Michael Beauchamp and Ginger Gover (Photos from Pierce County Sheriff’s Department; Crime scene photo screenshot from NBC Seattle affiliate King5)
A man was convicted in Washington state of the gunshot killing of a missing woman to prevent her from testifying against him in a battery and arson case.
Michael Beauchamp, 59, was convicted this week by a Pierce County jury of murdering Ginger Gover, 41, in 2018. Beauchamp was convicted of aggravated murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree, and malicious mischief in the second degree, authorities said.
“Guilty on everything, guilty on everything, one right after the other,” Ingrid Phillips, the victim’s mother, said, NBC Seattle affiliate King5 reported. “We were squeezing each other’s hands, couldn’t believe it, that it is actually over.”
Gover was a caregiver for her father, who died in 2021, and her mother wishes he could have been there to see the conviction.
“He passed away in December 2021,” she said, the station reported. “He died before he could get justice. It is heavy on my mind.”
Authorities said it was unusual for Gover not to contact her father or friends after she went missing. Her father filed a missing persons report on July 31, 2018, court documents obtained by King5 said.
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He said she was last heard from on July 29 when she called her friend to tell her she had a flat tire while driving to her friend’s house. He told authorities she had information about a crime in Thurston County and thought this would make her a “target,” the court document said. He said she used to “run with a bad crowd” but had been acting as his caretaker, so it was unusual that she had not contacted him.
On Aug. 6, 2018, Gover’s Honda Civic was found stripped and likely dumped off a trailer abandoned in a warehouse complex. More than a month later, construction workers found Gover’s remains while installing a new roadway while clearing a wooded lot. An autopsy revealed she died from a gunshot wound.
“We know where she is now,” her mother told ABC Seattle affiliate KOMO-TV then. “What are the chances somebody breaks a road through and finds a body?”
Beauchamp was charged with Gover’s murder on June 18, 2020. He had been in custody since October 2018, when he was arrested for burglary and arson in Thurston County. A search of his home on Oct. 8, 2018, turned up blood spatter in his bedroom, detached garage and truck, King5 reported.
He faces life in prison when he is set to be sentenced on Aug. 18.
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