SC woman admits to stealing dead mom’s retirement checks. Here’s what she did with the body

A Mauldin woman has admitted to throwing her mother’s dead body down the embankment of a river near Tryon, North Carolina and collecting nearly $70,000 from her mother’s Social Security benefits over four years.

Beth Beamer, 48, pleaded guilty in Federal Court to the scheme that also caught up a Greenville County Sheriff’s deputy and two relatives.

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office began unraveling the case in 2020 after newly elected Sheriff Hobart Lewis reopened a number of cold cases, including that of 79-year-old Rena Beamer.

She had been missing since 2017.

In October 2020, The Sheriff’s Office told the Social Security Administration that Rena Beamer was missing, yet her retirement benefits were still being deposited into her bank account.

Rena Beamer’s information was uploaded to the U.S. Justice Department’s National Missing and Unidentified Missing Persons System in November 2020.

“Rena Beamer was last seen with a family member who took her from Mauldin, SC to see family in North Carolina. Rena Beamer has not been heard from since this time,” the report says.

Beamer is believed to have died in August of that year.

Beth Beamer had access to her mother’s account and had cared for her for four years before then.

In May 2021, Beth Beamer was arrested in North Carolina on charges filed in Greenville County of neglect of a vulnerable adult, exploitation of a vulnerable adult, obstruction of an investigation, abuse or neglect resulting in death, unauthorized removal of a dead body and destruction/desecration of human remains.

She admitted it all, and signed an agreement to plead guilty to stealing from the government in June.

U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Cain sentenced Beamer Monday to 16 months in prison, followed by three years of supervision.

Beamer was also ordered to pay $68,909.40 in restitution to the Social Security Administration.

As the Sheriff’s Office was investigating the missing person’s case, they found out that then-deputy Joseph Parrish failed to perform his duty as a deputy sheriff. He was fired in May 2021 for conduct unbecoming a deputy and the matter was referred to SLED for a criminal investigation.

Sheriff’s Office Lt. Ryan Flood said Parrish’s file says in they looked into whether he had firsthand knowledge of Beamer’s disappearance but did nothing with it.

Renee Wunderlich, SLED spokesperson, said the investigation is ongoing.

Also, Rena Beamer’s granddaughter, Tabitha Edith Shook, 28, pleaded guilty in November to obstruction of investigation and removing a dead body and taking it across state lines, court records show.

Madilyn Janet Ballard, 23, another granddaughter, was originally charged with obstruction but pleaded guilty to filing a false police report, a misdemeanor, in March.