Law&Crime Sidebar - 'Abusive' Doctor Dad Refuses to Bury Twins with Dead Mom: Family

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

Another tragic twist has emerged in the case of an Arkansas mother, Charity Beallis, and her 6-year-old twins, who were shot and killed in their home. The children's bodies were released to their father, Dr. Randall Beallis, Charity's estranged husband. While Dr. Beallis has not been named a suspect or charged in the case, many in the community say his prior domestic violence conviction makes him a prime suspect. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber and family law attorney Randy Kessler break down the dramatic case.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondry Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. There has been another tragic twist in the case of an Arkansas mother found dead alongside her six-year-old twins. The body of Charity Bialis was buried after her death. But the bodies of her little boy and girl, they were released to the father, who many in the community, believe, was involved in their death. deaths or was somehow responsible. What do we know, though, about this case? What do we know about Dr. Randall Bialis? And what is the latest information coming out of this small town of Bonanza? We are getting into it all with family law attorney Randy Kessler. Welcome to Sidebar,

presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. By the way, one of the reasons that we can bring you stories like this is because of the incredible support that we get from our sponsor, Morgan and Morgan. This is America's largest personal injury law firm. This is a firm with over a thousand attorneys who have recovered $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients. Think about that. In the past few months alone, a client in Florida received $12 million when insurance offered just $350,000. Out in Pennsylvania, another client was awarded $26 million.

That is 40 times the insurer's offer. And Morgan and Morgan, they make it easy to fight for what you deserve. You can start a claim from your phone. So if you're injured, you can start a claim at for the people.com slash LC Sidebar. You can click the link below or you can scan the QR code on screen. At the end of her life, 40-year-old Charity Bialis was struggling. She was going through a bitter divorce from her husband, Dr. Randallis, a family practitioner. He had already been convicted of domestic violence just right before Charity and her youngest children,

six-year-old twins, they were found dead in the home. And right after Charity and the kids' deaths, Bialis and his attorney filed a motion to dismiss the divorce case. This is according to local outlet 5 news. But now there's something else that is very controversial that has happened. While Charity's body was buried after her funeral on December 29th, her children's bodies were released to the father, who apparently chose not to let them rest next to their mother. Now, to give you a sense of the drama that is surrounding this case, okay, I want to go back to the beginning. And I do want to say, I have to be clear here, Randall Bialis has not been arrested. He has not been accused of wrongdoing by police in connection with charity's death. In fact,

at one point investigators were trying to determine if someone had done this to the family or if perhaps charity herself had harmed the children and herself. To be clear, the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office, they are still investigating these deaths. Randall has not been publicly named a suspect or a person of interest. No arrests have been made in connection with these deaths. Despite all that. There are those who have been following this, who may be close to charity, who believe that Bialis was somehow responsible for what happened. December 3rd, police responded to the Bialis home in the tiny town of Bonanza, Arkansas. It's near the Oklahoma border. Family members had begged for a welfare check after charity stopped responding to calls and messages. First responders, they go

inside and they find the three bodies inside the family's large four-bedroom home, reportedly worth more than $750,000. Now, investigators, to be clear, they've been very tight-lipped about what exactly was found inside that home and the injuries that charity and the twins sustained, but according to the Daily Mail, autopsy results are still pending. But we do know that multiple law enforcement agencies are involved in this investigation. We're talking about the Arkansas State Police, the Secret Service, Homeland Security. This is per the Daily Mail's reporting. And according to court and jail records, Dr. Randall Bialis, the person who's now at the center of all this, according to court and jail records, Dr. Randall Bialis, was arrested back in February and booked into

the Sebastian County Jail on four charges. This is according to a criminal information that was filed in March. Domestic battery, two counts of endangering the welfare of a minor in the third degree, an aggravated assault on a family or household member specifically choking. Now, the reporting indicates that the charges were later amended and Bialis agreed to plead guilty to just one count of third-degree domestic battery in October. He was given a one-year suspended sentence. He was ordered to pay around $1,600 in court fees. And at this point, Bialis was no longer living at the family home. Court paperwork from October reads, the defendant is ordered to have no contact with Charity Bialis and any member of Charity Bialis's family, either directly or indirectly, unless authorized by a valid

court order in a domestic relations case, and only for purposes of child visitation or custody exchange as authorized by domestic relations court orders. Now Bialis was also ordered to complete a domestic violence intervention program as part of this. But soon after Bialis allegedly attacked charity in front of the children, she requested a protective order and filed for divorce. The divorce filing states that the plaintiff is entitled to a divorce from the defendant pursuant to Arkansas Code, general indignities which have occurred throughout this marriage and have rendered the plaintiff's condition intolerable. And Charity had requested sole custody of the kids, of the twins. And as the case was ongoing, Charity actually commented on an unrelated Five News

Facebook post in August, writing, I'm living this battle right now. I am the victim, yet I've been treated like the problem while the criminal, a local doctor, is being shielded by the very system that's supposed to protect us. I've tried to reach prosecuting attorney Daniel Shoe, but he won't even accept a letter from me. My voice as the victim has been shut out. This is not just about me. This is about a system that protects offenders and rejects victims. Lives are at stake, including the lives of young children. And that is so chilling, knowing that just months later, Charity and the kids would be dead. And it wasn't just the court that Charity, by the way, was asking for help before her death.

It was reported that Arkansas State Senator Terry Rice, who confirmed to Five News, that Charity had visited him sometime in early 2025. She reportedly told him she was fearful of her life, the lives of her children. He told Five News that he put her in touch with resources that are available through the Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division. and 1.5 news reports that charity had contacted the Arkansas Medical Board to make complaints about Randallie. Reportedly saying that state police had done extensive interviews with the children and that child abuse charges were pending against Bialis. Although, to be clear, we found no record of any child abuse charges.

Now, Bialis spoke to the board, told the board during a meeting that his twins, his kids, have been instructed by charity to lie to the police. there are a lot of twists and turns in this case, and I want to break it all down. I thought who would be better? Probably no one would be better than family law attorney Randy Kessler to talk about this. Randy, it's great to see you. I mean, there is such a family law aspect to this. There's so many disturbing details here. You have divorce. You have custody matters. We know those can be some of the most emotional, most contentious, most uncertain cases that courts deal with. there's a lot of ripple effect. In your experience, is there a heightened risk of danger when it comes to these, you know, supercharged cases? I mean, your initial impression. Boy, my impressions are, you know, circumstantial, circumstantial, circumstantial. And these are always hard cases, right?

Because was his DNA around her? Well, of course, he was her husband. Did he have an excuse to be near her or to have her things or to have the stuff that was found in the trash bin? Could he have had access to that? He's her spouse. or almost expounds because the divorce wasn't finalized. I mean, trying to get inside the minds of people going through divorce has been my career. And I still can't figure it out.

You know, how does somebody think? And often I tell my clients when they're negotiating a divorce or litigating a divorce, you know, when they say, why would my husband do that? I say, if you try to put your rational mind inside of somebody else's mind, it doesn't work. You just can't figure out what's going on the mind of somebody who's going through rejection, jealousy, anger, you know, loss of their children or loss of the constant, you know, 100% time with their children, how does it result? Does it result in anger? Does it result in therapy? It does

result in happiness? I mean, sometimes it makes people do crazy things and could that be something that makes people look closer at him, especially with the timing? You know, it hits you, you're divorced, you're losing everything you thought you had, you're losing your lifestyle. I mean, this guy had a fairly good standard of living right. good life from the outside observer's perspective. You know, did that make him consider this? It's going to make investigators look at him a lot more carefully than they would. It's somebody who was just a passerby and happened to be in the neighborhood of the right place

for a long time. Let me ask you this. If this other theory of, let's say, she was, and we'll get into this, she would have had to hand over the children to him as part of the court agreement. Have you ever seen cases before where somebody engages in an episode of self-hombed? or hurts the children as right, you know, on the precipice of something like this happening? I think I've seen it all. And I'm not that egotistical to think I've seen it all. But I've seen a lot. And the answer is yes, but in two ways, Jesse. One is I don't want to turn the children over to him.

I'm so depressed. I'm not going to be okay without my children. I'm dependent on them. Or, you know, I want to make sure he never sees the children. So I'm going to put, you know, a framing on it or I'm going to make it look bad. You know, we hear that, you know, earlier on, he apparently had a defense that the children were told by their parents by their mom to say certain things. So, yes, I've seen things like this, not this exact situation, which is why I enjoy what I do. Every case is different. But, you know, it sounds like if he's charged, there's a lot of defenses. There's no actual eyewitness, no confession, the victims are gone. So it would be a hard prosecution from what we know now if they decide to prosecute him.

So here's what we know about the timeline before an hour. after Charity died, and I think it's really important. So according to a statement from her ex's attorney, Michael Pierce, on December 2nd, Judge had awarded Bialis joint custody of the twins, as well as decision-making for the children's school and medical needs. Now, Pierce says that charity was ordered to give the twins over to Bialis on December 5th, but we know on December 3rd, so this is one day after the custody hearing, the three bodies were found in the home.

December 4th, Pierce filed a motion to dismiss on behalf of his clients, or to dismiss the divorce case writing prior to the finalization of the above reference matter. The plaintiff passed away. Therefore, defendant requests that this action be dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be refiled, and five news reports that the judge did, in fact, order an abatement due to charity's death. Randy, is that standard? Is that standard? Well, there's not a sustaining standard in family law, but yes, it's common. And we certainly seen it before, you know. And I think I read that dad was getting more time with the children that he'd had, the previous temporary order. So, you know, it's not that he's got a legal reason to say, I'm upset with this arrangement. It's better than he had before. But yes, you know, you file a

divorce to be unmarried. And since this divorce was not finalized, even though the judge had ruled, it had not been reduced to writing and signed. The parties were no longer married because she was deceased. There was no longer a basis for divorce. We've been on the winning and losing side of that argument. Sometimes judges keep the divorce case open so they can adjudicate who gets to live in the house and what happens to the stuff on an immediate basis. But it's a lot of it. But it's In this case, apparently the judge said, I don't need to issue the divorce because the divorce would grant them the status of not being married anymore. And now he's not married anymore because his wife is deceased until death goes part. So it is common in case he gets dismissed.

They're supposed to automatically be dismissed when someone dies. The kid here was the judge that technically ruled and heard the evidence. But it hadn't been finalized. It's not finalized until it's signed and followed him with the clerk. So in other words, this is many times this could be about property. This could be about money. This could be about assets. And by all accounts, if the divorce has now been dismissed, the divorce filing,

everything could potentially go to him. Yes. And let's start with the children. The children will go to him if there's no divorce. Well, I mean, the children are dead. Right, right. But in a normal case, it would be the children would go to him anyway. Or he could go back and file something saying, I want the children.

Nobody else would have a right. In this case, yes, that's a reason a lot of people want. the divorce dismissed because if she was awarded property in the divorce, then after her death, it would go to her heirs and whoever was in her will if she created a new will or her next kid, which would no longer be him if they were divorced. Yeah, there is an adult son who we're going to talk about as well. By the way, just to be clear, so Pierce, who's Bialis's attorney, has adamantly denied that Bialis had anything to do with his family's demise, telling the Daily Mail, quote,

we hope that the sheriff's office finds the truth about what happened to Mrs. Charity Bialis and their children. Mr. Bialis was not responsible for the death of Mrs. Bialis nor his children's deaths. Mr. Bialis has given a voluntary interview and allowed access to anything requested by the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office in their investigation. But we do have to talk about something else. We have to talk about this stunning twist. So just three days after Charity and the twins were found, there was a dumpster diver. that was apparently looking through trash, more than a dozen miles from the Bialis home, finds a black garbage bag, and it is reportedly full of family keepsakes.

The New York Post reports that there were photographs of charity with her children. There was framed portraits. There was a children's painted artwork. There was a delicate gold necklace belonging to charity. It was engraved with the names of her children. It's unclear how those items came to be put in that dumpster who put them there. according to court paperwork, the apartment complex where the items were found, that is the same as the address that Randy Bialis provided during his domestic violence arrest.

And to be clear, police have not named Bialis as a person of interest or a suspect, but the personal belongings being found near a place or reportedly found where he lived, Randy, very strange, very suspicious, no? Yes, very strange, very suspicious, not proof of guilt because there are alternate explanations, and that's all the defense lawyer needs. You know, when you go through a divorce, you're angry, you're frustrated. I've seen all sorts of situations. I've seen people go in and actually physically cut their spouse out of the pictures and have a whole

photo album, even them with the children, with the spouse cut out because they're so angry. So if this was done by him before the death, then it can be explained as, Yes, he was upset about his wife divorcing him, and he just wanted to get away all memories because every time he looked at a picture of her and the kids, it brought him sadness. It's not something we want people to do. It doesn't sound nice,

but certainly doesn't on its own mean that he murdered her. On the other hand, if it was after the case unfolded, after her body was gone and after she was killed, then maybe it's getting rid of potential evidence. It's just an interesting fact, but on its own, not a big deal. Interesting, you know, curiosity, Yeah, it's a big deal. But on its own, I don't think it means a lot. It can be explained away by other factors. He didn't want to see her. He was mad at her. He wanted her out of his life. Anything to do with her? You wanted to get rid of. I've seen that a lot. Yeah. And look, it's hard to know what to make of this. I will say, as the Sebastian County deputies, they worked to figure out what happened to charity and the children. There is this older case that involves Randy Bialis and his then-wife.

that is resurfacing. Okay, so it's January 2012, Fort Smith police officers. They respond to the home of Randallin and Shauna Bialis. Outlet KNWA reports that when Bialis answered the door, he told the officers she killed herself. So police, they find Shauna dead in the bedroom from a gunshot wound. KNWA says a report that was filed about the incident noted that there was furniture and other items that were scattered around the home. Bialis told officers that he came home from from work because Shauna had threatened to harm herself. He said he spent several hours at home, then went back to work, returned later, found her dead.

The medical examiner later ruled her death self-harm. And years later, the case was reportedly re-examined because Charity's father had claimed that Charity knew who had pulled the trigger in Shauna's case. But the case was apparently closed because of a lack of evidence, according to KNWA, which reported that much of the evidence from the original investigation was destroyed. after Shauna's death was ruled self-inflicted. Randy, again, very strange development. I mean, on one hand, authorities at the time didn't believe there was anything more to suggest it was a homicide.

But then you have this idea of, you know, let's re-examine it. And there's not evidence to really re-examine. But also, you couple it with the death of charity. Strange coincidence? I mean, again, the conclusion. would be you have two wives of Bialis who what died from gunshot wounds and they're both you know self-inflicted yeah it's starting to add up right the pieces are starting to come together you know there's a lot of cliches you know where there's smoke there's fire you know you've got

this you got the dumpster stuff that somebody found you know starting to piece together that maybe not enough to be the beyond a reasonable doubt standard in criminal case but for lay people like us You know, we can start to connect the dots. This guy had two wives that died by gunshot wounds. He had allegations that he was abusive. He had a video of him slashing tires on his family member's car that he says was mine. I could do what I want. I'd look a little closely at if I was a prosecutor and I saw all these former facts.

I don't know that means he gets convicted because he might have done it before. It's not a similar transaction. It's not something that can be introduced as, hey, he did it before, so he would probably do it again. The question probably for prosecutors is going to be if they charge him, Which case do they have more possibility of a conviction? I don't know what else they have, whatever this is happening. Again, no eyewitnesses, no confession, not sure they're going to be able to prosecute with what we know they have. Well, one of the people who has come forward to call out Bialis for his alleged bad behavior is Charity's 24-year-old son, John Powell, I mentioned before.

So he claims he witnessed violence involving the couple firsthand back in 2020 when he was 17. And this was referenced in a petition for emancipation because John had claimed that he had a video of both of his mother and Bialis using a knife or an ice pick to slash and ruin his truck tires, all reportedly while holding the infant twins. That video was apparently later shared on Facebook. Now, Randy, what do you make of that? I mean, that they were both allegedly involved. Yeah, but, you know, there's only one person left to be accused. And it feeds the narrative, right? The story is unfolding that he had a first wife who died of gunshots,

the second wife who got a gunshots, that he's been violent, that he's been violent, not just privately where nobody could see, but he couldn't control himself and thought apparently it was okay. He knew he was being recorded when he slashed those tires. And when he was questioned about it, he said, it's my truck, I can do what I pay for it, I can do what I want with it. This indignance, this ability to say,

not only am I doing this, but I don't think there's anything wrong with me doing this. I mean, anybody that saw a video, there's something wrong. You know, John did an interview with The Daily Mail, and he revealed, and this is the big part that we're talking about now, that while he received his mother's body, right, for it to be buried, this is when it was released by investigators. It was the bodies of his half-siblings. They were released to their father. He told the outlet, it's sickening. I was hoping to have them all in the same place as they deserved and how they would have wanted it.

It's just been a lot. I don't even know if the kids have been buried or cremated or where they may be. I don't know anything at the moment because Randall has told me nothing. It's heartbreaking. Yeah, that's such a strange part there, Randy. I mean, does that make sense to you, given the history, given all the allegations, that the children's bodies would be released to the father or at the end of the day, you say, listen, you know, yes, he has this conviction for this domestic violence

incident, but it was regarding the mother. He hasn't been implicated in the deaths of the mother or the children. He has every right to have the children's bodies. I would not want to be the person in charge for making that decision. But legally, you're innocent or proven guilty. He is the father of those children. He had just been awarded significant parenting time, and he's the only parent left that should have the right to do what he thinks is appropriate with his children. What's interesting, though, is he was also technically still the husband. But it was clear that her intentions were to divorce him. She wanted to divorce.

There was divorce. So somebody had to make a decision. I could see a legal justification for him being given his wife's body as well, because technically you're innocent and so proven guilty. It sounds like the right legal decision. I don't know if it was the right moral decision, the right ethical decision. Legally, he's the dad. He's the one in charge.

He decides what happens to the children or to their bodies. And the next thing came for the mother post-divor. or post-separation was the son. So it sounds like the right decision by who made the decision. I just would not have wanted to be in that position because you're going to get second-guess forever. Now, there's something else I have to ask you about, Randy. So according to Arkansas court records,

court paperwork was filed to make John Powell the administrator of Charity's estate, and the judge ordered that on December 30th. Why is that important? I mean, what will he have access to? Could that have any effect on potentially the investigation into Charity's death in the children's death?

and the children's deaths. I mean, will he get access to certain kind of information? Talk to me about why that's so important that he becomes the administrator. Well, he's in the loop. He doesn't have to ask authorities for information about his mother's estate or his mother's, you know, everything's got to go through him. The administrator is not the one who decides who gets things. He's the one who figures out what was the intention of the will and how do you

administrate the will and make sure it goes forward. But you have to have all the details and you're in charge of administering, of managing how her stuff gets destroyed. do it gets distributed according to the law, either by her will or what the law says, which is to her next to kin. It's a little bit interesting because presumably he's the next of kin. On the other hand, with no divorce pending, the next to kin is her husband. And so, you know, does her husband get it all? Does the law in that state say the husband gets half and he gets half? He's in a weird, awkward position of having to decide, you know, how do I enforce the law?

He doesn't get to choose what happens to her state. But yes, to answer your question more specifically, he's more insider now than he would have been. He's got some legal authority, legal classification to say, I want to know what's going on. Because if she was murdered, that's a defense to compliance with state law. You don't have to give money to a murder, right?

There's the Slayer statute we all hear about. You can't kill somebody and then benefit from their insurance or their estate. So he's got the right to know more about how she died than if he was not the administrator. It's a good point. So Charity's father, by the way, also named Randy. There's so many Randy's here, but also named Randy. By the way, that's not the reason we got you on here. That's not the reason we got you on here, Randy, just because we're like we need somebody. No, but the truth is, so his name's Randy. He has also spoken out about his daughter's death and his anger reached the court as well because on December 11th, the court clerk filed a letter to the attorneys that are involved in the divorce case, and it reads the following. The court wants to advise. counsel that on December 3rd, 2025, my trial court assistant received a phone call from the plaintiff's father, Randy Powell, who is irate and made accusations directed at the court. Specifically, Mr. Powell stated that the judge might as well have pulled the trigger herself

and that the judge essentially killed his daughter and grandchildren. Mr. Powell also stated the court has blood on her hands and asked if the court was still going to keep him from his grandchildren. Following said phone call, the court filed an incident report with the Fort Smith Police Department. Now, one interpretation there, Randy, could be, right? If Charity did this to herself and her kids, blame the court, right, for granting him custody and that she would have had to turn the kids over.

I mean, that could be one interpretation, right? Yeah, and blaming the court is never the right thing. I mean, you know, who would want to be a judge in a situation? In fact, I often think who would want to be a judge ever? Because judges don't get to, you know, we always talk about in family law in civil cases, if we can settle a case, we can use a scalpel and fine-tune, you know, how we're going to divide things, whereas judges just have a sledgehammer, a mallet, and they've got to figure it out on a moment's notice,

they've got 15 other cases waiting. This judge is doing the best you can. It doesn't know what happened. All he knows is the law says if someone's not alive anymore, there's no basis for a divorce to proceed, and I'm going to dismiss the divorce, or I'm going to, you know, it's not the judge's fault. And I think the judge is right to say, listen, I'm not going to prosecute you. I don't want you to go to jail for these things you said about me, but give him a little bit of grace because he's a grieving relative. But it's not appropriate. Give him some grace. He's suffering.

But I don't think it's going to go anywhere. I don't think the judge has blood in their hands. They didn't do anything except try the best to follow them all. Could there be repercussions for comments like that to the court, filing this to get it on the record for any future proceedings? How does alleged comments like that, how does it affect anything? Only if it rises to incitement, I think the judge is right to make an issue of it and to sort of file a report so that if people around this guy don't say, hey, call down. We know you're grieving, but you need to stop that.

It sort of heightens the awareness, puts the spotlight on it to make sure that it doesn't escalate. If it does escalate, then there will be consequences, and there will be a temporary protective order and are keeping this guy away from the judge and from the courthouse and from the staff. let's hope it ends there. Let's hope it was an outburst frustration that common sense prevails. But if it doesn't, that this is the right first step by the court to just bring awareness to it and say, hope it stops, hope it goes away. But if not, Judge has to protect themselves. Randy Kessler, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Always.

And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.