Execution Report: Betty Beets

Betty Lou Beets, 62, was executed by lethal injection on 24 February 2000 in Huntsville, Texas, for murdering her husband for money.

In August 1983, Betty Beets, then 46, reported her fifth husband, Jimmy Don Beets, missing. After a three-week search, authorities found a fishing boat drifting in a lake. The boat contained Mr. Beets' fishing license, heart medication, and a life jacket. His body was not found.

Two years later, the Henderson County Sheriff's Department received a tip that Jimmy Don Beets' death was from foul play. After an investigation, police arrested Betty Beets in June 1985. A search of her property found Mr. Beets' remains buried in the front yard, underneath an ornamental well. Two .38-caliber bullets were found in his remains. Additionally, another body was found buried under a storage shed. This body was identified as Doyle Wayne Barker, who was Betty Beets' fourth husband and who disappeared in 1981. That body contained three .38-caliber bullets.

During the investigation, Beets' son, Robert Branson, testified that she told him she was going to murder Jimmy Don Beets. Branson also said that he helped his mother bury Beets' body and set up the abandonded fishing boat containing his belongings. Beets' daughter, Shirley Stegner, told investigators that she helped her mother bury Barker's body in 1981.

Beets had previously been convicted of shooting and wounding her second husband.

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