Speaker 1: Crazy in Love is the true crime podcast that tells
Speaker 1: love stories with a twist. All of a sudden, she
Speaker 1: meets Steve and it's like Prince Charming comes and sweeps
Speaker 1: her off her feet. Sometimes the twist of a knife.
Speaker 1: She was holding the shotgun and she's the one who
Speaker 1: pulled the trigger, and that blows me away. She would
Speaker 1: kill her own daughters to get away with it. Just
Speaker 1: because things start off with Once upon a Time doesn't
Speaker 1: mean everyone lives happily ever after. This is Crazy and Love,
Speaker 1: a production of Katie Studios and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Courtney Armstrong, a crime producer at Katie Studios, joined by
Speaker 1: fellow producers Stephanie Ledaker, Jeff Shane, Beth Greenwald, and Tim
Speaker 1: Hamilton's We're examining the story of the millionaire, the gold digger,
Speaker 1: and the obsessive lover. Steve Beard had been happily married
Speaker 1: to his wife, Alice for forty two years. The pair
Speaker 1: had three adult children, and life was good until sadly,
Speaker 1: Alice passed away from brain cancer. Just two weeks after
Speaker 1: his wife died, Steve met thirty year old Celeste Johnson Martinez.
Speaker 1: The blonde bombshell, worked as a server at the same
Speaker 1: Austin country club where the sixty eight year old millionaire
Speaker 1: played golf. Celeste was a struggling single mom with twin daughters,
Speaker 1: Christina and Jennifer. Initially, Steve hired Celest to be as housekeeper,
Speaker 1: but soon a romance bloomed and Steve was opening up
Speaker 1: a new world to Celeste and her girls. In this world,
Speaker 1: money was no object. Celeste went from waiting tables to
Speaker 1: traveling the world in first class, wearing designer clothes and
Speaker 1: living in Steve's mansion. But the realizing on the cake
Speaker 1: was that Steve truly adored Celeste's daughters. Two years after meeting,
Speaker 1: the couple married on February at the same Austin country
Speaker 1: club where the pair met. Steve was a self made millionaire.
Speaker 1: He was a bit of a media mogul. In fact,
Speaker 1: he had owned Austin's first independent TV station, which he
Speaker 1: eventually sold for millions and millions of dollars, and he
Speaker 1: was married to his first wife for forty two years.
Speaker 1: So he was a very devoted husband and self proclaimed
Speaker 1: family man. When you really think about this whole thing,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like the sound of music, right. She
Speaker 1: came into his house to take care of his house
Speaker 1: and fell in love with the guy who owned it,
Speaker 1: and their family soon moved in. He was by himself
Speaker 1: in this big house. You know, you start to want
Speaker 1: a companionship, right. But here's the interesting thing. Celeste was
Speaker 1: almost forty years his junior. And Celeste had come from
Speaker 1: a really rocky star like She had moved many times,
Speaker 1: she had issues with her parents, she had gotten married
Speaker 1: several times. There was really no stability in this lady's life.
Speaker 1: She had two children. They were twins, and she put
Speaker 1: the twins in and out of foster cares in their
Speaker 1: very young early lives. They don't even call Celeste mom.
Speaker 1: They call her Celeste. And when Steve came into celest life,
Speaker 1: the girls were officially finally adopted by him. This is
Speaker 1: like the first person they considered to be like a
Speaker 1: real dad beyond their natural dad. Forty years it's a
Speaker 1: big age difference. What age is just a number. To
Speaker 1: have such a rough start in life and to end
Speaker 1: up finally meeting this guy, and things really felt like
Speaker 1: for the first time in celeste life that they were
Speaker 1: looking up and they're off to the races with a
Speaker 1: happy young marriage, and you know, she and her daughters
Speaker 1: ended up living this beautiful house with this great guy,
Speaker 1: and they fell in love. Steve's might have obviously had
Speaker 1: a crush on Celeste before he moved around as the housekeeper,
Speaker 1: but pretty quickly became mutual because they started dating and
Speaker 1: got married rather quickly. But Steve was no dumb. He
Speaker 1: had the lest sign of prenup, but it wasn't exactly
Speaker 1: that strict of a prenup. It stated that if they
Speaker 1: got divorced, the less would get up front, no questions asked,
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars, and there was another stipulation that if
Speaker 1: they were married for more than three years, she would
Speaker 1: get an additional five dollars. So if they were married
Speaker 1: for three years and got divorced, she still to make
Speaker 1: a million dollars. That being said, if he died, there
Speaker 1: was the prenup was completely off, so she stood to
Speaker 1: make a ton more money in his passing. Well, since
Speaker 1: Steve's defense, you know, he finally was able to find
Speaker 1: somebody new to love. Now he has an instant family.
Speaker 1: They knew that they're dead, had hired a housekeeper, but
Speaker 1: realized that things had shifted when they were going to
Speaker 1: the super bowls of family and you know who did
Speaker 1: Steve bring along? But now the housekeeper. And so when
Speaker 1: they met her, as the house manager says, oh, I
Speaker 1: know her so much about you. I've heard so many
Speaker 1: great things about you. And his kids turned to her
Speaker 1: and said, that's funny, because we have heard literally nothing
Speaker 1: about you. They were proceeding very cautiously. Do we know
Speaker 1: their frame of mind? They did actually think that it
Speaker 1: looked like a charming lady with sweet kids, because the kids,
Speaker 1: both girls, Christina and Jennifer, were really smart, intelligent, very respectful.
Speaker 1: And there are statistics that show that men lose a
Speaker 1: loved one after many many years, in this case decades,
Speaker 1: that they really can't be alone. It's petrifying. So it's
Speaker 1: sort of the perfect storm or makes him the perfect
Speaker 1: target for somebody likes Celeste. Also, in Celeste's defense, you know,
Speaker 1: she's a waitress, she's trying to make her way, she's
Speaker 1: trying to provide for her children. Obviously she's had a
Speaker 1: couple of pickups along the way, and you know, as
Speaker 1: long as there is air and people's lungs, they can
Speaker 1: start a new and maybe this was finally her chance
Speaker 1: to really feel safe and feel at home. They all
Speaker 1: look so happy. They do know that I'm looking at Yeah,
Speaker 1: it must be at Celeste's daughter's graduation, and he is smiling,
Speaker 1: you know, Celestue look looking at it kind of makes
Speaker 1: for the perfect family. And also, if Celeste didn't have
Speaker 1: a great background herself, which we know was the case
Speaker 1: that she was in and neet of foster care, and
Speaker 1: she herself was not raised in a stable environment, yeah
Speaker 1: she might have had some daddy issues. And now here
Speaker 1: she is, she finds this man who's very respected and
Speaker 1: has a lot to offer, not only financially, but probably
Speaker 1: emotionally as well. At this point, he's probably at the
Speaker 1: eve of his career, so he probably had a lot
Speaker 1: more time on his hands, could really be invested with
Speaker 1: her children. And you know, that to me makes a
Speaker 1: little bit of sense. Yeah, I'm looking at the picture.
Speaker 1: There's obviously a big age difference on paper, but he
Speaker 1: looks like a pretty young god. So it's not like
Speaker 1: you're picturing a Nicole Smith and her husband and it
Speaker 1: doesn't really look like that. Right. That's a good point, Jeff.
Speaker 1: And think about it now, Celeste daughters who had a
Speaker 1: really tough background and had you know, literally no consistency.
Speaker 1: Now they have a new house, in a new school,
Speaker 1: and frankly, a new life with a lot of love.
Speaker 1: Celeste had a spending problem, and within the first six
Speaker 1: months of their marriage she'd burned through five hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Three years into the marriage, Celeste grew restless and started
Speaker 1: cheating on Steve. Just a few years later, she had
Speaker 1: squandered another three hundred thousand dollars on designer clothes, sports cars,
Speaker 1: and fancy dinners. At one point, Celeste through a lavish
Speaker 1: eighteenth birthday party for her twin daughters, and she didn't
Speaker 1: even invite Steve. He was frustrated and had had enough.
Speaker 1: He ultimately kicked Celeste out and also told her that
Speaker 1: he wanted a divorce. Panicked, Celess threatened to kill herself.
Speaker 1: She put a gone to her head in front of
Speaker 1: one of her daughters. It was later discovered that the
Speaker 1: gun wasn't even loaded, but in any case, Steve stepped
Speaker 1: in to help his wife, and he checked her into Timberland,
Speaker 1: an expensive psychiatric facility. It was there when Celess met
Speaker 1: Tracy Tarleton, a fellow patient. Tracy came from a dysfunctional
Speaker 1: but wealthy family and was a University of Texas graduate.
Speaker 1: Despite being a manager at one of Austin's top bookstores,
Speaker 1: she suffered from bipolar disorder, substance abuse, and oppression. Celeste
Speaker 1: and Tracy quickly became close friends. It seems like everyone
Speaker 1: around Steve caught onto the fact that Celeste was cheating
Speaker 1: before he did, and he was the last to know.
Speaker 1: I mean, she was hanging out with her second ex
Speaker 1: husband coming in late. She was spending his money like
Speaker 1: it was going out of style. He was just frustrated
Speaker 1: and he was done. Here's what we know about Tracy
Speaker 1: and Celeste. So Tracy and Celeste formed a very tight
Speaker 1: relationship at this rehab center. And that's one of the
Speaker 1: rules when you go to these types of places is
Speaker 1: that you're not supposed to really super bond or overly
Speaker 1: trauma bond. But they were really good friends and we're
Speaker 1: excited to stay in touch after they left the facility.
Speaker 1: When they did leave the facility, however, they remained friends
Speaker 1: and they became lovers. So Tracy specifically, it said, really
Speaker 1: fell hard for Celeste. And yes, the pair continued to
Speaker 1: see one another on a pretty regular basis, but they
Speaker 1: talked to one another on the phone all the time,
Speaker 1: and they did like family things together, in things out
Speaker 1: in public together. One example we heard about was that
Speaker 1: Tracy attended Celeste's daughter's graduation, which again is a very
Speaker 1: intimate family affair, and then Celeste also, through Tracy's bookstore employees,
Speaker 1: a party, and at that point Steve was sort of
Speaker 1: being very accepting of Celeste's a new friend, but everyone else,
Speaker 1: including her daughters, did not buy it, and everybody around
Speaker 1: Steve seemed to know that she was, in fact having
Speaker 1: an affair with Tracy. We're going to take a quick break.
Speaker 1: We'll be back in just a moment. Yes, So obviously
Speaker 1: they're trying to work on their relationship, or Steve thinks
Speaker 1: they're working on the relationship, but Celeste want to know
Speaker 1: part of that. She told her friend, her new friend, Tracy,
Speaker 1: that she was doing things like filling his nightly vodka
Speaker 1: drink with ever clear, which is a grain alcohol and
Speaker 1: much stronger than vodka, so he would actually get much
Speaker 1: drunker than he thought and pass out, and she could
Speaker 1: again hit the town. What was she spending all this
Speaker 1: money on closed jewelry? She was going to the casinos,
Speaker 1: something that happens also after she gets out of the
Speaker 1: psychiatric ward. Is that Celeste ultimately confides in Tracy that
Speaker 1: she doesn't love Steve, She's never loved Steve, that he's
Speaker 1: nothing but a daddy warbuck ser, that he's a ridiculous,
Speaker 1: fat old man, that he is not to be trusted.
Speaker 1: She's painting this picture of the narrative she wants people
Speaker 1: to hear, including her new girl there emotionally bonding over
Speaker 1: what she's explaining to be the abuse she's suffering at home.
Speaker 1: This is like something that Tracy and Celestue start to
Speaker 1: really develop their their relationship and sink their teeth into
Speaker 1: as they're growing stronger. In time is going by here,
Speaker 1: Celesque finally has a stable home for her daughters. Yet
Speaker 1: she's out and about gallivanting at night, kind of repeating
Speaker 1: the exact same patterns that she came into the relationship with. No,
Speaker 1: it's the exact same pattern. You finally have this everything
Speaker 1: you wish you could have, and yet just flushed it
Speaker 1: away as if it didn't matter to her. She saw
Speaker 1: one thing dollar signs. I'll also say that when Tracy
Speaker 1: asked the list, why don't you just get divorced? She
Speaker 1: would make up these stories and say like she'd be
Speaker 1: hunted down and that she felt like a prisoner in
Speaker 1: her own home and that they would find her. So
Speaker 1: she was building up this world that didn't really exist
Speaker 1: to make everybody feel sympathetic for her because she felt
Speaker 1: as though Steve was going to actually come find her,
Speaker 1: and that because he was very successful, that he would
Speaker 1: somehow put a hit on her. Like what was he
Speaker 1: gonna do? That's what she was kind of saying without saying.
Speaker 1: But the truth was a man who was high on
Speaker 1: fifteen ambience because you baked it into his matched potatoes,
Speaker 1: is not coming after you're looking for you at night
Speaker 1: while you're out with other men and other women. But
Speaker 1: also he was going to divorce her. I mean, let's
Speaker 1: remember he was fed up with all the antics and
Speaker 1: was divorcing her. So there was a lot of holes
Speaker 1: in this story. And he was divorcing her because he
Speaker 1: realized what was happening, he did the right thing and
Speaker 1: tried to help her with putting her into the psychiatric
Speaker 1: facility and trying to get her back on the right path.
Speaker 1: And so that just goes to show his character and
Speaker 1: his kindness that even as he's being screwed over. He's
Speaker 1: still wanting to do this good for somebody who's doing
Speaker 1: bad to him, and do good for the mother of
Speaker 1: the two children that he just adopted. But the daughters
Speaker 1: are smarter than you think, and the daughters really start
Speaker 1: to see what's happening here. And I'll also say with Celeste,
Speaker 1: even though they were getting divorced, she was able to
Speaker 1: convince him back to it was a psychiatric problem and
Speaker 1: he was putting the divorce on hold. Not only did
Speaker 1: he believe that he helped her, but then he believed
Speaker 1: that she was helping herself. So now she's like getting
Speaker 1: back in his good graces again. He really wanted to
Speaker 1: believe her and believe that this next time would be
Speaker 1: the right time and that she would finally change again,
Speaker 1: and that might have sailed his fate. It really is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: speaks to steps point about like when you're in love
Speaker 1: with someone, you give them a pass in a way
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't with anyone else. Because when you heard
Speaker 1: that that she throws a party for her kid and
Speaker 1: doesn't invite her husband, like that is very weird behavior
Speaker 1: from an outsider, you're like major red flag. But if
Speaker 1: you're in that relationship, you can figure out why to
Speaker 1: justify anything, even something like that. He didn't know these
Speaker 1: things were happening until it happened. That's when the divorce
Speaker 1: conversation started. But because she got help, and because she
Speaker 1: came out of there understanding what she did wrong and
Speaker 1: that she's proclaimed she didn't really want to hurt him
Speaker 1: and she didn't realize what she was doing, she won
Speaker 1: him back. But while she's talking out of one face,
Speaker 1: the other face is also exiting this psychiatric word with
Speaker 1: a new girlfriend, Intel. She had a pretty sweet gig.
Speaker 1: It sounds like like she can spend his money. He's
Speaker 1: not going to leave her. So when did it all
Speaker 1: turn or hit ahead? I guess. At three thirteen on
Speaker 1: October two, Steve Beard was home sleeping. Someone entered the
Speaker 1: home through a side door and quietly made their way
Speaker 1: to Steve's bedroom. The intruder shot him with a shotgun.
Speaker 1: He woke up, bleeding and in agony, and called one.
Speaker 1: When the police and paramedics arrived at his mansion, Steve
Speaker 1: was found lying in his bed, holding his intestines from
Speaker 1: a hole in his abdomen. Paramedics thought Steve had ruptured
Speaker 1: a surgical incision. As more police arrived, celest In her
Speaker 1: daughter Christina appeared from a separate wing of the house.
Speaker 1: Apparently the women had been in the house the entire time,
Speaker 1: but didn't hear a thing. After airlifting Steve to a hospital,
Speaker 1: the police searched his bedroom and found a shell casing
Speaker 1: from a shotgun. This was no ruptured incision. This was
Speaker 1: a did murder. Here's Steve's nine one one call. I
Speaker 1: got out of my stomach. Oh my god. Crazy that
Speaker 1: he was able to make that call. As that happens.
Speaker 1: I mean, you think when someone gets shot in the
Speaker 1: stomach or either guts fly out for whatever reason, they're
Speaker 1: probably not able to do that. He didn't think he
Speaker 1: was shot. Nobody thought he was shot. He thought he
Speaker 1: had like an appendix explosion and it protruded through his stomach.
Speaker 1: He was so fast asleep. Imagine how loud a shotgun
Speaker 1: is and for nobody in the whole house to hear it,
Speaker 1: including the guy who was shot by the shotgun. Right,
Speaker 1: how big is this house? That's the last and her
Speaker 1: kids can be somewhere else. And like you said to him,
Speaker 1: she gives him all these sleeping pills. So he was
Speaker 1: probably really zonked out whenever he was shot. He really
Speaker 1: didn't hear anything at all. I mean, is a wonder
Speaker 1: he even woke up to call nine one one, like
Speaker 1: you said. But he survived, so obviously he was alive
Speaker 1: and has enough strength to call nine one one. So
Speaker 1: why is Celeste in the house though? So she couldn't
Speaker 1: have arranged it because she was there with her daughter. Well,
Speaker 1: here's what we know that as paramedics carried Steve away,
Speaker 1: Celeste burst into tears and started screaming, don't let him die,
Speaker 1: don't let him die. Later at the hospital, the police
Speaker 1: tested Selest and her daughters both for gunpowder residue on
Speaker 1: their hands, because I remember they found the shotgun shell.
Speaker 1: They also asked them if they knew anyone who would
Speaker 1: be angry enough at Steve or who would want to
Speaker 1: cause him harm. We also do know in interviewing other
Speaker 1: people in Steve's circle and at the hospital, Tracy's name
Speaker 1: comes up all the time. Celeste daughters actually went to
Speaker 1: the police and said, we have a really bad feeling
Speaker 1: about this Tracy character. So now here they are, they
Speaker 1: finally have the life they always dreamed of, and they
Speaker 1: feel really safe with Steve and safe in the life
Speaker 1: they've now moved into. Tracy is going to really ruin
Speaker 1: this for them. So they were really helpful to the
Speaker 1: police because a they didn't want to lose their stepfather.
Speaker 1: He had given them so much, and also they didn't
Speaker 1: want this whole great life to get screwed up. Police.
Speaker 1: You know, it hurt Tracy's name from other sources as well.
Speaker 1: So the police go to Tracy's house to speak to
Speaker 1: her about steves murder, and well, Tracy just spills. Tracy
Speaker 1: admits having an affair with Celeste Um, that they lovers,
Speaker 1: that this has been going on for a while, you know,
Speaker 1: everything that's Celestie told her about Steve. And and then
Speaker 1: the police ask a question. They asked Tracy if she
Speaker 1: owns a shotgun and what we think happened. She hands
Speaker 1: over her twenty gage shotgun, which by the way, had
Speaker 1: her name in boss Lama, and the police are able
Speaker 1: to trace the shell casing left at the scene to
Speaker 1: Tracy and her embossed twenty gage shotgun. So just six
Speaker 1: day years later after the shooting, Tracy Charlton was arrested
Speaker 1: for shooting Steve with a shotgun and he's still alive.
Speaker 1: He's totally still alive. He's not only still alive, he
Speaker 1: doesn't believe his wife at the time, Celess has anything
Speaker 1: to do with this. Steve was in the hospital for
Speaker 1: four months and during this time Celess would visit him constantly.
Speaker 1: She sat at his bedside and made sure he got
Speaker 1: the best care. So, despite their rocky past, Steve has
Speaker 1: a change of heart about divorcing his wife. To show
Speaker 1: just how much he had forgiven her, he changed his
Speaker 1: will to give her up. So what he does is
Speaker 1: he goes to his lawyers and has them start adjusting
Speaker 1: and updating all of his will and testament to give
Speaker 1: her even more money because no, I'm not kidding, and
Speaker 1: make sure that she's even more well take care of
Speaker 1: for her and her daughter's in case something happens to him.
Speaker 1: All the while this is happening while he's in the hospital.
Speaker 1: Do we know if Steve was told about Tracy getting
Speaker 1: arrested and all this, like what the police talking to
Speaker 1: him and presenting that what happened, and that didn't change
Speaker 1: his mind about his wife. Yeah, good question. Because Steve
Speaker 1: has a lot of resources, He's a wealthy man. I'm
Speaker 1: sure thankfully he's getting the best possible care at the
Speaker 1: hospital because he has enough money to pay for it.
Speaker 1: But he also probably has enough money to get a
Speaker 1: really serious investigation going, if you know, to even help
Speaker 1: with the police to figure out who did this. She
Speaker 1: was always able when he was kind of walking away
Speaker 1: from her. She always had an uncanny way of pulling
Speaker 1: him back in and even stronger than they were before.
Speaker 1: So I think, you know, he has this traumatic thing happened,
Speaker 1: and I think she's playing to the hilt and don't
Speaker 1: let him die. And I love him, and he's you know,
Speaker 1: she's she's sitting with him, and also he's very sick.
Speaker 1: He's on medication, So you know, where is his concern?
Speaker 1: Probably that his wife is there and his dogs are
Speaker 1: taking care of him. I don't think he's looking outside
Speaker 1: of that, not at all. Tim Please tell me that
Speaker 1: she's not in on this, because if she would allow
Speaker 1: one of her daughters to be in the home when
Speaker 1: that daughter's beloved stepfather is murdered, that's a real sicko defense.
Speaker 1: Like that's her alibi, right, that's her alibi. But you've
Speaker 1: got to remember, all along she's been doing these very
Speaker 1: illegal criminal things by poisoning his food, giving him alcohol
Speaker 1: that's gonna knock him out. But in front of the girls,
Speaker 1: they are the ones who are conflicted of we say something,
Speaker 1: what she's our mother, this is our the man who's
Speaker 1: who's providing for us. They're really not understanding, like they're young,
Speaker 1: I mean eighteen. Yeah, this is crazy. And not only
Speaker 1: did she go spending his money, but she decided to
Speaker 1: go out while her husband's in the hospital and buy
Speaker 1: an eighty thousand dollar watch. Either she knows her time
Speaker 1: is running out or she truly is in love with
Speaker 1: herself and nobody else matters. On January two thousand and ailing,
Speaker 1: Steve died from an infection in his lungs. It had
Speaker 1: been brought on by complications from the shooting. At the
Speaker 1: time of his passing, Steve was worth ten million dollars
Speaker 1: and that money goes to her part of it. The
Speaker 1: other part goes to his five surviving children. Yes, celest
Speaker 1: to receive assets and property totaling six point five million dollars,
Speaker 1: and like Tim said, the rest would be divided up
Speaker 1: between steves five children, his three adult biological kids, and
Speaker 1: then Celestue twins who he adopted. As we know, this
Speaker 1: is like a three month October is when he gets shot.
Speaker 1: In January is when he dies. What's happening with Tracy?
Speaker 1: She was arrested pretty quickly, But is she in jail
Speaker 1: or what she old? Shimately is able to pay bail
Speaker 1: and continues to see celesce but with you know, within
Speaker 1: months of that, Tracy say said that they mutually agreed
Speaker 1: to end that relationship. So after all this, Tracy and
Speaker 1: Celeste part ways and is Celeste also brought into authorities
Speaker 1: because she was commiserating. So what happened was Celesque got
Speaker 1: what she needed from Tracy. She got her to get
Speaker 1: rid of this person who was the only roadblock between
Speaker 1: her and the money. However, once Steve died, the bank
Speaker 1: refused to pay out. They wanted a criminal investigation, which
Speaker 1: is very rare. However, they were extenuating circumstances. The bank
Speaker 1: put a hold until an investigation was complete, and right
Speaker 1: before the completion of the investigation, where Tracy was arrested
Speaker 1: and detained moments before given her sentence, she made a
Speaker 1: plea deal with the state and turned state's evidence and
Speaker 1: testified against lest Why what drove her to do that? Uh?
Speaker 1: What would drive her to do that? Would be that
Speaker 1: she found out that Celestue got remarried again and denied
Speaker 1: that she was ever in any kind of physical, emotional
Speaker 1: um relationship with Tracy at all. And so that was
Speaker 1: the route awakening that Tracy really needed to open her
Speaker 1: eyes and say, I've been played. Here's everything I know
Speaker 1: in m states evidence. So Tracy is obviously a killer,
Speaker 1: but also a little feel bad for her her her
Speaker 1: heart just got broken. Yeah, I don't feel that bad
Speaker 1: for Tracy, but I do feel for her that she
Speaker 1: was another victim of Celeste. I do feel bad she
Speaker 1: was another victim. Let's stop here for another quick break.
Speaker 1: As it possible that's Celeste targeted Tracy inside of that
Speaker 1: psychiatric ward because at that point she already knew she
Speaker 1: wanted to get divorced. Maybe she was able to convince
Speaker 1: Tracy to hang in there and actually pull this off.
Speaker 1: As it possible that Celeste had this plan from the start.
Speaker 1: Everybody was targeted in celesque life, so that doesn't wouldn't
Speaker 1: surprise me at all. But it's really manipulative, and I
Speaker 1: bet she she probably did. You're probably exactly right. She
Speaker 1: signed an agreement if this marriage was gonna end after
Speaker 1: three years, she was going to get like another lump sum.
Speaker 1: I think that is at his peak, he was worth
Speaker 1: something like sixteen million dollars and she's gonna walk away
Speaker 1: with fived So hell no, she does not want a divorce,
Speaker 1: that's the last thing she wants. But here she is.
Speaker 1: You know, where do you go to find someone who's
Speaker 1: broken in some way, who's easy to manipulate? A hospital.
Speaker 1: I do think that she knew exactly what she was
Speaker 1: doing and what she was planning the whole time, because
Speaker 1: the divorce was not the way that she was leaving
Speaker 1: this marriage. She wanted to leave with with her money,
Speaker 1: and she wanted to leave with all the stuff, the jewelry,
Speaker 1: the first she wants to go gambling. She wanted to
Speaker 1: do whatever she wanted, and the only way to do
Speaker 1: at was to get rid of Steve. That's so sad.
Speaker 1: Tracy realizes she was manipulated and that's less live to
Speaker 1: her about her relationship with Steve, and she takes action.
Speaker 1: In March of two thousand and two, three years after
Speaker 1: Steve was shot and just two days before her own
Speaker 1: trial is set to begin, Tracy cuts a deal with
Speaker 1: the prosecutor in exchange for a twenty years sentence. Tracy
Speaker 1: said she would testify that it was Celest who planned
Speaker 1: the murder of her husband. When that blows me away
Speaker 1: because she was holding the shotgun. She murdered a man
Speaker 1: in cold blood because he was having an affair with
Speaker 1: the man's wife. One other thing that happened that's really
Speaker 1: missed up that Celeste asked her daughters to do, and
Speaker 1: her daughter's boyfriends, she asked them if they would all
Speaker 1: commit suicide together right before she was about to be arrested.
Speaker 1: When she found out, Tracy turned state's evidence, which meant
Speaker 1: they were coming after her. And that's when we knew
Speaker 1: we had to go to the FBI ourselves. And that's
Speaker 1: when the two girls and boyfriends went to the FBI
Speaker 1: as well. You know who She reminds me of her mother,
Speaker 1: her biological mother, who said, I'm not your mother. I
Speaker 1: was just her incubator. That's exactly what it's like, right,
Speaker 1: because there's no emotional connection or never mind love, but
Speaker 1: there's no connection to these kids. In fact, Christina kind
Speaker 1: of went on record and said, I never felt like
Speaker 1: I was her daughter. I felt like I was her
Speaker 1: personal assistant to do and get anything. She wanted, and
Speaker 1: so this lady, Tracy Celeste was manipulating her to believe
Speaker 1: that she was the one and only and that she
Speaker 1: was being abused by Steve, and that this was a
Speaker 1: horrible situation that she can't get out of. And so
Speaker 1: not that it makes it right at all, because it doesn't.
Speaker 1: But you have to understand also, she manipulated this person
Speaker 1: into believing she was in love with her, and that,
Speaker 1: in Tracy's weird no kind of defense, she said, understand,
Speaker 1: she was in love and she couldn't bear the thought
Speaker 1: of seeing the person she was in love with being
Speaker 1: manipulated or hurt by this man. So she, in her
Speaker 1: weird way, was thinking she was helping. Good point, that's
Speaker 1: a really good point. She just, i mean literally swung
Speaker 1: from people's lives to other people's lives, wreaking havocs, spending money,
Speaker 1: doing whatever she wanted, thinking that it was never going
Speaker 1: to catch up here and she truly loved herself more
Speaker 1: than anyone else. Two years after Steve Bird shooting, Celeste
Speaker 1: was arrested and charged with capital murder. She hired Dick
Speaker 1: de Gurin, a high powered attorney, the same man who
Speaker 1: represented the likes of Robert Durst and David Koresh d
Speaker 1: Guran painted Selest ex Tracy as an obsessive, love sick
Speaker 1: woman with a delusional fantasy. He went as far as
Speaker 1: to say that two women were just friends, nothing more.
Speaker 1: The d A responded by saying Celeste was a mentally
Speaker 1: ill woman who used Tracy to at rid of Steve
Speaker 1: so she could inherit millions of dollars. At the trial,
Speaker 1: with all of Austin watching, Celesque daughters took the stand,
Speaker 1: but they weren't there to defend their mother. Instead, they
Speaker 1: were testifying for the prosecution. However, it's really Tracy's testimony
Speaker 1: that brings the story full circle. Here she is on
Speaker 1: the stand. She had a plan and she wanted me
Speaker 1: to shoot him at Tor Canyon with my shotmun What
Speaker 1: did she say about exactly how she wanted you to shoot?
Speaker 1: She wanted me to shoot in the stock. Why is
Speaker 1: she where you shooting in the stop because she didn't
Speaker 1: want flatter She didn't want a blood splatter on the wall.
Speaker 1: Is that the word she used? Flatter? She used to flatter?
Speaker 1: Um did she say why she didn't want a blood
Speaker 1: splatter on the wall. She at the time was not
Speaker 1: planning on redecorating, So she wanted to continue to be
Speaker 1: that room, but not miss it up stays to that question. Um,
Speaker 1: so she didn't want to be decorate it. She didn't
Speaker 1: want to live with anything on the reminder, So after
Speaker 1: you saw Steve Beard and you were in there in
Speaker 1: the bedroom, what if anything did you do? I want?
Speaker 1: It's insane? Wow, So you're gonna still stay in that house.
Speaker 1: You're gonna still stay in that bedroom. Understand. The twins,
Speaker 1: Christina and Jennifer, now like in the early twenties, confirmed
Speaker 1: their mom's contempt for Steve. They told the court their
Speaker 1: mom was a liar. Christina said her mom would make
Speaker 1: comments like why does it why doesn't he just die already.
Speaker 1: They went on to explain the whole crushing of drugs
Speaker 1: into his food. It was really damning and so so
Speaker 1: sad to watch this happening. And Celeste of course completely
Speaker 1: deny all of this. You know, Celes denied everything and
Speaker 1: claimed the twins were out for money because if she
Speaker 1: was convicted, they would each get two million dollars. So
Speaker 1: she was trying to say, you know, they're lying and
Speaker 1: they have a vested interest in me going to jail
Speaker 1: because they're gonna get two million dollars each. I mean,
Speaker 1: they love Steve. They were telling the truth. The girls
Speaker 1: were honest. They told me exactly the truth, and I
Speaker 1: honestly think that Celess got exactly what she deserved. In
Speaker 1: two thousand three, after two and a half days of deliberation,
Speaker 1: the jury found Celess Beard guilty of capital murder and
Speaker 1: she was sentenced to life in prison. After serving ten years,
Speaker 1: Tracy Tarleton was released on parole in August of two
Speaker 1: thousand eleven. She said there wasn't a single day that
Speaker 1: went by without feeling shame for what she did. Celest
Speaker 1: Beard is now divorced from her fifth husband and and
Speaker 1: continues to maintain that she did not have a hand
Speaker 1: in killing Steve. She will be eligible for parole on
Speaker 1: April one. Crazy in Love is produced by Stephanie Laie Decker,
Speaker 1: Beth Greenwald, Chris Graves, Lisa d Giovine, Jeff Shane, Tim
Speaker 1: Hamilton's and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by
Speaker 1: Jeff Twa additional editing by Davy Cooper Wasser. Crazy in
Speaker 1: Love is a production of I Heart Radio and Katie Studios.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts, from I heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.