311. A Love Affair That Turned Deadly - The Murder of Steven Beard

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You're listening to an "Ono Media Podcast". Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is murder with my husband, I'm Paye Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm a husband.

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We love you so much. Oh, we got. Now we need to give him your 10 seconds.

“Um, I think I've mentioned this before, but like I get these migraines where the only thing that happens is my vision goes out.”

Like gone, like I can probably see like one tenth of what I normally do. Like everything's super blurry. It's kind of crazy. Anyways, happened this morning, really annoying. I've gotten my head scanned a couple times.

Everything's good there. Not really sure why I get them. It just, it'll happen randomly. There's no kind of rhyme or reason or anything. Yeah, if you guys were curious, that's what happens to my head.

So I got one of those this morning, but all good now. I can see again, it usually lasts about like 30 to 45 minutes. And then my vision just comes back, drain drive. I don't know. Maybe I have some super power or something that I don't know about yet.

That'd be pretty cool. I would love that. Other than that, nothing crazy for my 10 seconds. Um, bagel shop. I'm going hard on the bagel shop.

“Again, follows follow us on Instagram. If you want to stay up today on my bagel shop.”

If you want to stay up today on anything murder with my husband. We've made it a goal to try to improve our murder with my husband's social media. So do what happens there. Goals, goals are important.

Does it mean it always happened with their important words of wisdom?

Words of wisdom? Words of wisdom. Alright, everyone, thanks for being here. We're going to hop right into today's case. Our sources for this episode are abcnews.co.com, cbsnews.com, medium.com, yahu.com.

Good morning, America.com. While it's interesting.com, bustle.com, case law.findlaw.com, where to pedia and oxygen. Disclaimer, this episode includes mentions of suicidal ideation. So if you or someone you know is struggling, please call or text the suicide crisis lifeline at 988 for help. And as always, please listen with care.

Love is like a drug. It's not just a saying, it's actually true. Balling in love activates the same reward centers in the brain, and it causes us to release a lot of the same you for it chemicals too. Endorphins, dopamine, oxytocin.

So hearing that, it is no surprise that people do completely irrational things, while they are falling in love. They say things they wouldn't normally say, do things they wouldn't normally do, and the high that you get from falling in love doesn't actually last forever. And when it wears off, and we look back on the way we behaved,

we might realize the mistakes that we made during that time. The people we forgot, the plans we abandoned, the feelings we made heard along the way. Though for some people, the host mistakes are a lot more drastic than others. And sometimes like we'll see in today's case, they can even be deadly.

“I think a lot of times in true crime, when you see someone killed because they want to be within a fair partner or something,”

you're like, oh my gosh, why not just get divorced. But the reality of it is these people are high. They're high on these drugs of falling in love. And it happens way more often than you would think, which is why it's so real. It's so dangerous.

So much, if you're on social media,

I mean, people are always posting like, look, my ex said to me,

I don't know, I'm just things like that. People say some crazy shoes and acts. It's crazy stuff. Why old? But also, I mean, again, you're releasing those endorphins into your body.

Crazy him. So let's dial back the clock to the late 90s, as we head to an area right outside of Austin, Texas,

And it's here that we meet the former general manager of a local news channel and self-made millionaire, Steven Beard.

“Now, Steven was a true native ex and grew up in the state he served in the Navy Air Corps.”

He went on to attend Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University, all in his loan star state. Steven got his star in radio and advertising in the 50s and slowly climbed the corporate ladder over time. And eventually, around the 1970s, he made the move over to television. And then in 1983, he helped launch a fox affiliated local TV channel called KBVO TV as its founding general manager. Now, Steven and his wife, Elise, had three children and they built a really nice life together in the Austin area.

But then in 1993, Elise, Steven's wife, died of cancer, leaving the now 69-year-old Steven Beard, a widow. And what happened next, probably rubbed a few people the wrong way, but Steven was not really great on his own, so within a few weeks of Elise's death, he was getting to know a weight risk from their local country club. A 30-year-old woman named Celeste Johnson.

“In case anyone is curious, 70-30s-40, just some simple math, in case again anyone's curious.”

Now, their first day included a fancy meal at an Italian restaurant, a nightcap at his lavish home. And then he let Celeste drive his $50,000 Lexus back to her place. And after that, things escalated quickly just a few weeks later, the two were in a full-blown relationship. And Steven asked Celeste if she and her twin daughters wanted to come live with him. Celeste didn't have it very easy up until this point.

She never really knew her birth parents.

She claimed the only time she met her birth mother. She said to her quote, "I'm not your mother. I was just your incubator." OK. So Celeste was adopted but claimed she had experienced physical abuse at the hands of her adoptive father,

“which led to thoughts of suicide as she became a teenager.”

But things changed for Celeste when at 17 years old, she actually got pregnant with twin girls. Christina and Jennifer. She actually married the twins of father, but that didn't really work out as she had hoped they were soon divorced. And Celeste took the girls on the road, moving from one state to another to find a new home. Along the way, Celeste married two more times. Once to an Air Force mechanic, who she divorced in 1991,

and then to a man named Jimmy Martinez, that didn't work out either.

And that's when Celeste finally found herself in Austin trying to make it on her own,

while raising her two now 13-year-old twin daughters. And she's working at the local country club. And then that brings us back to when she met 69-year-old Steven Beard, around October or November of 1993. Now, by January of 1994, a few months later, she and the girls were living in his mansion.

And that same year, Steven sold his shares of the news company and added to his already pretty massive fortune.

And finally, after 13 months under the same roof, Steven decided he wanted to marry Celeste.

He was just going to jump. From one marriage right to the other, but of course, he knew that Celeste needed to sign a pre-nup first, which smart and Celeste agreed to it. It still left her with $500,000, though not a cent more if they got divorced. Pretty good though, pretty good.

So on February 18, 1995, five days after Celeste's 30-second birthday, the two tied the knot at the same Austin Country Club where they met. And in 1998, Steven even adopted Celeste's $2. That's okay. Christine and Jennifer, this was after their birth father died of suicide.

Geez, I mean, his biggest, the age difference is, I mean, it sounds like it's going well. Now, as a family, they began to travel all over the world and take wave runners out on the lake, near their vacation home about 40 miles north of Austin.

They're so fun. So fun, especially when you're riding on the back of Garrett, flipping you off. Oh yeah, it's like the best, the best.

So, safe to say they were living the dream Celeste had always imagined for herself and her twin girls.

And friends of Steven's even claimed Celeste kind of made him younger at heart, and he really was madly in love with her, which meant he was spending a lot of money on Celeste's well. Not only did he buy her tons of lavish gifts in jewelry, he gave her a $10,000 a month allowance. And that was basically spent on redoing the parts of their house,

growing fancy parties, and going on month along extravagant vacations to places like China. But in October of 1999, okay, also $10,000 a month in 1999. Yeah, it's probably like, I'm going to take close for like 30 grand a month now. Yeah, 10,000 is a lot now. Yeah, yeah. So in October of 1999, something happened that no amount of money could fix.

In the early morning hours of October second,

Steven Beard was a woken from a deep sleep in his Austin home.

He and Celeste had actually been sleeping in different rooms at that point, because she complained that his breathing machine was too loud. So he reached for his phone on his nightstand and dialed 911 himself. And when the operator answered, Steven told them he needed an ambulance immediately. So early morning hours, Steven's calling 911 on his own,

“and when they ask him, okay, why do you need an ambulance?”

He says, what? My guts just jumped out of my stomach. They blew out, yeah, they blew out of my stomach, and they're lying on my stomach. What in the...

He tells the operator he's in terrible pain. He has no idea what happened to him other than he can see his guts on his stomach. And then he asked if the police would call the house and try to wake up his wife who was actually asleep in the other wing.

So as first responders are now heading to the Beard's mansion,

they try to Celeste a few different times, but no one is answering. And when they get there, they find the doors are all locked. The lights are all off and nothing seems broken. They spot Steven through the window, lying on his bed bleeding. They break open a patio door to get inside, and they race to treat Steven.

He does, in fact, have an open wound on his stomach. At first, they think, okay, maybe he had some sort of hernia operation and his incision on his stomach hits split open, but then Celeste and her daughter Kristen finally wake up and storm into the room from the other side of the house

to see what all the commotion is. And this is when they see Steven, her husband and Kristen's father being loaded onto a stretcher. They tell Celeste that a helicopter is on its way to airlift Steven to a hospital.

And Celeste is completely distraught, yelling things like, "Please don't let him die." And in the meantime, police are already starting to examine the bedroom and trying to figure out what happened here. And they find a few strange things in all of this commotion.

Steven's bathroom has been completely rummaged through. Clothes have been pulled out of the drawers and thrown out on the floor. Steven's wallet is missing cash, but none of the big ticket items like jewelry or other valuable possessions seem to be missing.

“So, police are like, this honestly looks a little staged.”

And then they actually find the source of Steven's injury. He didn't have a hernia. Someone caught him, right? Lying on the floor of his bedroom is a fresh shell casing from a 20-gauge shotgun.

Is someone shot him? So, Christina and Celeste meet Steven at the hospital a long-- Sorry, no, keep going. I'm just already thinking how did she not hear the gunshot? But I guess if she's in the other wing of the house, maybe not,

but I don't know, gunshot or loud. Like, there's just a lot of stuff running through my mind. But also, how does he not realize he was shot? And that's why his stomach burst open. It's delayed, delirious, probably.

I don't know.

“But what I still wanted to do is not the most important thing in the studio.”

The semester-by-day-gleptor-pücher soft-behind the internet.

I can tell you, they can look at the back of the door.

“Yeah, you're the only one on the street, right?”

But I'm not sure. No, it's not. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. But they're just like this.

And if they're working, the house is closed. That's right. Safe. Like this. Put your money back.

Let's get out of here. Would a studio time-credit of Augs Money? Augs Money? Credit? I'd fuck online.

“So, Christina and Celeste are at the hospital, along with Celeste's other daughter, Jennifer,”

and her boyfriend, Christopher, who were staying at Steven's Lake House that night. And as they're all sitting in the waiting room, seeing if their adoptive father will live, please come and speak with them about the bullet casing they found. Because by now, like this was not an accident, Steven was shot in the middle of the night in his own home. And when a detective tells the family, like, hey, you was shot with a shotgun.

Any idea what happened? Any idea who would have done this? Christopher, who is the boyfriend. One of the twin daughter's boyfriend's actually perks up and says, "What about, quote, that crazy Tracy?"

And Jennifer, who is the girlfriend of Christopher and one of the twins, thinks,

"Wait a second, that makes sense because this crazy Tracy also owns a 20-gauge shotgun."

So, the family's like, oh, yeah, it's crazy Tracy. And the cops are like, "Who's crazy Tracy?" He can't, OK. Well, she was someone who worked at a little bookstore near Austin, and had met Celeste, the mother, about seven months earlier,

while the two were both in a mental health facility. So, Tracy Tarleton was about 35 years old at the time that she met Celeste in this facility. And like Celeste, she had had a bit of a troubled past. She had dealt with addictions, specifically narcotics and alcohol abuse. She had also suffered from suicidal ideation.

But on paper, Tracy's upbringing was a bit different from Celeste. She was the daughter of a well-known board worth Texas lawyer. She had graduated from Texas A&M with a biology degree. OK. And over the years, she had worked a few different government jobs before landing at that bookstore in 1994.

Now, fast forward, and then earlier in the year that Stephen was shot, so in 1999, Tracy had had a nervous breakdown at work, shouting, getting violent in front of people at the bookstore, and that's when her friends and family encouraged her to seek mental health treatment. She checked herself into a place called St. David's Pavilion, and that was where she met Celeste Beard in March of 1999.

Now, at the time, I want to clarify, Celeste was also at St. David's Pavilion voluntarily. Oh, for having thought to suicide? Yes, Stephen had asked her to check in after experiencing suicidal ideation.

And at first, it seemed like Tracy and Celeste found comfort in one another over some of their shared thoughts and traumas.

And trauma bonding. But over time, things kind of changed between the two in the facility. Tracy was openly gay, and according to Celeste, she had wanted to start a physical more intimate relationship with her after they had begun to bond. OK. But Celeste didn't feel the same way.

The two stayed friends after they left the facility. But now, that entire relationship was being called into question. Interesting. Because the entire family is saying it was definitely Tracy.

“And they're like, why would she do it so on and so forth?”

So the following day, October 3rd, police go to Tracy's to speak with her in person, try to understand what really is this dynamic. Why is the family pointing fingers at you?

And the first thing they do ask her is if she owns a shotgun.

And she says yes, and she even shows the shotgun to police. Well, detectives run that casing. They found out the crime scene. So almost instead of getting some understanding, they just go in immediately looking for physical evidence. Yeah.

And they discover that it is an exact match for the shotgun at Tracy's house. So pretty quickly. It seems a little, I maybe it is as open and shut as it seems.

Well, and here's the thing.

“I think something that happens often in true crime cases that from the outside looking and does same a little odd is police really trust a victim's family.”

If they believe there's a suspect because I mean, who knows a victim's personal life more? And most of the time when someone is killed, it does happen to be someone they know and not a stranger. And so police, especially in this case, really go forward with if his entire family is pointing the finger at Tracy. Yeah. We almost don't need to doubt it.

We just need to go in and see if the physical evidence matches. And that's exactly what they do. And on October 8th, just six days after Steven was shot, Tracy is arrested and charged with assaults.

I guess the hard part is, I mean, but someone else could have taken her gun, right?

Like the less could have had her gun. Like do they have DNA that shows that she was there or is it just the gun matching?

“Well, and here's the thing, I tried to look this up because I've noticed in true crime cases.”

They'll be like, oh, the shell casing matched. And I don't know if that's like a hundred percent exclusive match or oh, this gun could have been a gun that you know what I mean? Yes. As far as I'm aware, it's usually a pretty dead giveaway with shell casing. Because you can like match up the line.

There's more to it than you think, correct?

As far as I'm aware, it could be wrong, but as far as my knowledge on guns and shell casing's.

Because sometimes I feel like they'll be like, oh, that gun used that type of bullet. And it's like, yes, so does 405 other guns. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yep.

But yeah, I guess matching the actual forensics of a shell casing is definitely different. So shortly after this, Tracy is released on bond as she awaits trial. And I know what you guys are all asking at this point. Okay, she got charged with assault, so Stephen Beard alive after being shot with a shotgun. Well, shockingly, he is on the road to recovery in the hospital.

And I'll just read this just in case anyone's curious. So it is, it's the, that the fired cartridge case found at the crime scene has been identified as having been fired by the same specific firearm as that casing. So I mean, it's, it's open and shut for the most part.

“I think the way they do this is when a gun fires, it creates patterns on the shell casing that is just dependent on what the inside of the gun looks like.”

And granted, I'm sure someone out there knows a lot more than us. So feel free to comment it somewhere. I know it's more complicated than what we're explaining. But maybe it is more exclusive than just like, hey, there's a possibility this gun did this. Maybe it is more like, they match this gun as the gun that shot.

Oh, no, it is. Yes, yes, because it comes out of that specific gun from that showcasing you. Right. Yeah. So he's on the road to recovery, though, it is definitely a bumpy one. He had damaged several internal organs, including his colon, but after seven surgeries, Steven, who is fairly old, was now in stable condition. And following some rehab, he was eventually released from the hospital in January of 2000.

Now, his doctors warned the family, he was still at an increased risk of infection. So please be diligent about giving him his antibiotics. However, within a few days, he was back at the hospital within infection. And at 8 AM on January 22, Steven had a terrible pain in his chest, followed by high fever and low blood pressure. He ended up testing positive for staff infection.

And some reports said he had a blood clot that went to his heart. Geez. And by that afternoon, 75 year old Steven beard was dead. So although he had survived this shooting, he ended up dying of complications from the injuries of this shooting, which meant Tracy Tarleton was no longer being charged with assault. Six days later, she was re-arrested and slapped with murder charges.

Now, what was strange about Tracy's case was, again, when the prosecution's like, "Okay, well, what's the motive?" Doesn't exactly make sense. Why she would have gone after Steven just to get celeste? This is something that isn't adding up to detectives, but no matter how much the police try to pressure Tracy into speaking out, they're like, "What happened? Why? Why is your gun here? What happened?" She refuses to budge. She doesn't say a thing about motive or an accomplice or anything.

So detectives are like, "Whatever. We'll just close the case and move on." As did Celeste beard. There were quite a few things that don't sit right about this entire thing, especially for those who knew the intimate details about Celeste and Steven's marriage before this shooting. So according to some sources, the trouble between the two had actually started right after the two tied the knot.

Little things that were hard to pinpoint. Like, Steven had noticed his late wife's jewelry had gone missing from his safety deposit box. And then Celeste started spending more time at Steven's late house, 40 miles northwest of Austin, rather than like seeing at the house that they shared together.

“And it wasn't a huge secret that Celeste was spending a lot of Steven's money at the same time.”

And apparently between October, November of 1999, she spent close to $320,000 within a month.

Oh my gosh, which is, I would, I'm not an inflation expert, but I would say close to half million, maybe like $600,000, maybe more.

Well, and then she spends another $250,000 in the month of December 1999 alone. They had a good Christmas. That's insane. I mean, that's a, a money now. Steven is already giving her 10 grand a month to do with whatever she wants with. And he also had paid off $20,000 in debt. That Celeste had from previous insurance fraud. And funded her custody.

She did fraud. Yeah, okay. But obviously, she is wanting more. And it was also made clear by Celeste that her relationship with Steven was not romantic. So this is what she's telling her friends. Like, I'm 30, he's 70, she's like 32.

But basically, and she's like, and no, it's not romantic at all. This is just like purely like companionship, basically. But the thing is, is he didn't know that on his side of things.

“She claims they were only intimate twice in their marriage.”

The night that she had moved in with him and then the night they got married. Steven apparently got so fed up with this that she wouldn't be intimate. That just formants into the marriage. He ends up telling Celeste that he's not sure they're meant for each other.

And then he basically threatens to file divorce.

But supposedly, he changed his mind when they agreed on what they called a, quote, "oral sex solution." So this was exclusively on Sunday mornings. Oral sex that they named it. Yes, so this is how they were going to make it so they weren't getting divorced. They both agreed on this.

Every Sunday morning. Now, beforehand, Celeste would say things to her daughters like, well, got to go make my money now. And then go do oral sex solution in the other room. Okay, all right. So it's very clear where Celeste stands in this marriage.

Like, yeah, I mean, it's clear she's... Her duty is being married. It's kind of clear to be honest, she's just there for the money. Yeah. And she's not quiet about it.

Yeah. Like, she's like, yeah, he almost divorce me. So now I have to do this thing one week. And that's my, that's like me going to work.

“That's how I get my paycheck for the week.”

Okay. So. All right, all right. I don't really know what to say about that. So cool.

As the years went on, Celeste began looking outside the marriage for romance. Because as, I mean, it's obvious. Hmm. This is her marriage is not taking off that box on her side. Yes.

Yeah.

So this is when she actually recindles things with her third husband, Jimmy Martinez,

who she's divorced from. Hmm. And she really went out of her way to make that happen. According to her daughters, there were times when Celeste would spike Steven's food and drink with sleeping pills to get him to pass out.

So she could leave the house and go hang out with Jimmy. Martinez, her ex husband. Yeah, Celeste. Not to mention, Celeste would say terrible things about Steven behind his back. Like openly, she hated him.

She didn't want to go on vacations with him. She just wish that he would die already. Thanks. So by New Year's Eve, 1999, it's safe to say Steven. He's not dumb.

He had had enough. He'd caught onto her trists her over spending and maybe even the sleeping pills. And he told Celeste, that's it. I'm going to cut you off financially. Which she then responded with threats of suicide.

And according to her daughters, there was one night when she even grabbed a gun

Steven and Christina were there.

Like they witnessed this whole thing. Christina said everyone felt like fair game at that moment. Celeste had no concerns about hurting anyone. All of which led them urging her to go stay at the hospital where she ends up meeting Tracy.

And I bet you that she actually did fall in love with Tracy, I bet you they're in love with each other. And this has been downplayed. And this has been downplayed and Tracy tried to kill. And maybe there was a little gaslighting.

Yeah, 100%. Falling crazy Tracy, the entire family calling her that. So I'm not entirely sure what was going through Steven's mind after he was shot in October. But I do know when he comes home, but before he gets the infection and ends up dying,

he ends up changing his will secretly. So Celeste was actually supposed to inherit millions of dollars. A bunch of his personal property, including half the interest on his homes. But instead, he made sure that his biological and two adopted daughters would actually now split his inheritance.

“Only, could you imagine that he dies in the mom gets nothing but the daughters?”

Yeah. That would be, I mean, that would create some, you'd really see if your mom actually liked you or not. Right. Like that would be some family drama.

So this has kind of been in the works, but essentially he amends a lot of these things months before he finally passes away. And it seems he did all of that without Celeste's knowledge, like I said. But Celeste's strange behavior did not stop after Steven's death. In fact, he got even more unsettling, for example.

As Celeste was preparing for her husband's funeral, she told her 18 year old daughters that she was going to buy them as well two pink coffins. What? What? Considering Celeste's history of like waving a gun around the house for the daughters,

this wasn't a funny joke of like, oh, you're prepping for our funerals, too. That's just weird.

And then a few months later, she sold Steven's house for $2 million.

But how'd she get? I thought she didn't get anything.

“I don't know if it was like she had the right because they were married,”

and she was living in the house because I know that like, there's something called spousal. Yeah, but if you give the house to someone else in your, maybe he didn't, maybe he just like left it up to if she's still living here. She could sell it.

Yeah, I know what I mean, but it was his saving his savings. Like is there money? Yeah. Okay. Will's are so complicated.

No, because yeah, I mean, if he, if he gave the house to the twins or his son, she wouldn't be able to sell it. No. So it had a been to her. I've actually been like religiously watching the Cory Richen's trial,

which is a wife who is accused of allegedly murdering her husband or money is the main motive. And he had like a trust. And this is the only reason I know of like spousal the whole home thing because she claimed that she could sell the house.

But the reality was her name wasn't actually on the home. It was just in her husband's name. So they were like, you living here doesn't actually affect this

because your name was never on the home to begin with.

I don't know. It's like a whole complicated thing. I also think it varies state to state to be honest. The rules on all that. Then Celeste starts seeing another man,

a bartender and musician named Cole Johnson. The two were seen out partying together and within six months of losing Steven, she and Cole were married. This is now Celeste's fifth trip to the altar.

But things really came to a head around February of 2000 when Celeste pulled out a knife. She's what is going on with this girl, man. And begins to pressure her twin daughters into dying by suicide. Mmm.

It's like a whole mental crisis. She needs to be gone. Um, she does this and then she begins stabbing herself in the lake. Oh, my God. And so her daughter's call.

Rie? 911. Then Celeste is taken to the hospital after being discharged. Christina and Jennifer decide they've been through enough. They leave home and their mother for their own safety,

but Celeste's wild behavior doesn't stop. She continues calling them, making threats. I mean, the relationship between her and her daughters after Steven's death, who remember adopted them, is just getting shredded.

I would assume it's because he did leave a bunch of stuff to the daughters and not her. Yes.

“And that's why the relationships getting worse and worse.”

And the twins end up recording some of the conversations they're having with their mother. And then they eventually share those recorded phone calls with police. Okay.

police have now definitely had their suspicions on Celeste

“with all of the fallout since the murder.”

Um, but at this point, everything they had is circumstantial. And the issue is Tracy, who is sitting in prison, confesses to being in the house that night and shooting Steven. So despite the fact that police are like,

we think Celeste did it. They have someone sitting in prison, who has a forensic match to the gun, who's like, no, I did it. Like, she's fully confessed.

But now, police are starting to wonder, wait, has Celeste like fully manipulated Tracy and asked her to do it? And now she's like protecting her in prison, or did Tracy really act alone?

Well, as you know, Tracy is refusing to implicate Celeste in fact a grand jury waited more than a year and a half after Steven's death to indict Tracy on murder charges because they were hoping that she would eventually relax and end up talking,

as they just don't think they have the full story. Yeah. But she doesn't. But then all of this changes. When Tracy sees a newspaper article from her jail cell,

she sees an article that Celeste beard, who's husband, had been murdered, and Tracy was sitting in prison for him, had actually now remarried pretty quickly to a man named Cole Johnson.

That's a freak is going on. And Tracy, who was clearly out of the loop in prison, contacts her attorney and says, that's it.

I'm finally ready to talk about what happened that night.

So while it was true that Tracy had a pretty big infactuation with Celeste, what detectives weren't told at the beginning because Celeste had lied to everyone and had gas lit. Tracy was that the feelings were mutual

because when they were in the mental health facility, Tracy and Celeste had actually begun having a physical and emotional affair, a full-blown relationship. And as the two women spent more and more time with each other,

the more they bonded over traumatic upbringings and the more secrets they revealed to one another. And according to Tracy, that's once Celeste told her she had only married Steven to help secure custody of her two daughters.

She now felt like she was trapped in this marriage. He was emotionally and physically abusive to her.

“And that's what had driven her to the point of suicide”

and why she was now in the hospital. She. Now that doesn't match any of the statements from anyone else.

Again, Celeste's own daughter, Christina,

who lived there along with other witnesses, say none of this was true. No one had ever seen Steven be emotionally or even physically abusive. He wasn't the one giving her sleeping pills, so he could go cheat.

And there were no reports ever made to the police. But Tracy, obviously in the hospital, has no reason not to believe Celeste. And when they were both discharged from St. David, they actually continued spending time together.

It's not like it was just like this secret love affair at the hospital. They spent a lot of time together. Everyone who worked at Tracy's bookstore now knew about Celeste, her girlfriend.

And in July of 1999, Celeste even let Tracy host a party for all of her employees at the bookstore at Steven's late house. But as you know,

on the other side of this, the family is like, "Oh, that's just crazy Tracy, the friend that Mom met." Now,

at this party, multiple people, including Celeste's own daughters, actually see Tracy and Celeste kissing and then found them.

Oh, cheat! And then found them in bed together the following morning

“after this crazy wild party at the lake house.”

Yeah, they just keep conquer crazy Tracy. And so this is the thing when Steven is like, yeah, the daughters now know

and they're like, yeah, no, you're no longer bringing Tracy around. Like she's not alone. You're not hanging out with her anymore. But nothing changes.

Tracy told police, she knew Celeste was putting sleeping pills and her husband's food and drinks, so she could sneak out of the house to be with her

as well as her other ex-husband. She put none of this was brought up. None of this was, yeah,

no. Well, she thought she was in love with her. Yeah, I know. But there was one night in the fall of 1999, about a month before the shooting.

When Celeste called Tracy and asked her to rush over to the house, their Tracy actually found Steven unconscious at the dining room table. She and Celeste moved him to the floor

and then Celeste tried to suffocate him with a plastic bag. I'd in the world is going on right now. Only apparently it doesn't work. Which I don't know.

I don't know how he felt that, but apparently he doesn't die. And this is when Tracy and Celeste kind of come up with this plan together of like we got to get rid of him

because Celeste has put on this whole thing.

She believed everything was wrong in this house

that he was abusive, that he was physically abusive. And Tracy tells police, I felt bad from her. I thought he was a terrible man

that she was truly trapped and he wasn't going to let up. And then in late September,

“Celeste went to Tracy asking for a favor.”

She was supposed to travel with Steven to Europe in the next few weeks and she was like, I can't go. I can't go be alone with him.

She knew Tracy was an avid ski shooter and a good shot. So Celeste asked Tracy to sneak into their home and shoot Steven before

this European trip so she wouldn't have to go. And Tracy claims to police that she refused to do it at first, but when Celeste was like, listen,

if I have to go on this trip, I'm going to just kill myself instead. So she threatened suicide and Tracy's like,

okay, never mind, I will help you.

And then she asked Celeste for a few favors as well. If she was caught, she wanted Celeste to find safe homes for her pets,

pay for her legal fees, and support her in jail, all of which Celeste swore she would do. And Tracy being so in love,

“thinking they were in a full-blown relationship”

going to end up together, followed through on the offer. So on the afternoon of October 1st, Tracy went by the house to plot everything out with Celeste.

Celeste told her Jennifer would be up at the lake house with her boyfriend, but Christina would be asleep in another way of the house. She showed Tracy where to park how to get in where Steven would be sleeping,

and Celeste also promised to rush in and grab the shotgun casing, which we know she didn't do. So around 2am, the morning of October 2nd,

Tracy arrived at the house, found the gate open as planned and entered through an unlocked door near Steven's room. She fired,

off a shot, and left. But Celeste doesn't collect the bullet and Steven doesn't die that night. And Celeste didn't do much to protect Tracy

when police asked about her because they offer up Crazy Tracy as the number one suspect. That's a wild. That's a wild.

The part of the story that... Easy man.

“Makes sense as to why Tracy stayed quiet”

for so long that was hidden from anyone. Everyone was that after the charges were filed, Celeste remained in contact daily with Tracy.

Celeste was using a secret burner phone to call her. Celeste told Tracy she had been stuffing things into his wounds to try and infect him and make him sicker

so that he couldn't say who had done this and apparently it worked as we know. But once Steven died and Tracy's charges were upgraded to murder, this is when she stops hearing from Celeste.

She kind of goes her and then she learns about Celeste's new marriage and she fills ultimate betrayal. And that's when she started realizing maybe Celeste had been lying to me all the time.

Maybe she wasn't at risk in that house. Maybe there was no hostility. There was no abuse. She believes at this point that Celeste wanted Steven gone because she wanted her share of his fortune

which welcomed to the club Celeste was a little bit late in realizing that. But this isn't the end of it. And February of 2000 shortly after Steven died. Celeste went to her personal assistant

and asked her if she quote new of anyone who could now get rid of Tracy. Celeste believed it was only a matter of time before Tracy flips on her and begins cooperating with police.

The scrolls nuts. The scrolls nuts. This scrolls nuts. Gives her assistant $500 to try and hire a hitman.

But the assistant was like, that's it. I'm going to ask Celeste for more and more money

and then never actually hire a hitman.

I'm just going to keep trying to get money out of her. Now, when Celeste's daughter Kristina caught on to all of these payments happening, Celeste was like, well, listen, I'm just trying to get rid of Tracy

because I'm worried she's going to pin it on me. And then she also begins to threaten her own daughter being like in an if you tell anyone you're also getting a hitman and going. So with Tracy Tarleton statement on the record,

Celeste is also now arrested because they now have an eyewitness or they now have a witness turning it against her. And she's charged with capital murder. Celeste continues this whole entire time to insist that there was never in a fair

Tracy was delusional. She was just obsessed with her. And when Celeste trial arrived in 2003, Tracy was the star witness. Obviously, basically the trial goes

as everything that I've told you, phone calls come up. Christina even earned a phone call of Celeste saying, I tried to hire somebody to kill Tracy.

So no one is on Celeste's team at this trial. Celeste was found guilty of capital murder. Her daughters. Tracy's charges probably don't really change. Correct?

I mean, I don't know what, I mean, she is the one who tried to kill.

against her. They said, quote,

“when they found out that they weren't going to get”

any money till I died or went to prison,

that's when they turned against me. So she's like claiming like, oh, they just wanted any money I had. The will must be different than we thought too. There must be something else going on that we don't know.

Well, she did sell the house. True. But the thing is, I also think she's just trying to find a reason when she's a turn against her other than the fact

that she's the bad guy. Yeah. Tracy, however, was released on parole in 2011 after serving 10 of her 20 year sentence.

Yeah. So she served 10 years in prison. Okay.

Tracy has told the press,

I don't wake up one single day without feeling shame for what I did. Thankfully, the love drug war off on Tracy she was able to see the truth, the lies, and the manipulation for what they really were.

Yeah, I don't know how much, honestly, I blame Tracy. It might sound weird, but I mean, what she did is horrible. She needs to serve time for it,

which she did, but people can't, yeah. Yeah. But this just goes back to manipulation, grifters.

Yeah. Fairly obvious, less was manipulating everyone in her life, including her own children. Yeah.

In order to get her way,

“and I think a lot more people would fall victim to that,”

than you want to believe. Yeah. And that is the murder of Stephen Beard and the entire chaotic surrounding of it. I mean, look,

it just comes down to, less was actually insane, the entire time. She's insane. Well,

Tracy was clearly not in a good mental spot when she met us. No, I mean, they both met at a mental facility. Yeah.

Like you're going to be impressionable. And again, I'm not making excuses for Tracy because she's still murdered, someone. Well, no, she didn't kill him.

He didn't die. Yes. Right. And that also came up at trial, that like technically,

it was attempted murder. Right. It had been a lot different if he would have died because of the gunshots. The gunshots.

So,

Celeste actually got first

green murder for a meeting to the fact that she was trying to keep him sick and make him die. Because he probably would have recovered and would have been fine if Celeste didn't do what she did. Which is why Celeste got such a large sentence. Yeah. Because they had evidence.

But here's the thing. Again, Tracy was like Celeste is being abused. I'm saving a woman from a horrible situation. Like when someone is able to lie manipulate,

reality just starts to bend and not look real to everyone involved. All right. You guys, that is our episode this week and we will see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it.

Goodbye. [MUSIC] Welcome to National Park After Dark, where your host, Cassie and Danielle, join us every Monday as we visit a new park through stories of true crime,

animal attacks, fatal accidents, miraculous survivors,

“and other incredible tales that you need to hear to believe.”

Our hope is that by sharing inspiring tales in our passion for protecting our planet's wild places inspires you to explore them yourselves. Find us on your favorite podcasting streaming platforms, watch us on YouTube and follow our adventures on all socials at National Park after dark. And remember to enjoy the view,

but watch your back. [MUSIC]