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| Colleen Beyer: What Happened to Sharon Randolph’s Daughter? |
Colleen Beyer was seven months pregnant when she learned in May 2008 that her mother, Sharon Causse Randolph, had been shot and killed inside the Las Vegas home she shared with Thomas “Tom” Randolph. What followed was a case that stretched across years, multiple court proceedings and more than one trial, with Colleen repeatedly speaking up about her concerns over Randolph’s involvement. Netflix’s The Widower: ’Til Death Do Us Part revisits that story through archival footage, showing Colleen not simply as Sharon’s daughter, but as someone who spent years pushing for answers.
Sharon’s death was initially treated as a shooting involving an apparent intruder. A man named Mike Miller was also found dead at the property, and the early version of events left plenty of questions for investigators. Colleen, however, was suspicious of her mother’s husband from the beginning. According to the material featured in the documentary, she went directly to detectives with details about the marriage and circumstances surrounding Sharon’s death.
One of the things Colleen highlighted was the life insurance taken out on Sharon. She told investigators that Randolph had obtained several policies only months after marrying her mother, something Colleen considered unusual. She also described how Randolph had increasingly behaved as though he controlled the household.
The issue of Sharon’s will became another important part of Colleen’s concerns. Sharon had initially named Randolph as the beneficiary of her home, but later changed the arrangement. Just days before her death, Sharon changed her will again, making Colleen the sole beneficiary of her estate. Colleen only received the relevant paperwork after her mother had died.
The situation became even more uncomfortable when Colleen returned to the house to change the locks. She was reportedly frightened to enter the property alone and asked police officers to accompany her. Archival footage shown in the Netflix series captures Randolph arriving while she was changing the locks and confronting her. It is one of those moments in the case where the family dispute over a house suddenly feels much bigger than a dispute over a house.
Colleen’s concerns did not disappear as the investigation continued. She remained publicly involved while Randolph was still free, saying that she feared for herself and her family. She also described receiving calls from him that she regarded as threatening.
In December 2008, Colleen testified before a grand jury, giving investigators more details about Sharon’s relationship with Randolph. She described a volatile marriage in which the couple would repeatedly separate and reconcile. Colleen also recalled Sharon being angry with Randolph on the day of her death, particularly over his spending on medication and problems involving his taxes.
The wait for a courtroom resolution was long. Randolph was eventually behind bars, but Colleen remained frustrated as proceedings were delayed. She believed the repeated postponements were allowing the case to drag on and said she felt Randolph was attempting to avoid justice.
Her testimony became particularly significant during Randolph’s 2017 trial, when she took the stand and spoke about her mother and the circumstances surrounding the marriage. The trial ended with Randolph being convicted, giving Colleen a result she had spent years waiting to see.
But the story did not end there. In 2021, Randolph’s conviction was overturned, leaving Colleen facing the possibility of another lengthy legal battle. Rather than stepping away, she continued to speak publicly about the case and maintained her belief that Randolph was responsible for Sharon’s death.
Colleen later appeared on the Killer Genes podcast, where she discussed her view of what happened to her mother. She returned to court for Randolph’s 2023 retrial, taking the stand once again. By then, the daughter she had been pregnant with when Sharon was killed had reached 15. That detail puts just how much time had passed into perspective: Colleen had gone from being a pregnant daughter dealing with her mother’s death to appearing in court again while the child she was carrying had become a teenager.
She also appeared in Dateline and the 2024 docuseries The Black Widower: The Six Wives of Thomas Randolph, continuing to talk about Sharon and the years-long effort to see the case through. Her repeated appearances have made her one of the most recognisable people connected to the story, although her role has always been centred on her mother rather than personal publicity.
Outside the case, Colleen Beyer has largely maintained a private life. She has not made a habit of sharing extensive details about her family or day-to-day life publicly. Her documentary and television appearances have generally been tied to Sharon’s story and the legal proceedings involving Randolph. After so many years of having deeply personal family matters examined in public, keeping some distance from the spotlight is hardly surprising.
There is also something unusually exhausting about Colleen’s story because it never offered the neat ending that true-crime cases often promise. Her mother died, the investigation unfolded, a conviction followed, that conviction was later overturned, and then Colleen had to return to court and relive the same family history again. That is a brutal amount of repetition for anyone, especially someone who was already building her own family when the whole ordeal began.
The most striking part is how consistently Colleen kept Sharon at the centre of her public appearances rather than turning herself into the story. She became involved because she was Sharon’s daughter, not because she wanted a career in true crime. The fact that she has since kept much of her personal life private makes that distinction even clearer. There is something refreshingly straightforward about that, even in such a complicated case.
For now, Colleen Beyer remains largely out of the public eye, choosing to speak when Sharon’s story returns to television, documentaries or the courtroom rather than regularly discussing her private life. The Widower: ’Til Death Do Us Part brings that history back into focus, including the years Colleen spent questioning what happened and pushing for answers. Her story also leaves viewers with a bigger question about how families cope when a case refuses to stay in the past. What do you make of Colleen’s long involvement in the case, and did you expect her to remain so vocal after the first conviction was overturned?