Missouri Girl Bludgeoned to Death by Own Dad Who Repeatedly Struck Her With Baseball Bat Before Placing Her Body on Home's Roof

A six-year-old Missouri girl was bludgeoned to death by his own dad, who used an aluminum baseball bat to beat his daughter, authorities said.

According to PEOPLE, police arrested Dustin Beechner, 37, after he led investigators to his daughter's body. The Missouri girl was identified as Jozlyn Marie Beechner, who died from blunt force trauma.

Reports said Jozlyn's body was found by police on September 2 on the roof of their St. Joseph home, beneath a white sheet. Authorities claimed that the Missouri girl had been struck several times with an aluminum bat.

Police have yet to comment regarding a possible motive. As of Monday, Beechner was facing a single felony count of child abuse resulting in death. He will remain in the Buchanan County Jail without bond.

Beechner reportedly addressed a judge last week in court. However, he was quickly cut off by the judge, saying that anything he said in the presence of the prosecution could be used against him at trial.

Cases of Dad Before He Killed the Missouri Girl

According to the St. Joseph News-Press, Dustin Beechner was on probation for an assault at the time of his latest arrest. The Missouri dad reportedly has a violent criminal history, pleading guilty in two previous domestic assault cases in Buchanan County, which included a conviction for shooting his cousin in the abdomen in October 2010.

Beechner was allegedly intoxicated at the time of the shooting. According to court records, the shooting occurred after the Missouri dad accused his cousin of stealing $100.

In this case, he pleaded guilty to second-degree domestic assault and was sentenced to four years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. However, Beechner served only 120 days of shock incarceration at the Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center before he was placed on three years of probation.

In 2019, the Missouri dad pleaded guilty to domestic assault after an altercation with a former girlfriend, who was not Jozlyn Marie Beechner's mom. Beechner reportedly grabbed his former girlfriend by the neck with both hands and pushed her against the wall before striking her twice in the face.

In a petition to plead guilty, Beechner said he does not remember anything because of his intoxication. He pleaded guilty to third-degree domestic assault and was placed on four years of probation, the conditions of which he still was under at the time of the Missouri girl's death.

In 2009, Beechner was reportedly charged with a DWI after driving 65 mph in a 45 mph zone while intoxicated. The court placed him on probation for two years instead of jailing him for three months.

Mom of Murdered Missouri Girl Is Also in Jail

In 2020, Dustin Beechner and Natasha Renee Burgess, who court documents name as Jozlyn Marie Beechner's mom, were in court over child support.

Court documents showed that the Missouri dad had custody of Jozlyn, and her mom was ordered to pay Beechner $325 per month in child support beginning on June 15, 2020. Burgess was charged with a misdemeanor for not paying the ordered support later that summer.

Last April, she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal nonsupport. Burgess was sentenced to two years of probation after agreeing to pay the ordered support and back support, with the first payment due last July.

According to court documents, Buchanan County prosecutors filed to revoke Burgess' probation on August 11 because she failed to pay the support. She was booked into the Buchanan County Jail early this week after a warrant was issued seeking her arrest. As of Monday, she remained in jail on a $500 bond.

Jozlyn would have turned seven years old on September 15 if she was not killed. The Missouri girl's obituary described her as "sweet, smart, sassy, ornery and happy all wrapped up in one little body with giant blue eyes," Audacy reported.

Associate Circuit Judge Keith Marquart said Beechner was on suicide watch at the jail. The Missouri dad told the judge before he was cut off that he had been doing good for a year and a half, adding that "some things have been going on" in his life.

A candlelight vigil will be held in Jozlyn's honor at the Remington Nature Center in St. Joseph on her birthday on September 15.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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