"Magpie" Magness

“The Magnesses Don’t Divorce,” that’s what Michael Magness told his friends when asked about why he hadn’t divorced his wife, Beth, after complaining about the marriage. Michael had been firm about this “no divorce” issue. It could be assumed he was thinking about the children.

Michael’s defense was the prosecution presented no evidence he committed the murder of Elizabeth Magness. But the magic eight ball of the prosecution pointed to yes.

What series of events took place that night? And how did someone murder Beth Magness.

Okemah, Oklahoma is the largest city and the county seat for Okfuskee County Oklahoma. It’s the birthplace of Woody Guthrie, the folk sing. It’s a small town like so many in Oklahoma.

The day before Beth was murdered was March 14, 2015. She was a math nut after all that’s what her education was in, she had her degrees in math. The day before was 314 or PI Day so she celebrated PI Day by making Pies. Now these pies were supposed to be for the group of people coming to her house for a gathering.

At the time, Beth and Michael ran a LARP or Live Action Role Play group. On March 14th, 2015 the group was supposed to come over to the house to make foam swords and the like for gaming. But for some reason, no one showed.

Folks, I find this highly suspicious. No one dug deeper into this made me wonder just how this came to pass. Did Michael cancel with everyone? How many people were really supposed to come out that day. And were they really wanting to come? By some reports, the house was in need of tender loving care, it needed cleaning.

The Crouches were very close friends with the Magnesses. When the boys stayed the night, the first the Crouches did was to wash their clothes and give them a bath, something they testified to in open court. Don’t pre-judge Beth yet.

Beth was the one with the good job when they moved from Wisconsin to Okemah where Michael was from. While in Wisconsin, Michael was having an affair that comes out in trial. The affair ended when he moved, but he had told his “girlfriend” his marriage had an expiration date. Wow, what a jerk. Ok, now I’m prejudging, but wait there’s more.

Michael put them on a family farm and had no farm experience. So, the farm wasn’t doing that well. Things weren’t getting done and it became a disaster the rest of the family was in a tizzy over.

Beth was depressed and suffered from post-partum depression. She was still nursing the youngest and he was almost 2 years old. Ok, folks, I’m one of those people that believe that it is just too long to keep nursing a child. They should be on milk and table food by then, not still on breast milk. The health of the mother really should be considered here tool.

These children were caught in the middle of their parents. I think Beth tried to be a good mother. Things like depression got in her way just enough to cause her to neglect things like the house. Michael’s way of dealing with it was to run off to a friend’s house and take the kids, leaving her with the mess and the farm as often as possible.

Folks, does any of this seem like they were getting the help they needed. Both were on mental health medication, but therapy wasn’t working for someone in this hot mess of a relationship.

I do want to mention there were two other suspects that were investigated by OSBI, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations. The two investigated were not found to be reliable suspects at the time of the investigation. The idea of either of them killing Beth was something I found less interesting than the one had if anything a reason to kill Magness himself, not Beth.

Michael rented Grimmie’s Farmhouse from his Uncle David for a $100 a month in the end months of 2014. Grimmie was Michael’s grandfather that had passed away previous to this.

After renting the house, Magness immediately put insurance on it. And suddenly it burned down on September 7th, 2014. His alibi was that he was headed to Wisconsin to work on a rent house. Evidence later led to a conviction of arson and insurance fraud on this incident alone.

Ok, Folks, let’s whip back to 2011 for a moment in time. Michael Magness was having an affair with a woman by the name of Kelly Simmons. Kelly was living with the couple at the time in Wisconsin.

Kelly was like any other woman in that position. Magness began to share his secret thoughts and plans. Magness told Kelly his failing marriage had an expiration date of 2015. He discussed all kinds of ways he had planned to kill his wife and son, then collect the insurance money. One way in particular was to burn the house down and do it in his hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. He assumed the people there were to “stupid” to caught him at it. I don’t know about you, Folks, but if I was seated in the jury box, that sounds mighty incriminating to me. Don’t it you?

We jog ahead to March 15th, 2015 around 1:30 AM. Rhonda Hill, a witness that lived one line of houses over from the Magness’s, placed someone fitting the description of Magness in the darkness. This was a partial description, but it was enough to hold up in court.

At around 2:00 AM that morning, Jeanetta Coale, a neighbor who lived behind the Magness’s, heard gunshots. She wasn’t alarmed and assumed it was someone shooting at coyotes. Shooting at coyotes was not an uncommon occurrence around there.

Later, around 3:30 AM or 4:00 AM, Mrs. Crouch was woken up by the baby being fussy. She got up. She found Magness already up trying to quiet the baby.

Later in the day, Sunday, March 15, 2015, Dane Lyne, a friend was waiting at the Magness place outside the house just after Noon. He waited to return a truck he borrowed from Magness.

Magness rushed him into the house as soon as he arrived home. This seemed a little odd to Dane, but he didn’t say anything.

Magness left Dane in the kitchen. He “looked” for Beth. He “found” her in their bedroom. He returned moments later, and informed Dane in an emotionless tone that Beth was dead.

Besides, the fact he couldn’t keep his pillow talk to himself in 2011. Or the fact he bragged about insurance policies to keep the K-bar, his restaurant, open for years to come. He described what he saw when he looked at Beth when he found her dead. Problem was, he was working off memory, and he described what she looked like right after she had been shot. The head wound made the eye swell out then after a few moments it receded. But he hadn’t known it sunk back in.

It’s the details, the lies, they catch up one at a time. All of the weaving together the case for investigators to break.