’s attorney claims Jack confessed to shooting Robson twice in the head and is now testifying against the other two defendants in order to avoid a life sentence. Police charge that Fox-Beacom coerced the two men to kill Robson because of a child custody dispute between mother and daughter.
