Episode 2 - The Millionaire, the Gold Digger and the Obsessive Lover

a production of Katie Studios and I Heart Radio. I'm Courtney Armstrong, a crime producer at Katie Studios, joined by fellow producers Stephanie Ledaker, Jeff Shane, Beth Greenwald, and Tim Hamilton's We're examining the story of the millionaire, the gold digger, and the obsessive lover. Steve Beard had been happily married to his wife, Alice for forty two years. The pair had three adult children, and life was good until sadly,

Alice passed away from brain cancer. Just two weeks after his wife died, Steve met thirty year old Celeste Johnson Martinez. The blonde bombshell, worked as a server at the same Austin country club where the sixty eight year old millionaire played golf. Celeste was a struggling single mom with twin daughters, Christina and Jennifer. Initially, Steve hired Celest to be as housekeeper, but soon a romance bloomed and Steve was opening up a new world to Celeste and her girls. In this world,

money was no object. Celeste went from waiting tables to traveling the world in first class, wearing designer clothes and living in Steve's mansion. But the realizing on the cake was that Steve truly adored Celeste's daughters. Two years after meeting, the couple married on February at the same Austin country club where the pair met. Steve was a self made millionaire.

He was a bit of a media mogul. In fact, he had owned Austin's first independent TV station, which he eventually sold for millions and millions of dollars, and he was married to his first wife for forty two years. So he was a very devoted husband and self proclaimed family man. When you really think about this whole thing, it's kind of like the sound of music, right. She came into his house to take care of his house and fell in love with the guy who owned it,

and their family soon moved in. He was by himself in this big house. You know, you start to want a companionship, right. But here's the interesting thing. Celeste was almost forty years his junior. And Celeste had come from a really rocky star like She had moved many times, she had issues with her parents, she had gotten married several times. There was really no stability in this lady's life. She had two children. They were twins, and she put the twins in and out of foster cares in their

very young early lives. They don't even call Celeste mom. They call her Celeste. And when Steve came into celest life, the girls were officially finally adopted by him. This is like the first person they considered to be like a real dad beyond their natural dad. Forty years it's a

big age difference. What age is just a number. To have such a rough start in life and to end up finally meeting this guy, and things really felt like for the first time in celeste life that they were looking up and they're off to the races with a happy young marriage, and you know, she and her daughters ended up living this beautiful house with this great guy,

and they fell in love. Steve's might have obviously had a crush on Celeste before he moved around as the housekeeper, but pretty quickly became mutual because they started dating and got married rather quickly. But Steve was no dumb. He had the lest sign of prenup, but it wasn't exactly

that strict of a prenup. It stated that if they got divorced, the less would get up front, no questions asked, five thousand dollars, and there was another stipulation that if they were married for more than three years, she would get an additional five dollars. So if they were married for three years and got divorced, she still to make a million dollars. That being said, if he died, there was the prenup was completely off, so she stood to

make a ton more money in his passing. Well, since Steve's defense, you know, he finally was able to find somebody new to love. Now he has an instant family. They knew that they're dead, had hired a housekeeper, but realized that things had shifted when they were going to the super bowls of family and you know who did Steve bring along? But now the housekeeper. And so when they met her, as the house manager says, oh, I know her so much about you. I've heard so many

great things about you. And his kids turned to her and said, that's funny, because we have heard literally nothing about you. They were proceeding very cautiously. Do we know their frame of mind? They did actually think that it looked like a charming lady with sweet kids, because the kids, both girls, Christina and Jennifer, were really smart, intelligent, very respectful. And there are statistics that show that men lose a loved one after many many years, in this case decades,

that they really can't be alone. It's petrifying. So it's sort of the perfect storm or makes him the perfect target for somebody likes Celeste. Also, in Celeste's defense, you know, she's a waitress, she's trying to make her way, she's trying to provide for her children. Obviously she's had a couple of pickups along the way, and you know, as long as there is air and people's lungs, they can start a new and maybe this was finally her chance to really feel safe and feel at home. They all

look so happy. They do know that I'm looking at Yeah, it must be at Celeste's daughter's graduation, and he is smiling, you know, Celestue look looking at it kind of makes for the perfect family. And also, if Celeste didn't have a great background herself, which we know was the case that she was in and neet of foster care, and she herself was not raised in a stable environment, yeah

she might have had some daddy issues. And now here she is, she finds this man who's very respected and has a lot to offer, not only financially, but probably emotionally as well. At this point, he's probably at the eve of his career, so he probably had a lot more time on his hands, could really be invested with her children. And you know, that to me makes a little bit of sense. Yeah, I'm looking at the picture. There's obviously a big age difference on paper, but he

looks like a pretty young god. So it's not like you're picturing a Nicole Smith and her husband and it doesn't really look like that. Right. That's a good point, Jeff. And think about it now, Celeste daughters who had a really tough background and had you know, literally no consistency. Now they have a new house, in a new school, and frankly, a new life with a lot of love.

Celeste had a spending problem, and within the first six months of their marriage she'd burned through five hundred thousand dollars. Three years into the marriage, Celeste grew restless and started cheating on Steve. Just a few years later, she had squandered another three hundred thousand dollars on designer clothes, sports cars, and fancy dinners. At one point, Celeste through a lavish eighteenth birthday party for her twin daughters, and she didn't

even invite Steve. He was frustrated and had had enough. He ultimately kicked Celeste out and also told her that he wanted a divorce. Panicked, Celess threatened to kill herself. She put a gone to her head in front of one of her daughters. It was later discovered that the gun wasn't even loaded, but in any case, Steve stepped in to help his wife, and he checked her into Timberland, an expensive psychiatric facility. It was there when Celess met

Tracy Tarleton, a fellow patient. Tracy came from a dysfunctional but wealthy family and was a University of Texas graduate. Despite being a manager at one of Austin's top bookstores, she suffered from bipolar disorder, substance abuse, and oppression. Celeste and Tracy quickly became close friends. It seems like everyone around Steve caught onto the fact that Celeste was cheating before he did, and he was the last to know. I mean, she was hanging out with her second ex

husband coming in late. She was spending his money like it was going out of style. He was just frustrated and he was done. Here's what we know about Tracy and Celeste. So Tracy and Celeste formed a very tight relationship at this rehab center. And that's one of the rules when you go to these types of places is that you're not supposed to really super bond or overly trauma bond. But they were really good friends and we're excited to stay in touch after they left the facility.

When they did leave the facility, however, they remained friends and they became lovers. So Tracy specifically, it said, really fell hard for Celeste. And yes, the pair continued to see one another on a pretty regular basis, but they talked to one another on the phone all the time, and they did like family things together, in things out

in public together. One example we heard about was that Tracy attended Celeste's daughter's graduation, which again is a very intimate family affair, and then Celeste also, through Tracy's bookstore employees, a party, and at that point Steve was sort of being very accepting of Celeste's a new friend, but everyone else, including her daughters, did not buy it, and everybody around Steve seemed to know that she was, in fact having an affair with Tracy. We're going to take a quick break.

We'll be back in just a moment. Yes, So obviously they're trying to work on their relationship, or Steve thinks they're working on the relationship, but Celeste want to know part of that. She told her friend, her new friend, Tracy, that she was doing things like filling his nightly vodka drink with ever clear, which is a grain alcohol and much stronger than vodka, so he would actually get much drunker than he thought and pass out, and she could again hit the town. What was she spending all this

money on closed jewelry? She was going to the casinos, something that happens also after she gets out of the psychiatric ward. Is that Celeste ultimately confides in Tracy that she doesn't love Steve, She's never loved Steve, that he's nothing but a daddy warbuck ser, that he's a ridiculous, fat old man, that he is not to be trusted.

She's painting this picture of the narrative she wants people to hear, including her new girl there emotionally bonding over what she's explaining to be the abuse she's suffering at home. This is like something that Tracy and Celestue start to really develop their their relationship and sink their teeth into as they're growing stronger. In time is going by here, Celesque finally has a stable home for her daughters. Yet she's out and about gallivanting at night, kind of repeating

the exact same patterns that she came into the relationship with. No, it's the exact same pattern. You finally have this everything you wish you could have, and yet just flushed it away as if it didn't matter to her. She saw one thing dollar signs. I'll also say that when Tracy asked the list, why don't you just get divorced? She would make up these stories and say like she'd be hunted down and that she felt like a prisoner in

her own home and that they would find her. So she was building up this world that didn't really exist to make everybody feel sympathetic for her because she felt as though Steve was going to actually come find her, and that because he was very successful, that he would somehow put a hit on her. Like what was he gonna do? That's what she was kind of saying without saying.

But the truth was a man who was high on fifteen ambience because you baked it into his matched potatoes, is not coming after you're looking for you at night while you're out with other men and other women. But also he was going to divorce her. I mean, let's remember he was fed up with all the antics and was divorcing her. So there was a lot of holes

in this story. And he was divorcing her because he realized what was happening, he did the right thing and tried to help her with putting her into the psychiatric facility and trying to get her back on the right path. And so that just goes to show his character and his kindness that even as he's being screwed over. He's still wanting to do this good for somebody who's doing bad to him, and do good for the mother of

the two children that he just adopted. But the daughters are smarter than you think, and the daughters really start to see what's happening here. And I'll also say with Celeste, even though they were getting divorced, she was able to convince him back to it was a psychiatric problem and he was putting the divorce on hold. Not only did he believe that he helped her, but then he believed that she was helping herself. So now she's like getting

back in his good graces again. He really wanted to believe her and believe that this next time would be the right time and that she would finally change again, and that might have sailed his fate. It really is. Yeah, speaks to steps point about like when you're in love with someone, you give them a pass in a way that you wouldn't with anyone else. Because when you heard that that she throws a party for her kid and doesn't invite her husband, like that is very weird behavior

from an outsider, you're like major red flag. But if you're in that relationship, you can figure out why to justify anything, even something like that. He didn't know these things were happening until it happened. That's when the divorce conversation started. But because she got help, and because she came out of there understanding what she did wrong and that she's proclaimed she didn't really want to hurt him and she didn't realize what she was doing, she won

him back. But while she's talking out of one face, the other face is also exiting this psychiatric word with a new girlfriend, Intel. She had a pretty sweet gig. It sounds like like she can spend his money. He's not going to leave her. So when did it all turn or hit ahead? I guess. At three thirteen on October two, Steve Beard was home sleeping. Someone entered the home through a side door and quietly made their way to Steve's bedroom. The intruder shot him with a shotgun.

He woke up, bleeding and in agony, and called one. When the police and paramedics arrived at his mansion, Steve was found lying in his bed, holding his intestines from a hole in his abdomen. Paramedics thought Steve had ruptured a surgical incision. As more police arrived, celest In her daughter Christina appeared from a separate wing of the house. Apparently the women had been in the house the entire time,

but didn't hear a thing. After airlifting Steve to a hospital, the police searched his bedroom and found a shell casing from a shotgun. This was no ruptured incision. This was a did murder. Here's Steve's nine one one call. I got out of my stomach. Oh my god. Crazy that he was able to make that call. As that happens. I mean, you think when someone gets shot in the stomach or either guts fly out for whatever reason, they're probably not able to do that. He didn't think he

was shot. Nobody thought he was shot. He thought he had like an appendix explosion and it protruded through his stomach. He was so fast asleep. Imagine how loud a shotgun is and for nobody in the whole house to hear it, including the guy who was shot by the shotgun. Right, how big is this house? That's the last and her kids can be somewhere else. And like you said to him, she gives him all these sleeping pills. So he was probably really zonked out whenever he was shot. He really

didn't hear anything at all. I mean, is a wonder he even woke up to call nine one one, like you said. But he survived, so obviously he was alive and has enough strength to call nine one one. So why is Celeste in the house though? So she couldn't have arranged it because she was there with her daughter. Well, here's what we know that as paramedics carried Steve away, Celeste burst into tears and started screaming, don't let him die,

don't let him die. Later at the hospital, the police tested Selest and her daughters both for gunpowder residue on their hands, because I remember they found the shotgun shell. They also asked them if they knew anyone who would be angry enough at Steve or who would want to cause him harm. We also do know in interviewing other people in Steve's circle and at the hospital, Tracy's name comes up all the time. Celeste daughters actually went to the police and said, we have a really bad feeling

about this Tracy character. So now here they are, they finally have the life they always dreamed of, and they feel really safe with Steve and safe in the life they've now moved into. Tracy is going to really ruin this for them. So they were really helpful to the police because a they didn't want to lose their stepfather. He had given them so much, and also they didn't want this whole great life to get screwed up. Police. You know, it hurt Tracy's name from other sources as well.

So the police go to Tracy's house to speak to her about steves murder, and well, Tracy just spills. Tracy admits having an affair with Celeste Um, that they lovers, that this has been going on for a while, you know, everything that's Celestie told her about Steve. And and then the police ask a question. They asked Tracy if she

owns a shotgun and what we think happened. She hands over her twenty gage shotgun, which by the way, had her name in boss Lama, and the police are able to trace the shell casing left at the scene to Tracy and her embossed twenty gage shotgun. So just six day years later after the shooting, Tracy Charlton was arrested for shooting Steve with a shotgun and he's still alive. He's totally still alive. He's not only still alive, he doesn't believe his wife at the time, Celess has anything

to do with this. Steve was in the hospital for four months and during this time Celess would visit him constantly. She sat at his bedside and made sure he got the best care. So, despite their rocky past, Steve has a change of heart about divorcing his wife. To show just how much he had forgiven her, he changed his

will to give her up. So what he does is he goes to his lawyers and has them start adjusting and updating all of his will and testament to give her even more money because no, I'm not kidding, and make sure that she's even more well take care of for her and her daughter's in case something happens to him. All the while this is happening while he's in the hospital.

Do we know if Steve was told about Tracy getting arrested and all this, like what the police talking to him and presenting that what happened, and that didn't change his mind about his wife. Yeah, good question. Because Steve has a lot of resources, He's a wealthy man. I'm sure thankfully he's getting the best possible care at the hospital because he has enough money to pay for it. But he also probably has enough money to get a really serious investigation going, if you know, to even help

with the police to figure out who did this. She was always able when he was kind of walking away from her. She always had an uncanny way of pulling him back in and even stronger than they were before. So I think, you know, he has this traumatic thing happened, and I think she's playing to the hilt and don't let him die. And I love him, and he's you know, she's she's sitting with him, and also he's very sick. He's on medication, So you know, where is his concern?

Probably that his wife is there and his dogs are taking care of him. I don't think he's looking outside of that, not at all. Tim Please tell me that she's not in on this, because if she would allow one of her daughters to be in the home when that daughter's beloved stepfather is murdered, that's a real sicko defense. Like that's her alibi, right, that's her alibi. But you've got to remember, all along she's been doing these very illegal criminal things by poisoning his food, giving him alcohol

that's gonna knock him out. But in front of the girls, they are the ones who are conflicted of we say something, what she's our mother, this is our the man who's who's providing for us. They're really not understanding, like they're young, I mean eighteen. Yeah, this is crazy. And not only did she go spending his money, but she decided to go out while her husband's in the hospital and buy an eighty thousand dollar watch. Either she knows her time is running out or she truly is in love with

herself and nobody else matters. On January two thousand and ailing, Steve died from an infection in his lungs. It had been brought on by complications from the shooting. At the time of his passing, Steve was worth ten million dollars and that money goes to her part of it. The

other part goes to his five surviving children. Yes, celest to receive assets and property totaling six point five million dollars, and like Tim said, the rest would be divided up between steves five children, his three adult biological kids, and then Celestue twins who he adopted. As we know, this is like a three month October is when he gets shot. In January is when he dies. What's happening with Tracy? She was arrested pretty quickly, But is she in jail

or what she old? Shimately is able to pay bail and continues to see celesce but with you know, within months of that, Tracy say said that they mutually agreed to end that relationship. So after all this, Tracy and Celeste part ways and is Celeste also brought into authorities because she was commiserating. So what happened was Celesque got what she needed from Tracy. She got her to get rid of this person who was the only roadblock between her and the money. However, once Steve died, the bank

refused to pay out. They wanted a criminal investigation, which is very rare. However, they were extenuating circumstances. The bank put a hold until an investigation was complete, and right before the completion of the investigation, where Tracy was arrested and detained moments before given her sentence, she made a plea deal with the state and turned state's evidence and testified against lest Why what drove her to do that? Uh?

What would drive her to do that? Would be that she found out that Celestue got remarried again and denied that she was ever in any kind of physical, emotional um relationship with Tracy at all. And so that was the route awakening that Tracy really needed to open her eyes and say, I've been played. Here's everything I know in m states evidence. So Tracy is obviously a killer, but also a little feel bad for her her her

heart just got broken. Yeah, I don't feel that bad for Tracy, but I do feel for her that she was another victim of Celeste. I do feel bad she was another victim. Let's stop here for another quick break. As it possible that's Celeste targeted Tracy inside of that psychiatric ward because at that point she already knew she wanted to get divorced. Maybe she was able to convince Tracy to hang in there and actually pull this off. As it possible that Celeste had this plan from the start.

Everybody was targeted in celesque life, so that doesn't wouldn't surprise me at all. But it's really manipulative, and I bet she she probably did. You're probably exactly right. She signed an agreement if this marriage was gonna end after three years, she was going to get like another lump sum. I think that is at his peak, he was worth something like sixteen million dollars and she's gonna walk away with fived So hell no, she does not want a divorce,

that's the last thing she wants. But here she is. You know, where do you go to find someone who's broken in some way, who's easy to manipulate? A hospital. I do think that she knew exactly what she was doing and what she was planning the whole time, because the divorce was not the way that she was leaving this marriage. She wanted to leave with with her money, and she wanted to leave with all the stuff, the jewelry,

the first she wants to go gambling. She wanted to do whatever she wanted, and the only way to do at was to get rid of Steve. That's so sad. Tracy realizes she was manipulated and that's less live to her about her relationship with Steve, and she takes action. In March of two thousand and two, three years after Steve was shot and just two days before her own trial is set to begin, Tracy cuts a deal with

the prosecutor in exchange for a twenty years sentence. Tracy said she would testify that it was Celest who planned the murder of her husband. When that blows me away because she was holding the shotgun. She murdered a man in cold blood because he was having an affair with

the man's wife. One other thing that happened that's really missed up that Celeste asked her daughters to do, and her daughter's boyfriends, she asked them if they would all commit suicide together right before she was about to be arrested. When she found out, Tracy turned state's evidence, which meant they were coming after her. And that's when we knew we had to go to the FBI ourselves. And that's when the two girls and boyfriends went to the FBI

as well. You know who She reminds me of her mother, her biological mother, who said, I'm not your mother. I was just her incubator. That's exactly what it's like, right, because there's no emotional connection or never mind love, but there's no connection to these kids. In fact, Christina kind of went on record and said, I never felt like I was her daughter. I felt like I was her

personal assistant to do and get anything. She wanted, and so this lady, Tracy Celeste was manipulating her to believe that she was the one and only and that she was being abused by Steve, and that this was a horrible situation that she can't get out of. And so not that it makes it right at all, because it doesn't.

But you have to understand also, she manipulated this person into believing she was in love with her, and that, in Tracy's weird no kind of defense, she said, understand, she was in love and she couldn't bear the thought of seeing the person she was in love with being manipulated or hurt by this man. So she, in her weird way, was thinking she was helping. Good point, that's

a really good point. She just, i mean literally swung from people's lives to other people's lives, wreaking havocs, spending money, doing whatever she wanted, thinking that it was never going to catch up here and she truly loved herself more than anyone else. Two years after Steve Bird shooting, Celeste

was arrested and charged with capital murder. She hired Dick de Gurin, a high powered attorney, the same man who represented the likes of Robert Durst and David Koresh d Guran painted Selest ex Tracy as an obsessive, love sick woman with a delusional fantasy. He went as far as to say that two women were just friends, nothing more. The d A responded by saying Celeste was a mentally ill woman who used Tracy to at rid of Steve

so she could inherit millions of dollars. At the trial, with all of Austin watching, Celesque daughters took the stand, but they weren't there to defend their mother. Instead, they were testifying for the prosecution. However, it's really Tracy's testimony that brings the story full circle. Here she is on the stand. She had a plan and she wanted me to shoot him at Tor Canyon with my shotmun What did she say about exactly how she wanted you to shoot?

She wanted me to shoot in the stock. Why is she where you shooting in the stop because she didn't want flatter She didn't want a blood splatter on the wall. Is that the word she used? Flatter? She used to flatter? Um did she say why she didn't want a blood splatter on the wall. She at the time was not planning on redecorating, So she wanted to continue to be that room, but not miss it up stays to that question. Um,

so she didn't want to be decorate it. She didn't want to live with anything on the reminder, So after you saw Steve Beard and you were in there in the bedroom, what if anything did you do? I want? It's insane? Wow, So you're gonna still stay in that house. You're gonna still stay in that bedroom. Understand. The twins, Christina and Jennifer, now like in the early twenties, confirmed their mom's contempt for Steve. They told the court their

mom was a liar. Christina said her mom would make comments like why does it why doesn't he just die already. They went on to explain the whole crushing of drugs into his food. It was really damning and so so sad to watch this happening. And Celeste of course completely deny all of this. You know, Celes denied everything and claimed the twins were out for money because if she

was convicted, they would each get two million dollars. So she was trying to say, you know, they're lying and they have a vested interest in me going to jail because they're gonna get two million dollars each. I mean, they love Steve. They were telling the truth. The girls were honest. They told me exactly the truth, and I

honestly think that Celess got exactly what she deserved. In two thousand three, after two and a half days of deliberation, the jury found Celess Beard guilty of capital murder and she was sentenced to life in prison. After serving ten years, Tracy Tarleton was released on parole in August of two thousand eleven. She said there wasn't a single day that

went by without feeling shame for what she did. Celest Beard is now divorced from her fifth husband and and continues to maintain that she did not have a hand in killing Steve. She will be eligible for parole on April one. Crazy in Love is produced by Stephanie Laie Decker, Beth Greenwald, Chris Graves, Lisa d Giovine, Jeff Shane, Tim Hamilton's and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by

Jeff Twa additional editing by Davy Cooper Wasser. Crazy in Love is a production of I Heart Radio and Katie Studios. For more podcasts, from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.