Court records: Father who killed daughter, then himself, had history of violence

By Jason Burger

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    BETHANY, Oklahoma (KOCO) — Court records show a father who shot and killed his 6-year-old daughter before turning the gun on himself had a history of violence.

On Sunday, Billy Feaster, 29, and his 6-year-old daughter, Elizibeth, were found dead in the backyard of a Bethany home. Officers with the Bethany Police Department said it appeared to be a murder-suicide.

“It doesn’t get any worse than this. This is an absolute terrible and tragic event,” Chief J.D. Reid with the Bethany Police Department said.

Court records show Feaster was in a custody battle with the mother of his children beginning in 2018.

“There was a specific in there that he was not to be alone with the children,” Ed Blau, a legal expert, said. “In the end, the judge gave mom full custody and gave dad supervised visitation for four to six hours a week.”

Looking at court records, Blau said the arrangement was in place leading up to Sunday’s tragedy.

“It looks like the agreement has been in place since March of 2020. There were no additional filings regarding requests for emergency hearings or anything of that nature,” Blau said.

The mother of Feaster’s children filed for a paternity ruling, or child custody, back in December 2018. In that filing, the court documents said the mother claimed Feaster broke her phone so she could not call police when he became violent.

“The same weekend, the Petitioner witnessed Billy physically kick their 3-year-old son,” the document said.

“The only thing that stands out to me is the fact that the judge only awarded him supervised visitation. The law presumes joint custody, and equal time. For a parent to have a file order that only grants supervised visitation, there had to have been some real concerns on behalf of the judge,” Blau said.

Court records also show that Feaster then tried to file a protective order against the woman after she filed for custody of the children. But a judge dismissed that in March 2020.

“The judge heard both cases and, in the end, dismissed the VPO that was filed by Billy against the mom,” Blau said.

Bethany police are still investigating a possible motive.

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