Miranda King, on the left, and Robert Beine, on the right, appear inset against an image of the wooded area where a man’s body was found in Columbus, Ohio. (Columbus Police Department; Screengrab via WBNS)
A couple on the run from state and federal law enforcement were taken into custody on Thursday for the alleged murder of a man whose body was found alight in a fire pit earlier this summer.
On July 8, during the early morning hours, someone noticed a “suspicious fire” in the woods near South High Street in the Hungarian Village neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, and called the police.
On Aug. 20, the Franklin County Municipal Court issued arrest warrants for Miranda King, 24, and Robert Beine, 42, on charges of murder and gross abuse of a corpse over the slaying of William Hamblin, 43, and the alleged subsequent efforts to cover up his violent death.
The two defendants allegedly struck Hamblin in the head with some kind of a blunt object and then shot him to finish him off, according to court records cited by Columbus-based Fox affiliate WSYX.
“Through the course of the investigation, detectives determined there was an ongoing dispute between Mr. Hamblin, Robert Beine and Miranda King, Mr. Beine’s girlfriend, in regards to some property which was stolen from Mr. Hamblin,” detectives wrote in a complaint. “On July 6, 2023, witnesses observed an altercation between the three listed individuals, resulting with Mr. Beine making threats to kill Mr. Hamblin and Ms. King encouraging Mr. Beine to do so.”
The altercation between the defendants and their alleged victim apparently passed. Then, two days later, King and Beine were seen on surveillance footage walking with a third person near the area where Hamblin’s burning body was eventually discovered, the CPD alleges.
Shortly after that, flames could be seen in the video, police say.
The call about the fire came around 1:30 a.m.
Firefighters put out the blaze and the body was found. The burnt man was pronounced dead on the scene.
Hamblin’s body was burned in a fire pit in an all-fated attempt “to dispose of the evidence of his murder,” according to a copy of King’s criminal complaint obtained by local ABC affiliate WPDE.
Wanted for nearly three weeks, the fugitives apparently didn’t get too far.
Local police say King and Beine were spotted “in south Columbus” early Thursday morning when a pursuit ensued. In their own press release, the U.S. Marshals Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team noted that the suspects were located at a filling station near the corner of Lockbourne Road and Frebis Avenue. The pair allegedly fled but were eventually apprehended by “assisting CPD patrol units.”
According to the U.S. Marshals, both defendants were taken to the Franklin County Jail after their arrest “where they will remain pending their initial appearances in court.”
As of Friday afternoon, King was being detained there. She had her first court appearance Friday morning where a judge assessed her bail in the amount of $2.5 million, according to The Columbus Dispatch. She is next slated to appear in court on Sept. 15.
Beine, however, does not appear in the current inmate roster for the same jail. His first court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 9.
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