Beard was last seen at the Excaliber Club in Freeport, Texas. She had a 2-year-old daughter and worked for a car dealership. Paul Gayland Taylor pleaded guilty to murdering Beard in February 1995. Prosecutors were able to get an indictment against Taylor after he bragged while in prison on unrelated conviction to having killed Beard at his Clute home. Taylor showed authorities where he thought he buried Beard in a shallow grave, in a rice field just south of Angleton. The search was suspended without finding Beard's remains.

Taylor, 38, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder. He also was sentenced to 25 years for solicitation of capital murder for trying to hire someone to kill a witness who was to testify in the murder case.