Alice Robson had been missing for more than two days in December 2023 when a dog from the Greensburg Bloodhound Team found her body stuffed in a crawl space underneath a porch at her St. Clair home.
It took Lucy, the dog, 6 minutes to locate the 71-year-old woman’s body, said team commander Lou Battistella. The crawl space had a piece of wood leaning against it, partially blocking it from view.
“Lucy immediately put her nose down like she wanted into that opening,” Battistella testified Monday. “That tells me there’s some reason the dog wants to go in there.”
Authorities said they saw Robson’s legs when they peered inside.
Testimony started Monday against two people accused in Robson’s December 2023 death — her daughter, Melissa Fox-Beacom, 51, of New Florence, and Matthew Jason Bates, 20, of Ligonier Township. Bates was dating Fox-Beacom’s daughter at the time.
Both defendants are charged with homicide, conspiracy, solicitation and abuse of a corpse.
Prosecutors contend a third suspect — Robert Jack, 20, formerly of Fairfield — fired two fatal shots in the top of Robson’s head at the request of Fox-Beacom, who had animosity towards her mother. Authorities say Fox-Beacom asked Bates to provide the .22-caliber handgun used in the crime.
Jack is expected to testify for the prosecution against Fox-Beacom and Bates.
Assistant District Attorney Steven Reddy said Fox-Beacom would tell anyone who would listen how much she despised her mother and often wished her dead. Robson was the legal guardian and caretaker for Fox-Beacom’s disabled son.
Jack, who was a friend of Bates, was summoned to Robson’s Furnace Lane home on Dec. 11, 2023, by Bates and Fox-Beacom who asked a sinister favor, Reddy said in his opening statements to jurors.
“(Jack is) going to take that stand and tell all of you what he did that night,” Reddy said, adding that his testimony doesn’t mean Jack will be escaping punishment for his role in the fatal shooting. “(He’s) going to spend decades paying for taking Alice’s life, make no mistake about it.”
Jack’s case is still pending. It’s unclear if he has an agreement with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony.
Defense attorneys Tim Dawson, representing Fox-Beacom, and Adam Gorzelsky, representing Bates, agreed in their opening statements that it’ll be clear from testimony neither of their clients shot Robson. Instead, jurors will be tasked with determining what level of responsibility Fox-Beacom and Bates have in the slaying, they said.
It’s no secret how Fox-Beacom felt about her mother, Dawson said.
“You don’t have to like her, this isn’t a popularity contest … but you’re not judging her on that,” Dawson told jurors. “Talking about killing someone and actually killing someone, there’s a big difference.”
Gorzelsky urged jurors to think about the mindset of Bates, who was 18 at the time of Robson’s death. He found himself in a high-pressure situation and didn’t know how to get out of it, Gorzelsky said.
“He had no idea what to do next,” Gorzelsky said.
Bates wore a plaid button down shirt and khakis. Fox-Beacom wore a black pantsuit and glasses with a silver cross dangling from a chain around her neck.
Both listened as Jeffrey Janciga, then St. Clair police chief, testified about getting a request to check on Robson’s welfare after she hadn’t gone to the New Florence Center for Active Adults on Dec. 12, 2023, as expected.
Tiffaney Swartz, who was director of the center at the time, said Robson was a sweet person who volunteered there and had just become its treasurer.
“She hadn’t shown up and one of the other participants said they went to her house and wasn’t able to make contact with her,” Swartz testified, adding that she later filed a missing person report.
Janciga didn’t find Robson at the house either that day. On Dec. 13, 2023, he tried again and was met with Robson’s husband, according to testimony. He reported last seeing his wife on the evening of Dec. 11, 2023, and wasn’t concerned because she had stayed at a hotel for a few days in the past, Janciga said.
But it was a red flag to the police chief who said he contacted Westmoreland County detectives and the Greensburg Bloodhound Team. When Lucy the bloodhound found Robson’s body in the crawl space on Dec. 14, 2023, Janciga said he secured the scene, notified Robson’s family and called in backup.
Robson had been shot twice on the top of her head from 8 to 10 feet away, and the bullets went downward from the top of her head, testified Dr. Jennifer Hammers, a forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy. She also had a cut on her head in between the two gunshot wounds and well as scrapes on the left side of her torso.
The nature of the gunshot wounds indicates the person was firing at the top of Robson’s head, Hammers said.
Testimony is expected to resume Tuesday afternoon.
