Inform, Entertain, Inspire
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

UPDATE: Woman Sentenced In 1988 Killing Of Pregnant Woman In South Bend

St. Joseph Co. Jail

UPDATE:

Today the St. Joseph County Prosecutor's office released the following information on the sentencing of Barbara Brewster for murder:

St. Joseph County –Today Barbara Brewster, 56, appeared before a St. Joseph County
Superior Court Judge and was sentenced to 60 years in the Indiana Department of
Correction for Murder. Specifically, she was sentenced for the June 1988 Murder of
pregnant Miriam Rice.
She was sentenced today after a jury found her guilty of Murder on June 12, 2019.
The statutory sentencing range for Murder at the time the crime was committed was 40 to
60 years.
George Kearney, 78, was also charged in connection with Miriam Rice’s death, and pled
guilty on March 11, 2019, to Murder, without the benefit of a plea agreement. He passed
away in the custody of the St. Joseph County Jail on March 24, 2019, before he could be
sentenced or a judgement of conviction entered. However, on March 27, 2019, the Court
per statute entered a judgment of conviction against George Kearney for Murder, but noted
that his death made sentencing moot and declined to enter any sentence for that conviction.

ORIGINAL POST:

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A jury has convicted a woman of murder in the 1988 beating death of a pregnant mother abducted while walking her dog in northern Indiana.

The jury found 56-year-old Barbara Brewster guilty of killing 28-year-old Miriam Rice of South Bend following a three-day trial.

Rice’s body was discovered at Pinhook Lagoon, about 2 miles from her home, with multiple skull fractures. An autopsy showed she was four months pregnant at the time. She also had a 3-year-old son.

Brewster’s son testified against his mother during the trial. Robert South was 6 in 1988 and said he watched his mom beat Rice to death.

A co-defendant, Brewster’s former boyfriend 77-year-old George Kearney, pleaded guilty in March and died in the St. Joseph County Jail of cancer while awaiting sentencing.

Related Content