Beebe 'going to get what he deserves'

PAW PAW, Mich. (WOOD) - The families of Tonya Howarth and Amy Henslee heard the words they wanted to hear for six months: Junior Beebe is guilty of murdering the two women.

"Now we can start to heal," said Howarth's sister, Tricia Kraiger. "There wasn't any healing process for the last six months.

It's been a nightmare for the two families since the night the bodies of the women were found buried in a shallow grave outside a trailer on Beebe's family's property.

He maintained Howarth killed Henslee in a jealous rage when she found he and Henslee together in the trailer, and that he killed Howarth only after a struggle for the gun.

The jury didn't buy it, and convicted him of the first-degree (premeditated) murder of Howarth, and the second-degree murder of Henslee.

"Amy's looking down and Tonya's looking down and we got our answers," Amy's husband, James Henslee, told 24 Hour News 8. "Now he'll pay for it."

Howarth's mother was more succinct. "We're just glad it's over. He's going to get what he deserves." And Henslee's mother, Brenda Miston, said, "We did it. We put him away."

Beebe, though, denied killing the women after the verdict was announced. Asked in the hallway by 24 Hour News if he killed Henslee and Howarth, Beebe shouted, "No!"

Prosecuting attorney Juris Kaps admitted there are still unanswered questions in this case. "We didn't have a story as far as the motive," he told 24 Hour News 8. "That was the only thing we didn't have a story about."

His family was upset with the verdict, though they were expecting a conviction on a lesser charge.

He may appeal the verdict. But the conviction on a first-degree murder charge brings with it a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.