Melissa Fox-Beacom regularly brought up her hatred for her mother in conversations with her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, he testified Wednesday.

She never referred to Alice Robson as mom.

“‘My mother,’ she’d say it with an attitude,” remembered Ace Vavrek. “‘My mother.’ It’s like she despised her.”

Even so, when Fox-Beacom talked often about how she wanted to kill Robson, fantasizing about how she would do it, Vavrek said he thought she was just expressing her feelings.

“I honestly didn’t know what to say,” he told jurors. “I kind of just thought she was crazy and didn’t really think much of it after that.”

Fox-Beacom, 51, of New Florence is on trial for Robson’s 2023 shooting death along with Matthew Jason Bates, 20, of Ligonier Township. Bates was dating Fox-­Beacom’s daughter at the time.

Both defendants are charged with homicide, conspiracy, solicitation and abuse of a corpse.

The third day of testimony Wednesday before Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio included forensics investigators, detectives and witnesses who recounted the relationship between Fox-Beacom and Robson, 71.

Robson was fatally shot Dec. 11, 2023 and her body was found three days later stuffed in a crawlspace underneath a porch at her St. Clair home.

Prosecutors contend a third suspect — Robert Jack, 20, formerly of Fairfield — fatally shot Robson twice in the head at the request of Fox-Beacom. Authorities say Fox-Beacom asked Bates to provide the .22-caliber handgun used in the crime.

Vavrek and two other witnesses testified Wednesday that Fox-Beacom indicated she wanted her mother gone so she could regain custody of her disabled son, collect his disability checks and move into Robson’s Furnace Lane home. She often referred to her mother as “fat cow,” according testimony.

Robson had custody of Fox-Beacom’s son. She also had a protection-from-abuse order against her daughter.

After Robson’s body was found, police got search warrants for the crawl space and home. Investigators found blood throughout the living room, kitchen, porch and crawlspace, testified Westmoreland County Detective Kasey Gizler. There were bloody footprints and paper towels soaked with blood thrown in a trash can.

A trail of blood droplets was found from the living room through the kitchen and porch to the crawl space, said Westmoreland County Detective John Mandarino. Blood found on the paper towels and porch belonged to Robson.

During an interview on Dec. 15, 2023, Westmoreland County Detective Ray Dupilka said Bates claimed he was upstairs at Robson’s home when Jack killed her. They put the gun in Jack’s SUV and moved Robson to the crawlspace before attempting to clean up with hydrogen peroxide.

“One hundred percent he never reported this to police,” Dupilka testified.

Jason Bates, Matthew Bates’ father, testified he noticed on Dec. 15, 2023 that his .22-caliber revolver was missing. The gun was found months later by a dive team in Donegal Lake after investigators learned Jack discarded it there.

Jack is expected to testify for the prosecution Thursday.

His case is still pending. It’s unclear if he has an agreement with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony.