Tonya Howarth: sweet, quiet, troubled

HARTFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - A sweet but quiet woman who tried to turn her life around to be with her daughters - that's the Tonya Howarth her acquaintances spoke of the day after she was found murdered and buried behind a trailer in rural Van Buren County.

Howarth, 36, and Amy Henslee, 30, were shot to death. Junior Lee Beebe was charged with their deaths and is being held without bond.

Amber Bradshaw is Howarth's 17-year-old daughter. She said her mom went to great extent to cover up violence from her boyfriends.

Before she dated Beebe, Howarth dated another abusive man who ended up in prison, Bradshaw told 24 Hour News 8. She suspected her mom had a broken rib at Christmas - the last time they visited - but Howarth wouldn't go to the hospital.

When Bradshaw was 3, she said, Howarth lost custody, and also lost custody of a second child, a 12-year-old girl who lives with her grandparents in Arkansas.

That girl, Mariah Howarth, wrote on a Facebook page memorial, "I miss you Mama."

Two years after she had her first child, Howarth was charged with welfare fraud, and then several years later, a couple misdemeanor charges for marijuana possession.

But she tried to turn her life around in 2009 and returned to school to train as a medical assistant. One classmate told 24 Hour News 8 she talked often about being a better mother to her daughters.

Bradshaw said Howarth was with Beebe when he picked up Henslee Monday morning at Henslee's home. Investigators said Henslee initially went willingly with Beebe, and they believe the women were killed shortly after. Beebe drives the black truck witnesses said pulled up at Henslee's house.

The family said Beebe, 34, and Howarth had some problems.

"Like any couple, they argued, they fought, But I honestly didn't think he'd be capable of doing something like this," Rebecca Nickerson, Beebe's sister told 24 Hour News 8.

Friends and family members tried to get Howarth to break off her relationship with Beebe but she wouldn't, Bradshaw said.

Bradshaw said her mother lived on and off with Beebe at his mother's house in Bangor. And even though she infrequently saw her mother, her grief at the news was evident.

"She is a great person," Bradshaw said tearfully. "She just has a lot of problems."

Beebe, she said, "wasn't good for her."

On the Net:

Tonya Howarth memorial page - facebook