For nearly half a century, the death of Beatrice Meabon remained a painful, unsolved mystery in the small town of Brant, New York. An 82-year-old woman, Beatrice was a member of a family with local roots, including her sister, Maxine. But on a summer day, July 20, 1976, her life ended in an act of violence that her community could not explain and authorities could not resolve.
For decades, her case was simply labeled "suspicious," a file gathering dust while a terrible secret was kept.
On that Tuesday, a neighbor discovered Beatrice lying on the floor of her home on Cain Road. She had been stabbed in the chest and, despite being rushed to a local hospital, she succumbed to her injuries. Investigators at the time had few leads and no witnesses who could point to a suspect. Among those present at her house that day was her 13-year-old grandson, Richard J. Fox. In the absence of evidence, the investigation stalled, and Beatrice’s death became a cold case, leaving her loved ones without answers or justice.
The truth began to surface more than four decades later, not from a newfound clue in Beatrice’s case, but from the discovery of other victims. In September 2021, hikers walking along the Chautauqua Rails to Trails path in Portland, New York, found a human skull. The subsequent investigation unearthed the skeletal remains of two women: Cassandra Watson, who had vanished around 2003, and 50-year-old Marquita Mull, who was killed in June 2021. The man connected to both women was Richard J. Fox, Beatrice Meabon’s grandson.
Fox, who had a long and violent criminal history including rape and sexual abuse, was already a convicted felon. As investigators from the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office and Brant Police Department delved into his life while building the case for the murders of Watson and Mull, they revisited the long-forgotten death of his grandmother. When they confronted him in January 2025, while he was already incarcerated for the other killings, Fox confessed to stabbing 82-year-old Beatrice to death when he was just a teenager. He could not, or would not, provide a clear reason for the murder, telling investigators he had trouble recalling the specific details of that day.
Fox’s confession confirmed he was a serial killer whose violent spree began with his own grandmother. His known victims include Cassandra Watson, with whom he had been in a relationship; Marquita Mull; and 32-year-old Crystal Curthoys, whose remains were found in 2023, entombed under the basement stairs of a Niagara Falls home where Fox had once lived. Fox’s methods were brutal, involving stabbing, strangulation, and blunt force trauma.
For his crimes, Richard J. Fox was convicted on three counts of Murder in the Second Degree. He pleaded guilty to killing Cassandra Watson and Marquita Mull and was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 20 years to life. He later received an additional sentence of 25 years to life for the murder of Crystal Curthoys, bringing his total sentence to 65 years to life in prison. During one sentencing, a judge described Fox’s decades-long pattern of predatory violence as "profound evil." However, due to the juvenile justice laws in effect in New York in 1976, Fox could not be prosecuted for the murder of his grandmother, Beatrice Meabon.
Though no new charges could be filed, the confession finally brought the truth of what happened to Beatrice Meabon to light after 49 years. In a statement, the Brant Police Department affirmed the importance of this resolution, saying, "the victim, family and public deserve the truth of what happened 49 years ago." The case is now officially closed, a chilling story of a young boy’s first act of murder against his own family member, which marked the beginning of a long and tragic path of violence.
