Investigators Pursue Charges In Beating Death Of Bartlesville Man

Prosecutors in Osage County say they are pursuing murder charges against two people accused in the death of a 62-year-old Bartlesville man.

Assistant District Attorney Mike Fisher said in a Friday hearing that he is upgrading robbery charges to first-degree murder against a man and a woman suspected in the slaying of Timothy Allen Hauser.

The Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise reports that 41-year-old Rusty Boyd Petty and 28-year-old Trysta Alberta Eileen Shaeffer have been in custody since a week after Hauser vanished in August. They're each held on bond of $1 million. Both pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Hauser's body was found miles from an Osage casino. Investigators say security video shows Hauser leaving with Petty and Shaeffer.

Police say Hauser was beaten with a liquor bottle and a tire iron.