The last place Martha Lance expected to find love was with her teenage daughter’s driving instructor.
But whenever Bradley ‘Bill’ Beatty picked the teenager up for her lessons, he’d chat with the single mum and there was a spark.
In another life, Bill had been a long-distance truck driver, married to his high school sweetheart, Sandra Tucker, with whom he had three children.
But the long hours had taken its toll on their relationship, and the couple had divorced in 1973.
It seemed like destiny then that Bill decided on a career change in 1982, meeting Martha via her daughter’s driving lessons not long after.
Martha was instantly smitten with the charming gentleman. And Bill loved how family oriented Martha was.
Soon, the pair became an item. Bill moved into Martha’s family home, and within a year, they were married.
Martha, 37, also had a young son, Andy, four. So Bill raised him as if he was his own; he was the only father the boy had ever known.
In 1989, the family relocated to another state. When Andy was 18, he moved out, married a woman called Jennifer, and had a daughter, Tabitha.
But the marriage didn’t work out, and eventually Andy and Tabitha moved back in with Martha and Bill.
For 20 years, the couple appeared to be happily married.
During that time, Bill gave up his work as a driving instructor and got a job at a local gas station and convenience store, working his way up to the position of district manager.
While Martha was mostly a housewife, she’d pick up shifts at the station here and there, too.
Bill was hard-working, well-liked by his colleagues, and in over 10 years, he’d never missed a single day on the job. In fact, he made a habit of turning up to work 15 minutes early.
So, on August 28, 2001, when Bill was over an hour late for his shift, it was so out of character that his colleague Gail called Martha, who told her that her husband had indeed left for work and that his truck wasn’t in the driveway.
A couple of hours later, when he still hadn’t showed up, Martha reported him missing to police. She said she’d last seen him the evening before, as the couple got ready for bed.
Because Bill had such early starts, he slept in his own room down the hall, while Martha shared with her granddaughter, Tabitha.
She hadn’t spoken to her husband in the early morning or heard him leave, she told cops.
Martha seemed concerned and even suggested to police that maybe Bill had decided to leave her. Meanwhile, Gail had agreed to cover Bill’s shift.
On her way to the gas station, she spotted Bill’s truck at the side of the road. His car keys were on the front seat, but he was nowhere to be found.
When police officers searched the vehicle, they found Bill’s wedding ring in the glove compartment.
Maybe he had left his wife…
Two weeks later, Martha called police again.
She told them Bill had phoned to say he’d moved interstate, and had no intention of coming back.
Officers contacted Bill’s children who, while they hadn’t heard from him, said the couple had financial issues.
Bill was unhappy with how much Martha spent and how many handouts she gave her son, Andy, 23, who Bill thought was running with a bad crowd and neglecting his child.
Bill’s colleagues also said that whenever Martha took shifts at the gas station money would go missing. So Bill stopped giving Martha shifts and put her on a strict allowance.
Eight months passed before police believed they had grounds to bring Martha in for an interview.
She said her husband had been having affairs, so she wasn’t surprised he was gone.
“He’ll be back,” she told them, claiming he’d left her briefly 16 years earlier, and had returned.
For three years, the investigation stalled.
Then, in February 2004, cops got an anonymous tip that Bill Beatty was buried in land by Martha’s house, and that she was no longer living there.
Nothing was found in a search.
But it did prompt Jeanette, Andy’s girlfriend who he’d been living with, to speak to police.
She said Andy had told her that his mother had accidentally shot Bill dead, and that Andy had helped bury him under the garage.
What happened to Bill Beatty?
That structure was no longer there – but the new residents allowed police to dig in that location, and they found Bill’s body under six feet of dirt.
Bill Beatty had two bullet holes in the back of his head and investigators determined he’d likely been shot while asleep – no accident.
Finally, Jeanette admitted the murder had been deliberate.
The mother and son had done it because Martha had given $2300 of Bill’s money to Andy, who was supposed to spend it on legal fees but instead bought a truck and drugs.
Knowing how Bill would react when he discovered this, they’d conspired to kill him – and Jeanette admitted she’d helped Martha and Andy cover it up.
But she was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony.
Meanwhile, Martha and Andy were both charged with first-degree murder. Police couldn’t determine which of them pulled the trigger but could prove both were involved.
In May 2005, Martha Beatty, 60, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
She died behind bars in 2020 after contracting COVID-19.
In a separate trial in April 2006, Andrew Paul Norman, 27, pleaded guilty to the same charge and received the same sentence.
And all of it over $2300.
