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Hell and Gone Murder Line: The Beallis Family [UPDATE] · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:46
Speaker 1: School of Humans.
0:49
Speaker 2: Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold case murders in
0:53
Speaker 2: an effort to raise public awareness invite witnesses to come
0:56
Speaker 2: forward and present evidence that could potentially be further investigated
1:00
Speaker 2: by law enforcement. While we value insights from family and
1:03
Speaker 2: community members, their statements should not be considered evidence and
1:07
Speaker 2: point to the challenges of verifying facts inherent in cold cases.
1:12
Speaker 2: We remind listeners that everyone has presumed innocent until proven
1:15
Speaker 2: guilty in a court of law. Nothing in the podcast
1:19
Speaker 2: is intended to state or imply that anyone who has
1:22
Speaker 2: not been convicted of a crime is guilty of any wrongdoing.
1:26
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.
1:29
Speaker 3: On December third, twenty twenty five, at around nine to
1:32
Speaker 3: thirty in the morning, deputies with a Sebastian County Sheriff's
1:35
Speaker 3: Office were called to the home of fifty seven year
1:38
Speaker 3: old doctor Randall b Allis, his forty year old wife,
1:41
Speaker 3: Charity be Alis, and their six year old twins. They
1:44
Speaker 3: lived on South First Avenue in Bonanza, Arkansas. Investigators found
1:50
Speaker 3: a horrific site inside that house. The bodies of Charity
1:54
Speaker 3: and her two children, a boy and a girl, were
1:57
Speaker 3: in the home. All of them had been fatally shot.
2:02
Speaker 3: We covered this case back in February, and at first
2:05
Speaker 3: there were very few official answers, but this story got
2:08
Speaker 3: huge very fast. On March fourth, twenty twenty six, there
2:14
Speaker 3: was a shocking twist in this case when the Sebastian
2:17
Speaker 3: County Sheriff's Office announced that autopsies conducted by the Arkansas
2:21
Speaker 3: State Crime Lab found that Charity died by suicide and
2:25
Speaker 3: that the two children died by homicide. According to the
2:29
Speaker 3: Sheriff's office, the evidence reviewed so far did not point
2:34
Speaker 3: to another person being responsible. Investigators now say Charity killed
2:39
Speaker 3: the children and then killed herself. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over
2:45
Speaker 3: the past eight years of making my true crime podcast,
2:48
Speaker 3: Helen Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing
2:51
Speaker 3: as a small town where murder never happens. I have
2:54
Speaker 3: received hundreds of messages from people all around the country
2:57
Speaker 3: asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them,
3:01
Speaker 3: their families, and their communities. If you have a case
3:05
Speaker 3: you'd like me and my team to look into, you
3:07
Speaker 3: can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder
3:09
Speaker 3: line at six seven eight seven four four six one
3:13
Speaker 3: four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six
3:16
Speaker 3: one four five, or you can send us a message
3:20
Speaker 3: on Instagram at Helen Gonepod This is Helen Gone murder line.
4:10
Speaker 3: As soon as the bodies of Charity and the children
4:12
Speaker 3: were taken out of that house and sent to the
4:14
Speaker 3: Arkansas State Crime Lab in Little Rock and the Sebastian
4:17
Speaker 3: County Sheriff's Office started their investigation, the public narrative formed,
4:22
Speaker 3: and a lot of that public anger was focused on
4:25
Speaker 3: Randall by Alis and his and Charities increasingly public and
4:30
Speaker 3: very bitter divorce. On December second, the day before the
4:35
Speaker 3: bodies were found, Charity and Randall were battling in court
4:39
Speaker 3: for custody of their children. The very next day, Charity
4:44
Speaker 3: and her six year old twins were dead. In the
4:48
Speaker 3: days and weeks that followed, family members of Charities started
4:52
Speaker 3: speaking to the media and online commentators, and thousands of
4:56
Speaker 3: social media users focused a lot of attention on Charity's
5:00
Speaker 3: allegations in court records that her estranged husband, doctor Randal Bellis,
5:05
Speaker 3: had been abusive. On February sixteenth, twenty twenty five, Charity
5:10
Speaker 3: and Randall had gotten into a fight. Charity claimed that
5:14
Speaker 3: during that fight that Randal choked her in front of
5:16
Speaker 3: the children. In October of twenty twenty five, Randall pleaded
5:20
Speaker 3: guilty to third degree domestic battery related to this incident. Then,
5:25
Speaker 3: after the three bodies were found, the Sebastian County Sheriff's
5:29
Speaker 3: office did say publicly that Randal b Allis had not
5:33
Speaker 3: been named as a suspect. Randall's attorney, Michael Pierce, stated
5:37
Speaker 3: that Randall denied any involvement in Charity in the children's
5:41
Speaker 3: deaths and said that Randall was co oper reading fully
5:44
Speaker 3: the law enforcement, but that didn't stop the public and
5:47
Speaker 3: a lot of Charity's family members from speaking out. Charity's father,
5:52
Speaker 3: Randy Powell, and her adult son John Powell, both publicly
5:57
Speaker 3: stated two reporters that they believe that Randall had been
5:59
Speaker 3: abusive and controlling. John said that his mother had tried
6:03
Speaker 3: to escape Randall but was unable to get any help.
6:07
Speaker 3: They have also told multiple media sources that they suspect
6:11
Speaker 3: that Randall may have been involved in Charity and the
6:14
Speaker 3: children's deaths. These deaths shocked a lot of people, so
6:20
Speaker 3: I wanted to go back and look at the evidence.
6:22
Speaker 3: Now that I've had some time to digest these documents,
6:25
Speaker 3: I have read through hundreds of pages of court transcripts,
6:29
Speaker 3: and I want to try to get past the headlines
6:31
Speaker 3: and see if the events leading up to when Charity
6:34
Speaker 3: and her children's bodies were found can shed any light
6:37
Speaker 3: on what really happened. We did two episodes about this
6:42
Speaker 3: case back in February, and we did say in Part
6:44
Speaker 3: two that until the autopsies and crime scene findings were public,
6:48
Speaker 3: that murder's suicide had to be considered as one possible scenario.
6:53
Speaker 3: And to be honest, a lot of people wrote me
6:55
Speaker 3: angry messages about the fact that I even suggested that
6:59
Speaker 3: Charity could have killed her own children. A lot of
7:02
Speaker 3: people still seem to be uncomfortable about talking about women
7:06
Speaker 3: who kill their children. It's much less common than men
7:09
Speaker 3: who kill family members. According to multiple studies, somewhere between
7:13
Speaker 3: ninety and ninety five percent of people classified as family
7:17
Speaker 3: annihilators are men. But it does happen, and that's what
7:21
Speaker 3: Sebastian County authorities say happened to Charity and her kids.
7:25
Speaker 3: But Charity's family does not accept that conclusion, and the
7:29
Speaker 3: public still does not have the full case file or
7:32
Speaker 3: the autopsy reports. So today we're going to look at
7:36
Speaker 3: what has changed since Part one and Part two, the
7:39
Speaker 3: autopsy ruling, the evidence the Sheriff's officeer supports it, what
7:43
Speaker 3: happened to the remains of Charitying the Children, and where
7:46
Speaker 3: the investigation stands today. For those who haven't heard the
7:51
Speaker 3: first two episodes on Charity Bealis or who need a
7:54
Speaker 3: quick recap, Charity and Randal Bellis had been married for
7:57
Speaker 3: ten years. They married for the first time in twenty twelve,
8:00
Speaker 3: and then they got divorced. Then they married for a
8:03
Speaker 3: second time on November one, twenty fifteen. Randal Beallis was
8:07
Speaker 3: a doctor at Mercy Hospital in Fort Smith. One of
8:10
Speaker 3: his colleagues who testified in court said that Randall had
8:13
Speaker 3: an excellent reputation, that he was a hard worker. Randal,
8:17
Speaker 3: Charity and the two kids appeared to be a perfect family,
8:20
Speaker 3: but behind the scenes there was chaos and there were
8:24
Speaker 3: allegations of domestic violence, allegations that went both ways. We
8:30
Speaker 3: also talked about how after Charitying the Children's death, attention
8:34
Speaker 3: focused on the death of Randall's second wife, Shauna Graham,
8:38
Speaker 3: a thirty four year old licensed practical nurse. Shawn had
8:41
Speaker 3: died on January fifth, wealth from a gunshot wound to
8:45
Speaker 3: the head. Her death was ruled to suicide, and if
8:48
Speaker 3: you haven't listened.
8:49
Speaker 1: Already, we did do a very deep dive.
8:52
Speaker 3: Into Shawna's case, including a lot of the police records,
8:55
Speaker 3: in the Charity Bialis Part two episode. But Shawna's mother,
9:00
Speaker 3: Tessa Graham, has posted on social media that there were
9:03
Speaker 3: irregularities in Shawna's crime scene. She said that she suspected
9:08
Speaker 3: that Randal had been involved in her death. We also
9:11
Speaker 3: got the investigative file, or at least part of it,
9:14
Speaker 3: after filing a Foyer request. Unfortunately, due to local laws,
9:18
Speaker 3: Shawna's case file was destroyed in twenty fourteen.
9:21
Speaker 1: Again, there were two.
9:23
Speaker 3: Completely different views of what was going on inside a
9:26
Speaker 3: marriage and a strange set of circumstances. Randal told police
9:31
Speaker 3: Shawna had threatened suicide repeatedly.
9:34
Speaker 1: In fact, he said that he was so.
9:36
Speaker 3: Concerned about her killing herself that he had replaced bullets
9:40
Speaker 3: in the gun they had at home with plastic or
9:42
Speaker 3: dummy rounds. On the day she died, Randal said that
9:47
Speaker 3: Shawna went to Walmart and bought real ammunition. Randal said
9:51
Speaker 3: that that morning, Shauna was upset and threatening to end
9:54
Speaker 3: her own life. He said that he tried to talk
9:57
Speaker 3: her down for hours, and then he left for work. Later,
10:00
Speaker 3: Randall said he returned from work to check on her
10:03
Speaker 3: while on the phone with a friend and found her body.
10:08
Speaker 1: Police who talked.
10:09
Speaker 3: To Randall that day made some notes. They indicated in
10:12
Speaker 3: their report that the house appeared to be out of order.
10:16
Speaker 3: The report stated there were boxes in the living room
10:19
Speaker 3: as if someone had been packing. There was an empty
10:21
Speaker 3: wine bottle and a glass on the kitchen table. There
10:24
Speaker 3: was a jacket with an unknown reddish stain that was
10:27
Speaker 3: submitted for testing, though the report we received did not
10:30
Speaker 3: include a final result. While Randall was chatting with one
10:34
Speaker 3: of the officers, he asked the officer whether he could
10:37
Speaker 3: get his phone back to call his lawyer. He wanted
10:40
Speaker 3: to stop divorce papers from being sent in the mail.
10:43
Speaker 3: The officer told him no, so, like Charity and Randall,
10:48
Speaker 3: Charity and Shauna had been on the brink of divorce.
10:52
Speaker 3: The report also contained evidence supporting suicide, including the fact
10:56
Speaker 3: that Shawna left a note, but the main evidence was
10:59
Speaker 3: video footage from that morning showing Shawna did go to
11:03
Speaker 3: Walmart and buy that ammunition, and police talked to the
11:06
Speaker 3: employee who helped her that day. He told police that
11:09
Speaker 3: Shawna had been asking questions about the ammunition, about hollow
11:13
Speaker 3: point bullets, and which bullets would be best for home protection.
11:18
Speaker 3: While reviewing the police reports, we also found out something else.
11:22
Speaker 3: Charity's name came up during Shawna's investigation, according to police
11:27
Speaker 3: records we discussed in part one. In twenty twenty one,
11:31
Speaker 3: an officer was asked to review Shawna's case again after
11:34
Speaker 3: receiving new information from the Bonanza Police Department. According to
11:38
Speaker 3: that report, Randy Powell, Charity's father, had told police that
11:43
Speaker 3: she Shawuna, had been killed by her husband and his
11:46
Speaker 3: current wife, meaning Randal and Charity. In that same review,
11:51
Speaker 3: an officer referred to some body camera footage from an
11:54
Speaker 3: incident involving Randal and Charity at their home now. During
11:59
Speaker 3: that incident, Charity's father, Randy Powell, reportedly told the officer
12:03
Speaker 3: that Charity had told him that she was the one
12:06
Speaker 3: who shot Shawna. Randy Charity's dad also reportedly said Charity
12:11
Speaker 3: told him she was glad that officers had not dusted
12:14
Speaker 3: for prints on the wine glass that was found at
12:16
Speaker 3: the scene, because she claimed she had been drinking out
12:20
Speaker 3: of it. Neither Charity nor Randall were ever charged in
12:24
Speaker 3: connection with Shawna's death, and both of them denied any involvement.
12:29
Speaker 3: But after Charity in the children's bodies were found, that
12:33
Speaker 3: allegation about Charity making a statement in connection.
12:35
Speaker 1: With Shawna's death took on new significance.
12:39
Speaker 3: Not because it proves that Charity was involved in Shawna's
12:42
Speaker 3: death or that Shawna's death were anything other than suicide,
12:45
Speaker 3: because it doesn't, but because it does show that the
12:49
Speaker 3: overlap between these families, these deaths, and these allegations could
12:53
Speaker 3: be a lot more complicated than the early public narratives suggested.
12:59
Speaker 3: Four months after Shawna's death, in May of twenty twelve,
13:02
Speaker 3: Charity and Randall were married, but as we said before,
13:06
Speaker 3: Charity and Randall's relationship continued to be votal. They divorced
13:10
Speaker 3: just a few months later in October of that same year,
13:13
Speaker 3: but they continued to see each other. In twenty thirteen,
13:17
Speaker 3: Charity stated in court that she pulled a gun on
13:19
Speaker 3: Randall during an argument and that he had done the
13:22
Speaker 3: same to her multiple times. They eventually reconciled in in
13:27
Speaker 3: November of twenty fifteen, they married for the second and
13:30
Speaker 3: final time.
13:47
Speaker 1: In our first.
13:48
Speaker 3: Two episodes, we talked about Charity's twenty four year old son,
13:51
Speaker 3: John Powell, who publicly stated that Randall was the abuser
13:55
Speaker 3: in his and Charity's relationship, But it turns out that
13:58
Speaker 3: John's relationship with his mother also contained allegations against her.
14:03
Speaker 3: According to online court records, in twenty twenty, when John
14:07
Speaker 3: was seventeen years old, while he was living with Randall
14:10
Speaker 3: and Charity, he filed a petition to be legally emancipated
14:13
Speaker 3: from Randall and Charity. He filed that petition after an
14:17
Speaker 3: incident in May of twenty twenty where John alleged that
14:21
Speaker 3: both Charity and Randall slashed the tires on his truck
14:25
Speaker 3: that he had bought himself, and a family friend released
14:29
Speaker 3: a video of that incident that went viral. In that video,
14:33
Speaker 3: Randall can be seen slashing the tires of the truck
14:36
Speaker 3: with a knife, while Charity is in the background holding
14:39
Speaker 3: one of their young children and threatening to cut off
14:41
Speaker 3: John's phone. The court granted John's petition, so John has
14:47
Speaker 3: described his mother Charity as loving and kind, but he
14:51
Speaker 3: has also acknowledged that he had serious conflict with Charity
14:54
Speaker 3: and Randall when he was a teenager, Charity's father, Randy.
14:58
Speaker 1: Powell, had a complicated history with her as well.
15:01
Speaker 3: After she died, Charity's father was one of her most
15:04
Speaker 3: vocal defenders, but we discovered from looking back at the
15:07
Speaker 3: court file that their relationship also had its share of conflicts.
15:11
Speaker 3: In fact, according to court records, Charity actually wrote an
15:15
Speaker 3: unpublished book about Randy's allegimist treatment of her when she
15:19
Speaker 3: was young. She stated that he had allowed her to
15:22
Speaker 3: be physically and sexually abused. Note she did not say
15:26
Speaker 3: that he physically or sexually abused her himself, just that
15:30
Speaker 3: he left her in unsafe situations. Until a few months
15:34
Speaker 3: before her death, she hadn't spoken to Randy, her dad,
15:37
Speaker 3: in ten years, according to the records, and they didn't
15:39
Speaker 3: start speaking again until after the domestic violence incident with
15:44
Speaker 3: Randall in February of twenty twenty five, when she separated
15:47
Speaker 3: from her husband. Charity's father, Randy, was in court the
15:52
Speaker 3: day of the divorce hearings, and he walked out after
15:55
Speaker 3: Judge Shannon Blatt announced her ruling. And then on December eleventh,
15:59
Speaker 3: a week after Charity and the children's bodies were found,
16:03
Speaker 3: Judge Blatt's office reported that Randy called the court and
16:07
Speaker 3: told her assistant that she might as well pull the
16:10
Speaker 3: trigger herself, and Randy also claimed that the court had
16:13
Speaker 3: blood on its hands. The judge later reported that call
16:17
Speaker 3: to the Fort Smith Police Department. Like everything else in
16:21
Speaker 3: this case, Charity's history with these family members is way
16:25
Speaker 3: more complicated than can ever be recapped in.
16:28
Speaker 1: A two minute news clip.
16:30
Speaker 3: So what actually went down in court? On December second,
16:34
Speaker 3: the day before Charity and her children's bodies were found.
16:37
Speaker 3: Charity walked into court that day looking for full custody
16:40
Speaker 3: of her kids. Randal also wanted full custody. Charity claimed
16:45
Speaker 3: at that hearing on December second that Randall was abusive.
16:48
Speaker 1: He claimed that Charity was.
16:50
Speaker 3: Emotionally abusing the children by alienating them from him. Charity
16:54
Speaker 3: claimed Randall was financially controlling and also used coercive control.
16:59
Speaker 3: Randal testified that he made four hundred thousand dollars a
17:02
Speaker 3: year as a physician and deposited ten thousand dollars every
17:05
Speaker 3: month or two into Charity's account. Randall claimed that he
17:09
Speaker 3: was generous, but that Charity overspent on cosmetic procedures and
17:13
Speaker 3: just stuff in general, and that because of that, he
17:15
Speaker 3: claimed he and Charity had agreed that she was not
17:18
Speaker 3: what he called a good steward of their money, But
17:22
Speaker 3: Randal said in general he believed he and Charity had
17:25
Speaker 3: a great relationship. However, he said that in his eyes,
17:29
Speaker 3: something changed in twenty twenty four, after Charity gave up
17:33
Speaker 3: drinking and smoking pot and got more involved in her church.
17:37
Speaker 3: Randal claimed that while he believed Charity abstaining from these
17:41
Speaker 3: substances was in general against thing, he claimed that after
17:46
Speaker 3: that that Charity began to hate him and that their
17:49
Speaker 3: physical relationship deteriorated. Now, this was Randall's testimony. It's only
17:54
Speaker 3: one side of the story, but it did seem to
17:58
Speaker 3: match some of what John told news reporters, at least
18:01
Speaker 3: the part about his mom rediscovering her faith. It also
18:05
Speaker 3: seemed to match some of her social media posts that
18:08
Speaker 3: showed Charity being very active in church and the year
18:11
Speaker 3: before she and the children died. One thing that is
18:15
Speaker 3: not in dispute is that Charity and Randall got into
18:17
Speaker 3: a huge argument at home on February sixteenth, twenty twenty five.
18:21
Speaker 3: During that altercation, Charity claimed that Randal choked her in
18:25
Speaker 3: front of the children. In August of twenty twenty five,
18:29
Speaker 3: Charity commented on a local news story about domestic abuse
18:32
Speaker 3: and wrote that she was living this battle. She said
18:36
Speaker 3: that she was the victim, but that she felt treated
18:39
Speaker 3: like the problem. She wrote that lives were at stake,
18:42
Speaker 3: including the lives of young children, and in October of
18:46
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, Randall pleaded guilty to third degree domestic
18:50
Speaker 3: battery related to this incident. However, at that final custody
18:55
Speaker 3: hearing on December second, Randall had another version of events
18:58
Speaker 3: of what he claimed happened that day. He claimed that
19:02
Speaker 3: Charity was the instigator of the February fight and that
19:06
Speaker 3: he had just picked her up and put her on
19:07
Speaker 3: a bathroom counter to get out the.
19:09
Speaker 1: Door and get away.
19:11
Speaker 3: After that fight, in February, Charity and Randall separated, and
19:16
Speaker 3: throughout twenty twenty five, after Charity filed for divorce and
19:19
Speaker 3: asked for full custody of the twins, Charity was posting
19:23
Speaker 3: on social media about domestic violence and about feeling failed
19:27
Speaker 3: by the system. Randall claimed that Charity was the abusive one.
19:32
Speaker 3: During this time, he claimed that she had pulled the
19:35
Speaker 3: children out of school to homeschool them and coached them
19:38
Speaker 3: to say things about him and alienated him from them. Meanwhile,
19:42
Speaker 3: Charity admitted she had pulled the kids out of school,
19:45
Speaker 3: but she said she did it because they were having
19:48
Speaker 3: medical issues and that quote they could not make it
19:51
Speaker 3: through a single full day without either having a migraine
19:55
Speaker 3: or vomiting episodes end quote. She told the judge on
19:59
Speaker 3: December second, that her children, especially her son, would have
20:02
Speaker 3: an upset stomach around family holidays or on her birthday,
20:06
Speaker 3: times that she claimed coincided with their dad being around.
20:11
Speaker 3: Randal said that was absolutely false. Again, there are two
20:14
Speaker 3: sides to every story, but all of this came to
20:17
Speaker 3: a head on December second, twenty twenty five. The bottom
20:21
Speaker 3: line is things did not go well for Charity at
20:24
Speaker 3: that hearing. After going through four different attorneys at that hearing,
20:29
Speaker 3: Charity chose to represent herself. Randall stated in court that
20:33
Speaker 3: he wanted access to his children, that he loved them
20:36
Speaker 3: very much, and that Charity was alienating them. Charity said
20:40
Speaker 3: the children were afraid of Randall. Randal denied that. He
20:44
Speaker 3: said Charity had lied to the children and coached them.
20:48
Speaker 1: Things got heated in there.
20:49
Speaker 3: Randall was claiming that Charity turned the children against him.
20:53
Speaker 3: He said that he wanted full custody because he believed
20:56
Speaker 3: Charity was harming them emotionally. The court also heard about
21:01
Speaker 3: the February twenty twenty five domestic violence incident. We have
21:05
Speaker 3: already heard that Charity said Randall choked her and endangered
21:08
Speaker 3: the children, and that Randal ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor
21:12
Speaker 3: third degree domestic battery, but at the divorce hearing, Randal
21:17
Speaker 3: had an entirely different account of what he said happened
21:20
Speaker 3: that day. Randall claimed that Charity attacked him after he
21:25
Speaker 3: took her phone. He admitted to pushing her up on
21:29
Speaker 3: the bathroom counter in an attempt to get away, but
21:32
Speaker 3: he said that Charity was the instigator of that argument.
21:35
Speaker 3: The court also heard about an older incident from twenty thirteen,
21:39
Speaker 3: where Charity admitted she had pulled a gun on Randal
21:42
Speaker 3: during a domestic argument. Charity also said, by the way
21:45
Speaker 3: that Randall had pulled guns on her in the past.
21:48
Speaker 3: It's not surprising that Charity and Randall had completely different
21:52
Speaker 3: accounts of what was going on with the children, But
21:55
Speaker 3: it turns out there was another person in court that
21:57
Speaker 3: day who had witnessed the children being interviewed. He had
22:01
Speaker 3: his own views about what was really going on with
22:03
Speaker 3: Charity and Randall's children. An officer named Bobby Woodrum. Officer
22:21
Speaker 3: Woodrum testified that after the February incident, the children were
22:25
Speaker 3: brought in for forensic interviews with a therapist at a
22:28
Speaker 3: place called Hamilton House. Officer Woodrum said he was watching
22:31
Speaker 3: those interviews through a two way mirror. He said while
22:35
Speaker 3: he was watching, he became concerned about the number of
22:38
Speaker 3: times that, he said, the kids told the interviewer that
22:42
Speaker 3: their mother had told them to say something thing. Officer
22:45
Speaker 3: Woodrom testified that he later told Randall's attorneys that he
22:49
Speaker 3: believed that Charity had coached the children. He also said
22:53
Speaker 3: that the very next day, someone called the prosecutor's office
22:57
Speaker 3: and said that Officer Woodrum had been paid a million
23:00
Speaker 3: dollars by Randal Ballis and that the officer's conduct was unprofessional.
23:05
Speaker 3: Officer Woodrum testified that the part about him being paid
23:09
Speaker 3: money by Randal b Allis was completely untrue. However, Officer
23:14
Speaker 3: Woodrom did state he was removed from the case not
23:17
Speaker 3: because of the phone call, he said, but because he
23:20
Speaker 3: had asked Charity a question about whether or not she
23:23
Speaker 3: told the children to say certain things, which he said
23:26
Speaker 3: he and his supervisor had decided was inappropriate. Charity was
23:30
Speaker 3: representing herself at this point, so it was actually very
23:34
Speaker 3: awkward because she asked Officer Woodrom point blank if he
23:38
Speaker 3: believed that she had coached and manipulated her own children,
23:41
Speaker 3: and he told her yes, he did believe Charity had
23:45
Speaker 3: coached to manipulated her children. So in the end, Judge
23:48
Speaker 3: Blat had to weigh two very different versions of the
23:51
Speaker 3: same marriage. At the end of the hearing, she said
23:54
Speaker 3: she had serious concerns about both parties. She mentioned Randall's
23:58
Speaker 3: domestic battery please, but also said she was considering Charity's
24:02
Speaker 3: gun incident, and crucially, she said she had not heard
24:07
Speaker 3: any credible evidence of domestic violence against the children. She
24:11
Speaker 3: stated she believed that Charity had credibility issues, and she
24:15
Speaker 3: said she found Randall to be more credible than Charity.
24:19
Speaker 3: And on December second, Judge Blad ordered joint custody, meaning
24:24
Speaker 3: Charity would have the children for a week at a time,
24:27
Speaker 3: then Randall would have them for two weeks.
24:30
Speaker 1: This arrangement one week on.
24:32
Speaker 3: Two weeks off for Charity was meant to go on
24:34
Speaker 3: for the next six months, which meant that a new
24:37
Speaker 3: custody arrangement with Randall having the children two thirds of
24:40
Speaker 3: the time, was supposed to take effect three days later later,
24:44
Speaker 3: on December fifth. The very next day, on December third,
24:48
Speaker 3: the bodies were found. Records from the Sheriff's office talked
24:54
Speaker 3: about these divorce transcripts in their statement when they said,
24:58
Speaker 3: quote an examination of the transcripts of the deposition of
25:01
Speaker 3: miss Billis in the divorce custody case and the final
25:04
Speaker 3: hearing on the case on twelve two, twenty twenty five,
25:08
Speaker 3: reveal that she wished to be reconciled to her estranged husband,
25:11
Speaker 3: which did not happen. End quote just a note here.
25:15
Speaker 3: I have read the entire court transcript from December second,
25:20
Speaker 3: and I can't find anywhere where Charity said she wanted
25:23
Speaker 3: to reconcile with Randall on that day. I have seen
25:26
Speaker 3: references to her sending him messages wanting to get back
25:30
Speaker 3: with him after the February fight. The sheriff said they
25:33
Speaker 3: reviewed the electronic evidence and determined that on December second,
25:37
Speaker 3: at around ten pm, Charity deactivated the home security system
25:41
Speaker 3: with her phone, which police said she he had exclusive
25:44
Speaker 3: access to, and that after she turned the alarm system off.
25:49
Speaker 3: No doors or windows to the home were open, according
25:52
Speaker 3: to information provided by the alarm company. Police also said
25:57
Speaker 3: that they determined that Randall's tesla was quote nowhere near
26:01
Speaker 3: Charity's home on the night of December second, twenty twenty five,
26:05
Speaker 3: and that his phone did not ping any of the.
26:07
Speaker 1: Cell towers near the house. According to the Sheriff's.
26:09
Speaker 3: Office, Randall Bealis has publicly thanked law enforcement for their
26:14
Speaker 3: thoroughness in the investigation. In a statement given to The
26:18
Speaker 3: Independent newspaper, Randall Bialis's attorney, Michael Pierce, said that his
26:22
Speaker 3: client continues to recover from the tragic event that took
26:26
Speaker 3: his children from him. Michael Pierce added that, quote, we
26:30
Speaker 3: were not surprised by the findings in the autopsy, as
26:33
Speaker 3: we knew that mister Beallis was not responsible for the
26:36
Speaker 3: death of his wife nor his children end quote.
26:40
Speaker 1: He added that.
26:41
Speaker 3: The Sebastian County Sheriff's Office made a clear statement that
26:45
Speaker 3: they had not found evidence indicating any conclusion other than
26:49
Speaker 3: those determined by the autopsies conducted by the crime lab.
26:53
Speaker 3: It appears as though Randal Billis is still practicing medicine.
26:58
Speaker 3: Online record show his medical license is still active. There
27:02
Speaker 3: are still a lot of unanswered questions about this case,
27:05
Speaker 3: including what firearm was actually used to kill the children.
27:09
Speaker 1: We don't know that, but we do know that Charity.
27:12
Speaker 3: Told a therapist she was seeing that she believed that
27:15
Speaker 3: Randall was monitoring her through her electronic devices, and that
27:19
Speaker 3: she had purchased a gun because she had heard gun
27:22
Speaker 3: shots near the house one night.
27:24
Speaker 1: But we don't know if the gun she bought was
27:26
Speaker 1: the gun.
27:27
Speaker 3: That was used, or what testing was done on Charity,
27:30
Speaker 3: or if they tested for things like stipling or gunpowder
27:33
Speaker 3: residue on her hands. Another big unanswered question for me
27:37
Speaker 3: is the trash memorabilia. Three days after Charity in the
27:41
Speaker 3: kid's bodies were found at home, a dumb diver was
27:44
Speaker 3: sifting through trash fifteen miles away in Fort Smith. This
27:48
Speaker 3: person found a garbage bag filled with Charity's belongings and
27:53
Speaker 3: what was described as intimate family keepsakes, including photos and
27:57
Speaker 3: a gold necklace engraved with the children's names.
28:01
Speaker 1: We still don't know who threw.
28:03
Speaker 3: Those items away or how they got to that trash can.
28:08
Speaker 3: Investigators with Sebastian County Sheriff's Office have not said much
28:12
Speaker 3: publicly about that. They called this discovery a red flag,
28:17
Speaker 3: but they haven't said anything else about it. Charity's family
28:22
Speaker 3: is also trying to move forward. John Powell told k
28:25
Speaker 3: NWA that he wished that he could hug his mom
28:28
Speaker 3: and brother and.
28:29
Speaker 1: Sister one last time. So what are we left with here?
28:35
Speaker 3: If the sheriff's office is wrong, then someone killed Charity
28:39
Speaker 3: and her children and were able to get in and
28:41
Speaker 3: out of the house with no forced entry. Someone committed
28:45
Speaker 3: a triple homicide and they could still be out there.
28:48
Speaker 3: If the Sheriff's office is right, then Charity might have
28:51
Speaker 3: been both a woman who said she was afraid and
28:55
Speaker 3: the person responsible for the deaths of her children. The
28:59
Speaker 3: custody ruling changed the children's schedule in a major way,
29:03
Speaker 3: and according to the Sheriff's office, the evidence from the
29:06
Speaker 3: night of December second, the autopsy findings, the alarm system,
29:10
Speaker 3: the cell phone data, and the vehicle data points to
29:13
Speaker 3: double homicide and suicide. One final thought here, I saw
29:21
Speaker 3: posting by a journalist someone I respect a lot actually,
29:24
Speaker 3: who was saying that she's talked to several people close
29:27
Speaker 3: to Charity and that not one of them believed that
29:30
Speaker 3: Charity was capable of harming her children. We talked to
29:33
Speaker 3: a source who felt differently. We talked to one of
29:36
Speaker 3: Charity's church members. This person told us that while they
29:39
Speaker 3: believed that Charity loved and adored her children, that she
29:43
Speaker 3: was a great mom, that Charity believed that Randall was
29:47
Speaker 3: the devil. And this person felt that if Charity actually
29:51
Speaker 3: believed that Randal was going to take the children from her,
29:54
Speaker 3: it would have been possible for her to kill her children. Now,
29:57
Speaker 3: obviously this is one person's opinion and proves nothing, but
30:02
Speaker 3: it does, in my opinion, shed more light on the
30:04
Speaker 3: fact that Charity was in a deep crisis. So if
30:09
Speaker 3: Charity believed she was protecting the children somehow, I don't
30:13
Speaker 3: think that her taking the children's lives and then her
30:16
Speaker 3: own life is as unbelievable as a lot of people
30:19
Speaker 3: commenting online seem to feel so. Now that investigators have
30:25
Speaker 3: announced their conclusion, what happens now The Sheriff's office has
30:29
Speaker 3: said the investigation is still open, pending additional reports. I
30:32
Speaker 3: don't know when or if those documents will be released,
30:35
Speaker 3: but I do believe some of those things could help
30:38
Speaker 3: fill in some of the blanks around exactly what happened
30:42
Speaker 3: to Charity in her twins.
30:44
Speaker 1: In the meantime, the official.
30:45
Speaker 3: Ruling is that Charity died by suicide and the children
30:48
Speaker 3: died by homicide. The Sheriff's office says the evidence does
30:51
Speaker 3: not support the involvement of another person. Charity's families say
30:55
Speaker 3: they don't believe she killed the children. Randal Bellis denies
30:58
Speaker 3: involvement and has not been charged. One of the most
31:03
Speaker 3: heartbreaking things about this case is the fact that these
31:06
Speaker 3: families have been so torn apart they cannot even agree
31:10
Speaker 3: on basic things like funeral arrangements.
31:13
Speaker 1: Charity's son, John.
31:15
Speaker 3: Asked the court to order that when the Arkansas crime
31:17
Speaker 3: Lab was finished, that Charity's body and the bodies of
31:20
Speaker 3: his little brother and sister be released to him so
31:23
Speaker 3: that they could all be buried together. But only Charity's
31:27
Speaker 3: remains were released to John. The twins remains were given
31:30
Speaker 3: to Randall, so Charity Belie was buried on December twenty ninth, alone,
31:35
Speaker 3: without her children next to her. I'm Catherine Townsend. This
31:42
Speaker 3: is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is
31:46
Speaker 3: a production of School of Humans and iHeart podcasts. It's
31:49
Speaker 3: written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by
31:52
Speaker 3: Etily's Perez Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research
31:56
Speaker 3: assistance and Sarah Burns for legal review. Noah Camra mixed
32:00
Speaker 3: and scored this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Salek.
32:04
Speaker 3: Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley.
32:08
Speaker 3: Listen to Helen Gone adfree by subscribing to the iHeart
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Speaker 3: True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you are
32:15
Speaker 3: interested in seeing documents and materials from the case, you
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Speaker 3: can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gone Pod
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Speaker 3: or find me on Patreon at Catherine Townshend Investigates.
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Speaker 1: If you have a case.
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