Charles Dudley Beckham Jr., 64, a White male from De Kalb, Texas, was found dead on June 19, 2025, at his home in rural Bowie County. Authorities were called to the 700 block of Private Road 42041 near Simms after a suspicious death report; at the scene, deputies discovered two victims—Beckham and Donna Culpepper—on Beckham's property. Funeral records list Beckham's date of death as June 19, 2025, aligning with initial reports that the discovery sparked a double-homicide investigation.
In the days that followed, investigators with the Bowie County Sheriff's Office identified a suspect: 34-year-old Clyde Allen Stephens II. On June 23, 2025, deputies in White County, Arkansas, arrested Stephens in connection with the shootings; he was subsequently charged with capital murder tied to the deaths of Beckham and Culpepper. Reports at the time described him as the lone suspect in the case as detectives continued to piece together what happened at the rural residence.
The case moved forward later in the summer when a Bowie County grand jury returned an indictment on August 7, 2025, formally charging Stephens with capital murder and other offenses stemming from the De Kalb killings. Community memorials and obituary notices continued to mark Beckham's loss as the prosecution advanced, underscoring the shock felt across the small East Texas towns connected to him.
