she disappeared, and Fernandez and Beck fled. Beck and Fernandez traveled to Byron Center Road in Wyoming Township, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids, where they met and stayed with Delphine Downing, a 28-year-old widow with a two-year-old daughter. On February 28, Downing became agitated and Fernandez gave her sleeping pills to calm her. The daughter witnessed Downing's resulting stupor and began to cry, which enraged Beck. Panicked, Beck choked the child but didn't kill her. Fernandez thought Downing would become suspicious if she saw her bruised daughter, so he shot the unconscious woman. The couple then stayed for several days in Downing's house. Again enraged by the daughter's crying, Beck drowned her in a basin of water. They buried the bodies in the basement, but suspicious neighbors reported the Downings' disappearances, leading the police to arrive at the door on March 1, 1949, and arrest Beck and Fernandez. Trial and executions Fernandez quickly confessed. The pair vehemently denied committing seventeen murders that were attributed to them, and Fernandez tried to retract his confession, saying he made it only to protect Beck. They were extradited to New York, which still instituted the death penalty. Fay's murder was the only one for which the couple were tried, and they were both sentenced to death. They were executed at Sing Sing prison on March 8, 1951. In media "Lonely Hearts Killers", a 1960 episode of the American TV show Deadline, released on DVD in 2019 The Honeymoon Killers, 1970 American cult classic about the same events Deep Crimson, 1996 Mexican film about the same events Lonely Hearts, 2006 American film about the same events Alleluia, 2014 Belgian-French film inspired by the same events A 2006 episode of the tv series Cold Case was called "Lonely Hearts", featuring a pair of killers named Martha Puck and Ramon Delgado. See also Lonely hearts scam List of homicides in Michigan List of serial killers in the United States List of serial killers by number of victims References Sources Lane, Brian and Gregg, Wilfred [1992]. The Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers. Berkley Books. Fuchs, Christian [1996] (2002). Bad Blood. Creation Books. External links https://web.archive.org/web/20150209235409/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/partners/fernandez/1.html at Crime Library (archived 2013) Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez at Frances Farmers Revenge 1947 murders in the United States 1948 murders in the United States 1949 murders in the United States 1951 deaths 20th-century executions by New York (state) 20th-century executions of