TRACY NOYLNE TARLTON

 Tracey Nolyne Tarlton, a 1986 Texas A&M graduate with a degree in Biology, had worked various government jobs before finding her niche at BookPeople in Austin Texas. She was hired in 1994 and eventually became a manager and was interviewed on C-Span and occasionally quoted in news articles. 

She was always very open about her sexual orientation to her friends and co-workers, and to others, and was comfortable within the gay community. She was an avid skeet shooter and owned an engraved Italian shotgun given to her by her father, a prominent and respected Fort Worth, Texas lawyer. Behind her back she was nicknamed "Shotgun Tracey."

Tracey Tarlton had some psychological issues. She'd suffered from depression and had attempted suicide as well as engaged in drug and alcohol abuse. According to psychological reports from the Menninger Clinic, in Topeka, Kansas Tracey prone to substance abuse and depression and confirmed her suicidal tendencies.

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Tracey Tarlton had a serious relationship prior to Celeste Beard which had also garnered gossip and rumors. Gossip that said Tracey had killed her lover's husband.

Zan Ray, owner of a hair salon was away in New York and returned to find her husband's body. Friends and employees hadn't known about Tracey and when Tracey showed up and from then on was constantly with Zan everyone wondered. She kept everyone else at a distance from Zan, even  being with Zan at the funeral, her hand on Zan's shoulder. Shortly afterwards Tracey began living with Zan above the hair salon.

Zan, accompanied by Tracey, gathered the staff of the salon together and informed them pf the circumstances of her husband's death. He'd committed suicide.

Zan and Tracey were a couple, until Zan broke it off.

Tracey was absent from BookPeople for awhile and upon her return she was medicated. 

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Therapist Susan Milholland "Tarlton told me she had a self-destructive habit of falling passionately in love with married heterosexual women."

February of 1999 Tracey had a nervous breakdown at work. Friends and family encouraged Tracey to seek help. Tartlon entered St. David's Pavilion in Austin, Texas. 

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In March of 1999 Celeste Beard checked in. Her husband, Steve Beard was threatening divorce over her excessive spending and trysts with a former husband. Celeste threatened suicide. Her twin daughters, Jennifer and Kristina viewed their mother's hysterics as "just another of her acts to get her way." 

Celeste Beard was also looking for a way to keep Steve Beard's money, without Steve Beard.

Tarlton "She was flirtatious from the first time I met her. And I responded in kind." "She was needy, and I was need too. We became friends."  "It didn't bother Celeste when I told her I was a lesbian." "Eventually she came into my room and kissed me. She wanted to have a sexual relationship with me."

A few short weeks later Tracey Tarlton wrote to Celeste "Celeste, you are so beautiful. I think about your long, silky body and your incredible, long legs and I just can't stand it. And then I think of your incredible face and I want to...stand outside your building and wail until I get arrested. We won't even talk about what happens when I think about your sweet, tough, sexy voice."

Tarlton “She needed me. And I know that attracted me."

Celeste "I didn't look at her as Tracey the lesbian, I looked at her as Tracey, my friend. She was kind, and she could be considerate."

From the first day of their meeting Celeste told Tracey stories about her "abusive husband's cruelty." 

Much later, after she'd realized the truth, Tarlton said "I think she manipulated me from the beginning."

Tracey Tarlton's mother had been a distant, abusive, alcoholic mother. From the age of ten Tarlton was seeking love. When she met Celeste Beard, she thought she had found someone who truly loved her.

Both women transferred to Timberlawn, in Austin, Texas where staff members tried to keep them apart after catching them in a passionate embrace. 

March 20, 1999 Tarlton stated that was the date "she and Celeste first had sex."

Celeste Beard "it's all a fantasy. Obviously, because she didn't do that with me."

When they were released from the mental facility, the two women continued their affair and neither were discreet about it.  A BookPeople party shows Celeste sitting on Tarlton's lap. Other partygoers would later state that they saw the women "kissing passionately."

Photo: Celeste Beard sitting on Tracey Tarlton's lap

Jeremy Ellis, BookPeople co-worker "Tracey wasn't secretive. Everyone in the store knew she was dating someone named Celeste. She spoke about her like she was her girlfriend. They were sort of physical, close with each other and I thought, well good for Tracey."

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During the trial Defense Attorney Dick DeGuerin "I think Tracey probably took advantage of Celeste … whether you call it recruiting or what you call it," he said. "I don't think its right … I don't think it's "normal."

Dr. Howard Miller called by the Defense “Tracey had a need to believe that Celeste was the one who loved her. She clearly persisted in a delusional belief.” 

DeGuerin had other mental health specialists testify who said "Tracey’s mental problems are so severe, she could have imagined, even fabricated, a romantic relationship with Celeste."

DeGuerin also called Katrina Lofton, a former cell mate of Tarlton's (for two months) to testify "She loved Celeste but Celeste didn’t love her. Tracey was out to punish Celeste for refusing her sexual advances. “She just said that Celeste wasn’t going to live happily ever after while she rotted in jail.” 

DeGuerin "It was Tracey who was the manipulator. Tracey would get Celeste high on alcohol or marijuana brownies, and then try to seduce her." “She’s sick, sick, sick. And everybody that’s ever seen her has said that.”  "This is a case of fatal attraction. It’s a case of obsession. Tracey Tarlton is psychotic. She’s been diagnosed as having delusions, as hearing voices that aren’t there, as seeing things that aren’t there.” “The sexual relationship existed solely in Tracey’s mind. Tracey shot Steven Beard for her own selfish and sick reasons." 

DeGuerin "Is there a single journal entry in which you say, “It finally happened. We finally had sex?”
Tarlton "No."

DeGuerin "I'm dead certain as to just what this murder is all about. “It’s about obsession. It’s about a woman that became deathly obsessed with Celeste, and would do anything to have her.”  “Tracey wanted it, but Celeste rebuffed her. She had this fantasy of being Celeste’s lover.”

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July 1999, Austin Psychotherapist Barbara Grant had a counseling session with Celeste Beard and Tracey Tarlton. The session concerned their sexual relationship.

Barbara Grant "Celeste told me she doubted she was a lesbian because "she needed alcohol to help work up the nerve to have sex" with Tarlton."

Celeste Beard "I never had sex with Tracey. Never.”

Photo: Kristen and Jennifer with mother Celeste Beard

Kristin and Jennifer Beard spoke to their mother about Tracey Tarlton.

Celeste Beard "Tracey's a lesbian, and she's in love with me. Isn't that funny?"

T

Photo: Tracey Tarlton and Celeste Beard

Kristina and Jennifer Beard "It was obvious to us and our friends that they were having an affair. By the way they touched each other it wasn't platonic."

Tarlton "pictures of us dancing at a party, attending a wedding, prove we were a couple."

 "She (Celeste) often called him disgusting. She thought that he was a ridiculous, old, fat man. It wasn't just Steven's physical appearance that she hated. It was the way he treated her. He just emotionally crushed her all the time, ran her down, and belittled her and berated her and taunted, tortured her emotionally until it left her in these really depressed suicidal states."

She would become terrified about that (divorce). She would say she couldn't, that he would hunt her down. She could never get out from under him. Celeste felt like a prisoner in her own home."

"Celeste had me totally convinced that Steven's abuse was going to lead her to suicide."

"Celeste and I were the best of friends. We saw each other for the most part, every day at some point or another. Celeste is fun. She's fun-loving."

Celeste Beard was impatient for Steve Beard to die. She told Tracey Tarlton, and her daughters, "Why doesn't he just die!"

Tarlton "Celeste came up with outlandish ways to knock him out. He drank a lot of vodka, but she would take the vodka bottle and pour most of it out and fill it up with everclear, which is higher proof alcohol. Or she would take sleeping pills and grind them up and put them in his food. This would make Steve pass out early so Celeste could leave. Also, because of his age, this would help serve as a slow poisoning."

Jennifer Beard "Celeste would sneak out at night and head to Tracey’s house after drugging Steve with sleeping pills."

Tarlton "Celeste spent a lot of time telling me she loved me."

  But Steve Beard didn't die.

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Celeste grew impatient as each one of the cruel, tortuous methods she devised for his death didn't result in the desired action.

Celeste wanted Tracey to "order a poisoner's handbook" to develop botulism. Celeste created home made botulism by allowing food to spoil and fester. She put it on a chili dog and served it up to Steve Beard. He consumed the chili dog and liked it. Celeste continued to spike his drinks, put sleeping pills and other drugs in his food. 

Tarlton "Celeste said "sooner or later it's going to kill him."

    Steve Beard continued to live.

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Then came the crisis point for Celeste Beard. Steve had planned a long trip to Italy and Europe in hopes that he could cause Celeste to split with Tracey Tarlton.  

Celeste preferred to gain control of his money.... as a widow.

Celeste theatrically threatened suicide and engaged in histrionics. 

Tartlon "Celeste couldn't take it anymore. She came over and was just hysterical, beside herself. She said, I'll never survive this trip." 
 

The twins spoke of how their mother would get her way "Celeste puts a gun to her head and threatens suicide, but without bullets in the gun."

 Tarlton "I couldn't imagine life without Celeste."

"I wanted to help her. I just saw this woman that I loved in a desperate situation trying to find a way to survive this man that was so awful."

" She had a plan. She wanted me to shoot him at Toro Canyon with my shot gun."

October 1, 1999 the shooting of Steve Beard occurred.

Tarlton "I did it for Celeste."

Tarlton "I was willing to shoot him, and I went and did it."  "That gun was given to me by my father who had had it engraved for me. It has my name on it."

 "I had stepped into a space that was just numb when I went into that bedroom, and I shot him." 

"I walked into Steven's room, stood at the foot of his bed, raised my gun and took aim where I was supposed to take aim and pulled the trigger. What I was thinking about was Celeste's instructions. I was thinking about Celeste."

Tracey Tarlton's normally excellent aim was poor. She hadn't aimed quite where Celeste had told her to shoot. The bullets missed his head and his heart, but wrecked his intestines. She left and Beard awoke in pain and terror to call 911.

Celeste Beard "I don’t know why Tracey shot my husband.”

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Detective Rick Wines "Within days Tracey’s gun was linked to the crime scene. “The shotgun shell that we found at the scene came from the shotgun that we found in her house. You know, two and two to me has always been four.” “We introduced ourselves. She invited us in. We asked if she owned a 20-gauge shotgun, and she said yes, she did.”

Steve Beard had survived the gunshot wound, the numerous surgeries until he was released into the not so loving care of his wife, Celeste Beard. Shid did anything she could to ensure his wound got infected. 

Steve Beard died of complications related to the shooting.

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 Celeste Beard had continued her affair with Tracey Tarlton but as the months dragged on, Celeste decided to get rid of her lover. 

Summer of 2000, The two women broke it off.

Photo: Tarlton testifying in court. 

 Donna Goodman testified that Celeste Beard had tried to enlist her aid to kill Tracey Tarlton to prevent her from testifying.

I know what the truth is."

PHOTO: TRACY TARLTON IN PRISON         

Celeste (Beard) Johnson - Spencer Cole Johnson