Missing
Tracy Lea Stewart
Stewart, approximately 1981
Date and time person was reported missing : 08/09/1981
Missing location (approx) :
Carson, California
Missing classification : Endangered Missing
Gender : Female
Ethnicity :
White
DOB : 06/26/1963 (58)
Age at the time of disappearance: 18 years old
Height / Weight : 5'4, 125 pounds
Description, clothing, jewerly and more : A dark flower-print blouse and blue jeans. Carrying a blue purse.
Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: Caucasian female. Brown hair, green eyes.
Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Stewart was last seen in Carson, California on August 9, 1981. Her family stated she left her home to go on a date with a young man named Bobby, whom she had just met hours before. The two of them drove away in a pickup truck. Stewart told her mother she would be home by 1:00 a.m., but she has never been heard from again.
Stewart had graduated high school prior to her disappearance and was considered a normal teenAge at the time of disappearance: r, with no problems and no history as a runaway. Her mother described her as a shy person who had few romantic relationships and took care of her younger brother while her parents both worked.
In 1987, Robert Wayne Beckett Jr. was charged with first-degree murder in connection with Stewart's disappearance. At the time of his arrest, he had just finished serving two years a Colorado prison for assault. In 1988, Robert's father, Robert Wayne Beckett Sr., was also arrested and charged with Stewart's murder.
A jury subsequently convicted Robert Jr. of Stewart's murder. He initially agreed to testify against his father, but later reneged. Charges against Robert Sr. had to be dropped as a result.
Robert Sr. was rearrested in 1993 when his son again promised to testify against him. Robert Jr. stated he met Stewart at Hermosa Beach on the day of her disappearance and they went bowling before he took her to the apartment he shared with his father. He and Robert Sr. subsequently raped and tortured Stewart for three days, and then killed her together by strangling her and clubbing her.
Robert Jr. said they dumped Stewart's body in a rural area in Riverside County or Orange County in California, but he couldn't remember the exact location.
Robert Sr. was convicted of Stewart's murder in 1995. He also confessed to murdering a Florida woman in 1983, at the behest of the victim's husband. The woman's infant daughter was left with her mother's body and died before she could be rescued.
Another man was wrongfully convicted of the crime and served nine years in prison before authorities realized he was innocent and released him. Robert Sr. received immunity from prosecution in the Florida case, in exchange for his testimony against the victim's husband, who had hired him.
In 1987, on the sixteenth anniversary of Stewart's disappearance, Robert Sr. died of natural causes in prison. Robert Jr. is still serving his life sentence. Stewart's remains have never been found. Foul play is suspected in her case due to the circumstances involved.
Other information and links : ncy
Los Angeles Sheriff's Department
323-890-5500
September 2021 updates and sources
California Attorney General's Office
The Daily Breeze
The Miami Herald
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are not known. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2�5% of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
Several organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and imAge at the time of disappearance: s of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
October 12, 2004. November 30, 2018; Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : updated.
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