King County Prosecutors on Wednesday charged an Auburn woman with one count of solicitation to commit first-degree murder for what they allege was her plot to hire a hit man for $500 to beat to death the father of her 6-year-old daughter, his wife and his parents with a piece of rebar.
Elizabeth Ann Beimer, 29, is being held at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent on $1 million bail, said King County Prosecutor’s Spokesman Dan Donohoe.
If convicted as charged, Beimer could spend 15 to 20 years in prison. Arraignment is scheduled for Nov. 12 at the Regional Justice Center.
Investigators say Beimer’s anger over a protracted custody battle with the father of her daughter was the likely motive. The two were never married.
Prosecutors allege that between Oct. 17 and Oct. 24, Beimer repeatedly asked a male acquaintance to help kill Robert Davis and his wife, Ruby, and his parents David and Lorraine Davis.
“For several months, Beimer was increasingly frustrated with the custody issues at hand,” said Auburn Police Sgt. Scott Near. “At some point, a few weeks prior to the 17th, she starts approaching him, saying she wanted to have Robert Davis murdered. He didn’t take her seriously at first, so he had a friend of his call her posing as a hit man to talk her out of it.”
The man told detectives that because of his associations with the Hell’s Angels, Beimer believed it should have been easy for him to find someone to commit the crime. When he realized she couldn’t be talked out of the scheme but meant to carry it out, he called her intended victims, and all five contacted police Oct. 20.
A King County sheriff’s detective agreed to play a biker hit man. Over the phone, the detective and Beimer arranged to meet at the White River Inn in Auburn. Police had obtained a court order to record the meeting on audio and video surveillance without her knowledge.
Beimer handed the “hit man” a rough floor plan of the couple’s home, photos of her intended victims, and agreed to pay him. Beimer mentioned a piece of rebar in her car that he could use to kill her victims. She fetched the bar and gave it to the detective.
Beimer then left the motel room, and police arrested her soon afterward without incident.
According to court records, she confessed during a subsequent interview.
Near said it’s the first murder-for-hire he’s dealt with in Auburn.
“There have been veiled threats of this kind before, but in the 20 years I have been here, I am not aware of anything being carried out to this kind of extent,” Near said.
