THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 10, 1994 TAG: 9406100695
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940610 LENGTH: CHESAPEAKE
Now, seven months later, an insurance company is refusing to pay off on Helen's $132,000 life insurance policy, claiming that police believe someone was hired to kill Helen Bedsole.
{REST} The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, claims that Clark Bedsole and the couple's daughter and son - Sherry L. Bedsole and Clark C. Bedsole Jr. - remain under suspicion and should not collect on the policy.
Clark Bedsole, refused to comment upon being contacted Thursday at his apartment in Chesapeake.
Helen Bedsole, a 44-year-old Bell Atlantic Corp. employee, was obtaining a divorce when she was murdered, according to court papers.
Although the divorce had been on-again, off-again for about eight years, those close to Helen said last year that she had finally decided to go ahead with the divorce and was a week away from obtaining it.
As part of the divorce settlement, Helen was asking for 50 percent of what she and Clark Bedsole had accumulated during their 25 years of marriage.
No arrests have been made, but police said Thursday that the case remains open. The only break came months ago when investigators were tipped that a black male was seen in the vicinity of the Bedsole home on the day of the murder. Police released a composite drawing of the man in December, about a month after Helen Bedsole was slain.
The lawsuit, filed by attorneys for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., claims that ``one or more of the claimants could be disqualified as a beneficiary of the plan and the policies under the federal common law doctrine that no person is permitted to profit by his or her own wrongful act.''
According to the lawsuit, Clark filed a claim on Nov. 22, 1993. Sherry Bedsole, the lawsuit states, also completed a claim on the policy the same day. The lawsuit states that Clark Jr. also has made a claim. Helen Bedsole, the lawsuit says, named all three as beneficiaries of portions of the policy. Slightly more than $6,000 of the policy was used to pay for her funeral, leaving $125,135.60 to be collected by beneficiaries.
The lawsuit claims that the Chesapeake Police Department ``concluded that Helen was a murder victim and have opined that Helen's death was a `murder for hire.' ''
It asks that the court determine if the beneficiaries ``engaged in any wrongdoing relative to Helen's death which may disqualify them from receiving the benefits of the plan and policies.''
The insurance company asks that the balance of the insurance benefits be deposited with the court, and that the court require the three beneficiaries to plead their claims in order to settle their rights to the benefits.
Detective C.E. Whitehurst of the Chesapeake Police Department would not comment on the lawsuit. Nor would he confirm the claim that arrests are imminent.
Whitehurst said, however, that police are investigating reports that stocks and bonds stolen in a burglary at Helen Bedsole's home before her murder are being sold in the Washington area.
{KEYWORDS} MURDER SHOOTING INVESTIGATION
by CNB