Longtime AP bureau chief Bill Beecham dies at 79

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Bill Beecham, a longtime bureau chief for The Associated Press in Salt Lake City who oversaw coverage of several major stories including the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, has died. He was 79. His son, Kevin Beecham, said his father died Tuesday morning at the Highland Care Center in Salt Lake City, where he spent the last two years of life because of declining health. Beecham’s career with the AP spanned more than three decades, starting in Helena, Montana, as a reporter in 1969 and ending in Utah, where he was bureau chief for 22 years before his retirement in 2004.