Overview
- Police say George Beemer called 911 for chest pain on Saturday, July 25, and about 30 minutes later firefighters discovered a severely burned woman and a gun inside his Fort Myers home.
- Beemer was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, first-degree arson and abuse of a dead body and is being held in the Lee County Jail.
- A probable-cause affidavit quoted Beemer admitting he shot his mother, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire while saying she 'wanted to be cremated,' and a friend told police Beemer showed him the burnt remains and confessed.
- A medical examiner ruled the woman’s cause of death was a gunshot wound and the manner of death a homicide, and investigators recovered evidence at the scene that led detectives to make a swift arrest.
- Authorities continue to investigate, the sheriff called the act extraordinarily cruel, family friends dispute Beemer’s claims of long-term molestation, and responders reported one cat survived while another was found burned to death.