1997 homicides:
Nancy Miranda Beam
 William Glenn Hawkins on the day of his arrest. DDN PHOTO BY WALLY NELSON | Miami County resident Nancy Beam, 32, was shot and killed on April 28, 1997 in Dayton's Westwood neighborhood in what police later described as a drug transaction that escalated into a robbery.
Mrs. Beam had previously been convicted of cocaine possession and police said she had been stopped in the area twice before. Police described her as having lived a "high-risk lifestyle" involving prostitution and drugs. |
Mrs. Beam and her husband, Harold, were in a GMC truck when the shooting occurred at Kammer and North Orchard avenues at 10:20 p.m. on 4-28-1997. Beam drove the truck three blocks to a drive-through at W. Second St. and McGee Blvd where he sought help.
Paramedics took Mrs. Beam to Franciscan Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 12:30 a.m. on 4-29.
Hawkins, known as "Willie Woo," has a juvenile arrest record going back to age 12. His mother, Rachel Sims, 46, said her son had twice spent time in state juvenile facilities for auto thefts.
Nancy Beam nearly died in 1992 when she was sexually assaulted, stabbed more than a dozen times and left along railroad tracks.
Dayton police homicide Detective Doyle Burke said Beam told police at that time that she was a prostitute and had been attacked by a customer.
Burke said a suspect was identified about six months after the attack, but that Beam had by that time moved back to Piqua with her mother and was reluctant to testify.
She had changed her ways, Burke said, "but she ultimately fell back into that lifestyle -- and it caught up with her."DDN 4-30-1997, "Teen held in slaying," by Janice Morse.
File created: 4-30-1997
Sources:
DDN 5-1-1997, "Shots ended troubled life," by Janice Morse and Lisa Perry.Library note: the photos on this page were not available to the library for archiving in high-resolution format.
