Murder of Catherine Beard by John Oldson examined on Buried in the Backyard

Oxygen is re-airing the Buried in the Backyard investigation into the murder of Catherine “Cathy” Beard by John Oldson in the small town of Ord, Nebraska.

Beard was a popular part-time waitress at a tavern in her close-knit community, and her disappearance in 1989 greatly disturbed the town’s residents. It took over two decades to bring the killer to justice.

Oldson, a twisted individual with a fetish for women’s stomachs and a history of violence against women, was always a suspect in Beard’s murder, but it took 23 years before the cops had enough evidence for a conviction.

On March 31, 1989, 31-year-old Beard was last seen leaving through the backdoor of the bar with Oldson. She was never seen alive again.

The cops interviewed Oldson, and he told them he had made sexual advances toward Beard but was turned down. He said he got mad and tried to drag her into his pickup truck, but she managed to escape his clutches and fled in another truck with two men. He told investigators that his “hormones got the better of him.”

In April 1992, Beard’s skeletal remains were recovered on a dirt road just outside Ord. An autopsy revealed she died from a sharp force trauma to the ribs, abdomen, and spine area.

John Oldson incriminated himself in Cathy Beard murder case

A witness later told investigators that Oldson had spoken about knowing where Beard was before her remains were found. He allegedly told the witness that Beard “deserved everything she got.”

In 2010, the police spoke to Oldson’s ex-wife, who told them he had a sexual obsession with women’s bellies that sometimes turned to violence. 

In 1989, Oldson was convicted of assaulting a 51-year-old woman at a gas station in Burwell, NE. He reportedly approached the woman, telling her, “I want to see your belly,” and when she refused to comply, he physically assaulted her before rubbing and pinching her stomach.

Oldson was convicted of two further assaults against women in 1992. In 2003, he received another conviction for child abuse after a disturbing incident when he stuck needles into the stomachs of two of his stepdaughters.

In 2012, Oldson was finally arrested for the murder of Beard at his then-home in Clay County, Missouri. At the time, Clay County Sheriff Bob Boydston told the press, “This is a bad man with a very disturbing, violent past.”

Sheriff Boydston also thanked his counterpart in Valley County, Nebraska, Sheriff Casey Hurlburt, “for his perseverance” in bringing Beard’s killer to justice.

John Oldson sentenced to life for killing Catherine Beard

The following year, Oldson was convicted of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

After the sentencing, Attorney General Jon Bruning said, “After more than 20 years of deception and misdirection, this man has been brought to justice for murdering Cathy Beard. Today’s sentence stands as a testament to the dogged efforts of Nebraska law enforcement.”

This episode of Buried in the Backyard re-airs Friday at 9/8c on Oxygen.