Updated thoughts
The story is below.
This is still shocking. The article below does not paint her in a good light and it even indicates, IMO, that she had been planning this. Yes, she sold her horses, but there is more to that story. Yes, I think he was going to leave her. It is believed he was having an affair, but you don’t find that mentioned in the article. You know, IF he was, I think she was the type that would say get out, and make his life hell for the rest of it…not end it early. Even if it is true that she did this, and all evidence seems to indicate that it is, it is hard for me to believe she acted alone. You know, she came to school last year with a black eye and when someone asked about it she said he did it, but promised he would never again. The police are ready to close this case and it is very convenient that their main suspect is dead as well.
I really don’t think our school has done a good job handling the teachers. Nothing has been said to us, or done for us with regard to coping. We are doing well and someone has been permanently placed in her room, but we are still in shock. A member of our faculty is gone. A member of our building is gone. They didn’t move away. She killed herself! AND she is accused of murdering her husband. HELLO! Some of us saw this woman everyday and we had lunch with her. No, we were not in danger from her, not at all. But she was a colleague and for some a friend. Teachers, even though they have their differences, have a common ground. It seems when I am traveling I can find other teachers to talk to. We have personalities that attract other teachers. Maybe I am the only one that sees it that way, but it is what I have experienced. When in a group of people that I do not know I am not comfortable. I can usually find at least one to talk/relate to and that one, more times than not, turns out to be a teacher.
In my building a teacher is gone and there is a void.
Beatty deaths: Police seek to be sure about details
5/2/2007 1:36:39 AM
Daily JournalBy Lena Mitchell
Daily Journal Corinth BureauCORINTH - Officials expect to close the Don Beatty homicide investigation by the end of the week, the lead investigator says.
“What I’m doing now is making sure there’s not any accomplice out there,” Corinth chief of detectives Capt. Ralph Dance said earlier this week. “I don’t think anybody helped her, but I’m still looking at bank records, phone records, to make sure nobody else helped her.”
The body of Don Beatty’s wife, Tupelo High School teacher Dorothy “Anne” Beatty, 59, was found Thursday on private property in McNairy County, Tenn. A coroner ruled that she died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
When her body was found, Dance said, he was pretty certain Don Beatty’s homicide had been solved. His wife had been a suspect in the case.
It was not her first try, Dance revealed: Anne Beatty had made another suicide attempt - overnight April 17-18 - and he thought “it was only a matter of time” before she’d succeed. No suicide note was found after either incident, he said.
The body of Don Beatty, 65, was found the morning of April 9 in shallow water near the Scruggs Bridge boat ramp on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in Tishomingo County.
A coroner’s examination determined he had not drowned but had died from a blow to the head. Further investigation led to the Beattys’ home on North Polk Street in Corinth as the site of his death.
Although Anne Beatty was 5-feet-5-inches tall and weighed 135 pounds, police believe she was alone in carrying her husband’s body - he was 5-feet-9-inches and weighed 165 pounds - and disposing of it in the water “based on what information we were able to gather from her house and different places,” Dance said.
Couple in trouble
Interviews with family and friends indicated the couple had experienced marital problems the past couple of years.“He told her about the first of April he was going to leave her, which is what I consider the motive behind all this,” Dance said.
The Beattys had not attended church services regularly for about a year, said Terry Smith, associate minister at the Foote Street Church of Christ in Corinth.
Before then, Anne Beatty and the couple’s son, Brad, had been very active with youth programs and trips, and Don Beatty was a regular as well.
“We don’t know what was happening in the family,” Smith said. “They were all very dear to us, and now we’ll be there for Brad.”
Smith said the church had reached out to the family but help was not accepted. He urged people who find themselves in difficult circumstances, whatever they may be, to turn to their church rather than away from it.
“Don’t be ashamed, when people are reaching out, to admit you have problems; we all have problems, including preachers and church leaders,” he said. “We might understand more than people think we would, and if we don’t have the particular skill we can get the qualified help right away. Don’t try to handle things by yourself.”
Couple well known
Both Don and Anne Beatty were well known in Corinth.Don Beatty relocated from Illinois with Hall of Mississippi - later known as Quebecor World - from which he retired. Most recently he was mail room supervisor at the Daily Corinthian newspaper.
“He was one of the best guys you could meet,” said Herbert Taylor, whose evening part-time schedule at the Daily Corinthian overlapped with Don’s. They spent lots of time talking over a shared smoke outside.
“If you had a problem, you could talk to him. I never saw him mad, never.”
Taylor said Don Beatty had shared that he thought the timing was right to leave his marriage with his son about to graduate from college.
“I saw him the Friday night and he was in a good mood,” Taylor said, reflecting on the April night before Don’s death. “We talked like we always do. I’m already missing him; it doesn’t seem like the same place.”
Dorothy Anne Purvis Beatty grew up in west Corinth.
At the time of her death she was a science teacher at Tupelo High, but she also had been a teacher at the alternative school in Corinth.
She also was spoken of as an “avid horsewoman,” and police investigator Dance said she sold her two horses and a mule in early April. Her funeral was Sunday in Corinth.
May 02 2007 06:39 pm | Private
May 3rd, 2007 at 4:03 pm
this is a tough situation for you all. As you may remember I lost a good friend to suicide late last year–his world, it seemed to him, was about to collapse and he checked out leaving all of us wondering… I’m sorry for what you and the other teachers and students are going through.
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:34 pm
It is tough for all of us. The district is so closed mouthed that it makes things even more difficult. The students do not feel like they can ask questions, and for the most part they can’t.
May 4th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Just my opinion-but I really think the school needs to provide some type of counseling for the teachers and students. My former pastor committed suicide 2 years ago and I had to talk to someone. It was so heart breaking and I still have days that it bothers me. When you see someone and know someone then something like this happenes and there’s no answeres you the teachers and the students need someone to say…yes were here. You can’t sweep it under a rug and think the feelings and emotions will go away….it’ll just grow bigger.
My prayers to all of you and the community!
(hey btw…i closed my myspace page….just got tired of it and missed spending time on my website)