Did a Beauty Queen and Her Lover Plot to Kill Her Husband in the Bahamas? 'Thankful to be Alive'

Packing bags and getting out of the door for a family vacation can lead to tension — but the scene that unfolded when Lindsay Shiver called 911 over a dispute she was having with her husband, Robert, as they prepared to travel to the Bahamas with their three boys in the summer of 2023 was far more heated. 

Lindsay, 38, told responding officers, “It’s been hell on earth, as you can imagine.” 

In the midst of an acrimonious divorce, she claimed Robert, 39, had become “aggressive” and forbade her to get on the family’s private jet because she was planning to spend time in the Bahamas with her new boyfriend. 

“I told her, I’m not supporting that,” Robert says in police bodycam video of the incident outside their house in Thomasville, Ga. “You’re not getting on the airplane. That can mess with the kids’ heads. It’s just something we’re not going to do.”

The dispute came to a head later that day when, after arriving in the Bahamas at the Shiver family’s townhouse at the exclusive Baker’s Bay Golf & Ocean Club in Great Guana Cay, Robert was seen at a nearby bar arm-in-arm with another woman in photos that were sent to Lindsay. 

According to Bahamian authorities, Lindsay sent a WhatsApp group text to her then-boyfriend, Terrance Bethel, 30, a bartender, and his friend Farron Newbold Jr., 31, with the pictures of her husband and the woman at the bar and a chilling two-word message: “Kill him.” 

Five days later, on July 21, 2023, Bahamian police arrested Lindsay, Bethel and Newbold, accusing the lovers of enlisting Newbold in a plot to kill Lindsay’s husband. Charged with conspiracy to commit murder, the defendants have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they could face up to 60 years in prison. 

A judge has imposed a gag order, and lawyers for Lindsay, Bethel and Newbold could not be reached for comment. Through a representative, Robert declined to comment. But in a 2024 interview with ABC News cited in a bail hearing, Bethel, who is no longer seeing Lindsay, denied the existence of a murder-for-hire plot.

“Nobody ever wanted Robert dead,” he said. “I’m definitely not guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, and [Farron] is not guilty of being a hired hitman. It’s time to let the world know that we’re innocent.”

For a while it seemed like Robert and Lindsay Shiver had it all. The couple met in a fitness class in 2007 while attending Auburn University, where Lindsay, a former beauty queen in local pageants around her home town of Dothan, Ala., was a cheerleader, and Robert, a Georgia native, was a long snapper on the football team.

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They got married in 2010 and raised three boys while Robert, after a brief stint with the Atlanta Falcons, went to work in insurance and settled in Thomasville. On social media, Lindsay posted photos of the family on ski trips to Vail and entertaining guests on their private jet and at their home in the members-only resort in the Bahamas.

But by early 2023, Lindsay had begun seeing Bethel. On April 5, Robert filed for divorce, accusing his wife of  “adulterous conduct.”

Lindsay filed papers of her own the very next day. In response to the infidelity claim, Lindsay said in court documents that her extramarital relationship was “during the parties’ separation and legally condoned by [her] husband.”

She also accused him of “physical and mental cruel treatment.”

Although officially estranged, the couple were still living together with their three sons under the age of 11 at the time of the July 16, 2023, altercation outside their house. (No charges were filed in that incident). 

Bahamian police claim they discovered the alleged plot to kill Robert while investigating an unrelated robbery at Grabbers, the bar where Bethel once worked, according to an indictment obtained by ABC News.

Suspecting an inside job, police searched the contents of employees’ phones and found the message allegedly ordering Robert’s murder that was sent by Lindsay to Bethel and Newbold, a digital creator and longtime friend of Bethel’s. When shown the message, Robert said he feared for his life and requested “police action,” according to a police report. 

In a court appearance via Zoom, Robert said he was “thankful to be alive,” Court TV reported.

Following their arrests, Lindsay and Bethel were released on bail. In an interview with Good Morning America, Bethel laid out their possible defense, explaining that Lindsay was venting after arguing with her husband and used the words “kill him” as a figure of speech. 

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“Whenever she gets into an argument with [Robert] and she tells me about it, of course I’m livid about it,” Bethel said. “But planning to murder him? No.” 

Lindsay is currently living with her parents in Alabama ahead of her trial in the Bahamas, scheduled to begin in August. She sued for, and won, visitation rights to spend time with her children. 

Meanwhile, Robert has moved on. In January, he appeared on the podcast Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley in an episode titled “Meet My Boyfriend,” revealing that he and the reality TV star had been dating for more than a year. He’s still adjusting to life as a single father with three boys, but the future with his new love looks promising. 

Chrisley, 27, told PEOPLE in February, “We come together and we enjoy our time, and we love each other.”

As for marriage, “I just believe that when the timing’s right,” she added, “and when it’s supposed to happen, it’s going to happen.”

• With reporting by CHRIS SPARGO