00:01
The following is a true story that happened in Howard City, Michigan. Population 1,500. A town a lot like any other. A town a lot like yours.
00:13
Howard City is probably unique as kind of known as a trucking capital. Most people in this area drove truck or had something to do with driving truck.
00:22
It's small town, USA.
00:24
So coming from no crime at all to having a double murder changed everything. Now, even though we're a pretty close-knit community, you never know who you can trust.
00:42
My main concern is the man's going to get away. He shot her. He shot her in the face. Who knows what he's going to do next?
00:48
You don't know if someone crazy is coming for you. Some are out of the dark. You just don't know.
00:54
Every second that passes is one more second that someone responsible may be able to distance themselves from what they did. And we didn't know how many people were on the run. I just lost my best friend.
01:05
I didn't know whether to be mad or cry or what to do or how to act. It's like somebody stabbed me in the heart.
01:14
This is the story of Bob and Norma Bean, a couple that ran a trucking company and were known to treat their neighbors and employees well. But in this small town, not everyone was content to let the Beans enjoy their hard-earned success. And what started as jealousy quickly spirals into a murder that shakes the town to its core.
01:38
From ID and ample entertainment, this is Murder in the Heartland.
01:56
Emergency number one.
01:58
I just sent the kids to the school and this guy was on the side of the road.
02:01
Emergency number one.
02:04
I was driving down dead roads and a guy tried to jump into my vehicle with me. Special defense. We were on our way to the school and a guy was in the middle of the road wasting people down and trying to get home.
02:19
Emergency number one. Yes, I went to report a murder.
02:26
On October 6, 2008, at 6.30 a.m., Donald Werner was on his way to pick up his father-in-law for breakfast, as he did every day.
02:36
The weather on that day was, oh, it might have been in the 50s. It wasn't real cold. It wasn't real hot. It was kind of a normal fall day for Michigan.
02:47
In the morning, I'd usually pick my father-in-law and boss, Bob, up at 6.30, 7 o'clock, and we'd had the breakfast at Lakeside Restaurant.
02:58
But when I came to Bob's house, I noticed that the garage door was open and the car was gone. I thought that was a little strange.
03:08
I thought, well, he's going to try to beat me to the restaurant because that would happen once in a while, the little bitty race to the restaurant.
03:15
So now I got to hustle down there because he's sitting there saying, hi, I beat you.
03:20
Five minutes later that same morning, 28 miles away, Jeff Kiltz is on his way home from work.
03:27
I was coming home from work to get my children on the bus so my wife could go to work.
03:36
She had to be to work before the bus could pick the kids up.
03:41
And I could see somebody in the middle of the road, and they were waving.
03:49
I figured he had car problems or something, so I stopped.
03:53
He looked on the rougher side, like he'd been up all night. White male, skinny, mid-20s maybe, green coat.
04:02
Not the nicest clothes, you know, longer straggly blonde hair.
04:09
First thing he said was, I need to get to the Lakeview State Police Post. That was his exact words.
04:15
And I said, why, what's going on? And, you know, he started telling me the story about altercation and a high powered rifle. And he had mentioned like three shots.
04:32
I didn't believe him because, one, this is a great area. That just doesn't happen.
04:39
Two, he looked like he'd been up all night partying. I thought maybe he was just drunk.
04:46
I was in a hurry to get home. I was running late to get my children on the bus.
04:50
So I left him there, and that's about it.
04:59
Donald Werner walks into the Lakeside restaurant.
05:03
When I got here and Bob wasn't here, it's like, huh.
05:07
I was a little concerned, not very much, because that had happened before.
05:12
So I called my wife Tammy and said, hey, is your dad going to do anything this morning? Because he wasn't home.
05:18
And she didn't know, so she tried to call him. And I, every once in a while, try calling from here.
05:24
But didn't get an answer. So we just wasn't sure what was going on.
05:33
When I got home and I told my wife this crazy story that the guy on the road had told me, she instantly like, oh my God, I heard three shots this morning.
05:42
And that's when I thought I better look into this more.
05:56
My house used to be up on top of that hill.
06:00
I walked over.
06:02
I came through the woods, walking down.
06:05
When I came cresting through the woods, I could see a man with a hatch open.
06:13
I seen a lot of bright colored clothes on the ground too. I think what I seen was a lot of blood.
06:22
I just thought it was the color of the clothes, but I remember seeing some yellow, but I seen some red, quite a bit of red too.
06:31
So once I realized, okay, those are bodies, I quick huffed it back to my home, and I called 911.
06:41
The following is the recording of Jeff's 911 call.
06:44
Emergency 911. Okay. Where are they at?
06:48
Behind your house? Okay.
07:01
I'm sorry.
07:02
Do you know who they are?
07:04
No. Jeff Kilts reports that he found two dead bodies behind his house.
07:10
Lieutenant Jason Richards of the Kent County Sheriff's Office remembers the homicide call coming in that morning.
07:17
I was sitting at my desk. It was a rainy day. We were all just getting our day started, drinking a cup of coffee. And then one of my partners got a phone call from our dispatch center that two bodies had been found in a gravel pit. First, I thought it was a mistake.
07:32
Detective Brian Muir is equally confused.
07:35
I remember getting the call and just kind of being confused as to what was going on. We got a 911 call ascribing, you know, a smaller framed white male who witnessed a murder. But then we got a call of an elderly couple found right at the gravel pit. So there was a lot of information they got to filter through in a very short period of time.
07:54
According to the entrance to the gravel pit, approximately 6.42 a.m.,
08:04
Lieutenant Richards heads to the gravel pit and records the scene.
08:08
The gravel pit itself was an unused gravel pit at this time, more so to use for target practice for people that live in the area.
08:19
And the scene itself at the top of the hill just off the drive was a minivan, almost like it had backed off a ledge. It was high centered on the ledge. We're able to run the van through the computer and determine that it belonged to Robert Bean.
08:39
And then two bodies were found down the trail and around almost on the flat portion of the gravel pit, Mr. and Mrs. Bean.
08:48
Everyone knew of the Beans, and the Beans trucking business was definitely one of the largest businesses in the Howard City area. It's not very often you get a call like this where such upstanding members of the community are targeted for a crime like this.
09:03
The cause of death was gunshots. We did find three shell casings from a high-powered rifle.
09:09
They were able to see multiple sets of footprints, and those footprints appeared to be weathered away. It was kind of a wet morning.
09:17
The things you think about when you see a crime scene like that is, you know, where two elderly people from Howard City doing in northern Kent County in a remote gravel pit. She's still in her nightwear. He's not. He's dressed, but, you know, who knows why they're both in that position. Obviously, you know, it does not appear that they brought themselves there.
09:43
After I had breakfast, I just headed back up to the shop, which was right next to his house, expecting to see Bob there and he wasn't there.
09:55
I sat there at the desk for a little while and I seen somebody walk by the window.
10:01
It was kind of weird because usually at that time of morning, there's nobody around.
10:06
So I went out and confronted the fellow.
10:09
and asked him if I could help him with something. He was a county sheriff.
10:16
And then he said that it was Bob and Norman that they, if I remember correctly, that there had been a homicide.
10:26
Personally, at that moment, I'm not sure how to describe how I was feeling.
10:30
It was... We went to the Bean residence in Howard City. There were no signs of forced entry in their home.
10:42
We found ammunition that had been dumped out onto a bed in an open gun case there, but the firearm was missing.
10:49
We were told that Mrs. Bean's purse was missing from the home.
10:55
I remember thinking, you know, who could benefit from the death and what the motive would be?
10:59
You have to look at family, you have to look at friends, anyone else that may have perceived the Beans being well-to-do and could have targeted them.
11:08
Stuart Vandeman worked as a truck salesman for the Beans' Trucking Company.
11:12
We just heard Bob and Norma were murdered. I mean, it's one thing if there's a kidnapping, but execution-style murder, ah, no, I don't understand that. With Bob and Norma, you know, after every truck deal, we went down to the Chinese restaurant and had lunch together.
11:33
As they continued to grow, they were buying 10 trucks.
11:38
And this was big.
11:40
A 10-truck deal is well over a million dollars.
11:45
Hank Hems is a friend of the beans.
11:48
When I heard the words that Bob and Norma had been murdered, being a successful business in town, Bob and Norma, they had perception that they were quite wealthy. Then you wonder why they were murdered. Was it money? It was the only reason I could think of.
12:04
I guess the people the most...
12:07
apt to benefit from Bob and Norma's death would it be the children.
12:19
John Christensen is a local Howard City resident.
12:22
I'm an excavator. I was a long-haul truck driver for, I don't know, 20, 25 years, and what I liked about driving a truck was you see different things, and it was a weird thing I saw. There was two state police cars that went by, and I thought, man, that's odd, too. You know, you don't see that here.
12:44
If you see a county cruiser go by once a month, That's about average.
12:51
I got a call from a friend of mine. He said, yeah, two people got shot. They got killed. And he said, yeah, it was the Beans. I'd never worked for them, but I was aware of that name. And I said, that's not good news.
13:05
I just, I just, what, what?
13:08
Jeff, who discovered the Beans' bodies, remembers telling his dad the news.
13:13
We used to attend Bible Church in Pearson as a family when I was growing up as a kid. The Beans attended that church as well. So my dad had become friends with the Beans when I told him the story and what had happened. And he's like, whoa, I knew Robert Beans. They were very nice people.
13:28
They left children behind. I mean, grown children, but still children. I mean, nobody wants to lose their parents, right?
13:38
I called my wife Tammy and told her that she had to come to the house. And I know I didn't tell her why.
13:45
The police told me not to, you know, so that she wouldn't take off or anything like that. And it made me believe he thought she might be a suspect.
13:59
Trucks were always a big part of Bob. He started out with one or two trucks, and every extra penny he had went into his trucks, went into the business. That's how he became so successful.
14:11
The full name of the company is Robert Bean and Son Transportation.
14:17
Bob and Norma had three kids, two daughters and a son.
14:23
Bob being old school, it was the son's job to take over the business more than a daughter would. So that's why I called Robert Bean and Son, and it created some resentment.
14:37
I think it bothered Tammy that her name wasn't on the door.
14:43
Bob and Norma's son was to take over the company.
14:47
I think Tammy really strived to let Bob know that she was important enough to take charge of the company.
15:00
On October 6th, 2008, one hour after the bodies are discovered, Donald sees his wife Tammy react to the news.
15:08
When Tammy got to the house, the local police officer come up to Tammy and told him that there'd been a homicide and it was Bob and Norma.
15:18
and that's when she grabbed him by the tie and told him that in Howard City, things like that just don't happen.
15:25
Tammy had a pretty emotional response when she learned of her parents' death. She had grabbed onto the detective and pulled down his tie and said, this isn't happening, and was pretty upset.
15:39
If you're notifying someone of their loved one's death, Every reaction isn't the same. People react to that in different ways, and you need to gauge all the circumstances, whether how their response is, is it appropriate?
15:51
If it isn't appropriate, why isn't it appropriate?
15:56
I was more stunned that she felt at that moment to do that to a police officer.
16:02
I knew Tammy would never hurt Bob and Norma. She loves them more than anything.
16:13
We talk to everybody until we can determine their level of involvement.
16:17
And after interviewing the family, we were able to eliminate Tammy as a suspect.
16:25
After looking into this through the interviews, there's no way Tammy was involved.
16:29
The night before my parents were killed, we were at the bowling alley, bowling and having a good time, and had no idea what was about to happen the next night.
16:41
I had no idea that would be the last time. I'm so glad that I did. She just loves her grandkids so much. And I hate the fact that he doesn't have that opportunity to have those memories and to know how deep they loved him.
17:02
I just couldn't think of anybody who could do this, not to my parents, not to them.
17:14
The most challenging thing for me in this case was all the sporadic information coming in.
17:20
All those involved, we had to try to communicate back and forth. And in 2008, the communication level wasn't like it is now.
17:28
We had limited evidence. We had multiple scenes. We had the scene where the bodies were. We had the bean residence.
17:34
We had the 911 calls coming in describing a skinnier white male with light brown blonde hair, acting frantic, who claimed to be a witness east of the gravel pit. So it was difficult to keep track.
17:50
On October 6, 2008, 70 minutes after the bodies have been discovered, Larry Anstead, an auto mechanic, sees a man wearing camouflage pants flag him down from the side of the road.
18:01
I was doing my morning routine. I left the house, ready to go to work. I made my turn of our drive and went down the road, maybe a mile and a half, and there was this big bald guy waving his hands, and his shirt was to reach, camouflaged pants on. I'd never seen him before.
18:20
No, no.
18:21
And I've lived out here for 30 years.
18:24
So I pulled over, and I locked the doors on my car, and I rolled my window down halfway.
18:30
He put his head right to the window, the glass.
18:33
While he kept yelling, he was real loud, hey, dude, I need a ride to Howard City. What really got me the worst probably is, he called me Dude.
18:43
And I said, I'm not going to Howard City. I'm going to work.
18:47
And he started waving his arms and everything. And I said, good luck. And I took off.
18:55
Once I got to work, which is eight miles away, I called my wife and said, lock the doors. There's somebody down in the road that's not acting right.
19:07
And right after that, called the police and reported this odd guy along the road.
19:17
The following is a recording of Jeff Kilt's 911 call.
19:22
Not everyone calls 911 immediately.
19:36
Sometimes they're driving down the road. They don't really remember where they saw somebody. We didn't know if we had one suspect or two suspects that were responsible for the murder of Robert and Norma. We didn't know really where they were at that time.
19:52
Hank Hems hears rumors of who may have had motive to kill the Beans.
19:57
I heard some rumors that former employees could possibly come back to town because they may have thought they didn't get a fair shake. And they, you know, we're going to get back at them.
20:07
We don't know. But boy, all this stuff runs through your mind.
20:11
Tammy, Robert and Norma's daughter, wonders whether there's any truth to the rumors.
20:16
Everybody loved my parents, but the sheriff's department wondered if there was anyone who would ever have any vendetta against my parents. There were drivers who would get upset because they didn't get home when they thought they would get home, or they had volunteered for a job that didn't turn out well.
20:36
And my dad couldn't let them go. I would always be the one to talk to them. He may sit in that meeting with me, but he wasn't the one who ever let them go.
20:48
I was the higher fire girl at work, so it didn't make sense.
20:53
If they were going to come after someone, I just figured it would be me, not my parents.
20:59
I couldn't fathom that it could be an employee.
21:02
My dad took very good care of his employees.
21:05
Everyone was just trying to figure out why. That was the big question. Why did this happen?
21:13
Was it because someone thought they had money? Was it because Someone thought that they had been mistreated. Was it because someone wanted what they had? I just couldn't even figure out the why. That was the question. And it was very frustrating for me.
21:32
On October 6, 2008, 90 minutes after the bodies are discovered, Detective Richards learns a new piece of evidence.
21:40
During the investigation, detectives found an orange sweatshirt located west of the crime scene off the road in the grass. And our initial descriptions of the suspect was that he was in an orange sweatshirt.
21:52
We know that people ditch clothing as they're trying to get away from a crime scene. They'll strip clothing off. Rarely do people change their pants. So the exact description isn't always going to be what you have. You have the height, the weight. We're now looking for a white male, heavyset, the larger framed man in camouflage pants. In addition to that, there's a second person who's described as a skinnier white male with light brown blonde hair, a man flailing his arms around that Jeff Kiltz called in.
22:22
Fear locked our community down.
22:27
Are they close by?
22:29
Are they still in the neighborhood? Whoever did this, is it someone that can come back? Are they going to come back?
22:38
Are any of us safe?
22:40
Randy Heckman is a local firefighter.
22:42
With the manhunt going on, I kept my ear to the dispatch to see if they would happen to be coming this way, if somebody heard that they were coming this way, because we didn't want them coming back into Howard City. But if they did come back, I wanted to make sure that we would be ready.
22:59
This manhunt was turning into a logistical nightmare because we just didn't know where the suspects were.
23:05
And when officers would be dispatched to a certain area, the person that they're looking for was gone.
23:11
It always seemed like we were one step behind.
23:21
I was just sitting here working on my coffee, minding my own business, and I get a call from my mom, and she said that there's a young man at her home that needs a ride to Howard City. So I said, all right, I'll be over in a little bit.
23:39
When I walked into my mother's house that morning, my mom was sitting here, and he was sitting here.
23:51
My mom said, this is the young man that wants a ride to Howard City.
23:57
He was very polite, very easygoing, very relaxed. I noticed that he had on camo pants, and he was just wearing a t-shirt.
24:06
I thought that was so strange.
24:08
It was October, you know, and it's kind of cool-ish out there. You'd think you'd have another layer on, you know?
24:15
But I said, that pickup truck I got only gets 10 miles to a gallon, so, okay, we better just put some gas in it. He says, oh, okay, I'll fill it up for you, just for taking me up there. I was, oh, okay, that's fine.
24:27
So we jumped in the pickup truck, and down the road we went.
24:39
As we came out of the farm and headed towards the gas station, we were just making small talk. We talked a little bit about hunting and what happened to his car. And we passed a couple of state troopers on the way. I thought, boy, that's weird because you don't see that many police around here.
24:57
While we're all working in the area, we received information that a stocky man wearing camouflage pants was seen in a red truck. So we needed to use all of our resources and try and direct towards this red truck.
25:11
As I pulled into the gas station, he said, oh, I'll go in and pay for it. OK, OK. And then I just pulled up to the gas pump, and I sat out there pumping gas.
25:26
Then about six or eight state police, county sheriff, landmark cruisers showed up.
25:33
And I thought, I don't know what's going on, but I'm right in the middle of it with both feet.
25:39
I'm in trouble.
25:51
It's a rural area. There's only a couple of really heavily traveled stores or restaurants in the area, and both of those are gas stations.
25:59
A couple of our patrol officers stopped in, and then they tipped off the clerks. They just said, hey, we're all in the area looking for this. We just had a significant crime occur. If you see somebody matching this description, if you see someone come in here that's acting odd, give us a call.
26:16
On October 6th, 2008 at 825 a.m., two hours into the manhunt, the police get a tip.
26:23
As I was pumping gas, I was looking around at all the cop cars, and something is definitely going on, and I don't have a clue what it is.
26:34
The store clerk immediately was able to recognize the person that was described by our deputies and gave us a call and wanted us to know that, hey, he's here. That guy you're talking about, you need to get over here now.
26:45
So we immediately dispatched a couple of our police cruisers over to that area.
26:51
When the officers first drove up to the gas station, there was a man at the red truck who did not match the description of the person we were looking for.
26:59
They don't know if the suspect's working with somebody else, if he's part of a conspiracy, so they had to be ready for everything.
27:07
When I get done pumping the gas, I walked inside to make sure everything was kosher.
27:14
I walked in and I checked with the cashier, make sure the gas was paid for, which it was.
27:22
I pulled in right around that same time.
27:26
And we came up with a short plan in a very short amount of time to take the suspect into custody and get him secured.
27:35
Me and him turned and walked out.
27:38
That's when everything went crazy.
27:43
Both men came out of the gas station. One of them was wearing a white t-shirt and camo pants. So he matched the description of the man we're looking for.
27:51
Our deputies immediately apprehended him.
27:54
At the same time, a set of officers was taking the second person into custody.
28:01
In the search of his truck, some things were found, some duct tape, some red panties were found. So it just seemed bizarre for them.
28:10
John Christensen cooperated with us. He answered our questions. He was ultimately cleared through statements of his, through statements of his mother's.
28:18
The red panties and the duct tape, they wanted to know what the hell that was all about. I was a long haul truck driver. If you haul pipe or haul lumber or something in the back end of a truck, if it hangs over more than 48 inches, it has to be marked with a red flag. So me being the smart ass that I am, I had a pair of little red panties. I just tape it right on the lumber just to mark it.
28:44
I'm sure that that didn't score too many points.
28:50
While we're sorting all this out, the man wearing camouflage told us that his name's Tim Steffen. We learned that Tim was the Bean's neighbor.
29:00
Tim Steffen's family lived across the street from my parents. Dad's only ever helped them. There was no animosity between our families at all.
29:10
So I thought there's no way that he killed my parents.
29:21
While preparing to interrogate Tim Steffen, Lieutenant Richards notices some unusual behavior in the interrogation room.
29:28
So when we first start interviewing somebody, we watch them for a little while to see what they do. And Tim has been the only person I've known to ever do this. He took the chair and started lifting it up off the ground and exercising.
29:39
I believe he was trying to establish some sort of dominance in the room, try to show that he's a fit guy and he's going to be the one in charge.
29:46
The following is a recording of the police interrogation of Tim Steffen.
29:51
Basically what we want to get into is your accounts for all day yesterday and then last night. We need to figure out. Because I did not do this. We need to figure out what happened.
29:59
Tim started up giving the appearance of cooperation, you know, telling his side of the story that he's innocent, that he had nothing to do with it.
30:05
Honestly, there was someone else who did it, you know what I mean?
30:09
Immediately after Tim blames someone else for the murders, the interrogation is interrupted by another officer.
30:20
But then we received a call from our dispatch center. We were like, what the is going on?
30:25
The following is a recording of Jeff Kilt's 911 call.
30:29
Emergency 911. We just took the kids to school, and this guy was on the side of the road waving his hand. Long, blonde hair. He had a, like, camouflage jacket on, so it looked like he was going hunting this morning, but the more I look at him, he doesn't have, like, hunting pants, hunting shoes, hunting boots in there. This guy's a weird, shady-looking guy. To be honest, he's really creeping us out. He's got an officer on the way already. He should be there just any time.
30:55
The 911 caller describes a man on the side of the road with long blonde hair and a camouflage hunting jacket waving his hands. Something seems off.
31:04
Just in the office doing normal paperwork.
31:06
Got a call from dispatch stating that there was a guy flagging down cars looking for a ride.
31:13
Paul Mateva is the Michigan State Trooper dispatched to the scene.
31:17
Part of what you're taught in the academy is when you're going to a call, you're running through scenarios in your head of maybe a shoot, don't shoot scenario.
31:27
So when I arrived on scene, I witnessed a white male walking, and he was shoveled. It didn't appear to be fitting somebody just out for a walk in the area.
31:38
And I'd stopped a fair amount short from approaching him. so that I could exit my car and make contact so that I was not sitting in my car at a disadvantage. I was shouting instructions at him, but he was not listening.
31:54
I had my hand on my weapon, but until you get the situation under control, you're always expecting the unexpected.
32:04
A white male was walking towards me.
32:07
As I approached, he was flailing, not exactly steady on his feet.
32:12
And there was a couple times where he was not following instructions.
32:17
But I finally was able to get him to just stop and wait. And then once I made contact with him, he was secured with handcuffs.
32:25
He finally identified himself as Bobby Fisk.
32:31
We didn't know what we had with Bobby Fisk.
32:34
So we brought him down to our police department from the scene.
32:39
Brian Muir was interviewing Bobby Fisk in one room.
32:43
I was in another room interviewing Tim Steffen.
32:46
We talked to them each separate until we can determine their level of involvement.
32:50
The following are audio recordings of the side-by-side interviews of Bobby Fisk and Tim Steffen.
32:56
Honestly, when they got out of the band, and I was just going to say, you know what, them do, and I ain't going to let you guys stand out here like this. I was going to actually help them guys find a way back.
33:06
Bobby had the gun, and I'm like, dude, stop pointing that gun at me. You know what I'm saying? I don't know what your problem is.
33:13
Tim claims that Bobby held him at gunpoint, but Bobby claims that Tim had the gun.
33:18
Tim had it, and I was like, let's go with the gun.
33:22
Literally, it's pointed right at my chest, and he pulled the trigger.
33:26
And it didn't go off.
33:28
I swear I did not have nothing to do with it. It was a little bit of a back and forth. You know, neither one wanted to admit to pulling the trigger to kill either one.
33:37
Listen, start telling the truth about everything. Because you know what? He wants to point the finger at you.
33:44
Detective Muir tries a different approach. He introduces himself to Bobby and shakes his hand.
33:54
We learned that Bobby Fisk came down to the police station. I knew the Fisk family. They had been around our community for a long time.
34:04
And at one point, my mom and I even took some of the brothers to church. Bobby was one of them. So we were all wondering what was going on.
34:17
Bobby says he follows Tim back to his dad's house.
34:37
As the story kind of grew, it was very clear that the two of them were together, that they were at the grocery store before the murder, getting alcohol together, that they had spent time over at Tim's house.
34:49
Tim had told us that he lived with his dad across the street from the Beans, and he knew them. They interacted. Tim did some work for them. Sitting there drinking, and he says, this guy across the street's got
35:03
Wait till they go to sleep.
35:05
Bottom line, that's all it was. It was a robbery.
35:09
So we go in the basement door. He's like, I got the purse, I got the purse. We dump the purse out. He's like, look, we got bank cards here, and they got numbers on the back. He's like, maybe these are pin numbers. I'm like, maybe.
35:22
So we walk up to the bank. I put my hand up on the camera. Then I'm punching numbers, punching numbers.
35:29
After so many times, it takes the car.
35:34
We got what we were looking for. You know what I mean?
35:36
He's like, no, man. There's got to be something else in that house. There's got to be.
35:42
Tim's talking about was Bobby's idea to now go back the second time.
35:45
Tim's story was that at this point, Bobby's holding the gun and Bobby woke up the beans.
35:52
Bob tells him, get your wife up. You're taking us down to the ATM.
36:00
Being that we were already there, that's probably why
36:05
pin numbers that it wouldn't spit out no money. So I'm like, now what? He's like, let's just drive. So we start driving, drive, drive, drive, drive.
36:17
I know at this point I'm in over my head.
36:19
So this is where we have Tim draw out what happened in the gravel pit.
36:26
He's got the gun the whole time. I don't have the gun.
36:31
Bob got out from behind me and went around. He got his wife.
36:35
By the time I got around, he shot her. He shot her in the face.
36:43
I freaked out. You know, I've never seen nothing like this. This isn't supposed to go this way.
36:48
I started running around like, holy crap.
36:53
I didn't know what to do.
36:55
In the meantime, they're fighting on the ground.
36:59
And then I hear two more shots.
37:06
Tim started to make statements that he was afraid of Bobby and that Bobby was the one that did this and he was terrified of him.
37:12
It took a long time to get Bobby to talk to us about what really happened. We spent a good couple of hours just letting him talk and digging himself into a statement, into a hole of where he was, what he was doing, what he saw.
37:26
And you get him to admit, you know, what was an involvement. And eventually he's just like, okay, this is what I did. Detective Muir asked Bobby whether Tim made him shoot Norma.
37:34
Did he make you shoot Norma?
37:39
When Tim finally started to admit what he had done, he breaks down. You can see his physical being breaks down. And he punches himself right in the face. And from there, he just starts to confess.
37:54
My wife, my wife.
37:56
And he's crying and he gets up and he starts to come towards me. Obviously, I don't know why I did it. He didn't have nothing that he could hurt me with, you know what I mean?
38:09
pulled the trigger and put his hands up. I thought maybe it just went by his face, but then he fell. And when he fell, I took a couple of steps back and I threw the gun. Boom.
38:23
Tim confesses to murdering Robert.
38:29
At the end of the day, Bobby admitted to killing Norma and Tim obviously was responsible for killing Robert.
38:35
We placed him into custody. You know, we let him know, you're under arrest.
38:42
When Tim Steffen's father found out that his son was one of the men who killed my parents, he had a heart attack. He couldn't believe it. They were friends with my family.
38:56
My parents were always willing to give the Steffen's family food, help fix their car if he needed to, help wherever he could. None of it made sense.
39:08
When Bob and Norma were murdered, we all suffered in this town. We really didn't know what to do or how to act or whether to be mad or just cry or what to do.
39:19
I couldn't imagine being Bob, somebody shooting my wife for no reason, especially be there and see it happen.
39:28
I've had nightmares about that. The Beans, they have an established business and wealth and definitely something that somebody would want. It's the classic, I want what you have, and definitely motivation for this crime.
39:41
After a six-day trial and eight hours of deliberation, Bobby Fisk is headed to prison for the murders of Robert and Norma Bean.
39:48
Co-defendant Tim Steffens has already pled guilty for his part of the crime.
39:54
On May 14, 2009, Timothy Stephan pleads guilty to double murder. He is given two life sentences. On February 25, 2010, Bobby Fisk is found guilty of murder, armed robbery, and kidnapping. He is given two life sentences. We feel that justice has been served.
40:13
For the Beans children, that justice also brought some closure.
40:18
We got some verdict we wanted, but we never thought we'd ever have to deal with a murder case.
40:25
You're glad it's settled, but you're sad at the same time.
40:36
It was kind of creepy because my kids and I have been in that gravel pit. We would go down there target practicing at times. But after I found out two people had been murdered there, I never went back there. You don't really want to relive that, you know? Especially behind your house. My children, you know, two daughters and a son at the time, they're all very, you know, four, five, six years old, playing in that area. It sets you back. It makes you think.
41:01
For the first time in my years of being a funeral director, I had to stop and think, how am I gonna handle this? Especially knowing the family like I did.
41:10
My first concern was, how can I make these bodies presentable so the family can say their goodbyes?
41:18
So we had a closed casket for both Bob and Norma.
41:21
I tried to be strong for families, but in this situation, it was just devastating.
41:30
If I could just talk to them again, first I would tell them how much I love them, how much we've missed them, and that I hope that they're proud of what we've done and that they have a fantastic grandson.
41:48
When my son was three years old, he made the comment to me, Well, Mom, Grandpa loved trucking, and you love trucking, so I'm sure I'll love trucking too. It gives me great joy to continue what my dad started, and I'm going to see it through.
42:11
Hi, it's Janice from Warner Brothers Discovery. I want to take a moment to recommend a podcast called Death of an Artist from Pushkin. In the early spring of 2024, Petra and Michael Mathers took their own lives in their Oregon home. She was a beloved children's book author and illustrator. He was a documentary photographer. They remained madly in love for nearly a century.
42:34
Before they died, they mailed out dozens of letters to friends, family members, and local business owners, explaining that they had always planned on leaving the world together, that neither wanted to live without the other, and that they wanted to go out on their own terms.
42:49
Hosted by journalists and married couple Leon Nafak and Alice Gregory, Death of an Artist tells its story entirely through intimate conversations with friends, family, and neighbors left searching for answers. Why did the Mathers choose to die when they did? Was it an act of courage or cowardice? Had there been clues all along? So go check out Death of an Artist wherever you get your podcasts. We hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do.
