The Widower: Inside Thomas Randolph’s Trail of Suspicious Deaths

On May 9, 2008, Las Vegas first responders answered a disorienting 9-1-1 call from 53-year-old Thomas Randolph. He told police that he and his 57-year-old wife, Sharon Causse, had returned from dinner to find a masked intruder in their home. Randolph said Causse had walked in first; when he followed he found her shot and saw a ski-masked man holding a gun. Randolph fired his own weapon and later struck the man — who was identified as handyman Michael Miller — in the head.

Evidence, Inconsistencies and Investigation

What police initially treated as possible self-defense quickly generated questions. Investigators reconstructed the scene and found inconsistencies between Randolph’s accounts and the physical evidence: most casings, gunshot residue and bullet impacts were in the garage rather than the hallway Randolph described; Miller was shot in the forehead though the ski mask was recovered intact on the garage floor; and phone records showed nearly an 11-minute delay before Randolph called 9-1-1. In a filmed re-creation, Randolph mimicked firing multiple shots in the hallway, yet only a single bullet was found there. Paramedics’ audio of the 9-1-1 call also captured Randolph performing chest compressions on Causse despite being told not to move the body.

"Right out of the gate there were things that weren't adding up," says Las Vegas detective Dean O'Kelley in the Netflix documentary The Widower: 'Til Death Do Us Part.

A Pattern of Marriages, Policies and Suspicious Deaths

As detectives dug into Randolph’s past, a troubling pattern emerged: he had married multiple times, often taking out life insurance policies shortly before a spouse’s death. The Netflix documentary and court records trace decades of contentious relationships, insurance payouts and deaths that relatives and some investigators found suspicious.

• Kathy Thomas (married 1975): The marriage ended and Kathy later married another man; friends later told investigators Randolph had discussed hiring someone to kill for money.
• Beckie Gault (married 1983): Died in an incident initially ruled a suicide. Detective Dick Martin argued the position of the gun made suicide unlikely; Randolph later collected nearly $500,000 from life insurance. Randolph was charged in her death but ultimately acquitted of murder and served time for witness tampering.
• Leona Stapleton (married 1994): Died of cancer after their divorce.
• Gayna Allmon (married 1996): Left Randolph after a firearm discharged in the home and nearly struck her; she also said he had taken out an insurance policy on her.
• Frances Randolph (married 1997): Died unexpectedly after elective heart surgery arranged by Randolph; the family suspected wrongdoing though no homicide investigation followed.
• Sharon Causse (married 2007): Killed in 2008; Randolph reported the masked intruder and later shot handyman Michael Miller.

Friends and witnesses told police that Randolph discussed murder-for-hire schemes in earlier years, and at least one former associate said Randolph offered money to kill a wife. Some testimony was ruled hearsay in court because witnesses had not observed the alleged conversations directly.

Trials, Convictions and the Documentary

Randolph was arrested in 2009 on charges related to the deaths of Causse and Miller. In 2017 a jury convicted him and sentenced him to death, but the Nevada Supreme Court overturned those convictions in 2020, ruling that jurors had heard prejudicial evidence about Randolph’s past marriages and prison time. At a retrial with stricter limits on what jurors could hear, a jury in 2023 convicted Randolph on one count of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of murder with the use of a deadly weapon. He received an aggregate sentence of 60 years to life and is serving time in prison.

The Netflix documentary directed by Chris Smith (Tiger King) chronicles the investigation and the long effort by detectives, journalists and family members — notably Causse’s daughter Colleen Beyers — to secure accountability. Dateline producer Dan Slepian, who followed the case, calls Randolph “the most unusual murder defendant I’ve ever covered,” and investigators say Randolph manipulated legal and procedural gaps to his advantage over decades.

Where the Case Stands

Randolph has consistently denied killing Causse or hiring anyone to do so and disputes allegations related to his other wives. Aside from the convictions for the 2008 deaths of Causse and Miller, he has not been convicted in connection with the earlier suspicious fatalities. The case remains a high-profile example of how patterns of behavior, insurance records and forensic detail can converge to persuade juries and investigators over a long period.

Source: Reporting from the Netflix documentary The Widower: 'Til Death Do Us Part, court records and interviews with investigators, journalists and family members.