Friday, July 16, 2010
Judge Orders Separate Trials For Couple Accused Of Murdering Waynesboro Mom
A judge has ordered separate trials and a change of venue for a Waynesboro couple accused of murdering the mother of their grandson; their son’s fiancé, early this year.
The decision was made during proceedings in Wayne County Circuit Court this week. A judge ordered that Steven and Sylvia Beersdorf will stand trial separately, and that trials for each will be held outside of Wayne County, where the alleged crime took place.
The Beersdorfs were arrested in January, days after they reported their son’s fiancé, twenty-one-year-old Rose Goggins, had disappeared while en route to an EMT class in Lawrenceburg. Goggins and her eleven-month-old son resided with the Beersdorfs at their Beech Creek home. The boy’s father, Steven Beersdorf, Jr., was stationed at Camp Shelby, Mississippi.
Remains were located on property belonging to the Beersdorfs in early February. The remains were reportedly scattered about a ten-foot area, situated approximately 250 yards behind a two-story log cabin on the couple’s 1099 Swinging Bridge Road property, between Waynesboro and Clifton.
Authorities indicate that teams with the Federal Bureau of Investigation sifted through layers of dirt to recover the flesh and small bone fragments from what they called a burn circle. Experts with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab utilized DNA from Goggins’ young son to make the identification.
Both Beersdorfs were subsequently indicted on one count each of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Authorities allege the murder resulted from Goggins telling the couple she intended to move their grandson away from the area.
Trail for Steven Beersdorf has been scheduled for December in Maury County, while Sylvia Beersdorf is slated to stand trail in Lawrence County in January.
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