In the small town of New Florence, Pennsylvania, 71-year-old Alice Ilene Robson was a familiar and caring presence in her community. A female who had once owned the local floral shop and later drove a school bus, she was known for her love of making flower arrangements. In December of 2023, a series of events unfolded that would tragically cut her life short, leaving a shadow over the quiet town.
The first sign that something was amiss came on December 11, 2023, when home health nurses
arriving at Robson's home to care for her grandson, who required around-the-clock attention, found him alone. This was highly uncharacteristic of Robson, who was the boy's legal guardian and dedicated caregiver. As the days passed with no sign of her, concern grew, and she was reported missing on December 13th. The search came to a grim end three days later when her body was discovered concealed in a crawlspace beneath the back porch of her own home. An autopsy would later reveal she had been shot twice in the head.
The investigation into her death quickly unraveled a disturbing plot, leading to the arrest of three individuals. Among them was Robson's own daughter, Melissa Fox-Beacom, then 51, and Matthew Jason Bates, the 20-year-old boyfriend of Robson's granddaughter. The third person taken into custody was 20-year-old Robert Patrick Jack. The motive behind the killing appeared to stem from a bitter and ongoing custody dispute between Fox-Beacom and her mother over the care of Fox-Beacom's son.
During the ensuing trial, the prosecution laid out a case of a murder-for-hire scheme orchestrated by Fox-Beacom. It was alleged that she had expressed her desire for her mother's death to multiple people over the years. Investigators asserted that she solicited Bates and Jack to carry out the murder. Robert Jack, in a pivotal turn of events, testified against his co-defendants. He confessed to being the one who fired the fatal shots from a. 22-caliber revolver, but claimed he did so at the behest of Fox-Beacom and Bates. He detailed how Bates had provided the gun and shown him how to use it. After the shooting, Jack testified that he and Bates cleaned the scene and moved Robson's body to the crawlspace where it was later found. The murder weapon was later recovered by divers from Donegal Lake.
In February 2026, a jury found both Melissa Fox-Beacom and Matthew Bates guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder, and abuse of a corpse. Despite not pulling the trigger, the jury held them responsible for orchestrating the events that led to Alice Robson's death. They were both facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Robert Jack, in exchange for his testimony, was offered a plea deal for third-degree murder with a sentence of 40 to 80 years in prison; his own trial was scheduled for April of that year.
