BETHANY, Okla. – The family of 6-year-old Elizabeth Feaster is honoring her memory after Bethany Police say she was murdered by her father, who then took his own life.
Officers responded to a home near NW 42nd Street around 11:30 a.m. on June 29 following reports that a man had shot his daughter before turning the gun on himself. Police identified the man as 29-year-old Billy Feaster and the child as his daughter, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth’s mother, Tiana Folk, said Feaster had been granted supervised visitation with Elizabeth and her 9-year-old brother, Aeidan, as part of a long-standing custody dispute that began in 2018. A judge had awarded Folk full custody, with Feaster allowed only a few supervised hours each week.
On the morning of June 29, Folk said she received a heartbreaking call from one of Feaster’s parents—who was supposed to be supervising the visit—saying that he had killed Elizabeth.
“She said, Billy killed Elizabeth,” Folk recalled. “I said, what? And she started saying she couldn’t talk. She wasn’t in the right mind.”
Folk immediately contacted the Oklahoma City Wellness team after learning what had happened.
She described Elizabeth as a vibrant child with a big personality who loved to cook, create art, dance, and laugh. She shared a close bond with her brother, Aeidan, who spoke about his sister’s spirited personality.
“If someone was bullying me, she’d be very sassy,” Aeidan said.
Elizabeth’s grandmother, Jill Walsh, called her granddaughter an “old soul” who radiated love and joy.
“She didn’t like to see me cry,” Walsh recalled. “One time she wiped my tears, held my cheeks, and asked, ‘Nana, why are you crying?’”
Walsh said receiving the June 29 call was crushing, but even worse was witnessing her daughter endure that kind of loss.
“It’s devastating,” she said. “Her dad died in a car accident when she was in second grade. I had to tell her then. And now I had to tell her that her baby girl was gone.”
Aeidan also remembered the chaos of that morning. “I woke up to screaming,” he said. “They were telling me to lay back down.”
Folk said she wasn’t aware Feaster had access to a weapon, though she knew a gun safe was in the home. She still can’t understand how he could do this.
“They looked alike,” she said of Elizabeth and her father. “Why would you do that to your own kid?”
Walsh said the tragedy should be a wake-up call for the justice system, and the family plans to push for reforms in custody rulings.
“We didn’t follow our gut, we didn’t follow our instinct because we were doing what we were supposed to—and because of that, Elizabeth isn’t with us any longer,” she said.
Folk has taken time off work to grieve and be with her family. A fundraiser has been launched to help support them during this painful time.
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